$106 Adventure Game Challenge

[hightreason]

It's time again for the annual Adventure Game Challenge jam.

We always have some really great devs and great submissions, so come join the fun if you'd like!

https://itch.io/jam/106-adventure-game-challenge

[hightreason]

The theme has been announced and the jam has started!

[newwaveburritos]

I'm in!  I do better with a strict jam deadline anyway.

[heltenjon]

Wow, and two of my favourite developers are judges this time around. (Iain Milne and Gugames.) While I'll miss games made by them, I guess chances are I'll agree completely with the end result. Best of luck to newwaveburritos and other AGS-ers who decide to join!

[lorenzo]

The jam is over! Here are the entries: https://itch.io/jam/106-adventure-game-challenge/entries

Not as many as in previous years, but there are some good-looking games! And at least two AGS representatives, newwaveburritos and me!   

[heltenjon]

I have downloaded yours already, Lorenzo. Will try to find an opening for playing it tonight! 
19 games - should be doable.

[lorenzo]

What I've played so far:

The Crete Escape: quite fun, with nice artwork, funny dialogues, and voice acting. I've found a few minor bugs (including one that looked game-breaking at first, but I learned by reading comments that there's a workaround to it), so maybe keep multiple saves just in case.

Joshbob Moves In: short and funny, you play as a goblin who just moved to the big city and wants to cook a meal.

Grim Weeper 0.1: unfortunately as the number in the title implies, it's in a rather unfinished state, so it's more of an introduction to the game. But it could be promising, if more developed.

I've also started Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week II, but I've yet to finish it. What I've played so far is pretty fun, with a weird setting. I found the joke puzzle to be really clever and I liked the sense of humour in the game. You can see the extra effort that has gone into all the animations and other small details.

I have downloaded yours already, Lorenzo.

Hope you have fun with it! 

[heltenjon]

I've played the two AGS entries (Where did the Humans Go? and Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week 2 and given proper feedback in the Completed Games threads. Both games are good and well worth playing!

I also played Fish the Detective, which is a Godot game that I can't really recommend. Basically, the player controls a fish in a square and must try to steer it into buildings that surround it and trade the item in his inventory for something the character in that location has. The game has some funny written lines, but annoying music, little graphic flair and lack of signposting drag the impression down. The game would have benefitted from having a visible inventory and giving proper feedback to the player. As it is, the only hint to what you are carrying or if the trade was successful, is watching if you scored points. I solved the game through trial and error.

[heltenjon]

I played The Crete Escape, a very good-looking game made with Visionaire Studio. I enjoyed this and agree with Lorenzo's comment above. The pluses are the great graphics, the characters and their dialogue, helped by some good voice acting, while the puzzles are a tad easy and at times a bit of a pixel hunt. It's a good production made by a heap of people.

I also played The Toilet Zone, made with Unity. Okay, so someone made a game about being dragged down in the toilet and becoming a part of the war of turds and flies. The toilet humour is a vital part of this game, and it was funny and well made. Recommended if this kind of craziness seems like your idea of fun. But if talking to and befriending animated poop people is not what you call a good time, then this is exactly not the game for you. 

And I played The Nymph's Laugh, made with Visionaire Studio. This is interesting seen in the light of the recent forum discussion about AI art, as it is a game using exactly that. It looks stunning, and while it's basically only one long puzzle, the game hits the right folklore nerve and tells a good story through said puzzle. It's really worth checking out.

[heltenjon]

I tried to play The Lost Chip but found very little to do. It didn't seem like a finished entry. However, a tip from another player lead me to some exits I had not noticed and some nice pressure platform type puzzles. It's not exactly adventure style, I'd label it puzzle game or arcade adventure, I guess. There are some glitches that lead to dead ends, so I hope this one will be a bit more polished post-jam. It's finishable, though.

Then I played Grim Weeper 0.1 and like Lorenzo says, it's promising, but unfinished beyond the first scene.

Edit: I noticed that the game count was gone down to 18. The game that is taken out, is Fish the Detective, which I played and wrote about above. Seems like the creator now wants to charge money for it, which is against the rules of the jam, at least in the jam period. The game was light years away from being a product one could charge money for, so this seems like an odd decision.

[lorenzo]

I also played The Toilet Zone, made with Unity. Okay, so someone made a game about being dragged down in the toilet and becoming a part of the war of turds and flies. The toilet humour is a vital part of this game, and it was funny and well made. Recommended if this kind of craziness seems like your idea of fun. But if talking to and befriending animated poop people is not what you call a good time, then this is exactly not the game for you. 

