Messages

[Elvis Tanner]

Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for all your votes and thoughts! I have now tallied them, and I can now declare a winner!

A splendid job, all of you. Monuments of all sorts, and of different styles. I am very happy with this competition's haul, and they were truly something extraordinary. It has been a privilege.

However, there can be but one, and the winner is

Elvis Tanner

for his splendid statue of our glorious spacetacular overlord, Tendrilses XXVIII. It has a very tight style and gameplay efficiency to it, while also being a nice piece in its own right. It was also well worth including a picture of how it would look in game. Well done!

[imgzoom]https://i.postimg.cc/02fZjKL3/background.png[/imgzoom]

Elvis Tanner, the mantle of the next competition is now yours!

Here is a link to the master list of previous background blitzes. It is worth a lock for inspiration.

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=57783.msg636616011#msg636616011

Good luck!

It was excellent to see so many different styles in place, and so many different monuments. From Ditherton to the high mountains to the ruins of B City. You have all done very well! Thank you, and best of luck in the next competition.

[Concept]

Very well done, everyone! An marvellous collection of monuments! Now, I do believe it is time to get the voting started. You will be voting in these categories:


Concept: What is your background about? What sort of mood does it spark? What is, as it were, the big idea?
Playability: What is its opportunity for gameplay like? Walkable areas, hot-spots, and so forth?
Artistic Execution: How well does the picture convey an atmosphere? How well is it executed?

Here are the entries:

[imgzoom]https://i.postimg.cc/ZKZNyTXQ/FJB.png[/imgzoom]

stylez75's monument - and a grand and topical monument it is!



DBoyWheeler's lone mountain monument of lost lore of yore!



newwaveburrito's classical monument standing tall in dear old Ditherton!

[imgzoom]https://i.postimg.cc/02fZjKL3/background.png[/imgzoom]

ElvisTanner's splendid space memorial to his imperial squiddishness!

Splendid work, all around! It will be most difficult to choose, but choose you must!

You have until 10th of April to cast your votes, ladies and gentlemen! Pick, choose and post!

[Sprite Jam - Timepiece]

Sprite Jam - Timepiece

Welcome to this frightfully belated leg of the Sprite Jam competition! In it, you will draw a sprite and post the picture in this thread, and then we will hold a vote to see which one is best.

To my aid and betterment, this time you will be drawing a timepiece.

It can be anything. A complicated astronomical clock that requires puzzling to work again. An hourglass filled with gold dust. A novelty pocket sundial. A faintly disturbing goggle-eyed cat-clock. Ancient calendar wheels, hewn from stone and lost in the jungle. It can be a background sprite, an inventory item sprite, a GUI-sprite... If it is a timepiece, we want it here!

You have until the 17th of April to complete your timepiece and post it in this thread. If you require an extention, do not hesitate to ask. Time is mutable, we are not.

Tick, tock, tick and the very best of luck, clockmakers!

My word! Some fantastic entries thus far! Very well done, a monumental display! Four splendid works awaiting the vote. This will be splendid.

Two days remaining until the voting begins. Keep those trovels moving, chaps!

Here comes a double-billed mastodon post!

Some time ago, I wrote a piece that I did not publish before greater events made it obsolete, but I shall share its bones nonetheless for I think they are interesting.



The new Lord of the Rings thing is perfectly fine. Let us abolish the culture war.

Much have been made about the casting decisions for Amazon's recent expedition into Tolkien's works. As always, it is generally a lot of shouting and very little hearing. Frankly, while I am generally unimpressed by half-hearted measures presented as grand reforms, I have no wish nor heart to complain this time. Amazon made a big, expensive film production in 2022, that is what happened. They felt required to, as is the phrase, reflect how the world (America) actually looks like. It is no doubt for the best. It is an American production which will reflect American problems and attempt at an American solution.
It appears to be pretty well done, all together. It takes liberties, but well within reason, and the production company have not draped it in the stuffy air of righteousness and piety that can accompany such things. I do not think even Tolkien would have had much heart to complain, given the circumstances of the production. It is quite fine.

