OROW 8 (July 1st - July 7th) - Results

Started by cat, Mon 10/06/2013 09:23:51

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Adeel

If this thread will remain open for a week. Then I'll provide you with my reviews. I need to play them again for proper review.

Grundislav

Hooray!  Congratulations to everyone, and I have to say I was very impressed with this batch of games, not just because of their quality, but also because of the sheer number of participants. 

LimpingFish

Well done everybody! Some damn fine quality games all round!

Pablo! I really dug EAoGaR! It's the first time in a while that I've actually laughed out loud at a game. Really well done to both you and Nemo.

As for the rest of the games, I'll just say this. There wasn't one game among them that I felt let down by (except mine :P). It was one of the strongest OROWs I've ever played. It really was difficult omitting some games over others when it came time to vote.

As for my own entry, it came about on the Saturday before the deadline, after two aborted entries (the first was to be abandoned due to the loss of a functioning AGS 3.x, while the second was nowhere near finished), and was really just me making a point about managing your time properly. The opening quote basically translates to time wasted is time gone forever, while the title, Fly Paper, was a joke about luring the player in, in this case with a dramatic intro, before revealing the truth.

Apologies if anyone felt gypped.  ;)

And thanks to cat for organizing, and to AGA for setting up the voting.
Steam: LimpingFish
PSN: LFishRoller
XB: TheActualLimpingFish
Spotify: LimpingFish

Ponch

Congrats to the winners! I would have voted, but I still have two games left to play. :-[

I hope we can do this again next year!

Vince Twelve

Quote from: LimpingFish on Mon 15/07/2013 17:55:40
[...]the title, Fly Paper, was a joke about luring the player in, in this case with a dramatic intro, before revealing the truth.

Oh, you!

AJA

A huge congrats to Pablo and qptain Nemo! I was very conflicted about which game I liked best, since there were so many good ones this time, but I really can't complain that yours won, it was absolutely hilarious!

Okay, time for reviews! I'm probably going to repeat some of what Vince has already mentioned but here goes anyway, in alphabetical order... There may be SPOILERS ahead!


The Addict
This fun little game didn't have much graphical oomph but the weird gameplay and writing held my interest. The dialogue between the protagonist and the narrator was fun, as was contacting god himself. As I started chatting with the mirror and the cup, I was certain someone was having a mental breakdown, in a good way. Gladly it wasn't me. One thing that drove me a bit crazy was that the cursor was almost the same color as the back wall and got lost really easily. Other than that, good work!

Betrayal
Wow, that was one mind-bendy game. The door puzzles were a really nice and novel idea and the whole room transformation thing was really effective and creepy. The story itself was as confusing as I'm sure it was meant to be. Was there any use for the pendant at all? A nice little game, well done!

The Butler Didn't Do It
Oh the hilarity! The writing was great! Silly, insane and brilliant. Loved it! "How did you open the closet?" "Let's just say I googled a walkthrough." HOW DID YOU KNOW!? ;D (Yeah, I had some trouble finding the book hotspot.) There were so many utterly ridiculous moments in this game I can't even remember them all. The brother admitting being the murderer, the detective's murder, the doctor turning out to be a horse, the piano. The ending was a bit of a letdown but not so much that it changed the way I felt about this game. Also, the graphics matched the style of the writing really well. My only problem with the game was that you couldn't skip the intro and quickly restore your save. Awesome job, all in all!

The Crystal Ball
At first I thought the game was broken since the only interaction I got was for clicking on the exit. But thanks to Nemo and his OROW8 trailer video, I finally realized that it was in fact a verb coin GUI. :P I really loved the concept and the atmosphere of this game. The art style was very fitting and I happen to like art that's a little rough around the egdes. Gently pumping the criminal for information was really interesting. I just wish there was more of a chance to fail, ie. to scare the criminal away, and more actual gameplay to properly figure out how to get the info out of him. But it was great for a week's work! I hope you'll keep polishing the concept for a future game.

Draconis!
At first I was slightly concerned that the game would be just about running around with the dragon, collecting some gems and burning up some knights, but I was happily surprised to realize that it was actually a proper puzzle game. The second level was quite hard, it took quite a few tries to completely understand the different gameplay mechanics and how they worked together. (Some of the stuff was probably mentioned in the help screen but I forgot about most of it quickly.) The third, and sadly final (proper), level was much easier than the second. The biggest issues I had with the game were that you couldn't save the game and that the dragon moved so damn slowly. But overall it was lots of fun!

Educating Adventures of Girl and Rabbit
I was sold at the first slap. I enjoy playing silly and absurd games even more than I enjoy making them so this was definitely one of my favorites. After the intro I paused for a while and hoped the game would remain funny all the way through, and as I reached for my drink... *SLAP* "Don't just stand around! Do something!" Biggest grin caused by a game in a long while! The writing in this game was so much fun. The only downside was that towards the end the puzzle solutions became a bit too obvious. A well deserved win! Thanks, guys!

