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Can we nominate the AGS Awards Ceremony 2008 for the AGS Awards 2009? Seriously, awesome presentation.

And congrats to all the winners. Haven't played them all yet, so this was fantastic input on what to play next. The games I recognize surely deserved the awards they got.

I have never seen one of the "live" award ceremonies, so I'm not entirely sure how they work, but my two cents are:

- If one chooses to have a live award ceremony, it should be available for those who miss it for a time. As I said, I have no idea how it works, but: If it's just an IRC chat, put the IRC log online so that we can read it afterwards. If it's more than that, like sound or video, put a file online. If it takes too much bandwidth and disk space, put it online for one week only, so that people will be able to see it even though they're not there at the moment.

- If one chooses to go for the AGS Award .exe, like last year: First, what I really missed in that presentation was interactivity. Why use AGS to make what's basically a crude cartoon? Make a menu that lets us jump between the awards, at the very least make a review button. And add some more music, please. Another idea: Would it be possible to contact the winners beforehand to make them write their own thank-speeches? In one way I think that would make a better ceremony, but then again it would completely ruin the surprise ... for them, at least.

I like the idea of a live ceremony, but I know I'm probably going to miss it, and at the same time I like seeing the characters on the screen recieving their awards ... The best thing would probably be if SSH made sock-puppets resembling all the nominees and hosting a live video chat puppet show which would later be available for download.

[DanielH]

Okay, that means all votes are in...


The winner is DanielH with his story «Beneath a steel sky».


Shared second place: Bluke4x4, Eggie, Jack Sheehan and Krazy.

Thanks to everybody who participated -- DanielH, your turn to put together the next competition.

This was FUN!

No problem.

EDIT fifteen minutes before voting ends: My votes goes go Eggie's "Rageball" and DanielH's "Beneath a Steel Sky".

Okay, a little late, but let the voting begin! Two votes each.

You have two days to vote, so that should be Friday (October 3rd) at 8:45 AM GMT, right? If anyone really needs more time to read all the contributions, say so, but give it a try first.

And I was really intending to make some throphies, but DanielH's are so sheer awesomeness that I just have to use those instead.

Good luck, everybody!

The contestants are:
Bluke4x4: Warning forever
DanielH: Beneath a steel sky
Eggie: Rageball
Jack Sheehan: Dead rising
kaputtnik: Traffic department 2192
Krazy: Zworx
rock_chick: Runaway
TwinMoon: Sam 'n Max hit the road

Wow, five entries so far, and one more promised from Jack... this looks good!

Does anyone other than Jack need more time? DanielH? TwinMoon? Akatosh? Anyone?

Marco: Not really sure what the problem is, but have you noticed

Spoiler

that it's possible to walk in *between* the various crates in the lower part of every cargo bay?

[close]

robvalue:

Spoiler

Actually, you don't have to do that to finish the game -- you need the symbol, but that is also drawn on the notebook in Bianchi's office, and you can copy it from there. So while the flipping-suicide-note-thingy helps you get the extra points, it's not mandatory.

[close]

No, just like anywhere else in the game,

Spoiler

use the "look" pointer to look at the button, and you get a description of it.

[close]

I vote for Domino. Clever way to use those building blocks!

Here's a couple of game ideas I have been fiddling with, but which are pretty abandoned by now. (But if you want to pick them up, I'd be happy to help out with script, dialogue and coding!)



You wake up in a distant location, not remembering anything about how you got there. You have to find your way home and maybe solve a big mystery on the way. Oh, and by the way, you are blind. When you start out the game, everything in the game is black except for the outline of the player character. You have to walk around and feel things, talk to people and listen to sounds to make walls and objects visible -- you have an exceptional memory, so once you collide in a wall you will always remember that there is a wall there, thus it will be drawn onto your screen (though you don't see its colour, unless an NPC actually tells you what it is). Some parts of the game would require sound to solve (e.g. listen for a signal to know when you can cross the road).



You have tons of business ideas and want to get rich. However, you live in the Stone age. You and the rest of your tribe have enough to eat as long as you only eat grass, but people want something better. Climb the Maslow pyramid as you invent new items, discover and evolve concepts and use these to find new resources. When you start the game you have access to unlimited sticks and stones and a few other items, but you must use your mind to combine these things and find that stick + stick = fire, stick + rock + vine = axe, long stick + vine + a berry = fishing pole or log + more logs + the concept of a roof protecting you from rainstorms (which you get from examining the cave) = house. Find ways of getting what people want, and you can get them to work for you. Go on like this until you've found every invention possible and used them to create a better world for the people ... and a huge stack of cash for yourself.



You are a little Kansas girl whose house is sucked away by a tornado, and you wind up in a distant country called Oz. You have to find a mysterious wizard to ... wait, you know that story. The idea is: Make a game based on Frank L. Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" -- the copyrights are expired, and I think it makes a wicked adventure game plot. The Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion would become playable characters the moment they joined your team. In MY incarnation, the game would be faithful to the original book -- that plot is very much better than the movie's, I think. Some of the chapters make excellent minigames, for instance the scene where Tin Woodman has to kill forty wolves.