Oh, yeah, The Toilet Zone is quite fun (especially the intro/spoof, that one made me laugh!) but you need to like that sort of humour.

I've also played First Contact. I found it quite challenging (maybe it's not my kind of puzzles), but I really liked the idea of aliens ending at a UFO convention. Very funny interpretation of the theme!

I also gave a try to DungeonGuyIThink. The environments look good, but I think they run out of time and couldn't implement the "meat" of the game. Still, it's nice if you want to take a walk in some 3D environments.

I wanted to try Delivery on Zergblat, but I've read that it's inspired by Rick & Morty, and since I haven't seen that show I doubt I'll get the references to it We'll see!

[heltenjon]

I played Corporate Eyes, which is unfinished. I don't know if the final game will play like this or not, but I could move around in a 3d office landscape devoid of other people. All I could do was work at my desk and go home to sleep three times, more wasn't included in this version. But on subsequent returns to the office, small changes has occurred. Interesting idea and the office is good-looking, but to be honest, it wasn't much fun. Made with Unity.

I also played Joshbob Moves In. This is a small Unity game that lacks the graphic flair of the entry above, but is a much better game regardless. A goblin views our human stuff decidedly different than we do, and hilarity ensues. Very humorous short game, worth a play.

And I played Between the Lines Prologue, which is yet another Unity product. This is the first chapter of what I hope will become a larger work. Very well written and charming in the telling of a question mark caught up in a war between numbers and letters. Very light on puzzles, though.

[heltenjon]

I tried DungeonGuyIThink, which is another unfinished game made with Unity. It's a bit of 3d exploring with nothing to do (yet).

Another AGS game! Yay! I played Interdimensional Community Service. It's a humorous story with bickering between the hopeless hero and his AI companion as they try to remove an energy dome over Paris. The author have not used walkcycle animation and gone for drawing lots of still images of Paris instead, with the player character standing still. Some mechanics are a bit unusual, like that I can't do something myself, but need to find all the items, and then the character will automatically do it. It's not quite in the league of the other two AGS games, but worth a go nonetheless.

And I played Spirit Kingdom. This is a platform game with some pattern recognition puzzle minigames. I think I spent more time trying to land on a tiny platform than actually solving the puzzles. If one is to be very strict, this one could be removed from the jam for not being an adventure game. But it's decent entertainment for ten minutes or so.

[heltenjon]

I played Delivery on Zergblat, which is another Unity game. This one is very nice, starting when I thought it was about to finish! Even so, one can see that the dev had more in mind, so I'm hoping for an expansion or continuation. Good-looking and funny, with a suitably ridiculous story. I was a bit confused by a couple of bugs, but not for long.

I also played First Contact. What if aliens decided to land and visit us, but ended up in a UFO convention? The premise is hilarious, and the puzzles are hard. (But not impossible.) Made with Unity.

And I played Interloper of the Dark Hall. The player walks in a labyrinth and solves some puzzles along the way. The atmosphere is rather spooky in this one, despite the chunky graphic style. On the negative side, you have to start from scratch when you make a mistake. Checkpoints would have improved this a lot. Unity for this one, too.

I played AI Dreams. This one is co-written by three AI-engines, according to the creator of the game. It's definitely surreal and dreamlike. It's not a hard game, but it's a strange experience I'm glad I had. It's easily the one that stands out from the crowd so far in this jam, although I'm not sure that equals best game.

And finally, I tried to play Salvation, but couldn't make it run. (Windows 10.) I see from comments that others have been successful, though.

[lorenzo]

And finally, I tried to play Salvation, but couldn't make it run. (Windows 10.) I see from comments that others have been successful, though.

I had some trouble with it as well. It gave an error about drivers and then it didn't start. I should retry, perhaps.
I believe it's an Unreal Engine game.

[hightreason]

The winner of the $106 Adventure Game Challenge is...

Where Did the Humans Go? by Lorenzo

Check it out here: https://lorenzob.itch.io/where-did-the-humans-go

[Kastchey]

Wow! Congratulations, Lorenzo!

[CaptainD]

Woot! Congrats Lorenzo on your win and for making such a great little game    

[Ponch]

Congrats, lorenzo!

[heltenjon]

Congratulations, Lorenzo! I'm especially pleased to see that you beat the AI at graphics! This was a well deserved win, not totally unexpected after playing the the games, even though there were many good ones in this jam.