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Congrats 4Kb!  Thanks all for playing and voting! 🥣🥣

Thanks! And thanks for everyone who played and voted! Ties can be fun as they also tend to bring out more interesting ideas. Let's hope we step up to the challenge!

[Carnival of Shadows]

I have once more tried all the MAGS games and you can find videos of my attempts here. While I'll happily recommend you play them all yourself, if you just can't be bothered then this might be an option for you:

Carnival of Shadows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F09kNNqCUPY

The Stew of Las Moras
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98KTtuVTP74

The Zoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PpfSEzymzA

Thanks so much for the feedback! And I left a comment on the vid for you for algorithm and it makes more sense there than here. Thanks again!

[Carnival of Shadows]

Three games is a good turnout, and they're all really solid entries too!

I was trying to write feedback notes while I played through them all, and they accidentally turned into mini essays. Here's some heavily spoilery feedback (and some bug reports) for each game if you'd like it:

Carnival of Shadows

Spoiler

I liked the idea of multiple characters with different views of the world and different abilities, but I couldn't see any reason not to just have them all follow me constantly. It would have been nice to see this mechanic expanded on, like needing to leave certain characters in certain areas to solve a puzzle, or not being able to complete certain puzzles if a character was with you (like maybe you need to talk to a ghost but they won't appear around Tim the skeptic or something). It might have been interesting to have to ask/use specific characters to solve puzzles so that you have to think about their abilities and personalities, rather than them just helping automatically if they were with you. I liked that conversations happened differently depending whether characters were on screen or not.

The art feels like it's been pulled together from lots of different sources. There's different styles, and most noticeably different resolutions which can leave some of it quite blurry and unclear. It's definitely not the prettiest thing to look at, but I think it does fit well with the game's atmosphere. The music is a bit disjoined with some awkward loops, but again I think it fits the game quite well.

Adding riddles adds an interesting variation to the puzzles, though the game immediately gave me hints that I didn't need because Tim was on screen. I also think I would have preferred it if the game started dropping increasingly helpful hints after I got the answers wrong a few times, or gave me the option of asking Tim for a hint if I decided I needed one.

Most of the inventory-based puzzles in the middle were pretty obvious and didn't provide much of a challenge, either because it's clear from context (put fuses in the fuse box), or because the game outright tells you what to do (collect objects that appeal to children and put them on the bench). Again I think some of this could have worked better if the mechanic with the different characters was a bit more fleshed out. Needing Luna to tell you about the child ghosts wanting toys could be a good part of the puzzle chain, but at that point in the game there's no reason why the player wouldn't have Luna with them so it's effectively automatically solved. One inventory puzzle that I did think worked well was having to use the box on the dumpster, as that wasn't obvious and took me a while to figure out.

I liked the maze puzzle at the end, that was fun and again something a bit different to the standard inventory puzzles.

In summary I really like the setting and the concept. There's a lot of interesting ideas in the game, not all of them work as well as they could, but for me that's better than a boring game that doesn't try anything new. It's quite rough both in terms of graphics and bugs, but I still had a lot of fun playing it. I think I wrote so much about it because there's a lot that really works for me, and the bits that don't are interesting enough that I can see glimpses of how they could work with a bit more time to develop them. A really solid MAGS entry.

Bug reports:
I've got some bug reports for you, mostly because I ended up playing through a couple of times to see what would change if I did or didn't have characters with me at certain points.

Game breaking:
 - You already know about the bug with clicking on the fuse box a second time. I stupidly triggered this on my first play through, despite having seen it being discussed 
 - I got a crash at the end after destroying the watch and freeing the ghosts: "The character 'Luna' could not be displayed because there was no loop 2 of view 33". I'm pretty sure this is triggered by causing Luna to follow you before clicking the watch (either by clicking Luna while she's holding back Mr Grins, or I think if you enter the final room without Luna following you she gets set to follow mode when she appears in the room)?
 - If Luna isn't with you when you place the last offering on the bench the game gets stuck in a loop of Maria saying "That's all of them".

