Messages

Something I've never figured out, please...

Every time I try to replace the Display text GUI borders and corners with my own graphics, they go all out of alignment instead of lining up as a box with corners.

Can the border edges only be a tiny repeatable segment? Will fancier lines work? And why do my alpha channel transparency corner images always float out away from the box?

Thanks for your help!

I'm hard at work on an entry - just lost time because I tried to adapt an older MAGS attempt, keeping the GUIs and main character, deleting all the rooms/NPCs for a fresh plot. But somehow that kept breaking the code no matter how careful I was, so I'm rebuilding from scratch.

VW: I feel the same way all the time. Most months I start a MAGS idea, have a few good creative bursts, then can't make it work. Adventure is a weird genre...the classics are mostly "what wacky way can I use unlikely objects to solve puzzles", and it's hard thinking up fresh material there.

It's why I don't even share my idea or say anything until I'm halfway done, tired of embarrassing myself. Last one I actually finished was March!  But these days, I'm trying to remind myself, it took Lin Manuel Miranda six years to write Hamilton. I can be kind to myself for not finishing a whole creative project in a month.

And nothing wrong with swapping genres, engines, interests. I finally gave up on National Novel Writing Month after 14 years because I realized I just don't enjoy writing any more.  MAGS is a nice baby step towards building my creative confidence again through little, potentially finishable projects.

No matter what you choose, you'll be okay, and we support and understand your choices.

Cassiebsg:

Spoiler

Thanks for the compliments and critiques, Last Light Post was a great game too!  I wish I'd thought of showing just the vases first... although if you could see the spaghetti code for the bottles, oy!  It's rigged so the last bottle clicked is always the right one, and even the end scene changes to reflect that.  I'd probably have exploded to throw in one more global variable, lol.

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Shadow1000:

Spoiler

Thank you so much for voting, I'm so glad you liked it!  And no worries, I felt the same about the sudden side puzzle making the game unbalanced.  I had other offshoot puzzles planned but ended up having to scrap them for time (like tracking the fly around the room by sound, the parrot was originally an imp that would trick you and possess your body, etc.) Thanks again, it means a lot!

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Olleh19:

Spoiler

Thank you very much too!  You all are making my day! 

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Heltenjon:

Spoiler

Aw, thank you so much, your compliments mean a lot!  Everyone did a great job this month.

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Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!   The sequence was the most fun part to program.

Same here...I read the clues and remembered what I was supposed to do, it was more my own personal laziness at the end to not go back and check something instead of just brute forcing my way through every possibility.

Man, I was gonna take a break this month, but I've had an idea I like...I'll be back later if it pans out.

I'm playing the blind wizard game, and i'm not getting the got damn onion!!! Why the hell doesnt it want the onion as it is 
It says 15minutes play time, i've passed that time long ago. Got stuck on this i don't even wanna know for how long!
I think i have that left, and the worm box, but i'm not sure.

Hint:

Spoiler

Do you know which bottle has the red basilisk?  You need Red Basilisk Tears, so you have to find a way to identify which one is red.

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Solution:

Spoiler

The Minitaur is object-blind and can only see the color red.  Use him on all three bottles.  Use the onion on the red basilisk.

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Hope you enjoy the rest!

Played all the games, good stuff!  Here are my individual takes on everyone else's games, spoiler warnings!

Taste the Blood of Darkness:

Spoiler

Definitely the best and most complete for gameplay of the three.  The combat system was fun, I was about to get frustrated by the bats killing me in the crypt until I found out about the hospital and instant return to my last combat room, lol.  I liked the axe coming back to me like Thor.   The blood monster was neat, too.

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Last Light Post:

Spoiler

Holy carp, nice motion graphics on this one!  I'm guessing you did still frames for stop points like the desks and doors, then swapped seamlessly to videos for the 3D movement?  Nice technique!  I had no problem with the passwords because I'm a sneaky bastard and saw what you were going for.   At the end with the component, I circled the pillar twice punching in the full code, then the evens, and got it right on the 8th try, lol.  Quick gameplay with impressive visuals, and I liked the character touches of the worker's notes.

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Lygophilous:

Spoiler

I was honestly lost in this one, sorry...I had no idea why I was there, and had to pick up from context that I was investigating some kind of murder.  When I needed the flashlight, I had no clue it was in the trunk...started to drive away to look for it, then just tried the trunk for the heck of it.  When I found the evil lair, I looked away for a half second, looked back, and I'd been eaten, game over, no warning.  The graphics and atmosphere were good and spooky, and the monster would definitely be a good frightening end boss.

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Slasher: Thanks! Every piece of art was stolen, although I did have to mod everything in AI and Deep Art Effects.

I'll work some more on the font after voting, it drove me nuts too. I hoped a voice pack would compensate, then ran out of time. Was it hard to read in the lab too? Or just the intro?

