March MAGS

magintz · Mon 01/03/2004 21:09:35

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

Why should I enter MAGS?
BECAUSE I SAID SO... k!

joking

I'm 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 opportuninty to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the net month's rules, and all competitiors 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 must not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.

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Theme- Alterantive Perspective

So you don't like playing the good guy all the time, well try these rules set by ElaineMc

No restriction on colour depth or resolution.

- Tell the story from the villain's point of view.
- Some kind of underground location should be used.

Inventory items / objects [pick at least two]:
- necklace
- laundry
- a large sum of money
- a crossbow
- perfume bottle
- fire extinguisher
- church altar
- straw hat
- pentacle

If you're having trouble getting inspired, I strongly recommend checking out the Page of Generators, at http://seventhsanctum.com/gens/index.html.

In a crime-infested city of deception, in a time of devils, an exorcist attempts to solve the ultimate crime....

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All games in by 28th March

Minimi · Mon 01/03/2004 21:31:26

I'm not quite sure what villain's point of view means. Am I right, that it means, that some sorta "nobody guy", is the player, and the story is about a NPC hero??

also, what is a pentacle???

MrColossal · Mon 01/03/2004 21:36:41

pentacle

Nixxon · Mon 01/03/2004 22:41:52

I always thought it was pentagram?

MrColossal · Mon 01/03/2004 22:45:05

i believe they are interchangeable words

they also aren't satanic, learn something new every day

Minimi · Mon 01/03/2004 22:48:01

Quote from: MrColossal on Mon 01/03/2004 22:45:05
they also aren't satanic

and yet they are... :

hmm... I wipped up some game plot now, wich I think is original and never used in any game before, so now I'll just have to get myself to work right away, to get finished in time

MrColossal · Mon 01/03/2004 22:53:28

you should know Minimi that even the early christians used pentacles... satanism is a new religion and the pentacle has been around for thousands of years

but anyway, i won't take up this thread any further, ON WITH THE MAGS!

nope! · Mon 01/03/2004 22:55:02

humm...I believe the pentacle is a tasliman (shape + circle) and pentagram the triangles/stars-shape (9 sides).

They're or not satanic...it depends on the orientation of the main triangle, isn't it?

nope! · Mon 01/03/2004 23:06:41

yup: question: "laundry" refers to the clothes or the shop? - I know, I have a very poor english

-

MrColossal · Mon 01/03/2004 23:29:32

the clothes, since it's an inventory items..

i'd hate to see the person who could carry a laundrette in their pocket

Mr Colossal

ElaineMc · Tue 02/03/2004 04:22:47

Minimi: I'm not quite sure what villain's point of view means. Am I right, that it means, that some sorta "nobody guy", is the player, and the story is about a NPC hero??

Yes, that's exactly right. In last month's MAGS, Ytterbium wondered if anyone had done a game where you play as a zombie, and I thought that might make for an interesting game.

Pentacles and pentagrams. For gameplay purposes, I'm using the defintion of a pentacle found here: a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle. You may use the upright pentacle [with one points pointing upward], or the inverted pentacle [with two points pointing upward], and give it any symbolic meaning you please.

nope!: Ooops! Sorry about that. MrColossal is right-- I meant "laundry" as in "clothing". However, if you can figure out a way to *make* a laundry shop portable, by all means, go for it [Maybe the villain has an amazing shrinking ray, and has reduced a city to the size of an apple, for example.].

Mr_Frisby · Tue 02/03/2004 07:00:25

This sounds fun, I kinda had this idea once before - I might give it a go.

Also, the pentacle is actually a pagan symbol of protection - Christians turned it bad when they said paganism was evil - they also changed the pagan god of spring into the devil we know and love today (they also changed the pagan claendar of 13 months to 12 - saying that 13 was evil - I may be wrong but I think the pagan year may have also ended around our end of march - hence April Fools day.

nope! · Tue 02/03/2004 09:05:32

yep....my question was silly.