What I loathe, however, is the representation of this general shouting as a new front in the “culture war”, a most detestable phrase. One that makes culture and disagreement about culture utterly insufferable and, much worse, makes a mockery of war.

One can feel very strongly about culture and the multitudes that it contains ('Rule Britannia!' STAYS in the bloody proms and that is that!!!), but it is not war, and evoking that frightening spectre when discussing culture brings nothing but trouble and indignity. Say, if you disagree with me over the last night of the proms example above, I may believe that you are wrong, but we are not fighting, and we are most certainly not at war, and our disagreement can never be brought to the level of war. It is a very powerful incantation, and it has no use nor place if we mean to be civil and discuss a cultural matter. It is a magic that is wasted on cultural disagreements, and spoils them by raising the temperature well beyond the limits of a healthy discourse.

It is just as pointless and dangerous as declaring war on things and thoughts. Wars on drugs, poverty, terror... A powerful spell, but one that will always fail in the end. It is a frightening, thundering flood, a vast force that demands all that you have and all that you will not do. Mars will not be denied, and Mars ought not be so carelessly evoked where he does not belong.



This is what I had written, the day before the war. Mars would indeed not be denied, and now the flood has begun.

There is a lot of war-time grinding to share. From the thieves and fraudsters propping up this little tyrant to the spreading miasma of defeatism and lotus-eating, but I must start small. Such as the violence done on the innocent letter zulu.

In the Russian empire, the latin letter Z is being pressed into the service of tyranny.

It appears to have begun as an IFF procedure, for the ill-fated detachment Z during the invasion. Sprayed onto equipment to mark them as friendly forces for marauding jabos and helicopters. It has bemused the world, stencilled on the hesitantly advancing vans and lorries of a bungling army. Now, however, it appears to be germinating into a symbol of support for the war and for the tyrant.
Some who rally to the Z claim it is the symbol of Russians who are not ashamed thereof. A most peculiar banner, for in taking the symbol of heeresgruppe Z, its adopters are proudly claiming to be incompetent, brutal and cruel. If that is what one wants to be, then things such as shame and dishonour is so utterly alien as to be pointless. Their shame and pride alike thus made worthless.

However, to my mind this symbol now fulfils its original purpose â€" identification friend or foe. Those who cry zulu are certainly no friends of yours, mine, nor indeed any of the free peoples of Europe. Thee behind the Z; we are not, strictly, foes, but we are no longer friends. Living unfree liberates one from responsibility for the crimes of the dictator who asks not mind nor will, but holding the Z high is a pledge of support for this criminal war, it is agreement and ultimately culpability. It is not a matter of shame, it is a matter of war, and saying loudly that your neighbours deserves not their rights.
It is vexing because I am terribly fond of that letter. It is a good little letter, most underemployed. It has very harmonic lines. To see it reduced to a bastard child of the hooked cross to shore up the failings of a dying autocrat is infuriating. I cannot bear to see it tainted by villainy. And yet, of course, it is such a tiny little thing of a vast and soul-revolting crime, that I feel ashamed to be made so wild and heated over it.

Damn that wretched, shitty little villain. For greater and for smaller and for the puniest, like the violence done on my dear little Z. Lord knows where it will all end, and for so little. And yet, all things must end, and one would wish this ended sooner rather than later.

The Ides of March are coming. Let us wait, and let us hope.

[Background Blitz - Memorial]

Background Blitz - Memorial

NOW VOTING

Welcome to another Background Blitz competition! In it, you have three weeks to draw a splendid background for a room in an adventure game. Then, we shall vote, and decide which one is the best. The winner will have both glory and the task to run the next leg of the Background Blitz. The picture will be judged according to concept, playability and artistic execution.

This time, you shall build me a monument.

What sort of monument is your character visiting? An overgrown cenotaph in the countryside? A broken statue of a forgotten king in a forgotten land? An obelisk, shrouded in sand and the ages? A war memorial in the beating heart of a sprawling city? A memorial wall to all the Roger Egos who have died in the line of duty?