Fly paper
Perfect length! ;D

Jack Trekker
Oh boy, I got off on the wrong foot with this one. The intro was awesome but as soon as the game started, I realized that this protagonist guy was a total asshole. I have issues with these kinds of macho idiots so I was really hoping he would end up totally mauled and shredded to pieces by the end. (That's how I justified writing one such beast myself.) Sadly, it didn't happen. :P I liked how much effort had gone into the art and animations (so many gradients!) and the puzzles were very nice as well. I had some problems with not finding the "open mouth" hotspot for a while but I got there in the end. Also, save & load wasn't supported but the reload hotkey was still available, and no way to skip the intro. While the protagonist wasn't really my cup of tea, the game itself was very enjoyable and chatting with the three dames did produce some laughs. Good work!

Kanji Gakusei
I'm ashamed to say that I haven't finished this one yet. I'm still missing the kanjis for cat and fish. I enjoyed the cute and simple graphics and the challening puzzles. It took a while for me to realize that I could get the mountain kanji with the coal and the piece of paper. Boy did I feel stupid for not realizing that sooner. I clearly suck at adventure games. The music was a bit annoying at times but overall it's been a nice little game.

MI
Beautiful art style and overall atmosphere! The voice acting was a nice cherry on top. The gameplay was a bit simple but otherwise enjoyable. The problem for me was that the game was just sooo slow-paced. Everything seemed to take a really long time from the slow running to the slow fade outs/ins when going through doors. And on top of it all, bringing up the UI interrupted the movement compeletely. Also, the save/load GUIs weren't working (I'm assuming they weren't even meant to be accessible). I would've really liked to know more about the characters and especially the back story - who were the bad guys and why were they after the heroes? But even with the slowness issue, I did enjoy the game, good job!

One Dungeon One Week
Holy fcking shit! That's really impressive for a week's work! Apart from the blinking doorways, the tech worked well and it was a real pleasure to explore the dungeon. A couple of times it was a bit hard to start fighting since I walked past the enemy and had to keep turning around to see where he'd gone but I did get those green buggers in the end! The eery mood was really enjoyable. My main gripes were that sometimes the input seemed really laggy and that I would've liked it to go on a bit longer. Great work!

Sinking
I found the concept of this game really interesting. The gameplay was exciting and hectic and I was surprised to find myself enjoying the feeling of hopelessness. The graphics looked good and worked well in the context. There were some problematic bits, however, as there usually are with quickly made prototypes of new kinds of gameplay. First of all, I think the experience could have been improved by removing fall damage altogether since you had to keep running around the place all the time and the enjoyability of the funny sound/animation of the poor sod falling on his face wore out quickly. And the crew seems to be utterly useless? It was also weird that I got more points for getting killed than for winning the game. Even weirder: needing to completely restart the game in order to try again. Anyway, I feel like this game has lots of promise to be fantastic if it's developed further. A really impressive effort for one week. Great job!

Tattooroom
The art was really pretty. The gameplay itself was a bit confusing. First of all, in all four of my tries, the customer wanted the exact same tattoo: a siren. I would've thought the tattoo would be randomized since there was a bunch of books with different tattoos but maybe it was just a matter of running out of dev time? Also, I had some trouble putting items back on the table. Nevertheless, it was a fun little game, well done!

The Reaper
Wow. Gorgeous. It's amazing how much Ben's art has improved over the years. Simply stunning work, including all the animations! Definitely the prettiest of the bunch. And the music completed the athmosphere really well. The main issue with this one was... "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" YES! MULTIPLE TIMES! :P It's a bit of a pity it seems to have been only a prologue to something bigger and even awesomer. I was hoping to find out more about the characters and the game world in this game but I guess I can wait. Overall, this game looks and feels like a completely polished little adventure. Awesome work!

The Rebirth
The story of this game was really intriguing and very dramatic. Too bad we didn't have the chance to get deeper into the backstory. The dialogue was really well written and the art & animation looked great! There wasn't much gameplay (like most OROW games) but all of it was good and kept the story going without stalling at a difficult puzzle. I guess The Reaper happens in the same universe some time later? You should've named these differently so we would have played them in the "correct" order. ;D Oh and, to be continued? Not you too, Grundislav! :P Great game!


And wow, I just realized none of the games crashed for me. There's usually been at least one game that goes out in a flash of press-ok-to-replay-through-everything. But not this time. Great job, everyone!


Holy hell, that was a lot of games and a lot of words to write. I hope at least some of you find these comments useful in your current or future projects.

Thanks again to everyone who managed to complete their game for this OROW! It was a blast playing them all. Can't wait for the next one, I just wish I'll have time to participate myself.

