MAGS November "Cloud" (RESULT)

[Stupot]

Topic: Cloud
Set by Reiter

The winner of MAGS November was Fernewelten. Well done :-)

	Night Witches: Women of the clouds by Slasher
	Night Witch by Blondbraid and Crimson Wizard
	Brothers & Wreckers by Flugeldufel & Creamy
	Jake's Very Last Journey by fernewelten

'For the November bout of the MAGS, the topic is Cloud. Gathering storm clouds, serene cirrus clouds, cloudy moods, data clouds, clouds of all sorts. Let your ideas soar to the heavens.

A few text scraps for inspiration?

'Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold'
'All data will be safe for eternity within The Cloud.'
'Cloudy with a chance for Friendship.'
'And in the olive groves upon those pleasant hills did Pliny see his towering Pine Tree.'
'Clouds don't smell bad. They taste of butter! And tears.'

Best of luck, brave aeronauts!'






What is MAGS?

Started in 2001, MAGS is a competition for amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the rules 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. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad 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, conceptualise 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, usually lasting for fourteen days and the winner chooses the next month's theme.

[Blondbraid]

This was an unexpected theme, but I already got some pretty cool inspiration.

However, I'm not sure my technical skills are up to the task, so is there anyone good at programming who'd want to try their hands on making a side-scrolling flying game in AGS?

[Slasher]

Clouds, Nazi's, heavy music... What a great combo 

I have a few ideas swirling around in my head... If I get time I may be able to put something together 

[Blondbraid]

Clouds, Nazi's, heavy music... What a great combo 

I have a few ideas swirling around in my head... If I get time I may be able to put something together 

Interesting! What do you have in mind?

[Slasher]

Clouds, Nazi's, heavy music... What a great combo 

I have a few ideas swirling around in my head... If I get time I may be able to put something together 

Interesting! What do you have in mind?

Birds eye view. Up and Down, Left and Right Scrolling. WW2 flying sortie. Targets to destroy (dam, fuel depot etc), being defended by Nazis... Only safe cover are the clouds but then you can't see your targets very well below..Destroy all targets. Get shot down and a backup takes over... Maybe 4 backup aircraft. Nazi's have Anti aircraft guns and a squadron of their own.

Game over when you destroy all targets or your squadron are all destroyed..

just jammin'

[Blondbraid]

Clouds, Nazi's, heavy music... What a great combo 

I have a few ideas swirling around in my head... If I get time I may be able to put something together 

Interesting! What do you have in mind?

Birds eye view. Up and Down, Left and Right Scrolling. WW2 flying sortie. Targets to destroy (dam, fuel depot etc), being defended by Nazis... Only safe cover are the clouds but then you can't see your targets very well below..Destroy all targets. Get shot down and a backup takes over... Maybe 4 backup aircraft. Nazi's have Anti aircraft guns and a squadron of their own.

Game over when you destroy all targets or your squadron are all destroyed..

just jammin'

You mean like this?

Personally, I thought of something side-scrolling like this:

Because that lets you see more of the sky and the clouds meant to be the theme of this month,
plus it'd be easier to play with mechanics for dropping bombs on the ground and avoid anti-aircraft guns from my view.

[Slasher]

Yeah, 2nd shot maybe better.. Perhaps twice the length to give L/R scolling and height plus say 200 to give U/D scrolling (clouds as object) to give safe cover..

Do you want to team up?

PM if you do..

[cat]

Nice topic, but I'm still busy finishing up some other projects.

@Blondbraid, Slasher:
I get some Aeronuts vibes from that! https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1238/

[Creamy]

Nice topic, but I'm still busy finishing up some other projects.

You said too much or not enough 
Is it AGS related?

[Babar]

PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE
Sorry for the late notice.
We're doing an hourgame right now (give or take a few min), and the theme was the same theme as this MAGS. GO GO GO! 

[Babar]

And so there were a lot of very interesting entries, I hope the participants add their games here, or at least tease them like me.

Untitled Cloud Game
[imgzoom]http://ags.pics/wvTE.png[/imgzoom]
You can basically tell the entire plot from that screenshot. I'll try working on it more, and post something presentable instead of what I got in 1 hour.

[eri0o]

[removed]

[Slasher]

Night Witches.....

[Slasher]

Night Witches by Slasher

"In late 1944 - Russia invades German forces, attacking into East Prussia."
"Stalin has assembled an elite flight squadron of women: he calls the 'Night Witches' to destroy German targets."
"The Night Witches are known for their bravery and their 'hide in the clouds under the cover of darkness' tactic."

[Stupot]

Nice one Babs. Was it a coincidence that the the for the Jam was ‘cloud' or was that chosen because it was the MAGS theme?

Not too late for more entries, folks 💋

[Slasher]

Night Witches: Women of the clouds.

by Slasher

"In late 1944 - Russia invades German forces, attacking into East Prussia."
"Stalin has assembled an elite flight squadron of women: he calls the 'Night Witches' to destroy targets vital to the German army and stop them advancing into his Soviet Union."

The Night Witches are known for their bravery and their 'hide in the clouds under the cover of darkness' tactic.

