Messages

I'm tentatively saying Sox and I will be throwing a Dropped Monocle game in the mix, with bonus team member Problem, coming aboard. I'm pretty busy with Thimbleweed Park dialogs, but I loved the theme so Sox has managed to entice me to write a little something.

Hopefully we can get it finished in time. Expect something a bit darker, and more futuristic from Dropped Monocle.

You are assuming someone out of work for whatever reason has full time hours to work on a game. Some people are parenting kids, others are looking for work which in itself can be basically a full time job. Then there are people like me who are disabled and can only work part time because they are sick. I may theoretically have all day to work on a project some days, but the reality is that due to my condition it doesnt work out that way. So you might label me a full time dev because I have the hours technically, but really I don't.

I have more time than a hobbyist but I'm not full time by any stretch. I think a lot of other indie devs are similar and keep themselves going through sporadic freelance work etc. Its not as cut and dry as you are making it out to be.

True, I suppose some do polish them up. Maybe just Sox and I are in the minority of terrible devs who leave our games as they were on MAGS release unless we need to fix a game breaking bug. Lazy, lazy devs, we are.

In which case MAGS award for fun and no other reason if people really do work on them that much after the initial release.

I kind of like the idea of a MAGS uber award as an AGS category. I think some short games are projects people spend a great deal of time on, and so coming up against short games where a dev had a limited time to create the project isn't necessarily unfair but with MAGS you rarely have time to get everything you want in the game. I think a category reflecting that would be cool.

The buttons moving more than they do looks a bit off and I suggested they move less when Sox shared the original original animations with me. It looked too exaggerated as she's a kid walking forward and looking around ever so slightly. Realistically her buttons wouldn't move that much unless her whole body was twisting a lot more.

I loved it. My brother, boyfriend and I all played it. My brother made me play my game on his PC hooked up to the TV so he could watch. He wanted to see how our stories differed as we are quite different players and it turned out very differently for the two of us.

Spoiler

To start the only similarity we had was be both hated Warren with a passion. We were cold as ice to him all through the game. That whiny creep bugged the crap out of me. Both our max characters friend zoned him hard. I even made him blow up his Chem experiment which made him get a crappier grade.

I felt like my choices really mattered right up until the end. My brother played Max as much meaner. He also doesn't remember dialog as well as me and doesn't notice as many details so he couldn't save Kate, but I could. I had things like visiting her in hospital, he had her funeral etc. He didn't try to save Victoria from Nathan which I did, but that ultimately wasn't so great for her!

He accused David, I accused Nathan because I knew he was dodgy, although I said from episode one the photography teacher would be a serial killer creep. They gave him the perfect amount of creep vibe that you could waver and doubt him all the time, but shrug it off.

I didn't mind the ending only having two choices because I knew that would happen. The world was clearly ending and max would have to choose who to save. The choices you make shape the game up until that moment. It's about shaping the journey of the game. You always end up at the same destination but the paths to get there are varied and rich in detail. Like because I accused Nathan my dorm room got messed up and I got nasty texts but my bro didn't have any of that.

It's kind of philosophical in that way. Ultimately are we all headed towards the same fixed point in our future but the paths we take are all different and wide open. My brother and I both opted to save the town. He never told me which choices he made because he wanted to see what I did. We both felt like Chloe knew the lives of the many were more important and she wanted to make the sacrifice. My partner called us heartless because he saved Chloe. I found the choice heartbreaking as my Max was in love with Chloe, but I had to save the town. My brother's Max was only platonic for Chloe as far as he was concerned so it wasn't as heartbreaking.

[close]

So yeah! Great stuff from Don't Nod! Remember Me showed promise and they really delivered with Life is Strange.

Grok that's a really nice background. I get a studio ghibli concept art vibe from it. Like I can just imagine totoro running on screen to make a phone call.

Sox and I kicked off our AGS career with MAGS and so the competitions hold a special place for us. You've been a great host! Thanks for running them so we'll all this time. Also Gratz to Stupot+! I'm sure you will do an excellent job!

Sox make Selmiak a trophy. You know you want to!

I have to vote:

1. Bonesy because he reminds me of a mario type henchman.
2. Spectre because it reminds me of a unique looking persona villain.
3. Head Lock because I love a robot baddie

All great entries though!

