Gifting Spirit

Pax Animo · Wed 15/12/2021 23:46:27

Gifting Spirit
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2586-gifting-spirit/

Short game submitted to the MAGS competition (Monthly Adventure Game Studio) The theme for the competition was "Gift Trouble"

Story:

It's not easy when you're young and have no solid income and wish to buy gifts for your family and friends.

After saving up your pocket money all year, the local Christmas market is here, with your money at hand you set off to buy the perfect gifts for your loved ones.

Finding the perfect gifts before running out of time is troublesome business.

Your parents demand you don't miss the last bus home.

-Help turn on Christmas decorations.
-Revive snow sculptures.
-Deliver Christmas cards.
-Visit the Christmas market.
-Complete mums shopping list.

Game play:

-Been not very street wise and afraid of the dark, you'll need to use street lamps to regain energy.
-Speak with the witch to convert spirit into coins.
-Double click to run.
-Some timed puzzles.
-Few pixel hunts.

Keys:
P to pause.
R to restart.

DOWNLOAD
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2586-gifting-spirit/

Danvzare · Thu 16/12/2021 17:45:56

This looks nice. Downloading now.

Pax Animo · Thu 16/12/2021 22:48:38

Quote from: Danvzare on Thu 16/12/2021 17:45:56
This looks nice. Downloading now.

That's great, thank you for your support. I do hope you enjoy it.

SinSin · Fri 17/12/2021 12:51:50

What a lovely little game.. I've played it about 5 times so far and still have not done everything just yet.

Spoiler

I have to find 1 doll and post all of the Christmas cards (no idea where to post them)

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Shadow1000 · Fri 17/12/2021 15:00:40

Quote from: SinSin on Fri 17/12/2021 12:51:50
What a lovely little game.. I've played it about 5 times so far and still have not done everything just yet.

Spoiler
I have to find 1 doll and post all of the Christmas cards (no idea where to post them)
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I played 4 more times last night and finally figured out how to

Spoiler

snag the turkey. I got all the presents, delivered all the cards, got all the lights and revived one snowman. I only found 6 dolls and have to figure out how to revive 3 more snowmen.

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There is a LOT of replay value to this game. In fact, expect to play it just to figure out specific tasks so you can develop a strategy to do things most efficiently.

cat · Wed 29/12/2021 21:06:41

The game is super cute with lots of stuff to do. I especially like

Spoiler

that you get every grocery item in your inventory and afterwards it is put into a bag.

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Did you make all the graphics yourself?

It would be nice if you could skip at least the intro cutscene with ESC. Can you give me a hint what those numbers on top mean? I understand the Energy part, but where do I need health points? The orange point is money, I assume, but what is purple?

Pax Animo · Thu 30/12/2021 00:06:47

Quote from: cat on Wed 29/12/2021 21:06:41
The game is super cute with lots of stuff to do. I especially like
Spoiler
that you get every grocery item in your inventory and afterwards it is put into a bag.
[close]
Did you make all the graphics yourself?

It would be nice if you could skip at least the intro cutscene with ESC. Can you give me a hint what those numbers on top mean? I understand the Energy part, but where do I need health points? The orange point is money, I assume, but what is purple?

Hey cat,

Thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked the:

Spoiler

Grocery part, I originally wanted the player to be able to go into the store and do the shopping manually but been on a deadline it just seemed best the way it is.

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As for the graphics, they are not mine, I've used modified asset packs from https://shubibubi.itch.io/

Good idea with been able to skip the intro, I can't remember now if the end game timer starts running during the intro but either way it would be best to have it skippable.

As for the numbers:

Spoiler

The HP has no purpose, there was an intended purpose but once again I didn't want to over do it given the deadline.
I should have thought about removing the HP as it's a bit of a unintended red herring.

The purple is spirit gained, accumulated via switching on decorations, posting cards, and so on. Spirit may be traded for money. (speak with one of the npc's)

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Hope that helps you out a little.

Shadow1000 · Thu 30/12/2021 00:08:36

Quote from: cat on Wed 29/12/2021 21:06:41
The game is super cute with lots of stuff to do. I especially like
Spoiler
that you get every grocery item in your inventory and afterwards it is put into a bag.
[close]
Did you make all the graphics yourself?

It would be nice if you could skip at least the intro cutscene with ESC. Can you give me a hint what those numbers on top mean? I understand the Energy part, but where do I need health points? The orange point is money, I assume, but what is purple?

The bottom number (under the money; I don't know what colour it is) indicates spirit. You get more spirit points as you "do things". You can exchange them for money with someone you'll meet.

cat · Thu 30/12/2021 18:27:15

Quote from: Pax Animo on Thu 30/12/2021 00:06:47
As for the graphics, they are not mine, I've used modified asset packs from https://shubibubi.itch.io/

In this case, it would be nice if you could update the game description a bit. Now it states "Pax Animo: Everything". I think this would make things more fair, especially considering the MAGS and upcoming AGS Awards voting.

