What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.
For more information please visit the Official MAGS website (http://www.mags-competition.info/).
Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers (a.k.a n00bies).
MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.
MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, you may get help for the competiton, but should try not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.
You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public.
Please do not just enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created in just some hours or a few days)!
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Topic: Sellout
This month's guidelines were set by last month's winner OneDollar:
Advertising is big business - after all how will your customers know to buy your stuff without someone telling them to? Fortunately you've hit on the perfect idea - if you make a game about your product people will buy the game, learn about the product then buy that!
Your task is as follows...
First come up with a product or line of products to advertise. Be as creative as you want, parodies of existing items are allowed but please don't advertise something real!
Now create a game with the purpose of advertising your item(s). You may want to use one or more of the following ideas...
1) Make a game where the main character has to interact with the item. It could be an inventory object that has to be used, something that the main character is trying to get or even a character in the game.
2) Create a mascot for your product and create a game based around them (think the Burger King games for the Xbox 360). The mascot doesn't have to do anything directly with the product, but it must be made obvious what the product is and that they are linked to it.
3) Set your game in a setting where you can casually slip your item into the background at every opportunity (think the Chupa Chups lollipops in the backgrounds of the 'Sweet Zone' levels of Zool).
4) Come up with a rival product and show how much better your product is or how much worse their product is.
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All games need to be in by June 25th.
Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.
FAQ:
Where is Klaus? What the hell are you doing Dual?
Well, Klaus after hosting the MAGS for the last 5 years without failing to do so, has decided to pass the flame. I'm glad to say I'll be the host from now on. Hopefully Klaus will even join with a game.. :D
So what's new?
Apart from the host nothing. I'm going to make a topic so you can suggest stuff.
Anyway..
The winner and the man to choose the theme
Tijne with his entry Proposal..
Congrats to you and jerakeen.
I've sent you a PM Tijne so you have two days to pick a competition theme and tell me about it..
Ha! I love it!
Hm, does this mean that as we had the MAGS special last month, the winner of each MAGS competition will now end up setting the rules for the MAGS competition after next rather than the next one?
Quote from: paolo on Mon 01/06/2009 13:29:23
Hm, does this mean that as we had the MAGS special last month, the winner of each MAGS competition will now end up setting the rules for the MAGS competition after next rather than the next one?
The MAGS Special (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=37646.0) was a special competition with a special prize, so that contest is not bound to the standard "winner sets up next month's rules". It's just kind of a time-out from the regular way.
As the winner in April was OneDollar, now his ruleset is in use and it's all "in line" again :) And this month's winner will set up next month's rules and so on - just as usual... Except Dualnames wants to change things :)
I think I'll find a way to make things more confusing in the future.. ;D
Wait...
So since it was a special entry month in May, does that mean that whoever wins, be it myself or Mazoliin, do we get a cake?
Cake, please.
Thanks,
Bill
Quote from: poc301 on Mon 01/06/2009 16:53:10So since it was a special entry month in May, does that mean that whoever wins, be it myself or Mazoliin, do we get a cake?
Cake, please.
Cake is a lie, you wouldn't want it.
lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI&feature=related
Best song ever.
-Bill
Quote from: poc301 on Mon 01/06/2009 16:53:10
So since it was a special entry month in May, does that mean that whoever wins, be it myself or Mazoliin, do we get a cake?
Eeeh... No. No cake... But... You know about the prize, don't you? It's all written in the announcement (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=37646.0)...
Oh wow, I had no idea. I didn't really worry about the prize, I just did the contest last month for fun :)
Here's hoping for victory! I can always use a multitool!!
-Bill
I have something in the works. Might finish, might not finish, will be crap if it does. Anyone else?
i'm preparing something too, i hope to get it on time
Quote from: jerakeen on Fri 19/06/2009 20:34:16
i'm preparing something too, i hope to get it on time
You do that.
Quote from: Akatosh on Thu 18/06/2009 21:36:30
I have something in the works. Might finish, might not finish, will be crap if it does. Anyone else?
I like your self-esteem most of all your attributes.
Wrap it guys and call if you need an extension of deadline.