Join in the thrills and spills of World War II action as Stalin enlists he's elite squadron of women fighter pilots, know as the 'Night Witches' to destroy the German advancement into his beloved Soviet Union.

Feel the adrenaline rush and your heart beating fast, as the action heats up as the Germans fire everything they have at you!

Avoid being hit by anti-aircraft shells, Fokker machine guns and bumping into sky bombs as you try to destroy targets that are vital to the German army.

Use your bombs and machine guns to take out targets and destroy the advancing German forces.

Will Stalin's Night Witches mission be successful?

A game that really puts you in the 'cockpit' of action!

99% completed.

Testing starts today 

[Slasher]

Night Witches: Women of the clouds.

by Slasher

My entry is now in its test phase 

Part of scene one

[Slasher]

Hoping to see more entries... Where are they?

Come on guys, don't be shy 

[fernewelten]

Hoping to see more entries... Where are they?

I might enter a game named, “Jake's very last journey”.
Don't know whether I can pull it off yet.
Here's a screenshot of one of the planned screens:

[Slasher]

 fernewelten:  I do hope you will pull it off.... Work like the clappers and deliver us your goods 

[Slasher]

Night Witches: Women of the clouds

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2379/

"In late 1944 - Russia invades German forces, attacking into East Prussia."
"Stalin has assembled an elite flight squadron of women: he calls the 'Night Witches' to destroy targets vital to the German army and stop them advancing into his Soviet Union."

The Night Witches are known for their bravery and their 'hide in the clouds under the cover of darkness' tactic.

Join in the thrills and spills of World War II action as Stalin enlists he's elite squadron of women fighter pilots, know as the 'Night Witches' to destroy the German advancement into his beloved Soviet Union.

Feel the adrenaline rush and your heart beating fast, as the action heats up as the Germans fire everything they have at you!

Avoid being hit by anti-aircraft shells, Fokker machine guns and bumping into sky bombs as you try to destroy targets that are vital to the German army.

Use your bombs and machine guns to take out targets and destroy the advancing German forces.

Will Stalin's Night Witches mission be successful?

A game that really puts you in the 'cockpit' of action!



Drop a Bomb: Keypress Z

Fire Machine gun: Keypress X

Change Plane direction/altitude: use Mouse.. Left click in Fly mode

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2379/

[Shadow1000]

I downloaded and started playing but I can't figure out the controls. Other than X and Z, how do you control the altitude of the plane or if you can't, then how do you aim at a plane that's not at your altitude?

[Slasher]

I downloaded and started playing but I can't figure out the controls. Other than X and Z, how do you control the altitude of the plane or if you can't, then how do you aim at a plane that's not at your altitude?

Hi Shadow1000,

Drop a Bomb: Keypress Z

Fire Machine gun: Keypress X

Change Plane direction/altitude: use Mouse.. Left click in Fly mode

Good luck

[Shadow1000]

I downloaded and started playing but I can't figure out the controls. Other than X and Z, how do you control the altitude of the plane or if you can't, then how do you aim at a plane that's not at your altitude?

Hi Shadow1000,

Drop a Bomb: Keypress Z

Fire Machine gun: Press X

Change Plane direction/altitude: use Mouse.. Left click in Fly mode

Good luck

Thanks! That was a lot of fun! Nothing letting giving 'em hell...

At some point my airplane didn't show but I got an idea of where it was based on the bullets and bombs

[Slasher]

Thanks Shadow1000... The clouds are meant to partially hide the Night Witches

Where is everyone?

Come on guys...nose to the grindstone   

[fernewelten]

fernewelten:  I do hope you will pull it off.... Work like the clappers and deliver us your goods 

I'll do my best; I'm in the middle of the tests.
In the meantime, here's another screenshot:




Exactly when is the deadline? Midnight of Greenwich time?

[Slasher]

Yes, I believe so..

[Creamy]

Exactly when is the deadline? Midnight of Greenwich time?

Speaking of which: can I ask for an extension?
Flugeldufel and I have been working on something. It could benefit from one more day of development.

[fernewelten]

Well, I'm sure to make it, but not in the next five minutes. I'd need an extension, too.

[Crimson Wizard]

"Night Witch"
by Blondbraid and Crimson Wizard
Download for Windows: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gykejg7taxauv6f/NightWitch.zip?dl=1
Download for Linux: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jaxr5old0ei7zl5/NightWitch-linux.zip?dl=1

A little note beforehand:
We started together with Slasher but later realized that we have different gameplay in mind, so decided to split up. This is why both setting and even the title is similar.
Also we did not have much time to balance the gameplay, so expect it to be a little random...



Screenshots:



Description:
It was the time of World War II and German invasion into the Soviet Union. In the May 1942 the Soviet Union formed the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. The regiment flew harassment bombing and precision bombing missions against the German military from 1942 until the end of the war. It was made up almost entirely of female volunteers, and the pilots of the regiment quickly became known as the Night Witches.

Take control of the Po-2 air plane, which carries machine guns and bombs, in a mission to weaken German position across the battlefront. The vital targets are Bunkers and Supply Depots, protected by anti-air Guns. Expect hostile air patrol as well, but remember that land targets are your first priority.


