MAGS December: End Times Christmas Stories(Winner Announced)

SomeSickSelf · Mon 28/12/2009 23:15:03

Glad we got an entry, and a very pretty one at that. Well done Kastchey, can't wait to play it.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Mon 28/12/2009 23:33:43

Snow Queen needed a bit more testing before release, I think. Going to certain areas (left/right wing) trigger an infinite dialog loop you can't leave. You need to make her block walk off the region either before or after she talks. I like the visuals so far, though!

Kastchey · Tue 29/12/2009 02:20:57

Whoops, I was pretty sure I blocked this one too. Thanks for letting me know ProgZ, I'll have it fixed asap. Hope that's the only one I missed, this sort of issue can be really annoying during play.

At Crimson Wizard, I haven't played that game, but I definitely remember this screenshot, so I can't really say for sure that the idea hasn't got into my mind

Especially their hairdos look similar. Still, this is sort of a typical image of an 'evil queen' or 'evil sorceress' as pictured in fairy tale books, at least those I've been reading as a kid.

At the other guys, happy to hear you like the graphics

The game itself might be a bit lame, cause like I said, it was my first try and I was short on time, too. But I hope you can still enjoy it!

Thanks for all the comments!

Dualnames · Tue 29/12/2009 06:56:11

Quote from: Kastchey on Tue 29/12/2009 02:20:57
Whoops, I was pretty sure I blocked this one too. Thanks for letting me know ProgZ, I'll have it fixed asap. Hope that's the only one I missed, this sort of issue can be really annoying during play.

At Crimson Wizard, I haven't played that game, but I definitely remember this screenshot, so I can't really say for sure that the idea hasn't got into my mind Especially their hairdos look similar. Still, this is sort of a typical image of an 'evil queen' or 'evil sorceress' as pictured in fairy tale books, at least those I've been reading as a kid.

At the other guys, happy to hear you like the graphics
The game itself might be a bit lame, cause like I said, it was my first try and I was short on time, too. But I hope you can still enjoy it!

Thanks for all the comments!

You are the winner Sir, a real shame that there's no comp, but you are the game-maker of the month, without a doubt.

abstauber · Tue 29/12/2009 09:38:10

To bad, that Blobby didn't make it in time - his screenys also looked interesting. Anyhow hurray for Kastchey! I bet, your family wants you to stay away from amateur adventures for long time now

As for the snow queen, I'm stuck here:

Spoiler

Aine wants to see the items I've got and I've currently found sleeping powder, an icicle, snow and an empty jar. Either non of these are the right ones or give or use simply don't work.
And the snow queen tells me that she can unfreeze the fountain's water but the hotspot is still called "frozen water" and obviously I can't use the empty jar on it.

... or I'm totally on the wrong track here

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Kastchey · Tue 29/12/2009 10:59:08

At abstauber,

Spoiler

That's because you need to show them to the other iceling, Sylda. The one on the right. She's sitting in the bushes on the right and that makes her barely visible, I know

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At, Dualnames,
Thank you, Mister. Ii's indeed a shame that there was no other entry for such an awesome theme, but like SomeSickSelf said earlier, it's just a busy month.

At ProgZmax again,
I found out that I did block it, but later I added a few pixels to the hotspot to make it easier to walk on, et voila.

abstauber · Tue 29/12/2009 11:55:25

Okies ... so what now

I'd better open a help thread

edit.: As I'm trial and erroring right now, here are a few crashes:

Spoiler

use empty jar on wisp
use feather on wisp
[...] I suppose anything else except the correct item as well
use portrait
use chimney

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arj0n · Tue 29/12/2009 14:58:47

@Kastchey: Don't know if this has been mentioned but when using the frozen chimney an error msg pops up:
Error: prepare_script: error -18 (no such function in script) trying to run 'hHotspot6_Interact' (Room 4)

Kastchey · Tue 29/12/2009 16:56:37

A rain of bugs, I see. Thanks ArjOn, I'll look into it

abstauber · Tue 29/12/2009 18:50:40

Feedback time

First of all, my kudos to you for having finished a game this long within the (extended) deadline and during Christmas!

For your first game ever, Snow Queen is pretty neat. The backgrounds are beautiful as always. Although - if you ever get interviewed by Dual, I need to know why you refuse to blend some of those pixels

Playing such a highly detailed drawn characters as the Queen is pure joy

Not to mention the portraits and their decorations! I liked the camp the most - for me this was also the most post-apocalyptic moment in the game.
Also the side characters are neat and add a lot the game.

On the other hand, I had some serious trouble to follow the gameplay. Because of the lack of unhandled events and missing hints (of course this is mags - these things happen

) I'm sure I wouldn't have finished it without your help.

Spoiler

Also, why did I have to collect a feather? As far as I remember, it wasn't needed it anywhere. Or is there an alternative ending?
Also, as always, I'm not a big fan of open endings - even though, this one makes me want to play more. In general the story is good, the characterization of the queen with an heart of ice is great and her demonic consultant Morgus is the cherry on the pie.
Too bad that there is no more interaction with the humans, but I guess, that's been saved for part two

Some glitches also made me chuckle:
<Look at the lever> - " I need to push it", <push lever> - "I can't push that"

(although I can't reproduce it anymore)
Aine: Show me the stuff for your journey - <Give stuff to Aine> - "I'd rather keep it" - or even nothing, since Sylda wants to see it apparently.

Then I had to grin again after I've seen "the powered by"

Go 9Verbs go!

So thanks for the credit!

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So the bottom line is that it's a glitchy, but nice little game. Not to mention that you made it during Christmas season, that alone saves you my applause

edit:
I almost forgot: Yay for GIRLPOWER!

Kastchey · Wed 30/12/2009 15:21:06

Thanks for awesome feesback abstauber

Exactly like you said, there is plenty of unfinished puzzles and missing descriptions in the game, but that's mostly because I started late (around 12th Dec) and had to learn the basics, which left me with little time to polish the game. So it's faar from how I'd want it to be.

Spoiler

The game was initially meant to have multi-solution puzzles, but I didn't manage to script it all, hence all the unused items or objects like fountain water or feather. But I decided to leave them for extra difficulty

I'm a fan of waves of hotspots and unneccessary inventory items, think Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate.
I might throw an extended version though, with all those issues fixed and all the puzzles/interactions completed. The side characters were also meant to have more impact on the action, so perhaps they will

Open ending>>part two/extended version. Probably the latter since as of now, the game is a bit short.

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