Are you up to playing dozens of great adventures?

Started by fernewelten, Fri 21/05/2021 22:06:40

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fernewelten

Adventure Jam 2021 is about to end. One and a half dozen games have already been registered.

So if you're wondering what would be a great way of spending all your leisure time on Pentecost, have a look here.


Stupot

Some great looking titles there.

I still don’t get why they limited voting to only people who entered. I’m sure a lot more people would bother playing the games if they were able to vote.

FormosaFalanster

Quote from: Stupot on Sat 22/05/2021 01:02:20
Some great looking titles there.

I still don’t get why they limited voting to only people who entered. I’m sure a lot more people would bother playing the games if they were able to vote.

I wondered the same thing. We had already several people telling us they would have been voting if they could. It doesn't make much sense but sadly we can only follow their rules   :-\

Stupot

Quote from: FormosaFalanster on Sat 22/05/2021 01:10:27
Quote from: Stupot on Sat 22/05/2021 01:02:20
Some great looking titles there.

I still don’t get why they limited voting to only people who entered. I’m sure a lot more people would bother playing the games if they were able to vote.

I wondered the same thing. We had already several people telling us they would have been voting if they could. It doesn't make much sense but sadly we can only follow their rules   :-\
Yeah. The first year or two was open for anyone to vote but after that they limited it. When I asked why they just said it had been chaos.

fernewelten

AFAICS it's not that closed.

Here's what I read in their FAQ:
Quote
Anyone with a Game Jolt account can give your game an out-of-five rating on your game's page. This will, in part, effect how high your game appears on Game Jolt's website in terms of popularity. This means more people will see your game, whether they participated in Adventure Jam or not. Adventure Jam participants will be able to vote on each other's games ...

So on the one hand, non-participants may not vote, but on the other, they do get the chance to leave a rating or make a comment on the game page.

FormosaFalanster

Apparently there are 31 games in the jam. With fernewelten's and mine, that makes at least two AGS games. I am not sure yet if there are others.

heltenjon

Honza's in, too, with Long in the tooth.

More AGS games: Coffin Valley, All Demons Must Go to Hell, Nadir.

Just now, there were 29 entries. A couple of them are marked as unfinished. (I guess a couple of entrants withdrew in the time between Formosa Falanster's post and mine.)

I've already played Fernewelten's (Thinker) and Formosa Falanster/Lorenzo's (Breakfast on Trappist-1) games, and they are excellent!

FormosaFalanster

That makes 6 games from AGS out of 29!

Assuming all 29 are still competing. I keep hearing on gamejolt that some may not finish. Honestly I hope they do, the more the merrier.

lorenzo

#8
Nice to see other AGSers participating in the game jam! Congratulations to everyone who managed to finish an entry!

Have you played any of the entries?
I finished Nebraska Smith and the Mask of Minkhamanna and it's quite fun. Some nice jokes and good puzzles. Worth playing for 20 minutes of fun!

fernewelten


fernewelten

Honza's has several very nice animations and beautiful graphics.

And I can recommend Lorenzo's and FormosaFalanster's for the graphics and story line, and also for its extent (playing length, game world size).

Stupot

Quote from: fernewelten on Sat 22/05/2021 14:14:26
Quote from: FormosaFalanster on Sat 22/05/2021 03:19:10
AGS games. I am not sure yet if there are others.
There's also this game: Sleuth.
This is an older game. I don’t think Monkey is entering it into this year’s Jam.

heltenjon

Honza's Long in the tooth is one posting in the database away from half-way securing my vote for best AGS Demo at the next award show. Dammit, I want more!  (nod) Great humour and top-notch art and animation.

Honza

I'm loving Telwynium so far, feels like being a nerdy 90s kid and playing Dungeons and Dragons again :). Haven't had a chance to play any of the AGS games yet, but looking forward to it. Trappist and Nebraska Smith have caught my eye in particular.

Quote from: Stupot on Sat 22/05/2021 01:02:20
I still don’t get why they limited voting to only people who entered. I’m sure a lot more people would bother playing the games if they were able to vote.