Controls:
    Movement: arrow keys;
    Machine guns: Z;
    Drop bombs: X;
    Pause/Exit: Escape.


CREDITS:
Blondbraid: art
Crimson Wizard: programming

-- Music:

"Constance" and "Dangerous"
by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

-- Sound:

"Explosion8" by Eric Matyas (www.soundimage.org); used under attribution license.
Various sounds from freesound.org; used under CC0.

-- Fonts:

"Another Typewriter"
Freeware by Johan Holmdahl 1999.

[Stupot]

Extension granted. 48 hours sound good?
I haven't got much time now to do all the fiddly bits anyway.

Thanks for the entries so far. You may spend the extension period tweaking to your heart's content.

[Creamy]

Thanks Stu 

We've been working like dogs to get it done tonight so I'll post our game anyway:

by Flugeldufel & Creamy

DOWNLOAD

Poor Vince and Gus. Their parents have been abducted by pirates!

Features:
- Pretty pixels! You won't notice that it's only 320x180.
- Unfinished business (demo).
- Glorious 8bit chiptunes
- No inventory. Don't waste your time looking for it.

[fernewelten]

So, I managed to finish my game!

Without further ado, I'd like to proudly present:

Jake's Very Last Journey.

Jake has an unfortunate mishap on his way home, a mishap that lands him right in the clouds. He needs to find his way to the Pearly Gates and into heaven. But to make that happen, he needs your help.

Encounter, and counter, a preachy neighbour and an ill-tempered ghost in a wild and wonderful journey!



Download the game via the AGS Game directory
and play the game! Jake's eternal bliss depends on you!

Standard BASS interface. (If you think that Jake is acting overly obtuse, remember that your mouse has a right-click (examine) button!)

[Slasher]

fernewelten,

Any chance of making the font bigger, i have a job to read the text?

Slasher

[fernewelten]

Any chance of making the font bigger, i have a job to read the text?

I'll have a go at it.

Part of the blame is on the AGS; they only have one pixel wide outlines. This is great for lo-res games in the 320x200 range. But if you go 800x600 or even higher, then the fonts aren't adequately offset from the background and become very hard to read.

My upload connection isn't all that great; uploads take ~20 minutes. So be prepared to wait awhile: I'll have the new files ready in an hour or so. When they're done, I'll update this post.

Edit: So now I've uploaded a Windows version with larger fonts.
Edit: So now I've uploaded a Linux version with larger fonts. Note: I can't test Linux myself, I haven't currently got a working Linux system.

[Crimson Wizard]

Do you know if it's allowed to update the entry with a fixed version later? I found couple of minor glitches in the game, but was too busy to work on them right now.

[Cassiebsg]

Thumbs rule is:
- crash bugs that stop one from being able to play the game, can be fixed as soon as found
- minor bugs/gliches : depends how  or if they affect gameplay/story line.
- touch ups/addons/enhancing: wait for the voting to end, then upload new version

Either way, you are always allowed to fix or improve after the deadline.

[Creamy]

I had a strange crash the first time that I clicked on the big hand in Fernewelten's game:

Spoiler

[close]

But when I relaunched the game I was able to finish it without problem.

I'll write the reviews later.

[Shadow1000]

So, I managed to finish my game!

Without further ado, I'd like to proudly present:

Jake's Very Last Journey.

Jake has an unfortunate mishap on his way home, a mishap that lands him right in the clouds. He needs to find his way to the Pearly Gates and into heaven. But to make that happen, he needs your help.

Encounter, and counter, a preachy neighbour and an ill-tempered ghost in a wild and wonderful journey!


Download the game via the AGS Game directory
and play the game! Jake's eternal bliss depends on you!

Standard BASS interface. (If you think that Jake is acting overly obtuse, remember that your mouse has a right-click (examine) button!)

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong:

Spoiler

I'm at the place with the tile puzzles. I am getting about 80% of them right and I'm not sure on the goal. Do you have to get a certain number of consecutive puzzles right to continue or what..? I've spent about 45 minutes just going from one to the next to the next. I am not getting all of them right but I have a pretty high rate of accuracy.

[close]

[Slasher]

Do you know if it's allowed to update the entry with a fixed version later? I found couple of minor glitches in the game, but was too busy to work on them right now.

You can update your game at anytime up until the end of the voting time and your game will be voted on the time it was downloaded, prior to the ending time.

Of course you can still update after the MAG has finished..

[fernewelten]

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong:

Hint:

Spoiler

Confucius says: If you can't succeed, you must fail.

[close]

Spoiler:

Spoiler

The whole set up of an "examiner" ghost giving you "intelligence tests" that you must solve to get on in life is a red herring. Solving a test will simply get you a new test, so you're bogged down in an endless sequence of tasks to solve and get nowhere.

[close]

Solution:

Spoiler

You can't win by winning. So alter the strategy. Instead of trying to please the ghost, try to p*ss him off royally...

[close]

[Shadow1000]

Solution:

Spoiler

You can't win by winning. So alter the strategy. Instead of trying to please the ghost, try to p*ss him off royally...

[close]

I see. I don't think I would have gotten that on my own. I finished the game. Thanks for the help.

