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A belated merry Christmas everyone. And have a happy a new year. 

Your process seems good. Your problem seems to be the amount of time you're allocating to the steps.
So let's go through them one by one.

• See a topic or theme or contest that interests me (man, I wish I could go back to my longer term personal projects at some point!), or often doesn't REALLY interest me, but I want to challenge myself and make a game, so I try anyway, often twisting the theme

Nothing to add here. This is a perfect starting place.

• Coming up with a game idea that fits the theme- this is usually my first point of failure, or the thing that unreasonably takes up 50% of the time of the competition

For a MAGS game, this part needs to be done as quickly as possible. You need to brainstorm with yourself, throwing every idea you can at the wall, try to elaborate on what you like, see if it has legs, if it doesn't look at another. For a MAGS game I'd say that this should take you no more than 24 hours. If you can't settle on an idea in that length of time, either give up or choose one. Remember, you don't need to make something that's perfect, just good enough. It's more important to finish something than to start something. And if you're stuck this early in the development process, it'd be a better use of your time to work on something else. After all, if it's not working, why force it.

Of course with a non MAGS game, you'll want to spend much more time on this part. Anywhere from a week to a full month. (Any longer than that, and obviously the game is going to be long enough that you'll be able to figure the rest out while you're making it.)

• Trying to map out the puzzles/plot progression for the game- this is usually my 2nd point of failure, and probably the most common one, even happening if I progress to steps beyond this one. I guess there could be multiple reasons for this, mostly involving me not wanting to do a simple use tomato on cook->get sandwich->use sandwich on guard->get key->use key on gate->... type of puzzles for due to them being boring, and then as a consequence, often trying to innovate TOO much ("Maybe I can make a match-3 minigame!") or even getting caught up in side-issues ("maybe my interface can be a super accessible only spacebar and nothing else!" "maybe I can implement a state machine!" "maybe I can try an iMUSE type system!")

Mapping out the puzzles and plot progression isn't too difficult. Just write down a series of bullet points for your idea, then iterate in your elaboration. Fill in the spaces between, how do you get from one bullet point to the other. The puzzles dictate the plot and vice versa, so they're more or less made simultaneously if you're doing it right. For a MAGS game, I'd recommend getting this done within a week. If you're struggling to figure out how to make something into a puzzle, then talk to someone. Ask them "How would you pump up a tyre without a pump?" or whatever your puzzle involves.
If it's a longer game, then I'd recommend at least a month, with a constant ongoing process as the project proceeds.

As for wanting to innovate. If it's a long game, then that sounds good to me, do it. But for a MAGS game, like I said before, it's about finishing not starting. So keep things simple, get a feeling of what you can and can't do in the timelimit. If you know it'll be difficult to implement such a feature in the time you'll have, just shelf it for a future project. There's nothing wrong with not innovating. After all, you can innovate later.
Besides, when you get to this stage, you're already pass the point of adding innovating ideas. That's something that you should be considering during the previous step.

• While theoretically I'd like to have completed an entire progression of the story/puzzles before this step, that almost never happens, so I figure I'll come up with the basics of the previous step and try to move to this next step- actual implementation: usually involves setting up the game system (how the UI works, the intro and start menu and icons) or doing a couple of the BGs or main character (although I usually start with a placeholder character), while still working on the previous step. I haven't recently progressed far beyond this step.

There's nothing wrong with playing by ear and just improvising as you go along. Adventure games seem to be quite a good genre for doing that.

Something that I've done a couple of times is having planned everything out, and just putting it all in at once. Quickly drawn backgrounds, huge rectangular hotspots everywhere, no objects, no talking, and walkable everywhere. Basically, a working prototype that's only completable if you know exactly what you're doing. It took me a week to do that for the entirety of Black Friday II, and that game isn't exactly short. So it goes to show how quickly you can get something made if you know what you're doing. The problem is, you need to have planned everything out, and also be willing to slowly replace all of the parts you implemented in the prototype.

Alternatively you could just implement everything one section at a time. Like an entire room, or an entire puzzle, or an entire chapter. Making sure to polish and refine every aspect before moving on. In other words, you can choose either the modern "Agile" method of coding or the old fashioned "Waterfall" approach. I personally don't have a preference. You usually feel like you're making more progress at a quicker pace with the "Agile" method, but it takes the same amount of time.