Don't worry, next time I win at something remotely important, my ego will likely grow back to the size of the moon. :P
About the deadline: It'd be nice if I could get until the evening of the 26th or something, so I could do some polishing... stupid non-adventure games being not all that easy to make with an adventure game engine...
Quote from: Akatosh on Mon 22/06/2009 17:02:00
About the deadline: It'd be nice if I could get until the evening of the 26th or something, so I could do some polishing... stupid non-adventure games being not all that easy to make with an adventure game engine...
The deadlines go 1-25 for game making
25-28 for voting
28-30 for next mags to start and winner to decide theme
I can make the deadline to 26th (when it turns 27th deadline is over)
27-28 for voting and 29-30 day for the winner to decide.
If that is needed though and nobody feels its unfair.
That'd be great, thanks. I likely won't finish till tomorrow evening, but I should finish on Friday.
Souls Quest
In a world where there is excess of souls, you see that there is a need. To the majority of the souls they don't like to be without body and there are many people who needs one more soul. So you are employed at a shop of sale of souls and...
Download Souls Quest (10Mb) (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qemgjhnmyzz)
The product are the souls of course. He he.
WARNING: traslation to english is very, very poor.
WARNING 2: in the inventory to pick up an objetc you sould use the "use" mode (the gears icon).
EDIT: I changed the link to download the game
I finished my entry... five minutes ago.
And I'm also very glad to have an extra day to touch some things up. ;D
The deadlines go 1-25 for game making
25-28 for voting
28-30 for next mags to start and winner to decide theme
I can make the deadline to 26th (when it turns 27th deadline is over)
27-28 for voting and 29-30 day for the winner to decide.
Deadline exactly 24 hours after this post (see stamp)
Voting will begin shortly after that time, and as long as there are two or more entries.
Voting will last from Saturday (27) till Sunday (28).
Two days (29-30) will be left for the winner to decide the theme and tell me about it.
Let's rumble!!
Quote from: jerakeen on Wed 24/06/2009 22:27:14
Souls Quest
This game is awesome!! Congratulations. Very high standard!
The only minors are indeed the translation (hope you'll get this fixed after the competition) and the fact that you can't change icons within the inventory. So you need to switch to gear first and then open the inventory. Both issues are minor, the puzzles, story and graphics are superb!
Indeed quite a very peculiar yet very well executed entry, a good solid one.
Edited by mod: No need to quote the complete post which quotes another post, especially when it's just the last post above yours.
Maybe I was a bit too optimistic? :-\
The save function doesn't work..., nor does the options button but I find that less problematic. The save however :'(
I suggest jerakeen to just fix the minor quibbles and repost his entry (telling that he's done so id he's done so, so I can change the download link)
Thanks Dualnames for the chance.
Leon, traslation must wait ;), right now when the inventory is open you can use right click out of the inventory itself to change the icon or can use the iconbar.
With the savegame function i had a newbie mistake in the code, i asked for the title of the window in spanish, this is say "CARGAR JUEGO" or "GUARDAR JUEGO" to know what the "green button" must do, i'll use a variable to do this.
soon i'll put a new link to download the game.
thanks
So, that's... 14 hours left now, right?
Well, sleep is overrated, anyway.
Or, you know, not. Turns out there's a practice test tomorrow (Computer Science, no less), which I need to score at least 50% at to be admitted into the real thing, and I need to get up on 5AM to be there on time. Sorry, I'll have to withdraw - the basic structure of the game is finished, but it's... really not enough to be fun, I can't do a code-a-thon till 3AM when I really, really need to pass that test and asking for another extension would be unfair. Life is, once again, showing an uncanny accuracy at flinging excrements fan-ward. Maybe next month. :/
(In case you're interested, this (http://img29.imageshack.us/i/42785633.png/) describes the basic tune of the game quite well. Unfortunately, it looks like this (http://img44.imageshack.us/i/93947944.png/) right now, and plays exactly as well as it looks like. Ah well.)
ok, i fixed this errors in the game:
Now you can right click over the inventory to change mouse mode.
