Topic: MAGS August "Censorship" (CLOSED)

[Slasher]

OK

Rebuilt game with new template and titled it correctly and have uploaded new link..

This is my first under Windows 10..

Hopefully fixed...

[Slasher]

I've just downloaded the game, unzipped it and it runs fine though it takes a little longer to run the first time on my new laptop with Windows 10.

So don't know why you guys are having problems..

[Cassiebsg]

Also why are you unziping a rar file? you unzip a zip file and unrar a rar file...
And no, it still not working here.

Could you try and ZIP the file instead of RARing it please?

[Slasher]

I'm trying WinZip... uploading now...

[Hobo]

What a cunning scheme to get more downloads and attention to your game, Slasher
Just kidding, and the latest version seems to unpack and start up fine for me.

[Slasher]

What a cunning scheme to get more downloads and attention to your game, Slasher
Just kidding, and the latest version seems to unpack and start up fine for me.

That's a bit of a relief..

In over 50 games I've never had such grief.... I've always used Winrar previously and it's been OK.

Anyhow, it's really great to see so many entries make the competition

Good luck to all

[Shadow1000]

Great turnout for this month's competition.

Here are my thoughts:

Cola Skunkette: A Bit of Cleanup

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What a vast improvement in graphics and animation compared to past releases! Teaming up with Blondbraid - a master of graphics and animation - was an excellent idea. It was a real pleasure to play this game because of the visuals. The connection to the theme was understandable, but the connection that I made was the fact that it was about cleaning up some foul language. However, there was a lack of puzzles in the sense that with one exception, everything was right there and the actions to be taken were quite set out. The exception was that to receive something from someone, you had to give them something. I didn't find this to be that logical and I only solved it by doing the old "try everything" approach.

The Campaign Of Daphne White

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This one has Slasher's style all over it! This game stood out in the sense that it doesn't just make reference to the theme, it is COMPLETELY about the theme and I want to credit that. A great mix of puzzles ranging from puzzles that combine inventory with dialogue, a small maze and a word puzzle. Even some money management in there. Four unrelated quests to complete was a great idea. Puzzles are generally on the simple side but I did get stuck at one point and I needed a hand from Slasher for the password puzzle. I'm curious if others will share my experience. I have to conclude my remarks with the fact that I had several good laughs and overall enjoyed playing this one

Cyborg Seppuku

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I played the first release and this game is AWESOME. The story and environment are very creative; the puzzles are very well-designed. I see the connection to the theme as being the fact that you are in a society that is monitoring you and has a point system to punish wrongdoing, including foul language. The connection is not as essential to the game as other entries but it still adequate. Once the game was re-released with the upgraded graphics, I was BLOWN AWAY! It now has everything the first game was missing and considering this is a first game, I want to really commend this title.

The Man Who Liked Cats

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There is not enough here to really comment. I think that the story from the description is intriguing. The graphics look attractive. As Mandle said, there is no connection yet to the theme. I look forward to the full release in due time

Vacant Bodies

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As others have commented, it looks like the beginning of a good game. There are no puzzles yet and I don't see a connection to the theme. Maybe the game will be fleshed out in the future into a full release

Fists of Murder

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Stunning presentation and immersive world! It looks like a bit of an segment from a story. The game mechanics look like they are in the preliminary stages of a full release, including map navigation and some fighting. I didn't quite get the story enough to really follow what was going on and I didn't get the connection to the MAGS theme. That said, there is a lot of talent and polish in this one

And my vote goes to:

Spoiler: ShowHide

Cyborg Seppuku. Mainly because of the puzzles. I usually judge games by how much I enjoyed them overall and this one stands out. The puzzles are in "complete the list" style where completing a task opens the door to the next task and everything just fits together brilliantly. As I said, the story is clear and easy to follow and looks like the beginning of a real masterpiece. I'd love to follow the character as he tracks down his wife and attempts to woo her back. Perhaps he will succeed and we get a happy ending and perhaps he won't...I can't wait to find out

Well done!

[Cassiebsg]

I can confirm that it now unpacks just fine.
Also you might want to update the AGS Game page and change the file size from 76Mb to 178Mb.

I don't know, maybe that WinRar doesn't like Win10?

[Shadow1000]

I just want to mention (I should have said this as part of my remarks) that I had no problem downloading and playing Daphne White right after the release.

[Jack]

Thanks for the review, Shadow.

Spoiler: ShowHide

The connection was supposed to explained later in the story, which there wasn't time for, but basically it turned out that the company responsible also published the newspaper that suggested the murder was actually a mugging. There was supposed to be more articles from them as the "investigation" went on, trying to maintain the cover-up.

