MAGS July “Masquerade” (Result)

[heltenjon]

It took me quite a few goes to win the AGS Werewolf game, and I think I will keep playing it for some time. The replay value is high. In addition to my role questions above, I was also a bit baffled when the Eliminator turned out to be independent in one of the games. How does that work? Can someone be turned away from the Cult? Does that NPC still eliminate? 

Anyway, I'm having a ball with this. 

[Kastchey]

Is activating the Desperado and the Psychic a one-time move? Do they stay activated afterwards?

Each requires a separate activation every round you want to use them.

Does an attack/spying/persuasion attempt always succeed (if not countered)?

No, it usually depends on the target's role. I don't have a concise and game-ready set of rules written yet, but I have collected my code comments (I had to describe everything else I'd lose my way in the forest of nested ifs), which may help a bit (see the spoiler tags below)

What is the priority of the roles? Will the Desperado kill the Hedonist or be blocked by it? And if blocked, will that mean someone else may kill the Desperado?

There is a specific order of actions. Desperado, if activated, will always kill anyone who approaches making them unblockable and unkillable, but at the same time they can obliterate half of your team unless you know who the Desperado is and avoid targeting them.
(I should probably limit Desperado activations somehow, maybe once every other round, since this role may be a little too powerful)

Does the Watcher only work when assigned to watch a council member?

The Watcher is meant to report on anyone they are assigned to. So if they are assigned to watch the Eliminator and if the Eliminator goes out to hunt, they should report them leaving their place the given night. BUT, it's entirely possible that this function is still not working properly so you might want to treat the watcher/observer as cannon fodder in the MAGS version

Does the Whistleblower count as an attack? Meaning, will the Tender kill the Whistleblower if the Seed is targeted, and will the Seed or the Desperado kill the Whistleblower if attacked?

No. The only role that can counter the Whistleblower is the Seed itself - when targeted, it will sense the gathering rally and confuse the Whistleblower to protect itself. However, the Whistleblower is almost last in the action order (rallying people takes a while, after all), so if they are targeted by a blocking or a killing role, the rally will fail.

Also, are the Observer and the Investigator doubles of other roles, like the Watcher and the Inquisitor?

Sorry I missed the edit the first time round. Yes, they are doubles. Observer & Watcher are the same thing, Truthseeker & Investigator are the same, Hedonist & Partygoer are the same.
The only reason why I renamed them is that the module I'm using seems unable to digest if the buttons have the identical text label, so it wouldn't show double two Watcher buttons. And Watcher 1 / Watcher 2 looked a bit awkward. I could spell one with a trailing space I guess, but it could make things confusing to the player if they assign both Watchers to a target any given round. Something to be resolved post-MAGS

In addition to my role questions above, I was also a bit baffled when the Eliminator turned out to be independent in one of the games. How does that work? Can someone be turned away from the Cult? Does that NPC still eliminate?

The Eliminator is their own person, they do not work for the cult. They have their own reason to join the carnage. They can sometimes be converted in which case they stop being independent and start avoiding cultists, but by default they will target anyone and may very well end up helping you sometimes, albeit accidentally, by killing one of your enemies.

Anyway, I'm really happy that you're having a blast! I was half expecting the alpha quality to deter any interest in the game, glad that's not the case =]

Spoiler

Code: ags

//Inquisitor
vs Desperado: if Desperado is alive and on alert, they will kill anyone who approaches. if not, they will die.
vs Eliminator or Fanatic: the Inquisitor has a 20% chance to survive the encounter with a murderer.
			  if they do not survive, they will stall the murderer.
			  if they do survive, the murderer will brush past them but the Inquisitor will get an impression of their character (alignment reveal).
vs Seed: Approaching the Seed will trigger Tenders to attack, if they are alive.
		if the Tenders are dead, the Seed will confuse the Inquisitor. Confusion will cause the next round action to fail.
vs Awoken Seed: The Awoken Seed will convert anyone.
vs anyone else: Inquisitor will block ANY other role and reveal their alignment.