Help? Please? Step by step, how do you fine people who do it, do it? Do you often feel like you're intentionally implementing or planning something substandard just to "get it done" (or just get deadlocked and not complete because you couldn't do the substandard thing, nor come up with the awesome thing)? How do you limit yourself and prevent your idea from ballooning out of control? Conversely, how do pyt in that one or two "cool", "different" things so that your game is not just another boring checkmark on the list?

Substandard? Never. The first step to finishing anything is to accept that it's not going to be perfect. Never aim for perfection. Aim for "good enough" and you'll be fine. In my book, "good enough" isn't substandard, if anything it is the standard. 
As for limiting yourself. Well, I just shelf it. If I come up with a great idea, awesome, I can put it to one side and do it later. You don't go needlessly adding onto something. You came up with a plan, and now you need to enact that plan. If there's time, perhaps you can add that awesome idea you just had. But otherwise, put it to one side. You're not a child, so concentrate and focus.
As for how to put that one or two "cool" or "different" things in your game so it's not just another boring checkmark on the list? Like I just said, you take something from that list of awesome ideas when you first start the project. You want to make a match-3 tile game? Don't try to add it into the game you're already making. But do make it the main premise for your next game. (Like with the chasing scarecrow segments in my Black Friday II.)



TL;DR
Don't aim for perfection. Just aim to be good enough, and quality will naturally come.
It's better to cancel a project that's going nowhere and begin a new one, than to struggle to continue one that's going nowhere.
And most importantly, finish things. Even if it's cancelling it, scaling it back, or just releasing what you've got. Make things "done" and soon you'll be able to look back with pride at everything you've accomplished.

[Scribblenauts Unlimited]

Finally on Christmas holiday and revisiting this thread for some ideas while I have the time off. (Sorry for necroposting.) Anyone play anything life changing in 2023?

Life changing? Not really.

But I can list some of the best games I've played this year.
First there was Scribblenauts Unlimited. A game which I played back when it came out, but I played again this year, and boy is it still an incredible game.
Then there's Neptunia: Sisters Vs Sisters which had a really fun (and complicated) story and is quite possibly now my favourite in the Neptunia series. The clear increase in budget was a welcomed addition. 
The latest great game I played this year (as in the one I played most recently) was Alice: Madness Returns, I've never played a game with such buttery smooth controls before. Or a platformer with combat that's actually fun. Shame that the music and level design aren't as good as the first game, but hey, the second game comes with the first game, so at least there's that, and the story's pretty good too. (Also yay, they wrote Alice fairly accurately to how she acted in the book.)

But the true highlight for this year for me is easily It Takes Two (which I played at the start of the year with my mother).
I would go as far as to say that this game has the makings of a future classic. In terms of gameplay, it throws every possible cooperative platformer gameplay element you can think of, at the wall, and a surprising amount of them stick. Then there's the story which actually has nuance! 
It also has some really good relationship advice.   
Although I really wish they burnt that book at the end. I absolutely hated it! 

But yeah, none of those were life changing.
I played a lot of games this year (including Red Dead Redemption 2), but those were the highlights. 

What about you?

Ecstatica
(Don't know whether I spelled it correctly.)

Correct. (And yes, you spelt it correctly.)
Your turn.

Yeah. You can't go further without reading the manual of Elder Scrolls Arena.

Surprisingly it wasn't the copy protection that prevented me from making progress. It was the sheer difficulty. 
I had the exact same problem with Daggerfall as well.

That's right.

You turn.

I can't believe I got that right. That was almost a complete shot in the dark. I suppose those ten minutes of me trying out the game and being unable to escape the dungeon, left a bigger impression on me than I thought.

I wonder if this game has been done before?

[The Elderscrolls: Arena]

Is it The Elderscrolls: Arena? 

This is a very personal answer (obviously).

A very good answer that I agree wholeheartedly with. 
Especially the advice with leaning pixel art and keeping your dialog short and to the point.
To add to said advice about learning pixel art, if you're going in with zero artistic skills (we're talking stickmen), then I highly recommend getting out a pencil and paper, and copying other people's artwork via reference (not tracing). Drawing is like swimming, whistling, or riding a bicycle. You can't be shown how to do it, you just have to keep doing it until it clicks. And it's a skill that carries over to all forms.

Dialogs are what's hard.

