MAGS April: Unexpected

Klaus · Sun 01/04/2007 19:20:52

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?
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.

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This month's guidelines are set by Gamer_V, winner of the last month's competition. These rules go for the unexpected. This doesn't mean that your game has to be weird - you can also make a logical story out of this! A challenging contest...

Topic: Unexpected

- The first line must be "I wish I was a lettuce" (other plants are also okay and/or you can play with the word)
- The game needs to have an confusing menu/console screen (which means it shouldn't be too obvious how it works)
- At least one conversation with a character must make no sense at all to the player
- One inventory item must be something abstract (= love, greed, world peace, etc.)
- The ending needs to be confusing and unexpected to the story

That's it. No other restrictions.

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All games need to be in by April 26th.

Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.

Jon · Sun 01/04/2007 19:45:36

Hmm, I might enter this one, stay tuned!

Quote from: Klaus on Sun 01/04/2007 19:20:52
- The game needs to have an confusing menu/console screen (which means it shouldn't be too obvious how it works)

Sorry if I don't understand, but, would this menu screen mean the actual opening 'Menu Screen'? Or does it have to be in-game?

Gamer_V · Sun 01/04/2007 20:28:00

Quote from: Jon on Sun 01/04/2007 19:45:36
Hmm, I might enter this one, stay tuned!

Quote from: Klaus on Sun 01/04/2007 19:20:52
- The game needs to have an confusing menu/console screen (which means it shouldn't be too obvious how it works)

Sorry if I don't understand, but, would this menu screen mean the actual opening 'Menu Screen'? Or does it have to be in-game?

The way I meant it to be, it could be both. Hence the '/'. Be creative.

I'm doubting if I'll enter, it just doesn't seem such a challenge when I've made up the guidelines. Anyway, good luck to all.

Radiant · Sun 01/04/2007 23:57:01

Our chief weapon is adventures.
Adventures and games...
Games and adventures...
Our TWO weapons are games and adventures... and pretty graphics!
Our THREE weapons are games, adventures, pretty graphics... and an almost fanatical devotion to the Chris.
Our FOUR... no.
AMONGST our weapons...
Amongst our weaponry are such things as adventures, games...
I'll come in again.

Storygamer · Mon 02/04/2007 03:42:39

Hmmmm, I've had an idea for a game for a long time now that would fit these rules...not sure if I will do it though. Right now I'm devoting a lot of time to the game I'm already working on...

Captain Lexington · Mon 02/04/2007 06:02:33

Wait, so the guidelines this month are 'Make 2001: A Space Odyssey' into a game?

This sounds fun, I might actually do this, even though my regular game is taking up a lot of time.

Akatosh · Mon 02/04/2007 10:59:23

Looks like I'll enter this month. I'm really good at confusing and random stuff.

/EDIT: With something really, really unexpected. I mean, it's monthly AGS, not Point'n'Click adventure competition.

/EDIT EDIT: Forget about that. Cascade Failure!

LGM · Mon 02/04/2007 16:54:04

I might actually do this one...

RyRayer · Mon 02/04/2007 21:08:32

Hey, just like my games.

Jon · Tue 03/04/2007 15:41:23

Sorry if i'm nit-picking but

Quote from: Klaus on Sun 01/04/2007 19:20:52
- One inventory item must be something abstract (= love, greed, world peace, etc.)

Can there be more than one item which is abstract?

Akatosh · Tue 03/04/2007 16:28:14

Yeah, while we're at that... would "Internal Functions" count as an abstract inventory item? If no, would a piece of information be possible? Or a 'Stack Error'?

monkey0506 · Fri 06/04/2007 07:38:18

If anyone's interested, I've got an idea for an, "unexpected," "confusing," maybe even "hard-to-work-out" GUI system. Though I haven't really got an idea for a story...and I'm not too hawt with the graphics either. But if anyone's interested in an award-winning GUI system...give me a PM.

Radiant · Fri 06/04/2007 12:55:16

But now that you've said this, your GUI will be expected by people who send you a PM. How's that for a paradox?

Akatosh · Fri 06/04/2007 12:56:06

Right, you should just send it around randomly.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Fri 06/04/2007 12:56:47

Not really. People will expect something unexpected, but they won't know exactly what, so the GUI per se will still be unexpected.

Jon · Fri 06/04/2007 13:37:58

Introducing...

ALIEN ATTACK

My first game, pretty short but it was fun to make.

