MAGS December “Companions” (PLEASE VOTE)

[Stupot]

Voting time. Please vote using the poll above.

Companions
Chosen by PlayPretend

With so much isolation in the world, we could all use a boon companion to help us along!

- A companion must accompany your main character everywhere in the game.

- They must help your main character solve puzzles - by giving advice, taking physical action, or using a power/skill, etc.

- They don't have to be visible or a separate character sprite - "carrying inside your inventory", "riding on your back", "constant voice inside your head" are all good to save on art/animation, as long as they're regularly used to solve puzzles.  If you separate to solve a puzzle, get back together quickly.

Other than that, go nuts, get wild, be surprising with your interpretations!    Alien chestburster?  Talking parrot-headed umbrella?  Sentient hammer?  Floaty ghost following you?

Can't wait to see what you come up with! 



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 guidelines 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, conceptualize 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.

Remember that this is a challenge to see what you can do in a month, so any tinkering you do after that, including fixing minor glitches, is against the spirit of the competition. The exception to this is that you may go in and fix major, game-breaking bugs only during voting. We want you to have a game that voters can actually play and that runs on their machines.

So to reiterate, during the voting period fixing major, game-breaking bugs is okay, fixing minor glitches or making cosmetic changes is cheating.

Tips
Here are some ways to make sure you have a game to submit at the end of the month:
* Make a tiny game. Plan small, then cut it in half. Find shortcuts (e.g. if making walkcycles is time-consuming, make the characters static or have it in the first person).
* Plan to have your game playable and submittable with a week to spare. This way you have a week to fix bugs, add some flourishes and maybe even get someone to test it.
* Plan to submit it a day or so early. This way, if there are any technical issues with uploading, they can be sorted out in time.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Need a little help with graphics? Perhaps The AGS Trove has something you can use.
Don't want to go it alone? Try the Recruitment board.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[Slasher]

I just need:

* A Companion
* A plot

I'll see what I can come up with when I get time

[The Great Underground Empire]

I'm taking a break, exhausted myself in November. But I can't wait to play what you all come up with!

[DBoyWheeler]

This kinda has me thinking of the Mario & Luigi game series (Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, etc.), since that has a theme of having multiple characters solve puzzles through teamwork.

Anyway, good luck on this.

[VampireWombat]

Okay, after giving it some thought I have decided to give it another shot this month. My idea will take place mostly in one location with two characters. So I will be focusing on story, characterization, puzzles, and programming instead of art.

[Blondbraid]

Maybe this could be an opportunity for Olga and Ivan to examine their relationship...

[Cassiebsg]

Cool, I got the "perfect" team and spend last night working on the assets... I made... a chair! 
To be fair it was a bit complicated shape, so hopefully I can finish the rest of the furniture tonight and start working on the BG. 

[Slasher]

I'm running with an idea I have..

Running title is... Tom and Jimi in: Crispy duck

Tom "I'm going to have lobster sweet and sour and soft spare ribs!"
Tom "And pork with pineapple and chicken with almonds!"
Tom "And them lovely spring rolls."
Jimi "And I'll have chicken chow mein and oysters!"
Jimi "And beef with onions!"
Tom "Let's go and have a right old blowout!"

[Slasher]

Tom and Jimi in: Crispy duck

I've got most of the opening scene / room one  set up....

Tom and Jimi are unlikely companions seeing as they are cat and mouse. After years of fighting they called a truce and became friends. Tom proclaims he is the boss. Together they go everywhere always looking for things to do and they share the same interest...food. When a new Chinese restaurant opens they have only one thought: Getting in and raiding the kitchen and having a right old blowout!

[VampireWombat]

I have been inspired by a couple of Adventure X games to do something more fun, so I'm going a completely different route for my game. I'm still going to keep gameplay to one scene and other things so I focus on story and coding over graphics. I have no title or design for my characters yet, but I do at least have the general game figured out.

[Slasher]

Confirmed Title....

Tom and Jimi in: Blowout!

[Slasher]

Tom and Jimi in: Blowout!

My entry is going well... Most of the rooms are set up...

Lots left to do scripting wise but going fine...