Fixed SaveGame error
Disabled options button in main menu
I changed the link in the first replay i did with the new version of the game.
I doubt my entry will even be able to compete with jerakeen's, but I may as well throw it out there just so he doesn't win by default. ;)
Proposal
Meet John Gwar; a man who's under a rather odd curse. He's got till midnight to have a girl accept his honest-proposal or he'll crumble to dust.
Luckily, John's been dating someone who's rather special to him; Azura. Why their relationship isn't exactly lovey-dovey, this little curse gives John all the more incentive to finally pop the question. He planned an entire night of romance to sweep Azura off her feet.
Unfortunately for him, things never go exactly as planned;
Proposal (22Mb) (http://www.mediafire.com/?zxzmidlaojz)
WARNING: There's probably a zillion bugs. And I'm not talking cute squishy-ones either. Oh well.
SECOND WARNING: This is my first game evah. Be gentle. :P
Well, what can I say..... don't be so modest. For a first timer you did a fantastic job! Great story, good puzzles, decent graphics. Besides that, you've implemented a really brilliant menu system (technnical and presentation wise) and even a decent hint-system.
I'll have a hard time deciding who the winner will be. I'd better read the rule set again to see who came closest to the rules because the games are pretty close regarding the gameplay and presentation. Well done and looking forward to a regular game or the next MAGS.
[update]
There seems to be a slight issue with the walk behind area when you walk north from the 'restaurant' part and to the left. You'll then appear to the right of the painting instead of staying in the corridor.
Vote Time
For voting please visit the MAGS site (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/mags/) or make your choice right here:
Souls Quest by jerakeen (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/mags/?page=voting&fav=Souls%20Quest)
Proposal by Tijne (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/mags/?page=voting&fav=Proposal)
Please vote only once and be sure to have played all games before sending your voice! Good luck to all participants.
Voting will approximately last for 2 days (look at the timestamp)
Alright, here's my verdict.
I played both and must say, close call. Both have pros and cons. And both the same. Both game have textual problems. Both have a poor puzzle (the carrot and the suddenly lost ring) and both have good puzzles (the riddles, although solvable by brute force, and the removal of Ms Meek).
The story of both games was good and complete. I liked the graphics of Souls Quest a bit better because they were a bit more polished but that's just personal. All in all, a very close finish. I then must say that my vote goes to Souls Quest. A solid game (Proposal had a few crashes but these were announced..) that came closer to the rules given.
In my opinion both games failed to really sell their product. I missed the screaming, persuading commercial product advertisements. I couldn't really find the selling point/product in Proposal, more a personal quest. The restaurant didn't do much to sell their product. In Souls Quest there was a product to sell, there was some advertisement and that's why my vote goes to Souls Quest
It's not really the CL, Leon, but anyway...
Good work getting these done!
Quote from: ProgZmax on Sat 27/06/2009 11:16:16
It's not really the CL, Leon, but anyway...
??? I'm not suppose to criticize in a competition? I was comparing both games and holding them against the ruleset. What else am I supposed to do here?
Sorry, ProgZ, but I'm with Leon here. What is the point in not allowing crits, especially when it's an activity relying on voting for its results?
Well, the voting 'is' held anonymously on the MAGS site, I suspect there's some good reasons for it, like avoiding hurt feelings and such. I don't see a need tell people what you don't like about their games outside of a forum where it's asked for (or places were they ask for feedback themselves). Maybe I just think too much about the feelings of the developers on issues like these, but that's where I am in this argument.
I never knew voting was anonymous? I know once in a while entries are kept anonymous on request (or was that OROW?) but other than that it's not wrong to motivate your voting?
One point of participating in a competition is to get your work compared to others anyway, so it's not really necessary to stop people giving feedback, regardless of the voting is annoymous or not.