///Eliminator
vs Fanatic: It's an even battle. Each has a 50% chance of getting out of this encounter alive. It is possible for both to die.
vs Desperado: if activated, Desperado has a 100% chance to kill any intruder, friend or foe.
vs Psychic: Psychic has a 70% chance to sense the incoming danger and flee before they're assaulted.
		But if killed, they reveal the identity of their killer.
vs. Seed: If any of the Tenders is alive and the Seed is dormant, they will protect it with their life. Both the Tender and the Eliminator will die.
vs Awoken Seed: it will convert the Eliminator. No one is immune to the corruption of the Seed!
vs anyone else: the target dies.

//the Seed (dormant)
vs Eliminator: //When the Seed attempts to confuse the Eliminator, they have a 50% chance of converting them. Only the mature Seed will get a target assigned.
vs anyone else: The Seed will mess with its target's head, blocking their action.

//the Seed (awoken)
anyone: 100% chance to convert them to serve. if the target had any prior action executed, the action results will still calculate.

//Fanatic
vs Eliminator: It's an even battle. Each has a 50% chance of getting out of this encounter alive. It is possible for both to die.
vs Desperado: if Desperado is alive and on alert, they will kill anyone who approaches. if not, they will die.
vs Psychic: Psychic has a 70% chance to sense the incoming danger and flee before they're assaulted.
		But if killed, they reveal the identity of their killer.
vs any other neutral or council ally: they die.

//Converter
vs Eliminator: Eliminator will ignore the Converter's puny attempts to recruit them. at the end, they will kill the Converter.
vs any other neutral or council ally: Converter has a 100% chance to change their target's affiliation, as long as they are convertable (non-convertable roles: Desperado, Psychic, Whistleblower, Gnostic)

//Watchers (Watcher & Observer)
vs Desperado: if Desperado is alive and on alert, they will kill anyone who approaches.
vs dormant Seed: The Seed will know that someone is out there, so they will send a Tender to eliminate the potential threat, if any is alive (100% chance to kill the Watcher). if there are no Tenders alive, the Seed will confuse the Watcher (stalled for the next round)
vs awoken Seed: The Awoken Seed will convert anyone.
vs anyone else who has a target assigned: If the Watcher's target has a target, they will see them leaving their place.
vs anyone else who is targeted by someone: If the Watcher's target is targeted by someone, they will see them enter their target's place.

//Truthseekers (Truthseeker & Investigator)
vs Desperado: if Desperado is alive and on alert, they will kill anyone who approaches.
vs Eliminator or Fanatic: Truthseeker has a 75% chance to sneak into their target's place, rummage through their belongings and leave unharmed (Truthseeker survives and reports the affiliation of the target - council/cult/neutral), and 25% chance of getting caught red handed (Truthseeker dies).
vs dormant Seed: Approaching the Seed will trigger Tenders to attack, if they are alive. If both are dead, the Seed will confuse the Truthseeker.
vs awoken Seed: the Seed will convert anyone.
vs anyone else: The Truthseeker will rummage through other roles' things without interruption and report their affiliation.

//Hedonists (Hedonist & Partygoer)
vs Desperado: 100% chance to die if Desperado is activated
vs Fanatic or Eliminator: 100% chance to die
vs Seed: 100% chance to die if Tender(s) alive, if not 100% chance for confusion
vs awoken Seed: 100% chance to become converted
vs anyone else: 100% chance to block the target's action next round.

//Impostor
vs Desperado: if Desperado is alive and on alert, they will kill anyone who approaches.
vs unconverted Eliminator: Impostor will die.
vs dormant Seed: Approaching the Seed will trigger Tenders to attack, if they are alive. If they are dead, the Seed will confuse the Impostor.
vs awoken Seed: The Awoken Seed will convert anyone.
vs any other cultist: 70% chance to reveal the affiliation of the target, 15% chance to reveal the role, 15% chance to get spotted and killed.

//Whistleblower
vs Seed: The Seed can feel the Whistleblower's intentions and will prevent them from acting. The Seed needs to act quickly and has no time to mess with the Whistleblower's mind, so it will only stall them for the given round.
vs anyone else: The Whistleblower will get any other character killed.

