MAGS April “End of an Era” (RESULT)

[Stupot]

Voting is over and we have a winner!

Congrats to LostTrainDude for his game, Travelers. Well done to you.

Commiserations to the other three, and an honorable mention to Mandle who was actually leading the votes until the day before voting closed.

	TRAVELERS (Prototype) by LostTrainDude
	The Era-Gone Trail by Mandle
	Shamrock High School: Graduation by VampireWombat
	Heroes of Wyrdale by Jack

Topic: End of an Era
Chosen by: Blondbraid and Cassiebsg
Deadline: April 30th

All things must come to an end. Whether it be the end of an historical era, a geological age or just the leadership of a local authority figure coming to a close in order to make room for something new, the topic of this month will be the end of an era.

Here are some pictures to give you some inspiration.




What is MAGS?

Started in 2001, MAGS is a competition for amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and provide a kick-start into making adventure games. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

Rules

Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualise your game following the month's criteria (see above). Second, create your game fuelled only by coffee. Finally, post your game in this thread, including:

* A working download link
* The title of your game
* A suitable in-game screenshot

At the end of the month, voting will begin, usually lasting for fourteen days and the winner chooses the next month's theme.

[Kastchey]

Epic! Well thought Blondbraid and Cassie, that's an awesome theme.

[Blondbraid]

Epic! Well thought Blondbraid and Cassie, that's an awesome theme.

Thanks! I look forward to see what games you come up with this month! 

[DBoyWheeler]

Cool.  Well, I got a lot going on right now, but good luck to all who enter.

For some reason, I'm kinda thinking of the final boss battle in Sonic Adventure 2.  (Now the song "Live & Learn" is going off in my head.)

But, anyway, good luck to all who enter this one.

[cat]

With Brexit around, Erdogan's defeat at a communal election and the current Tenno about to abdicate, this topic really hits the zeitgeist.

I don't have time or energy to join this month, but I'm looking forward to play some great entries!

[VampireWombat]

Huh, this is one of the first themes in awhile to not give me any ideas. Guess I'm more tired than I realized. If someone wants to team up, I can do graphics, some programming, and/or bounce around ideas and such.

[Privateer Puddin']

Maaaaaybe in. We'll see! I have to go on holiday later this week.

[Kitty Trouble]

I don't know what most of these events are by just picture description (except the dinos), are eras limited to just those also?

Probably won't submit, but I usually check the themes just in case

[Blondbraid]

I don't know what most of these events are by just picture description (except the dinos), are eras limited to just those also?

Probably won't submit, but I usually check the themes just in case

The pictures were just meant to be some inspiration, but you don't have to use them.

I want to clarify that anyone participating is free to interpret the theme however they wish,
and I hope to see all participant's different takes on it!

[VampireWombat]

Just to let people know, someone did contact me to help with a game. Not saying the name since that person hasn't posted in this thread. But it should be an interesting take on the theme.

And if someone is wanting to make a game, but can't do graphics, I can make some Maniac Mansion/TumbleWeed or DoTT/Sam And Max type graphics for you.

[HanaIndiana]

I'm a solid maybe. I really like the theme, and I have an idea, so it's whether I have time this month to complete something playable. Good luck all!

[Mandle]

This theme dovetails with my real life so much that it's scary.

I'm shutting down the school I have worked at and run for the last 21 years by the end of this month.

Won't have time to join this MAGS most likely but... Very poignant theme nonetheless for me...

[Cassiebsg]

Oh, that sounds so awful, Mandle. 
Wb anyway, we missed you!

[Blondbraid]

How sad. 

Anyway, I hope those participating will make good use of the theme!

[Kastchey]

So sorry to hear that, Mandle. You always talked a lot about your students and the school work so that it was obvious it was more than just another job for you but damn, 21 years...

[Riaise]

Sorry to hear that, Mandle.

[Shadow1000]

This theme dovetails with my real life so much that it's scary.

I'm shutting down the school I have worked at and run for the last 21 years by the end of this month.

Won't have time to join this MAGS most likely but... Very poignant theme nonetheless for me...

Oh man...best of luck in future endevours...

[KyriakosCH]

Awesome theme, indeed!