Btw, I'm still missing the turkey, delivering one letter, one doll, one fish and a snowman

Pax Animo · Thu 30/12/2021 18:56:04

Quote from: cat on Thu 30/12/2021 18:27:15

In this case, it would be nice if you could update the game description a bit. Now it states "Pax Animo: Everything". I think this would make things more fair, especially considering the MAGS and upcoming AGS Awards voting.

Btw, I'm still missing the turkey, delivering one letter, one doll, one fish and a snowman

Updated.
Asset info was placed on the itch page, I overlooked setting the correct info here.

Good luck with the turkey, it certainly wishes to avoid the dinner table.

cat · Thu 30/12/2021 21:36:30

Thanks for updating!
Got the turkey

heltenjon · Sat 01/01/2022 02:48:48

What a great time waster this one is going to be the coming days... I played it three times today and am nowhere near solving it yet. I'm very glad that Jack goes to the bus on his own without me having to walk him there.

Pax Animo · Sat 01/01/2022 03:25:12

Quote from: heltenjon on Sat 01/01/2022 02:48:48
What a great time waster this one is going to be the coming days... I played it three times today and am nowhere near solving it yet. I'm very glad that Jack goes to the bus on his own without me having to walk him there.

Hey heltenjon,

I do hope it's not too much of a waste of your time trying to complete the game.

As for not walking "Jack" to the bus after the timer ended was a game mechanic I played around with for a few days but I unfortunately couldn't come up with a better solution to having the player walk to the bus stop rather than an abrupt stop to everything due to the game blocking in certain situations.

heltenjon · Sat 01/01/2022 11:53:40

Quote from: Pax Animo on Sat 01/01/2022 03:25:12
Quote from: heltenjon on Sat 01/01/2022 02:48:48
What a great time waster this one is going to be the coming days... I played it three times today and am nowhere near solving it yet. I'm very glad that Jack goes to the bus on his own without me having to walk him there.
I do hope it's not too much of a waste of your time trying to complete the game.

As for not walking "Jack" to the bus after the timer ended was a game mechanic I played around with for a few days but I unfortunately couldn't come up with a better solution to having the player walk to the bus stop rather than an abrupt stop to everything due to the game blocking in certain situations.

Oops, I didn't make myself clear. I meant "time waster" as in the kind of game where you just need one more go, and then one more... It's definitely not a waste of my time in a negative way. The game is addictive, and there are lots of stuff to figure out. I like that.

And I'm very happy that Jack goes on the bus himself. I've played a few of those games where you do a lot of tasks, but lose it all if you can't get back to the base in time. This one is a bit more user friendly.

OneDollar · Sat 01/01/2022 16:31:09

Great game, I really enjoyed it

I've not played anything quite like it before, but it reminded me a bit of playing Adobe Flash games on the web back in the day. Lots of different things to do and I like the multi-level puzzle aspect - first figuring out how to do the individual tasks then working out how to string them together efficiently. One of the dolls and the turkey were giving me trouble but I finally managed to do everything on my fourth run.

FYI your AGS database page says the game is commercial, is that a mistake?

Pax Animo · Sat 01/01/2022 17:45:55

Quote from: OneDollar on Sat 01/01/2022 16:31:09

FYI your AGS database page says the game is commercial, is that a mistake?

Hey OneDollar,

That was indeed a mistake, i've updated it. Thanks for pointing that out.

Thank you for playing the game and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I think i know the one Doll which has been evading quite a few players, if it is the one i'm thinking of it's down to:

Spoiler

part of the interface getting in the way.

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I'm looking forward to trying out the other entries for Decembers MAGS, yours looks very impressive and i'll be getting around to playing it shorty.

heltenjon · Sun 02/01/2022 03:36:20

I finally aced it after having trouble with rebuilding the group of snowmen. I ended up skipping everything else and just trying to get that right, and when I did, I hastily ran around and did everything else. Ended up waiting around for the time to go out. I guess that's realistic, but perhaps the game could have skipped to the ending when there was no more tasks to do? Or perhaps there are easter eggs to find?

Very strong entry with festive atmosphere and certainly an amount of gift trouble, plus all the other tasks.

Pax Animo · Sun 02/01/2022 17:29:37

Hi heltenjon,

It's good to hear that you've now completed the game, it will be interesting to get some feedback on certain puzzles after the voting stage has finished as I'm certain there's room for improvement.

Quote from: heltenjon on Sun 02/01/2022 03:36:20perhaps the game could have skipped to the ending when there was no more tasks to do? Or perhaps there are easter eggs to find?

I did toy with the idea of a "End Now" option but given that the time frame of start to finish is relatively short anyway, i decided not. Possibly in a future extended version... (in development as of 01/10/22)

Spoiler

I don't think there's much in the way of easter eggs, but some "Look At" info can be interesting which takes up a little more time.

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