Hope people are hard working on their entries 

People has been making some great games

[Slasher]

Tom and Jimi in: Blowout!

My entry is complete..... now comes the heartaches of testing and tweaking 

Good luck guys 

[KyriakosCH]

I think I have an idea.

[heltenjon]

I think I have an idea.

Descartes! It's the famous "I have an idea, therefore I think!" 

Er, wasn't this the Guess the philospher thread? 

(Hope your idea pans out, K!)

[KyriakosCH]

Thanks, although I wouldn't want anyone to think it is that likely the game will be made. I am super-lazy 

[Slasher]

Anyone got anything to say/show?

Waiting.....

[Slasher]

"After years of fighting and squabbling Tom cat and Jimi mouse call a truce and decide
to team up as companions for fun adventures and indulge in their favourite pastime: Food."
Being tested.....

[VampireWombat]

Alas, the only thing I've done beyond the research stage is a very rough background. If I had any external motivation, I could probably still finish in time. But since I lack both internal and external motivation, it looks like I'm done for the month.

[heltenjon]

Alas, the only thing I've done beyond the research stage is a very rough background. If I had any external motivation, I could probably still finish in time. But since I lack both internal and external motivation, it looks like I'm done for the month.

*Externally motivating* That's too bad. I was really curious about what you were going to do in a one-room inspired by the advx games.

[VampireWombat]

*Externally motivating* That's too bad. I was really curious about what you were going to do in a one-room inspired by the advx games.

Okay. If I can manage to create the characters and at least a rough draft of the background today, I will continue with the game. If not, I will at least give an explanation of my idea.

[Slasher]

"After years of fighting and squabbling Tom cat and Jimi mouse call a truce and decide to team up as companions for fun adventures and indulge in their favorite pastime: Food. Can they get into a Chinese restaurant's kitchen and have a right old blowout?!"

** Some issues found and fixed....

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2501-tom-and-jimi-in-blowout-/





Left Click Interact - Right Click Look

Click X to disable active inventory

[Shadow1000]

"After years of fighting and squabbling Tom cat and Jimi mouse call a truce and decide to team up as companions for fun adventures and indulge in their favorite pastime: Food. Can they get into a Chinese restaurant's kitchen and have a right old blowout?!"

** Some issues found and fixed....

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2501-tom-and-jimi-in-blowout-/

Left Click Interact - Right Click Look

Click X to disable active inventory

I played this last night. It was a LOT of fun. I laughed most of the duration of the game. I absolutely LOVED the animation of acquiring new inventory objects! It's almost like blurring the distinction between the play area and the interface; I've never seen that and it's brilliant!

Great job, Slasher.

[Slasher]

Thank you Shadow1000..

Meanwhile couple more small issues found and fixed...

[VampireWombat]

I did manage to get enough done to continue the game. Due to Holidays and overall winter stuff, I have no idea how long it'll be. But I will work on it at least a little bit every day until the deadline. Also, some clarification. This game isn't actually inspired by any of the Adventure X games, just inspired to be more fun/lighthearted than my previous idea would have been.

Also, this officially will be my last Mags game for awhile. I'll most likely only do 1 or 2 a year from now on. It's time for me to move on to things without a specific deadline.

[VampireWombat]

I'm having trouble getting motivated enough to actually finish my game. With only one person showing interest and the fact that I'm trying to figure out more important things, I'm having trouble finding the motivation to even do the simplest thing today.
Is anyone actually interested in what's basically a time management game involving aliens?

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/Jj7Wlb3.png[/imgzoom] [imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/oQYe7gK.png[/imgzoom]

[Intense Degree]

Time management alien game?  Count me in! 

[TheBitPriest]

I'm looking forward to playing all of the entries! If you have something, keep going. You can do it! 

[Slasher]

Last day today and waiting...

Will we have a last minute flood?

[fernewelten]

Will we have a last minute flood?

I might be able to present a game this month … but today being Silvester and all, I'm not sure whether I will get it ready by this evening.

Would it be possible to get an extension?

[VampireWombat]

I've done enough that I can release some form of a game today. How finished it is depends on several variables. I'm leaving to get a COVID vaccination in a few minutes. So how well that goes will be one of the variables.

