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: End Times Christmas Stories:
This month's guidelines were set by last month's winner Abstauber:
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Tell your favourite christmas story in a post-apocalyptic scenario.
You are free whether to choose an existing story (e.g. Space Scrooge) or come up with something with your own.
Your end-time scenario can be a waterworld, a nuclear desert or the last remains of a space colony. It can also differ from these proposals, but it must be clear that a disaster has changed the word order completely and it must be a common end-time scenario.
All games till the 28th.
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Thread Rules:
1) Comments are allowed at all times but should be hidden before and while the voting.
2) Partecipators are allowed to patch their games even while the voting but I should be informed via pm or here, and only IF the game has a serious bug that makes it crash. Due to the inability of keeping track of versions of the games, I've settled to this.
So you can patch your game, if it crashes or if it can't be completed.
Have fun this month too!!
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Umm.. that's a bit discriminative ;); I don't have a habit to celebrate Christmas (and in Russia it is celebrated in January by the way, according to some date system differences) and I don't know any Christmas stories (let alone having favorite one) nor ours, nor european ones, except for mentioned Scrooge's one, which I recall only in a form shown in Walt Disney's "Duck Tales", I think :P.
EDIT: Oh wait! I know what story (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=476) we need here. ;D
EDIT2: Oh wait #2. I am idiot. I think I recall some local Christmas stories......
QuoteUmm.. that's a bit discriminative
True, but it's also an unwritten rule that December's MAGS is Christmas MAGS.
So my hands were pretty much tied ;)
But I think the rules are loose enough for you to come with something.
If you're not exactly into christmas, I'm sure you'll something from H.C. Andersen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fir_Tree
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Match_Girl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Queen
Father Christmas counts as a 'Christmas Story' right? If so, I have an idea...
I imagine there is some fun to be had with this topic ;D
(http://www.ugo.com/movies/fictional-santas/images/robot-santa.jpg)
lol Futurama = win
I have thoughts of santa and his reindeer dodging missiles as they try to land in a war-torn wasteland..
Or the Grinch running from zombies as he tries to steal christmas.
Or Santa -vs- Jesus in a battle for supremacy destroying the planet... (Think Spirit of Christmas, the South Park pilot episode).
I won't be entering this one because I want to keep going on Murran 3, so if anyone wants any of these ideas, I'd love to see it hehe.
-Bill
That's kinda funny, one of the themes I had considered if I won back in October was an end times sort of thing (albeit slightly different and far less festive than Abstauber's idea ;) ).
Hopefully I'll have the time to do another MAGS this month. I kind of missed it in November but I was much too busy.
What's our deadline duals? I hear in the past it's been changed due to Christmas and all.
Quote from: abstauber on Wed 02/12/2009 13:37:49
If you're not exactly into christmas, I'm sure you'll something from H.C. Andersen.
Yeah right, Kay and Gerda fighting versus hordes of zombies in the nuclear desert... :P
@Crimson
For the Ice Queen I'd suggest to focus more on polar melting :D
@Dataflashsabot
Totally :)
Awesome, I call Christmas of the Zombies ;)
Quote from: discordance on Wed 02/12/2009 21:35:42
Awesome, I call Christmas of the Zombies ;)
Time for presents ;D
(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9909/folt1x.png)
I enjoyed being involved in last months mags as the composer for Aeronuts ... and since christmas music is very fun for me i would be willing to help someone who needs a composer for this months competition. Just PM me ... first come fist serve ...
good luck guys ... im excited to see these games.
=_= how many people are really going to make zombie apocalypses
Show of hands...
I was halfway through a game draft lol.
But this genre sounds like so much fun, I'm in, but my sister's having a baby so it may be close!
(and to clarify, I think that 'winter holiday' will fit in general just to be p.c?)
Nah, I'm not going to make a post apocalypse Christmas game. The rules didn't fit my already thought out Christmas storyline. So I'm hoping to just make a Christmas game that isn't a mags. We'll see how that turns out. :P
Quote from: ShonenAiGuy on Thu 03/12/2009 01:15:59
I think that 'winter holiday' will fit in general just to be p.c?
Oh, discriminating against Australians are we? I see how it is... :P
Quote from: Scarab on Thu 03/12/2009 09:29:43
Quote from: ShonenAiGuy on Thu 03/12/2009 01:15:59
I think that 'winter holiday' will fit in general just to be p.c?
Oh, discriminating against Australians are we? I see how it is... :P
Yeah, down here christmas makes you
sweat! Father christmas must either don boardshorts this side of the equator, or suffer heatstroke. Also he shaves the reindeer.
Yeah, I've always felt the need to shave the velvety ones people put up around canberra. :D
Quote from: ShonenAiGuy on Thu 03/12/2009 01:15:59
(and to clarify, I think that 'winter holiday' will fit in general just to be p.c?)
And to dang well think I was telling you about the fact that we have Christmas in the summer not two weeks ago, Charles! >:(
Tsk tsk tsk 8)
The only Christmas story I can think of is the Christmas Carol and it's hardly my favorite. So anyone know a place with some Christmas stories to choose from?
Why not searching amazon for christmas stories?
After you've found something interesting, look it up at wikipedia for the details :)
Also, if I'm not mistaken, you can come up with your own story.
Here are some of the popular ones, at least here in America where we recognize that commercialism is the true point of Christmas, and not that pesky Jesus' birthday stuff.. ::)
1) The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
2) A Christmas Story (AWESOME movie, a must see, so funny)
3) Santa Claus Is Coming To Down
4) The Life and Times of Santa Claus (by Roald Dahl, kind of morbid and dark)
5) Frosty the Snowman
6) The Night Before Christmas
7) A Christmas Carol
8 ) Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer
And others..