[DBoyWheeler]

Why do I have the feeling we may not get many (if any) games this time around?

Again, I would've entered, but I'm focusing on another game (non-AGS here) right now.  That and real life is kinda getting in the way.

[KyriakosCH]

Well, it is (orthodox) Easter this week-end, and i was way too tired from work to try anything...
Might still attempt something, cause i love the theme, but yes, sadly it isn't that likely i will be able to finish it on time

[VampireWombat]

The joint game I was working on fell through. But I am working on another using a sprite style based on what I was going to use. It's going to be mostly dialog based with at least 3 possible endings. So I'm still planning out the dialog tree. Which hopefully won't turn into a forest. I plan to finish up the graphics needed today and tomorrow and create the dialog tree(s) this weekend.

[Mandle]

Won't have time to join this MAGS most likely but...

Hmmmmm...

[Blondbraid]

Well, it is (orthodox) Easter this week-end, and i was way too tired from work to try anything...
Might still attempt something, cause i love the theme, but yes, sadly it isn't that likely i will be able to finish it on time

Even if you don't make it in time, it'd still be great to see you try!

[Retro Wolf]

I was quite motivated again this month, but tonsillitis has knocked that right out!

[VampireWombat]

So... 27 hours to go? Anyone finished or close to finished? I'm close enough that I can have a version finished by tomorrow. The only thing that's unclear is if I'll be able to include any animations and how much I will be able to show in the endings.

[LostTrainDude]

I dedicated very little time to this, but here goes nonetheless

(To see the three images below, hover the table with your cursor)

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/keI6NBq.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/oUDq7d5.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/a7KmaBx.png[/imgzoom]

TRAVELERS
Download

TRAVELERS is a prototype. The gameplay progressively and purposely loses purpose the more you play.

The game can be played with both mouse and keyboard.

[Kastchey]

An entry, and it sounds awesome! I'll play it as soon as I get back home.

Fingers crossed for your entry too, VW

[VampireWombat]

Assuming there isn't a thunderstorm that makes me lose power, I will have something by the deadline. I had new ideas when I woke up this morning, so there's no way I can get everything in that I'd want, but I will work up until close to the deadline.

[LostTrainDude]

Thanks Kastchey!

And VampireWombat, looking forward to see your entry! Anything even the slightest more aesthetically pleasing than what I just published is meant to be a success so GO FOR IT!

[Mandle]

THE ERA-GONE TRAIL


This game is the very bare-bones version of a project that will outgrow its humble MAGS roots, hopefully.

Players can ignore most of the characters' stats for now, except for the all-important HPS of each.

The other stats are signs of game play yet to come...

You play a group of small mammals running for their lives to escape the horror of the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs.

Watch your food levels, dodge the meteors, and gather food every now and then in the rare surviving grasslands areas... But watch out for lurking snakes!

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO SURVIVE THE ERA?!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME

After playing my own game about ten times and only being able to win twice, and not yet with a full crew of mammals, I decided to write this brief guide about the game and how some of its less-than-obvious mechanics work:

THE GUIDE

The goal of the game is to run the full distance to the next era without either starving to death or being killed by meteors or snakes.

The meteors are easy. Just learn how to dodge them best but also be aware that there is quite a bit of splash damage from the impacts so get as far away as possible. Don't just stop when you think you're not going to get a direct hit.

When you reach one of the grasslands areas you must keep in mind that you have to do the best you can here gathering meat and fruit or you probably won't survive until the goal is reached.

The fruit is the orange globes here and there in plants.

The meat is gotten from the skeletons that still have some red around their ribs.

The fruit and meat both give random amounts of food so its a bit of a gamble how much you end up with.

There is no time limit here so, unless under immediate threat from snakes, you can take your time to have a look around and take in the lay of the land.

Walk slowly, a bit at a time, as there may be snakes on patrol for food around the area.

Snakes, however, usually prefer to lurk in the long grass clusters waiting to strike on prey wandering nearby.

It's best to stay away from the long grass whenever possible. However, often the fruit and meat is only available near or in the long grass. In these cases you must risk-assess and go for it or not as a case-by-case decision. Think about how desperate your crew is for food for the next leg of the run.

Snakes...

