MAGS October "Darkness" (RESULT)

[Shadow1000]

Lots of good entries this month!

Taste the Blood of Darkness by Slasher

Spoiler

-Lots of monsters!
- Spooky music! I loved the fog effect in the graveyard.
- I am amazed by the number of inventory items, locations, characters and things to do. Very unusual and impressive for a MAGS entry
- I can see how Slasher's puzzles are really progressing in complexity every month.

Good job

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The Last Light Post by JackPutter

Spoiler

No matter what anyone says about the unique graphics style, I LOVE IT! Makes you feel like you're really there. But the strength of this game is how it checks all the boxes in what makes a game good: puzzles, great backstory, clue-finding, scripting, discovering what happened gives such a feel of unraveling a mystery.

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Lygophilous by VampireWombat

Spoiler

It started off looking like a promising idea but never really went anywhere.

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Lord of Light by PlayPretend

Spoiler

This game stands out in it's creativity. I don't think I've EVER enjoyed a pixel-hunt before, but that's really one of the strong points of the game! The story part itself can be presented in about 3 sentences, so the real strength is in the puzzles. I found myself so engrossed in trying to discover more and more, and I enjoyed some good and frequent laughs. The only thing I did not enjoy is the toad sequence. I got the general idea but at one point it got annoying and I thought "ok, just get me back to my game, dammit!"

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Voting was NOT easy!

Spoiler

I actually spent since Sunday weighing the strengths between The Last Light Post and Lord of Light, vacillating between the 2 and then I decided to go for which one gave me the most overall enjoyment while playing and I went for Lord of Light! Even though the whole game is one room, I found myself saying "Oh YEAH!!" with every item crossed off the checklist until I finished. I still think that Last Light Post hits a wider spectrum of aspects of creating a great game, but I did find myself wandering around a bit too much, reading and rereading, checking the map and so on that I have to give it a very close second place

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Well done!

[The Great Underground Empire]

Cassiebsg:

Spoiler

Thanks for the compliments and critiques, Last Light Post was a great game too!  I wish I'd thought of showing just the vases first... although if you could see the spaghetti code for the bottles, oy!  It's rigged so the last bottle clicked is always the right one, and even the end scene changes to reflect that.  I'd probably have exploded to throw in one more global variable, lol.

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Shadow1000:

Spoiler

Thank you so much for voting, I'm so glad you liked it!  And no worries, I felt the same about the sudden side puzzle making the game unbalanced.  I had other offshoot puzzles planned but ended up having to scrap them for time (like tracking the fly around the room by sound, the parrot was originally an imp that would trick you and possess your body, etc.) Thanks again, it means a lot!

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[JackPutter]

Wow, thanks everyone for your lovely comments and very helpful feedback!

heltenjon

Spoiler

I am extremely flattered by everything you had to say. I'm glad you thought the writing was good, I really tried to give each character a unique "voice" even though no-one was actually speaking... I'm also very glad that you thought the difficulty was balanced correctly for you, as I said before it is something I have been concerned about. It's interesting that you mention that reading the notes "out of order" may have caused some difficulty, as you yourself read the notes "out of order" in a way! When I was planning the game I arranged the documents so that going clockwise through the rooms would mean that each question raised would have its solution in the next room, with the last piece of information one gathered being the numbered sequence on Simon's computer. I did my best to make sure that reading the various documents in any order wouldn't be too confusing, and I made sure backtracking was as easy as possible. Evidently I didn't do too bad of a job, since you took a different route and still put the pieces together! I'm extremely glad you enjoyed it and I can't thank you enough for your valuable feedback.

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Cassiebsg

Spoiler

I take the comparison to Myst as a high compliment, thank you very much for saying that and I am glad I managed to spark those happy thoughts in your head! I agree that it seems like the men all just suddenly vanished, I decided not to spell out what happened exactly so as to leave a little mystery. If you want to know what I think happened though... I think Simon tried the incorrect sequence one too many times and vaporised everyone left at the facility. Apologies about the intro text being too fast to read, I had originally intended it to be a voiceover but didn't have time to arrange a voice actor and the text scroll was my last-minute solution. I am unfamiliar with cutscene functions so I will definitely look into that! I also entirely sympathise with you getting annoyed at the navigation, it's the thing I struggled with most while I was making the game and I don't think it came out too well. I will definitely consider your suggestions on how to clarify things for the player! Thanks also for the tips on making a save function, I'll be putting that in place for my next project for sure! I am very flattered that you would vote for my game, I'm delighted to hear you enjoyed it so much!

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Shadow1000

Spoiler

Thank you very much for complimenting the graphics! I have been putting a lot of work into learning the 3D modelling software and while I'm still only capable of primitive things I think I progressed a lot compared to my last game. I'm glad you enjoy the aesthetic! Thank you also for saying nice things about so many aspects of the story and puzzles, I'm dead chuffed that you felt like you were unravelling a mystery, it has put a big smile on my face to see that's how you felt about it!

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I'm hoping to get the chance to play through everyone else's entries this weekend, I am really looking forward to it!

[Creamy]

I finished them all.

Lord of Light

Spoiler

Hilarious and thorough. I love the specific answers for every action. Our evil protagonist can be considerate towards some animals and cruel towards others. It's very living despite the lack of animation. And that dream sequence...

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The Last Light Post

Spoiler

Well thought-out and executed - another achievement. It's longer than Father's secret and solvable if you pay attention. I appreciate the lack of pixel hunt. As a side note, I wonder what happened to the four characters in the facility. I guess they suffered a tragic fate when Simon entered the wrong sequence. Yet, nothing happens to us when we do so.

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Taste the Blood of Darkness

Spoiler

It was okay but predictable. I expected something more subversive.

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Lygophilous

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Like other VampireWombat MAGS games that I've played, it's just an intro. I'd like to see one of these finished properly, regardless of MAGS deadlines. It'd be more satisfying for the player and the creator.

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[milkanannan]

Ugh so hard to choose when every entry has a unique strength:

Lord of Light

Spoiler

Definitely the most original entry. I personally found the game devolves into a bit of just clicking around, but I guess that is sort of what someone would be doing if they couldn't see.

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Taste the Blood of Darkness

Spoiler

The most complete of the entries. Some of the puzzles are a bit obvious, and this game confirms my complete detest for action game sequences in AGS, but this is clearly the most thorough and varied entry of the month.

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Lygophilous

Spoiler

This story drew me in the most. I won't vote this entry though, as the project feels unfinished compared to the other games.

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The Last Light Post

Spoiler

The game I enjoyed the most. The puzzles are a bit repetitive, but piecing the story between the four rooms was very cool. For me, this game and Taste the Blood are tied for best game this month. I prefer The Last Light Post, so it wins my vote.

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[The Great Underground Empire]

Oh wow, thanks so much!  Everybody did a great job this month!  See y'all in the November competition! 

[Shadow1000]

Congrats, PlayPretend! You got more votes than the other entries combined! Way to go!!!

[Slasher]

Well done PlayPretend.. You smashed it this month 

Keep up the great work

[Stupot]

Congratulations PlayPretend. A very convincing win for Lord of Light.

Thanks to all participants and voters. Don’t forget to rate and comment on the game pages if you haven’t already.

[VampireWombat]

Congratulations PlayPretend.