**Edited because my #8 above turned into a smiley
-Bill
Abstauber, can you please elaborate what is "common end-time scenario"?
Geez, just visit
http://postapocalypticmovies.com/
:D
This is the first mags to run on the 2th of a month btw. Anyway, hope you guys make it. Importantly I'd love you guys not to expect a deadline. You should plan a game in 25 days. And not just say "Dualnames will give me a day", because maybe I won't.
I will however be glad to extend the deadline if needed, but it's getting a habit, I'm thinking of setting the deadline permanently to 26th of every month.
@dualnames: Fair enough, I only asked because December MAGS always seemed to get a special deadline in the past.
Quote from: Mr Matti on Thu 03/12/2009 12:55:45
Also, if I'm not mistaken, you can come up with your own story.
I got that impression as well. I certainly hope so, because I wrote this whole thing out last night...
Quote...or come up with something with your own.
Yes, that means, that you come up with something with your own. Which means, you can also write your own christmas related story. ;D
(and I don't care about political correctness... christmas christmas christmas! := )
Uhm
QuoteYou are free whether to choose an existing story (e.g. Space Scrooge) or come up with something with your own.
*gets lawyer suit, greases back hair, smiles menacingly*
As stated above, under certain interpretations, you could have Alice from Resident Evil in a santa hat, and it be 'A Christmas Story'.
It can be ANY story you make up! So go for it!
Quote from: ShonenAiGuy on Thu 03/12/2009 18:29:16
*gets lawyer suit, greases back hair, smiles menacingly*
*screams "HOLD IT" into an unreasonably small microphone* ;D
Sorry, I had to..
School is stressing the crap out of me, but it ends the 17th or something. So I'm in for a one week entry or something.
Quote from: SomeSickSelf on Thu 03/12/2009 17:13:31
@dualnames: Fair enough, I only asked because December MAGS always seemed to get a special deadline in the past.
Quote from: Mr Matti on Thu 03/12/2009 12:55:45
Also, if I'm not mistaken, you can come up with your own story.
I got that impression as well. I certainly hope so, because I wrote this whole thing out last night...
I don't mind handing over a day. Just wanted to say that it's 5 MAGS in a row with extension deadlines. I don't want you guys not to put your entries because I didn't give one extra day. In fact F%^ this, deadline given from now. All games till the 26th!!
Decided to enter this time, here's a couple shots of it so far:
(http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/rtyper/WinterBG.png) (http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/rtyper/Intro1shot.png)
Good luck to everyone entering :)
Doing my best to send in my nearly finished entry before the deadline, though it depends how tolerant my family's gonna be towards me working to finish my game during Christmas holiday... 26th is a really ugly day for a deadline, especially for people whose families are much into tradition.
But at least I'm gonna try.
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate Christmas, and merry end of December to all those who don't :)
Quote from: Kastchey on Thu 24/12/2009 16:34:16
Doing my best to send in my nearly finished entry before the deadline, though it depends how tolerant my family's gonna be towards me working to finish my game during Christmas holiday... 26th is a really ugly day for a deadline, especially for people whose families are much into tradition.
But at least I'm gonna try.
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate Christmas, and merry end of December to all those who don't :)
If you feel like you NEED an extension, it's no biggie.
If you say so. I can't be back home before 26th late afternoon, so I would appreciate a day extra if you don't mind, boss. In fact, this one day might be crucial for me.
Anyone else still working on an entry?
Quote from: Kastchey on Thu 24/12/2009 21:41:58
Anyone else still working on an entry?
Sadly no. I thought I'd have a lot more free time than I ended up with this month, and I don't think any amount of extension will help.
I hope we get some entries though, it's a really cool theme, just a busy month for a lot people.
Extension given, two days. Just for Christmas chicks!
And finally, here it is. It turned out I couldn't have done it if it wasn't for the two days extension, thanks Dualnames :)
This was my first time with AGS and I had to learn it from the basics, so be gentle to the virgin ;D
Snow Queen: After The Apocalypse
After being outwitted by two little children, the Snow Queen finally gave up her abduction attempts and turned her attention to teh serious stuff - she used her powers to bring the apocalypse upon the world of humans. She herself has reigned her new domain of ice and snow in the safety of her flying ice palace. All until the day when something threatened her control over the realm...
Download (http://www.fileshost.com/download.php?id=0F9F23361)
Edit: Download link updated, bug with left/right wing entrance fixed.
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/sq-scr01.png) (http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/sq-scr01L.png)
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/sq-scr02.png) (http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/sq-scr02L.png)
(http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/sq-scr03.png) (http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii203/Kastchey/sq-scr03L.png)
Made using abstauber's 9VMI template. Thanks!
Alright! Congrats on finishing!! ;D
Playing this super pretty title is the first thing I'll do tomorrow!
Yay, an entry. It seems it's going to be a waste for such a wonderful entry to win by default.
Quote from: abstauber on Mon 28/12/2009 20:42:49
Alright! Congrats on finishing!! ;D
Playing this super pretty title is the first thing I'll do tomorrow!
Hope you will be able to vote for it.. :D
That Snow Queen reminds me main character from Armageddon Margaret (http://adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=showpic&game=845) :)
Glad we got an entry, and a very pretty one at that. Well done Kastchey, can't wait to play it.
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!
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!
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.
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 :)
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 :)
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.
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
@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)
A rain of bugs, I see. Thanks ArjOn, I'll look into it :)
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 :D 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" :D (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" ;D Go 9Verbs go! ;D
So thanks for the credit!
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! ;D
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.