Mr Colossal:

Quotei'd hate to see the person who could carry a laundrette in their pocket

And what about the ones who could carry a church altar?

Creed Malay · Tue 02/03/2004 11:16:01

Aw, I am SO on this.....

Would a sneaky wily traveling con man type figure be considered evil enough?

Davy

Ishmael · Tue 02/03/2004 15:01:53

Quote from: ElaineMc on Tue 02/03/2004 04:22:47
However, if you can figure out a way to *make* a laundry shop portable, by all means, go for it [Maybe the villain has an amazing shrinking ray, and has reduced a city to the size of an apple, for example.].

Played EFL? Mac could cary a bed in his pocket so why couldn't he carry a laundry shop...

AFAIK, the inverted pentagram is satanic, but the "normal" one isn't... And, someone mentioned a triangle... there are no triangles in a pentagram... it's just one five-corned shape... with overlapping edges

Hee, I'm in

I hope I can finnish my game up in time

nope! · Tue 02/03/2004 21:08:24

I'm in... some Characters (you play HellVis, the rock'n'roll ghost).

ElaineMc · Tue 02/03/2004 22:07:58

nope!: and what about the ones who could carry a church altar?

That's why I said "inventory items / objects"-- so folks could have a little more leeway.

Creed Malay: Would a sneaky wily traveling con man type figure be considered evil enough?

That works just fine-- "Villain" doesn't need to mean some kind of super-villain. A con man is, by default, someone with an... alternative moral code, after all; and certainly someone who was duped by him-- whether a greedy businesswoman who thought she was ripping the CM off, or a struggling artist who was sure he was finally going to catch a break-- would see him as a villain.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the results-- the ideas I've heard so far sound great.

sergiocornaga · Wed 03/03/2004 05:18:39

Yay! Pixelated people.

Creed Malay · Sun 07/03/2004 18:30:49

Don't suppose anyone could help me with a little research I need for my game? I'm having trouble finding exactly what I need to know online...

How mnay casinos are there in Reno? tens? hundreds? How big a city is it?

how long would it take you to drive from Reno to Vegas, roughly?

What's the speedlimits/general level of law enforcement in that area? (State troopers as well as police, right?)

Cheers to anyone who can help...

Davy

ElaineMc · Sun 07/03/2004 19:07:16

Reno speedtrap info: http://www.speedtrap.org/speedtraps/ste.asp?state=NV&city=Reno

According to Yahoo Maps, it's about 7 hours from Reno to LV, and about 450 miles apart.

FruitTree · Mon 08/03/2004 17:43:30

I'm in!
yay!

(okay I admit my post is kind of useless

but I just don't know anything about pentacles

)

Creed Malay · Thu 11/03/2004 18:28:06

I've got the story for my entry pretty much all worked out now, and I seem to have written a story with all villians and no heros... is that acceptible in the rules? I still got time to change things, if a hero be required...

Davy

ElaineMc · Fri 12/03/2004 00:27:50

nope!: I (heart) HellVis! I also really like the angular style you're using here, it's very distinctive.

FruitTree: Glad you're joining us-- hope you enjoy yourself.

Davy: Yes, of course, that's just fine. Out of idle curiosity, is this such a successful set of villains that they've actually killed off all the heroes...? *g*

Creed Malay · Fri 12/03/2004 21:34:00

Heh. It's set in movie-world-crime-land kind of territory - hoods and gangsters and proffesional gamblers and bent cops and double crosses and mafiosos, and hitmen with tourettes syndrome...
Fun fun fun...

Davy

Gregjazz · Mon 22/03/2004 01:53:24

I'm done with my MAGS! Wooh.

You can download Evil Enterprises here:
http://herculeaneffort.adventuredevelopers.com/EvilE.zip

I'm on my way to post it in the Announced Games forum.

Enjoy!

Klaus · Fri 26/03/2004 18:09:43

Just one entry so far but we're getting closer to March 28th - the deadline of this month's competition.

