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 Hi everyone!

A bit of self promotion here. My game "Pharmacist Jones" appear on the Chemist+Druggist magazine  :




Chemist and Druggist is a weekly magazine distributed for free to every pharmacy in the United Kingdom, so hopefully we'll get some new people interested in AGS games and the like!

If you haven't tried it yet and you're intrigued, click here.

 Hi people,

I've just read last number of the magazine GAMES tm in the uk, and includes a 4 page interview with Dan Marshall and a review of the Time Gentlemen, Please! It gets a 7/10, but it gets a glowing review.

Great to see AGS games reaching this levels of popularity, it's a shame that AGS didnt get a mention in the magazine, as it would have brought a lot of new fans to the cause.

- Debug is still on

Aaargh, thanks again, honestly, I didnt know I had to do this, version 4 coming along soon...

- Make sure you get your game tested (by someone else) before releasing to make sure more people play it.

Again you're right, I actually asked a couple of friends to play it, but obviously they didnt really dig into it, can't trust them, can't I? Next time I will start a post in "games in development", not as a finished game, but I guess I was overconfident...

- There's only one item on the shelf you get feedback from. Why not elaborate this and make it possible to get any item into your prescription and check later on what you've given to the customer? In real life you also don't get always what's prescribed by the GP and you have to check it for yourself as well (being customer).
- There's no use for the BNF at the moment. It would be nice to have the official names on the prescription and the need of the BNF to translate them to commercial terms to get them off the shelf.
- Maybe some financial part as well? You just giving out the products like that isn't very hard. Maybe seeing if you can find the price and give enough change (make a calculation game as well).
- The guests are very polite and know their order (That's not real life ;-). Deduct points if you don't get the right order?

Thanks for the ideas! The ones about the posibility of getting the prescription wrong and using the BNF for that was part of the original concept of the game, but it was lost during the development, as I got more interested in developing the Dialogues and the other patients...
The original concept of "Pharmacist Jones" also included a financial part, as you say, but a bit different. The idea was that during the game you could choose to "make money" (aka, selling as much as you can) or to give good advice when required, even if it meant not making as much money.
Finally I simplfied the concept, and you only get maximum score if you work as a good pharmacist giving the right advice, not just selling willy nilly at a customer request.

ps. What's the max score?

The maximum score is 21, you can only get to it by choosing the right options in dialogs, and don't forget to file the script!

When first talking with Sharon, she mentions that 'patients' are waiting. I would say that 'customers' would be the better word to use.

Ah! That's a classic debate among pharmacists and pharmacy staff. I prefer to use the term "Patients" as these people has got an illness or something. (Definition of patient from the dicctionary: One who receives medical attention, care, or treatment.).

I would use the term "customer" in a pharmacy if is someone coming just to buy some toothpaste or other retail products, for example.

Indirectly, this is one of the ideas of "Pharmacist Jones". You can choose to directly sell the products to the patients without asking much questions, but then you don't get a good score because you don't act as a good pharmacist. That'll be the difference between dealing with them as "customers" instead of "patients"

Does it make sense? or am I just rambling?

 Right, I've just uploaded version 3 of Pharmacist Jones. I think I managed to fix the bugs.

For the Restart Game, I didnt use the correct command. I tried to reset all variables one by one writing it on the script, but this didnt affect the Characters, so that's why it didnt work. Now I've used Restart Game () directly, so it should work.

For the EndGame, I think it had to do with the values of the variables during the dialogs. I've changed it, and again, I hope this works, please let me know if it's still the same.

And yes, you was right Leon, the opening hours should say 9 to 6, I've changed it now, it was probably wishful tinking for my part to finish work early!

Finally, many thanks for your help, I've included you in the Credits section of the game website, it's great to have you playing Pharmacist Jones! 

I've helped all the customers, but now I'm unable to talk to Sharon. I can only look at her ...... and I had fun with Pharmacist Jones once I figured out how to fill the Rx.

Thanks for your comments HulaZombie!

You need to dispense the prescription for Mr Hatty before you can help the other customers, otherwise the game won't let you progress.
To dispense a prescription you have to print the labels first (in the computer), then pick the boxes, then stick labels in boxes. I will add this info in the tutorial soon as I can see is a question more people have asked.

Nice game...
Found a bug though.. after finishing the game and using the restart button, the game is still in end-state. Talking to Sharon gives me the end-of-the-day dialog.

Thanks Leon, beginners mistakes I guess, I've just gone and fix it, all variables and rooms will be reset when you press Restart game.

Why no games with pharmacists? We have Freddy Pharkas!

Aha, yes, you're right, but that's the thing, there's not many about.

In a quick search I find  Freddy_Pharkas and also a Flash game called Generation Rx .

Every other profession I can think has many other games, simulation or otherwise.

Let me show you. This is a research I've just done. In the Universal Video Game List, by typing professions in the search box:

Doctor: 15 games
Nurse: 13 games
Plumber: 6 games (and doesnt include Mario games!)
Police:58 games

Even town planners (sim city) or lawyers (Phoenix Wright) get games.

You get the idea.

Thanks for playing miguel!

About the prescription, I've just tried it again and it works ok. In an english pharmacy you have to pick the medication up, print the labels, stick the labels and the check and bag the prescription up. Did you do this?

If that's the problem, I could add an explanation of the process in the tutorial or maybe when looking at the pharmacy book, do you think that'll help?

You're right, thanks, I've just done it!

 There is a gap in videogames. There is hardly no games involving pharmacists!!! I know, hard to believe, eh?

Well, "Pharmacist Jones" is here to start to change things.

Join Pharmacist Jones in his adventures during a day at work at his pharmacy in England. Face professional and ethical dilemmas, and find out at the end of the game how well you did as a pharmacist.

Visit the website: http://sites.google.com/site/pharmacistjones

I would love to receive some feedback from fellow game designers and gamers before I release the game into the pharmacists community. Send it to pharmacistjones@googlemail.com

Thanks for downloading and playing.