WHAM

Word on Sinking:

Since everyone seems to think the NPC's are useless, here's what they actually do:
Cap'n: warns you when an obstacle is coming up and you need to avoid it (no warning if he is down or dead)
Gunny: loads the torpedoes for you automatically
Pump man: enhances water pumps so you can survive 3 simultaneous leaks instead of just 2
Engie: increases engine power, making you travel faster and thus win the game faster

The scoring was a bit odd, I admint, but I didn't have time to playtest enough to fine-tune it.

If you want to see how my game was made, you can see the whole process (in high speed, accompanied by silly music) here: http://youtu.be/BW5tVf3VQEA
(The video is still uploading as I post this, but should be viewable in a while)'

Final note: Sinking will not be developed further, but might act as a base for future games. The platforming worked surprisingly well despite basically being made in a few hours and I can definitely expand on it to deliver a platforming adventure game one day. Thanks to everyone for playing and voting! Me being second only to Khris is a pretty big honor, actually. :)
Wrongthinker and anticitizen one. Pending removal to memory hole. | WHAMGAMES proudly presents: The Night Falls, a community roleplaying game

Bulbapuck

#347
Vince twelve and AJA, thank you so much for the kind words. I love your games so it means a lot to me.

As for the pendant, there is an easter egg to find in the game where you need the pendant. It also clarifies some of the story, but it's not necessary. The end of the game is that quote (any click anywhere should take you out of the game and I don't really know why it doesn't :p)

My computer sadly broke down (posting this at a friends house) so I'll see if I can find a way to play through the games once more to give a few words about the games, but I can say right now that I enjoyed every entry. This was an amazing OROW, thank you cat for hosting it :)

Ubel

Well, here are some opinions. I'm not a big review writer so they're pretty short and basic.

Betrayal - I really enjoyed this game purely for the design concept. I didn't really get too much into the story of it but the way the room transition was designed was lovely and it felt overall very immersing. Well done!

Draconis! - Very impressive programming! I was pretty shit at this game though so I didn't get past the first level. :D

Educating Adventures of Girl and Rabbit - A couple of things. I want to mention the sound effects and the music, which were all made from scratch by qptain Nemo. The slapping sound you hear often in the game was produced by Nemo actually slapping his own face multiple times before getting a decent sample. I salute him for his commitment. The music was also produced under a strict deadline so he did a great job within those limitations!

Fly Paper - This one cracked me up and I actually laughed out loud. :D

Jack Trekker - Out of all these games, this one definitely has the best main character! Really funny dialog, great graphics and that intro video was just golden! Definitely among my favourite OROW games, all time.

Kanji Gakusei - Great to see we weren't the only ones making educational games for this contest! The graphics were cute, the puzzles were just right. I don't have much to say except overall a good little game. :)

MI - The voice acting and art was very good and I hope you continue this into a longer full length game. I'm intrigued by the background story.

One Dungeon One Week - Really really impressive stuff. I can't fathom how you pulled this off in one week! Combined with a good storyline this would make for a really entertaining experience.

Sinking - Now, I didn't play this much, apart from trying it out pretty quickly. I don't know what it was that put me off, maybe the whole feeling of being thrown into this hectic platformer environment all of a sudden. It looks very good and the controls felt alright. It seemed pretty solid but I can't say much because I didn't play through it.

Tattooroom - This one also made me laugh and it's among the prettiest OROW games ever.

The Addict - This one I didn't play much either because I was put off by the odd dialog and the simple fact that I didn't really know what was going on. I didn't mind the simple art though since I'm usually a sucker for simplistic art styles, as long as it's consistent and the gameplay is good.

The butler didn't do it - Hilarious music. :D Great characters and dialog too. The art style was effective and I can see quite a bit of effort has gone into it. I didn't finish it yet but I might get back to it.

The Crystal Ball - Brilliantly written game and good looking too! I played this through a couple of times and would love to see it expanded into a more diversely branching dialog puzzle.

The Reaper - Looks amazing. You outdid yourself with the art. I didn't particularly like the puzzles in this one but everything else was ace!

The Rebirth - Another fantastic main character! Really interesting and I found the whole concept immersing. Well written and the puzzles were clever and inventive.

kaput

My thoughts, sponsored by rant co. Here:

Betrayal
When I started to play the game I wasn't really sure what direction it was going to head in, then as things progressed I was pleasantly surprised to see it take such a poetic turn. Being taken through the sequence of memory events that lead to the grim finale was a thoroughly interesting experience.

Draconis!
The coding here makes this game a great little number. It's a real eye opener and great example of how flexible the AGS really is. Like others I did find the second level hard and didn't manage to complete it, but I did enjoy playing it. The level maker gives the game  great replay value.