Download

Playable Characters:
Ginnie: The main character, slightly dim but 'Creative'.
Tay: His real name is James Taylor, but those words are too big for him to manage, so he is known as Tay. He is dim-witted and a n00b.

Enjoy!

Akatosh · Fri 06/04/2007 13:48:50

And that on April 6th! Well, that *was* unexpected... but please, get another filehoster. I hate having to wait on my download link.

/EDIT:

An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this
is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 2.72.920)

Error: DisplayMessage: Invalid message number to display

When using love with the first inventor item.

Buckethead · Fri 06/04/2007 13:57:55

Ehm... I'm not sure if it's allowed to use those graphics. You can only use free music and sounds not free characters and such.

Jon · Fri 06/04/2007 14:49:49

Quote from: Akatosh on Fri 06/04/2007 13:48:50
An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this
is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.
(ACI version 2.72.920)

Error: DisplayMessage: Invalid message number to display

When using love with the first inventor item.

I'll try and get that sorted Akatosh, thanks for that.

Quote from: Mr. BuckÃ©thead on Fri 06/04/2007 13:57:55
Ehm... I'm not sure if it's allowed to use those graphics. You can only use free music and sounds not free characters and such.

Arn't I? I got the hint

Quote from: Klaus on Sun 01/04/2007 19:20:52
you can also use free material that is available to the public.

that you could. Oh well, I don't mind if I lose or get disqualified, it's just a bit of fun

.

monkey0506 · Fri 06/04/2007 15:53:25

Based on what I said anyone who PMs me might expect an award-winning GUI system. But they might get something...ahem....unexpected.

zabnat · Fri 06/04/2007 16:36:00

Quote from: Jon on Fri 06/04/2007 14:49:49
Arn't I? I got the hint
Quote from: Klaus on Sun 01/04/2007 19:20:52
you can also use free material that is available to the public.
that you could. Oh well, I don't mind if I lose or get disqualified, it's just a bit of fun .

Sentences are best read in full

Akatosh · Fri 06/04/2007 19:29:34

And this game... well, it's a bit illogical and broken, if I may say so.

woodz · Fri 06/04/2007 19:55:00

hes got quite a long time to fix it, hopefully someone will say where he's going wrong

Jon · Sat 07/04/2007 13:22:34

Quote from: Akatosh on Fri 06/04/2007 19:29:34
And this game... well, it's a bit illogical and broken, if I may say so.

Oh well, it's a start for me and my game-making career

, this competition was designed for n00bs, like me, to test their game making skills. And like Woodz said

Quote from: woodz on Fri 06/04/2007 19:55:00
hes got quite a long time to fix it, hopefully someone will say where he's going wrong

I can learn from my mistakes.

Akatosh · Sat 07/04/2007 13:26:57

Well, then I wish you good luck. And if I may give you some advice... redraw the rooms (MS Paint "Line" Tool is your friend), do NOT save the backgrounds as .gif (does horrible things to the color), re-import the unlucky cup sprite (transparency messed up), fix the messages and... tell me how to continue after the digging puzzle, I'm completly at a loss (and it was hard enough to get there).

Wells8892 · Sat 07/04/2007 16:58:56

Here is our entry
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=30831.0

Jon · Sat 07/04/2007 17:56:00

Quote from: Akatosh on Sat 07/04/2007 13:26:57
Well, then I wish you good luck. And if I may give you some advice... redraw the rooms (MS Paint "Line" Tool is your friend), do NOT save the backgrounds as .gif (does horrible things to the color), re-import the unlucky cup sprite (transparency messed up), fix the messages and... tell me how to continue after the digging puzzle, I'm completly at a loss (and it was hard enough to get there).

Thanks for the tips Akatosh, I will try and apply your advice in another game. As for the digging puzzle hehe,

Spoiler

Try using your shovel somewhere else

[close]

Akatosh · Sat 14/04/2007 14:34:26

Okay, I've got a question. Is it okay if all my inventory items aren't really, well, items?

Klaus · Sat 14/04/2007 14:49:34

Quote from: Akatosh on Sat 14/04/2007 14:34:26
Is it okay if all my inventory items aren't really, well, items?

Yes that's okay: Talking about "one item" in the rules actually means "at least one item" and as there's no other rule that requires "real items" it's no problem to go that way... Good luck.

Akatosh · Sun 22/04/2007 15:52:44

Everything-else-than-proudly-announcing:

Me Go Store!