Minor stuff:
 - You can use the fuses on the fuse box and turn on the power without needing Tim to open the door first (Maria will still comment that the door is closed after turning on the power).
 - I think the logic is backwards on the hint for the second riddle as you only get it if Tim isn't on screen.
 - I left my friends in the main carnival area (with the Ferris wheel). Exiting and re-entering the carnival by the main entrance makes them appear in the area with the carousel again. I assume this is a bug, though arguably they could have just wandered back there themselves
 - There's something odd going on with character baselines or z-depths or something as a character standing behind another will often be drawn on top of them instead - I'm not sure if this is an AGS bug or something in the game's code
 - Everyone comments on the newspaper even if they're not on screen.
 - The first time you click on the carousel it will spin and Luna will give you the explanation about offerings, this still happens even if you click on it after you've already placed all the offerings and moved all the ghosts.
 - Using the combined two end pieces of the key on the handle piece doesn't do anything, though it does work the other way around so the game isn't soft-locked.
 - One of the wrong doors in the maze at the end (I think heading south to the bathroom first then taking one of the two exits there?) takes you to the carnival entrance rather than the start of the maze (this might also be intentional?)

[close]

The Zoo

Spoiler

I haven't see The Twilight Zone, though the premise rings a vague bell so I might have heard of the episode before. Either way the game does a good job of quickly setting up the situation the player finds themselves in and the goal of escape.

The presentation is very good. Clear, black and white pixel art and good music. I'm not sure if the main background loop comes from The Twilight Zone or not, but it fits very well with the atmosphere. It's a consistent world and is interesting to explore.

There's some OK inventory-based puzzles. The fire setting puzzle was a little odd - the books are inflammable for some reason, so you soak them with alcohol, but you can't light the alcohol directly on fire or pour it over the couch and set fire to it with a cigarette or something. It seemed a little convoluted to me. I got stuck for a while figuring out what to do with the burning book - I assumed I'd have to put it in the fireplace then block the flue somehow to make smoke in the room - but after taking a break to play one of the other games then coming back I found it almost straight away. Otherwise interactions and puzzles generally made sense to me. I wondered if it would be possible to softlock by not taking the sign, so I tried it on a second play through and the answer was no. Kudos for handling that. I also appreciated there were two different endings to the game.

My main critique of the game would be that there's a lot of objects and hotspots, but many are missing interactivity for some, if not all, of the cursors. Some of these are especially confusing, for example there are four cupboards in the kitchen but you get no response when trying to use any of them. I find the lack of feedback a bit immersion-breaking as it makes me question whether I misclicked the object. There's a hotspot for the kitchen wall, but I couldn't see why this would need to be interactive and couldn't find anything to do with it. Conversely there's other objects in the background that look like they should be intractable but aren't. There's what looks like a doorway on the north wall of the living room, but it doesn't do anything, and there's a door in the hallway next to the kitchen which again can't be clicked on. In my opinion adding some extra interaction text, even if it's along the lines of "It's empty", "It's out of reach", "It's locked", would help a lot with keeping the immersion and justifying why the interactions aren't available.

The other part that feels a little odd is the score. You get points for solving the puzzles, and there's some more for actions that aren't strictly necessary which is a nice way of fleshing out the interactivity of the world. I like this and think it's fun. The main puzzle chain isn't that long, so having extra items and hotspots that aren't just red herrings but give you bonus points is a great idea. In theory it also adds replayability for players who want to try and find all the points. However from what I could see the game doesn't ever tell you the maximum number of points, or give you any kind of score recap at the end, so there's no way of knowing whether anything was missed. For the record I think my highest score was 13.

Overall it's a good little escape room puzzler with a cool setting and atmosphere. It feels a little unfinished in some areas, but otherwise it's a well put together game, and definitely worth playing.

[close]

The Stew of Las Moras

Spoiler

What immediately struck me about this game was the world building. I love the idea of this ancient stew that 14 stew masters have overseen, the collection of bizarre characters lining up to eat, and the villain who's content to just stand there and laugh while you try and clean up his mess. Oh, and Moby is here too.

The artwork really shines too. It uses a stylistically limited pallet with a good colour choice and everything is clear to read. I really like the character designs too (and that whale is incredible) and I appreciate that while there's very limited amounts of actual animation the characters bob about while talking. There's other small touches too, like after the scouts leave the other characters move up a place in line. It's stuff like that show a lot of effort went into the feel of this game. There's also quite a bit of (I assume) custom music in the game. I like that talking to some characters will give you different music tracks.