I assumed it was because it would give too much of an edge to people with established fanbases?

Quote from: heltenjon on Sat 22/05/2021 16:20:54
Honza's Long in the tooth is one posting in the database away from half-way securing my vote for best AGS Demo at the next award show. Dammit, I want more!  (nod) Great humour and top-notch art and animation.

Heh, thanks! There is much more substance to the story, what I managed to squeeze out for the jam is just a stub really. That's why I haven't posted it here, hoping to finish the whole thing soon-ish. But yeah, there is more :).

arj0n

I have to play more of the submissions, just finished Telwynium and that one was awesome!

heltenjon

Quote from: Honza on Sat 22/05/2021 22:12:32
Quote from: heltenjon on Sat 22/05/2021 16:20:54
Honza's Long in the tooth is one posting in the database away from half-way securing my vote for best AGS Demo at the next award show. Dammit, I want more!  (nod) Great humour and top-notch art and animation.

Heh, thanks! There is much more substance to the story, what I managed to squeeze out for the jam is just a stub really. That's why I haven't posted it here, hoping to finish the whole thing soon-ish. But yeah, there is more :).
Looking forward to it! Also, why not add the demo to the database? Only demos added to the database are eligible for "demo of the year" at the AGS awards.

lorenzo

Another game I recommend is A Weekend at Villa Apate. Lots of humour, a big place to explore, some nice mechanics involving changing memories to affect the present, and a crazy plot. It's also quite long.

I've also played Honza's game. There's not much to do yet, unfortunately, but it's a nice teaser for the full game. And that parallax (I think?) effect with the backgrounds, wow! It gives a lot of depth to the scenes. The complete game should be a lot of fun!

FormosaFalanster

Quote from: lorenzo on Sun 23/05/2021 08:26:17


I've also played Honza's game. There's not much to do yet, unfortunately, but it's a nice teaser for the full game. And that parallax (I think?) effect with the backgrounds, wow! It gives a lot of depth to the scenes. The complete game should be a lot of fun!

I played it too and it was a short but great experience! The art and universe are different from what we often see, so that's a big bonus! It has lots of personality!
It has a bit too much unhandled actions but I still look forward for the longer version!

heltenjon

#18
I played Jeffrey Jetsam. It's a snack-sized escape-the-island (about ten minutes playtime) with a nice, casual difficulty level. The voice work adds lots to the humour of the game.

Edit: Currently stuck on IMAGinE. That's a Visionaire game, very polished graphics-wise. According to a comment on the site, it's solvable, so I'll stick with it. Fun, but difficult. The plot involves transporting from painting to painting, opening up for all sorts of scenarios and graphic styles.

FormosaFalanster

Someone posted an interesting graph showing what game engines were used for entries in the jam:



AGS is the second-most used engine, at almost 20% of all games. Second only to Unity which towers at 25% and if you add the Unity/Powerquest you reach almost 42% of all games made with an Unity engine of sorts.

After AGS the only ones coming close are Godot and Visionaire at 6.5% each.

This kinda shows how AGS is still popular nowadays amongst indie devs.

heltenjon

#20
I made some progress on IMAGinE. I really recommend this one. I can't begin to understand how they could have made a full length game of this complexity in 14 days! It's difficult as ten foxes in a Volkswagen, too. But a lot of fun.

Snarky

Quote from: FormosaFalanster on Mon 24/05/2021 07:37:48
Someone posted an interesting graph showing what game engines were used for entries in the jam:

Spoiler
[close]

AGS is the second-most used engine, at almost 20% of all games. Second only to Unity which towers at 25% and if you add the Unity/Powerquest you reach almost 42% of all games made with an Unity engine of sorts.

After AGS the only ones coming close are Godot and Visionaire at 6.5% each.

This kinda shows how AGS is still popular nowadays amongst indie devs.

I think listing things in percentages tends to obscure the scale we're talking about. Presumably the 3.2% entries represent a single game, so in raw numbers we are talking:

  • Unity: 8
  • AGS: 6
  • Unity/PowerQuest: 5
  • Visionaire: 2
  • Godot: 2
  • Others: 8
For 31 in total.