These games are made in 25 days (Or less, I started 7 days into the competition. x_x), and by both experienced game-makers and people completely new to it. A lot of people have different strengths/weakness, and some people may find critisim a little harsh and not welcome it publically (especially on such tight time constraints, or if the critisim is aimed at their particular weakness.) Don't want to scare away someone new by saying they suck, publicly, when they aren't asking for it. xD
A lot of other games are made with 'teams' so people can work together and compensate for each other's weaknesses. MAGS are suppose to be done more or less alone, so it may really bring out your weaknesses. =) I'm really bad at both artwork and beta testing, for one thing and have used MAGS to try to improve both. ^_^
Also .. If you have a reputuation here you could theoritically sway other people from one game to another regardless of which they like more. Just listing flaws or highlights may influence others. There's also the matter of what you're critizing... Like, you're suppose to vote for your -favourite- game, and your favourite may be influenced by music the most, or because it followed the guidelines to a 'T', while other's may be solely based on jokes or gore or some other element.
I really didn't/don't/won't ever mind the critisim publically or not. [So you don't have to hold back ProgZmax, I betchya had a few choice words for me. ;)], But I believe those are all reasons for anonymous voting. I have to take Prog's side and say critisim isn't always welcome publically for this particular thing, though Private Messages should hopefully be O.K for anyone. :)
On ring-puzzle critisim;
There was a small time near the end I was going to remove that ring puzzle. I had my little brother play through the game once, and suprisingly as soon as he lost the ring, he went straight to where it was located and grabbed the ring in a few clicks, without any form of hint from me or the game. I figured if a twelve year old could figure it out THAT easily, then it can't be THAT bad. ;) Since the ring was a LAYDED product, and kind of the center of the game, I hoped to make people care about it a little more.... and you never realize what you had until it's gone. ^_~. I think the poorest aspect of that puzzle was the GUI... it made it more difficult than it needed to be. But at least it stopped people from just randomly clicking till they got it, and encouraged people to actually use the GUI feature [though I probably could have done that better.. hmm!..]
On the subject of the Sellout ruleset....I didn't really want to literally throw ads in someone's face. I took a much more subtle approach, like mention the line of products every now and then and require you to use them in some way continously. I hope this didn't invalidate them? I was going more for "you're at the store and you see something with the LAYDED brand. You reconize it, it looks friendly, you remember it's usefulness, and you buy it". It's definitely not "Rush out to the store and get it because it rocks!".
Actually, I do have a question about MAGS for future reference since that was brought it up--
Are the rules literally 'rules', or are they more "guidelines", as was mentioned in the first post? Should I vote based off who follows rules closely, or should that not be a part of my decision?
Also, has there ever been MAGS disqualified because it didn't follow the rules 'completely'? :)
~Thanks, and sorry for being a noob and not knowing this already. ^^;
NOTE: And I have a bad habit of writing too much. ;_;
Well I think I might agree with Progz here. It's only fair that if the author wants some feedback, give it, if not don't. And we do have such a forum to do so in. However I think it's only fair that any feedback as such should be posted after the competition finishes.
I'm sure that if someone gives a bad review, from a such respected member of the forums as yourself Leon/Gilbot etc, an another member of the forums won't bother playing that game. Or even worse than that, not play any of the games or vote.
I understand that people want to give their opinions, but also you have to appreciate that feedback doesn't only affect the author of the game. Maybe a tactic is to keep the thread of the competition open a few days after the competition is over, just to allow any such feedback posts to be posted. And if the author of a game wants a more in depth post about their game then they can PM people or make a CL thread.
First of all, I have a huge respect for anyone who makes a game, wether in less than 25 days or not, everyone is a winner in my view. But we're talking about a competition here.
Quote from: Tijne on Sat 27/06/2009 21:48:44
These games are made in 25 days (Or less, I started 7 days into the competition. x_x), and by both experienced game-makers and people completely new to it. A lot of people have different strengths/weakness, and some people may find critisim a little harsh and not welcome it publically (especially on such tight time constraints, or if the critisim is aimed at their particular weakness.) Don't want to scare away someone new by saying they suck, publicly, when they aren't asking for it. xD
That wasn't my intention at all. From my posts just after your publications, I already mentioned that the standard was very high (again). Does that scare people away?
I never meant my comments as criticism (maybe you can read it as that between the lines) but merely as a comparison between the games.