[VampireWombat]

I'm posting now to make sure nothing happens. I have no idea how complete the game will be in the next 2 1/2 hours, but the main features will at least be there.

Ka and Da

https://vampirewombat.itch.io/ka-and-da

[Intense Degree]

I've had a quick play of both entries.

Slasher - I really like the cat and mouse combo, the game is fun and engaging and I liked compiling the meal.

VampireWombat - very intriguing, however I did find a bit of a bug in that if you talk to Da there is no way to exit the conversation and you are stuck there forever!

Spoiler

Adbucting Roger over and over again

[close]

made me laugh!

[Stupot]

Will we have a last minute flood?

I might be able to present a game this month … but today being Silvester and all, I'm not sure whether I will get it ready by this evening.

Would it be possible to get an extension?

Would an extra 24hrs (from now) do?

[fernewelten]

Here's the screenshot.


Download the game here:
http://loquimur-online.de/ags/JasonSavesChristmas/JasonSavesChristmas.zip

Hints and Tips thread

Last-minute notes:
The fast-forward button skips the cutscene. So don't click on it unless you want to do that.

There isn't any inventory. Jason can only carry one thing in his hand, thus he needs to make use of it immediately. Joel, likewise.

The game has a small bug: The school bag can't move to the desk when the chair is in rightmost position, and it can when the chair is in leftmost position. It should be the other way round of course. I'm not fixing this right now because the bug isn't deal breaking. Simply move the chair if you can't move the school bag.

When I playtested the game, sometimes the wall clock was wrong. This only happened in the compiled versions, never in those sessions that I started from the Editor with F5. So I suspect an Engine error. Unfortunately, i can't reproduce the issue reliably.

[VampireWombat]

VampireWombat - very intriguing, however I did find a bit of a bug in that if you talk to Da there is no way to exit the conversation and you are stuck there forever!

Huh. I wonder what I did to cause that. lol

Since I now have a little under 23 hours more to work on it, I can add in more dialog options and iron out of a few things.

[VampireWombat]

I didn't make as much changes to my game as I planned. I got busy working on my main project.  But I am going to keep working on more tv and dialog options and upload the new version in about an hour.

[Blondbraid]

Never got to the building stage of my entry idea, but I thought I'd at least share the new sprites I drew for the protagonists:

Spoiler

[close]

[Stupot]

Voting Time.
Thanks to our entrants.
Please vote using the poll above.

Tom and Jimi in: Blowout
by Slasher
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2501-tom-and-jimi-in-blowout-/

Ka and Da
by VampireWombat
https://vampirewombat.itch.io/ka-and-da

Jason Saves Christmas
by fernewelten
http://loquimur-online.de/ags/JasonSavesChristmas/JasonSavesChristmas.zip

[Stupot]

Don’t forget to vote if you’ve played the games, guys. We’ve only had two votes so far. It’s my fault for delaying the start of voting. But please vote if you haven’t yet. Thanks, love you, bye xxx

[Ponch]

Playing now... Voting soon...

Voted! 

[Shadow1000]

I voted

Tom and Jimi in: Blowout by Slasher

Spoiler

Not particularly challenging, this game was really fun and funny, had a good variety of things to do and fit the theme very well

[close]

Ka and Da by VampireWombat

Spoiler

I see a character move around a big room. Doing different things will make different stats change. Talking to the other character will basically end the game. Because you can't speak to the other character, it's hard to say if the entry meets the theme

[close]

Jason Saves Christmas by fernewelten

Spoiler

This game seems to be the most complete and polished, with some solid ideas and puzzles. Great application of the theme. Unfortunately I did not complete the game as I seem to have hit a bug that doesn't allow me to proceed.

Some detail to my thoughts: the intro was good but a bit long. The last section where you see horns moving around a dark room felt like it really dragged on to the point that I wasn't sure if something had gone wrong or if the game started. I noticed some elements that are common to some other entries, such as the maze and the dialogue puzzle. About 11 1/2 months early for Christmas   I feel that I spent a disproportionate amount of time on the hints thread as compared to actual playing.

Overall a great entry and I completely understand the challenge of getting out a solid entry under such a time constraint.

