MAGS December “Diverse Perspectives” (VOTING)

[Stupot]

Topic: Diverse Perspectives
Set by: Babar and jfrisby


Now voting. Please vote using the poll above.


A Place of Significance by WHAM


Mystery Mansion Mayhem by VampireWombat


Mazzled! by Pell





Your game must centre on multiple different perspectives. This could be anything from multiple people experiencing the same thing differently, the same person having different experiences leading to different ways of seeing things, the same place being perceived differently and so on.



What is MAGS?
Started in 2001, MAGS is a competition for all AGS users. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the guidelines set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and provide a kick-start into making adventure games and more. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you want to improve you art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

Rules
Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualize your game following the month's criteria (see above). Second, create your game, fuelled only by coffee. Finally, post your game in this thread, including:

* A working download link
* The title of your game
* A suitable in-game screenshot

At the end of the month, voting will begin, and the winner chooses the next month's theme.

Remember that this is a challenge to see what you can do in a month, so any tinkering you do after that, including fixing minor glitches, is against the spirit of the competition. The exception to this is that you may go in and fix major, game-breaking bugs only during voting. We want you to have a game that voters can actually play and that runs on their machines.

So to reiterate, during the voting period fixing major, game-breaking bugs is okay, fixing minor glitches or making cosmetic changes is cheating.

Tips
Here are some ways to make sure you have a game to submit at the end of the month:
* Make a tiny game. Plan small, then cut it in half. Find shortcuts (e.g. if making walk-cycles is time-consuming, make the characters static or have it in the first person).
* Plan to have your game playable and submittable with a week to spare. This way you have a week to fix bugs, add some flourishes and maybe even get someone to test it.
* Plan to submit it a day or so early. This way, if there are any technical issues with uploading, they can be sorted out in time.

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Need a little help with graphics? Perhaps The AGS Trove has something you can use.
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Need a bit of help with music?  Check out Eric Matyas' huge stock of free music resources.
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Don't want to go it alone? Try the Recruitment board.
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[VampireWombat]

Huh... This is kind of the idea I had for last month that I was unable to do. Though I was going to go more the Rashomon type. I'll see if I can come up with a a good enough new idea to do.

[WHAM]

Idea has been had, first graphics drafts have been drawn (and I discovered a fun bug in my Paint Shop Pro 2022 that causes it to crash whenever I tab out of it, so that's fun), though it might require more art than I can feasibly produce in a month, but pushing the limits is what MAGS is for!

[Ponch]

Count me in. It's an interesting theme and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have some free time this month to work on a MAGS game. 

[VampireWombat]

I have an idea. I just don't know how well I can execute it. I haven't really played many mystery games. The base idea is mostly based on the multiple endings for the movie Clue.

[pell]

OK. This time I put off mentioning I was in until I was absolutely sure. I'm far enough into a proof of concept build that could be submitted as it is right now if push came to shove. So I'm in.

[pell]

Huh... This is kind of the idea I had for last month that I was unable to do. Though I was going to go more the Rashomon type. I'll see if I can come up with a a good enough new idea to do.

Rashomon was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the topic.

[pell]

I've completed the prototype and got all the game mechanics working. Now I'm working on the game proper, which is a little more involved and has its own challenges.

The game doesn't have much story to speak of, but it does involve going on a journey of sorts. I hope that's adventure enough for MAGS. I've always thought of this as a monthly AGS game jam, as in a game made with AGS that fits the topic, but I just noticed the original post specifically mentions "adventure game".

I've done too much work to turn back now, so I'll just keep plugging away at it.

[Stupot]

I just noticed the original post specifically mentions "adventure game".

Don't worry about that. That probably needs rewording. Non-adventures have always been welcomed in MAGS. Unless the specific month's guidelines calls for adventure games only (which I don't think has ever happened), you can safely submit a non-adventure.

I'll change the phrasing of the generic text for future versions.

[pell]

I just noticed the original post specifically mentions "adventure game".

Don't worry about that. That probably needs rewording. Non-adventures have always been welcomed in MAGS. Unless the specific month's guidelines calls for adventure games only (which I don't think has ever happened), you can safely submit a non-adventure.

I'll change the phrasing of the generic text for future versions.

Thank you. I thought I was confusing MAGS with something else.

[VampireWombat]

Currently all I have. I did watch the episode of something which I hoped would give me more ideas how to do my game, but nothing much yet. There's a few directions the game could go from this point. Figuring out the primary character(s) will probably guide me toward a direction.

[WHAM]

Scene 1 of 5 is now functionally complete, though it still lacks some visual effects and sound. The other 4 scenes of which my game is planned to be made up of should be fairly quick to build upon that same template, and I have already designed the project so that I can drop up to 2 of the scenes if I'm running out of time. A lot of dev time will be over the Christmas holidays, so busy times ahead if I intend to make the deadline!

[VampireWombat]

I have no idea how the mystery part of my game is going to work still. I've been more focused on character design. It's probably going to end up more proof of concept than satisfying mystery solving.

[VampireWombat]

At this point I've decided I'm just going to use modified backgrounds and characters from Maniac Mansion/Maniac Mansion Mania to finish off my game.

[WHAM]

I am BADLY behind schedule, and have two of potential five scenes functionally completed with 5 days to go, but I'll try to have at least 3 done by crunching like mad, before slapping on some royalty free music and a few key sound effects right before the end.

[WHAM]

Considering the December circumstances of having Christmas holidays, post-Christmas bloat and New Years all eating into work time, is there any hope for a 1-2 day extension?
I'm pretty close to having my game sufficiently functional, after having to cut some content already, but I've got to work on the 31st and someone once told me it was advisable to sleep for more than 3 hours a night.

[pell]

Right now I'm just polishing the proof-of-concept I did at the beginning of the month in order to make the original deadline. If there's an extension, I may try to get my planned level finished, but it's pretty involved compared to the prototype.

[VampireWombat]

I second wishing for an extension. I can technically make my game playable in the next 11 hours and whatever minutes, but I'm not sure I'd be able to make sure everything works and that dialog/descriptions is coherent.

[Stupot]

@WHAM @VampireWombat @pell

An extension suits me too. Shall we say +3 days, so the new deadline is end-of-play on Friday Jan 3rd.

[WHAM]

Much appreciated! That should give me some time to wrap up a few loose ends and to try and playtest the game a bit more. I'll probably turn the assets for the segments I won't have time to properly turn into gameplay into a small epilogue instead, so a bit less of the effort already done goes to waste.