The unprintable MAGENTA (update: June 17, 2017 - unreleased extras)

Fitz · Sat 28/11/2015 03:09:36

Deep in the night, when evil is most rampant, who's going to stand up against crime?

Witness the birth of a superhero.

Help her embrace her power and tackle the evil of this world.

With might, wit and a sharp tongue.

Mostly because her superpower is pretty lame.

WHILE ON YOUR QUEST, YOU WILL:

- look at everything till you get a pink eye
- touch stuff -- if only to see just how lame your superpower is
- talk to people - mostly to get yourself out of a sticky situation
- try to get used to the sound of flip-flops
- learn more about comics than you'd like to
- make the headlines
- and last but not least: FIGHT CRIME!!!

THE GAME FEATURES

- a deceitfully young-looking, charming heroine
- action and danger!
- a slew of handsome men to flirt with
- a whole band of supers with equally lame abilities
- long-lost twin sibblings?
- surprising, astounding, scary and/or disgusting facts comics and other nerdy stuff
- astonishing graphics in 16K (that's right, siksteen kolors!)

DOWNLOAD THE GAME NOW

(updated version with better optimization -- if the intro runs slow/out of sync on your computer, this might help)

...or, if you're busy, not convinced yet, or Ben Chandler, you could at least

WATCH THE TRAILER

UPDATE JUNE 17, 2017: unreleased extras

It's been almost a year since I posted the news of a planned update. Soon after that I abandoned the almost finished project to work on music videos also made in AGS, and never got around to finishing and releasing the game's update. Some technical hurdles aside, I figured no one would care to play the game again just for these few extra scenes.
So yesterday I thought I'd simply post them here as videos -- because they're fun little things.
The first one is an alternate scene of what happens when Magenta falls through the mahole:

This one is an alternate Mortal Kombat scene:

...and so is this one:

And finally, this one's is an alternate ending of what happens when Magenta falls from the top of the skyscraper:

I've also had ideas for many more scenes -- so many, in fact, that I decided they'd require a separate game to make sense, rather than fit them into the existing dialogue trees.
The cop choosing a different carreer path:

Karbon merging with a symbiote:

Karbon and Magenta as Tuxedo and Sailor Chibi Moon:

...and them mutating:

Unfortunately, I ultimately dropped all these ideas, as well as the planned sequels, and moved on. I am still toying with the idea of Magenta returning as a comic or an animated series, but no gamedev plans as of right now.

AnasAbdin · Sat 28/11/2015 05:30:30

YESSSSSSS

Congrats on the release! Been waiting for ages!

Stupot · Sat 28/11/2015 08:12:46

Congrats on release Fitz.

The opponent Hen-Man never had is finally here.

Mandle · Sat 28/11/2015 08:56:34

WOW!!! Congratz on the release!!! Been following this for ages...

THIS will be my reward for getting my MAGS entry released!!!

Cassiebsg · Sat 28/11/2015 10:47:21

Congrats on the release!

Looking forward to have some time to play it!

Fitz · Sat 28/11/2015 12:16:28

Thanks, everyone

Cam you believe it? At some point I myself kinda lost hope I'd ever finish it. It's not my longest project, Gray took over two years -- but still. Glad I took all this time, though. Got so many ideas along the way that I would've never come up with if I rushed it.

Have fun! Me, I'm going to take a nap. I've had maybe 2 hours of sleep tonight. I was so hell-bent on finishing it that I stayed up till half past 4 -- and then my neighbor upstairs decided that 7 am on a Saturday is a great time to do some vacuuming! $:-\$

Blondbraid · Sat 28/11/2015 12:53:42

Congrats on the release! Downloading the game as I'm writing.

selmiak · Sat 28/11/2015 16:00:04

Coooool, Downloading now!

Fitz · Sat 28/11/2015 16:31:38

IMPORTANT: if the intro seems lagging/out of sync (the animation falling behind the music), this newly uploaded build *might* work better.

So yeah, I didn't nap at all. Instead, I re-uploaded all animation frames in the intro and outro in gif format instead of png, because they're about 3x smaller in size -- and the puter sometimes has a hard time handling the amount of objects flying by in those lenghty cutscenes as it is. Works like a charm for me now. So I'm a *little* calmer now.

Like F4 instead of F5 on Fujita Scale

NickyNyce · Sat 28/11/2015 17:09:40

Wow....Congrats Fitz. Sorry that I couldn't help out with testing, work and my 1 year old has me doing nothing else. I'm so glad to see that this is finally out. From what I played a while ago, it was fantastic, and I can only imagine the improvements you made to an already awesome game.

SilverSpook · Sat 28/11/2015 22:05:44

YAYYYYYY! Downloading now! Canceling all my hot dates with the internet and Fallout 4 for the next week to make room for the UM.