I like the puzzles. They make sense in the context of the game's world, but they do need a bit of thinking about. I particularly appreciated the desert sequence deaths - failing it gives you a fun narrative about what went wrong and, most importantly, you're given a retry button rather than just ending the game.

It's a fun game with a great sense of world building and is very funny too. It does something interesting and unique with the theme, and kept me engaged and guessing where the story was going.

Bug reports:
 - Unlocking the right case in the gift shop plays the bending down animation, but not the standing back up animation and breaks Moby's walk cycle.
 - Pretty minor, but if Moby has to walk through the gift shop to interact with something (e.g exit the stew scene, then use the water trough) the gift shop wall will start but not finish fading away as he walks through, leaving it in a semi-transparent state.

[close]

When the poll is open I'm going to vote for:

Spoiler

The Stew of Las Moras. I really enjoyed all three entries, but the combination of world building, artwork, puzzles, and humour swayed it for me.

[close]

Wow! Thanks for the big feedback. I completely forgot about the kitchen wall when I was working on everything else. It was supposed to be a look point with a reference to the episode and... oops. XD
As for the puzzles and such I had a lot of ideas and I half-implemented a lot of them, but with leaving those pieces in I didn't use I can see how it would cause confusion PLUS how alternatives could be implemented. I wanted to do that in this game (similar to Conquest of the Longbow), but it seems like I was still thinking inside my own little box.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Thanks for playing! I'm terrible at trying to explain what to do subtly and my puzzle making skills aren't great so if you are stuck it is definitely my fault!

Not at all! When playing adventure games I tend to play until I get stuck then step off for a minute due to my ADHD and "Time Being Used Appropriately" stresses pulling me to do other things (usually not even half as constructive).
Your game explained the mechanics and I know what I need to find/get/do I just have to find the right puzzle piece to do it and that's exactly how an adventure game should work!
It would be "bad" if I had no urge to go back. IE: Telltale's "Secret of Monkey Island" had such an obscure puzzle to get an item LAYING ON THE GROUND that I quit, uninstalled, and never went back. THAT'S bad game design. 

[Carnival of Shadows]

Carnival of Shadows: https://goosekult.itch.io/carnival-of-shadows

Can be downloaded or played in browser (Though it seems kinda laggy).

Story:

A group of four unlikely companions arrive at an abandoned amusement park, drawn by the promise of a unique experience. They quickly discover that the park is haunted by the restless spirits of those who perished in a tragic accident. To escape, they must solve puzzles, confront supernatural threats, and uncover the park's dark history before they too become part of the shadows.

I have a lot to learn about making games but hopefully someone will get some enjoyment from it! I had a laugh making it! Thanks for having me.

I played through it for a bit, but got stuck after installing the first fuse. (this is a me problem, not a game problem I think)
I did have some difficulty hitting the hotspots for screen transitions and had to "wiggle" around the edges to move to the next area sometimes.
I really like the Maniac Mansion/DOTT idea of using your friends for things and how easy it was to acquire/leave them behind.
Sounds are great, animations are good and, though I'm taking a break due to the above stuck-ness, I will be coming back to finish the game because I do want to see how it ends!

Great work! Highly recommended for people who are better at playing Adventure Games than I am! 

I am enjoying this! I'm just past the first main hurdle and it's pretty well thought out and tightly made. The setting is pretty cool too, though I've never watched much of The Twilight Zone, it reminds me of 'The Prisoner' series from the 60's. Nice work!

I tried watching "The Prisoner", but couldn't get too far into it only because of the sound design. I don't know if they meant for the music to be droning and rhythmic, and if they did that's great, but it causes me massive irritation to watch. Otherwise it's a very intriguing show... maybe I can watch it muted with subtitles...

Anyway, thanks for the feedback! Let me know if there are any major bugs or issues!

Hi guys!

I needed to take a break from making my game so... I... made... a... game... 

I wasn't super into this theme at first, but I kept coming back to the thread to check on how everything was going and then one night BOOM; idea!

Couple of things: This could have turned into an actual long game, but my ADHD coupled with my need to get back to "paying" projects made me cut it short. If anyone is interested in this becoming something larger let me know? I can't sell it because copyright... (you'll see), but I could expand it over time I suppose?