Quote from: Tijne on Sat 27/06/2009 21:48:44
A lot of other games are made with 'teams' so people can work together and compensate for each other's weaknesses. MAGS are suppose to be done more or less alone, so it may really bring out your weaknesses. =) I'm really bad at both artwork and beta testing, for one thing and have used MAGS to try to improve both. ^_^
To be honest, nothing is more difficult than to compare the games in a MAGS competition. They are always completely different and where one has as a more graphics skill (Souls Quest/graphics) is compensated by the other in scripting (Proposal/menu system). And how can you ever compare that?
Regarding the betatesting I disagree. I do quite a lot of it and can tell you: never test your own game. Why not ask one of the guys/gals over here to do some testing. They're not involved in the creative process, just checking if all is OK. Just PM one or two and tell them there's a game coming up and that you need feedback. Nothing wrong with that. Again, we're talking about a competition here and all contestants have equal oportunities, including testing. So if one of the entries is solid and another crashes every screen, who would win? Of course you have to consider the fact that newbies enter the contest but hey, I've never made a game and when I see the level that's entered this month, believe me,
that gives me a reason not to enter. I could never reach such a level. My graphics skills suck even more :P
Quote from: Tijne on Sat 27/06/2009 21:48:44
Also .. If you have a reputuation here you could theoritically sway other people from one game to another regardless of which they like more. Just listing flaws or highlights may influence others. There's also the matter of what you're critizing... Like, you're suppose to vote for your -favourite- game, and your favourite may be influenced by music the most, or because it followed the guidelines to a 'T', while other's may be solely based on jokes or gore or some other element.
True, people can be influenced by what others say. And I think that might be the only reason to have a anonymous vote. But I wouldn't want to enter a creative competition, find out I didn't (quite) make it (read 'lost') and not knowing why. I would want to know what the reason behind it was.
Quote from: IndieBoy on Sat 27/06/2009 22:07:21
I'm sure that if someone gives a bad review, from a such respected member of the forums as yourself Leon/Gilbot etc, an another member of the forums won't bother playing that game. Or even worse than that, not play any of the games or vote.
If people go blind on what I say I think they're foolish. If some critic tells me a game is good, I first want to see it for myself, then agree or disagree. I'm not a judge who has a decisive vote in this.. besides, you don't want to know the times I voted for the game that in the end didn't win. But I never heard the motivations why it was the winner, only the percentage of votes it got.
Quote from: Tijne on Sat 27/06/2009 21:48:44
I really didn't/don't/won't ever mind the critisim publically or not. [So you don't have to hold back ProgZmax, I betchya had a few choice words for me. ;)], But I believe those are all reasons for anonymous voting. I have to take Prog's side and say critisim isn't always welcome publically for this particular thing, though Private Messages should hopefully be O.K for anyone. :)
Quote from: IndieBoy on Sat 27/06/2009 22:07:21
Well I think I might agree with Progz here. It's only fair that if the author wants some feedback, give it, if not don't. And we do have such a forum to do so in. However I think it's only fair that any feedback as such should be posted after the competition finishes.
Maybe I should have kept quite until after the voting. But then this thread gets locked... :(
Quote from: Tijne on Sat 27/06/2009 21:48:44
On ring-puzzle critisim;
There was a small time near the end I was going to remove that ring puzzle. I had my little brother play through the game once, and suprisingly as soon as he lost the ring, he went straight to where it was located and grabbed the ring in a few clicks, without any form of hint from me or the game. I figured if a twelve year old could figure it out THAT easily, then it can't be THAT bad. ;) Since the ring was a LAYDED product, and kind of the center of the game, I hoped to make people care about it a little more.... and you never realize what you had until it's gone. ^_~. I think the poorest aspect of that puzzle was the GUI... it made it more difficult than it needed to be. But at least it stopped people from just randomly clicking till they got it, and encouraged people to actually use the GUI feature [though I probably could have done that better.. hmm!..]
