MAGS SEPTEMBER "Mermaids and Sirens" (CLOSED)

Started by Stupot, Sat 01/09/2018 02:47:19

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What was your favourite game of MAGS September?

Jason and the Golden Apple by Slasher
4 (44.4%)
Here Be No Sirens by Kastchey
4 (44.4%)
Sweet Mythery by Vampire Wombat
1 (11.1%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: Wed 17/10/2018 04:36:57

VampireWombat

Good luck to all who play mine. Warning: You can't actually see the mermaid(s) or siren(s) at this point. But hopefully they can at least be talked about.
I can also guarantee there will be bugs and some dialog meant to hint at what to do is missing.

Kastchey

I'm yet to play Slasher's game through to the end but I can certainly say that if this month's theme was "Mermaids, Sirens and Potion Making" all our three entries would still match the requirements ;)

Blondbraid

I've played all the entries and here are my thoughts:
Jason and the Golden Apple by Slasher
Spoiler
The puzzles are alright, but the story wasn't that funny and mostly just random stuff happening. The different art assets were all poorly fitted together with bits missing, though reinterpreting Jason as an Orc was an interesting choice.
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Sweet Mythery by Vampire Wombat
Spoiler
There was some good art and potentially fun story, but it was too short and unfinished to make much of an impression.
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Here Be No Sirens by Kastchey
Spoiler
I liked the art and story and the one item puzzling was fun. It's the entry I ended up voting for.
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The Outer Zone

This one was hard - all three games are quite good entries.

Here are my notes and vote:

Sweet Mythery by VampireWombat

Spoiler
A nice little medieval tale of an errandboy. I would cut the forest down to one screen - it's not that interesting to
walk back and forth through repeating backgrounds. If you want to make the forest "bigger" then perhaps put more background elements in?
I like the thought of a fully fleshed out game of running errands in a small village :)
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Jason and the Golden Apple by Slasher

Spoiler
An adventurous and mythical journey. I see the point of using pre-made assets if you're not
an artist, but mixing pre-made assets with a classic "pre-made" story might be too much? I am not sure, as
the result is actually very much a Slasher game :) But I would prefer something more personal perhaps..
The game has got a nice length and pace, and the sense of adventure is there for sure!
I love the shot of Hera and Zeus overlooking the seas!!
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Here be NO Sirens by Kastchey

Spoiler
I like the story of the washed up sailors - that's great :)
The game is sort of divided into two parts: first you talk a lot and then you fly around and make the potion.
Perhaps it would be better to spread out the dialogue? (I'm guilty of doing this myself). A bit annoying waiting
for the siren to fly to the same spot each time she picks up an item. Though it's nice with the "one item at a time" thing.
A fresh little adventure. Good length for what it is. And really nice water lapping animation :)
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My vote goes to..

Spoiler
Here be NO Sirens by Kastchey.
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The Outer Zone - Strange narrative games and illustrated books.
http://the-outer-zone.blogspot.com/

jahnocli

Sweet Mythery by VampireWombat
Spoiler
I liked the graphics, but I couldn't get into the game and the background music was a bit repetitive and annoying
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Jason and the Golden Apple by Slasher
Spoiler
I couldn't get this to work; the opening screen popped up and then none of the buttons worked
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Here be NO Sirens by Kastchey
Spoiler
The best graphics, and I did get some way into the game before getting bored
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My vote goes to:
Spoiler
Here be NO Sirens by Kastchey
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Life is a puzzle, a quest and an adventure

Shadow1000

I think this one is going to be close.

My thoughts:

Jason and the Golden Apple by Slasher
Spoiler

This game is based on a number of quests contributing to a mission. I agree about the mixed assets but I also realize that when it comes to working with time constraints, the focus has to be either the graphics, or the story, or the puzzles, or the length and so on. The ingame hint section was a nice touch, especially for a MAGS entry. The idea was good and overall fun to play. There is a nice variety of things to do. The ending could have been a bit more elaborate.
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Here be NO Sirens by Kastchey
Spoiler

I liked how this game had a beginning, middle and end. There were some decent puzzles and even one that had me stumped for a bit (getting the figurine). A classic "complete the list" game. I think that for the time given as a MAGS entry this was a great shot, despite being short.
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Sweet Mythery by VampireWombat
Spoiler

While playing this, I actually was thinking "WOW! This one is going to have my vote!"...and then it ended :( The graphics are great, the story works, dialogues, NPCs to interact with, quests, mystery man in the corner, rooms to explore, there is so much going for the game.