Educating Adventures of Girl and Rabbit
As soon as the rabbit started talking from behind the bush I knew something really funny was about to happen (grim or otherwise), and like others when the rabbit planted a slap on the girls face I couldn't help but burst out laughing. A brilliant interpretation of the whole fairytale kid-meets-animal-goes-on-adventure thing. I love how incredibly pessimistic the game is. the bit at the end with the businessmen jumping up for the money was pure brilliance. It's a fantastic piece of work.

Fly Paper
Yep, the game roped me in as well. I was like "This is going to be amazing". When the punch line kicked in I laughed like a hyena. Was that supposed to be a singalong?

Kanji Gakusei
A really nice and cute little game. It has it's educational qualities but like others I think it would have been pretty cool to have learned more. The graphics and music were charming. All in all a good OROW game.

MI
What can I say, the intro was awesome. Nice voice work. Good relaxing music. I did get stuck at times and felt that characters moved a bit slow but I did like the game mechanics. A very contemporary game both in art and concept. Nice one.

One Dungeon One Week
This could really be extended to be quite an excellent game. The coding and programming of the dungeon system is obviously pretty awe inspiring and again shows the flexibility of AGS. I only wished there was more to it. The music provided the atmosphere I would hope to expect from such a game.

Sinking
this game was actually my favourite, up there with Girl and Rabbit. Brilliant idea and IMO executed perfectly - especially for a weeks work. The music was really groovy and the graphics were nice and contemporary. The replay value of this game is massive. I'll probably play many times more!

Tattooroom
I found this game to be really chilled out and pretty nice to look at. The pop-eye character was pretty hilarious with his sound bite. Considering the game was done in a week I'd say it's a great achievement but I also feel that it could be developed further into a pretty great tattoo sim. I hope it does!

The Addict
Nice work for a first game, Adeel. You can be forgiven for the lack of animation because of this reason, not to mention the fact that it was made in a week. The music and intro screen made this game feel very retro, certainly in a nostalgic way. Speaking to god was pretty funny but speaking to the hand dryer??? That was hilarious. Well done, mate. Pure insanity.

The butler didn't do it
The music for this one rocked. What a great idea to go A cappella - and it really worked. I too found the writing in this one to be hilarious - the doctor was a horse!? Who'd have thought it. The death scenes really did make this game what it is, and yes, the last one was epic haha.  Once criticism is yes, I had problems with moving to the other side of the screen at times. But really that is something that can be fixed pretty easily.

The Crystal Ball
A really good concept that I feel could have done with a little more. The atmosphere was great and I liked the art, but I feel like I was mostly lead by the hand when playing. That's not to say that it wasn't awesome, because it was. It's a world I'd like to revisit some day when more is happening, if that makes any sense? The music is great, Kevin MacLeod is brilliant.

The Reaper & The Rebirth
I'm gonna write about these two together because I feel as though they belong together. Both the concept and artwork in these games are tops. Grundislav is brilliant at rotoscoping and clearly is getting better at what he does esp in terms of graphics. Ben's artwork is so striking and lovely and I' m pretty sure everyone can agree with that. These games are a great way to introduce the player to what is to come, and I for one highly anticpate what that will be. The music was brilliant (especially in The Reaper), absolutely my cup of tea. The intro of The Rebirth could have done with some music but what can you do. When it did kick in it was really good (esp the final scene music and timing of it).  I guess my only problem was the movement speed of the character in The Reaper, but I can deal with it. Great stuff

Ghost

Quote from: Pablo on Tue 16/07/2013 08:39:00
The slapping sound you hear often in the game was produced by Nemo actually slapping his own face multiple times before getting a decent sample.

So now we know what nemo's face sounds like! That IS educational  (laugh)

Great games all around, and well deserved winners. It's really amazing to see the variety of styles, plots, ideas... overwhelming in the best sense of the word.

tzachs

Thanks for everybody that commented on our game. I'm happy people found it funny and liked the music.
I hope to polish the game and integrate your feedback (and yes, I'll put markers on the inventory items!) and then publish to the database. Though I did say the same thing on Office Shenanigans (last OROW's game) and still haven't delivered, so we'll see...

This has been a wonderful OROW, I enjoyed all the entries, and I think almost all possible results outcomes would have made me say "well deserved winners", since really (kitsch alert), everybody's a winner here!
Though my vote actually did win, so congratulations Pablo & Nemo!
And thanks to cat for being a wonderful host!

Here's my mini-reviews, I wrote most of it a while back, so I do repeat stuff that people already said, sorry about that:

Betrayal-
Really cool concept with the doors, a very creative game mechanic. Good programming skills to pull that off. The story and twist was nice (though nothing that I haven't seen before), and the execution was interesting. I wasn't quite immersed as I should have, probably due to me not getting much background info on the character and/or not enough time with it.
I believe that in a full length game you'll have more time to flesh out the character so it will probably work better.