Run from snakes as fast as you can. If a snake latches onto you combat will begin on its own. One successful chomp and the snake will be dead, and you will obtain a small amount of meat from the kill. But, if you get bitten twice by snakes, as indicated by the squeals of pain, you will be forced to run from the area and all of your mammals will receive 1HP damage each. You will still keep your collected store of food so far.

There is no penalty to HPS for leaving a grasslands area with only one snake bite.

While being attacked by a snake or snakes you cannot collect food or exit the area.

When you are satisfied that you are done with the area just go to any border to exit, north, south, east, or west.

There is a potential strategy to hunt snakes for meat if you are really desperate for food, but the risk is high. Only do so if you are going to die on the next run anyway, I would say.

But what do I know? I hardly have a good track record of winning my own game yet.

Going back for another try or two now...

Best of luck!

[Kastchey]

Congrats on the release, Mandle! Great to see all those last minute entries.

[LostTrainDude]

Wow Mandle, this looks awesome! Downloading it right away!

[DBoyWheeler]

THE ERA-GONE TRAIL

Spoiler

[close]

This game is the very bare-bones version of a project that will outgrow its humble MAGS roots, hopefully.

Players can ignore most of the characters' stats for now, except for the all-important HPS of each.

The other stats are signs of game play yet to come...

Watch your food levels, dodge the meteors, and gather food every now and then in the rare surviving grasslands areas... But watch out for lurking snakes!

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO SURVIVE THE ERA?!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME

"Era-Gone Trail"?!  Well played! 

[VampireWombat]

Game play is done completely through dialog. And there's nowhere near as much in the game as I hoped. But I present Shamrock High School: Graduation. Sequel to games I've yet to actually make.



https://vampirewombat.itch.io/shamrock-high-graduation

[Jack]

Heroes of Wyrdale



This is an action/adventure with most of the adventure components removed due to time constraints.
The Central Union Council has been placed in a weaker position, and as adventurers you have come to this planet to take advantage of that fact to directly take on the council and the robots protecting them.

CONTROL:
Movement: Right-click
Use, examine, etc: Left-click

Hint: The energy bar recharges faster when above 50%

Download: Linux (56.9MB)
Download: Windows (67.2MB)

[Mandle]

Congrats on the release, Mandle! Great to see all those last minute entries.

Hehe, a little secret project I've been working on for the past 2 weeks after getting back from holiday. Getting it finished was a huge rush and I was up until 3:30AM so hopefully not too broken. And of course most features of gameplay are still on the drawing board. I'm hoping to develop it into a humble commercial game with quite some depth where not only do you have to survive progressive eras but the choices you make guide your evolution as a species: Whether you will be carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore, or even have cannibalistic tendencies, among other things.

Wow Mandle, this looks awesome! Downloading it right away!

Cheers! I worked pretty hard on the graphics, drawing all from scratch in GIMP with my trusty mouse, although a lot are still placeholders, especially the GUI layout and hunting/gathering screen. I am pretty stoked with how well my first parallax scrolling went, though!

"Era-Gone Trail"?!  Well played! 

Hehehe, thanks! Glad the reference was recognizable.

[Shadow1000]

Cheers! I worked pretty hard on the graphics, drawing all from scratch in GIMP with my trusty mouse, although a lot are still placeholders, especially the GUI layout and hunting/gathering screen. I am pretty stoked with how well my first parallax scrolling went, though!

Actually that part specifically is AWESOME!

[Mandle]

Actually that part specifically is AWESOME!

Thanks! It is rather pretty, isn't it? 

I just wish I'd had time to add the random events, forking paths, map, and jungle areas that I have planned. Oh, and there WILL be dinosaurs of course! The basic idea was that you will be able to choose different paths which will effect your evolution as a species and have an impact on how well equipped you are genetically to survive the coming eras.

The next planned era is the ice age in which you become bipedal and hunt mammoths and avoid saber-tooth tigers and all that fun edge-of-extinction stuff.

[Stupot]

As we say goodbye to MAGS April and prepare to welcome the new era of MAGS May, it's worth pointing out that Japan has literally just waved goodbye to the 30-year imperial era of Heisei and is embarking on a new era known as Reiwa. So this MAGS theme was pretty well-timed.

