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Welcome to...

The Twilight Zone - The Lost Episode

The Twilight Zone has been a hit, but after five seasons, it has come to an end. Time passes, and creator Rod Serling is looking for a new direction in his career. He gets a meeting with high profile executives, and to his surprise, they want to relaunch The Twilight Zone. And they yearn for a high impact, an original screenplay from Rod Serling himself.

He agrees.

Rod arrives to tell the news to Carol, who seems surprised to see him at home. Nevertheless, Carol suggests a script that has been waiting for this opportunity to arrive.

And this mysterious script might be found at...

The Twilight Zone.

***

This is an almost finished game, and needs some polish. But it's completely playable like even a bad cake is eatable. There shouldn't be bugs, but I could be wrong. To me, it runs fairly smoothly, but I do need to add a couple of things later, when the voting is finished.

And now, Enter the Fifth Dimension.

Is there a possibility for a one day extension?

I'm so close to finish my game, but I'm not sure if I want to let it go, if I don't polish it properly. Damn you deadline, what are you doing to me!

Great work btw, @OneDollar and @soulstuff, very creative. Nice, clean graphics and an excellent choice for the color scheme on The Expedition.

Here's a little something. This is about the lost screenplay of The Twilight Zone episode and the showrunner and creator Rod Serling must find it.
 
The TV frame and CRT scanlines are completely new, and I added some things into the room, like the typewriter, Rod's wife Carol, coat and rack, a mirror, and something else...

I also made a menu, and wrote a completely new plot. There are many things I'd like to implement, but let's keep this simple and get this done.

- the GUI with the faces feels janky. I wish it would pop up as soon as I hover the mouse on the lower part of the screen, and I wish I could use the inventory items directly on the faces (without opening the clue window). The clues that have been found don't remain visible.

I looked into this. In the engine, there's a premade option, where you hover the mouse on the top of the screen for the inventory to appear, but not for the bottom. I'm sure this could be coded in some way, but I don't know how to do it at the moment.

I'm not sure what you mean, when you say the clues won't remain visible? Only the relevant clues can be added to the right suspect and should remain on list. Otherwise Broderick just says no (or something).

If you do decide to enter, please be upfront about exactly what was made before this month, so that the voters may take it into consideration.

This theme had the perfect timing. I don't usually follow MAGS, but since I finished my own game recently, I decided to explore if I could use some of my ideas on a smaller project. I've been thinking about creating suspense via frame, like Alone In The Dark did back in '92, when the unclipped nails grab the window sill in the beginning.

I have an unfinished "The Twilight Zone" game. The problem is that I have somewhat developed background art, and a character walk cycle (left and right). The theme just inspired me completely, and I think the frame would be perfect for this.

Would this be a big no no?

Congrats on your first game!

Here are my first impressions after 20 minutes of play:
- I like the jaded/noir/Max Payne kind of banter. It gives personality to your characters.
- I haven't solved the mystery yet but it's intriguing.

Thanks, appreciate it!

I really tried to nail that mysterious noir atmosphere and dialogue without being satire, so this feedback really warms my heart.

Now, some suggestions :

- consider adding appropriate reactions and thoughts when the player tries inventory items on people or hotspots. It's half the fun in point and click games. Right now it's very bare.

Initially I had a huge amount banter, reactions and thoughts, but they started to feel like it was too much. I probably cut about 60% of everything. To me, it felt more clean to keep it more punchier, but I do understand that it feels bare. Something to think about, for sure.

- please add a GUI to display the name of hotspots when the mouse hovers over them.
It's easy to do and saves gamers from clicking everywhere.
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/beginners-technical-questions/hotspots-description-in-the-gui/

I thought about it, and I got this feedback in the testing phase too, but I decided against it. When it comes to mystery, I like a little bit exploration and discovery, and not too much handhelding. Probably not the most rational thought in this context, as pixel hunt has a bad rap for a reason My setting is just so compact, so I thought it wouldn't be an issue. Oh well.

- the GUI with the faces feels janky. I wish it would pop up as soon as I hover the mouse on the lower part of the screen, and I wish I could use the inventory items directly on the faces (without opening the clue window). The clues that have been found don't remain visible.

