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Interesting guidelines. I might make something this month, depending on how much spare time I have. But I promise nothing.
I just have a few questions of clarification... just to be completely sure:
1. The title is 'your favorite book', but the description of the rules just say 'a book'. Which is the right one?
2. I assume that we are talking about fiction and not other kinds of books?
3. Should the book be the original work or can we use anything that has (also) been published in book form?
4. How close should the game be to the book? Should the last sentence be interpreted to say that the game just has to take place in the same world as the book without necessarily being based on the same story?

Here it is - my first completed MAGS game:
PHILOSOPHERS LIKE HOT COCOA

Download here!

(The link takes you to a free upload site with advertisements that may not be suitable for viewing at work. Sorry for the inconvenience... does anybody know a better site to use?)

There isn't much to say about the game except that it's based on a true story, that it's rather wierd and that it's probably only interesting to the six people actually appearing in it. But I enjoyed making it and learned a lot about AGS while doing it.

edit: I'll be far away from the internet for the next week so I will not be able to answer questions or fix problems with the download if there should be any (or to make the rules for next months MAGS if I should win, which I don't think I will... if, however, I did win against all odds my suggestion for the rules would be a Boss Battle version of the january rules). I wish you all good luck with your games.

Yes! Finally I have redeemed myself. After two years of regularly saying that I would make something and not finishing anything, I have learned my lesson: I didn't post anything and worked on the game instead. And it worked. I just sent my game to my beta-testers 5 minutes ago. It's a short and weird game, but I finished it! 
It's 320x200 pixel EGA's 16 colour standard palette, by the way. So I guess that should quilify it for this competition. And I actually did have fun making it.

Thanks, Lt. Smash. It finally works now.

Thanks again, TwinMoon.
After a few difficulties the background conversation works perfectly - I have a nice little loop running now. I even figured out how to make the game run the talk animatin (which it appearantly doesn't do automatically with SayBackground).
But I haven't been able to solve the problem with the status line. With the first method I get the same problem as before and with the second method i get '.Text' is not a member a public member of 'GUI'. Are you sure you spelt it correctly (remember, capital letters are important)?[(i] Any ideas about how to solve that?

Thanks for the help, TwinMoon. I think I begin to understand how this works.
However, I do have some problems with the code:

When trying to make the status line I get this error:
Error (line 14): cannot assign initial value to global pointer.
(Line 14 is the one saying String location = Game.GetLocationName(mouse.x, mouse.y);)

I also had some problems with the second code, but adding SetTimer(1, 1); to the beginning of finally made it work (but for some reason only with the value '1'). However, now I just have the first guy saying his line for a very long time - appearantly indefinately.

Hi, I'm working on a game for this month's MAGS. I'm trying to make a LucasArts-style status line, but unfortunately I have almost no scripting skills.
I tried updating an obsolete code that I found at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=14369.0 but I couldn't make it work. I figured out how to change the obsolete GetCursorMode to something that worked, but I didn't succeed at replacing the obsolete SetLabelText.
I also tried having a look at SSH's Description Module but that made no sense to me at all (as I said I really don't know much about scripting).
Anyway, I could really use some help here. Also, I forgot to update AGS before starting my new game so I'm still using version 2.72.

edit: Something else I need some help with: I need to make a few characters stand in the background talking while you're playing the game as usual. I know that I should probably write a Dialog and use the repeatedly_execute funtion in the script, but how do I make the dialog run in a loop and how do I avoid making it impossible to do anything while the dialog is on?

Thanks! The new link is working.
I'll return later with some coments on your game (and the others of course).

edit: oh well, it seems that I will not have time to play all the games before the voting ends. But Our Finest Hour looks really promising and I hope to see a full version of it some day.

I'm having problems with downloading ProgZmax's game. It takes a long time to download it and when it finally says it's done the file just isn't there. I'm not sure why.

Since I didn't finish my game, I thought that I should at least vote and make some comments about the games.

Voting was a difficult decision, but in the end ià decided to vote for The Book Unfinished, primarily because it was the most completely incomplete of the games - it seemed like it follewed the spirit of the rules more than the others. Also, I liked the humor and the storage door puzzle. And I have to ask the same question as TwinMoon: Who and what was that music?

