OROW: One room, one week competition. By the Numbers by AJA Won!

[joelphilippage]

Thanks for the comments. I'll definitely release an improved version of A Woman For all Seasons.

I would like to give credit since I didn't really have time to make a sequence. A Wizard's birth concept was inspired by the book, The Two Princesses of Bammare. Most of the spell casting script was from the Gesture Module by Besh. The music was taken from the Contribution thread by Theatrx.

This was really fun. I would encourage this sort of activity more often. I'm sure making a lot of short games can improve your skills. I've learned a lot in a week.

[Buckethead]

This was really fun. I would encourage this sort of activity more often. I'm sure making a lot of short games can improve your skills. I've learned a lot in a week.

Yes indeed. I learned alot aswell and I'm more confident at making a more proper game now.

[Vince Twelve]

Boiler Room Blues
This was a cute little game.  I liked the unique visual style.  Gameplay was nothing to hoot and holler about, but it did what it set out to do!

By the Numbers
Very cool visual style.  I'm also really looking forward to seeing your workflow on this.  The facial expressions were so awesome that I wish the gameplay incorporated them.  Like interrogating a suspect and having a grimace or the eyes moving to the left to help you guess when they're lying.  The moment that sold the game for me was when the bad guy did a half smile and raised one eyebrow at me.  Very evocative.  The voice acting was OK and I still don't really get what hints were supposed to lead me to the conclusion.  I didn't have time to pay close attention so on my second and third attempts I was ESCing through most of the dialog, so maybe I just didn't have the patience.  There wasn't a whole lot of gameplay, so it wasn't my top pick of the litter, but it was a fun experiment.

Congrats to the king of the OROW!  What is that, four wins now? 

Delerium
I liked the idea of sticking a hidden item game into a 360 panoramic game.  Too bad the items got offset as you spun, that made it a bit easy!  With some polish to the graphics and some more (and more logical) adventure puzzles, this could be a good basis for a great game.

Disquiet
Very depressing.  Nice little dark vignettes.  It achieved what it set out to do, which was, I presume, make me super depressed!    Nice style!

Don't Worry Baby
Pretty clever with decent execution.  It was very funny to watch it play out at the end!

One Room
I quite liked this one!  The puzzles were a bit abstract, I wish that failing at some of the other puzzles resulted in increasingly blunt hints like the dictionary puzzle at the beginning.  I wasn't at all sure what I was supposed to be doing with the colored balls.  Loved the sound and graphics!

Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee
Short but oh-so-slow paced.  Does that guy at the start really have to walk all the way across the room at a snails pace and then all the way back?  Up the walk speed!  Other than that, the graphics are charming and this could probably be expanded into a fun game.  Not enough parser games out there!

Well, Well, Well, What Have We Here?
I quite liked the graphics and the first puzzle.  After that it seemed like you ran out of time and things didn't quite connect for me.  I'll definitely try it out after you have some more time to clean it up.

A Woman For All Seasons
This was very cool.  I really liked it despite the few bugs.  I agree with the suggestions so far about having some stars follow the cursor so we can see the shapes we're drawing.  I had trouble some times with the circles.  But I liked how we used them in the puzzles and I loved the writing and graphics!  I think that it could use a bit of polish and a re-release, but this was my pick for best game!  Well done, Joel!  Seriously, looking back at all the games you've done, you've been steadily improving throughout the years.  Cool stuff.


Congrats to all the participants!  Just releasing something is an amazing achievement!

[AJA]

By the Numbers
Very cool visual style.  I'm also really looking forward to seeing your workflow on this.  The facial expressions were so awesome that I wish the gameplay incorporated them.  Like interrogating a suspect and having a grimace or the eyes moving to the left to help you guess when they're lying.

That's actually what I was hoping to do but it quickly became apparent that there wouldn't be enough time to think anything out so thoroughly.

Congrats to the king of the OROW!  What is that, four wins now? 

Yeah, such a drag.

Also the detective was an idiot, I'm sorry but there were things even the kidnapper noticed and actually I found him to be more compassionate and realistic character - the detective was calling victims by numbers while the kidnapper tells him they have names, I think the situation would be almost reversed. Also the cop seems not to be trained in any interrogation skills whatsoever...really found it off putting. Detective reminded me of Stabler (C. Meloni) from Law n order SVU, but if he was acting like that in the series, I can assure you they wouldn't solve any cases.

Haha, yes. I'm way too slow a writer to do something like this in two days. A second draft would've probably benefited the game a lot. But dehumanizing the detective was actually something I was doing deliberately. It's just a shame the point of it all, if there ever was any, got lost in the hurry.


Anyway, the proper release version is finally finished: Check it out! (There's also a link to the making of video.)