SilverSpook · Sun 29/11/2015 09:07:55

This game is a trip and a half! In a good way! 5 thumbs up!

I'm not getting any sound during the intro cutscene, though, just FYI. Not sure what's going on because there's music and sound throughout the rest of the game.

Fitz · Sun 29/11/2015 09:11:06

Nick: I'll forgive everything if you tell me there's a Visitor sequel coming

Plus, it's thanks to your game that I found Problem, who made really elevated Magenta with his music.

SilverSpook: Fallout 4 will be a breeze once you've finished Magenta

(how far did you get so far?) And there are some post-apo/apocalyptic overtones to keep you in the mood.
Not sure what the problem with the intro music could be. Codec, maybe? Tried it on other computers and that issue never came up. I also made some further tweaks and uploaded a new build not half an hour ago -- which still works with old savegames just fine.
In any case, the intro sequence is the same as the teaser trailer.

AprilSkies · Sun 29/11/2015 11:27:33

So geat!
congratz for the release mate!

The trailer is very cool!!! it's an eye candy!

Cassiebsg · Sun 29/11/2015 11:57:45

~~Having the same issue with no sound on the intro.~~
No problem with sound running in game.
Only thing I can't seem to find there is the setting to adjust the sound/music level as it's too high for me. $:-\$

EDIT: Seems like I was too fast to acknowledge the "no sound in the intro"... there is sound!

There's just a long silence at the start and I thought that was "no sound" so I had skipped the intro...

abstauber · Sun 29/11/2015 18:06:48

Hooray for finishing this maGEMta awesomeness

..downloading..

Fitz · Sun 29/11/2015 18:55:40

Thanks, guys! How's everyone enjoying the game so far?

Cassie: Yeah, sorry about that. I just didn't feel adept enough to make a menu with adjustable options (I had enough of a hassle with the main menu as it is). I almost never modify the volume settings in games, myself. If something that I'm listening to at the time is too loud, I turn the the speakers down. Given how varied the volumes are from one youtube video to another -- and ads being 50 db louder than everything else -- I'd go insane without that little knob on my speakers.

Cassiebsg · Sun 29/11/2015 19:51:33

LOL
Yeah, but that's the problem when my kid is watching youtube videos on my computer... I can't turn the sound down, cause then he won't be able to listen to anything.

I almost always change the game volume settings... music = very low setting, SFX = middle and voice = high.

It's okay, it just means I can only play it when he's not around.

CaptainD · Mon 30/11/2015 15:07:00

Gratz on the release!

SilverSpook · Wed 02/12/2015 06:24:04

Well I got through this and boy are my eyes tired! From crying! For joy!

Great job and all the kudos to Fitz for getting this done. Lots of great writing, comedy, and hilarious sound effects. Endearing and highly original main character, lots of fresh ideas and roasting of various comic book tropes and cliches.

I certainly don't get all of the comic book references and had to Google-Fu the final test-your-nerd-might challenge after being stumped for about an hour, but it was a great romp. The antakonistik comik book villain is spot-on kreepy.

Fitz · Wed 02/12/2015 14:49:48

Half of the quiz questions I wrote on the fly -- but the rest of the duos I had to painstakingly google. And I still fail the quiz myself, mostly the blue-themed part!

So yeah, it was pure evil. Evil I had to face myself more times than anyone else

Glad you enjoyed it!

Ibispi · Sat 05/12/2015 15:50:35

I have just finished playing Magenta, and I had a lot of fun playing it. It made me laugh a few times.
I think the funniest part was the dialogue with the policeman. And, also, the first puzzle after what was the "demo"

Spoiler

with the cat

[close]

was really smart and funny.
And

Spoiler

I liked the ending, credits sequence... a lot of things happened

[close]

Fitz · Sat 05/12/2015 18:20:57

I'm really happy people actually watch the outro

I'm the kind of guy who actually likes to sit through the credits, read everything and fish out song titles -- but I didn't expect others to do that. And that action sequence doesn't come in till the latter half of this prettttty lenghty song.

Which I've listened to hundreds of times over the past ten years -- and probably twice that during the long and arduous process of making the outro -- and I still love it

Mandle · Mon 07/12/2015 05:21:20

So much fun so far: I like the Henry Stickmin style gameplay a lot even though I was expecting more of a traditional adventure game...

Bug! During the handcuffs scene I mashed the keyboard to see if that helped and the game crashed saying that the restore game function could not run because another was already cued. I believe the global script line was 1091...

AND also: HEEEEELP someone!!! I have tried the handcuff scene like 40 times and cannot pass it (hide hints please)

Fitz · Mon 07/12/2015 05:36:15

Oh, mashing your keyboard won't help there. In fact, it's not about keys at all in this scene. You have to...