FormosaFalanster

Quote from: Snarky on Tue 25/05/2021 06:51:48
Quote from: FormosaFalanster on Mon 24/05/2021 07:37:48
Someone posted an interesting graph showing what game engines were used for entries in the jam:

Spoiler
[close]

AGS is the second-most used engine, at almost 20% of all games. Second only to Unity which towers at 25% and if you add the Unity/Powerquest you reach almost 42% of all games made with an Unity engine of sorts.

After AGS the only ones coming close are Godot and Visionaire at 6.5% each.

This kinda shows how AGS is still popular nowadays amongst indie devs.

I think listing things in percentages tends to obscure the scale we're talking about. Presumably the 3.2% entries represent a single game, so in raw numbers we are talking:

  • Unity: 8
  • AGS: 6
  • Unity/PowerQuest: 5
  • Visionaire: 2
  • Godot: 2
  • Others: 8
For 31 in total.

It still means that, besides Unity, then AGS is the only one which was used by more than 2 games. Not trying to trumpet AGS here, just trying to get a picture of the situation. In short, AGS is dwarfed by Unity, but it's the only one else that gathered more than a couple users.

heltenjon

I did the stubs today.  (laugh)

I played TBFTW_ADVJAM2021 (That dinosaur game), The Climb, Darts 2 and Train to Amber Coast. These games are all short or unfinished.

The dinosaur game is huge at 2 Gb, and still it's just a proof of concept-thing. You can run around in a forest and presumably eat and fight, but I never met anyone and didn't understand why I got some points. This is the Unreal Engine, so a high end computer will do it more justice than my system. Stunning visually, but nothing to do yet. I wouldn't call this an adventure game anyhow. The same people have made a game with a similar title in Visionaire, so perhaps that one's more of a point'n'click dinosaur game. (Haven't tried that one.) I was a bit bothered by the sound. Bird song? A bit early for that...

The Climb "looked a bit like Minecraft", my son said. And it does. There was a tutorial that was ruined by a bug, and I could play what will presumably be the first level of the game. Why I have a sword and shield when the guy in the tutorial says he has plenty of shotguns is beyond me, though.

Darts 2 is a joke game that won't win any prizes, buy okay. It is what it is.

Train to Amber Coast is unfinished and works as a demo for the full game. This one I liked, though the emphasis is on storytelling. I didn't encounter any puzzles at all. Click to continue...but the story seems interesting. This is probably the only one of these I'll check out later.

heltenjon

#24
Hope this doesn't sound like the personal blog of Mr. Poststoomuch.  :-[

IMAGinE has a professional walkthrough up for downloading. I needed two peeks to get through this game, which I cannot recommend enough. But it's a game for puzzle lovers. Be warned. I've played this extensively the last days. There are hours of gameplay here, if you don't look at the hints right away.

I also managed to topple the evil king in Path, more of stubbornness than anything else. Not recommended, but if anyone plays it and gets stuck, I'll be happy to share which equipment to use in the final battle. This is an action game of sorts where you can go up and down to avoid attacks while launching projectiles of your own at the enemy.

Both Anamnesis and The Creator is Mean is a sequel. Does anyone know whether one ought to play the number one games first, or if it doesn't matter?

lorenzo

Quote from: heltenjon on Tue 25/05/2021 22:51:24
Hope this doesn't sound like the personal blog of Mr. Poststoomuch.  :-[
I'm enjoying your mini-reviews, so keep posting them! They help me decide what to play next. :)

Hobbes

Quote from: lorenzo on Wed 26/05/2021 17:33:19
Quote from: heltenjon on Tue 25/05/2021 22:51:24
Hope this doesn't sound like the personal blog of Mr. Poststoomuch.  :-[
I'm enjoying your mini-reviews, so keep posting them! They help me decide what to play next. :)

Me too! Though first on my list is Breakfast on Trappist-1. As a Dutchie I feel I should be playing some Belgium-related game first. :)

