MAGGIES 2019 (VOTING ends February 29th!!)

Started by Stupot, Mon 20/01/2020 07:26:17

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Stupot



It's MAGGIES time again.

Massive thank you to everyone who has entered a MAGS game throughout 2019. And to those of you who voted each month. We now have a complete shortlist of all the most highly voted games for each month of the year.

All that's left is to choose the best of the best.

Things are a little simplified this year. Instead of giving point values to your top three choices, you simply have to choose a best three in no particular order. The game with the highest overall vote tally will be crowned winner of MAGGIES 2019.

A few requests before you proceed:

1) Please make sure you have played (or at least sampled) as many of the games as possible (preferably all of them). If you really don't have much time to play every game, some of them have videos you can watch instead.

2) Only one submission per person.

3) Please vote for games based on their own merits (visual, enjoyment, puzzles etc.). Don't just vote for your friend or fellow countryman's games.

4) You do not have to be logged into a Google account but you will be asked for your AGS forum name for verification purposes.

Click here to vote
Deadline: Saturday February 29th








January
"Crossover"

Space Cross: The BSG-Team
by Cassiebsg and Morganw

Watch video
Read interview

February
"Dressing Up"

Thrymly Disguised
by Blondbraid and Cassiebsg

Watch video
Read interview

March
"Hydrate"

Hydrate
by Retro Wolf

Watch video
Read interview

April
"End of an Era"

TRAVELERS (Prototype)
by LostTrainDude

Watch video
Read interview

May
"What Are They Doing In There?"

Cave of Avarice
by Blondbraid, cat and Slasher

Watch video
Read interview

June
"Little-Known Traditions"

Mamma Mia!
by fernewelten

Watch video
Read interview

July
"Animal Protagonists"

Hopping Homeward
by NuggetSeb

Watch video

August
"Huts or Hats"

Mr Bear Teaches English
by cat, Marcin K and CaptainD

Read interview

September
"Magic"

Escape Literature
by Reiter

Read interview

November
"Cloud"

Jake's Very Last Journey
by fernewelten

Read interview

December
"Create Your Own Christmas Adventure"

A Christmas Nightmare
by Alan v.Drake

Watch video
Read interview


Click here to vote

Stupot

#1
As mentioned in the other thread, I am looking for people to volunteer to make a gameplay video for some of the titles above.

If anyone can help out, I would be really grateful.

These are the games that still need a video:

Space Cross: The BSG-Team
Hydrate
Cave of Avarice
Hopping Homeward
Thrymly Disguised
Mamma Mia!
A Christmas Nightmare
TRAVELERS (prototype)

Mr Bear Teaches English
Escape Literature
Desmond: The 'Thing' from Another World
Jake's Very Last Journey

Oh. And as always. Please do let me know if I've made any mistakes, forgotten some detail, miscredited somebody or anything else like that. Thank you.

fernewelten

#2
So here's a gameplay video for Mamma Mia Winter Ice Cream Mayhem.

fernewelten

So, here's a playthrough for Thrymly Disguised.

Cassiebsg

@fernewelten :) Thanks, the video for Mamma Mia doesn't work though, as it says "null: If the owner of this video has granted you access, please sign in."
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Stupot

Thanks Fernewelten. Although Cassie is right. The Mamma Mia is not loading. Any more for any more?

fernewelten

#6
Oops. Had been “private“ instead of “unlisted”. I hope I've fixed it now.

Stupot

Thanks again Fernewelten:-)

By the way. I'm sorry I didn't know the full title was Mamma Mia Winter Ice Cream Mayhem. Do you want me to change the information in the voting table and form?

fernewelten

Never mind, let's just leave it the way it is.  :)

cat

The download for "Space Cross: The BSG-Team" does not work, it says it is private.

Cassiebsg

Sorry, cat.

Don't know what happened, the sharing for the files was off. Though it was on when I uploaded it.  :-\
Fixed.
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

cat

It worked now, thanks!


To bad there is no database entry for Escape Literature to leave a comment. It was a very interesting concept for a game.

Stupot

As a way of drumming up interest in the MAGGIES and encouraging more voters, I'm putting on a series of short interviews with the creators behind the 12 entries. We'll try to cover as many as possible but one or two of the devs haven't logged in for a while, so they might not get interviewed.

Anyway. Let's get to it. If you have any follow up questions for any of the interviewees, feel free to ask them here in this thread.

First up, Cassiebsg and MorganW, for their work on Space Cross: The BSG Team.