Spoiler

wait till the cop pauses with the cuffs midway (it's a very clear pause) -- then quickly move your hands apart by moving the mouse to the right, so that they disappear off the screen, and then back left, so that they're on-screen again. You'll see they're flipped and are now OVER the cuffs. It's like playing "red hand". That's when you need to use your superpower. Click!

[close]

Mandle · Mon 07/12/2015 08:19:08

Cheers for the hint. And wow...people actually figured that out?!

One more thing: I broke the game again:

Spoiler

In the scene with Karbon: AFter the light downstairs came on I chose the option to negotiate, but instead of clicking the speech icon on the window I clicked it on Karbon, which leads back to an earlier dialog with him, which eventually crashes the game because the speech views don't exist.

[close]

Fitz · Mon 07/12/2015 17:10:41

There was actually a LOT of puzzles that I was really worried people wouldn't figure out -- this being one of them. I wasn't even sure if they'd pick up on the main game mechanic of clicking on a particular spot on the other person's body. Especially if you're a developer, you'd think a character is a single sprite.

Oh well, I'm an expert in coming up with weird, evil puzzles

Speaking of which, if anyone's having a hard time with the quiz, here you have a cheat sheet.

Mandle · Tue 08/12/2015 06:10:17

I just finished the game...SO MUCH FUN!!!

I actually had fun in the:

Spoiler

Super-trivia quiz part. It did take me over an hour to solve it (and a very jam-packed A4 notepaper) but the feeling of completion without googling, or cheat sheets, was great...

[close]

The end credits were awesome too!

Spoiler

Godzilla...Ghostbusters 2...King Kong...Call Of Cthulhu...War Of The Worlds...Independance Day?

[close]

Great stuff...

(Just one small thing: After pushing ESC to skip the intro could the game just go to the menu screen instead of the start of the tutorial? That got a bit tired each time...)

SilverSpook · Tue 08/12/2015 06:58:17

Wow, man, you did that whole thing without going to Google? I was thinking of doing that but I needed to be functional the next day, and couldn't sacrifice the sleep, lol.

Fitz · Tue 08/12/2015 07:55:33

Mandle: Bravo! A process of slow elimination was how this was supposed to be played, ideally - regardless of whether you're a comic nerd (which in this case is a superpower of sorts) or not. It was tough, I'll admit, but not unfeasible -- you just have to be patient and methodial. The sense of accomplishment that comes from getting through a test like that is exactly what I seek in games, myself. And how did you like the final boss battle?
About the menu: yeah, I was thinking of cramming the menu sommewhere in there -- but my main focus was a smooth, cinematic experience for the first-time player. But I'm currently working on a bunch of little tweaks, and I think I'll include this one. Like, if you've already played the game, after the Magenta logo disappears, instead of the intro starting the menu will pop up -- and if you wish to go watch the intro, anyway, you'll have the START button.

SilverSpook: It's a tough game to play from start to finish in one sitting -- but one of my friends did just that, indeed sacrificing some sleep. That's the greatest compliment for a game dev. Though reports of rage quits tickle the ego on some level, too

But only if the player decides to get back to the game later.

Mandle · Tue 08/12/2015 10:25:01

Quote from: Fitz on Tue 08/12/2015 07:55:33
Though reports of rage quits tickle the ego on some level, too But only if the player decides to get back to the game later.

Oh, my Alt-X keys got a workout at points in the game but, yeah, I went back to keep playing soon after...

sergiocornaga · Tue 08/12/2015 13:46:26

Did you mean to leave in keyboard shortcuts that jump to any scene in the game?

Fitz · Tue 08/12/2015 14:11:40

They're just quickloads, using the same code as the checkpoint buttons. So you won't access any scene that you haven't been to previously.

AnasAbdin · Thu 17/12/2015 19:41:23

I finally finished it

That was one of the best AGS games I've played!
Music is just beautiful, makes an awesome soundtrack. The game's style is very well implemented. I'm not a fan of long dialogs but MAGENTA's dialogs are funny, they were amusing to me

I loved the puzzles that required mouse clicking and so

Thanks Fitz for the wonderful game. Hope to see more AGS games from you soon!

Fitz · Thu 17/12/2015 22:10:22

Thanks, Anas!

It's a weird game, even for our little retro point'n'click niche, so I'm happy to see the "click time events" aren't universally resented, as I feared they'd be

And the music! Yes! So much talent there! Can't thank Problem enough. And the extra songs! I actully made one of my dreams come true in having one of my favorite songs ever in the outro -- and Zuri's intro tune was the inspiration for that sequence. I just listened to it and images started popping up in my head. Without that song there would be no intro!

So yeah, looks like it's time to get back to work -- before all the new ideas sprouting beneath my skull cause it to EXPLODE!