My issue with this was that I lost it just by looking at it in my inventory (a bug?). One moment it's there, look at it and you get the message you've lost it. When you go to the hints, you see that you need to go the the place you last saw it. Well... I didn't move so.. where should it be. Unfortunately (for me) I was standing next to the piano when this happened and since there's a box on the side that said: LAYDED, I was convinced I was in the right place. It never crossed my mind to go where it finally got found. But I have my sneaky, cheating ways of discovering so... I got there in the end. But still it all seemed very odd to me.
Quote from: Tijne on Sat 27/06/2009 21:48:44
On the subject of the Sellout ruleset....I didn't really want to literally throw ads in someone's face. I took a much more subtle approach, like mention the line of products every now and then and require you to use them in some way continously. I hope this didn't invalidate them? I was going more for "you're at the store and you see something with the LAYDED brand. You reconize it, it looks friendly, you remember it's usefulness, and you buy it". It's definitely not "Rush out to the store and get it because it rocks!".
Actually, I do have a question about MAGS for future reference since that was brought it up--
Are the rules literally 'rules', or are they more "guidelines", as was mentioned in the first post? Should I vote based off who follows rules closely, or should that not be a part of my decision?
Also, has there ever been MAGS disqualified because it didn't follow the rules 'completely'? :)
If this was your intention, then I missed the whole point. Sorry for that. I never thought of the LAYED brand as the one you were trying to promote. My bad but after all one of the reasons not to vote for it. You see, feedback gives you ways of finding out if your vision is the one of the public as well. Since the games were very close (said before, very high standard) it was one of the reasons to vote as I did.
Then again, the guidelines are there to be able to compare games. With me, crappy games that follow the guidelines are more likely to get my vote than super quality games that don't. After all, it is a competition, not just to see who can deliver the most polished random piece of software.
Quote from: Tijne on Sat 27/06/2009 21:48:44
~Thanks, and sorry for being a noob and not knowing this already. ^^;
Aparantly I'm a noob as well seeing the reactions I get form the community ;D
Quote from: Tijne on Sat 27/06/2009 21:48:44
NOTE: And I have a bad habit of writing too much. ;_;
NOTE: I have one of writing even more :-\
Quote from: IndieBoy on Sat 27/06/2009 22:07:21
I understand that people want to give their opinions, but also you have to appreciate that feedback doesn't only affect the author of the game. Maybe a tactic is to keep the thread of the competition open a few days after the competition is over, just to allow any such feedback posts to be posted. And if the author of a game wants a more in depth post about their game then they can PM people or make a CL thread.
Dual, maybe something as new rule? No opinions until after voting? Maybe an extra box during voting for comments that can be read afterwards? At least it's one of the things I miss in this competition: the motivation behind the voting. But I guess that was clear already...
I never meant you actually did anything wrong there. I thought your post was really constructive and helpful for everyone; I was saying all that just in general since Prog brought up the anonymous voting. It's kind of sad, but even if you're polite and wonderfully helpful, I know a person or two who would take major offense to saying they did -anything- wrong
publically . Or even if they wouldn't take offense, they would feel humilated or what not. I'd like to hope that if they're participating in MAGS that they want to improve, but just to be safe I give my comments in private! ^^;
EDIT: And that doesn't apply to me, so don't worry at all! :D
Quote
Dual,.... ....Maybe an extra box during voting for comments that can be read afterwards?
That's an awesome idea!
Just make sure you could comment on the losers as well as the winners, if you implement it Dual. ^_~
Quote
My issue with this was that I lost it just by looking at it in my inventory (a bug?). One moment it's there, look at it and you get the message you've lost it. When you go to the hints, you see that you need to go the the place you last saw it. Well... I didn't move so.. where should it be. Unfortunately (for me) I was standing next to the piano when this happened and since there's a box on the side that said: LAYDED, I was convinced I was in the right place. It never crossed my mind to go where it finally got found. But I have my sneaky, cheating ways of discovering so... I got there in the end. But still it all seemed very odd to me.
[Spoiler Alert :P] You lose the ring as soon as you get the mirror fragment. You just don't -notice- it until you interact with the ring in some way (trying to use it on some object, look at it, etc..).