Draconis-
Cool game, very impressed that it was programmed in one week. Level design was spot on, there were some challenging puzzles there. Nice graphics too, the dragon and the gems with their sparkling animations were very cute.
I eventually quit without finishing because I was frustrated with two things:
1. Every time you die (or get stuck) you start from the beginning of the levels. Since the levels were long, this was frustrating.
2. You die a lot and the game is not very forgiving. It seems that firing at the enemies was not always as quick as anticipated...
Hardcore gamers might like this, but if you want to approach a more "casual" crowd, then this would have to be amended by sleeker controls and shorter levels (or long levels with save points).

Girl and Rabbit-
Hilarious game! A lot of time was invested in the jokes and it shows. The slap animation is fantastic and kept cracking us up. The graphics were very good too, and the music fit nicely with them. The ending was brilliant too.
If I do have some critic to offer, is that the businessman mini-game was a bit annoying and needlessly time consuming. The concept was hilarious, but the execution lacked a bit. Making them visible just a little more time and making sure that the distribution of colors was more even would have made it more bearable.
By the way, up until playing "The Rebirth", I was sure this was Grundislav's game, just to show you how funny I thought the game was.

Fly Paper-
Hilarious! Epic fail! This is a fantastic way to go down in flames...
This game should be submitted in all OROWs from now on if you ask me, it could be a wonderful running gag (maybe use a different name every time).

Jack Trekker
A kickass introduction! Though it did set up the bars quite high, and the game itself was not of the same quality (or style, for that matter).
Don't get me wrong, though, I liked the game a lot.
It has a nice atmosphere, and nice puzzles to go with it. I'm a big fan of talking heads, and enjoyed some of the humor in the game. Although there were some inconsistencies in the graphic styles, the art was quality overall (though I would change the colors of the walls which were a bit too flashy for me).

Kanji Gakusei
Very nice graphics, and unlike some other game on this list, this one was actually educational!
The atmosphere of this game was consistent throughout the graphics, puzzles, dialogs and music, which was nice.
My main critic of this game is that the puzzles were not challenging enough (except the puzzle with the coal and paper which was cool), and since this game is more puzzle oriented than story oriented, it was vital for the game to really shine.

MI
I liked the game, voice acting added a lot. I liked the mechanism of switching between the characters and using it to solve puzzles. Though I think this was also a trap: On one hand I thought maybe you could have come up with more sophisticated uses for this mechanism. On the other hand, some of the puzzles were basically repeating the same idea, and then it seemed tiresome that you should do it over again.
So you showed some innovation but it requires some more experimintation to get it right. I think adding some more back story would have given it some more spice, I was expecting an ending scene with the monster that locked you up in the first place, I guess there was not enough time (and believe me, I can relate to that).

ODOW
I have a major dislike for first person 3D, but I bit the bullet and played the game to completion.
I was very impressed! It was very smooth, and didn't give me a headache (which is why I usually don't play these sort of games).
Some great programming, and a great proof of concept.

Sinking
This game shows great potential. The atmosphere was very tense and the back story intriguing. The gameplay has a lot of potential, and can probably be balanced more to provide a great experience. It does need work though. First, it was unclear what needs to be done, and the texts went by so fast I didn't manage to read them. Also, it wasn't clear who said what. When taking a new piece of inventory, the old inventory is thrown away, but it took me a while to understand that, I thought you shoot something downwards and didn't realize you replace your inventory. You need to find some better way to clarify that. Lastly, I would have made the character recover faster after falling down, since he fell down a lot...
On a side note, I noticed this is your second game in which you deal with a sinking submarine, which made me wonder if you have a small obsession  ;)

Tattooroom
What a lovely game! I loved the concept, and think this can be enhanced to a much larger game, with all kinds of customers with crazy demands and puzzles rising in difficulty (or alternatively, this could be made into a fast action type of game, which you need to do a lot of tattoos fast).
The graphics were beautiful as well, and the sound effects also. I tried to think of some constructive criticism, but couldn't find any... that doesn't usually happen to me, so let me just tell you well done!

The addict
I really liked the music in this one, well done on that. The game itself was weird and refreshing. It showed some great humor, some of it was probably lost due to not being enhanced enough by the environment. For example, the entire concept of the room changing to living things talking to you (which is a great concept), could have been made more dramatic if there were proper sound effects/music transitions, and if the whole room suddenly transormed and changed style. The living objects could have been made more alive, god talking to you could have been made more impressive, etc.
I also believe I stumbled upon a bug, I talked to the cup first and got to assemble the key before talking to the urinal...
Anyways, for a first game (which was made in a week), this definitely shows promise.