FormosaFalanster

Quote from: Hobbes on Thu 27/05/2021 10:27:58
Quote from: lorenzo on Wed 26/05/2021 17:33:19
Quote from: heltenjon on Tue 25/05/2021 22:51:24
Hope this doesn't sound like the personal blog of Mr. Poststoomuch.  :-[
I'm enjoying your mini-reviews, so keep posting them! They help me decide what to play next. :)

Me too! Though first on my list is Breakfast on Trappist-1. As a Dutchie I feel I should be playing some Belgium-related game first. :)

:-D De speel is meer Wallen dan Vlaams, maar ik hoop dat jij vindt het leuk!

heltenjon

I played a couple of entries:

Exodus Terram: This is demo at this point. There's a pretty long walk in the start that seems to have little bearing on the game (except showing the world), and then there is the beginning of a conversation with an AI. The conversation bit may turn out to be interesting if the game is finished. So far there are no puzzles except that walking is unnecessary tricky because of objects in the way. I like the idea of the story, it just isn't developed yet.

Rideshare: This is a rather long visual novel with very limited interactivity. There are a few places where you get to choose what to say, but it doesn't always influence the story much. The story itself is surprising and grossly funny, so there is some entertainment to be had here, if click to proceed is your cup of tea.

I just realized that Nadir is made by Akril, who's behind the excellent Adventure trilogy, some of the highest rated games in the AGS database! I'm eager to play this one now!

heltenjon

I played Nebraska Smith and the mask of Minkhamanna by Gugames, the guy behind the great AGS games The Halloween Party, Kill Yourself and Duty First. This time he's used Unity. As expected from him, this is funny and irreverent. As the title suggests, it's a parody of Indiana Jones (one of two in this jam). Even though it's humourous, the puzzles are rather good and quite original. This is a funny one. Gugames usually has great endings, and this game is no exception. Playtime will vary depending on if you solve the puzzles at one go or not. I had to return to the game a couple of times before I had the necessary revelation. The game in itself is fairly short.

heltenjon

#30
I finally found the time to play another game, and this time it was  Nadir. And it's a work of art. Unsettling and story-driven. The player finds himself with little to no memory in a submarine badly needing repairs. He's got to piece it all together. There's a lot to read, and the pace is slow, so this probably won't be everyone's idea of a good time, but I liked it a lot. It's really well written, and the graphics and interface are clear and functional at a professional level.

heltenjon

I played Allie Cat Game. This one's unfinished, but works as a demo of the basic story and the first few screens. I liked the wild graphics of a kind of dream world, but the items and the backgrounds don't really match. The text was too fast to read for me, but the story wasn't difficult to follow anyhow. I'm not a fan of the verbcoin interface either. I'll say that the game looks interesting and may be worth a look later, when there's a bit more to it.

I also played Dem Villa. This is a Twine story with multiple choices. Well written, but it tries to be scary and funny at the same time. While I enjoyed some of the through-the-fourth-wall humour, it breaks immersion. There is one puzzle in here that I thought was a bit clever. Can't say anymore without spoiling it. The game can be played with speech, and the German (the mother tongue of the author) is quite good, while the English is a tad slow. Perhaps ten minutes of play time.

heltenjon

I played Coffin Valley. I really liked this! It's a medium long western where you have to prove to the sheriff that you're tough enough to be the new deputy. Cartoonish characters on more realistic backdrops, but it didn't really bother me. Also nice Western music throughout. The voice acting is adding immensely to the atmosphere, really great casting! The game is quite family friendly, despite the tougher-than-nails characters. And it's made with AGS.

Also started on All Demons Must Go to Hell, the last AGS game in the bunch. This is probably a game people are going to hate or love. There are ridiculously many verbs to choose from, and you must be prepared to accept that "look", "search", "inspect" and "read" may give different results. There's also a maze that I'm now realizing is so big that I'll have to map it on paper. And a monster that's going to kill you several times. And a save system by hilariously long passwords that doesn't work properly. But all this is wrapped in humour of a dark, dark kind. Add great voice acting, and I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and try to beat it. Mind you, infinite verbs and maze mapping was par for the course when I played text adventures.