[The Outer Zone]

@Shadow1000: thanks a lot for your kind words I will definitely make more Tales From The Outer Zone. I don't know when I have time again though..

I'm only halfway through the list of games. I will comment on all in one thread once I'm done tomorrow.
Good stuff so far

[Shadow1000]

@ Jack

Thanks for the review, Shadow.

Spoiler: ShowHide

The connection was supposed to explained later in the story, which there wasn't time for, but basically it turned out that the company responsible also published the newspaper that suggested the murder was actually a mugging. There was supposed to be more articles from them as the "investigation" went on, trying to maintain the cover-up.

Understood. MAGS games are made with time constraints and a game author has to be selective on whether to have something fairly complete and self-contained or something that would fit in as part of a longer game, assess how much time to spend on graphics and a cool game environment and so on. It's almost impossible to get it all so you have to decide where to cut. I'd love to see this one developed into a medium or full length game. The potential is there.

@ The Outer Zone

I am looking forward to more games. BUT don't forget that this really has the potential to be developed into a full-lengther.

[Jack]

MAGS games are made with time constraints and a game author has to be selective on whether to have something fairly complete and self-contained or something that would fit in as part of a longer game, assess how much time to spend on graphics and a cool game environment and so on.

You make it sound so professional.

What I actually did was bad planning and assessment of how long things would take. I am getting better at it though.

[Mandle]

I'm just going to repost my feedback here again as it most likely got lost because I posted it originally before voting opened:

Cola Skunkette

Spoiler: ShowHide

A charming and simple game suitable especially for kids. I loved the plucky body-language of the kid. He really looked like a child proud to be helping out on an important mission for an adult. A great example of how a walkcycle isn't only a means to get the character from A to B but can also tell us a lot about their personality and current mood. A lot of professional games forget this and have only a very generic walkcycle that seems identical for each character. The story, while simple, provides clear motivation at every point. I always knew what I was supposed to be doing. Something professional games also fail at sometimes. The graphics and musical choices set a nice, calm mood throughout. There is no "enemy" to conquer except for the grafitti itself which makes for stress-free gameplay suitable, like I mentioned, especially for kids. Wonderful!

Cyborg Seppuku

Spoiler: ShowHide

Well, what can I say? It's beyond amazing! From the Moebius-style graphics, the social commentary subtext of unplugging from our devices, to the actual fun puzzles and characters, this game just had me drooling for more, even though I suspected that I wouldn't get to see The Outer Zone. But I really wanted to! Silverspook, have you played this yet? You would LOVE it!!! Gonna be a hard contender to beat for the other games!

A bit of pixel-hunting is totally forgivable as the backgrounds are just so rich in detail that the player naturally wants to explore every nook and cranny anyway.

One thing I might suggest though is to remove the "self-censorship" comment in the game. I think most players will get this without having it pointed out to them to so bluntly. Also, perhaps the C.Jones comment about the coffee cup. I think this game is great enough to deserve no in-jokes/tributes.

Also: one of the coolest game titles of all time which the game lives up to! Sometimes bad games have really cool titles as clickbait. This ain't one of those!

Vacant Bodies

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This looks like it could be a really interesting start to a story. It left me really wanting to know more about what was going on in this particular world in general and with my own character's predicament. No real gameplay though so it's still just that at this point, but I do want to see and learn more! So, great job on an effective game intro!

Fists Of Murder

Spoiler: ShowHide

Hmmmm... Beautiful graphics and animations! Especially during the flashback scene, but... Very slow and repetetive gameplay... Also, I couldn't really figure out any fighting strategy except for hit as many times as I could and then back away until my energy regrew. And even then I couldn't really notice any impact that my energy was having on the damage I was dealing. It always seemed pretty random despite my energy level. So I'm now guessing that maybe energy is just a measure of how many times I can hit in a row? Didn't matter really though as the enemies were all very easy to beat up. Just time obstacles. Maybe the game could use a "You beat the game in XX time." message at the end?

I did really like some of the humour in dialogs and the name of the evil organisation was genius.

In the end it was no sound effects that really killed it for me though. I need to hear even just one "smack" of my punch to want to play a beat-em-up. That's a huge part of the vicarious pleasure and stress-relief of fighting games.

The Campaign Of Daphne White

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Tons of good old Slasher fun to be had here!!! I always feel like I'm reading old issues of Beano when I play a game by this master of low-brow humour. And, in this game, we are fighting against the very forces that could get such "debased" humour banned.