That's what I have now ... And I have no time whatsoever to actually make games out of them. At least not alone ... So if anyone can use them, be my guest.

Wahey! I'll be sure to enter this. Shouldn't that be september 15-29th though?

Oops. Of course it should.

Uh. Good question. Problem is, my drawing skills suck.

But if that gets more people to participate, sure! Can't guarantee for the quality of it, but I'll do my best.

[title]

Voting has started and lasts until Friday, 8:45 AM GMT. You can vote for two entries, and the candidates are:

Bluke4x4: Warning forever
DanielH: Beneath a steel sky
Eggie: Rageball
Jack Sheehan: Dead rising
kaputtnik: Traffic department 2192
Krazy: Zworx
rock_chick: Runaway
TwinMoon: Sam 'n Max hit the road

________

Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
No, it's the eight fortnightly writing competition!

This fortnight's rule: Pick a video game or computer game (it doesn't matter what genre or length or professionality it is as long as the game exists) and make a story that has the same title as that game has.

Apart from that, there shouldn't be any links between the game and the story except for the obvious ones (if you write a story called "Police Quest" you'll probably have to have police involved in some way, but you shouldn't make a game about Sonny Bonds).

A silly example: You write a story called "The legend of Zelda". The plot for that story could be the tale of an entomologist searching the Amazon rainforest in his hunt for the legendary Zelda bug -- an insect nobody until now has been able to prove that exists.

Post your story here, or link to it. All contributions should be in by September 29th, 9 AM GMT, but if anybody needs more time we'll see what we can do about that. The following 48 hours, we vote. Everybody can vote, and if four or more contributions are posted each person gets two votes.

No word limits, no style limits, no genre limits, no format limits. Decide for yourself what you want to write, we'll be happy to read it anyway :-)

[won]

Wha-wha-WHAT? I won? Seriously?

Okay, then. I'll start a new thread in two minutes. Thank you, guys! I seriously hadn't expected this.

Whew, this one is difficult. I feel like I have to vote since I participated and all, and I don't have the time to think more thoroughly through it as I'm going away all weekend, but I really wish I could cast four votes on this one.

I think I have to go with voting for DanielH and R4L. But the others came in darn close.

[Examine self]

Woohoo, look at all the entrys! Here's mine. I may have taken the whole "no restrictions on medium, length or content" a bit too far -- but I liked writing this experimental piece, so thanks for a great set of rules!



Examine self
by olafmoriarty



It is morning. You wake up in your bed. You have a strange feeling there's something you have to do today... But you can't remember what it is.

> EXAMINE ROOM

It is an ordinary bedroom. Your bed stands in one corner. Some clothes are
lying in a pile on the floor. A calendar is hanging on the wall. A door leads into the kitchen.

> EXAMINE BED

The bedsheets are a mess, considering you just woke up and you sometimes have very vivid dreams.

> MAKE BED

You don't want to.

> EXAMINE BEDSHEETS

They're brown. And they smell terrible.

> EXAMINE CLOTHES

They're just your everyday clothes; underwear, a t-shirt and some pants.

> WEAR CLOTHES

Okay.

> EXAMINE CALENDAR

You've drawn a large ring around today's date and marked it with the text "Tonight's the night". If only you could remember why...

> ENTER KITCHEN

The kitchen has a large fridge and some chairs. A clock is hanging on the wall. A door leads out to the street.

> SIT

No time for that, you're trying to figure out what you're doing tonight!

> EXAMINE FRIDGE

A note is hanging on the fridge on one of them refridgerator magnets.

> READ NOTE

"Meet John at Carl's Café 3 PM".

> LOOK AT CLOCK

It's 2:45 PM. Crikes, where did the morning go? Now you have to run to get to Carl's Café in time!

> LEAVE APARTMENT

Syntax error: Invalid command. Room "apartment" unknown.

> LEAVE KITCHEN

Where do you want to go, the bedroom or the street?

> ENTER STREET

That was the syntax we were looking for. Good boy. You leave the apartment.

Thirteen minutes later, you enter Carl's Café. Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the night" is playing on the jukebox. John is already sitting by a table.

> SAY HI

You greet John. He asks you to sit down.

> SIT

Okay.

> TALK TO JOHN

What do you want to talk about?

> ASK JOHN ABOUT TONIGHT

You tell John that you can't remember what you were supposed to do tonight.

"Oh, really?" he replies. "You never told me. You've been talking a lot about this date for the two years I've known you, but you never really told me exactly what's supposed to go down tonight. All I know is that it is very important for you... And that it has something to do with the old treehouse in Uddevalla."

> ASK JOHN ABOUT TREEHOUSE

"You know," John says, "that treehouse you showed me two years ago, when we first met. We were both on vacation in Uddevalla, and you mentioned that the treehouse was very important to you, and that on this date you would go back there."

> ASK JOHN ABOUT UDDEVALLA

"I'm surprised you haven't already gone", John says, "Uddevalla is at least an eight hour drive from here. Oh, that reminds me, thank you for letting me borrow your car!"

