Strawman Bombing Disposal (MAGS Nov 2018)

Started by Mandle, Thu 29/11/2018 13:42:12

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Mandle

STRAWMAN  BOMBING  DISPOSAL


You are crossing a Washington D.C. road when a truck pulls away revealing something shocking.

This game is not meant to be easy. Only a very few will probably have the patience to complete it.

The game starts and ends suddenly as I wanted it to feel like you are abruptly thrown into a situation and then right back out of it.

You can click to skip a bunch of diaglog and/or cutscenes by clicking the mouse to cut to the chase, but I would advise you to listen to and watch everything all the way through at least once.

There is no save game function or checkpoints system at this time but once you know how to solve a puzzle it is pretty easy to repeat the solution within a few seconds.

I will be making a Tips And Hints thread of my own for the game so I would appreciate it if noone else does so for now.

Controls: Mouse only + ESC to hard-quit from the game.

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO SAVE WASHINGTON?!


CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME

Monsieur OUXX

 

Mandle

Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Thu 29/11/2018 20:28:41
hahaha what the hell

What? It's just your everyday, run-of-the-mill, scarecrow-on-a-nuke outside The White House. :P

josiah1221

Lol, leave it to you Mandle ;) I've managed to
Spoiler
get to the puzzle involving a movie. I know the movie but can't figure out the code.
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Mandle

Quote from: josiah1221 on Fri 30/11/2018 02:13:14
Lol, leave it to you Mandle ;) I've managed to
Spoiler
get to the puzzle involving a movie. I know the movie but can't figure out the code.
[close]

Well done on getting that far!

Spoiler
The movie line isn't really a big hint. It's basically just supposed to tell you that you're on your own with this puzzle. That could be clearer and is confusing, I agree.
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Mandle

Thank you so much Wiggy for discovering a logic flaw in one of the puzzles in the game!

A new, fixed version has just been uploaded and I apologize to all who downloaded the flawed version and would like to ask you all to re-download the fixed version at the same link.

Sorry for the trouble from me using brain wrong. (laugh)

josiah1221

Yay! I'm one of the intelligent ones. (laugh)

That was pure genius Mandle, well done! (nod)

Mandle

Quote from: josiah1221 on Sat 01/12/2018 18:26:00
That was pure genius Mandle, well done! (nod)

Wow, thanks so much! Finally someone likes the game! I'm stoked!

Mandle

Had a first-time and very interesting experience today with this game.

I went to a games night at a friend's place including Atari Classic, and then my game, and then Resistance and then Cards Against Humanity.

What fun!!!

A group of four keen minds managed to complete Strawman Bombing Disposal in about 30 minutes and watching them have a fun time both sharing theories and keeping them to themselves at times was a rare treat for me.

They saved Washington in the end, mostly due to one Aussie genius, but an American also helped out even though he was morally opposed to saving Washington from the get-go.

I've never seen a game of mine played live on a big screen with an audience watching and participating.

It's a lot of nail-biting fun!

Mandle

I'm a bit curious, I must admit, if anyone else than the people I know of have completed the game.

Please post if you have done so.

Mandle


Slasher

I think it may be cryptically too hard, well, for me, but with one brain cell still working what do you expect?  (laugh)

I like the promise though...

cat

I finished it!

Spoiler

The first puzzle I solved without understanding the pattern. I just thought 3-4 and 4-5 like it already did before. When 3-4 then didn't work, I tried 3-3 and that was correct. I only read the reason afterwards in the hints thread.

The second puzzle I couldn't figure out myself, only with the hints. I didn't understand that I had to replicate the sound. And I didn't know that "sew" is pronounced "so". The "ewe" was easy on the other hand (remember, I like sheep)

The wire puzzle was pretty easy, I got that with the second try (I think there were two possible solutions), but the wires were very small to click on.

The number puzzle was ok, but I had trouble finding the two of the operators.

The final quiz was hilarious!


I think the game would significantly benefit of changing the order of puzzles. The one that requires most patience and takes longest to do (because you have to click and wait and stuff) was first. Maybe if the wire puzzle or numbers were first, people wouldn't give up that easily.

