MAGS May “Sing a Song of Sixpence” (VOTING)

[Radiant]

I played around with this, but only managed to make money from lemon pie, and only at the confectionary and the trash. Am I doing something wrong with the other two pies? I thought I was to deliver them at the sites showing the corresponding graphic, but I don't seem to be able to.

Thank you!

And yes, that should work the way you describe it. I've just checked, and that's a typo in the script. I'd say that it counts as a game-breaking bug if some deliveries don't work in a game about deliveries; so I've uploaded a fix.

[Stupot]

I'm not participating this month, since we submitted the theme and I'm crazy busy, but... 

For future reference, it's perfectly fine to enter two months in a row, even if you set the theme. I think everyone trusts that no one is going to give themselves a secret head start.

[Stupot]

Time to vote, chaps and chapettes.

2 weeks to vote. Please use the poll above.

	Mathilde's Dream by Speksteen
	Blackbird Pie by Radiant

[jwalt]

Voted. Thought both games made excellent music choices.

Spoiler

I voted for Mathilde's Dream, mainly because I never got the hang of Blackbird Pie. In fact I took enough swings at it that it became frustrating and left a lot of dead birds on the playing field. Radiant gives a number of in-game clues about the mechanics, but I just never figured them out. Almost seems that I came up a bird short? Then again, based on the last several MAGS entries, I suck at solving puzzles.

[close]

[Radiant]

Spoiler

I voted for Mathilde's Dream, mainly because I never got the hang of Blackbird Pie. In fact I took enough swings at it that it became frustrating and left a lot of dead birds on the playing field. Radiant gives a number of in-game clues about the mechanics, but I just never figured them out. Almost seems that I came up a bird short? Then again, based on the last several MAGS entries, I suck at solving puzzles.

[close]

You can re-assign birds to a new route later, that should help!

[heltenjon]

I haven't decided whom to vote for yet. Probably I'll let my kids play the games and see if they can influence me one way or another. 

Comparison:

Spoiler

Blackbird Pie is clearly the most impressive when considering the programming. It's a sort of strategy game like others that have you pick up resources and build/make stuff in order to advance, and i think it's very cool to have that made in AGS. The problem is that the MAGS version isn't really a finished game, but rather more of a prototype. Still, I've spent the most time with this game and had fun with it.

Mathilde's Dream, on the other hand, is a finished game. It's bare-bones and doesn't have much more to do than what's required to complete it and won't take more than five minutes to complete, but I enjoyed those five minutes. And I like the sense of fulfillment when I reach an ending to a game. As is often the case with MAGS games, the puzzles are very easy, making this less of a challenge than the other game. But MD has a storyline to follow, which BP does not (yet, at least).

[close]

[cat]

Blackbird Pie
It's a cute idea, but I'm confused by the controls. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Spoiler

I have various routes between points, the birds have their own "inventories" with various resources, but they don't seem to unload them on any of the nodes. I sometimes had a triangular route, but again, the bird wasn't unloading anything. They mostly travel back and forth between their points but not changing anything in the resources. However, I managed to make a few pies and earn 7$

[close]

[heltenjon]

Blackbird Pie
It's a cute idea, but I'm confused by the controls. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Spoiler

I have various routes between points, the birds have their own "inventories" with various resources, but they don't seem to unload them on any of the nodes. I sometimes had a triangular route, but again, the bird wasn't unloading anything. They mostly travel back and forth between their points but not changing anything in the resources. However, I managed to make a few pies and earn 7$

[close]

I don't think the controls are meant to be a puzzle, but I'll use the spoiler like you did just in case:

Spoiler

The birds can only unload at the bakery (flour and milk) and the confectionary (pie crust and everything else) or by dumping their load at the trash. In the current version, there needs to be a free spot at the locations in order to put something there. So if the bakery is filled with flour, there is no room to combine with milk to make a pie crust. (Radiant is going to change that after the MAGS, I think.)

[close]

Does that help any? The trouble you describe sounds very similar to what I experienced.

[cat]

I tried it again, but just like you, once the bakery was accidentally full with flour, I couldn't continue.

[heltenjon]

I tried it again, but just like you, once the bakery was accidentally full with flour, I couldn't continue.

Yes, you need to stop the birds before they do that. I've reported it in the game's own thread, and it's on the fix list for after MAGS.

[WHAM]

I tried all the MAGS games and you can find videos of my attempts here. While I'll happily recommend you play them all yourself, if you just can't be bothered then this might be an option for you:

Mathilde's Dream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieHDxPBOWpc

Blackbird Pie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_iysm3Xrao

(EDIT: I remember being a bit confused about the theme when it was declared and only NOW did I realise I had misunderstood it completely! So if you're wondering why I'm so confused in my videos, the reason is that I misunderstood the theme as being a more generic "find an interesting nursery rhyme and create a game based on it" when in fact the rhyme provided as the example was the ACTUAL rhyme to base the games on. It's probably good I didn't participate this time around...)

[Stupot]

Well done to @speksteen.
Good stuff. I'll be in touch soon about choosing a theme for July

[cat]

I forgot to write short reviews.

Mathilde's Dream

Spoiler

It's a cute game that made me smile. The various background animations add to the atmosphere. Helping other people gave me a cozy feeling.

[close]

Blackbird Pie

Spoiler

A fun game idea, but I couldn't finish it due to some bugs and lacking direction. I hope there will be a polished version of it, with proper tutorial.

[close]

[speksteen]

So cool to see the feedback! Such a nice community.

Congrats to Radiant for coming up with such a original idea. I currently have a slight concussion with a killer headache but as soon as that passes I like to play Blackbird Pie.

Would be cool to see more competitors. Would it maybe be an idea to also post the jams on Itch.io to attract more people?

[Radiant]

Congrats to Radiant for coming up with such a original idea. I currently have a slight concussion with a killer headache but as soon as that passes I like to play Blackbird Pie.

Thanks. And congrats on your win!

Would be cool to see more competitors. Would it maybe be an idea to also post the jams on Itch.io to attract more people?

I like that idea.

[Stupot]

Would be cool to see more competitors. Would it maybe be an idea to also post the jams on Itch.io to attract more people?

I like that idea.

We tried this once last year and it honestly made no difference.
https://itch.io/jam/mags-august-2023