[fernewelten]

I see. I don't think I would have gotten that on my own. I finished the game. Thanks for the help.

I found that puzzle in, I think, Machinarium, where you need to …

Spoiler

outwit a ventilator to get into a greenhouse.

[close]

In that game, I fell for the trap myself, very much so.    I tried and tried. And when I got the solution at last with outside help, I went, Aaaaaah ...

[Stupot]

Sorry for the delay. I've been on cloud 9 looking after my newborn baby, but now there is a break in the cloud and I have enough time to take my head out of the clouds and set up the voting for November's cloudpetition.

Please vote using the poll above.

	Night Witches: Women of the clouds by Slasher
	Night Witch by Blondbraid and Crimson Wizard
	Brothers & Wreckers by Flugeldufel & Creamy
	Jake's Very Last Journey by fernewelten

Please do let me know if I've made any mistakes or missed anthing out.

Cheers.

[fernewelten]

(retracted)

[Cassiebsg]

Okay this happened to me while playing Night Witch, but applies to Night Witches also... I accidentally pressed the ALT key while shooting... and ALT+X  quits the game.  Maybe X isn't such a good key to be shooting/bombing with. 

[Crimson Wizard]

Okay this happened to me while playing Night Witch, but applies to Night Witches also... I accidentally pressed the ALT key while shooting... and ALT+X  quits the game.  Maybe X isn't such a good key to be shooting/bombing with. 

LMAO.
Okay, good point, I can change these controls. Any suggestions?

PS. Hmm, I think there's a way to disable Alt+X in game actually.

[fernewelten]

Hmm, I think there's a way to disable Alt+X in game actually.

game.abort_key: The keycode for Abort Game, which allows the you to quit even if your script is stuck. Default 324 (Alt+X).

[Cassiebsg]

@fernewelten

Ohh... I think I found a bug...

Spoiler

I just read in the hints and tips thread, about using the potholes to move the car... Only I never moved the car. 
I was looking at the "TV" and clicking away, and all of a sudden the character just moved over the car and I entered the new room. And I was "That was weird, I hadn't noticed there was a path there." Guess now I know why I didn't noticed it before, bacause I didn't solved the car puzzle.

Also, now that I'm at it, I wouldn't have guessed the solution for the cloud head either. Mostly because I keep failing one and then thinking "Damn, did the puzzle count keeps resetting when I fail?"

PS - Please turn off the "walk to spot" when looking at an object. It's fine when you want to interact with it, but when I just want to look I rather not wait for the character to walk there... if there are places where a close look is required. you could always had a line like "Seems like there's something in there, but I need a closer look." Or something to that effects.

[close]

[fernewelten]

@Cassiebsg: That's most definitively a bug ...

Spoiler

The car is 'solid' and Jake is 'solid', so he shouldn't be able to walk through the car.

[close]

I even remember testing that. I won't change my code in any way while the competition runs unless there is a real showstopper, but I've an inkling that the particular AGS version I used is at fault. If that's the problem, I'll try a recompile in a newer version with my identical code.

In the meantime, I hope you can go into the first room again and go hunting for that signpost.

Edit: No... I've just given my best but I can't reproduce the glitch in either version. What a pity, that makes the problem hard to fix. After the competition, I'll rework the room so that the *** is on a separate walkable area that is switched off until the conditions are met. This should fix the problem, no matter where it is exactly.

[Shadow1000]

Four entries this month! I had a lot of fun playing them.

My comments:
Night Witches: Women of the clouds by Slasher and Night Witch by Blondbraid and Crimson Wizard
I am grouping these games together because they have so much in common that I will point out the differences in my comments:

Spoiler

Great application of the monthly theme. Both games were a lot of fun to play
- Slasher was first out of the gate, like every month and his entry does utilize the theme better. The clouds actually provide the cover rather than just being part of the background
- Team Blondbraid's game has the better graphics and gameplay. An arcade-shooter game like this takes a lot of juggling and fine-tuning to get just right to the point where challenging + achievable = lots of fun. The timer setting, number of points per target, enemies, health points and all other variables have to be set to just that right point and you guys got this one nailed. The multiple endings was a great bonus.

It took me a bit of time to figure out what those arrows at the left of the screen meant but once I got that, I did pretty well.

Between the two, I'm going with Team Blondbraid because of the better graphics, gameplay and especially the airplane handling.

[close]

Brothers & Wreckers

Spoiler

Nice pixel art! I had a few laughs and enjoyed the music. Looks like a good theme for a game. The theme was more of a detail rather than essential to the game. The game seems more like a preview or demo rather than a completed short game entry

[close]

Jake's Very Last Journey

Spoiler

I really enjoyed this game. If it's a decision between an arcade shooter game or a classic adventure/puzzle/dialogue/inventory game then give me the adventure game! Graphics are really nice. Of the lot, this one really incorporates the cloud theme the best as part of the game. I like the story and idea and I had quite a few chuckles while playing.