This is a mixture of a stylistic experiment, a bad joke game and a "I couldn't finish the real thing in time" mags entry. Don't worry, I'll finish Cascade Failure, but it'd be impossible to make it this month.

New version here!

Now that was unexpected, wasn't it?

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Sun 22/04/2007 22:44:54

Wow, meta-game unexpectedness! You arez awsmoe!!!1!

Radiant · Mon 23/04/2007 18:30:00

Hm, it doesn't work on my computer. That's also rather unexpected.

Akatosh · Tue 24/04/2007 18:22:49

New version of my game here: http://www.evilshare.com/64cd0dd0-43d7-102a-847b-00a0c993e9d6

It's slightly expanded and true to the rules.

[EDIT]: Yes, yes. Bew - New - New - Bew.

zabnat · Thu 26/04/2007 00:08:58

Quote from: Klaus on Sun 01/04/2007 19:20:52
All games need to be in by April 26th.

So what is the exact deadline then

I'm working on my game, it'll be pretty unpolished, but I'm still trying to make it playable...

Ollibony · Thu 26/04/2007 01:16:53

Hello all!

Here's my entry for this 'Unexpected' round. This game is extremely short and rather weird, but that's because it's my first AGS game, so it's more of experiment than the real thing. And besides, I've decided to enter the competition about 3 days ago, and this decicion was absolutely unexpected for me, so I had very little time for this.

So, this is it: "Day of the Fish".

Download

Enjoy

FruitStripeApe · Thu 26/04/2007 04:22:58

April Mags Competition

Cabbage of the Closest Kind: Quest for Knowledge

http://fruitstripeape.googlepages.com/home

http://fruitstripeape.googlepages.com/CabbageQuest.rar

http://fruitstripeape.googlepages.com/CabbageQuest.zip

Klaus · Thu 26/04/2007 08:42:53

Quote from: zabnat on Thu 26/04/2007 00:08:58
Quote from: Klaus on Sun 01/04/2007 19:20:52
All games need to be in by April 26th.
So what is the exact deadline then

Okay, so let's be more exact: The deadline will end in 10 hours from now (see timestamp of this posting). Good luck and cu...

zabnat · Thu 26/04/2007 18:27:08

Ok, here it is. A bit rushed and unpolished. Note that this is not really playtested so it will contain a lot of bugs

Also this is my first game so it has a lot of features that first games have

It's short and has huge filesize, so I hope it takes more time for you to play it than download it $:-\$
Also I hope that it's true enough for the rules

Screens

Download

KC · Thu 26/04/2007 18:55:18

Ok, I came home early from work so I could get close to the deadline. Please excuse a large time difference. Thanks. It's called West Of The Root.

http://tarantulasoup.googlepages.com/PotatoWestern.zip
Please enjoy.

Buckethead · Thu 26/04/2007 19:00:22

Now don't pretend like you expected me to enter on time!

http://files-upload.com/192199/UnexpectedQuest.zip.html

Lots of unexpected problems accured while making this game. No humans nor animals got hurt though.

The game is very weird and unlogic, so be carefull when you play it

Jon · Thu 26/04/2007 19:00:54

Zabnat your link doesn't work.

Buckethead · Thu 26/04/2007 19:03:46

It works if you first click on screens to get at the site and then click on download.

Jon · Thu 26/04/2007 19:16:10

There is no download button for me, must be something wrong with my PC.

P.S. I liked your game Mr. BuckÃ©thead

zabnat · Thu 26/04/2007 19:21:05

Quote from: Jon on Thu 26/04/2007 19:00:54
Zabnat your link doesn't work.

Hmm.. should work. Did you try refreshing the page?

Anybody else having problems?

Buckethead · Thu 26/04/2007 19:23:30

eh well I cannot figure out how to interact inside your game. It must be made on an unexpected way lol

PS: thanks Jon

Klaus · Thu 26/04/2007 19:27:48

So this time we face an unexpected big number of entries! So let's start the voting now...

For voting please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

West Of The Root by KC
Unexpected Quest by Mr. BuckÃ©thead
Test Rat Escape by Wells8892
Odot Tamat On by zabnat
Me Go Store by Akatosh
Day of the Fish by Ollibony
Cabbage of the Closest Kind by FruitStripeApe
Alien Attack by Jon

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

For the time of voting now you're invited to post your opinion about all entries: Pros and cons of the games. What did you like, what not. In this case it's interesting how you compare the games - if this is possible at all.

zabnat · Thu 26/04/2007 19:37:40

Quote from: Mr. BuckÃ©thead on Thu 26/04/2007 19:23:30
eh well I cannot figure out how to interact inside your game. It must be made on an unexpected way lol

Well the interface needed to be confusing

And it is at first. I don't want to spoil the confusing part so:

Spoiler

Try dragging something on the screen. Like a "hand icon" or "mouth icon".