Go forth and draw! Then, upload and post the image in this thread.

You have until the 29th of March to submit your entry, but this date is open for negotiation if you require some more time. The more the merrier! Then, we will vote.

We are now VOTING! Until 10th of April! All can participate in the vote, and you will be casting your lots in these categories:


Concept: What is your background about? What sort of mood does it spark? What is, as it were, the big idea?
Playability: What is its opportunity for gameplay like? Walkable areas, hot-spots, and so forth?
Artistic Execution: How well does the picture convey an atmosphere? How well is it executed?

Here are the entries:

[imgzoom]https://i.postimg.cc/ZKZNyTXQ/FJB.png[/imgzoom]

stylez75's monument - and a grand and topical monument it is!



DBoyWheeler's lone mountain monument of lost lore of yore!



newwaveburrito's classical monument standing tall in dear old Ditherton!

[imgzoom]https://i.postimg.cc/02fZjKL3/background.png[/imgzoom]

ElvisTanner's splendid space memorial to his imperial squiddishness!

Go forth and vote below!

Here, too, I must offer my apologies for not taking the time to do my civic duties. It was a fun competition, and since I am now given the opportunity, I believe that I too shall think of some way to link the Sprite Jam and the Background Blitz themes.

Thank you very much for the votes, the kind words and the splendid competition, and my apologies for not giving it its due attention.

That is a very nice little lamp, mind. I am quite envious of how nicely done the lampshade is. It is truly the little details. Very well done!

Keep an eye out, for I shall see to the next Sprite Jam competition shortly. Thank you all!

Goodness! Why, thank you all very much for the votes! I do apologise that I did not submit mine in a timely manner. There were some very splendid entries in this competition, well done to everyone, and thanks to Sinitrena for an excellent theme!

I shall ensure to start the next round of the Background Blitz very soon, so keep an eye out! Thanks to you all, once again!

As for making the game around that background, well... You never know. I do like the doll's house style when it comes to interior backgrounds. In this case, it is interesting because the dream nature allows you to subvert and distort it. I looked up Tribly's Notes, mind, and I do see the resemblance. It is a good way to work with 320 by 200, I think.

I shall get to work on setting up the next Background Blitz shortly!

The Phonebook.

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/4DIXr8T.png[/imgzoom]

Not the most exciting grimoire, but among the most useful. Use it to operate the telephones found throughout the dreamscape. Never fear, you are never far from a telephone. Waterlodged halls on doomed cruiseships, dark castle dungeons with guttering candles, suffocating jungles where the drums come ever closer - a telephone is near and is your aid. It may be a picture of a telephone on a mantelpiece, a drawing of a telephone on a cave wall or a telephone carved of wood or made out of spiderwebs, it will be there, and need only to be released and bound by the psychonaut.
In an emergency, you can use the grimoire to make the telephone call out to you. This is a risky proposition - you must always be wary of answering the telephone in a dream.


The idea is, the player use this item to activate and interact with the hidden telephones scattered in the levels, to save the game and get more clues and such. Telephones are also fast travel nodes, where applicable. If the player cannot find the telephone, they can use the item on themselves to reveal it, but there is a trade-off.

Example from my picture in the other thread - https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=59735.0

There is a telephone in the room, sealed inside the picture of a telephone on the left. The player needs to solve a little puzzle to make the telephone appear, or they can make it ring and appear by itself, but they will get a nasty call from the telephone and will lose some stability points. That is the theory, at least.

It does not come across well on its own, but the inventory image is part of the style of the GUI - a sort of primitive tablet computer with a greenish display.

The Gates of Horn and Ivory.

[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/M3PGIOq.png[/imgzoom]

You have breached the walls of sleep, as ordered. But to rescue your trapped friend, you must go deeper still, beyond the gates and into the depths of dreaming. You must tease open the great jaws, the jaws of horn and ivory, and be swallowed whole and awake. Tread carefully. You remember the risks, the dangers of the psychonaut. This mimicry is not the office, and it will eat you alive at a false step and you can already see undigested refuse secretly disgorged in the dreamscape. Yet it is too late to surface. The jaws await.