The problem with the hints system was that I had to determine what type of hint to give at what time. Like, should I hint the person towards getting the spoon, or putting the bear to sleep first?, even though whatever order you do it doesn't really matter at that point. You could lose the ring at anytime after getting the mirror shard, but it wasn't really -important- to get back until after you woke the chef. And you may not even notice it was gone until you actually woke him up! So, I saved the hint for the ring to appear till after he was awake since it would be the 'next thing to do' there. The hint you were reading was probably for something else >.< sorry for the confusion meh.
The hint for the ring is suppose to be:
"Maybe you should stop. Think. And ask yourself where you lost the ring.".
If you talk to your reflection, he gives you a pretty big hint for where and how you lost your ring.
I was kind of iffy about putting the hint where it was. I thought about putting it at the very top and saying it as soon as you lose the ring and I don't know why I decided not to do that. o.O. I will now though, for the future... heh. Sorry about that again!
[End Spoilers] Quote
If this was your intention, then I missed the whole point. Sorry for that. I never thought of the LAYED brand as the one you were trying to promote. My bad...
Not at all. If it failed to catch your attention then I failed to promote it well enough, as you said; I tried, yet failed. xD
Leon: of course the voting is anonymous. The only person that could find out what a person voted without them publicly saying so is Klaus by checking the ip's/accounts of each voter, which would be a pain anyway.
Anyway, regardless of Gilb0t's/Leon's views I stand by what I said. I prefer to protect the potential feelings of developers over a driving need to criticize their work. I am always with the developer on this issue, at least with regards to freeware titles. People who sell products open themselves up to criticism because you have purchased their work and have a right to satisfaction.
I don't think the MAGS site needs comments. The voting is simple, straightforward, and people know whether they win or lose without fanfare. This 'competition' is actually just an activity to have fun like all the other activities in this forum, and our goal should be to enhance the fun had by entrants and players rather than diminish it.
That's all.
Well, I don't have time to read all the posts yet, so if there's something that's already mentioned or settled on please tell me.
While I agree also on the fact that harsh criticism can scare people away or affect others' impression I don't see why we should prohibit constructive feedback.
If it's an extreme or inappropriate comment like "This game sucks! You don't even have a chance!" I'm sure mods would have a fair judgement and provide appropriate actions and just let only the fair ones remain.
When you post something in public other people would like to give feedback anyway, and to prevent threads spammed with comments and negative feelings as a consequent we sometimes do account for the problem. That's why criticisms are in general prohibited in the GIP and Completed Game forums, so the game authors could ask for feedbacks in the C&C forum only if they really want. However, as we allow comments in the Games page, unless a game author never posts his/her game there (which we really don't prefer as we do want the Games page to be as exhausive as possible regarding released AGS games) you cannot prevent the game from getting any kind of feedbacks anyway, not to mention that we already have a official "secret" rating panel who rate all the games on that page (and it's not uncommon that game authors get disappointed with the reviews, but I don't think that's preventable as long as you post something in the public, and in fact people should understand that constructive criticisms can help them improve in the future).
Now, back to this case, which is a competition. As I mentioned before, you're expecting your work to be compared already. And for the other activities here (especially those which involve voting) people give lots of comments anyway. Granted, that MAGS games are made in a rush and the authors may not be able to make their games exactly as what they originally planned, but I don't think there are enough reasons to prohibit all comments. These feedbacks, in fact, can help people to improve their future games, or if they want to refine their entry to a better product to be released later.
As I never follow things really closely I could not account for the original reasons for separating the voting process. Anonymous voting to prevent personal criticisms might be a reason, but I think one main reason is to automate the process (other than tedious hand-counting in the other activities, as we expect the total number of votes for MAGS would be higher than the other activities) and to prevent excessive spams of the thread with votes.
Alright, I think the initial focus is getting a bit lost. My initial post was just a comparison of the two games, not to criticise at all. If the game maker (or anyone else) sees it as that, fine, or sorry. It was never intended.
But then tell me, ProgZ, how do you come to a dicision which game to vote for? Don't you use the same process as I described in my initial post? The only thing is that you don't want anyone to know how you got to your decision?