I got a bit stuck finding one game item and I literally had to "paint" the cursor everywhere till I found a certain item but that kind of thing happens in adventure games

I wouldn't mind so much that the tile puzzle required some help, however the fact that a puzzle is presented as "do X" and the only way to solve it is by NOT doing X detracted from my overall experience. Perhaps if there would have been some hint or something before I spent 45 minutes it would be different.

[close]

My vote goes to

Spoiler

Night Witch by Blondbraid and Crimson Wizard. My overall experience with this game was AWESOME! I actually played it again a few times just for fun

[close]

Great job!

[Cassiebsg]

@fernewelten

Spoiler

I did found the pot holes, I just didn't figured out what to do with them. 

One way to stop this from happening (managing to move thru an object that's suppose to block the path) is to actually deactivate the blocked path. Like by deactivating the walking area in that zone (instead of only 1 walking area, use 2). Set it to off at game start and then turn it on once the object that is blocking the path is moved. Or if it's a hotspot one clicks on, then jus turn the hotspot off at game start. 

[close]

Edit: Got another bug for you, though not critical. If you click the mouse button during the intro inside the car, the character will change and say "Looks alright."

Edit2: Here's a way to replicate the bug I reported hidden above:

Spoiler

left click on the TV -> this will move the character to the right of the screen
now click around above the car, around/above the opening. He will now walk over the car, says his line about the clouds being too thick and then walk to the next screen (might require a new click).

My guess: when he walks to the right he goes up a bit also, and then he has passed above the car's baseline, meaning the character is now behind the car (that's how ags determines who's in front and who's behind.)

BTW you also forgot to turn off debug mode.

I just solved the moving the car. Now I know why I didn't solve the puzzle. I never realized I got the sign, since when I look at the pothole it still says the big sign is there. And you have hidden the inventory away in an inconvenient menu. 

[close]

[fernewelten]

I had a strange crash the first time that I clicked on the big hand in Fernewelten's game:

I've just managed to trigger the bug myself. I right-clicked the hand specifically whilst the ghost was showing a test. This is an error “below” the level of AGS scripting; it's from the bowels of the engine that interprets AGS code. If I can find a way to reproduce the error reliably, I'll get a C++ debugger on it. IMO AGS script code shouldn't be able to trigger this sort of error even when it is wrong in some way.

[Crimson Wizard]

I had a strange crash the first time that I clicked on the big hand in Fernewelten's game:

I've just managed to trigger the bug myself. I right-clicked the hand specifically whilst the ghost was showing a test. This is an error “below” the level of AGS scripting; it's from the bowels of the engine that interprets AGS code. If I can find a way to reproduce the error reliably, I'll get a C++ debugger on it. IMO AGS script code shouldn't be able to trigger this sort of error even when it is wrong in some way.

I did not pay attention to this screenshot at first (it was under spoiler and about someone elses game..), this is definitely a mistake inside AGS engine, an std::vector is being accessed with a wrong item index.

PS Game reports to be made with AGS 3.4.2.1, which is actually an early 3.5.0 alpha. There's a chance that the error was fixed in later updates.
PPS Ohhh, it seems to actually be a custom engine version... idk if it's worth debugging for me, because I don't know how much was changed.

[Creamy]

Thank you Shadow1000 

Spoiler

The cloud should play a more important role latter in our game.

[close]

I played all the games:

Night Witches: Women of the clouds by Slasher and Night Witch by Blondbraid and Crimson Wizard

Spoiler

The game feels right. I found the difficulty to be spot on despite CW's claim that there was no time left to balance the gameplay.
I was shot down on my first tries. Every hit that I took was deserved though. All the ennemies are announced or wait before shooting and the controls are responsive. I was compelled to try again and when I finally beat the game, it proved satisfying. The graphics are great too. Maybe the cutscenes could be a little less spartan.

[close]

Night Witches: Women of the clouds by Slasher

Spoiler

I think it's a good idea to have the plane further from the player.
After a couple of tries, I was able to reach the bridge screen.
It played ok, although it didn't feel as right as the other Night Witch for a variety of reasons:
- On the one hand it was cool to have some narration, on the other hand I didn't like being interrupted continuously. Specifically, I didn't like having the controls taken away from me every time I was hit.
- speaking of hits: the lightning fast bullets are almost impossible to avoid. It's more realistic but not as fun for the player IMO.
- The movement feels a little jerky and constrained (invisible floor notably).

[close]

Jake's Very Last Journey

Spoiler

I was able to finish the game on my own. The beginning was a little tedious. I wouldn't say that finding the nut is unfair since the character tells you to be "more specific" when you click on the barrier with the wrench â€" but it's not exactly thrilling. I know that it's not conceivable to code a different action for every nut but why would you need to unscrew exactly that one?

Then I liked every part of it: The annoying neighbour, the annoyed cloud. Very good stuff IMO. I personally love the bit with the cloud. I was so focused on figuring out the answer to the puzzles that I didn't realize that he didn't react to my successes at first. When I  had a couple of good answers in a row, it became quite obvious and things clicked 
The end was funny too.

[close]

[fernewelten]

Jake's Very Last Journey

Spoiler

I know that it's not conceivable to code a different action for every nut but why would you need to unscrew exactly that one?