I have a question. What is it about dialogs that you find difficult?
Maybe it's because I've spent the past ten years making at least one new webcomic every week (at one point I was making three different webcomics each week), but I find dialog really easy to do. Whether it's a one-off line for something as simple as using an incorrect item on something, to something as involved as a dialog tree.

[Jazz Jackrabbit 2]

Jazz Rabbit 2

Close enough. It's actually Jazz Jackrabbit 2. 

Your turn.

[Gekibo: Gekisha Boy]

Because Danvzare get so near I declare him the winner!

The title is Gekibo: Gekisha Boy also kown as The Cameraman or Polaroid Pete!

Technically is a shooter game but you don't have to kill anyobody!

Your turn, Danvzare! 

_

Aw thanks. 
I'll try and make this next one easy.

Hello. I'm a new user. Absolute newbie. I just have a general question regarding the overall difficulty in creating a Sierra style pixelized game.

I've never attempted at creating a game before; in fact I have no experience.

What can I expect as far as difficulty in learning the ropes of creating an old style Sierra game?

My question is very broad. I just want some insight from more experienced developers on what I can expect to run into on my learning quest of AGS game development.

Make a game is easy. Making a good game is hard.

But that's probably a bit too simplified.
If you're a complete beginner, then chances are, it's going to be quite difficult. Since first you have to learn how to program, which could take a year to truly master. And then of course you need to learn how to make the art, which once again could take a year to get yourself to a decent enough standard.
Although that's if you're working hard to learn these things every day. If you want to make your own music, then of course you'll need to learn that also, so add another year onto your learning.

Then of course there's the game design. Some people are naturals at game design, probably because they've spent their time analyzing the design of other games. But some people really struggle to design puzzles, and I see a LOT of people struggle to incorporate the puzzles into the story (most people can't get their head around it, and just have the two be completely separate). But that's something that you can only learn by doing. So by that point, you'll actually be making games.

I think making stories is a pretty simple endeavour (good stories obviously less so), but I've spoken with more than enough people to know that some people even struggle with that. (Surprisingly, it's usually because they can't get their head around making dialog for other characters that aren't based on themselves.)

So how difficult is it to create games?
Well, to rephrase what I said earlier. If you just want to create something, it's remarkably easy depending on the engine you're using. If you got Game Maker Studio, you'd probably have something that could be called a game, made within the day.
But if you want to make something that you're truly proud of. That's quite hard. Then again, that's true of anything, whether it's painting, writing, or animating. I wouldn't say making games is harder than any of those other things, despite it requiring multiple skills to create (the best part is, you can half-ass each part, and still have the whole be better overall).

Since you mentioned a Sierra pixelized game, I presume you're talking about the early AGI games, like the original King's Quest. If that's what you mean, I'd say it wouldn't be too difficult to make a game like one of those. The low-res artwork coupled with the terrible puzzle design and lack of music, sound, and story, should make it quite easy to recreate that style. If on the other hand you mean the later 256 colour SCI games like King's Quest V, then that will be very difficult to recreate the style of. Especially if you're a beginner.

That looks incredibly familiar... wait... I know that game!
...
And I can't find the name of the game. 

Still, I can describe it for the next person (who's hopefully better at googling than me) to look up.
I'm pretty sure it's a SNES game, and in it you have to take pictures for a tabloid while moving along the level. I remember encountering it in a YouTube video about a bunch of obscure games.
I shall keep searching until I find it's name though. 

[Autumn of Death: Black Friday II]

Just to let everyone know, Autumn of Death: Black Friday II is free on Itchio for the entire week: https://itch.io/s/108682/black-friday-sale

It's also 90% off on GameJolt (because I couldn't figure out how to set it to 100%).

I figured that since it was Black Friday and my game is called Black Friday, it only made sense to give it away on Black Friday. 

I feel like this conversation has taken the kind of turn where I should keep my nose out and let the adults talk.
But I want to add my two cents anyway. 

Considering people have to purchase a commercial game in order to play it, and people generally don't vote let alone nominate a game that they've never played. I've always thought that commercial games are at a severe disadvantage compared to their freeware counterparts. The fact that they make up for this disadvantage with much more polish (aka professional graphics, music, ect), in my mind, puts everything on a somewhat level playing field.