The voting will begin on early Monday - in about 60 hours from now

So you still have the weekend for creation. Good luck!

Gregjazz · Fri 26/03/2004 22:12:57

Well, if nobody else enters, voting should be really easy.

"I wonder who I should I vote for... decisions, decisions."

magintz · Fri 26/03/2004 23:11:25

just a little over a day left!!!

Lazy Z · Sat 27/03/2004 11:22:59

I've almost finished my game, but there's this really nasty bug that causes the game to crash if you move the mouse cursor to the bottom of the screen, and I dunno if I'll have the time to fix this, 'cuz my free time is almost nonexistant...

Should I release it anyway? Besides that bug, the game is almost finished. If this sounds like a really n00bish question, well, that's because I've never released a game before.

foz · Sat 27/03/2004 12:33:45

Lazy z
What error message do you get......?

Does it say what line has the problem.??

Creed Malay · Sat 27/03/2004 14:37:17

I do not think I will finish mine in time, which makes me sad. Boo.

Davy

Lazy Z · Sat 27/03/2004 17:57:11

Well, the error message is this:

(Global script line 134)
Error: SetGUIPosition: co-ordinates must lie in range (0,0) - (RMWID,RMHIT)

And the line from my global script is:
SetGUIPosition(TEXT, xpos, ypos);

I'm using the Beneath a Steel Sky template, by the way. I apologise for posting this here, I should have made a thread in the technical forum long ago, but I haven't had the time to do so...

Czar · Sat 27/03/2004 19:13:15

Release it now, you'll have time to vote lat0rz

mätzyboy · Sat 27/03/2004 20:05:34

Jippie! My first game for public release:
http://members.fortunecity.se/matzyboy/
(Click "download crypt.zip(798kb)")

It's called crypt, and it's my entry in this MAGS competition!

I haven't written any help file so:
left click = walk
double left click = interact/use/pick up/whatever
right click= look
inventory comes down from the top of the screen, together with save/load/quit/info about CJ...

While using an inventory item left=use, right = release inventory cursor

Enjoy!
*MÃ¤tzyboy sets off for the completed games forum*

mätzyboy · Sat 27/03/2004 20:26:50

Great game Geoffkhan! Nice jazzy music! Funny voices, Evil reminds me of Mr. Bean when he talks.

Lazy Z · Sun 28/03/2004 10:51:52

Argh, finally. After many hardships, here is Dark Star (Vol. 0.9). Don't play it

Download it here:
http://12.22.230.41/MicroTech/Hosted/Files-A/DeadStarv09.rar

nope! · Sun 28/03/2004 12:25:08

I'm still trying to debug my MAGS game called HELLVIS :'(

However, I managed to make yesterday another "game" :

:

Right Click - Save:
http://membres.lycos.fr/yadesjours/hpbimg/whokilledbambi.zip

mätzyboy · Sun 28/03/2004 12:29:09

Nice game lazyZ! The most annoying sound of walk I've ever heard though.

I found the story a little hard to grasp and the puzzles were way too simple!

Well done for a first game any way! Looking forward to seing more in the future!

A bug:

When i leftclicked on the elevator buttons the cursor disappeared and nothing happened.

***

Nope!: That game sure was a laugh! Neat graphics! The puzzles were too easy though, not much of a choice what to do. Good game!

nope! · Sun 28/03/2004 13:47:22

MÃ¤tzyboy : your game is cool: I like the graphics

About my "game": I started a MAGS game but I wasn't ready.

I made another "game" in 10h...only because there's only one entry for the MAGS competition....how could it be a competition if there's only one entry?

Anyways, I love Geoffkhan's work (I discovered AGS games thanks to the "Apprentice")....he deserves to win

Klaus · Mon 29/03/2004 08:09:22

Okay now, time is up... In the end now we have four entries. For voting please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

Who killed Bambi by nope!
Evil Enterprises by Geoffkhan
Dead Star (Vol. 0.9) by Lazy Z
Crypt by mÃ¤tzyboy

Please vote only once and be sure to have played all games before sending your voice! Good luck to all participants.