[close]

Spoiler

Click on main character and drag his hands or mouth to hotspots. Left click is walking, right click is looking. Invertory works with drag'n'drop too.

[close]

CodeJunkie · Thu 26/04/2007 20:18:17

This is the best MAGS turnout I think I've ever seen, I'll see if I can play these over the weekend.

zabnat · Fri 27/04/2007 00:35:44

Okay, I've "played" all the games and will now comment on them using plusses and minuses.
Some I've not managed to beat, even when I feel like I've tried everything, but I'm not a very good player so I'll come back to them if/when I'll manage to beat them and if my opinions change.

Alien Attack
+ Some good dialogue lines
+ "Hover" feedback
- Walk speed
- No feedback on actions
- Major graphical inconsistency (even if you are not goot at art, stick to one style)
- Plot?
- Walk speed
Bugs/Other:
Some problems with walkbehinds and transparencies.
"Invalid message number to display" when using butt on brace.
"MoveCharacter: character not in the room" when on the other world with another character.
Couldn't beat the game, maybe I'll try later with a fresh mind.

Cabbage of the Closest Kind
+ Being a cabbage
- No "hover" feedback
- No feedback on actions
Bugs/Other:
Got one "Invalid message number to display" but can't really tell from what, was clicking randomly at the time.
Not sure if I beat this...

Day Of the Fish
+ Partly nice graphics
+ Plot
+ Dialogue
+ Good feedback from actions
+ Fish character
- Graphic inconsistency (fish, flower and house look good, but cloud and taxi driver seem to be of different style)
- No "hover" feedback. Found that one hotspot by randomly clicking around. (in such a small game this is not so bad thing)

Me Go Store
+ Consistent and nice graphic style
+ Plot
+ Dialogue
+ "Hover" feedback.
- A bit too obvious puzzles (this could also be a good thing)
Bugs/Other:
Evil guy vanishes but the hotspot stays?

Test Rat Escape
+ Voice acting
+ "Hover" feedback
- Sound mastering

Unexpected Quest
+ Logical
+ Consistent lo-res graphics
- Feedback on actions
Bugs/Other:
On the second launch I couldn't change cursors or walk anymore.

West Of The Root
+ Atmosphere
+ Graphics
+ Plot
- Ending
- No "Hover" feedback
- Feedback on actions
Bugs/Other:
Couldn't have beaten this if debug mode wasn't active. I couldn't find my way back from room 6.

You'll notice that there's a mention about "hover" feedback (means that cursor reacts to hotspots or there a @overhotspot@ label somewhere) and feedback on action. This is because I feel those are very important things and affects the gameplay a lot.

Good luck to all ~~and I'll edit this post once I get that Test Rat working...~~

edit: added Test Lab Escape

Buckethead · Fri 27/04/2007 10:29:44

Ok here are my critics:

Alien Attack

The first think I noticed was that you used Roger as you character and the he walked very slow. This made playing to game already pretty anoing and boring. The graphics were also kinda messy which some times made it hard to see what you were looking at. (I actually though the piano was a closet

). What I did find good where the cursors you used. Although they are not yours I find them very functional. You puzzles were also OK although hard some times.

Test Rat Escape

I was suprized to see that this game actually had voice acting! Although the volume of it some times got very low it certainly made the game more fun. What I didn't like were the messy graphics. The fonts were pretty hard to read and the cursor buttons at the top just were some awfull colored things that I couldn't recognize., not very functional. In the end I found the game pretty fun. The characters said funny things and the voice acting made it even better!

Me Go Store

What can I say? I love the simple yet funny and functional stuff in this game. It's pretty obvious that it's thrown together in a few days but you managed to make the best of it. I really like it how the characters dodge around when they talk and the simple humour and puzzles. The only bad things were a few small bugs. The hotspot of the evil guy stay when he's gone and when you talk to the store again you get another hate. All by all this game was pretty funny for a few moments, too bad it was so short.

Day of the Fish

This game really had nice and smooth graphic. The cursors where just like in akantosh'es game very funtional. The diolags and such where pretty funny. What I was missing in this game was a menu gui and hoevering over hotspots to make it clearer what to do.