And besides, there's different levels of commercial games.
I mean compare Captain Disaster to Unavowed. Both are great commercial games, but it's a bit unfair to only compare them just because they're commercial games. 
(What I'm trying to say is that some commercial games are made by just one guy in his spare time, not unlike most freeware games, while some commercial games are made by a team working full time.)

https://twitter.com/abbythelibb_/status/1708214738750972097

That's not funny.    That just sounds like what all of the political American nutjobs scream about nowadays. Heck, I've seen the reverse of this exact quote (where supposedly left wing women blame all men) more times than I can count. It's just nutters screaming at nutters. I think it's safe to say we come here to get away from those kind of people and their insane ramblings.

So at the risk of sounding like an SJW. Can we not promote an "Us VS Them" mentality in a thread where we're supposed to be sharing funny images.

Speaking of which:

["Nomination and voting"]

"Nomination and voting"

I think I mentioned this before, but opening a dropdown menu with 100+ games, find and pick a game to nominate, then do it again *9, until you filled the first category up

If the goal is to get more nominations, one solution would be to grant some people the power to nominate a game on their own, without getting the 5 (?) votes necessary behind it. This could be the moderators, the organizers, some anonymous committee appointed by the organizers, or a combination.

These two quotes just gave me an idea to help streamline the nomination process.
What if the dropdown box for nominations, only includes the games that were posted in the "For Your Consideration" thread, and only for the categories that the person has listed in their post.

Then the organizers can fill out the list by adding any additional games that weren't posted in the thread, but that they personally believe should have the opportunity to be nominated.

It's not a perfect solution, but it might help get more nominations by streamlining the whole thing.

It'd be a shame if the ceremony stopped. It's such a big event, and I absolutely love it because of that. 
My brother is always there watching with me, so he must feel the same way, despite not even using the engine.

But if it's become that much of a chore to setup, then like Crimson Wizard said, is there anything that could be done to streamline things?

I mean, would it be possible to just change the pictures used for the nominees, and then reuse the rest with no major alterations?
I don't think we need new avatars or new functions. And while it would be nice to hear the music of the games that are nominated for best music, I think it'll be ok if we don't hear it.

Then again, I've never even so much as helped with the award ceremony, so I don't know how difficult it is to use for even the simplest of tasks. 

Wecome back jwalt!
Looking forward to see what you've been cooking up.

Hey! Welcome back stranger 

Now I feel ashamed for having never realized that jwalt hasn't been around in awhile. 

I suppose it's better to be late than never though. So welcome back jwalt! 

I agree that this would be a bad way to stop you from solving the problem in that way. But I think it's almost worse if the game repeats the exact same problem and expects you to use the exact same solution

And that's why you don't use the exact same solution.

Perhaps you'll see the problem that somethings high up, remember you solved it last time by throwing something, but the only rock you can find is locked behind a glass case in a museum. Suddenly the puzzle is about getting the rock. Which is something you wouldn't have even tried to get if you didn't have the similar puzzle from before.

Alternatively, you could already have a rock, so you try the solution as before, but it knocks the high up item somewhere else where you can't reach. Like behind a metal fence with a vicious dog.

Or perhaps you could just have the high up item clearly too heavy to be easily pushed off by throwing a rock, and have the player character explain as such.

In other words, you setup it up as before, but add another step. It'll make it feel like the player is building up knowledge of how to solve these puzzles (aka a feeling of getting better at the game), while keeping the difficulty the same (if not outright increasing it, if we're to assume that some players might not realize the obvious solution that they did last time).

Also, having puzzles that callback to previous puzzles, is just good story writing. It's what the final puzzles of the Monkey Island games did.

I haven't ever used anim8or, looks... Different.

Same here, so I downloaded it and tried it out.
Wow is it easy to use. 

It's not perfect, but it's certainly much more user friendly than Blender.
That being said, it also very clearly shows its age in some of its design decisions.

It'd be nice if you could just save and load the text parser words to and from a text file.
But unfortunately you can't. 

I guess it would be possible to improve the workflow in the editor itself, but frankly, text parsers are not very much popular nowadays, so this feature has not been updated in AGS for many years.

Is it possible that text parsers aren't popular in AGS, because it's difficult to use?

I mean, I'm willing to bet that even if it was an absolute dream to use the text parser, it still wouldn't be super popular. But I think that the difficulty in using a parser due to it not being updated, has made it less popular, which in turn has meant that it hasn't been updated, which in turn has made it less popular. 
A text parser template doesn't even come with the engine, and the template you can find, could use some major refinement in my opinion (such as some basic words already included in the list of parser words, like the words that all of the AGI games typically include).