[DEFINITELY RECOMMEND SOUND ON.]

Lord of Darkness Light

MAGS October 2020

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58533.0

You're an evil wizard, and those bastardy bastard heroes have chased you to the top of your tower.  And just before you locked yourself in your laboratory, their stupid spellhacking cheating bastard of a good wizard cast Continual Light on your EYEBALLS.

You are blind.

Before they bash the door in, you must touch, talk, taste, smell and listen your way around your lab to concoct a Continual Darkness spell to restore your sight.  Hurry!

Gameplay: Sense your way through magical ingredients, implements and creatures.  Hovering over an unseen item makes a ? ? ? appear until you identify it.  And fortunately, you had a couple spells still memorized after your battle that may help.

As you identify things, a "memory" of what they look like will appear.  Nothing should be too pixel-hunt-y, and the game tells you when you've found everything in the room.

Short, one room game, 15+ minutes playtime.  I'm going to voice act it over the next week or so, but didn't have time to submit voice for MAGS.

70 MB download, 208 MB unzipped.  Recommend windowed play, DEFINITELY RECOMMEND SOUND ON.  You can play without sound, but it's way more fun and atmospheric with it.

Mild Content Warning: Comedic violence, suggestions of violence, adult humor, one swear word.

Thanks for playing!

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ebrjx7b85126qip/Lord_of_Light.rar/file

[DEFINITELY RECOMMEND SOUND ON]

Lord of Darkness Light

MAGS October 2020

You're an evil wizard, and those bastardy bastard heroes have chased you to the top of your tower.  And just before you locked yourself in your laboratory, their stupid spellhacking cheating bastard of a good wizard cast Continual Light on your EYEBALLS.

You are blind.

Before they bash the door in, you must touch, talk, taste, smell and listen your way around your lab to concoct a Continual Darkness spell to restore your sight.  Hurry!

Gameplay: Sense your way through magical ingredients, implements and creatures.  Hovering over an unseen item makes a ? ? ? appear until you identify it.  And fortunately, you had a couple spells still memorized after your battle that may help.

As you identify things, a "memory" of what they look like will appear.  Nothing should be too pixel-hunt-y, and the game tells you when you've found everything in the room.

Short, one room game, 15+ minutes playtime.  I'm going to voice act it over the next week or so, but didn't have time to submit voice for MAGS.

70 MB download, 208 MB unzipped.  Recommend windowed play, DEFINITELY RECOMMEND SOUND ON.  You can play without sound, but it's way more fun and atmospheric with it.

Mild Content Warning: Comedic violence, suggestions of violence, adult humor, one swear word.

Thanks for playing!

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ebrjx7b85126qip/Lord_of_Light.rar/file

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=58533.0

I will be releasing before deadline!  I'm just adding sound effects, ran out of time do the voice pack, I think.  Have a link up shortly!

Thanks Mandle and Stupot!  I'll definitely be ready in time...just struck me I didn't know if Saturday ended much sooner in EST than it did from AGS's time zone.

My gameplay's all intact, did the last heavy lifting this morning.  Now I'm just polishing up and making it pretty.  I'm going to try to rush out the voice acting before Saturday night, but if I run out of time I'll just submit the game as-is, then release the voice pack after the contest with the understanding it doesn't count toward the vote.

Good luck everybody!

Wow, so much shoulder/neck pain from hunching over a computer all weekend. 

Got a ton done, all my GUIs and graphics in place, all major puzzles intact. I am gonna have to cut the other couple puzzles I mentioned, way too complex for the time remaining, but it'll still work.

Do we have up til the end of the night on 10/31?  I'll definitely finish but it'll be a last minute release.

I've got a couple complicated coding puzzles I may cut too... they'd be cool but not sure I know how to execute them correctly. But I got a ton done today and it's nearly playable, I think.  Then I'll go back and add the music, sound effects, voice acting, polishing, etc.

Bashing away in a weekend long coding frenzy! Can't believe I thought "barely any graphics" would make this simple...it just made all the descriptive responses and inventory interactions all the more important, lol.

But I'm gonna make it no matter what, even if it's the last day! Good luck everybody, I believe in you!

Ha ha! It was the switch!

I didn't lose any work, just wasted my coding time tonight taking the side off my desktop and pulling out the power button wire until I can find a better workaround.    And backing everything up!

On with the game!

Welp, still working hard, fortunately backing up multiple times a day on Drive, and really think I'll still make it by the 31st.

But just now in the middle of testing a custom inventory GUI, AGS froze, then my desktop froze, and now it won't turn on again no matter what I do.  .

Fortunately I have a laptop to keep working and didn't lose too much code, but ugh.  Just rotten timing to lose a workhorse computer, hopefully the power switch just died. Pretty sure I have a hard drive USB adapter somewhere for recovery, too.

Anyways.  On with the game!