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Some interesting messages but no entries so far... We're close to the deadline:
In 24 hours from now (see timestamp of this post) the voting will begin so please present your entries in time...

[What is MAGS?]

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers (a.k.a n00bies).

MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, you may get help for the competiton, but should try not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public.

Please do not just enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created in just some hours or a few days)!

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This month's guidelines are set by last month's winner Woodban:

Topic: Life is a Stage

Since back in Ancient Greece theatre was an improtant medium to communicate certain ideas and feelings, morality but also merriness. This month's MAGS competition is about the theatre's stage.

The "MUST-HAVE" rules:

- Every entry's story needs to be communicated as a performance on a stage
- Try to make the player realize at any point of your game, that he's actually in a theatre playing
- You might want to keep the focus on the stage, meaning the player character should be an actor, but if you involve i.e. a person from the audience, that can be the player character, too
- Try to conclude in a clear moral that the play communicates
- You can do anything to the stage (i.e. use pyrotechnics, rotate the stage to a vertical stand, ...)
- The play can be anything you like: A great magician on stage, a circus, a musical - anything you can find on a stage, but be aware of the fact that you MUST tell a story within the program of the performer.

The "NICE-TO-HAVE" rules:

To catch the atmosphere of theater you can, but don't have to, concentrate on one or more of the following points:

- Emphazise movement (in combination with music) - think of exaggerated movement, people "flying" through the air, etc.
- A special music - a musical theme that often occurs within the game, but adjusts to the situation (i. e. the main theme is a happy or confident tune, when a beloved character dies, it changes into a sad tune)
- Dialogues & Monologue - include inner monologues in form of a speech to the audience - we want to know how the char feels
- Sprites & Character art - here it's extremely important that the character sprites really communicate the underlying character design - meaning that if you i.e. have a bad character the player should notice that from the first second on
- Special kind of interface

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All games need to be in by February 24th.

Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.

[Woodban]

So the time for voting is over now ... and we have a winner.

With his very first game he made it on top of this competition,
the winner this month is Woodban with his game Below Zero.
Congratulations!

Many thanks go to FSi for joining the contest, too.

Two entries... sounds good to me and here we go.
For voting please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

Red Beard Saves RON by FSi
Below Zero by Woodban

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

[M]

Okay now, time is up: 24 hours are left (see timestamp of this posting) then the voting will begin... if we face some entries here then.

In case nobody should enter, I can just crap something out

Oh no! Please don't do this! Remember: This is MAGS where M ist for Monthly - not Minutely or Micro. I really should add to the general rules that at that at least 2 weeks of work have to go into a MAGS game... 

There is always a list with fallback rules in case noone enters, so this is not a problem...

(2) Try not to say that you'll be making a game before you're relatively certain that you will actually have the time, ideas and commitment required to do so. It will feel less humiliating to give up, if nobody knows (I really haven't learned this yet, have I?).

Also think of people that are looking forward to such an announced game. These wouldn't be too happy about a canceled project, too (what is not only a MAGS related issue).

I'm working hard on mine; whether it will be released in time or not, I'm going to release it anyway

That's how it should be! Always remember: This is just for fun. So even if you do not make it in time for MAGS you should not stop working on a game that you already started to work on. After all you already put a lot of effort into it (ideas, scribbles, maybe scripting and graphics, ...). Just finish it, so people can play it and you can get a feedback. Of course in that case you can not win the MAGS competition but there are other contests like the AGS Awards that you still can join. You can extend the original game idea, even take more time to brush up the graphics and all. A number of "famous" AGS games started that way...

Not to forget: If you want to join the competition think of the deadline 

Seems as if noone really wants to talk about MAGS 2007 in this thread!? 

However: The voting is over. Max and Maggie are back on stage now and present the winning
game of 2007 here. If you don't want to download about 1MB just switch over to the MAGS
site and check out the winner there (search the whole list for "favourite of the year").