Is anyone else playing anything?

heltenjon

Ah, a new version of  All Demons Must Go to Hell has replaced the broken passwords with a bookmark-type save a la King's Quest 7. It would have been much better if they simply used the normal saves, but all right. At least I got one save slot, and that was enough to make it to the end of the game. It turns out I was stuck because
Spoiler
some objects are randomly placed in the maze,
[close]
which I suspected when
Spoiler
I found something where it shouldn't be according to my map.
[close]
The humour is really what makes this game work, though there are some decent puzzles in here, as well. But I wonder how a German takes this...to Scandinavian ears some of the German music in here is tremendously funny. My favourite has to be either the chewing gum song or the devil jingle. Some times I felt like playing this game is like being pranked by a practical joke. There is, for instance,
Spoiler
an auto-map system that isn't revealed to the player until he's found the way through the maze without it.
[close]

heltenjon

#34
After swaddling through All Demons Must Go to Hell, I see that the creators have issued some sort of challenge to other streamers (I guess) to play it, claiming it to be deliberately bad-designed and user-unfriendly. There appears to be a lot of posted videos of people "taking the challenge". So, perhaps this is a way to do PR? (I wouldn't know, I have a hard time understanding why someone would want to watch other people play instead of playing themselves, anyway. I stay away from Let's play videos in fear of spoilers.) User-unfriendly it is, but not bad-designed, simply because it is designed. While it may be a parody, it still plays better than games that are badly designed because noone thought of x or y.

I played Georgiana Bones and the Hapless Heist. This is the second Indiana Jones parody in the jam, and by far the weaker. It's still a funny short game, with emphasis on the comedy. Voice acting is pretty good, too. I'm amazed that so many of the entries are fully voiced. Perhaps ten minutes of play time. There may be an extended version after the jam, so I'll watch out for that.

I also played Yowie. I've never heard the term before, but apparently it's an Australian sort of bigfoot monster. I liked this game, even though it breaks some of my personal rules for enjoyment.  :-D The player character walks slowly, but it's because of an injury, so I totally buy that.  There are long walking areas without anyhting, but the eerie atmosphere and sense of that something could be behind the next tree made me accept that, too. The game is a side-scroller, but the plot makes this the only logical choice, as well. I had to turn up the brightness on my screen to see anything a couple of places, so I guess this one is best enjoyed when played at night in a dark room. The game looks and sounds well - yet another brilliant voice!

And I played Pato and Lobo. This was a fun change of pace. Pato is a bird who is in love with Lobo, a wolf. Through daydreams/minigames she has to build up the courage to talk to him. The puzzles are easy, but the atmosphere and the design of entering surreal daydreams made the game enjoyable.

heltenjon

I played The Florist. This time I think I need to somehow slag off this game and praise it at the same time. The game is about providing care for the plants in an apartment until grandma comes home. Basically, you have to follow the instructions and water, spray or fertilize as much as needed per day for each plant. The graphics are nice, albeit limited to the one room. It's relatively easy to do what you want, and there's also a shelf with music and short stories from public domain to entertain you. So if you like this kind of feel-good, meditative game, then perhaps this is something for you. Personally, I found it incredibly boring. There's little or no story, save from the letters from grandma. If I want to listen to music or read a story, I certainly won't do it in the form of a game where it's totally on the side of the game's purpose, and there aren't really any puzzles, only instructions to follow. I think the game can be easily beat if the player bothers to take notes. I discovered that a spray bottle didn't work (a bug I think is fixed after I downloaded), so I quit and found out that the game doesn't seem to have any save feature. Now, I think the game is nicely done (except for the bug) and does what it intends to do, so this isn't really me saying that it's a bad game, but that it's a game that doesn't offer anything of what I enjoy about adventure games (or games generally).

FormosaFalanster

That's all very enjoyable to read heltejon, thanks for your involvement in the jam!

heltenjon

I played Shark Riders. This is a visual novel, or short story. The writing and graphics are excellent. I really liked the fantasy setting/world building with a tribe and their rituals involving riding a shark. Truly original and well done. Now, the interaction the player has is limited, so this will not necessarily appeal to everyone. There are some choices to be made along the way and four endings. I think I found them all (though the numbering didn't work properly on the build I was playing). I prefer normal adventure games, but in its genre, this one is pretty good. Recommended if you like VNs.

fernewelten

Quote from: heltenjon on Sat 12/06/2021 16:44:03
Is anyone else playing anything?

