Messages

I've been asked a few times now whether RoN or OSD resources are allowed to be used in MAGS entries.

At the moment, the only components which can be pre-made are audio, templates, and modules, and they must be available to the public (assume this to mean public domain). As community series, I don't see why RoN and OSD graphics shouldn't also be allowed, if everybody has an equal opportunity to access them. I'm not aware of anybody using such resources in a standard MAGS competition (but we once had a 10th Anniversary RoN round when it was allowed). If somebody did, I can't imagine anybody taking reasonable exception to it, but it'd be nice to clear up the issue.

If the rules are changed I can imagine the entrant would need to (a) use resources from an official repository and (b) make it known they used these resources. I know of the RoN repository but am not sure if one exists for OSD.

Please share your thoughts.

[Topic: 'Sidekicks']

Topic: 'Sidekicks'

This month's guidelines were set by Ponch:

Make a game where the player has a companion. This could be two or more player characters, or an NPC that follows you around and is required to solve puzzles.

Ending 31st March



__________________________________________________________________________________________

This month's winner was KTX-1 by DoorKnobHandle.



__________________________________________________________________________________________

What is MAGS?

MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, or provide a kick-start into making adventure games. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favorite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

You may get help for the competition, although you must end up doing something yourself. You should however be warned that it proves difficult to organize a big team within thirty days. You are not allowed to use material already created before this competition. Your game must be completely new! Music and sound is an exception; you can use free material that is available to the public, if you wish. Modules and templates are also allowed. Please do not enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created last minute). Sure, you can make a game and rush it - but don't do this just to win by default.

Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualise your game following the month's criteria (see top). Second, create your game fueled only by coffee. Third, finally, and most importantly, post your game here, including:

âÅ"“ A working download link.
âÅ"“ The title of your game.
âÅ"“ A suitable screenshot.

At the end of the month, the all-important voting will begin! This period usually lasts fifteen days. Should you win, along with announcing the next month's rules, your name and game will be immortalised in the MAGS Archive. Yet hopefully, at the end of the month, the accomplishment of finishing a game will be your greatest prize. For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Ok, I haven't heard from Eggie. Thanks Perspicacity, you're the winner!

Well it's impossible atm to keep track of everything close to Earth, because there is a lot up there. As it was relatively small, locating it before it entered the Earth's atmosphere would be extremely lucky, and travelling at 67,000 mph there's no chance to disseminate any kind of warning.

[2 votes]

Results:

I'm Still Here by Perspicacity 2 votes
2034 A.C. (After Canada) by Ponch 11 votes


Congrats Ponch!

Thank you to everybody who entered and voted.

[Topic: 'Groundhog']

Topic: 'Groundhog'

This month's guidelines were set by TheBitPriest:

Groundhog Day is celebrated on February 2nd. According to folklore, if a groundhog comes out of his burrow on this day and sees his shadow, winter will continue for six more weeks.

This month's challenge is to make a game related to Groundhog Day or groundhogs. There's a lot of wiggle room here - consider the following options:

• A game about the events of a Groundhog Day activity, such as the famous festival in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
• A game with a groundhog as the main character.
• A Sci-Fi game about a "Groundhog Day" (a term made popular by the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray), being caught in a temporal loop until achieving some sort of goal (this is still within the constraint, and yet may have nothing to do with rodents).
• Anything "Groundhog" or "Groundhog Day" that I have not considered.

Ending 28th February





What is MAGS?

MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, or provide a kick-start into making adventure games. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favorite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

You may get help for the competition, although you must end up doing something yourself. You should however be warned that it proves difficult to organize a big team within thirty days. You are not allowed to use material already created before this competition. Your game must be completely new! Music and sound is an exception; you can use free material that is available to the public, if you wish. Modules and templates are also allowed. Please do not enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created last minute). Sure, you can make a game and rush it - but don't do this just to win by default.

Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualise your game following the month's criteria (see top). Second, create your game fueled only by coffee. Third, finally, and most importantly, post your game here, including:

? A working download link.
? The title of your game.
? A suitable screenshot.

At the end of the month, the all-important voting will begin! This period usually lasts fifteen days. Should you win, along with announcing the next month's rules, your name and game will be immortalised in the MAGS Archive. Yet hopefully, at the end of the month, the accomplishment of finishing a game will be your greatest prize. For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

[All take note]

Your entry will either earn you a job in the diplomatic corp or help you to meet a very sticky end (maple syrup will be involved). Only time will tell I guess

All take note: I've changed the format of the voting notification and will now include it in the first post of every thread when voting is on. Hopefully this will make it easier for people to download the entries, and I hope will encourage more people to vote. Seems a bit silly having to search through each page to find the links to vote.

Coool, thanks for the entry Perspicacity! There's nothing better than a surprise showdown (and foiling Ponch's default win ) It always makes me happy to see people putting in such effort with the little time they have.