Putting the clues on the faces didn't feel intuitive to me at that time, but hovering the mouse sounds so simple and obvious in retrospect that I don't know why I didn't do it! I have to look into it.

I'm really glad about this feedback, and I'm looking forward to hear more from you or anyone else!

@soulstuff

This worked for me too, so thanks again!

@heltenjon

Yes, I added the game several times and it gave me the blank screen every time. It should be okay now.

Hopefully this is not too big of an issue.

And it's in the database!

I've had this problem since yesterday, and it still doesn't work.

@soulstuff did you manage to enter your game?

Congrats on the release!

For the screenshot part you need to use the i.imgur.com/[IMAGECODE].png or whatever extension to make it work. In your case it's
- https://i.imgur.com/PEzg2Lq.png
- https://i.imgur.com/fQVG4QV.png

If you want to show it on the post

Excellent, thank you so much! It's fixed now.

The End

Thank you all, who participated!


PS. I'm curious, why did this post got so many views?

The End

[The Story:]

Play Here

The Story:

Once again Broderick's bad habits make a good excuse to drive people away. His girl Lauren is gone, but this time for good. And she doesn't want to be found. One day Broderick gets a call from Marty, a bartender, who keeps a local bar called Blue Note. Lauren has emerged, but she has locked herself in the bar's bathroom with silence.

Broderick has to ditch the booze for good, turn on his detective and verbal skills one last time, and go out with a bang. If nothing else.

Some Expected Things:

- Mystery and Suspense.
- Hardboiled Dialogue.
- Classic adventure game puzzles.
- Resolution 320x200.
- Dark jazz music score.

Development Hell:

The main inspiration came from the original The Twilight Zone and Film Noir. I think both have something so unique that is hard to replicate in any medium, so why not try it. TZ has the perfect storm of mystery, suspense, wonder, and unexpected ending. I have also admired the witty and tough language of film noir, which is not so common anymore. These days hardboiled words would beat people into a comma.

Play Here

The game is in the database

Lots of gold nuggets and hard rocks were thrown at me at beta testing, and it truly made my game less miserable. I can't thank enough all who participated.

I will add a few finishing touches to the game, and die happy with whiskey in my hand.

See you soon in the last post.

Hi Rootbound and thank you!


Of course goddammit, I should've included the time in the post. I'll add it right away.

This is a fairly short game, up to 30 minutes.

This dame was fickle, but she is ready for execution...

It's been a long day, as I took several breaks and felt that the story was convoluted. I also decided to add more hell for my development in the form of music. One song is probably going to be changed, but this more or less done.

This corpse is starting to stink, but nevertheless I'm going to bury it one way or another.

Wanna grab a shovel and give me a hand? I'm looking for testers, and I have a post in the Recruitment section.

I apologize for digging up this carcass and I appreciate any feedback on the game!

Long time ago I put my game progress in the "AGS Games in Production" section and foolish me thougt I could finish it during 2022. Not in my dreams.

But it is somewhat finished and I'm looking for help to test it out. It's my first game, so I have a bad feeling about this. If you can catch any plot holes, bugs etc., I would appreciate it. The game length will be around 30 minutes.

You can check out the "games in production" announcement in here -> Save Me This Jazz

You can PM me, post here or mail me repixiii@gmail.com.

Thank you!

EDIT: Game length.

A small update.

Based on the violent suggestions here, I have come up with the ending. It was kinda there already, but this thread gave me a fresh perspective. I think the story is now complete. So I thank all you sick SOBs, who have been commenting.

I drew a new playable room, and now I'm working on a small ending cutscene and a special feature. I rejected this feature earlier for being too complicated, but it should actually work after all. It's nothing spectacular, and I have a plan B for this if it doesn't work out. I've also written tons of new upsetting dialog and added a few new items for puzzles.

I might have to reconsider the soundtrack though. Music is one of the main themes, and it's odd if I have only the intro. We will see if I care enough.

I would like to give more screenshots, but basically any room would give away something from the plot except one, which I need to rework it a bit.

Thank you, newwaveburritos, I appreciate it.

Funny you should mention a vortex because I have one more black and white game in mind, where I would like to use this. At the end and beyond.