The crystal ball
Again, really nice concept. Great graphics, the visual effects made the atmosphere in the game shine. This game also has some replay value, which is also a nice plus. I like branching dialogs as a main mechanic, and it worked well, though they could have used a little more polish since they were very essential to the game experience. By a little more polish I mean going over all the branches and making sure it all makes sense, it felt that in some of the dialogs you assumed they talked about stuff that they might not actually talked about yet. Maybe it's just a feeling, but a feeling is everything...
Also I felt that the move between the cop and the criminal was too sudden. First, I wasn't ready to leave the cop, I wanted to talk with him some more. And the criminal just appeared with no introduction dialog. This should be thought of, maybe wait for the user to explicitly say he's done with the cop, and then do some "oh, I hear him coming..." with some tension music.
All in all, a very nice and innovative game, with a unique atmosphere.

The Reaper + The Rebirth
Wow! What a great idea, creating two teaser games to promote a big epic game, great stuff. I also liked seeing how you shared elements between the games. The graphics in both games were stunning, the animations were top notch (and wow for that raven animation), the story and the twists gripping, and in short I'm very much intrigued to see the finished product.
I wonder if you already have everything planned, or if you were improvising a little.
My only issue with the games is that the puzzles felt a little rushed, I sorta got the feeling that you put it there for the sake of "let there be puzzles" and maybe they could be thought of more to be more challenging and/or entertaining. This was an issue I had in both games.

Stupot

Quote from: Sunny Penguin on Mon 15/07/2013 16:25:46
QuoteJack Trekker had puzzles?
Cheeky bugger  (laugh)
Haha, no honestly, something must have gone awry.  I've since played the game again and enjoyed the puzzles :)

cat

Thanks for the comments about our game! raeff was very happy about the 5th place for music, since he even did some research about Japanese instruments and searched them in the midi library.

About learning more in the game: The original plan was to let the player not only stick the found kanji in the book but let him or her draw them with mouse gestures. This would actually have been the main part. I still want to do that for a deluxe version of the game.

Here are my comments for the games:

Betrayal
I did like the game mechanics very much. I think the appearing and disappearing rooms presented the state of mind of the protagonist very well. The music was nice but a bit too up-beat for my taste to fit the mood of the game. The theme reminded me a bit of "9 months in".

Draconis!
Well coded Digger-clone. It took me several tries to beat the first level and I gave up on the second. I didn't much like the original, either. I guess this is just not my type of game.

Educating Adventures of Girl and Rabbit
Amusing game, took me a while to figure out what this was about. I loved the slapping animation and the negative counter.

Fly Paper
Too bad you didn't finish it, it was very promising!

Jack Trekker
The secret lovechild of Indiana Jones and Johnny Bravo :) I loved the character and his comments were so much fun! I'd just have expected more puzzles, for example somehow deciphering the hieroglyphs or stuff.

MI
Lovely! Great voiceacting and atmosphere, I loved her hairstyle and the animation. I only wasn't too fond of how this teleporting stuff was done, there could have been more interesting interaction between the two characters.

One Dungeon One Week
Well coded, I even managed to finish this game. Is there something I could do during the fights? Did it matter where I clicked or something?

Sinking
Interesting concept, you seem to like underwater stuff :). Tried it twice at medium difficulty and died twice - is it possible to win this game? I had problems walking to the correct point to climb the ladders.

Tattooroom
Nice idea, funny graphics. I'd have loved to play this with different customers and more templates.

The Addict
The dialog/monolog and setting with talking to bathroom items was fun, I had to laugh out loud several times. Also great music. A bit more polish would have been great, but none the less a good first game, especially considering the short time frame.

The butler didn't do it
Best plot and very nice music. One hotspot was hard to find. I found it hard to walk between the two different parts of the room. People dying one after the other was hilarious.

The Crystal Ball
Interesting idea. I played it twice to see if I could change the outcome by choosing different dialog options. However, I didn't notice much difference. Did she say a wrong name in the end and if yes, why?

The Reaper
Amazing graphics, also great effect on the jar in the foreground. The walking animation was a bit stiff. After a few times I found the walking forth and back between pump and switch a bit annoying.

The Rebirth
Great story, very emotional. The moment when you open the door was great (especially if you played The Reaper before). I wonder where this is going.

tzachs

Quote from: cat on Wed 17/07/2013 11:17:29
Jack Trekker
... I'd just have expected more puzzles, for example somehow deciphering the hieroglyphs or stuff.

Well, actually..
Spoiler

You can decipher the hieroglyphs. That's how you know how to solve the last puzzle of the game.
I say try it again, it's actually a very nice puzzle.
[close]

cat

For me, that happened somehow automatically.
Spoiler
I looked at the stuff and then I had another dialog option.
[close]

tzachs

cat,
Spoiler

I think that the dialog option gets added when you have the clue you need to decipher the message.
When you click on the new dialog you get a few seconds in which you should execute the clue, though I guess you just brute forced your way by trying everything you had on the talking head...
[close]

oraxon

Thanks for the kind words and/or constructive comments on The Crystal Ball. I'm going to try to revise it and add another ending.
I apologize for using public domain music. That was a stupid mistake. I didn't read the rules closely enough, but I sure will next time.