John gives you a car key.

"Seriously, I owe you big time. That crazy bitch of an ex-wife I have wanted to have the kids this weekend, and started threatening with taking them away from me if I wasn't at her place by noon today. Of course, she's being irrational, I'm a good father and all that, but with what the world's coming to now... The world is crazy enough to take my children away from me and give them to my alcoholic ex-wife, and I don't want to risk it."

> ASK JOHN ABOUT CAR

"Oh, I parked it outside. I filled the fuel tank for you, by the way, that was the least I could do."

> SAY BYE

"Leaving so soon? Yeah, I guess you have that big thing of yours tonight. Good luck with that... whatever it is."

> LEAVE CAFE

Syntax error: Invalid command. Room "cafe" unknown.

> LEAVE CAFÉ

That's more like it.

Your car is parked outside Carl's Café.

> ENTER CAR

Okay.

> DRIVE

Where do you want to drive?

> DRIVE TO UDDEVALLA

Okay.

It is 11:30 PM when you finally arrive at the old treehouse in Uddevalla. Le Click's "Tonight is the night" is playing on the radio. John was right, there was definitely something you should do here tonight... But you still don't remember what it was.

> EXAMINE ROOM

You're outside, on a small and desolated field near Uddevalla. The only outstanding object here, apart from your car, is a tree with a treehouse in it.

> ENTER TREEHOUSE

It is too far up.

> CLIMB TREE

You climb the tree and enter the treehouse.

> EXAMINE ROOM

The treehouse is made completely out of wood, and it seems somewhat old. It is completely empty: Maybe kids have played here in the two years you've been away from it, but they're all asleep now, and they haven't left any toys here or anything. The only things here are the wood in the treehouse and the nails holding it together.

> EXAMINE WOOD

At first glance, it looks like regular planks, At second glance, it also looks like regular planks. And at third glance. After the fortyseventh glance, it still looks like this is a regular treehouse.

> EXAMINE NAILS

One of the nails seem loose.

> TAKE NAIL

Holy handgrenade! That triggered some sort of mechanism!

A big hole has opened in the floor. The strange part is: Since this is a treehouse, you would have expected the hole to lead outside, but it doesn't. It leads to some kind of futuristic room.

> ENTER HOLE

You enter a room which looks as if it has been designed in the 22nd century. There are buttons and displays everywhere, as if you were in a space ship. This room must be concealed from the rest of the world with some bizarre technology so that it can only be entered from the treehouse. Through a gigantic front window you see your car. You feel as if you've been her before -- your memory is still a little shaky, but you're feeling as if you are another person now.

> EXAMINE SELF

You still look completely normal... Uh... scratch that. Some of the skin on your face seems to be falling off ... as if it was a mask.

> REMOVE MASK

You peel off your human disguise. Ah, it's good to feel the fresh air on your skin again. Now that you are your good old Martian self again, you remember everything: You are special agent Spork, sent to Earth to observe Earthlings for a couple of years before evaluating and deciding on the future of the planet. Of course, the problem with the disguises you Martians make is that they make you believe you actually are what you disguise as if you wear them long enough. If you hadn't removed it now, you may have been stuck as a human forever. Tonight is the night for going back home. Tonight is the night you decide what's to happen with the human race.

> START SPACESHIP

The spaceship takes off and soars out of the atmosphere.

You have had two wonderful years on Earth, and now the fate of the planet is up to you. Some of the humans you've met have actually been quite nice people. But then you remember John's ex-wife... and all the other people just like her... And the lawyers and politicians who work to make the world a better place for people like John's ex-wife and may take John's children away from him...

No. There's no way you can let them.

> EXAMINE DASHBOARD

There's a big red button here.

> PRESS BIG RED BUTTON

A display says: "Please enter passphrase."

> TYPE "PASSPHRASE"

What is the passphrase? You can't just type "passphrase" and hope that works!

> TYPE "ROSEBUD"

Nice try. Your memory is still a bit shaky? Maybe you've written it down somewhere?

> TYPE "MEET JOHN AT CARL'S CAFÉ 3 PM"

That is not the passphrase.

> TYPE "TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT"

The spaceship sends a death ray towards Earth. Earth explodes. The puny excuse of a civilization known as humans will never bother you again.

Score: 103/150
Play again? Y/N

Shuck, I completely forgot about this one. Or, I forgot that the end was so soon.

I'm posting an entry before the 11th, promise, so don't extend the deadline for my sake.

This does look particularly good, I must say.
I'm expecting great things from you, as always, Ms. Ivy.

I never thought I'd see a Little Nemo-reference in an adventure game.

You mean the mallet, right?
I think that may be more of a coincidence.
Of course, I don't know for sure.

If that's not what you meant, then I obviously missed it.

Uh... I was thinking of the title of the game, actually. But it may be me misreading it. I see "Little [...] in Underland" and I think "Slumberland", but... Darn, of course it's an Alice in Wonderland reference. The "Little" threw me off. Bah.