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So beautiful! This game has such a unique and memorable style, keep up the good work!

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I just watched the clip....HAHAHAHA!!! Amazing!!! Soooo much ironic humour subtly placed in a "kids" cartoon...

I strongly recommend watching the whole movie, you could devote an entire forum thread on everything wrong with it; racist caricatures, gross historical inaccuracy, so, so many unintentional sexual innuendos, a graphic scene of Columbus getting hanged and walking away unharmed...
In the words of the Nostalgia critic, "You know, a children's movie!"

As for my game, believe it or not, it's actually based on a real historical event and a trial that really took place in Rome in the year 897:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!

I've said it in a previous post, but I'll say it again:
Several historians regard this historical event as the lowest point in the history of the catholic church, which is quite an impressive feat, considering they once had three popes. At the same time.

I stayed up a bit past my bedtime tonight and managed to complete the mechanics to play Columbus' "historically accurate" first voyage, and also play the game quite a few times until I had managed my first in-game success on roughly following his route without crashing into land, having a mutiny ensue from low crew morale (bar at bottom of screen), or running out of supplies (new resource bar at top of screen):

I plan to include all of his voyages in the game, and perhaps a few fictional ones beyond that if things go well...

Now you've made me think of The magic voyage!
(probably the most hilarious and inaccurate Columbus movie I've ever seen, the best part is when Columbus tries to show mutinous sailors he isn't mad... by bursting into song on an accordion!)

I have worked some more on my own game, it starts with a simple puzzle to introduce the main character, and then it's off to the titular cadaver synod.

The premise is that pope Stephen the sixth or seventh, is holding a trial against his predecessor Formosus,
and you play as the scholar tasked with defending Formosus.
The thing is, this scholar don't know the laws, have no previous legal experience and haven't even heard what the charges are.
That's the probably the reason Stephen chose them.

I'm about to start working on the actual trial next, and I'm mostly using this painting by Jean-Paul Laurens of the event as my foremost inspiration:

It's a bit hard to tell since I don't have any particular track in mind,
but I'm thinking of something orchestral-sounding, like classic music,
and sort of darkly humorous, in a Monty Python and the holy grail sort of way?

Great work once again!
If I may be so bold, I'd love to see (or rather, hear) some more classic/ historical sounding tracks
that can be used in a game with a historical or fantasy setting.

Either way I look forward to see what you post next!

I've decided to try and make a contribution after all.
Here is a screenshot of my game about the cadaver synod, which I in a remarkable strike of creativity, cleverly named The cadaver synod.
Several historians regard this historical event as the lowest point in the history of the catholic church, which is quite an impressive feat, considering they once had three popes. At the same time.

I decided to take a few creative liberties however, since I wanted to include a legendary figure who, among other things, became the inspiration for one of the cards in the tarot deck.
Can anyone guess where this is going?

I love the smell of pop-cultural references in the morning!

I just played the game, and I think it stayed pretty true to the tv series. For a game made in such short time I think that it holds up well.

I want to give this a shot, and my idea was to make a parody of cheap kid cartoons with no artistic value, no good lessons to teach, and certainly not beautiful to look at,
but parents let their kids watch regardless in the hopes that all the garish kitsch will keep them distracted for an hour...

This is a crackpot funflower who's sole purpose is to pad out the story with happy nonsense,
brings the plot to a screeching halt as well as being as tacky and noisy as humanly (or shall I say plantly?) possible,
a cartoon equivalent of the knights who say nii if you so like.

I got the idea of making a poster in the same vein as Indiana Jones for Jacqueline's next adventure!

No, but I saw a few trailers, it looks interesting.
There are a few games out there about animals, but there is still much untapped potential,
especially in puzzle and adventure games.

The dog in Dragon Age: Origins comes to mind, this dog has some hilarious conversations,
all delivered in barks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGLIi5ht3NQ

He must PLAY. All the time. He must be entertained. All the time. He must be surprised. All the time.

This is just my opinion, but I think that a lot of bad puzzles in adventure games are created when the developers
do not have a good idea for a puzzle, but felt compelled to to put something, anything in there to add gameplay.

One of the most powerful moments I ever seen in an adventure game was in Paradise by Benoit Sokal.