I was a bit disappointed, I hoped that the LedEx truck would come at the end to pick the bomb up again  :P
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Mandle

Quote from: cat on Mon 14/01/2019 20:32:47
I finished it!

Spoiler

The first puzzle I solved without understanding the pattern. I just thought 3-4 and 4-5 like it already did before. When 3-4 then didn't work, I tried 3-3 and that was correct. I only read the reason afterwards in the hints thread.

The second puzzle I couldn't figure out myself, only with the hints. I didn't understand that I had to replicate the sound. And I didn't know that "sew" is pronounced "so". The "ewe" was easy on the other hand (remember, I like sheep)

The wire puzzle was pretty easy, I got that with the second try (I think there were two possible solutions), but the wires were very small to click on.

The number puzzle was ok, but I had trouble finding the two of the operators.

The final quiz was hilarious!


I think the game would significantly benefit of changing the order of puzzles. The one that requires most patience and takes longest to do (because you have to click and wait and stuff) was first. Maybe if the wire puzzle or numbers were first, people wouldn't give up that easily.

I was a bit disappointed, I hoped that the LedEx truck would come at the end to pick the bomb up again  :P
[close]

So happy that I heard someone else completed  the game, especially someone that I respect as much as cat!

All of the issues with the game like the puzzle difficulty being out of order and the wires being small and hard to click on are known to me but I don't think I will be remaking it as the voice acting would have to be redone and, yeah, not gonna happen.

I kind of like the first puzzle being really hard, it separates the wheat from the chaff early on, and it is also brute-forcible with patience as you said.

I also like the wire clicks being precise, but not impossibly so. It adds to the tension I feel. When I had a group of people play the game live in front of me the really smart dude happened to have an eye infection and needed someone else to click the wires while he called out the order, which was very fun for me to watch.

As for the ending... Yeah, that would have been awesome! Maybe I will look into it!

Mandle


Shadow1000

Quote from: Mandle on Thu 07/03/2019 08:46:43
Nobody else completed the game?

I'd love to give it another spin if it has the ability to save progress!


Mandle

Quote from: Shadow1000 on Sun 10/03/2019 03:02:00
Quote from: Mandle on Thu 07/03/2019 08:46:43
Nobody else completed the game?

I'd love to give it another spin if it has the ability to save progress!



Sorry, it doesn't but you can spam-click past almost everything and solving any puzzle again doesn't take more than a few seconds once you know how. I can finish the whole game start to finish in under a minute.

And later puzzles are a bit more forgiving than the first one.

heltenjon

So, this lurking support member finally got around to playing these MAGS games, and it looks like you want some feedback.

I had good fun completing this.

Spoiler
The first puzzle was solveable without seeing the real pattern. I didn't realize it until later. I find the leaps from language to numbers works better in my native tongue, so this one may be difficult for us non-English speakers.

The second puzzle took me a good while before I understood that I could decide which letter came up. The puzzle itself was fair.

The wire cutting was my favourite puzzle, luckily without a clock ticking in the background. Two possible solutions, and one of them worked.

Again, I had some trouble with the movie/maths puzzle. I didn't take the movie reference, and I had some difficulty with finding the buttons to press. This is not my favourite kind of puzzle, but I wanted to persevere, and solved it with pen and paper/trial and error. Final quiz was funny!

I would have liked the kind of instruction the voice gave on the final quiz on a couple of the earlier tasks as well. I spent most of my time on the second puzzle not understanding where to click.  That said, I had a lot of fun defusing the bomb, and I enjoyed the quirky humour.
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Mandle

Great to hear that you had fun and thought the game fair even if slightly wonky!

This is one of my games that I'm the most proud of to be honest. All the puzzles are originals thought up by myself. I think the voice-work is pretty decent considering I ad-libbed the whole thing in about 30 minutes of recording time. And the weird ways the device opens up makes me laugh.

A comment/rating on the game page would be awesome as well!

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