Sure. I don't think Ron will mind me talking about the hiring stuff. I'm not able to talk about the game much for obvious reasons, but Ron is a great guy so I don't see any reason why I couldn't.

I found out about the job through a game dev group for women on Facebook. Jenn Sandercock the new programmer posted about the search for a writer and I pretty much screamed and ran to my laptop to send Ron a message through the contact form on the Thimbleweed website. It was a basic cover letter explaining my experience and linking to my games. No CV or anything.

Ron was at Gamescom when this kicked off so it took a while for him to respond, but when he got back he set us a writing assignment. I don't think I have ever been more nervous writing something, or had a worse case of writers block. I was convinced I wouldn't get it. A month or two later when I got the message I had been successful I actually felt faint and had to lie down. I had worked so hard preparing myself for failure that I had not even slightly prepared myself for the scenario where I got the job.

I don't think Ron asked me many questions. We didn't really talk much until after I got the job. He does have a wicked sense of humour though and it was requested we appeal to it in the writing challenge. Those of you who have played my games may be aware I have a slightly dark sense of humour myself. Of my own stupid jokes the thing that makes me laugh out loud every time I play it is in Witchy Woo.

Spoiler

When you add fairy dust to the cauldron and she accidentally commits fairy genocide. The screams are what really tickle me.

[close]

With regard to the qualifications thing I actually think they may have talked about this in the most recent podcast. They definitely don't look for degrees or specific qualifications. Gary has a degree in business or something? They said there were no game design courses in their day and that they are entirely self taught. To them a person with a qualification isn't more or less desirable than a person who is self taught.

I have no academic qualifications beyond my AS levels. I got sick during my A Level year with my autoimmune disease and flared for maybe 2 years which meant I missed going to university. I never went back to get more qualifications because I was too old to get them for free by that point, so I just went into full time work when I could. When my illness flared again and I lost my job it was worse than it had ever been so I needed something to keep me from losing my mind to boredom. AGS was a lifesaver for me. Even if it wasn't making money it was keeping me busy, giving me writing and development experience and making my life happier. In the end it gave me the experience I needed for this job. I was also doing freelance copy but AGS is the thing that helped me write dialog and understand programming.

So basically I think I got this job because I have a dark sense of humour, I was in the right dev group at the right time, and I had already written a bunch of comedy point and clicks. I also think finishing our games was a big factor. It's very easy to start a game, but finishing one isn't. If we hadn't finished the games I wouldn't have had anything in my portfolio. So even though they may not be the most polished amazing games, they are at least complete. 

I think that answered most things?

Thanks guys! I haven't chatted with him about the engine open sourcing but it would be interesting. I do like the dialog syntax he has created. It's pretty refined and I was able to pick it up with some ease as a rather sub par programmer. Fingers crossed he does release it as an open source project because I think it will be a slick dev tool. Although Sox and I will continue to develop on AGS for the foreseeable future unless something amazing takes its place. We are putting together the foundation for our first full length release as we speak!

I don't know if you guys saw the latest blog where Ron introduces the new team members.

I have been in two minds whether or not to post here but I did want to share the news that I've been hired as the new writer. It's really exciting and I wouldn't have this job if it wasn't for AGS, the wonderful community, and my dev partner Sox (droppedmonoclegames). Most people here probably wouldn't know my name or Twitter handle as its different to my forum one but yeah. Just thought I would share the news.

Congrats Crimson! Good on you!

Yeah it's too dark. I appreciate you probably like it dark but it really needs to be brighter. That is what is being consistently fed back. Good job with the style and concept, but vertigo was on the right track with his edit. If you don't want the sky to be too bright you still need to brighten the screen in general, especially the lower portion.

Cassie yours reminds me of a Persona style enemy. Good job!

The votes are in and it appears Dropped Monocle Games has won and will be in charge of the next background blitz! Congratulations Sox! Well done to our runner up Grok who also had a wonderful background.

Voting now open until 6th September! Pick your favourite!

Hey Julius you seem to enjoy resurrecting very old posts which is discouraged, just a heads up. If you really like the work in a post that is something like 10 months old and feel like you want to let the author know, it's advised in the forum rules to send them a PM.

Great entry Grok! Will there be any challengers?