Spoiler

The heroine, Anne Smith, travels around an African dictatorship on the brink of revolution, and in one scene she finds all the workers of a mine massacred, and because of her actions no less. All you can do is ask the sole survivor about what happened, and then you have to walk out of the area, past all the dead bodies and contemplate on what has been done...

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This sequence had virtually no puzzles, and hardly any game-play, yet it have stuck with me for years.

You just described 90% of recent games...Paced Padded out with stealth/combat sequences, cutscenes, and action set-pieces...
Sorry: off topic...

I think mini-games can be pretty hit and miss, some are good while others just ruin the pace and/or are badly constructed.
It's especially jarring when a game with otherwise realistic art-style and story suddenly switches to something that looks like an 80's arcade game...

Well, whimsical episode won't always hurt the otherwise morbid game. (Especially when it is followed by sudden monster appearance )

I agree, I immediately came to think of the ending of this song in Mulan, a great example of it.

[has]

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about games is that a game has to be fun.

A game does have to be fun. Although I think we have different opinions of the word fun here.
Fun to me, means "not boring". It means it captures my interest and keeps me wanting to play it. It means I'm enjoying myself. A game can be depressing, and still be fun.
I mean, just look at Dwarf Fortress! On that game, "fun" means to lose your fortress in the most horrific and spectacular way imaginable!
So yes, a game does have to be fun. It doesn't have to be funny though. Although I suppose it would probably be better to say that a game should be entertaining, since that's what I think most people mean when they say that a game has to be fun.

Perhaps "fun" is the wrong word to describe it?
I greatly enjoyed Dear Esther, even though it barely had any gameplay and a very sad story. I wouldn't call it fun, but it was interesting.
To use another example, playing Papers please wasn't fun to me, but it made me think about things and even if I found the gameplay boring, I'm glad to have played it.

Maybe instead of fun, we should perhaps use the word interesting?
Games can be interesting without having fun gameplay.

[has]

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about games is that a game has to be fun.

"Well, who wants to play a game that isn't fun to play?" some might ask.

But just imagine if we held any other medium to that standard.
There are so, so many books, plays and movies that isn't fun, but it haven't stopped them from being loved by millions of people.

Now don't get me wrong, I do love humor and whimsical adventures, but a fun game should be fun because the writer wanted to create something funny, not because they feel that they must include it just for the sake of it.

How about an adventure game with an animal in the main role?
Not an anthropomorphic animal that can walk and act like a human,
but just a regular animal (not necessarily 100% realistic though).

It could lead to some interesting game-play and puzzles with
a protagonist that doesn't have hands or ability to speak...

I have seen few such games, but I think it has potential.
You could make a game about a police/rescue dog,
a pet trying to communicate with it's owner,
or maybe a wild animal trying to protect it's environment from humans.

Or a dragon. Everybody likes dragons.

And now I can't get the Blackadder theme-song ut of my head!
Please tell me that it will play over the game credits!

Nice-looking screenshots there!
I

Wow, that would indeed be a great topic. I hope you will make a game about it - since it's so obscure, you probably have lots of freedom regarding gameplay and puzzles

I really, really love the theme of neglected historical eras, but sadly I still haven't got any ideas that I can make into actual game-play...
Part of me was thinking about doing something with the cadaver synod,
but I can't come up with any good game-play elements, and I'm not sure from who's perspective to tell the story...

I'm sure exited to see what games will be made from this theme, and what eras will be picked!

I don't have any good game-play or puzzle ideas for this competition myself, but I'm hoping
that someone somewhere will make a game about the Migration preiod, seeing that
it's such an obscure era and so poorly documented that some historians actually doubted that it even occurred!

Yes, I've actually read theories that a good chunk of the dark ages were fabricated because medieval kings
added a few hundred years to the calendar so that they could hold a thousand year anniversary during their reign.
So, the whole middle ages was a conspiracy all along!

I also like how it kind of has the silhouette of a shark at first glance

I never thought of it until you pointed it out, but now I can't unsee it!
It looks like sort of a blend between a skeletal shark and a vulture to me,
a really cool design.

I did complete it

Spoiler

Starting on the leftmost marked tile, like blur wrote, then the top one and last the tile between the two near the bottom of the screen.

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It took me quite a lot of trial and error finding the correct route though.