Many thanks to all voting people and of course also many thanks to all last year's MAGS game authors.

Two weeks are gone... So only two days left for voting... If you want to vote do it now! Oh and some general comments about MAGS 2007 and the entries are also welcome.

I kind of doubt that many/any people have played every single MAG game this year.
Wouldn't it make more sense to vote between the winners of their respective MAG compy.

Well, you still have two weeks to play them all It is not that by default a game that already won a MAGS competition also is the favourite MAGS game of the year now. Sometimes only one or two votes make a winner in the monthly contest. Now think of some more people playing and loving the second (or any other) place winner after the voting, maybe months later. So there is a real chance for every entry again... Still: There's nothing against voting for a game that already won. Enjoy the entries of 2007 and vote for your favourite MAGS game

[too]

How do you define what a puzzle is? - or rather how much it is.

Even if you do not concentrate on the puzzle part the puzzles shouldn't be too easy.

Your example sounds like it's just two interactions that could also be done "by accident". So at first sight I'd count it as one puzzle. But of course it depends on how to get the key and how to get the sleeping pills and how you get them into a glass and how the guard can be tricked... So this could also end up in being much more than one puzzle... Just make it a little challenging and as said before: not too easy. Even if it is "just" a prologue there still should be some interesting gameplay.

You remember the MAGS competitions in 2007? All together 40 games entered the contests and offered a great range of amusement, humour and entertainment. To celebrate all the contestants and to bring all those games back to your minds and on your screens again here's "Maggies".

We don't want to judge about best graphics, best character or other best categories - there's already a famous award for doing this. "Maggies" just wants to know what's your favourite MAGS game 2007. It's up to you to decide what's most important: Graphics, gameplay, idea, interpretation of the MAGS rules, whatever...

The voting period will run two long weeks until January 17th.
Take your time to play all the games and decide in the end...

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

Mr Frisby Saves Xhristmas by Mr_Frisby
Alan Saves Christmas by OneDollar
Me Go Cannibal Jungle by FSi
Anti-heroes by paolo
Jacob by ThatOneChick87
Get Me Go Away! by Akatosh
Trance-Pacific by Ben304 and paolo
Serum by Jojoboy
Root of all Evil by Radiant
Revelation by dkh
Recollection Demo by OneDollar
Plan 10 From My Pants by FSi
Pixel Hunt by Radiant
Washed Ashore by Akatosh
Stranded by theatrx
Help - the game by FSi
G.P.s Lost Adventure by Wells8892
You Must Be This Tall by munchiez
The Zipper Meteor by KC
AlienCarniage by FruitStripeApe
Ache Quest by FSi
Of birds and bees by Gamer_V
Happy Ducky Adventure by Mr. Buckéthead
Roast Mother Goose by theatrx
Owls Quest by joelphilippage
West Of The Root by KC
Unexpected Quest by Mr. Buckéthead
Test Rat Escape by Wells8892
Odot Tamat On by zabnat
Me Go Store by Akatosh
Day of the Fish by Ollibony
Cabbage of the Closest Kind by FruitStripeApe
Alien Attack by Jon
Text Parser Game by FSi
Rays Rods by KC
Geometric Shapes 1 - Circleboy by Gamer_V
Encounters of the Closest Kind by FruitStripeApe
PMUVCHVT by Akatosh
CoMATtCEHoSVD by FSI
Skippy Saves The Day by Dufferama

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

[What is MAGS?]

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers (a.k.a n00bies).

MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, you may get help for the competiton, but should try not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public.

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This month's guidelines are set by last month's winner OneDollar:

Topic: Prologue

Let's do something a little different this month. January is associated with beginnings so I want you to come up with a game that acts as an introduction/prologue chapter/opening sequence to what would be a much bigger game. The game can be as long or short as you want. You may want to concentrate on one or more of the following areas…

Plot â€" Will you be introducing an epic space saga, a cleverly written satire, an abstract artistic work?
Atmosphere â€" Use of music or specific graphical style
Characters â€" More than just another bitter private detective?
Puzzles â€" Demonstrating your puzzle making abilities, or new takes on existing ideas?
Innovation â€" How would your game stand out from the crowd?