Magintz at school · Mon 29/03/2004 11:05:47

Also, not linking to the vote things!

Gregjazz · Mon 29/03/2004 23:19:45

My email is not geoffkhan@hotmail.com, it's now geoffkhan@mail2jazz.com. (for the past year now)

I thought I made the announcement...

Klaus · Tue 30/03/2004 07:14:57

Quote from: Geoffkhan on Mon 29/03/2004 23:19:45
My email is not geoffkhan@hotmail.com

Sorry, I took this address from your website at http://herculeaneffort.adventuredevelopers.com/
On the mags site it's fixed now. Thanks for the information.

Gregjazz · Tue 30/03/2004 23:10:08

Ooh. I'll have to check into that. Maybe I give out wrong email address.

Do you remember where on the site you got it?

Dorcan · Tue 30/03/2004 23:14:55

Maybe from there

Quote7.10.03 - The Herculean Effort Productions site is born[...]
We value your feedback, and you can contact us by email at geoffkhan@hotmail.com or you can post a comment on the forum.[...]

Klaus · Wed 31/03/2004 18:44:46

Quote from: Dorcan on Tue 30/03/2004 23:14:55
7.10.03 - The Herculean Effort Productions site is born[...]
We value your feedback, and you can contact us by email at geoffkhan@hotmail.com or you can post a comment on the forum.[...]

Right, that's it. Nearly at the bottom of your intro page. Oh and I found your new address there too now. But it's no link like the other one so I didn't see it at my first quick search. Sorry.

Mats Berglinn · Thu 01/04/2004 15:20:19

Hey, shouldn't the winner be announced? It's 1 April already, so the new rules should have been appeared by now.

Nixxon · Thu 01/04/2004 15:32:33

Quote from: Mats Berglinn on Thu 01/04/2004 15:20:19
Hey, shouldn't the winner be announced? It's 1 April already, so the new rules should have been appeared by now.

Bloody well put ol' chap

Nixxon · Fri 02/04/2004 04:32:51

C'mon what's going on? i've been checking this thread 5 times a day for the last 4 days. I'm really eager to enter this month.
*cracks whip*

rtf · Fri 02/04/2004 04:34:41

Yeah, me too!

Come on, everybody, pick up the pace!

Gregjazz · Fri 02/04/2004 08:38:44

Excuse me, but the judges are having a hard time deciding. Wait a minute. Judges? I thought the winner was decided by purely voting.

Nixxon · Fri 02/04/2004 09:18:33

winner should have been announced 3-4 days ago, enough time to write the next months rules and have them sent to Klaus, confimed and posted etc.

Klaus · Fri 02/04/2004 11:49:05

Hmmm... Usually Magintz announces the winner at the end of the month but as he didn't yet post and you all are sooo excited I'll do it this time:

Actually it was a very close voting and I think that's also one reason why Magintz didn't want to present a winner too early. Let's go one step further... The winner is a game about Good and Evil. Oh, that fits all these games - more or less.

Right, but in this case it can be taken by word: The winner is "Evil Enterprises" by Geoffkhan. My congratulations for this nice talky game, but also respect to all other entrants, the votes were really close.

Geoffkhan: For the new rules please send a PM to Magintz and best a copy to me, so if Magintz won't be able to check your ideas I'll do it and then start the new thread as soon as possible. Seems as if you all want to enter in April

mätzyboy · Fri 02/04/2004 12:29:31

Congrats Geoffkhan! Well deserved victory!

Nixxon · Fri 02/04/2004 13:29:50

way to go Geoffkhan, very worthy of the march mags cup

Ginny · Fri 02/04/2004 19:46:14

Good job Geoff! I loved you game! Small things like great story, puzzles, art, dialogs and voice acting (not to mention MUSIC!!1)...