Just a few days ago it was looking like a dry month, but we've suddenly ended up with four entrants, so well done, folks.

Vote for your favourite using the poll above.

	TRAVELERS (Prototype) by LostTrainDude
	The Era-Gone Trail by Mandle
	Shamrock High School: Graduation by VampireWombat
	Heroes of Wyrdale by Jack

[Mandle]

it's worth pointing out that Japan has literally just waved goodbye to the 30-year imperial era of Heisei and is embarking on a new era known as Reiwa. So this MAGS theme was pretty well-timed

I was actually wondering if that was on purpose by the topic chooser? If not, what a coincidence!

Also, weird coincidence too, yesterday was the last day that I officially owned the school I worked at and owned for 21 years, which timed coincidentally with the start of the Reiwa Era so well it's scary.

(I still have the keys and doing last clean-up due to a technical extension over the Golden Week holiday, but yeah, not the owner anymore as of the start of Reiwa)

[Kastchey]

TRAVELERS by LostTrainDude

Spoiler

This is such a nostalgic concept, and I loved the beautiful descriptions. Of course as you said, it is a prototype and there is no actual gameplay in a sense that there are no goals to complete, so the game does indeed lose purpose gradually the more you play it, but it was lovely nonetheless. Do you intend to use the prototype for anything, or was it something you casually made purely for the fun of entering MAGS?

[close]

The Era-Gone Trail by Mandle

Spoiler

That was AWESOME! The graphics are lovely, the music is very well picked and the very concept of a side scrolling runner game about evolution is brilliant. Not to mention the title, which has already been mentioned

I have managed to finish it after figuring out the following basic things:
1. I am controlling a dark reddish brown cat on a dark reddish brown background. That was an evil move...
2. Snakes are food if I manage to kill them.
3. It is better to first collect the food from the middle before trying to grab the food positioned near an edge of the forest area. That was an evil move, too.
Generally super cool, and I'd be willing to buy it if you really made a commercial release.

[close]

Shamrock High School: Graduation by VampireWombat

Spoiler

A dialogue-based game is a solid concept in itself, and I don't think this game would have required any adventure elements to be fun. I loved the idea (a girl's perfect double crawling out of the lake? That's super cool and super creepy, too!), but the dialogue itself didn't seem very relevant to the situation. I would rather ask my double exactly who she is, why is she here, what does she want and just what in actual f is going on than start telling her about my graduation. Overall a promising concept, and if you care for suggestions I'd say don't worry about the form of the gameplay, focus on the story because you have great ideas that are really worth expanding.

[close]

Heroes of Wyrdale by Jack

Spoiler

As with your previous entry, kudos for putting such a complex product together in such a short time frame. I imagine the coding alone would have taken a lot of time, and you also have animations for three characters and for the robots, plus the backgrounds. The story was a bit too simple perhaps, but the ending added some flavour to it. Overall a really good effort, I wish the gameplay was more differentiated and the steering less awkward, but I do applaud you for being able to put a game like this together in the first place.

[close]

My vote goes to:

Spoiler

The Era-Gone Trail. I loved the atmosphere of TRAVELERS, but I finally decided to go for this one because it had both the atmosphere AND the gameplay. Great job everyone!

[close]

Edit: I realized I had cut off a part of my thoughts regarding VampireWombat's entry, now fixed!
Edit2: And a typo in Jack's >.<

[VampireWombat]

Shamrock High School: Graduation by VampireWombat

Spoiler

A dialogue-based game is a solid concept in itself, and I don't think this game would have required any adventure elements to be fun. I loved the idea (a girl's perfect double crawling out of the lake? That's super cool and super creepy, too!), but the dialogue itself didn't seem very relevant to the situation. I would rather ask my double exactly who she is, why is she here, what does she want and just what in actual f is going on than start telling her about my graduation. Overall a promising concept, and if you care for suggestions I'd say don't worry about the form of the gameplay, focus on the story because you have great ideas that are really worth expanding.

[close]

Spoiler

Yeah. I really should have focused on the story more. Unfortunately I prioritized things wrong and ended up doing about 2/3 of the dialog last minute.
Thank you very much for the suggestions.