What was your role in the development of the game?
Cassiebsg: Story idea and all the graphics.
morganw: I was mostly assembling the pieces that Cassie had already made, into a game. So scripting, dialogue, plus enough of a design to accommodate a short story.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
C: I brain stormed with Morgan via IRC. I wanted to do another Galactica (1978) game and the theme crossovers just seemed perfect. I was planing something more like Galactica-Stargate, with Starbuck crashing into another planet (as like in the show, he took turns with Apollo to get us the "crash of the week") and I thought it would be funny if he was so close to Earth (via the Stargate) but never realized it. Then Morgan threw in the A-Team and taking advantage that Starbuck and Faceman were played by the same actor in the 2 tv-shows, which we turned into the recurring joke in the game.  (laugh)
M: I think Cassie had been making the graphics for a week or two, but there were only about 10 days before the end of the month, so I offered my help to try and make the deadline. I forget exactly how the original story was meant to work after the suggestion to use two Dirk Benedicts, but this was cut down significantly in order to get the game completed.

What are you most proud of about the game?
C: That we managed to make a little fun game (at least I hope it is) also for non-fans. Of course, if you at know all 3 franchise it might be extra fun.  :-D And Morgan did such a great job writing the A-Team's dialogues! I just made sure the Stargate and BSG facts made sense. since he had little knowledge about BSG and Stargate.
M: Probably that it was completed in not a lot of time and some people found it fun. The dialogue was fun to write.

What challenges did you face during the development?
C: Time, I guess. Would have loved to made the game a bit longer.
And the fact that Morgan had little to none knowledge about BSG and Stargate, meant that I had to ask him to fix a few dialogues and character motivation, so that it made sense. But in the end, I can't really remember any of it being a big deal or major problem.
M: Time. I think it was 5 evenings and 1 weekend to go from nothing to a playable game. Also, I hadn't told Cassie that I'd never seen Stargate, and then went on to write lots of dialogue about using a Stargate...

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
C: Probably a final cutscene, with the working Stargate and Hannibal coming to get his "lost" team. Which of course would have included more puzzling, since they first needed to fix the Stargate.
M: Some of puzzle elements were kind of forced due to the time constraints and background layouts, although these restrictions also steered me in writing the story. I guess the most obvious answer is the chance to play as the other Dirk Benedict...

Any final words?
C: I'll be back! Oh wait, wrong sci-fi franchise. (laugh)
I had a lot of fun doing the game and working with Morgan, and hope we can do it again one of these days.
M: It was fun to work with Cassie, we made something, some people liked it, and it doesn't crash (as far as I know). I can't really ask for more.


And there it is. Our first interview. Thanks very much to Cassie and Morgan. Again, if you have any follow-up questions for either or both of them, fire away.

Click here to vote

selmiak

now it gets interesting. a fun to read interview and good and insightful answers. What a great idea to start this @stupot

Stupot

Next up in our series of interviews are two frequent MAGSers Blondbraid and Cassiebsg (again:)) for their game, Thrymly Disguised.

What was your role in the development of the game?
Blondbraid: I mainly came up with ideas, some of the dialogue and drawing the graphics.
Cassiebsg: Basically coding it, tried to introduce as many puzzles as I could and did a few missing graphics (mostly buttons).

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
B: I had read the original legend of Thor dressing up and thought that it was a funny story.
C: I didn't, Blondbraid did. I just offered to code it, so the game would became one.  :)

What are you most proud of about the game?
B: That the project drew in so many talented people and that we even managed to get voice acting on so short notice.
C: Learning Dynamic Sprites and using them to create the intermission fade-in/fade-out and the Jewel box puzzle.

What challenges did you face during the development?
B: It was mostly getting everything done on time and finding voice actors, but my part was probably the least challenging of it.
C: Getting the jewel puzzle to work and figuring out where the bug was. Also coding the chariot mini-game, as I'm more of an adventurer and not so much into arcade or mini-games. I'm sure it could be improved.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
B: That's a good question, more unique animations probably.
C: More puzzles!  :-D

Any final words?
B: I was very glad to finally win a MAGS competition after making so many entries.
C: MAGS rule!  (laugh) Looking forward to doing more of these.

Thank you both. And can I just add that I really appreciate your frequent support of MAGS and look forward to seeing more of your entries in 2020.

Click here to vote

On a side note. I'm still looking for people to make some gameplay videos of the remaining games, if anyone thinks they can help out. Cheers.

Stupot

Time for another interview. A solo affair this time with Retro Wolf for his game Hydrate.

What was your role in the development of the game?
Everything.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
I'm a sucker for science fiction, I'd been watching a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Poor Tasha Yar!) and wanted to do something in that genre. I'd also been messing around in 3D design software making alien heads and thought they would make good characters. 90% of the artwork is based on something made in Blender, I outputted an image and hand traced in GraphicsGale.