Except that it's over just as it was getting good.
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My vote goes to
Spoiler
Jason and the Golden Apple. I just enjoyed it the most because there was just so much to do to complete the mission.
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Cheers!

VampireWombat

The Outer Zone - Yeah, I didn't realize the forest would take as long to walk through until it was too late to change. I plan to add more to it at some point and actually use more than one tree.

jahnocli - Unfortunately I didn't have time to make the intro I wanted which would hopefully get the player more into the game. Sorry about the music. I'll try to have more selections in the future to round it out better.

Shadow1000 - Thank you very much. Unfortunately it really did end abruptly since I was working on it up until 15 minutes before the deadline. I already have added dialog to all of the characters and plan to work on it a little bit at a time. Hopefully in a month or two I'll have a version completed which actually shows the mermaid(s), siren(s), and harpies.

Shadow1000

Quote from: VampireWombat on Tue 09/10/2018 15:00:12

Shadow1000 - Thank you very much. Unfortunately it really did end abruptly since I was working on it up until 15 minutes before the deadline. I already have added dialog to all of the characters and plan to work on it a little bit at a time. Hopefully in a month or two I'll have a version completed which actually shows the mermaid(s), siren(s), and harpies.

I can't comment on your schedule but I really believe this game is worth extending!


VampireWombat

Quote from: Shadow1000 on Tue 09/10/2018 15:08:01
I can't comment on your schedule but I really believe this game is worth extending!
Thanks. Actually, I might make an update this weekend with the extended dialog, changing of the forest, and opening up to the left of the town. That much is definitely doable.

Kastchey

Jason and the Golden Apple by Slasher
Spoiler
It feels less coherent in terms of storyline than the entry you made last month for example, but I liked the swashbuckler adventure feel and the plot twist with the sirens' boss was fun. It would have been nice if there had been an actual choice of whether or not bring the apple back.
An enjoyable game overall, not one of your best productions perhaps but still, I had fun playing it.
Side note: typos on the loose! :) Especially near the end of the game.
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Sweet Mythery by Vampire Wombat
Spoiler
Looks like a good start of an adventure/RPG mix. I like the idea of a quest system for an adventure game, might be an interesting way to combat the linearity that characterizes so many classic adventure games.
I haven't found any real bugs other than doors that all lead to the same place, but that's probably an intended move due to the game being in an early stage rather than an actual bug.
I feel this could have been a solid win had there been any substantial gameplay. A really good attempt, VW.
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I voted for
Spoiler

Jason and the Golden Apple.
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VampireWombat

Quote from: Kastchey on Wed 10/10/2018 22:23:55
Sweet Mythery by Vampire Wombat
Spoiler
Looks like a good start of an adventure/RPG mix. I like the idea of a quest system for an adventure game, might be an interesting way to combat the linearity that characterizes so many classic adventure games.
I haven't found any real bugs other than doors that all lead to the same place, but that's probably an intended move due to the game being in an early stage rather than an actual bug.
I feel this could have been a solid win had there been any substantial gameplay. A really good attempt, VW.
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Spoiler
An actual quest system is something I should probably add at some point. Thanks for using that wording. I'm glad there weren't any real bugs. And yeah, the doors were intentional since I had to cut the blacksmith shop and inn for this version.
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Stupot

Voting is over and we have a tie!
Congrats to Kastchey and Slasher. You'll be contacted soon about choosing a topic for November.
Commiserations VampireWombat.
Thanks to all entrants and voters.

Slasher

Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww  they don't come any closer than this (laugh)

Well done Kastchey (nod)

Shadow1000

It's not often that we have a tie! Congrats to all entries.

Kastchey

Congrats Slasher!

And kudos to VW as well, I'm pretty certain the game's unfinished state was the only thing that hindered the chances for this to be the winning entry.

VampireWombat

Maybe, who knows. Unfortunately the voting deadline crept up on me before I had time to play your game yet or play more than a few minutes of Slasher's. So I honestly have no idea how mine compares to either.

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