Betrayal- Ingenious design. Emotional. Mystery was embedded in the game mechanics. Made me want to know more.
Draconis- Hard but clever. Really shows off great, experienced puzzle planning. I had no idea we could do this with AGS. Fun to be the dragon for once, and deal with pesky knights.
Flypaper- Sorry you ran out of time!
Girl and Rabbit- Tons of funny writing! Great pop quizzes and clever scripting to put it together. Liked how the gun mini-game broke up the gameplay. I enjoyed the relaxing width of the world.
Jack Trekker- Appreciated getting multiple characters, lipsync, combining inv. puzzles, intro cutscene, a bit of everything. And it was truly in one room. Everything contributed to a very strong style.
KanjiGakusei- Liked having an unusual heroine and a non-violent series of solid puzzles. Made me want to visit the location. I found objects just when I needed to. It had a friendly vibe, and felt sleek - it does just what it needs to do.
Mi- I never realized these mechanics could be done in AGS. Loved hearing their voices. Nice clean look. Appealing characters. Switching characters is always great. Fun cat animations. I hope they defeat their enemies someday.
ODOW- Amazing engineering & visual feat. Great potential for a longer game, but short enough to be easily playable. Good music, too. Pushing the boundaries of AGS.
Sinking- Fun, confident, easy gameplay. (but I'm sure the engineering was not easy!) Nice to have difficulty levels, a timer, and timed events. Easy to navigate and understand. Lots going on and constant, varied things to do. Attractive characters and background. Fun replay value.
TattooRoom- Great concept and game design. Loved the art style. Such a different vibe than everyone else. Enjoyed the realistic steps of the puzzle, and the tension of a timer. This would be a great longer game. Dying to see the next customers.
The Addict- Lots of potential. I'm afraid I got a bit stuck, so I can't comment.
The Butler- Fun to have so many whimsical characters with different states. Intriguing and hilarious at the same time. Really taking advantage of the "one room" idea. Suspense built every time I crossed the room! Good music.
The Reaper- Solid, puzzly adventure. The main puzzle complicated itself in a fun, realistic way. Gorgeous mood, color, polish. Nice deep world suggested through the details. Enjoyed the banter between characters.
The Rebirth- Loved the high drama. Impressive reversals of fortune for everyone in a short time. Deep world suggested through details. Great use of anticipation/suspense. Careful placement of music. Very cool that it linked up with The Reaper.

Radiant

Quote from: AJA on Mon 15/07/2013 20:34:05
Draconis!
At first I was slightly concerned that the game would be just about running around with the dragon, collecting some gems and burning up some knights, but I was happily surprised to realize that it was actually a proper puzzle game. The second level was quite hard, it took quite a few tries to completely understand the different gameplay mechanics and how they worked together. (Some of the stuff was probably mentioned in the help screen but I forgot about most of it quickly.) The third, and sadly final (proper), level was much easier than the second. The biggest issues I had with the game were that you couldn't save the game and that the dragon moved so damn slowly. But overall it was lots of fun!

Quote from: Pablo on Tue 16/07/2013 08:39:00
Draconis! - Very impressive programming! I was pretty shit at this game though so I didn't get past the first level. :D

Quote from: Sunny Penguin on Tue 16/07/2013 15:49:29
Draconis!
The coding here makes this game a great little number. It's a real eye opener and great example of how flexible the AGS really is. Like others I did find the second level hard and didn't manage to complete it, but I did enjoy playing it. The level maker gives the game  great replay value.

Quote from: tzachs on Tue 16/07/2013 19:14:04
Draconis-
Cool game, very impressed that it was programmed in one week. Level design was spot on, there were some challenging puzzles there. Nice graphics too, the dragon and the gems with their sparkling animations were very cute.
I eventually quit without finishing because I was frustrated with two things:
1. Every time you die (or get stuck) you start from the beginning of the levels. Since the levels were long, this was frustrating.
2. You die a lot and the game is not very forgiving. It seems that firing at the enemies was not always as quick as anticipated...
Hardcore gamers might like this, but if you want to approach a more "casual" crowd, then this would have to be amended by sleeker controls and shorter levels (or long levels with save points).

Quote from: cat on Wed 17/07/2013 11:17:29
Draconis!
Well coded Digger-clone. It took me several tries to beat the first level and I gave up on the second. I didn't much like the original, either. I guess this is just not my type of game.

Quote from: oraxon on Thu 18/07/2013 08:40:09
Draconis- Hard but clever. Really shows off great, experienced puzzle planning. I had no idea we could do this with AGS. Fun to be the dragon for once, and deal with pesky knights.

