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Good news everyone!
The game is now playable from start to finish and all core elements are there!

However, it's not quite ready to be released yet as it still needs a few more animations and music.
And polishing. Lots of polishing.

Is there a manual included? 

I have seen worse things hiding behind computer panels though.

Spoiler

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Wow, that's an amazing story, Danvzare.
Have you thought about making a game about your grandfather?

Actually, I toyed with which setting to set my idea in, and at first I thought about having it set in
WW2, but then both my latest two games i worked on as well as the current one I'm making is
set in that period so I thought about having the story take place in a different time period for a change.

Sounds similar to a story relating to my grandfather. No joke.
You should make it!

Really? Now I'm curious about your grandfather's story. 

I've done quite a bit on the game today and it's kinda coming together, despite being bugged, but in an informative way...

Erm... Is anyone else entering this round?

Well, I've had this idea of a game where the climax is a young, scrawny resistance fighter armed with only an old musket is chased
by a large and heavily armored soldier across a snowy landscape

Spoiler

until the resistance fighter is caught running across a frozen lake, with no choice but to surrender. He throws away his gun to the soldier, only to send him crashing through the ice due to the extra weight...

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I have been toying with the idea of making a game about Snapphanar.

Do you come up with backstories for all of your inanimate objects, or just the ones people point out?

I'll admit I just made that one up on a whim, but I have tried to make the most of the things you
can see in the background of the screenshots have some reason of being there, either to set the mood or
factor into a puzzle.

But the backstory for the jeep wasn't that big of a leap in imagination since I did use a photo of an american
army jeep for a reference, it's much easier to find good pictures of american items and vehicles than soviet ones.
Here's the image I used as reference:

And does this young boy with the sad story have a name? 
Away from all sadness, I don't know why I cracked up at the lurking Jeep in the background 

I haven't decided a name for him yet, but if it's any consolation, he now lives with his aunt,
and he does manage to spend time in school in between fighting the Nazis.

As for the jeep, it's backstory is that it was built by an up and coming young american lass with a boyfriend serving in the navy,
and later on it was shipped along with other military vehicles and supplies to Russia as part of USA's alliance with the soviet union,
and issued to a red army infantry captain but after a few drunken shenanigans it somehow ended up in the hands of Olga and Ivan's Commissar.

I haven't come up with a good way of actually including this backstory in the game itself though... 

I have also started a devlog on Game Jolt in the hope of reaching a wider audience.

Wow, that's an impressive number! 

Awesome artwork, as always!

Man, those eyes behind that mask... 

[Still a prisoner]

Awesome entry, Baron, and the ending really sent me laughing! 

I guess my story isn't very humorous, much like Sinitrena's, it deals with some dark subjects like depression, ptsd and imprisonment.
If anyone wants to read it, here is the link to my previous story about the protagonist, A broken man.

Still a prisoner

Paul woke up screaming, but fell silent immediately once he realized where he was. But it was too late, his scream had already woken Gerda. She reached out an arm for him, but when she didn't feel him lying next to her in their bed she opened her eyes and sat up. Paul was lying on the floor next to the bed, curled up with his arms around his legs and pressing his chin against his knees. He was struggling to breathe.

Confused and worried Gerda asked "Did you fall out of the bed?". "Yes…" Paul answered. It was a lie of course, once Gerda had gone to sleep Paul had crept out of the bed and laid himself on the floor, he had hoped it would help him go to sleep. Back in the soviet prison camp, he and the other German prisoners of war had not had any real beds, just harsh bunks with some hay on them, and now when he was home, the bed was too soft.

In the room right next to their bedroom, little Leo had started crying. "I'll go put Leo back to sleep." Gerda said and walked out the door. Paul waited until she had left the room before he got up. He didn't want her to see the mess he had made, a wet stain spreading between his legs. He went to the bathroom to clean himself. When he did, he made sure to lock the door.

It was all so unfair, all the things he had wished to do, that which he could only dream about in the camp, had shown to be just as impossible here at home, but now they were not mere memories a thousand miles away, now they surrounded him constantly, but were just, only just precise  out of his reach. He had lost track of how many times he and the other prisoners had fantasized about all the foods they would eat once they left the camp, apfelstrudel, steak and potatoes, goulash with plenty of meat simmering around, white fluffy bread with a golden crust, all drenched in impossible amounts of sugar and butter. But once he came home, he had struggled to keep down just a few bites of the food Gerda had served, and only coarse dark bread and watered down broth didn't give him stomach pain. So much else had been lost in the camp as well, and he didn't know how to get it back.

Leo, his own son, had spent the first years of his life without ever seeing his father, and when Gerda had taken him to the train station to see him for the first time, the little boy had been scared of him. Perhaps with good reason, for while Paul was in the army, and then later on in the camp, he had always been completely exhausted whenever he could get a precious few hours of sleep, to such a degree that he almost immediately fell asleep when he laid down. When he was home, things had not been so easy. He didn't only struggle with changing hard wooden planks for a soft mattress, but the nightmares as well. He hadn't dreamt about losing his teeth before, but several nights now that painful memory had resurfaced, that of a drunk Russian who had first forced Paul's mouth open, but then moved on to another prisoner and proceeded to bash the man's teeth in. In his dream, every single tooth was broken and ripped out one by one by large and filthy hands. But it wasn't the other man's teeth in the dream.