Also; I was having trouble finding modern solutions to some of my issues. Most Google-pointed forum posts are no newer than 2012 so a lot of the example code is deprecated. So I've included the source code with this download. It's under the "SOURCE" directory and if you need to know how to make a simple cutscene, change dialogue, how I make things move or do object/inventory checks and interactions it's all there for you to see and use if you need. I hope this helps!

So here is my completed entry for this MAGS:

THE ZOO!

Download: THE ZOO on Itch.io

Hey my dudes! I just wanted to poke in and say I've not forgotten AGS or the MAGS!
But I've been super busy with a new job and trying to release my first ever game on Steam! (Which means I have to finish it! O_O) So I wanted to give a shoutout to all the people who participated in the last couple months of MAGS and say thanks for keeping it going!

You guys rock!

@Babar  , thanks for the mention. I dunno about prolific, but I'll offer up what I can!
So first off, I'm autistic and my attention span can vary a LOT on things. I also procrastinate a ton! For this reason I like structure, rules, and time limits! For that, I'll focus on the game jam aspect of my design process. Since the normal process is "Get hyped for an idea. Work on it until I run into the first hurtle. Give up."

So for me the game jam process is like this:

1: Check the theme and see if it piques my interest. This is identified by my brain throwing out a bunch of mechanics, images, completed game art, etc into my frontal lobe at high speed. If this doesn't happen then I'm going to have to "work" on the theme and I've got other things to work on. This should be fun, not work.

2: Identify and pick ONE of the many things my brain just threw at me. I find one that seems interesting, new (to me), and easy to implement. Usually this is a game mechanic, art style, sound design, or general "feel" of the game such as scenes and genre. Like if the theme gives me a horror vibe then I'm making a horror game. (The RoadTrip) If it lends itself well to a text adventure, and I want to know if AGS can do that, then I make a text adventure (The Delivery). I don't try to focus on things like "Oh, this would be a great game for a Tower of Hanoi puzzle!" That's minutia and that's for later.

3: From here I do a lot of thinking before I code. This is procrastination, no lie, because I work harder the closer to a deadline I'm at, but I do THINK about the project before I start. I let me brain wander around it and look at it and all the holes in it. I try to identify key points in the game; Point A, the start, Point B, the end, and any key scenes my mind wanders back to such as two characters meeting to reveal "the twist!". I try to make a path from where I WANT to be from where I think I should start. So if I want my story to end at the top of an Aztec Temple in South America I need to figure out how to get a British Archeologist from his vacation in Alaska to that temple.

4: Once I have a "path" or enough of one to where I can see where I'm going from screen to screen I start things up and begin to work. At this point NOTHING is set in stone. Everything can change in a moment because if I stick to close to the loose ideas I've come up with I'm going to get stuck. So instead, as I work on the project, I make adjustments to avoid or fix "stick" places. For me, getting stuck on something can kill a project quickly because I get bored working on it. So if I can't get my character to walk properly then fine, he doesn't walk he just warps from screen to screen. Moving on. (I did this for The Errand to see if it was something AGS could do. It can. So now I can use it if I need to in the future.)

5: For stories I just kind of write whatever fits the theme. That sounds kinda lame, but what I mean is that if I see a theme I like and it throws ideas at me I'm less focused on the story than the "feel". IE: A horror game needs horror elements or I want to make a text adventure, what would require a lot of descriptive texts over pictures? If it's a space game what kind of interesting things can happen in space? I don't focus on names, or backgrounds, etc, I just plop a character on screen and have them do things to move forward. Sometimes that builds a story. See The Passenger for a grand example of the situation creating the characters because the only idea I had on that one was "It's on a plane!".

So the list doesn't get super long here are some pointers that have helped me work on projects big and small for years and each one has made me a little better at overcoming my issues and pushing out more games and projects than I ever thought I could:

"Perfection is the enemy of completion." - Adam Savage
K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple Stupid
Complete small steps to get to your goal.
Build the world first then lock the doors.
Puzzles should be no longer than three steps deep.
A cliche story told in a unique way is a unique story.
Have a "Base" game template to start new projects from.
Recycle old assets/Get free assets from online to save time.
Use only ONE unique mechanic in each game jam game.
If something stops you from continuing, drop it. Come back later or find a different route.
If you can get to the "The End" screen then it's a game.