[Wyz]

As promised my comments on the games.

Boiler Room Blues
I too played it in alphabetical order, and this is a really nice game to start with. The art it well drawn, puzzles intuitive and good animations. I'm more the happy ending kind of person, but still I liked it. I wished it was longer!

By the Numbers
These graphics reminded me of Another world, one of the first games that featured vector based cinematics. Well this was rendered from 3d models, but still looked really compelling. The music really did create a sort of tension that draws one in from the beginning till the end of the game. The gameplay it liked a bit less because I didn't really have the feeling I was controlling the outcome. But also because dialogue puzzles aren't really my cup of tea. But overall an exciting game!

Delerium
I fired up this game and noticed this is the kind of game I really like, but I got stuck immediately and decided to finished it after I played some of the other games.

Disquiet
Well this game feels like a weird trip and is very depressing. I believe that was also the intention of the game so well done The music is very good, without it the game wouldn't have its claustrophobic character. The backgrounds and sprites carry to its grim and washed out character. As I already mentioned I'm more the happy ending kind of guy; well I felt like drinking after it.

Don't Worry Baby
But I didn't! Because this game cheered me up right after it. It was really funny how baby plus knives equals sushi. And there are plenty of this kind of gags in this game. The music also played a part in the cheerfulness of this game. Well cheerful in a grim way, but that's what I like about it. Tongue in the cheek.

One Room
I also played my own game, and naturally I discovered one final bug that would mean a deadlock in the final puzzle. *mutters something about Murphy's law*

Spoiler

After you interacted with the frame and solved the riddle, do not interact with the frame again.

[close]

Also the version you probably played missed one of the (essential) cutscenes. ;(

But there is more to this game, because well it actually didn't start out with this game. It started out with a different idea. The lack of inspiration already caused me to lose a day and a half, but finally I had something and started working on it.

Lost & Found
It was about the lost property office in a small amusement park.

Lewis the pimple sprouted protagonist:


The office:


Two days before the deadline I realised I could never finish the game in time without help. Either I looked for someone to help me with it or I dropped out. That's when I started drinking.
I looked up the word 'room' in a dictionary and it all went from there without me knowing where it would end.
The other game, well it won't see the light of day ever I guess, although it's all finished on paper (unless someone sends me a PM).

Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee
When I started this game I though by myself: "let's sit back and enjoy it" but it was over before it really started. Most of my time was consumed figuring out you had to type in commands. Well it looks really promising so continue working on this please!

Well, Well, Well, What Have We Here?
This game looks really erm well No I mean it, good show! When I first played it I immediately found the key and the game ended. Because I didn't want to spoil it I decided to wait till the bugs are removed. And I still am While you're at it, add some music too.

A Woman For All Seasons
This is definitely my favourite game. I like the little details like when the hair colour changes also the hair colour of the portraits change. The background is very well composed, the music fits and the puzzles appear to be easy but they involve a learning process, that's something rather rare in a adventure games. I was also drawn to the story, pretty nice. There are however a few bugs in the spell casting which did hurt the gameplay. When you simply right click, the wizard stays in spell casting mode, also when you walk. That was really weird. Also, the idea of particles would have helped me. But overall I really liked this game!

Delerium
And then I gave this game a shot again, well this time I took some time to read the readme and indeed I missed something. I liked the game a lot but there are a lot of problems that really hurt the gameplay. The obvious problem: objects not moving along, technical difficulties are always a set back. I solved it by closing my eyes when rotating . Another real problem is that the game relies on the manual, with a few changes in appearance and flow it wouldn't have been necessary though. Also the fact you have to interact with inventory, other than use it. The graphics are ok. The music fits the game very well. If you make future games like this, let me know!

Well to end this monstrous post, I thank Bulbapuck for hosting this OROW. Great job, it's been a success! I hope to join the next one, and be in better shape then. I'm glad there was such good outcome though, half way I had the feeling everyone dropped out, but I was wrong . Maybe a lot of folks like me that appreciate the element of surprise when working on entries.

Cheers!

[Dualnames]

@Vince and Wyz: Thanks! That was the intention of the game, to get you confused and depressed. Sorry I caused you problems:

well I felt like drinking after it.

[Cuiki]

A late reply, but anyway:
Thanks to anyone who voted for our game! I was suprised to see it came 3rd for the best game, despite of all the bugs and inconsistencies.

Sadly, I didn't vote because I didn't finish all the games. Of what I've seen so far, my pick would be A Woman for All Seasons, but I think pretty much all the other games possess some nice features as well.

To all of you who would like to play the new version of Well, well, well; please visit the completed games announcements board.
And thanks to everyone who patiently tried to play it from start to end before casting votes. I really appreciate it.