For voting please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

I'm Still Here by Perspicacity1
2034 A.C. (After Canada) by Ponch

Please vote only once and be sure to have played all games before sending your voice! Good luck to all participants.

Voting ends 14th Feb.

I can't think of any situation where better healthcare would cause a population decrease, it's completely antithetical.

I can, and no, it isn't. Better healthcare usually correlates with better education

I was referring to tamatic seeming to suggest that better healthcare was part of the cause of a population decrease, "together with better healthcare" (as in, a stand-alone factor), and was talking about healthcare on its own; but you're right of course.

Also, apart from a minority of western countries, there been less crime, less lack off housing, less crowded prisons and less polution, even just taking these last 10, 20 years. So I don't think I will be convinced by what you are trying to say here.

Those are some good stats but they're irrelevant. They can only be applied in context if the population of Europe was increasing exponentially, but it is not. I was talking about a hypothetical human population boom as it's a prediction thread, I didn't mean the population is spiraling out of control as we speak, but it is in some places...

I'm no 'demographist' and I clearly need to do some reading before getting into all the causatives My original question still stands though, why would having a smaller global population be a bad thing? I genuinely want to think of some reasons.

But yeah, you make presumptions that better education and healthcare make the population grow. This is clearly not the case, just look at developed countries where emancipation thrives.

It's not a presumption... if there are less people dying and more people being born, the population will increase. I can't think of any situation where better healthcare would cause a population decrease, it's completely antithetical. I'm not sure what you mean by emancipation here.

In the article Attenborough is saying that there are too many people in underdeveloped countries: "We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that's what's happening. Too many people there. They can't support themselves â€" and it's not an inhuman thing to say. It's the case."

So yes the primary problem isn't overpopulation in Western countries (where food and water seem practically infinite), but I'm saying there's not enough resources to go around in underdeveloped countries. The quality of life if so low partly because the fertility rate is ridiculously high, for reasons other than healthcare (I would say culture but I'm no sociologist). Also overpopulation doesn't only cause depletion of resources. Problems more relevant to the Western world include more unemployment, lack of housing, more crime, overcrowded schools/prisons/hospitals, more pollution, and a greater strain on public services.

Sorry, I didn't notice that kconan had already mentioned population growth.

Together with better healthcare this is moving us towards population decline.

Naturally it's the complete opposite. Less people are contracting or dying from diseases, more babies are being born healthy, and people are living much longer.

However, rather than population it's consumption that has the bigger effects on the environment.

They are related because population is the limiting factor here - if the population increases then consumption increases even further. So curbing population growth as well as getting people to consume less is equally as important.

Basically, with regards to the cause of many of the problems we have and how to deal with them, I agree with David Attenborough.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned a human population boom. It just makes sense that less people would solve countless problems, and I can't think of a single reason why having a smaller population is a bad thing. Can anybody else? (I'm not talking about a microcosmic population obviously, so no risk of a population bottleneck or restricted gene pool).

THE END IS NIGH. Well, in 2 weeks and 1 day at least. And only one entry - come on guys, this theme rocks!

If you click on the ellipses for threads with 5 or more pages, it expands to show you all the individual ones. Either this is common knowledge and I'm super dumb or I've just freed up countless man-hours. Just spreading the word for any still unenlightened.

[Topic: 'Post-Apocalyptia']

Topic: 'Post-Apocalyptia'

This month's guidelines were set by icey games:

It seems that the 21st December passed without any fireballs raining from the sky, gulfs into Hell opening up beneath our feet, and not a single Horseman showed up.

But what if the Mayans really did foresee the end of the world? This month, create a game set after some terrible tragedy has been visited upon mankind. The disaster in question could be any of the staples of the genre, or perhaps something more unusual (those Furby things are definitely up to something).

Ending 31st January



Note: BitPriest's guidelines will be used in February.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

VOTE

The competition has now ended and voting is underway. Please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

2034 A.C. (After Canada) by Ponch	VOTE
I'm Still Here by Perspicaity1	VOTE

Click on the game title to download.

Be sure to play all the entries before sending your voice! Good luck to all participants.

Closing 14th Feb.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

What is MAGS?

MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, or provide a kick-start into making adventure games. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favorite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

You may get help for the competition, although you must end up doing something yourself. You should however be warned that it proves difficult to organize a big team within thirty days. You are not allowed to use material already created before this competition. Your game must be completely new! Music and sound is an exception; you can use free material that is available to the public, if you wish. Modules and templates are also allowed. Please do not enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created last minute). Sure, you can make a game and rush it - but don't do this just to win by default.

Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualise your game following the month's criteria (see top). Second, create your game fueled only by coffee. Third, finally, and most importantly, post your game here, including:

? A working download link.
? The title of your game.
? A suitable screenshot.

At the end of the month, the all-important voting will begin! This period usually lasts fifteen days. Should you win, along with announcing the next month's rules, your name and game will be immortalised in the MAGS Archive. Yet hopefully, at the end of the month, the accomplishment of finishing a game will be your greatest prize. For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Thanks icey, you're the winner. Shame we couldn't get any more entries but I guess December's always a busy month for people.