I am glad you are playing, and I hope you are having fun! Now, some tips:


For the room with the blue door marked with a coffee cup:

Spoiler

Each monitor is linked to a button with a symbol next to it. Some of the puzzles out in the range, meanwhile, have the same symbols next to them, and a shape. You will need to backtrack and look at which one is which. Match the right shape with the right symbol.

The puzzle on the right, meanwhile, is to add up the numbers you see in some rooms, and set the monitor to that number, and pull the switch.

[close]

Remember: you can always backtrack.

For the room with the plugs and fuses:

Spoiler

Look closely at the wires, particularly the colours, and match them with the right colour fuse.

You can also look at the monitors. All the slots are numbered, with little orange marking. The little boxes next to the shapes on the monitors are pips, meaning one, two, three, et cetera. Compare the shape on the top of the fuse with the right monitor, and then you know which number it is, and which plug to use it on.

It is partly a bit of a red herring (as it is a lot simpler than it looks), but it is also a way to ensure that you can do the puzzle even if you cannot differentiate between the colours, as a fail-safe.

[close]

Good luck, and thank you for playing!

[stylez75:]

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! Albeit delayed, I shall now tally the votes.

stylez75: 5 votes.

Blur: 3 votes.

Royal Graphics Studio: 3 votes.

That means that stylez75 is the winner of this Background Blitz! Congratulations!

Well done, chaps! Very well done! Excellent contributions. A nice variety of styles and moods. Thank you very much for participating in this Background Blitz!

It is now stylez75's turn to decide on a theme and hold a new leg of this competition. Good luck!

[Blur]

I... Erm, consider it an extra little extention. Pardon me, I quite forgot. I do hope that you are well now.

Indeed, the competition is now closing! And we have three different entires to choose from! Gather around and vote, dear colleagues!

Blur's tiled and tidy office space.

[imgzoom]https://files.catbox.moe/2hf16w.png[/imgzoom]

stylez75's truly luxurious space office.

[imgzoom]https://i.ibb.co/5v0rJhr/office.png[/imgzoom]

and Royal Graphics Studio's nice and tidy office down the BLUCUP-corp head office.

Splendid work, gentlemen! Now, then! The voting!

You will cast a vote in the following categories:

Concept: What is your background about? What sort of mood does it spark? What is, as it were, the big idea?
Playability: What is its opportunity for gameplay like? Walkable areas, hot-spots, and so forth?
Artistic Execution: How well does the picture convey an atmosphere? How well is it executed?

One vote for each category, and I will tally it all up come the end of the voting. Anyone may vote, and if you can leave a little feed-back on the pieces, it is most welcome!
Dead-line for votes: 19th of November (That is, Friday).

My only confusion was that there was a congratulations and I wasn't sure if the game was over or if I had to do more or how. In the rest of the game, the puzzles found YOU rather than you having to wander around to find puzzles, but once I got back on track it was ok.

So, overall, really well done!

I am happy that you found the track again! Glad to hear that you had fun. Indeed, the little extras were a fun thing to add, and I like to think they add a little degree of replay value, as it were. I shall keep the system for my next title, and as it seems to have worked satisfactory, I shall keep working on the save system, too. Thank you kindly!

Reiter,
I ended up with 1170 points, lost some due to

Spoiler

not giving the right answer for several times during the letter puzzle.
Never had the white egg in my inventory, guess I didn't find it.
However, it appears as "found" the credit section

[close]

Once more: Great game !

Thank you! And I am happy you had fun! However,

Spoiler

There is no white egg; they are red, blue, yellow and green. If it looks white, it may be that it shows up as uncollected/blank in the credits section. Keep hunting!

[close]

Another great game! Please add it to the database as well, as that will make it easier to find for people only accessing the game page.