Rules:
Your main aim is to make your audience want to keep on playing by the end of the game
You must include at least two puzzles
By the end of the game something significant must have happened that results in the events of the rest of the story.
By the end you should have established how the rest of the full game would play â€" how it would feel, what direction the plot is headed, what the player could expect to experience etc
There must be a beginning and an end of the game - so a dead end (like walking around with no new options) won't do it

The idea is really open this time; let's see what highly polished examples of your game creation abilities you can come up with!

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All games need to be in by January 26th.

Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.

So it is the last day of 2007 and the voting for MAGS December 2007 is also over now.
The winner this time is Alan with his charity entry "OneDollar Saves Christmas".
Oh, I mixed up some things here

The winner is of course OneDollar with his entry "Alan Saves Christmas"!
Congratulations!

Also many thanks to Mr Frisby for joining the contest.
See you all again next year...

Oh yes - time is up: Please post your entries within the next 12 hours (see timestamp of this post), then the voting will begin...

12 hours later now... For voting please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

Mr Frisby Saves Xhristmas by Mr_Frisby
Alan Saves Christmas by OneDollar

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

Wonderful idea klauss..

Well, actually the idea is from paolo. So the credits go to him

[What is MAGS?]

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers (a.k.a n00bies).

MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, you may get help for the competiton, but should try not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public.

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This month's guidelines are set by last month's winner paolo:

Topic: The End Of Christmas

So it's the December rules again and we go for a Christmas related competition:

* Someone in the game discovers something that means that Christmas can no longer be celebrated.
* The player character has to "save" Christmas, either by stopping this discovery from becoming public knowledge, or by proving conclusively that the discovery is untrue.
* A freak weather condition, such as a hurricane, flooding or extreme heat or cold, occurs at some point in the game. It must be a freak condition for the place where the game is set, so, for example, if the game is set in Norway, extreme heat would be freak weather, but a snowstorm would not.
* Two or more of the following items must be used as inventory items somehow during the game:

- a bustle
- a collection of mugs of different colours, but the blue one is missing
- a hosepipe with holes in it
- a jar of yeast extract (Marmite, Vegemite or similar)
- a mouldy sandwich
- a sumo wrestler
- a trombone
- a 20-volume set of encyclopedias
- a used teabag

Let your imagination run riot and have fun!

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All games need to be in by December 24th.

Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.

[paolo]

It's a new month already and so here's the result of the voting:

Winner this time is...
paolo with his entry Anti-heroes.
Congratulations!

FSi: Many thanks for your entry, too - and of course you're not disqualified...
paolo: Please check your PM - if you didn't do so already

Here we go...

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

Me Go Cannibal Jungle by FSi
Anti-heroes by paolo

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

If I may ask for another day to finish my game, as it's almost ready...

Well, in that case there's not that much time for voting as we only have 30 days in November. So people need to be quick then... But okay, so let's set the final deadline: November 27th, 12h GMT - that is 43 hours from now (see timestamp of this posting). I hope that's okay for all...

The rules are now slightly different and as suggested also allow any other Holiday Holiday that involves extended family coming to visit... So go ahead

[What is MAGS?]

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers (a.k.a n00bies).

MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, you may get help for the competiton, but should try not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public.

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This month's guidelines are set by last month's winner ThatOneChick87:

Topic: Parody

You must parody at least one Television or Film cast. The characters, not the actors.

- The game must take place on Thanksgiving Day (or any other Holiday that involves extended family coming to visit).
- At least one character must bring a weird date.
- The player character must do at least one thing that's out of character for him/her.
- A tooth must be in the inventory at least once.

That's it - no further restrictions.

Please credit the original cast to avoid copyright issues...

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All games need to be in by November 27th, 12h GMT.

Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.