I did for a time consider voting for Curse of the vampire. It had a great story (for a MAGS game), a cool GUI, nice graphics and some surprisingly frightening lightning and thunder. However, the "unfihishedness" of the game seemed misplaced. Also, I think Yahtzee would like to have his hat back.

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I was thinking: Considering the relatively short time we have to play the games before the voting ends, it would be nice if the participants would include a walkthrouogh in the download (or make it availible in some other way).

That was my original intention. However, the following long explanation/excuse that I didn't include before will explain why I can't possibly do this without seriously damaging my mental and/or physical health:
- I have an exam in 1½ weeks.
- I have to write an essay during the following 2 weeks.
- I have to read Hegel without losing my mind (most efficient antidote: beer & Nietzsche)
- I have to attend two birthdays and visit my parents.

But don't worry, like The Brain from 'Pinky and the Brain' I will never, never learn from experience. Next month I will once again try to take over the world make a MAGS game.

I considered writing a long explanation/excuse for once again failing to finish my MAGS game. But it really doesn't matter. Good luck to the rest of you.

If you do not work "mega intensive" on the game I'd say it's okay.

Thanks! I haven't worked on the game before today and I have an exam later this month, so I don't even think "mega intensive" work is an option for me.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public.

Considering the rather unusual (but brilliant!) rules this month, could there be made an exception to the rules allowing us to use graphics from our own failed MAGS games? I am thinking about sending one of my old player characters on a voyage through the ruins of the 5 or 6 incomplete games that I still have the graphics for.

I'm counting on Juul to make a game, after what she said last month 

Actually I forgot one rule:
(5) Some MAGS rules are just too complicated for a beginner.
Not that I think that these are bad rules, they're actually very interesting. They just involve a lot of work. Even if you limit yourself to a play like the classical Greek ones that traditionally used only one location and no more than 24 hours to tell their stories, you still need to animate at least 4 or 5 characters to tell a coherent story (I consideres making a version of Euripides' Medea untill realising that it involved 10 characters, few of which could easily be removed from the story). But even if you do think of a simple story, it's a lot of work.
But I will be back next month - I hope.

Oh, and that's he not she, but then I guess it doesn't really matter.

Wow, these games look great!
I hadn't heard about 7-Zip before seeing FSi's '.7z' file, but I quickly found it. If anybody else has the same problem, here's the link for you: http://www.7-zip.org/

Okay, for reasons that will be soon make sense (see  (4)) I will not be participating in this month's competition. I will however be back next month (see (3)). As I little service to other AGS fans, here's what I've learned during the last two years of regularily trying and completely failing to finish a MAGS game:
(1) Design the shortest possible game allowed by the rules (this one I realised after the first few months).
(2) Try not to say that you'll be making a game before you're relatively certain that you will actually have the time, ideas and commitment required to do so. It will feel less humiliating to give up, if nobody knows (I really haven't learned this yet, have I?).
(3) Never give up. There's always another month.
(4) Make something with simple graphics. It doesn't have to look great, it just has to work (that's the mistake I made this month).
Well, so much for trying to make a story of love and war in a post-apocalyptic dieselpunk version of Prague.

Is anybody actually finishing a game this month? This thread has been awfully silent.

I have to say that this is one of the most brilliant MAGS guidelines I've ever seen (I primarily think so because it's what I would have done if I had ever finished a MAGS game... and won ). I do, however, have one questiona bout the rules:

You must include at least two puzzles

How do you define what a puzzle is? - or rather how much it is. An example: In a typical 'Escape the Room' situation, the player character has do do a number of things in order to 1) get a key and 2) trick a guard to drinking some sleeping pills. Does all this count as one puzzle, or do the individual parts of the whole proces count as several puzzles?
It really would be nice to know how much work I'm required to do before starting to plan my game.

I might have the time for making a game this month, though I will probably fail to finish it like I usually do.
But theoretically speaking, would it be ok to save Yule instead of Christmas? (maybe even saving Yule from being replaced by Christmas... that might be an idea)

Well, once again I fail to do anything than can in any way be called "finishing a game". Damned artwork.
Fortunately, lots of other people have done what I could not. Thanks, this looks like an interesting month for MAGS.