MAGS April “Finish Your MAGS Game” (VOTING)

[WHAM]

Thank you, I've enjoyed watching that!

Good to hear it! I know from experience that seeing someone else play your game can give a lot of context for feedback and help figure out how players think differently than the developer does.

Aside from adding some guide or tutorial to help the player understand what items really do, I feel I have one piece of feedback in hindsight: add a slide to the movement when moving diagonally against an object. Currently it seems that if you approach an obstacle diagonally and don't hit the corner, you just stop, have to adjust sideways and then start moving again. Having the player character slide along the edge of the obstacle until they reach either a dead end or a corner they can slip through would help make the movement feel a lot nicer (though it might also alter the balance too much).

Just my two cents, Sherwood was an impressive outing for a MAGS effort in any case!

[Radiant]

Ok, I've updated Sherwood to fix two game-breaking bugs (the crash when an object has an invalid view, and the hang when dying in the first room). Also, as suggested by Crimson Wizard, the acsetup.cfg now uses "full screen as borderless window" to prevent the game hanging when quit, on certain systems. Finally, there's now a readme file, which restates the info from this thread.

I think these changes are valid per MAGS rules; I have a list of other fixes that I've put off until later (such as showing the intro text for long enough to be read). Download link is still https://radiant.itch.io/sherwood - Enjoy!

I have one piece of feedback in hindsight: add a slide to the movement when moving diagonally against an object.

I like that idea, and some enemies already do that. I'll add this in the future.

[Shadow1000]

I played the entries and voted. Here are my thoughts:

Barn Runner: Fashionably Late

Spoiler

Dress up doll game for adults! Nice cartoon graphics and the reward for each "dressup" is a bit of story. I don't know if I had trouble with the otherwise-simple controls, but if you select an item and then right click, the item disappears and you can't click anything else. Since there's no save, it's game over at that point. Once I figured that out I played till the end.

The highlight of the game is the cartoon graphics (and to some players, the nudity); no puzzles, plot or challenges.

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Steeplejack

Spoiler

I love the graphics and characters and the interaction between the two! I spent most of the 10 minute playtime laughing because the humour is spot-on. Well-designed, nutty and solvable puzzles make this game an enjoyable experience

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Sherwood

Spoiler

Great idea to make a tile-based, medieval-theme combat quest in AGS! I found that the tiles were a bit small to see what's going on and I had trouble using items using the keyboard controls to use items in inventory. I tried the strategy of just bolting for the exit which worked for a few screens. I realize that part of the gameplay is to figure it out after being defeated and having to start over enough times, but after about 10 minutes of this I felt that I was just not enjoying it enough to continue.

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In Our Midst

Spoiler

My experience with this game will be somewhat different than that of players who realized that this is a take-off of an older game. I knew the spaceship was invaded because of the intro but I thought I had to SAVE the crew. Once I realized that I was the alien, THAT'S when the game started! The puzzles are awesome, logical and a lot of fun. The graphics and the humour give the player a real sense of reward in solving the puzzles. I have to admit that I got stuck at the puzzle getting rid of the captain and I needed a few hints to complete it, but once I got past that, the ending was epic. In terms of game design, the absence of text gave the gameplay a different twist where you have icons at best to figure out what's going on. This must have made the design a lot more challenging, running the risk of having the player clued out, but it was pulled off perfectly

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My vote

Spoiler

In Our Midst is the most complete entry, excellent in all areas from graphics to puzzle design to overall polish and player experience.

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[cat]

Barnrunner

Spoiler

Great to see a late addition to the "dressing up" theme :-)
The graphics are very nice and I liked the scenes, settings and writing. The dressing up itself could have been more challanging. I was expecting that I have to choose from various items the correct ones for the occasion, but actually the challange was only in the style of "socks before shoes".

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Sherwood

Spoiler

Not really my cup of tea and very buggy. The font was almost impossible to read for me, so I didn't understand the controls. The whole time I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. I was running around, trying to escape other persons. When I died, I sometimes respawned at locations I haven't even been before. Some of the waypoints would put me somewhere in the middle of another map, not at the border. When an archer hit me, I couldn't do anything. Only wait until he would get one field closer and hit me again. At one point, I was suddenly a dog???
I found two different persons that I rescued.
I liked the graphics of the tiles, but I didn't like the portraits (they didn't fit the rest of the game at all). The music was nice.

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Steeplejack

Spoiler

I liked the personalities of the two characters and that you have split gameplay between up and down. The graphics are a weird mix of pixel style and photos, especially in the "down" part. The puzzles were okay, but I didn't understand why I couldn't just put the spicy nuts somewhere on the bricks, go away and wait for the bird to eat them.

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In Our Midst

Spoiler

This was super fun and the no-talking mechanic worked unexpectedly well. I like the implementation of "can't do it" with showing X. The puzzles were really clever and I only needed a small hint. The game manages not to feel like a classic P&C adventure, even though it has all the features except for dialog. It was weirdly satifiying to strike someone from the list.
My only complain would be that the character sprite was really huge and always standing in front of what I wanted to interact with. Making the PC non-clickable (i.e. click through) might have worked better in this case.
I have to admit, I've never played Among Us, I only found out that this was a homage to it after I finished the game and googled the company mentioned in the credits.

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I voted for

Spoiler

In Our Midst

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[Ponch]

Voted! 

[tbook]

Also voted

Barn Runner: Fashionably Late - well...  I respect your style Ponch. I like how you draw the characters. Your games have that specific kind of humor which I like.

Steeplejack - I liked the humor and the feel of the game. Short but good. I liked the characters too.

Sherwood - a roguelike game made in AGS, impressive! I did not comple it but had some fun

In Our Midst - good puzzles, good game, strong contender

My vote went to

Spoiler

Steeplejack - I had the best overall experience. In Our Midst was close but I did not complete it. I did not get past the vent puzzle.

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[Shadow1000]

Spoiler

... In Our Midst was close but I did not complete it. I did not get past the vent puzzle.

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Spoiler

I also got stuck there. I will note that it was the only part of the game that I couldn't solve. I had to get a few hints and I was able to proceed. I recommend that you ask for some help and finish the game; it's worth it!

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