Paul didn't even notice that he had started crying, it wasn't fair. They had set him free, yet he was still a prisoner. He struggled to breathe again, and tried to concentrate. Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat the process again, and again. It was Leah who had taught him that in the soviet camp, back when he first had heard the news from her and the other doctor there. Despite there being no visible damage, the backbreaking work in the camp had ruined his body, and now he was to be considered an invalid, unable to do any heavy work. The word Leah had first used was helpless, and Paul felt helpless indeed. He was unable to do any physical work, and the war had prevented him from getting any higher education, so the best he could hope for was maybe a small pension, but he had no idea where to turn for such a request. The idea felt wrong to him, being unable to take care of his family, and not being able to take care of himself. When he was in school, his teacher had given him a math problem. How many houses could you build from all the money it takes to provide for an invalid? How long road could you build? How many people could you feed? He didn't remember any numbers, but he remembered what the conclusion was. Gerda would be forced to continue working, but now not only to feed her child but to provide for an invalid as well. He was staring into the mirror now, but he didn't look at his reflection. A thought was growing in Paul's head, slowly eating up everything else.

Very slowly he unlocked the door. He walked carefully into the bedroom as to not wake Gerda or Leo again and started to get dressed. It would be better if he left without any questions or goodbyes. He stopped for a moment and looked at Gerda sleeping in the bed. She had started to cut her hair short, just below the ears, some time while he had been away in Russia. Before that she always had her long hair in a bun at the back of her head, but otherwise, it was as if she barely had aged a day. She was still young and beautiful. Paul on the other hand felt like he had aged fifty years during the five he had been gone. He barely had any strength or energy left in his body and his hair was more grey than brown. When he was released from the camp he had only a worn bag with a few donated clothes in it, but he had barely unpacked it during the week he had been home. Yet he decided to leave the bag where it was, for he wouldn't need it where he was going. Gently and quietly he slipped out into the night.

When Gerda woke up without feeling Paul next to her, a thought of horror fluttered at the back of her mind, that Paul wasn't home and that he had never been home and that soon she would remember that he had died in Russia and the last week had only been a dream. But when she sat up and blinked a few times, she came to her senses. It was real, and Paul was just in the next room and would be back any moment. It had not been as she had hoped when he finally returned from captivity, he had argued with her a few times and he had explained that he wouldn't be able to begin working, but what truly got to her was what she saw when he thought she wouldn't notice. It was all very subtle things, how he slumped his shoulders and bent his head down to how his hands were trembling and nervously wringing each other. He had lost his engagement ring too, and even if she had told him that she understood, there was still a lingering bitterness in her head, asking why he hadn't protected it better if he truly cared, but she tried to push these thoughts away when they came up.

The war, the soviets, the long years of captivity, none of this had been Paul's fault and he was still the father of Leo. She could have found another man, but she didn't, and every day she had thought of him and hoped for his return. Gerda started to wonder where he was, for it was almost dawn and he still hadn't come back to bed. It was her usual time to rise up anyway, so she got up and walked around the apartment. Leo was still sleeping, but there was no sign of Paul. She knocked on the bathroom door, then noticed it wasn't locked and the room was empty. Paul wasn't home. She began to feel worried again, but told herself that he maybe just had walked out to get some fresh air. Who wouldn't need to get some air after a nightmare that woke him up screaming such as he did? She could only hope that he would return before it was time for her to leave Leo with the woman next door and leave for work, she wouldn't want Paul to come home to an empty apartment when he was in such a frail state. There was no use to go out and search for him, she had no idea of where he would go, all she could do was wait.

Gerda dressed herself and went into the kitchen to make some tea, but hesitated. Should she make only tea for herself, or make enough for Paul as well? She poured a little more into the kettle. But as she sat at the table with her warm cup, her worry only grew. She couldn't tell for how long Paul had been gone, and a dark premonition begun haunting her thoughts. Should she contact any authorities, tell them that her man was missing and he had been distraught when she last had seen him? She slowly walked up to the phone and began dialing, but she didn't call the police. She called her work and explained that she wasn't feeling well and that she wouldn't show up there this morning. It wasn't entirely a lie. She did feel a dark twisting knot in her stomach and in her throat. She would wait for Paul a few hours longer.
Gerda almost fell out of her chair when she heard the door knocking. She hurried towards the door and fumbled the lock open. When she opened the door she had no idea what to say, she just stared at both the men by the opening. The man at the back was an older man with white hair and scars on his face, probably old enough to have received those scars in the first great war. He was certainly too old to be a veteran of the last war. She didn't recognize the other man at first since he had a large coat draped over his shoulders, but suddenly she realized that it was Paul.