So here's my list:

  • The misadventures of Jeffrey Jetsam:
    This fairly short game shines by its British humour.
    Graphics were fine.
    The music fits the situation and is unobtrusive.
    I didn't find the tasks for the player too hard: to the contrary, I solved one of the puzzles before I found out what the problem was. 
  • A weekend at Villa Apate:
    Recommendable.
    A very long game with good puzzles.
    I like the proposition of being able to "rewrite" the past.
    There were some glitches where I got into situations that I wasn't supposed to see yet which prevented me finishing later on. For instance,
    Spoiler
    quite early on I was in the foyer, the staff wasn't there but I was able to talk to them. I went into the back room  and activated the device therein. I was treated to a cutscene of characters I hadn't even met yet, and later on, I didn't have a chance to redo this when I was supposed to.
    [close]
  • Thinker
    Can't say anything to that, for obvious reasons.
  • Coffin valley:
    A game with middling play length.
    The graphics had atmosphere but were too blocky for my taste. The font used for dialogues was too small.
    The music fit the atmosphere, but was a bit too intrusive for my taste.
    I did a lot of actions because I could, reasoning that thus I was supposed to do them -- without knowing why I was supposed to do them. For instance,
    Spoiler
    I'm in a shop and I've got three pence, so I suppose I'm meant to buy the only article to be had for three pence. Why? Don't know yet. Do it anyway.
    [close]
    The characters were rather cliché, which might be a tribute to the genre (Western).
  • Breakfast on Trappist-1
    A visual novel with lots of atmosphere.
    Recommendable.
    Graphics were first-class: game screens as well as GUI graphics.
    Music fit the situation.
    Story was engaging; characters distinct and memorable.
  • The creator is mean 2
    Recommendable.
    I like the proposition of characters being trapped in the screen of an operating system.
    Graphics were fine.
    Music was unobtrusive, not memorable.
    Puzzles were on the easy side.
  • Long in the tooth
    More of a demo than a game, but still complete.
    Graphics are outstanding. Several remarkable, well-executed animations.
    Music unobtrusive, fitting the situation.
    Story line: Oh well. An exhortation to floss your teeth.

heltenjon

I discovered quite by accident that the author of The Florist also is an AGS-er, though last active here in 2016 (Navidad).

And the last days I have had three Germans listen to the bubble gum song in All Demons Must go to Hell, but none of them manage to make out the words following "Ein grosses Kaugummi-". Aargh!  8-0 (laugh)

heltenjon

The official voting is over, and some games were placed too high and some too low, as usual.  ;)

I played The Cavern Echoes. Nice idea to pop in and out of your body. This entry was designed a bit differently than the engine works, giving a description when the mouse pointer hovers over something, and saying that description isn't interesting when I right-clicked.  (laugh) The intention was clearly to use left button only. The game wasn't finished, and the ending is text only in the version out now. Short, okay game with decent pictures and easy puzzles.

And after I saw the results, I also played The Telwynium. This gave me vibes back to Conquests of Camelot. There is a lot of fantasy setup with names, titles and areas, but after some minutes it works very well. Very well-written, good character interaction, great world-building and also very good use of what isn't really that many locations. The story finds a balance between darkness and humour without feeling strained. A bit on the easy side, perhaps, but quite a long story. Even though it's not my number one pick, I can easily understand why this one was the overall winner. It's a very good jam game.

fernewelten

Quote from: heltenjon on Sat 19/06/2021 22:02:04
The official voting is over, and some games were placed too high and some too low, as usual.  ;)

For those interested: The following is the list of games that ranked #1 to #5 in at least one voting category.
Spoiler
[close]

Honza

Quote from: fernewelten on Sat 19/06/2021 22:51:54
For those interested: The following is the list of games that ranked #1 to #5 in at least one voting category.
Spoiler
[close]

Just two corrections:

#4 in Mental Engagement is Nebraska Smith (not Darts 2).
#4 in Characterization is Coffin Valley (not Anamnesis II).

heltenjon

Well, the jam has ended, but I think I'll play them all, just the same.