[close]

Thanks for the feedback! In fact, it is feasible …

Spoiler

… to make each of the screws unscrewable -- I just was very pressed for time to get the adventure done, so I avoided edge conditions as far as possible: What if the player unscrews all the screws so that the plank falls down; how do I accommodate for several grommets and screws in the inventory â€" not to mention several packs of ball lightning that might have different numbers of charges!, etc. etc. When I find the time for a polished post-MAGS version, I'll improve on that.

I've also noticed that the handling improves if the hotspot for the wrench is inside the claw instead of in the middle of the icon, so this is something I can improve on in a post-MAGS version, as well.

[close]

[Crimson Wizard]

@fernewelten I was stuck in the first room too, until I peeked into Creamy's spoiler above

Spoiler

To be frank, I found several interactions in the first room a pixel hunt. OTOH maybe I do not play adventure games very well now.
Perhaps, it could be worth adding some visual hint, like they did in several games, where small objects randomly flicker or light reflects from them, and so on.

[close]

Also wanted to report, there's a minor glitch during introductory sequence:

Spoiler

If you right click, player's view change to him standing inside the car, and there appear some colored vertical lines all around the room (no idea what can that be).

[close]

[Crimson Wizard]

Unfortunately I got extremely busy on last week and was not able to playthrough every entry yet, but I get it that I still got the rest of this month for that?


@Creamy

Spoiler

The game feels right. I found the difficulty to be spot on despite CW's claim that there was no time left to balance the gameplay.

[close]

This is good to know! When I said the game is not balanced, what I meant was -

Spoiler

This is not explicit (although hinted in intro text), but each object type gives you different amount of score for destruction. Bunkers are top, enemy planes are lowest - that's because you are on a bombing mission.

But because all the enemy spawns are completely random, it is theoretically possible to get not enough high-score buildings to reach the score goal (unless your make a perfect play and manage to destroy everything, or maybe even in that case). On the other hand, it is also possible to get a lucky streak of high-value targets and reach x2 or more of the target score.

Also, I was not sure what audience we are making the game for, and what is too hard or too easy.

[close]

[Cassiebsg]

Voting time is half a month, so you have about 8 days left to play and decide. 

[Reiter]

My word! A rich harvest, indeed! I shall make good use of those days. These are all exciting entries.

I am pleased that there were two flying games submitted; as it happens, the idea for this theme struck me as I was playing a flight simulator. Jolly good! It will be most interesting to test these titles.

Excellent work, everyone!

[Slasher]

Night Witch: I'm so glad that Crimson managed to complete his module for this game in time and I think Blondbraid did a great job with the graphics..

Well done guys 

[Blondbraid]

Night Witch: I'm so glad that Crimson managed to complete his module for this game in time and I think Blondbraid did a great job with the graphics..

Well done guys 

Thanks!

Having played all entries now, here are my thoughts:
Brothers & Wreckers by Flugeldufel & Creamy

Spoiler

This game had an interesting setup, and lovely graphics, but the puzzles were random and it was just too short for me to form any real opinion on the characters.

[close]

Jake's Very Last Journey by fernewelten

Spoiler

I'm sorry to say that I didn't like this game, but I didn't like the look of the graphics and they were an active hindrance in many of the puzzles where you had to look for hotspots that were exactly the same color as the rest of the background, and I found the puzzles random and unintuitive.

[close]

Night Witches: Women of the clouds by Slasher
I want to give some background; at first Slasher, Crimson Wizard and I worked on the same entry, but since Slasher and Crimson Wizard had too different ideas on gameplay to integrate the two Slasher wound up splitting up and making his own game instead, hence why this month has two entries with the same theme. At any rate, here are my thoughts:

Spoiler

I still think the controls are a bit odd, but in the end they worked fine. The gameplay itself is good but it's bogged down by the npc's interrupting to shout the same lines over and over again, which just disrupts the flow of the game without adding anything to it after you've already heard it the first time.

[close]

Anyway, I wound up voting for

Spoiler

Slasher, since I felt it was the game that best integrated clouds into the gameplay.

[close]

[lanchong]

I was going to write my own reviews but I found that Shadow1000 wrote exactly what I had in mind. Since I'm a bit lazy, I'll just second his reviews 

The only difference is that I voted for:

Spoiler

Jake's very last journey because it's complete short adventure game and it suits the cloud theme very well.

[close]

[Shadow1000]

I was going to write my own reviews but I found that Shadow1000 wrote exactly what I had in mind. Since I'm a bit lazy, I'll just second his reviews 

The only difference is that I voted for:

Spoiler

Jake's very last journey because it's complete short adventure game and it suits the cloud theme very well.

[close]

Haha...thanks, lanchong

[Creamy]

Blondbraid, do you mean that you would have prefered our game to be more believable historically, less tongue in cheek?
The puzzles themselves have a logic IMO.

[Blondbraid]

Blondbraid, do you mean that you would have prefered our game to be more believable historically, less tongue in cheek?
The puzzles themselves have a logic IMO.

Our main difference was in which controls we wanted to use and how the game would feel to play, I wanted to make a flowing arcade-like game and Slasher was working on a mouse-controlled game with more puzzle elements,
but yeah, I also cared more for historical consistency in planes and locations than Slasher.