Will you reveal to us what the maximum score/number of eggs/total endings are available? Or is it your prescious secret? 
I finished the game with 1400 points and four eggs, but couldn't see a white one among them, like the one Ian describes. It didn't cross my mind that points could be detracted for making mistakes or dying, though, so I wasn't all that careful all the time.

I'm very fond of scenarios that put the player in a lab rat situation like this one does. It worked really well as a frame for the puzzles. And the puzzles themselves were a treat - very entertaining.

I'd like to know if I missed something, though. The game hints at

Spoiler

an alternate ending where an escape through the rubble may be possible.

[close]

I also finished with two panels showing an "x", indicating a task not done. One was connected to the button opening a door after completing the pattern

Spoiler

square

[close]

by pushing four buttons. And the second was in the room with the clippers. I imagine that was me trying to outwit my captors, triggering a bug instead:

Spoiler

I tried to make it away with the clipper by taking it (a new one) for the second time before replacing it in the holder. There never were two clippers in my inventory, but I kept it after returning it to the holder. And the panel still showed an "x".

[close]

In sum - great game, highly recommended. Thank you and congratulations on the release. Again, please add it to the database as well.

EDIT: And the advert video is hilarious! Va skojigt!

Thank you kindly!

On scores, I am not sure, I shall confess. I must check my notes. I do believe you may have 'aced' it, however.

Indeed, the laboratory rat maze scenario is very useful for puzzling videogames. Like Portal, like Amnesia: Josephine... I am quite fond of it, since it gives you such a sturdy frame-work to build a puzzle game around, that still makes a degree of sense in its setting. It is a reliable old chest-nut. It may be a while, but I think we may revisit the Block some day.

As for spoily matters:

Spoiler

You did not miss anything, I can reveal. The hint is flavour, I fear. If there is such an ending, I did not put it in, at least. Perhaps next time.

That there were crossed monitors, meanwhile, puzzles me. It is likely a missing line somewhere. Also, something must be wrong with that clipper room, but I am still trouble-shooting it. You are only supposed to get one pair of clippers, which you have to surrender to move on. It is quite neat that you out-witted Complex, however! Well done!

[close]

I shall look into it over the week. Thank you for the feed-back.

I shall see about adding it to the data-base, when I have a moment. Thank you, and I am glad that the game and the advert was amusing!

Extention forthcoming! I am glad that you asked. To be on the safe side, I shall give you one more week; until the 14th of November; next Sunday, that is.

Good luck!

Excellent contributions, gentlemen! These look splendid. Why, stylez, your office looks simply luxurious!

And it is, of course, quite alright for you to add observations or replies to the art if you please. We are not charged by the post, here! Do not worry.

Besides, it is a very nice idea to add AGS easter eggs like that. It is a fun little hunt. Well done!

Spoiler

Did you reach the credits section? That is, a congratulations message that displays your score and eggs and then goes to the credits and then let you quit or restart? If so, it is most certainly an odd bug. The game is supposed to end with finding the coffee-room. Keep visiting rooms, to be sure.

[close]

No. I just got

Spoiler

a congratulations message and ended up in the room I started in. There's a save/load console there and the voice on the screen tells me that I can save and I'll find out later why. I feel like I'm supposed to do something now to finish the game

[close]

That is odd. There is indeed more in the game. Try moving forward or back-tracking.

Spoiler

The test range is built in a circle, so you end up where you began eventually. There is a room with three doors - one that goes inwards/upscreen, which you open by completing three puzzles in the cirquit. That is where the end of the game is. The game is not over until you encounter coffee, I can reveal. Have another look through the levels, to be sure.

[close]

Wow, this looks really cool, gonna try and find time to play it in the near future!
(Also pleasantly surprised to see a swedish translation - det är man inte bortskämd med! )

Thank you kindly! I do hope it will meet expectations.

Indeed, the translation was well worth the extra work. It is nice to have, and it is good to get into the habit of making translation-friendly games from the start, as it were. Samt, naturligtvis, smyga in ett litet hurra för fädernelandet!