Speaking of "banned":

The Life Of Brian was banned in most parts of Wales partly because of the full-frontal nudity of Graham Chapman and Sue Jones-Davies (Brian's girlfriend in the film). Many years later Sue Jones-Davies became the Mayor of a town in Wales where the film had been banned, and still was, and one of her first political actions was to unban the movie and organise the "premiere" of The Life Of Brian in the town, where she showed up to walk the red carpet and attend with everyone else who was just about to see her pubic hair on the silver screen.

What a legendary person!!!

Other films like "No Sex Please! We're British!", in which a box of illegal "nudie mags" is delivered by mistake to a very upstanding citizen who goes off on an eye-opening adventure to dispose of them, were reactions against archaic views and laws holding over from Victorian times and, much like the Python film, were made (and loved) by people who actually had a sense of humour about human sexuality and the entire farce about trying to regulate it.

Slasher, having experienced these times, and maybe also sensing the reemergence of them in a repeating cycle, has made a great farcical adventure game on this theme.

I feel I don't even need to worry about some clunky gameplay, sprites, typos, and whatever. These are kind of to be expected in a Slasher MAGS game. He gets the game done no matter what.

This game has my vote as the most important comment about the theme of this MAGS round:

Censorship!

Oh, and I really enjoyed the computer password puzzle! That was an unexpected bonus! Pretty tough to solve but made sense in its context.

[The Outer Zone]

I finally got through all the games. Took me a little more time than expected

Here are my comments:



Cola Skunkette by DBoyWheeler:

Spoiler: ShowHide

A charming little game. Cool to see some animations when interacting.
Would be nice to let the player find the gum and combine the items.

Vacant Bodies by VampireWombat:

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I love the surrealistic feel in this one. It's really eerie and "off".
Too bad the ending is so abrupt. And I miss some puzzles - but that might
not be your thing VampireWombat? I guess walking through this world is enough
of an experience. I was entertained

The man who liked cats by Mandle:

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Too bad this is not the full game! I loved the mood of the beginning, but after the cat runs off, the quality drops.
Running through the mines took me out of that experience unfortunately.. its hardmixing other genres into an adventure game..
And the final scene was okay, but incomplete. I will look forward to the finished game if you manage to have the quality of the beginning
throughout the whole game.

The Campaigne of Daphne White by Slasher:

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Four episodes in one game. That's a lot of content. I liked the overall idea
of having different quests to get around Daphne's censorship. It was nice going from one character to the next.
There are some bugs here and there that kept me from proceeding and much of the design felt a bit rushed.
Which makes sense seeing that there is so much content. I would really like to
see a game by you Slasher, with 1/10 of the content but thoroughly designed and polished.
My favorite quest was Martha's. Going from the bar to the country side was a nice shift of scenary and
finding the spot was nicely silly.

 
Fists of Murder by Jack:

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Interesting combo of fighting game and point-and-click, though I never found out how to punch..
Did you make the graphics yourself? I like the flat 3D backgrounds - there is a dollhouse like quality to the whole thing.
I think its the depth of field. A little too repetitive doing the "same" mission again and again. All in all a nice little snippet of an underground world.

My vote goes to:

Spoiler: ShowHide

Vacant Bodies by VampireWombat. This strange little walkie leaves me with wanting more. The sound and visuals go well together and creates a nightmarish and surreal world. I want more eerie robot motel stories.

[VampireWombat]

Vacant Bodies by VampireWombat:

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I love the surrealistic feel in this one. It's really eerie and "off".
Too bad the ending is so abrupt. And I miss some puzzles - but that might
not be your thing VampireWombat? I guess walking through this world is enough
of an experience. I was entertained

Vacant Bodies by VampireWombat. This strange little walkie leaves me with wanting more. The sound and visuals go well together and creates a nightmarish and surreal world. I want more eerie robot motel stories.

Spoiler: ShowHide

I'm glad I was able to accomplish any sort of feeling for you. I did want to have puzzles, but I couldn't think of any for that part of the game.
 My plan was to have an evolving verb list and more, but all of that would take place after where this version ended. I'm glad it entertained you. Thank you very much for voting for me.

[Jack]

though I never found out how to punch..

Violence is not the answer.

[Slasher]

Please, don't forget to add some feedback on games you play on the database page 

[Stupot]

One week left to vote. The vote count is quite low still so a few more would be nice.

Please, don't forget to add some feedback on games you play on the database page 

+1

Not all MAGS entries have an AGS page but if they do, comments and ratings are always a nice touch to complement your NAGS votes.

[Mandle]

Geez, only 7 votes so far on such an active round of MAGS?!