I agree with all that if you want to give critique to the game on how to improve (but then just one game in particular), there are other locations and means to do so. Since it's a competition, there's not much to change about the game anyway so there's not much use the give these comments on how to improve (or do differently) at that time.
But I still fail to see why the voting and the motivation behind it has to be anonymous.
I try very hard not to compare freeware games but weigh them on their own merits. I completely fail to see the point in offering criticism that wasn't asked for, and that's the point I'm making here. Just because someone enters an activity doesn't mean they're exposed to scrutiny, particularly not when they are making a game for free for you to enjoy (or not enjoy). This is why I respect that my opinions may not be welcome and I do not comment actively on a game unless the developer solicits feedback, and even then I'm usually reticent because I'd hate to see someone discouraged because I personally don't like their game. Ultimately, I see no problem with critique when it's asked for; when it's not it seems gratuitous. I figure that if a person wants to learn from their players they will ask for feedback and if not then they aren't really that interested in opinions good or bad, so why offer one -- unless you just want to be heard regardless?
Anyway, I've said what I have to say so my activity in this thread is done.
We'll leave the discussion at that. We will keep our different views here. In my view MAGS is a bit more than an activity. It's a competition. And in competitions you need to compare and give opinions. In activities everyone is free to do as he/she pleases and you won't have a winner (or everyone is).
To quote Klaus instruction mail...
Quote
Keep
the "Type of voting system" invisible. There are different
styles that show the results while and after voting but
these were not too successful in the past - so I kept
it always invisible in the end.
That's a way not to affect the vote while it's on the process.
Not a way to disallow critique in any way. At least that's how I see it.
Quote
Dual,.... ....Maybe an extra box during voting for comments that can be read afterwards?
That's an awesome idea!
Just make sure you could comment on the losers as well as the winners, if you implement it Dual. ^_~
Will do.
I say Leon, just said his opinion on the games, praising them both and not choosing one of them at any point thus affecting the vote.
I say if a critique is posted well, it should be posted here. That's what I say, if one has any problems with the critique, he should tell us so. If one feels offended by my opinion on the matter tell me. I understand both sides. Though I can't be neutral.
Anyway..The winner and the man to choose the theme
Tijne with his entry Proposal..
Congrats to you and jerakeen.
I've sent you a PM Tijne so you have two days to pick a competition theme and tell me about it..
So much controversy in my first month as a host..
Congratulations Tijne it was a pretty good game.
Quote from: Dualnames on Sun 28/06/2009 13:55:29
The winner and the man to choose the theme
Tijne with his entry Proposal..
Congratulations Tijne, well done!
Just to prove my point. (I never win any lottery ;-).
Quote from: Dualnames on Sun 28/06/2009 13:55:29
So much controversy in my first month as a host..
Sorry... I'll keep quiet(er) next time :P
:o I won? Aww! I was hoping to play next month. x_x, can I forfeit or give up the prize to jerakeen or something?... :x
or am I still able to play if I make up the guidelines? [That wouldn't sound very fair..]
Quote from: Dualnames on Sun 28/06/2009 13:55:29
So much controversy in my first month as a host..
We're testing you to make sure you're worthy. ;)?
:D
Quote from: Tijne on Mon 29/06/2009 01:06:29
or am I still able to play if I make up the guidelines? [That wouldn't sound very fair..]
You can always enter. You can only start working after you've posted the quidelines and the content has to be original. Other than that, you can enter your own game. Mayve you want to try to beat Wretched who won three times in a row (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=22522.msg306106#msg306106).
Quote from: Tijne on Mon 29/06/2009 01:06:29
Quote from: Dualnames on Sun 28/06/2009 13:55:29
So much controversy in my first month as a host..
We're testing you to make sure you're worthy. ;)?
:D
Shhh.... you were to keep quiet on this! ;)
Congratulations to both of you, the games were really well made and I enjoyed playing both of them (what is it about advertising that makes you think of death?). I was a little worried there wouldn't be any entries after the MAGS special last month, so it's great to get some competition. Good luck with the next theme Tijne!
The only one not viable to enter is me. For obvious reasons.
Also Leon can't enter because he didn;t keep his mouth SHUT!! :P