//Lifesaver
vs any dead target: Lifesaver will save a mortally wounded target from death regardless their affiliation or role. Yes, they can save the dying Eliminator or Fanatic!
vs Desperado: if Desperado is alive and on alert, they will kill anyone who approaches.
vs Eliminator or Fanatic: Eliminator or Fanatic, if unharmed, will kill anyone who approaches.
vs dormant Seed: Approaching the Seed will trigger Tenders to attack, if they are alive. if not, the Seed will confuse the Lifesaver.
vs awoken Seed: The Awoken Seed will convert anyone.

[close]

[Stupot]

Thanks for the entries guys. Let's get the voting show on the road.

I count 3 entries.

	The Will by lapsking
	AGS Werwolf by Kastchey
	Masqerade at the Con by heltenjon

[Kastchey]

I have played both entries, below are my thoughts:

The Will
by lapsking

Spoiler

I really enjoyed playing through this one, it had a 100% classic adventure game feel. There was a little bit of a pixel hunt here or there and a couple puzzles that seemed illogical (my favorite: why do I need to do all water collecting effort if I have what looks like a fountain in the courtyard?), but overall the difficultly balance felt just right. And it's always nice to play a game with actual push/pull puzzles!
The title change in the end made me giggle
Overall, a really impressive piece of work, especially if it was your first game and done in just 20 days.

[close]

Masqerade at the Con
by heltenjon

Spoiler

First of all, big congrats on releasing an entry. It took you what, 2 days to put this together? 3 days? Really, really impressive even if the game is relatively simple.
As for the gameplay, I had fun playing this one! There might have been one or two puzzles I had trouble with because I wasn't familiar with the lore, but since there was no penalty for blind shots, it wasn't hard to progress despite that.

(PS. I thought someone said last time there would be no more Batman games  )

[close]

[lapsking]

Oh no, how could I miss the fountain. I'm going to empty it in next version, thanks Katschey. If you found any other silly things please pm me.

[heltenjon]

First of all, big congrats on releasing an entry. It took you what, 2 days to put this together? 3 days? Really, really impressive even if the game is relatively simple.

I think it's 13 days from start to finish, so it's not all that impressive. I won't give a false impression that I'm a fast or good coder by any means.  Even though I couldn't find time to work on it much while on vacation with my family. You'd also be a tad less impressed if you had witnessed me spending an hour wondering why my descriptions didn't show, until I realized they were in the same colour as the background...

[heltenjon]

Here are my thoughts:

The Will by Lapsking:

Spoiler

What a great debut game! I admit to spending a fair amount of time stuck outside until I found a fairly hidden item. Once inside the house, the game opened up - it was much larger than I first thought. I enjoyed the puzzles and the story and didn't even think about the fountain outside.  I realize this is a homage to Maniac Mansion style games with the nine verbs, but this is really hard to implement. While the player need to use the verbs in this game, they aren't in frequent use, so maybe a smaller verb selection would work as well?

[close]

AGS Werewolf by Kastchey:

Spoiler

Unifinished and somewhat unpolished, but I thoroughly enjoyed what was there. The game will likely appeal a lot to board game fans (like myself), while those who don't like to read rules may be deterred. The mechanics remind me of board games like Citadels, which is praise, coming from me.

[close]

Masquerade at the Con by myself: Oh, so that's how you break the object limit for a room. 

I voted for

Spoiler

The Will. While both games were great fun, The Will is the most complete of them, and of course, it's an adventure game.

[close]

[lapsking]

"Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualize your game following the month's criteria. Second, create your game fuelled only by coffee. Finally, post your game in this thread."

To be honest I didn't create The Will fuelled only by coffee, I used other substances too. Is it cheating?

I didn't vote cause I haven't played Kastchey's AGS Werewolf yet. Maybe if I could over come my fear and play that too then I can vote.

[Ponch]

Just downloaded these. Playing today and tomorrow. Voting soon... 

[Shadow1000]

My thoughts:

The Will

Spoiler

I enjoyed the entire experience. Background graphics are good, characters are a bit on the simple side, sounds effects are perfect. What really makes this game shine is the story and puzzles. The difficulty of the puzzles is exactly where I would want them: I did not breeze along but progress felt rewarding because of the effort that solving the puzzles entails.

Good story that's appropriate for the length of the game and some of the puzzles are quite creative in the sense that I don't think I've seen the thinking that was required to solve them in other games.