What are you most proud of about the game?
That I was able to complete a project not having done anything creative in such in a long time. It's been a long time again, oh dear!

What challenges did you face during the development?
Time, I have kids and work 50 hours a week half of the year so it is hard to get motivated on games development. I figured that in order to complete the project I would have to make it easier on myself, so I did not make any animations, everything is a static image.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
Animated characters and voice acting, I've never made a game with voice and I like doing funny voices, at least when there's no on else around. :)

Any final words?
I found Blender especially useful in creating the backgrounds and characters, I've always struggled to draw characters in different angles but in Blender you only need rotate the camera. Hand tracing is tedious but I get better results than drawing something from scratch.

Special thanks to CassieBSG for doing the testing, her input gave me that extra little push to make it the best it could be. I very nearly released a version that had no character portraits, and no item sprites (just a list box).

Click here to vote

Thanks Retro Wolf and I do hope to see some more entries from you in the coming months.

Stupot

Our next Q and A is with LostTrainDude for his work on the experimental prototype TRAVELERS.

What was your role in the development of the game?
I was the only developer, so I did basically the non-graphics, the programming and the very little writing there is in it.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
I had recently started playing King of Dragon Pass (1999, remade in 2015), a game that mixes interactive fiction and resource management by putting you in charge of a clan of people over an amount of years. At the end of each year, you can review everything you managed to go through. I was inspired by this and by the feeling of "playing a small role in a larger scheme of things that I had no complete control over" that it gave me.

What are you most proud of about the game?
First of all I didn't imagine it could win that month's MAGS, and I'm both surprised and happy that it did!
Also - something a little technical, although probably far from sophisticated: I was very happy when I was able to store the game grid in a 1D array and make the player navigate it through binding simple math operations (huge personal accomplishment (laugh)) to the movement!

What challenges did you face during the development?
I had to learn how to handle text parsing correctly, as the game reads and writes from text files it uses to "write down in history" the "memory" of players' actions.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
An actual gameplay (laugh). In other words: less randomness, more authored content and a way to make players' actions more meaningful in the long run.

Any final words?
Thank you for playing and also thanks to MAGS, for being an endlessly inspiring source of ideas and community :)

Click here to vote

Thanks LostTrainDude. I look forward to seeing what you've got coming for us in 2020.

Ponch

Voted! (I needed 4 votes, but I made due with what I had to work with)  :=

Stupot

Our next interview is with Fernewelten for his game Mamma Mia: Winter Ice Cream Mayhem

What was your role in the development of the game?
Sole developer: I made the music (on keyboard), drew the sprites and backgrounds, designed the story and puzzles, and scripted the game.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
The theme was "little known traditions". In the theme giver's neck of the world, there's a custom of forward-paying an espresso for people in need, and the giver wondered what other similar customs existed around the world.

Well, I'm German, and I was stumped: A quaint and endearing custom such as that simply doesn't exist over here AFAIK. Then I suddenly remembered a blog that I read ages ago. An American expatriate broached on the quirks and peculiarities he found in Germany that differed very much from his home life in the USA. For instance, one of the posts was headed,  (In Germany, road signs specify what the speed limit isn't) When a speed restriction is lifted in Germany, the corresponding sign shows what the limt _had been_, instead of telling what the new speed limit _is now_. When he pointed that out to his German friends, they had many justifications, but the American found those to be far-fetched and the system to be circuitous and absurd.

So in another post the expatriate was baffled to see Germans queue up for ice cream whenever the sun happened to shine no matter what the thermometer actually reads. That was the inspiration for my game. I basically asked myself, So let's say it is freezing and everyone is queuing up at an ice cream stand "what ramifications could possibly arise?" and I took it from there.

What are you most proud of about the game?
I'd never managed to assemble a credible walkcycle animation for humans before. Jake does somewhat better. Still tense when walking straight upstage, still too effeminate, but better.

What challenges did you face during the development?
I found it very hard to come up with puzzles. For lack of alternatives, I put in _two_ minigames, which in retrospect is too much for a game of this size. As a consequence, I needed a lot of time to get the minigames scripted at all, and then I lacked the time to calibrate them properly.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
Better graphics: A more harmonious background for the 'street" room in particular.

Any final words?
MAGS game writing is much akin to improv: Trust your first instincts. If you constantly re-think your ideas, you won't come up with better alternatives and you lose valuable time. Instead, say "yes, and..." and build on the ideas you do have. Don't try to be perfect, it'll only block you.

Thanks very much for your informative answers, Fernewelten.

If anyone has any follow-up questions, be sure to ask away.

Click here to vote

cat

I like those interviews, but what happened to ours about Cave of Avarice?

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