Reiter,
the concept for saving was just fine!
At the beginning I thought " OMG, will I have to play it
from the beginning every time I fail?", but then I found an opportunity
to save just when I needed it. Great idea !!!!
The puzzles were fair, and very creative !
You did a great job here, hope there is more to come.

Cheers and thanks for the great entertainment !

Thank you very kindly! I am happy that it proved to be an amusing game, and that it was worth your time! Glad that the save system worked out in the end, but I think that I shall have the player be able to load freely in the future. For indeed, I shall make sure there is more to come.

Ok I'm a bit confused as to the ending....

Spoiler

I got 3 eggs and I ended up where I got the congratulations message. Is there more to the game? How do I end? I also never ended up getting the coffee so maybe I need to do something else? I think there's a bug that you can keep getting the clippers?

[close]

Hmm, that is odd.

Spoiler

Did you reach the credits section? That is, a congratulations message that displays your score and eggs and then goes to the credits and then let you quit or restart? If so, it is most certainly an odd bug. The game is supposed to end with finding the coffee-room. Keep visiting rooms, to be sure.

[close]

Spoiler

The clippers thing is most certainly a bug, it seems. I shall patch it during the week-end. Thank you for spotting it, and letting me know!

[close]

I shall investigate when I have the time, and see what it may be and see about patching it. Thank you once more for notifying me!

any chance you compile the game for linux too?
It is just another checkbox in the general settings and uploading another folder

I will do that, Sir! I have no means of testing the game on Linux, which is why I did not include a Linux build. I hope it is as basic to install and run on Linux, though. There will be a Linux upload soon, stand by.

Making the prototype covers were great fun, but O Lord, getting the things cut to the right size was outrageously tricky. Digital distribution have some great advantages.

I can imagine. The whole thing seems like a fun thing to do.

This reminded me of my idea of making my personal big box edition of Absurdistan. I remember wondering about how to make the cover image for the actual CD (the disc, not the box). I was thinking that printing on an adhesive paper should do the trick. But similarly to what you mentioned, I was sure that cutting out a perfect circle would drive me nuts.

Your game looks awesome, too.

Thank you kindly!

It was worth the time, and it is fun to have something physical around, even if it is mostly for looking good on a shelf. Indeed, the cover for the actual CD was something I decided to ignore for now. It was just too damned fiddly. That said, if you buy CDs that are mostly plain, you can just cut out and paste the label you want on top of their label, I imagine. I think I shall do that for my next project.

This is so great , Congratulations!!!
But : Could this be a bug ? :

Spoiler

When pressing the switch in the room with the 6 fuses,
there is no way to load a previous game.
I am stuck on this particular point of this great game
EDIT: Anyway, you can restart the game and load from there
The fuse puzzle is driving me nuts, I was sure I inserted the right fuses in the right order....
EDIT EDIT: Got it ! You have to look really close :-))

[close]

Thank you very much for playing! I do hope the

Spoiler

fiendish fuse-room

[close]

did not mar the rest of the experience. I can reveal that my play-tester looked like he could throttle me before he solved it.

Spoiler

Indeed, the point of the room is that it locks you in until you solve it, so I believe it worked as intended.

[close]

It was a bit of an experiment on my part, taking away the ability to save and load at will and putting them in specific hotspot locations. Chiefly to make save-scumming a bit less tempting. I am not sure if it was worth it, though. What did you think about it?

I think that I shall make sure that the player can load a game whenever they need to in the future, and just limit opportunities to save.

-EDIT-EDIT-EDIT-

There is now a Linux version of the game available for download on the same itch.io site. I do hope it works! If it does, please consider telling me so.

The stupid paper was not stiff enough. _{I had counted on the centrifugal force of the Lazy Susan pushing it back into place, but it was not quite enough.}

Making the prototype covers were great fun, but O Lord, getting the things cut to the right size was outrageously tricky. Digital distribution have some great advantages.