[close]

My vote went to

Spoiler

Tom and Jimi, as the most complete and best overall player experience of the entries

[close]

[VampireWombat]

Ka and Da by VampireWombat

Spoiler

I see a character move around a big room. Doing different things will make different stats change. Talking to the other character will basically end the game. Because you can't speak to the other character, it's hard to say if the entry meets the theme

[close]

Apparently in my attempt to flesh out the game, I forgot to check boxes to enable quit dialog at 2 of the friendship levels. This issue should be fixed in the version I just uploaded.

[heltenjon]

Is there an ending to Ka and Da? I somehow managed to

Spoiler

get a negative count of days. At zero, I got the message that I had no more time, but it went to negative time when I tried talking to my crewmate. Is there a specific action I'm supposed to try at zero, or is zero supposed to trigger the ending?

EDIT: I tried again, this time it was looking at the TV that made the time go to minus one. (Possibly it was that the first time, too.)

[close]

Otherwise, fine game. I'll make reviews when I've played them all. A bit last minute before voting this time around.

[VampireWombat]

Is there an ending to Ka and Da? I somehow managed to

There are supposed to be multiple endings. But apparently I missed a few things. It looks like interacting with the computer is the only way to actually end it.

Spoiler

From there, the endings are supposed to vary depending on your friendship points and abductions. In theory it should still end if you have negative time left... In theory.

[close]

[heltenjon]

Is there an ending to Ka and Da? I somehow managed to

There are supposed to be multiple endings. But apparently I missed a few things. It looks like interacting with the computer is the only way to actually end it.

Spoiler

From there, the endings are supposed to vary depending on your friendship points and abductions. In theory it should still end if you have negative time left... In theory.

[close]

Perhaps I have missed something.

Spoiler

I don't think I have found a computer to interact with. I didn't find any hotspots in the engine room, so maybe I haven't looked close enough. I love the theory of the multiple endings...hope I find a way to see them for real.   

[close]

[VampireWombat]

Perhaps I have missed something.

Spoiler

I don't think I have found a computer to interact with. I didn't find any hotspots in the engine room, so maybe I haven't looked close enough. I love the theory of the multiple endings...hope I find a way to see them for real.   

[close]

Spoiler

Bottom left room, to the left of the table and Da.

[close]

[heltenjon]

Is there an ending to Ka and Da? I somehow managed to

There are supposed to be multiple endings. But apparently I missed a few things. It looks like interacting with the computer is the only way to actually end it.

When interacting with the computer after the time runs out, it says I don't have enough energy.

[VampireWombat]

When interacting with the computer after the time runs out, it says I don't have enough energy.

Oops. Sounds like the computer is one of the things that actually is dependent on energy. I guess at this point you're a bit stuck. Sorry about that...

[heltenjon]

My thoughts this round.

Tom and Jimi in: Blowout by Slasher

Spoiler

Great humour made this one a treat. I really liked the animations, too - the mouse running to try to keep up with the cat's walk!  I'm one of those who get absurd thoughts when playing something like this, like "cats probably won't like rice". But the fact that they talk doesn't bother me one bit. I _so_ wanted to use all of those funny items found in the bins, but I guess they're only dressing.

[close]

Ka and Da by VampireWombat

Spoiler

I'm quite fond of time management games, but not when compared to adventures. Anyway, this one is a good idea, with some abduction humour thrown in, too. Unfortunately I can't see the endings, so I don't know how well I did, but I think perhaps 75 hours makes the game easy. I managed to keep all of the stats comfortably high/low. (But can't say for sure without the scale, of course.) Fine abuse of the AGS engine.

[close]

Jason Saves Christmas by fernewelten

Spoiler

Another good game with a few bugs. Good puzzles and funny characters. This has a very different feel when you swap characters, and that's a plus here.

[close]

My vote went to

Spoiler

Jason saves Christmas. Blowout was funnier and felt more finished, and this one had the better puzzles. Close call, but I let the puzzles win this time. I'm a hound for good dialogue puzzles.

[close]

[Stupot]

Well done to Slasher for winning this round. I’ll PM you in a bit about choosing the next topic.