Paul didn't say anything, just hugged her tight and stayed that way. He knew that it wouldn't last, Gerda would wonder why he was wearing the jacket that the man he had met on the bridge had handed to him, and it would only be a matter of time before he would be confronted with what he almost came to do, but right then and right there it all seemed so distant. He just wanted to savor this one moment, this one beautiful fleeting moment before he would begin that long and arduous struggle of living a normal life again. He was home now.

A great entry, Sinitrena! I must definitely read your previous stories as soon as I can!
My entry touches on similar themes too, despite that I started writing on it before reading your entry, just like
with Mandle's entry in the last Fortnightly Writing Competition. I either have bad luck in my timing or a very predictable imagination. 

I'll post my entry tomorrow. It's a continuation on my previous story, A broken man. I got the idea for a much longer story years ago, but decided to make parts of it into entries for the competition,
even though I had to restructure some things. I've toyed with the idea of one day making a full-length AGS project out of this story one day, but it's just writing for now.

I've spent the weekend adding a new character and implementing him in puzzles and dialogues.
I wanted Olga and Ivan to interact with a member of the resistance, so this person wouldn't be a real soldier
but instead an unlikely person whom happened to take up arms against the Nazis.
I had a hard time deciding on who this character should be, but this is what I came up with;

A young boy who's parents were killed by the Nazis because they thought his parents might make people join the resistance.
Seeing his parents killed by Nazis made the boy join the resistance.

Maybe detective games are to be seen as a sub-genre of adventure games, though I think it's worth to make some kind of distinction between games where solving the mystery is the main attraction and the protagonist is almost a blank slate, like in the Nancy Drew series, and character-driven stories which happens to star a detective, like in Technobabylon.

However, I only think that games with a blank-slate protagonist works if they are used to better introduce the audience to the setting and it is an engaging setting.

I also think that a big problem with some games that starts with amnesia and/or a murder mystery, is that it feels like the writer came up with an intro without having any clear ending or plot twist in mind, and then the ending either is massively underwhelming, or something completely derailed from the original premise.

Some have said that having the protagonist be amnesiac or a detective is an easy storytelling device, but it can be just as hard, if not harder, to make that engaging than to write a protagonist with a backstory and distinct personality. With a protagonist without backstory the risk is that the player don't feel like a part of the game world, and don't care weather the protagonist succeeds or not, which leads to the story losing most of it's stakes and tension.

Just finished playing the demo, and I must say that it's one of the most impressive things I've seen made in AGS,
the art and graphics are on par with classic Disney movies, an engaging and fun story  and most of the puzzles were good.
My only complaint is that it all just stops when they go into the cave, if it's the end of the demo it would have been nice to
have a message telling me so, or at least access to a menu to quit the game.

I think that this demo is top notch, and the overall quality is even better than that of many commercial adventure games,
and I feel a bit sad to see that there won't be a full game, if it was I'd definitely buy it, for games with such a beautiful 2D art-style are rare.

[1. Danvzare]

So, when does the judging/voting start?

Sorry about the delay, I have been a bit busy and quite forgot!
Anyway, vote for the three best entries you like from this list:
1. Danvzare


2. Cassiebsg


3. CaptainD


4. Jim Reed


5. gameboy


6. Scavenger


7. Mouth of War


8. Valent Jaineshon


9. cat


Voting ends March 17.

A most interesting discussion!
Personally, I think that a big difference between Adventure games and other genres is how intertwined the story and gameplay are. I have seen many examples of FPS, RTS and RPG where players excuse a cliched or bad story and bland atmosphere because the gameplay is fun and entertaining.

With Adventure games, it's mostly just pointing and clicking with little variation, so the enjoyability almost always comes down to puzzles and story and atmosphere. And then, many fans are willing to defend games with bad/nonexistent puzzles if the story is good.

I also think that the argument that linear adventure games with few puzzles are too much like movies miss some of the other aspects of games, like the exploration and interactivity. While I can see why there is a demand for more challenging hardcore adventure games, I would also see more games focused on storytelling and atmosphere.

For a difference between games and movies are that in a movie, you are a passive observer, but in a game you play a character, and your interactions in the game depend on the character you play. For example, one of the game moments that made the most impression on me in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey was when you got to play different characters moving through the same area, but making completely different remarks on the things in that area. The freedom fighter April sees an abandoned hovel and thinks "Another poor fellow driven from their home by the empire", while the imperial soldier Kian looks at the very same hovel and says "No one should have to live in such a poor hovel under the empire's rule". Really, the bit I enjoy most in adventure games is to examine the surroundings and see how the character reacts, explore their mindset and walk in their shoes.

Therefore I think it's boring when too many adventure games start off with a protagonist with amnesia or a generic detective, or have have the protagonist do something that goes completely against their personality for the sake of making a puzzle, say having an honest character suddenly stealing a ton of things or vandalizing something.

This is a hints and tips thread for Sniper and spotter being patriotic. If you have any questions on beating the game, post them here!

1st = #5 by Kumpel
2nd = #7 by Hobo
3rd = #4 by Tabata

Wow, those mountains look just gorgeous, like something of a Nicholas Roerich painting!