This one sounds fun! I'm a bit busy during the beginning half of the month, but with the extra week maybe I can make something happen...    I will have to see!

Hey dudes! I wanna give a big shoutout to @Creamy who's been super amazing working with me on getting this theme out as I was super distracted by real life! (Really, all the credit goes to them.) Also wanna say that I won't be submitting anything this jam because my last submission was very last-minute and I did not expect to tie up with Creamy's amazing submission!

I just wanna tell everyone thinking about joining in that you SHOULD and it'll be AMAZING and I look forward to all your hard work this month! 

@Creamy Thanks for playing! Yeah the mouse bug is "known" in that it's how my version of the AGS engine for running my entries is programmed. I debated keeping it hidden or not and went with hidden. Downside is there's no indicator that there's a timer ticking down the credits for a reset so it can seem... trapped? Thanks for the feedback!

Spoiler

Also, played through your entry as well! Very enjoyable and the artwork is awesome and well-mixed. Also found a small bug: trying to change the sound volume causes a crash, but there's little need so it's not game breaking!

[close]

Can I get a couple of days please?

I'm nearly there but the game's not quite finished 

You can do it! (Don't let me be the only one to submit something my game is short and terrible lazy!)

I finished one!
I did this one in about 4 hours. I was going to spend about 4 days, but my schedule changed last minute and I lost the weekend I was going to use to make this so this is what came out of it... I hope everyone gets the irony here:

The Delivery - A "Text Adventure"

One of these months I'm going to have a completed game, I'm just not great at art and the amount I can focus is limited, but the topic is interesting. Deciding whether it would be better to have a game plot revolving around this idea, or just to have a game that doesn't feature talking.

Do a Google search for whatever art assets you're looking for in "pixel" form. You'll get a lot of results from itch.io where people tend to give away a lot of art for free. You might not have a cohesive look as every artist is different, but if you need art fast or assets to make art fast this is the way I do it. The trees in "The Roadtrip" are from an artist who gives them away free on itch and it saved me from getting stuck on an art roadblock.

I was planning to have something playable, but my health these last couple weeks hasn't been great, and I only finished my font, lucasarts-style GUI, main character, and part of the first room.

Question, is reusing stuff like fonts/GUI in the spirit of the competition? Or does it need to be made from scratch each time even if I want to do the same thing?

@Stupot would have to weigh in on this one, but I will admit that since my first entry where I made my GUI and set up my "default" game design criteria I haven't changed any of them and just use the same Sierra style system with generic graphics and plug in the game behind them. I figured this was okay since when you see a Sierra game you know it's a Sierra game by the GUI more than anything. No one has said anything to me about it, yet so I'm going to assume it's okay.

So, as an experiment, I have created a parallel jam in itch.io and invited users there to sign up and submit their games in the thread.

https://itch.io/jam/mags-august-2023

I'm not super familiar with how Jams work there, so if anyone has any suggestions for edits or changes to the Jam page, please let me know.

Thanks @4KbShort for the suggestion.

Awesome! Here's hoping this brings more folks into the wonderful world of AGS!

@Ponch Played through your entry! I can say it did tickle a few of my nostalgia/old internet memory nerve endings and it was enjoyable overall.

My favorite bit was the joke about "magic" while talking to Norm. The whole conversation reminded me of Terry Pratchett's style of writing and the ending made me actual LOL. Nicely done! 

Congratulations on making your entry!

I'll be honest, this month's theme really inspired me.

This bit made me smile as there's no better compliment than that the theme one came up with inspired someone to make something new! Glad I could help bring back those memories! Awesome!

Some great artwork is coming you guys and girls... 

What I've learned so far is that if I want to make a game next time:

1. I should give myself more time
2. I should hire an artist to make the artworks 

Anyways I will try to get it on time

Another thing you could do is just cut out unimportant or extra content. Puzzles that are not necessary or side areas/items that you don't need.
As for art there are tons of free art out there just give it a search for what you need, slap some simple backgrounds together, and plug it in!

Good luck!