Fitz · Wed 02/03/2016 11:42:00

NEWS UPDATE: March 2 2016:

An update is in the works, with a few suggested tweaks -- including a difficulty choice for certain puzzles (everyone who played the game will know which ones I'm talking about, hehehe). I'll also be adding some brand new cutscenes of failure. Here's Magenta's interlocutor in one of them:

AnasAbdin · Wed 02/03/2016 19:21:02

Yay! When will we be able to try it out?

Fitz · Wed 02/03/2016 20:10:40

No idea! I've already applied some simple tweaks, but others will take some thinking -- and writing, and coding. As for cutscenes... I keep coming up with ideas! They're simple (mostly) and shouldn't take long each, but putting together a dozen or two of them might take a WHILE!

AprilSkies · Tue 15/03/2016 09:25:50

Btw, I nominated this game in a lot of categories for the awards

Because it's just great.

Fitz · Fri 08/07/2016 15:38:07

While the update is taking a liiiiiiittle longer than expected, it's because I've decided to add some content. More extra cutscenes -- in extra locations!

Such as this one:

Or this 16 color rendition of a classic stage:

Can you guess what games these are borrowed from?

Stay tooned!

Fitz · Wed 20/07/2016 21:27:52

Alllmost there. I still need to make some tweaks to the simplified quiz. But I touched up the last new scene and drew the background for it:

Also a 90's game homage. Guesses?

AnasAbdin · Wed 20/07/2016 22:17:51

I stared way too long at this

CaptainD · Wed 20/07/2016 22:38:08

Well it reminds me of Treebeard but I'm guessing not a LOTR based game...

Fitz · Thu 21/07/2016 08:58:36

Nope

Check the 2nd screenshot from my previous post, they were inspired by the same classic 90's game. One that I'd already paid a little homage to in Magenta.

Stupot · Thu 21/07/2016 09:17:19

It's Mortal Kombat 2. Toastieee!

Fitz · Thu 21/07/2016 09:31:43

Indeed. The stages portrayed are The Portal and The Living Forest.

STUPOT WINS!

Fitz · Sat 17/06/2017 22:36:01

It's been almost a year since I posted the news of a planned update. Soon after that I abandoned the almost finished project to work on music videos also made in AGS, and never got around to finishing and releasing the game's update. Some technical hurdles aside, I figured no one would care to play the game again just for these few extra scenes.
So yesterday I thought I'd simply post them here as videos -- because they're fun little things.
The first one is an alternate scene of what happens when Magenta falls through the mahole:

This one is an alternate Mortal Kombat scene:

...and so is this one:

And finally, this one's is an alternate ending of what happens when Magenta falls from the top of the skyscraper:

I've also had ideas for many more scenes -- so many, in fact, that I decided they'd require a separate game to make sense, rather than fit them into the existing dialogue trees.

Imagine, let's say, the cop choosing a different carreer path:

Karbon merging with a symbiote:

Karbon and Magenta as Tuxedo and Sailor Chibi Moon:

...and them mutating:

Unfortunately, I ultimately dropped all these ideas, as well as the planned sequels, and moved on to other things. I am still toying with the idea of Magenta returning as a comic or an animated series, but no gamedev plans as of right now.

NickyNyce · Sun 18/06/2017 01:35:32

Great stuff Fitz. I'm sad to hear that you're not currently working on anything. Shoot small and perhaps you'll give it a go again.

SilverSpook · Sun 18/06/2017 06:22:40

Love the Beebop / Rocksteady guys! Great designs, always fun colors!

Blondbraid · Sun 18/06/2017 23:35:45

For rejected ideas, they're pretty great!

Fitz · Mon 19/06/2017 06:04:46

Nick: I'm still trying to figure out what the best format for the story would be. As it stands, it's a series of skits -- and they may well work as short cartoons in the vein of Cyanide & Happiness or Happy Tree Friends rather than a game in which losing is (at least to me) the most fun part. Or maybe if I simply made really short episodes, limited to, say, one room, it would be more friendly -- especially for letsplayers.

SilverSpook: I also drem Magenta as Krang and intended to have Karbon as Shredder for one sequence.

Blondbraid: Not really rejected, just abandoned for the lack of time. It also seems like it's a very niche thing, style- and gameplay-wise. I've had some really heart-warming feedback from a bunch of players but most either gave it a pass at the sight of the 16 color graphics or rage-quit during the cop scene or the superhero quiz

The game took me 15 months (on and off, but still, that's a lot of time) and faded into obscurity soon after, with almost zero press coverage, save from news items from our own CaptainD. Wrote and tweeted a whole bunch of people about it, got zero response. Even AG's Following Freeware, who've mentioned my previous projects, shunned me this time. That was a blow. It did get featured on GameJolt, but that was actually such a bitter experience that sometimes I wish it hadn't. So the inner struggle is that while I have a lot of love for these characters and the story, and would love to experiment with limited color palettes EVEN MORE, I'm held back by the fear that the effort won't pay off (other than the great personal satisfaction).