The blame for this event, and others like it, lies not at the feet of "gun control" it lies at the feet of the disgusting mass media corporations.

As an aside, and at the risk of sounding a bit apathetic, as a Briton I don't see why this massacre warrants days of front page news over here. If I knew the deceased, those involved, or it was in my community, then obviously I would be emotionally invested. So I guess it's hard to react how people expect you to react when hearing this kind of news, from so far away with little human connection.

I haven't seen any American commentary but I can imagine the sort of bad taste and sensationalism you mean, based upon some ways the BBC has reported it. Just look at this page, "How it Happened", which is a regular feature when this sort of thing happens. Anybody else think this is really unnecessary and kind of morbid? I can't imagine anybody but the detectives and maybe parents would need such in-depth analysis. Showing pictures and videos taken at the time is yet another fave of the media's which is really gratuitous. And the blatant acting by newsreaders to add emotional impact to what they're saying... Fiona Bruce is a great example. Just read the prompt without so many intonations and frowns! Basically I hate watching the news because there's so much negativity all the time. It's because reporting about sad stuff is easier. Not because there is more sad stuff than happy stuff (there probably is, but in reality it's less of a ratio than the news makes out). It's easier because I think negative emotions are easier to elicit than positive ones.

So, calling for tighter gun control will not eradicate the motive for psychos to shoot up a school, there's no two ways about that. After all, a crazed gunman has never had the sole motive of just showing how lax gun laws are. People go on rampages like this because they want to, not simply because they can; although they also must be able to. These two parts, wanting to and an ability to, together may lead to a massacre, but I'm not sure whether they are equally weighted in the equation; which is most important is a matter of opinion.

In any case, it is easier to treat the precipitate for massacres, i.e. gun ownership, than the motive, i.e. psychological disorder leading to volition for murder. We all know from accounts of those who knew these guys that in 9/10 cases you can't predict who's capable of this stuff. Which makes successful identification and treatment nigh on impossible. Basically, all the signs point to America's endemic gunphilia, although I do think that the argument about media coverage does hold good water, as it in part explains the motive which must exist for people to massacre.

It's a no-brainer that less guns can only be a good thing. However Calin makes a good point that licensing less guns will do nothing to decrease the amount of illegal guns. But as far as I know most of these events are carried out with legal guns either owned by the perpetrator or a family member anyway. It's also not a problem that would be solved overnight anyway. Eventually though the amount of illegal guns currently in circulation would naturally decline, provided controls are reviewed, as they degrade or are seized etc.

Of course, there was no official change in the first instance, it's only been that way for the past 3/4 months as I've posted the contests late, and I still want people to have at least 30 days. I'm genuinely annoyed with myself whenever I don't keep to the established deadlines. I know it doesn't take long, but most of the time things get in the way.

Sort of impromptu but a good opportunity: there was no Maggies for 2011. The thread has been written since the summer and the entries collected together (there are a couple missing - the authors having gone AWOL) so everything is all ready to go. But in people's opinion, is it worth posting it when there is about a month until 2013? Of course, voting would be open for a couple of months as usual.

The thing is, I don't want to break the tradition! Also, Maggies 2010 was posted in May(?) last year and it seemed to do ok.

I just thought it better to ask instead of being lambasted after posting it.

[Topic: 'Doppelgänger']

Topic: 'Doppelgänger'

This month's guidelines were set by Radiant:

There are two characters in the game that look exactly alike. What conspiracy is this? Are they simply twins? Is it some wicked plot to clone people? Or are there alien shapeshifters at work? Tune in to MAGS this month and solve the mystery!

Also, the UK Department of Vitaminal Healthiness suggests that each game should contain at least one grapefruit; optional but recommended.



Illustrated this month by the Indonesian Ilham Anas, incumbent President of the United States of America.

Ending 31st December



What is MAGS?

MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, or provide a kick-start into making adventure games. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favorite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

You may get help for the competition, although you must end up doing something yourself. You should however be warned that it proves difficult to organize a big team within thirty days. You are not allowed to use material already created before this competition. Your game must be completely new! Music and sound is an exception; you can use free material that is available to the public, if you wish. Modules and templates are also allowed. Please do not enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created last minute). Sure, you can make a game and rush it - but don't do this just to win by default.

Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualise your game following the month's criteria (see top). Second, create your game fueled only by coffee. Third, finally, and most importantly, post your game here, including:

? A working download link.
? The title of your game.
? A suitable screenshot.

At the end of the month, the all-important voting will begin! This period usually lasts fifteen days. Should you win, along with announcing the next month's rules, your name and game will be immortalised in the MAGS Archive. Yet hopefully, at the end of the month, the accomplishment of finishing a game will be your greatest prize. For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

There's just over a week left guys.