[close]

Masquerade at the Con

Spoiler

I completed the game. As someone pointed out, you can basically guess your way through. I never felt like I was part of the game; it was more like clicking squares and making dialogue choices. Short enough to remain entertaining.

[close]

AGS Werewolf

Spoiler

I found the posted rules complex and hard to follow. I tried playing but had no idea what was going on and gave up in a few minutes

[close]

My vote

Spoiler

The Will. Amazing result for a game created in such a short period of time!

[close]

[Kitty Trouble]

The Will (Gameplay spoilers)

Spoiler

This was a polished game for a MAGS entry. The puzzles for me were a hit and a miss. Examples: I thought that maybe this game wasn't finished when I couldn't get inside the first doors, but looking at the gameplay screenhots told me otherwise. So after scouring all over the screen, I finally found the solution. The bottom drawer puzzle seemed really out there because I wasn't paying attention to sounds and needed a hint on it. Perhaps a text dialogue saying like "creeeak' or "clunk" or whatever the sound is would draw attention to it more and for those who have their sounds turned down. Was also frustrating that I couldn't just use the broom to get the sponges But most of the other puzzles were good, and the graphics were good. I enjoyed the ending.

[close]

AGS Werwolf

Spoiler

I was confused by the rules of this. I know of the Werewolf game from Raging Loop but this was all a bit much. There also were no in-game instructions, so I couldn't give this a proper chance.

[close]

Masqerade at the Con

Spoiler

Cool idea. I didn't know, or know much about some of the characters, which isn't a huge issue since you can just guess. I would recommend that the game be a higher resolution though, not sure if the images are being stretched but if so cropping them to the correct aspect ratio rather than stretching would make them look better. I enjoyed the dialogue for the most part.

[close]

Winner:

Spoiler

The Will.

[close]

[lapsking]

Thank you Kastchey, Shadow1000, heltenjon and Kitty Trouble for sharing your thoughts about "The Will". I try to consider them in next game. Well, that's the best thing about MAGS.

[heltenjon]

Masquerade at the Con
I didn't know, or know much about some of the characters, which isn't a huge issue since you can just guess.

I worried that the guessing part would be too easy, as my 12-year old playtester breezed through it, but it turns out it's hard enough given that not all of the characters are well known in other countries.

I would recommend that the game be a higher resolution though, not sure if the images are being stretched but if so cropping them to the correct aspect ratio rather than stretching would make them look better.

Yeah, agreed. I thought about changing the resolution a bit into the coding, but ended up not doing it to avoid repeating the work and then having to scale up the inventory GUI. It's supposed to scale up automatically when you change resolution, but at least in BASS, it doesn't. Basically, it shows that I have little to no talent with regards to graphics, even when using stills.

[lapsking]

Okay, my thoughts:

AGS Werewolf:

Spoiler

This game has a great concept but too unexplained rules and gameplay. I don't know what exactly is going on. I read Kastchey's explanations and I really loved the characters, ideas and story but they haven't developed into a smooth game. I think the idea and story has lots of potential to be worked on after MAGS competition with more time and a better gameplay.

[close]

Masqerade at the Con

Spoiler

Well first time I quited the game after few tries since I'm not good at guessing movie characters and I didn't know there is a little adventure game in second part. But on second try I guessed as much as I could and guessed the rest with unlimited tries. I loved the adventure part the most and puzzles made sense. Only one thing I can suggest, maybe characters could be chosen from more universal characters and a bit more serious like Columbus, Shakespear, Edison, Jesus, Hitler etc so it would have a wider spectrum than just western movies. But that might be my taste. It was overall entertaining and fun.

[close]

My vote:

Spoiler

I always hated it when presidential candidates voted in same election they were participating. So no vote.

[close]

[Ponch]

Voted!

Good batch of games this month.

[Stupot]

The voting is over and the winner by a long stretch is The Will by Lapsking.

Well done, Lapsking. You’ll be contacted soon about choosing a theme for September.

Thanks to everyone who entered and to those who played the games and voted.

Don’t forget to rate and comment on the games’ respective AGS pages, where possible.

[heltenjon]

Congratulations, Lapsking! Well deserved!

[Kastchey]

Congratulations, lapsking! Well done

[lapsking]

Thank you guys.