I tried Gynoid. This game is unfinished. The dirty look of the building was nice, but it was difficult to see objects. There wasn't much to do, either, though the story seems interesting (if generic) and the atmosphere is good. I'm not really a fan of first person perspective in an adventure games, but that isn't the developer's fault. I found some objects, mostly newspapers and books that gave some backstory, but nothing I could use. (Unless I used the keys automatically.) If there are more locations available than the first house, I failed to find them.

As it is, it's an atmospheric demo of a first person cyberpunkish adventure.

fernewelten

Yes, the jam has ended, but even after two months, Thinker is still getting a sporadic trickle of some views and downloads.

People still seem to be finding and playing the jam games, every now and then.


heltenjon

I finally got around to playing A Weekend at Villa Apate, and I understand why this was a favourite among many of you. It's small in download size and huge in content.

I really like the characters, the over-the-top humour, and the convoluted puzzles. I played the jam version and was stuck because I didn't see an exit, but got a hint from a comment on gamejolt from another player who had the same experience. This has been improved in a new version. I think this may be my favourite game of the jam, together with IMAGinE.

All you who liked the time-traveling mechanics of this game (or of Day of The Tentacle, for that matter), will probably also enjoy Lucas Mendoza - Amateur Detective DEMO. It's a fascinating way to create games and puzzles. (And vice versa if you only played Lucas Mendoza, of course.)  ;-D

heltenjon

Those who enjoyed Train to Amber Coast will perhaps be interested to know that the game now is expanded into a finished game. There are now some easy puzzles, more characters and locations and a longer story (ten minutes, perhaps). Very well done. Recommended.

newwaveburritos

I just played Train to Amber Coast and I agree.  Very charming and recommended. 

heltenjon

Before playing The Creator is Mean 2, I just had to play number one. And I'm glad I did, because the story is connected (even if it's silly).

The first game deals with a drawing escaping the computer and running around in the real world, while the second game is concerned with running around inside a computer, visiting familiar games (sort of) and programs in order to make your escape. I had the most fun with the first one, but I think perhaps most people will prefer the sequel. While the first game drops the drawing in the middle of a bug war, the second is more loosely connected with better puzzles and more in-jokes. I feel I have more positives to say about number two, even though I liked number one better.  (laugh) No matter. If you like one, you'll probably like the other, too.

heltenjon

Next up, I tried first Anamnesis I, then Anamnesis II. These make up a story that will probably continue in more games. Both games are short and a bit unpolished, but with some nice graphics in there some of the time. I was stumped by a matching puzzle in game one that was incredibly easy once you understand what to do. Genious puzzle or lacking design?  (laugh) A bit of both. i needed a hint from the comment section.

The second game has branching paths, although I only managed to follow one of them to the ending. There is a safe code breaking puzzle that I think relies on having a more sensitive mouse wheel than I've got, but thankfully, I could skip it. There's more of a story this time around, although it's a story that sounds familiar.

These games are okay, but I'd say they are skippable compared to the best in the jam. (Only the second is an entry in this.) But it's nice to know there's someone out there making their story in installments, one game per jam, improving as they go.

heltenjon

I played Echoes of Academe. And I was surprised. I can't really say much more without spoiling the experience for others. The game ought to be played several times in a row without quitting, due to the random generation of the campus. For me, this was worth my time.

heltenjon

For the sense of finality, I got around to playing the last game I hadn't tried yet, Down the Elephant.

This was certainly a somewhat unusual experience. The GUI was a bit cumbersome until I realized I could move around using the cursor keys. The player is a cult member, and the religion is in crisis. And it is up to the acolyte to decide what the future will hold. The graphics are in stylish black and white/shades of gray, and it invoked a creepy feeling in me. Not very long or difficult, the emphasis is on subtle storytelling.

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