[close]

[Jack]

Thanks for the review. Like Fists of Murder I spent too much time on the art again and only had a week left for programming. The multiple characters, with each their own damage class, made this a more complex game than the previous one, but it was much better designed, and basically a joy to program. With Fists of Murder, everything was in the global script.

[Mandle]

Stealing Kastchey's format to give my own views on each game:

TRAVELERS by LostTrainDude

Spoiler

This game captured my imagination of what it could become with this concept. Much like reading about your long-dead character's exploits in Dwarf Fortress centuries later, this game made me excited about the idea of lost and found stories. It needs more scenarios and interactions to make it interesting, but the concept alone blew my mind for now.

[close]

Shamrock High School: Graduation by VampireWombat

Spoiler

A beautiful-looking cutscene from the larger story inside the maker's head. Intriguing, but just made me want to play more but there wasn't more. Please develop this story. It is something I would play.

[close]

Heroes of Wyrdale by Jack

Spoiler

Amazing graphics and animations! However, with the whole game being combat-based, other content cut for time constraints, the combat itself was not all that engaging for me. The backdrops and characters made up for that though and I did play it through with all three characters. The cleric was the easiest and walked all over the opposition. I would love to play an extended version of this game that included more story.

[close]

My vote goes to:

Spoiler

TRAVELERS for blowing my mind.

[close]

[VampireWombat]

Shamrock High School: Graduation by VampireWombat

Spoiler

A beautiful-looking cutscene from the larger story inside the maker's head. Intriguing, but just made me want to play more but there wasn't more. Please develop this story. It is something I would play.

[close]

Thanks. I'll see what I can do to make an expanded version this month.

[Jack]

Oh, you should know that you can choose two characters at a time. 

Adding the Doc to any combination ensures you can walk into anything and remain standing up because of his healing.

(BTW Mandle the game became 3x more fun when sounds were added. I think it was you that commented on lack of SFX in Fists of Murder)

[Slasher]

Well, we ended up with a few entries this month and they look superb

[Kastchey]

Oh, you should know that you can choose two characters at a time. 

Wait, wut? You can actually do that? 

Also Jack, I forgot to mention this earlier but

Spoiler

when I was playing Tanya for the first time, I managed to aggro three robots at the same time in the second location. I didn't manage to kill any fast enough so they brought me down, but my HP would keep regenerating. I presume this might have been intended, but I entered an endless loop where my character would keep trying to stand up but immediately get gunned down again before I managed to shoot anything. It wasn't a big deal because I was happy to restart and proceed more carefully next time, but if you plan to expand this game in the future perhaps consider adding a second or two of immortality after a character recovers?

[close]

[Shadow1000]

Great effort to all you last-minute entries. I actually thought that there would be none this month and then they came piling in last minute!

I'm only going to comment on two entries:

Spoiler

Heroes of Wyrdale
Great back story and play system. Choosing a character with skills was a great bonus. Graphics and effects are superb. Because of time constraints, the game basically consists of shooting out robots.

The Era-Gone Trail
I loved the graphics and gameplay. Even with most of the game being left to the imagination as to what "could be", even in its current state it was a lot of fun. Once I understood some of the details, it took about 20 or so minutes to complete. A lot of the game is about food management and that can be somewhat random as to how much food or how long you'll last before getting kicked out by the snakes.

[close]

My vote went to

Spoiler

The Era-Gone Trail. I felt that there is more gameplay in this one

[close]

It's always interesting to see what people come up with when pressed for time.

[Mandle]

(BTW Mandle the game became 3x more fun when sounds were added. I think it was you that commented on lack of SFX in Fists of Murder)

Yep, a beat 'em up without meaty punch sounds is not gonna be fun.

The sounds in this new game were great, except maybe for Doc's gun which sounded like a Nerf weapon.

[Cassiebsg]

TRAVELERS by LostTrainDude

Spoiler

Love the concept, but I fail to see what the objective was from the start. So I didn't play it that long. Add some game objectives, and I'll play it again.