[Creamy]

Sorry, I think you misread my question. I was reacting to this comment you made about Brothers & Wreckers:

the puzzles were random

I know for a fact that you like history 

[Blondbraid]

Sorry, I think you misread my question. I was reacting to this comment you made about Brothers & Wreckers:

the puzzles were random

I know for a fact that you like history 

Ah, sorry about that! 

Anyway, what I meant about the random puzzle was that for me,

Spoiler

I didn't know how to proceed with the rotating sign after the parrot had told the place name to the brothers but they didn't know the direction, so I just tried randomly rotating it and suddenly the characters announced that I'd solved the puzzle

[close]

I just didn't see the logic in that puzzle, and if it was meant as a joke I didn't quite get it either.

[Cassiebsg]

About the sign puzzle (attention puzzle solving ahead):

Spoiler

You were suppose to listen to the music, and figure out by the name of the music tracks to which directions they pointed to. Then rotate the sign to match.
I solved it another way, since even though I knew all 3 songs, I couldn't name a single one...  So I just pointed the "good" names to match with the paths that had a music track. 

[close]

EDIT:
Oh, i have a little bit of time, so might as well give some feedback. 

Night Witches: Women of the clouds by Slasher

Spoiler

I enjoyed the plane size, but would have liked a bit more contrast on the graphics. The game in general felt dark. Also the mouse cursor being the same as the plane I was controlling was just confusing. Consider changing it to a crosshair.
I did not like the fact that I needed to click the mouse button up/down to make the plane move. Would have probably be more intuitive  to make the mouse movement correspond to the plane. As in move the mouse up/down to go up or down, left-rigth to move forward backwards. And then use the 2 mouse buttons to shoot and drop bombs, and with a full keyboard alternative (using the cursor keys to move the plane). As others have mentions the constant interruption of flight by character speaking was annoying. Consider changing it to BG speech. Also, why did we need the other cursor modes?

I liked the way the the clouds were part of the game and not just BG noise. 

[close]

Night Witch by Blondbraid and Crimson Wizard

Spoiler

Didn't took me long to get a feel for the game, and love the graphics as usual. The only minus I would point out, would be that there's little place to maneuver...more play space by making the planes smaller would have been nice.
Wish the clouds had been integrated into the game.

[close]

Jake's Very Last Journey

Spoiler

Graphics aren't the most perfect but they do the job for the most part. I enjoyed the story, even if the puzzles were a bit shoehorned. At least there was a good amount and variety of them. Though the pixel hunt could have been avoided by making all nuts clickable, but making the character to only interact with one (and refuse to take down more).
Of all the entries this one is the most complete, even if it had a few bugs, the story has a beginning, a end, a new beginning, a middle and an end...  Also this entry is the only one where the clouds are key for the game. There's no doubt whatsoever what theme this game was build for.
For this reason and because it's a P&C adventure game, this is the one I ended up voting for.

[close]

Brothers & Wreckers by Flugeldufel & Creamy

Spoiler

Really lovely art and when I started playing I got this MI "vibe" right away. And the game felt so big and detailed! That I thought this would be a sure winner. I loved solving the sign post puzzle.  Just the kind of puzzling that makes me smile when I figure the solution.
The only downside, was the clouds theme seemed to jammed into there and were not much more than a mentioning. This is the only reason why this entry did not get my vote.

[close]

[Creamy]

Thanks Cassie.

Spoiler

You were suppose to listen to the music, and figure out by the name of the music tracks to which directions they pointed to. Then rotate the sign to match.

We've tried to use popular songs. You only need to recognize one place to be able to solve the puzzle. Yet, making puzzles that require outside knowledge from the player is always risky.

Another way to decipher the signpost is to know Antillean Creole   

[close]

[Blondbraid]

Thanks Cassie.

Spoiler

You were suppose to listen to the music, and figure out by the name of the music tracks to which directions they pointed to. Then rotate the sign to match.

We've tried to use popular songs. You only need to recognize one place to be able to solve the puzzle. Yet, making puzzles that require outside knowledge from the player is always risky.

Another way to decipher the signpost is to know Antillean Creole   

[close]

Aha, I never made that connection, though that explains the puzzle.

[Crimson Wizard]

Finally finished all the other games.
Few comments below...


"Night Witches" by Slasher

Spoiler

After getting used to controls I realized this game plays more like a real-time strategy than an usual arcade. Game's concept might have a potential, though I'd wish there was either more accurate historical background, or perhaps a work of fiction, because the intro and story texts in game are quite random, mashing together few references from real events.
And yes, clouds are actually part of gameplay, which is good.

Unfortunately, there are several design choices that made it unnecessarily harder to play and enjoy.

Most frustrating thing was that when you get hit you loose control over the plane and it goes to some predefined location automatically. This was seriously freaking me out. While I would not mind taking out few remaining AA-Guns even at the cost of a few health points, but the game was overriding my actions, which actually caused me to loose couple of times.
Another annoying thing was NPC speech during the mission. It was blocking, and displayed in the corner of the screen without a warning. When it happened I did not realize when it start, could not understand why my plane stopped and could not read text in time (but frankly the text was not very important). Major issue is that this speech blocks the game, interrupting player's actions and causing distraction.