I'm practically drooling for the April rules!!! Or maybe I ate too much salt..
Nope, it's the rules alright! I trust you to make them good, or else...

Gregjazz · Fri 02/04/2004 22:55:57

Wow, cool! I am so happy!

Okay, I'm going to come up with some rules (good ones, hopefully) and get them out as fast as possible, so you guys don't have to wait any longer (it's already a few days into April).

rtf · Sat 03/04/2004 07:25:46

Make them really easy. I don't like animation.

Nixxon · Sat 03/04/2004 10:48:31

bah plenty of animations!

No colour/res restrictions, or i will hurt you

Ginny · Sat 03/04/2004 11:27:26

Animation would be a great challenge for me. Funny how eager I am aout animation, and how I always imagine plenty of it in my designs, but the only animations I've made are a walking and talking animation of a skull (walking being jumping up and down a few pixels..)
I guess it's because I'm more fond of small background animations and extra animations for objects, and walkcycles really stump me. Bah, characters are tough.

Anyway, I'm in a game making mood this month (holidays) so wheee!

rtf · Sat 03/04/2004 16:49:21

I'm sure I can find a loophole in the rules.

magintz · Sat 03/04/2004 18:01:21

Sorry guys but I was busy with school-work, thanks again Klaus and Congrats Geoffkhan

Evil · Sat 03/04/2004 21:57:07

Quote from: releasethefrogs on Sat 03/04/2004 16:49:21
I'm sure I can find a loophole in the rules.

You could always pull a Dave Gilbert. If you're to lazy to make him walk, dont give him legs.

rtf · Sat 03/04/2004 22:40:32

That's what I did last time. They should call it a "Pulled a Releasethefrogs" or whatever.

Gregjazz · Sat 03/04/2004 23:41:49

Well I've already sent in my new rules, we're just waiting for Klaus or Magintz to start the new thread.

I guarantee you'll like the rules.

rtf · Sun 04/04/2004 01:32:43

I can't wait!

I'm definatly going to enter this time around.

No chance that I wouldn't!

Ginny · Sun 04/04/2004 01:50:53

Ooh!!!! *drools like crazy*
Must...make....game...

rtf · Sun 04/04/2004 07:04:39

That's it! If the new rules aren't up by tomarrow morning, I am going to hire someone to tell someone do something about it!

Gregjazz · Sun 04/04/2004 08:00:37

Man, I sent the PM to both Klaus and Magintz like 2 days ago. So don't send the hitman after me!

Evil · Sun 04/04/2004 08:20:47

Just start it yourself! We're losing time!

Peter Thomas · Sun 04/04/2004 08:51:45

Agreed.

Not that I ever enter... but I think Geoff should post the new rules. It's not like Klaus or Magintz are going to disallow the rules......

are they?

nope! · Sun 04/04/2004 10:29:32

maybe Klaus and Magintz have a social life

Anyways, Geoffkhan could write here the main ideas; so we could start a big brainstorming.

Klaus · Sun 04/04/2004 11:28:28

Oops. Sorry for the delay. This finally got mixed up as I waited for Magintz to present the new rules after his posting and he might have thought I'd do it this time... $:-\$

Quote from: nope! on Sun 04/04/2004 10:29:32
maybe Klaus and Magintz have a social life

What's that..? At least I don't have something like this, so it really wasn't the reason.

Quote from: Peter Thomas on Sun 04/04/2004 08:51:45Geoff should post the new rules. It's not like Klaus or Magintz are going to disallow the rules... are they?

Actually the rules are disallowed sometimes, but not in this case.

releasethefrogs: Perhaps we should keep this in mind - in case you don't enter now,

Quote from: releasethefrogs on Sun 04/04/2004 07:04:39I am going to hire someone to tell someone do something about it!

The new rules are out and can be read in the new thread April MAGS. Have fun with Geoffkhan's rules. I hope you can forgive us and we won't run directly into hell for this delay. On the other hand they say it's pretty warm there... Hm.

March MAGS

Magintz at school