[close]

The Era-Gone Trail by Mandle

Spoiler

Took me a while to figure what was happening, but once I took noticed of the "cat" I figured it out. I was already on my 4th or 5th play, when I noticed "veggie food"... and I was veggie food? "Oh, I can eat the red fruit!"  I'm still not sure, if I can influence the fight with the snake,' or if it's entirely "automatic"... so I just click all over it's head.
Placing food right on the edge of the room is just evil! Oh, and gathering the beads if extremely hard for some odd reason. It's like there's only one pixel to click on. 

[close]

Shamrock High School: Graduation by VampireWombat

Spoiler

Love the art, and the game started intriguing... but unfortunatly it never developed and it ended before it began. Go finish it. 

[close]

Heroes of Wyrdale by Jack

Spoiler

Awesome art work! 
I was confused with the controls. And wondered why the character didn't walk, even tried the keyboard. When that didn't work I decided to start exploring the area, and obviously right clicked to start examining the area... and oh... that walks! Wasn't crazy about the controls, specially the shooting part.
Due to time constrains the game consists mostly of shooting. I had the same problem as Kastchey, though I managed to run away once I realized that just continue to try and shoot the robots was pointless... The end was a "nice" twist. 
Now... about those awesome puzzles.... I'll be waiting for those. 

[close]

My vote goes to:

Spoiler

The Era-Gone Trail by Mandle as it was the game I enjoyed playing the most and keept me playing the longest (I just finished it for the 1st time!  )

[close]

Good job everyone. Was great to see 4 entries all of a sudden. 

[Stupot]

Still a few more days left to vote and it's still pretty tight between all four entries.

[LostTrainDude]

At last! I played all the entries and cast my vote.
I like this trend of keeping on pushing AGS towards unexplored territory (either within the adventure game genre or outside of it), so congrats to all of you!

After some reflection I chose:

Spoiler

The Era-Gone Trail! I personally think Mandle has often gifted us with very peculiar entries and this is no exception! As Cassiebsg, it was the game that kept me playing the most!

[close]

Speaking of my entry, instead, what I was trying to provide was actually an exploration of the feeling of "purposelessness".

At the beginning of the game you have this fresh unexplored "world" for you to explore, where "leaving a mark in its history" is something that can feel unique.
As eras go by, though, travelers end up walking already walked paths and their contribution to history feels more and more just a "line" in a list.

Put this way, I suppose it's a tad depressing, although that was not the intent!
The concept was maybe more interesting to me to explore through game mechanics, as a developer, than it is to the players who are not supplied with the same tools for "catharsis".

Thank you for all your feedback, folks! I really appreciate it 

[cat]

TRAVELERS by LostTrainDude

Spoiler

I loved the descriptions and the exploration, although I didn't really understand that shard aspect.

[close]

The Era-Gone Trail by Mandle

Spoiler

Cool graphics, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Only on closer inspection I saw that there was something running and there were lots of stats where I don't know what they do. You should include a readme in the game zip. I read only later on your description in the thread. I still couldn't win it - damn snakes!

[close]

Shamrock High School: Graduation by VampireWombat

Spoiler

I have no clue what this was all about. I don't mind conversation based gameplay, but why would I talk about graduation when I meet a clone of myself?

[close]

Heroes of Wyrdale by Jack

Spoiler

Very good graphics and cool characters. I struggled with the interface a lot and only realised I could have two characters after reading it here.

[close]

My vote went to:

Spoiler

Travelers, because of the exploration and the atmospheric descriptions

[close]

[Stupot]

Voting is over and we have a winner!

Congrats to LostTrainDude for his game, Travelers. Well done to you. You'll be contacted soon about coming up with an awesome theme for June.

Commiserations to the other three, and an honorable mention to Mandle who was actually leading the votes until like a day or so before voting closed.

[Mandle]

Congratulations to LostTrainDude for his win on a unique concept game. I hope it gets developed further allowing more adventures to be transcribed into the fabric of the world.

[Shadow1000]

Congrats! I look forward to next month's theme!

[Jack]

Congratulations, LostTrainDude.

[LostTrainDude]

Wow, I really really did not expect this many votes! Thank you so much, everyone! 

Also, congratulations again to Mandle, VampireWombat and Jack for three great entries! I'll do my best for June's theme 

[Kastchey]

Congratulations, LTD! That was a really amazing entry.

(And yeah, you bet it was depressing....)