Cabbage of the closest kind

I really like the fact that you play as a cabbage and how you roll around. It was funny and it moved smoothly. For the rest this game was pretty poor. There were no hotspots to click on and give you info or some hints. I'm not sure if this game even had and ending.

West of the Root

I like the art style of this game and the way the characters talk. It was fun to walk around for a while but I quickly got bored because there was no really feedback on the action. There was also no info given when I looked at a inventory item. Which sometimes made me wonder what the item supposed to be. Overall it was pretty nicely done and I wish I gotten a little further in it.

Odottamaton

What can I say? I liked it all the way. This game did everything right. The graphic were good and the game had some nice special features. The way of moving around worked well once I figured it out. Everything that looked like something was a hotspot with info. The game had nice animations also. I really loved this game, you got my vote Zabnat!

My own game

Although my game was confusing I hope you enjoyed the silly humour in it. It had some bugs and flaws but I rushed it much in the end to make it deadline. The cursor bug was one I couldn't fix on time. You can work your way around it by clicking on 'menu' at the top and then click on OK.

All by all I find that this MAGS had a great out come. The rules were pretty hard, yet there were still many entries. In all of the entries was putten efford and most of them came out nicely

Akatosh · Fri 27/04/2007 15:12:30

Wow, people actually like Me Go Store? :o

You know that means an extended version, yes?

Jon · Fri 27/04/2007 16:24:32

Here's my take on the games, great turnout!

Alien Attack

This was my first game, so I know it isn't perfect. Graphics were pretty bad and it was filled with bugs. But on the plus side, I drew one hell of a 'Blue cup o' love'!

Test Rat Escape
I also found that the text was quite hard to see; but I think that was why the voice acting was included. It was short and simple, but you could tell that a lot of work had been put in for the voice acting.

Me Go Store
Another classic from Akatosh

. Seriously though, I thought the gameplay was very good; with an 'Interesting' story. It was very easy to play and I enjoyed the humor.

Day of the Fish
This was probably one of my favourite entries, due to the nice graphics and dialog. I would have prefered the game to be longer though.

Cabbage of the closest kind

I didn't really understand this game, it had no purpose.

West of the Root

I like the backgounds of this game, but I never completed it as when I tried to

Spoiler

Shoot the bad guy

[close]

Nothing happened.

Odottamaton

Unfortunatly I was unable to download this game. But by the sounds of it, the game was very good.

Unexpected Quest
I enjoyed this game a lot, with crazy humor such as the Jaywalking ending, quite unique! You got my vote.

It was very pleasing to see many people eager to enter the competition, good luck to all!

Buckethead · Fri 27/04/2007 18:30:38

I'm such a lucky bastard that you didn't manage to download Odottamaton because it was a very good game. You might have voted for it lol

I'm glad you liked my game and thanks alot for the vote!

Ollibony · Fri 27/04/2007 21:56:56

I'm glad that you guys liked my game. Didn't expect such positive feedback, really!

And thanks for the constructive criticism, too.

A bit later I'll try to write down my review of your games, until then I just say: zabnat, you are the best!

FruitStripeApe · Sat 28/04/2007 01:38:28

SUPER SPOILER
Cabbage Quest Help

Spoiler

Use rage on the center of the field.
After you use the rage you click on the top left screen to advance.
Then add poo to the oil then add the rocks then roll over it then roll into the hole.

Have fun with Circle Boy at the end.

[close]

Edited by moderator: You know, that you can use the [hide] [/hide] tags for spoilers.

Klaus · Tue 01/05/2007 09:59:18

So after a long time we have a real MAGS competition again: A (kind of) big number of entries, different game styles and the exciting uncertainty about who's to win...

First: Thanks for all your reviews. They surely will help the game creators to improve their next games.

Now who's to win..? It is easy to say this time as the winner received roughly the same number of votes as all the other games together. So congratulations go to zabnat and his first game Odot Tamat On!

Also many thanks to all other participants for entering the contest...
I hope MAGS in May will end in the same big number of entries... cu then.

Buckethead · Tue 01/05/2007 13:19:41

Well that certainly was what I was expected. That does no good the theme of this month.

Good that zabnat won, he disurved it if you ask me. The other entries were also very nice if you ask me. I dunno about you guys but I can't wait for the next MAGS. I'm curious what zabnat will come up with.