[close]

"Jake's Very Last Journey" by fernewelten

Spoiler

This one is actually a nice and funny game . It has puzzles that make sense and well written characters (albeit annoying at times).

The thing that really took me aback was the beginning though. Gosh, idk maybe I became old, but it took me almost 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do there.
It's not "pixel hunt" in a classic sense, but still, many objects would benefit from being more visible to player. I did not pay attention to proper "nut" because others were not marked in any way, so I thought there's nothing to check there.
"Cloud pots" are just some curves on background, and I completely missed the "window" at the left at first because it looked like a part of the cloud, only little lighter in color.
After sitting in confusion for a while I decided to give it last try and literally scanned whole room with mouse, until noticing this "opening", which let me finally progress.

Please, add more visual distinction to these objects, some kind of animation just to bring player's attention perhaps? Otherwise, a good short game .

[close]

"Brothers & Wreckers" (Flugeldufel & Creamy)

Spoiler

This game had a great start, and I was extremely sad when it turned out to be an unfinished demo. Because of that I could not tell whether the cloud is actually meaningful in this game or added for eligibility. But even if that was the case, singer character concept is cool.
I liked the roadsign puzzle even though I could not solve it properly. I knew it was related to music somehow, and tried to find references in surroundings, and background music in some locations, but failed. Maybe I was missing some reference.
Anyway, I would love to see a full game!

[close]

[Shadow1000]

The people have spoken! Jake's Very Last Journey got more votes than all the rest combined. A huge congratulations!

[Slasher]

Great win fernewelten...

Congratulations   

[Cassiebsg]

congratulations fernewelten! 

[Blondbraid]

Congratulations to fernwelten!

I'm curious as to what theme you'll choose for next MAGS!

[fernewelten]

My internet connection has acted up today, so I've found the result only now.

Why, thanks a lot, voters! I'm honoured!  😍

I think I've become a little attached to Jake. I might extend the adventure somewhat - give it more rooms, more riddles, etc.

• Jake would probably profit from a higher resolution (the game is 600 px high, but Jake's height is only 200 px). He might learn to stoop so that he can pick up dropped things … get less finicky standing sprites  …


• There's that teacher ghost bug ... IMO it can't be a coincidence that the troubles happen when the test GUI is shown: That's where I use dynamic sprites and DrawingSurface routines, so the rogue code will probably hide there  …


• The puzzles have rough corners …


• I've had feedback from several sides that my art style is ugly. Well, I've certainly tried to improve here, for instance by now consciously choosing colour schemes that I hope are tasteful. I agree that the “cloud floor” doesn't look like much; I'll try and come up with a less ugly “cloud floor”.
  But I can only do so much in the short run and with the time I have. I'd love to be able to paint such fantastic, atmospheric, detailed pictures as in @Flugeldufel's and @Creamy's game. But in this game, the pictures will probably continue to be based on line art and colour transitions, in a sort of “hand-drawn” vector art style. I'll have to rely on the gamers' imagination to supplement what isn't drawn.

What do you think? Would it be worth it?

[Stupot]

It's not your internet Fernewelten. It's this gadfirsaken website 

I've been trying to post but everyone's beaten me to it. Anyway. Congratulations and keep an eye on your inbox for details about choosing a topic for January :-)

[fernewelten]

Brothers & Wreckers might be “more of a demo” right now (as has been said) but I think that the game has a lot of flair. The protagonists are likeable, and it doesn't take much exposition to draw me as a player into the story. So I think that the game would be a solid basis to build on. The art is really beautiful and must have taken a lot of time to prepare. In the light of that, I found it a bit of a shame that, e.g., it was so quick for me as a player to walk off the left side of the first room and never need to come back to it. Perhaps you can come up with lots of creative ways to tie the protagonists with puzzles and tasks so that all that hard painting work at least pays off.

By the way, I don't think that adventures absolutely “need” to have an inventory in order to be proper and complete. If I remember correctly, Samorost 2 is also very a poetical game that doesn't have an inventory but that I liked a lot.

[Crimson Wizard]

• I've had feedback from several sides that my art style is ugly. Well, I've certainly tried to improve here, for instance by now consciously choosing colour schemes that I hope are tasteful. I agree that the “cloud floor” doesn't look like much; I'll try and come up with a less ugly “cloud floor”.
  

Hmmm, I did not find the art ugly, simple maybe, the only thing that stood out for me were character's arms, which were unproportionally long.

By the way, I don't think that adventures absolutely “need” to have an inventory in order to be proper and complete. If I remember correctly, Samorost 2 is also very a poetical game that doesn't have an inventory but that I liked a lot.

In regards to "Brothers & Wretcher's", I'd wish the game at least had a visual reference to what I picked up (like banana in this game).[/list]

[Creamy]

Congratulations, fernewelten 

About B&W:
Somehow, I knew that the broken signpost puzzle wasn't completely original and I've racked my brains to figure out where it came from.
It turns out that it was lifted from Jim Razzi's  Sherluck Bones Mystery Detective Book.
You can call me Gad Elmaleh now.