Thank you for your feedback! I've started a Game In Progress thread for Draconis's continued development.

qptain Nemo

Alright, time to share my thoughts, now that they've calmed down a little. I mean, what, with us TOTALLY DOMINATING THIS COMP- ahem. So yeah, without further ado:
(in a totally chaotic order)

Fly Paper
Everybody seems to really enjoy the joke, but it got me good. I was intrigued alright. Not that I'm bitter or blame you though. Still liked the surprise. You don't see that kind of turn every day.

Mi
I really liked that light surreal style and the melancholic mood of the game. Would like to see more of that kind of thing. I liked that the game didn't waste lots of effort to explain itself. Now that fairly traditional core puzzle solving isn't really what I'm after, but it was a very pleasant experience nonetheless.

Jack Trekker
I just loved this game. It made me laugh from the start to the finish. Incredibly stylish and beautifully ironic intro. The silliness. The machismo. The dialogue. It's simply brilliant.

Oh, btw, and that little camel that trips over and starts spinning? I LOVED THAT!! I bet you thought no one would appreciate that little bit of silliness, but I love that kind of random humour! :D

ODOW
Writing a functional 3D renderer and adding some gameplay on top in 1 week, all with a rock solid implementation? Hell yes. Well done. I really liked the cozy oldschool look and the dark moody music as well. My only criticism is perhaps that I think I'd like to see a more unusual enviroment than just a traditional fantasy dungeon. Because of that it lacked sense of discovery for me. But still, it doesn't belittle this impressive effort.

Educating Adventures of Girl and Rabbit
Ugh, what is this. Clearly an amateur effort made by some lam3 n00bs. 0/100, would develop again.

Draconis!
Very cute and decent, but it's very hard for a game to grab me with puzzles alone, so alas, I quickly lost interest.

Betrayal
Sweet music. Lovely weird atmosphere. Loved the transitions between weird and cheery moods. I like the concept overall. But I felt the final reveal was a bit too obvious in the context. Didn't leave me severely disappointed, but I certainly wished there was a more unexpected, more weird twist to do the atmosphere that was set up justice.

Sinking
Fucking loved the premise in the intro. Really liked the concept and how it was implemented too. Ironically though, haven't really played it properly yet because I have to really be in the mood to play gameplay-focused stuff. But it's definitely a game that has my endorsement, thumbs up and so on.

The Tattoo Room
One word: brilliant. Simply brilliant. It charmed the living hell outta me. It's absolutely adorable. This is a game that I actually kept playing just to try all the different things long after I've beaten it. And you know, to be honest, when I saw this, as one of the OROW participants I thought to myself "Oh shit, this is brilliant, everybody will love this, we're screwed." So yeah. One of the best.

The Butler Didn't Do It
First of all: dat soundtrack. Lovely job. Me and Pablo were sure it'll win the best music. Next, the writing is hilarious. The "this is worse than Game of Thrones" line outright killed me. The game is absolutely ridiculous and it manages to keep it on the such level that it's impossible not to interpret all of its silliness as a good thing. One thing I was really confused about though is how walking between the two sides of the room was so incredibly obtuse when it's the single most used action in the game. But oh well.

The Addict
The only reaction this game has gotten out of me is utter profound confusion. And I'm afraid it's probably going to stay that way.

Kanji Gakusei
I value being honest above being nice, and I don't know how to sugarcoat this anyway, so I'm afraid I'll just have to say that this game didn't do much for me. Or nothing at all. Well, except that it's a straightforward educational game about a little girl that entered the same competition as our Girl and Rabbit game, that parodies exactly that concept. And that fact is absolutely hilarious.

The Reaper
The background is awe-inspiring. Absolutely stunning. In combination with the music and overall mood it's a very nice love letter to post-apocalyptic atmosphere. I liked that a lot. On the other hand, the focus on fairly generic puzzles over evocative narrative did disappoint me a little and the game generally suffered from being underdeveloped due to the constraints. But since apparently it's merely a prelude to Ben's and Grundislav's upcoming collaboration, I think we can count on that the final work won't have this issue.

The Rebirth
This conceptual counterpart of The Reaper has impressed me even more overall. Nice writing, interesting characters, some brilliant ideas (loved the "burnt my hands so can't activate the hand scanner" problem), some actually decent drama. What's not to love? Grundislove! Ahem, so yeah. A splendid short game that made me think it could become a serious competitor to Technobabylon series.

The Crystal Ball
Oh yes. My very personal favourite. The Crystal Ball has enchanted me. The intriguing premise, the incredibly evocative graphics, the very fitting even if unoriginal music, the clever writing, I loved every bit of the game. The overall mood was impeccable. And seeing the focus of the game being observation, manipulation, choices and dialogue puzzles made me absolutely ecstatic. The game has clearly suffered from the time constraints of the competition and it would greatly benefit from the additional interactions, that very evidently were planned, being finished and having actual non-linearity and various consequences. Needless to say, I want more. Still, even as it is, it won my heart.

And for me, it won the OROW.


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