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The Lipstick-on-a-Pig Approach

Hilarious and very weird.

You don't need to use either one.

Simply write:

Character.x = 120;
Character.y = 40;

With whatever numbers you want (120 and 40 are just examples).

You can set character.x and character.y to make the character change location instantly.

If the character is arriving from a different room, you can use character.ChangeRoom(room, x, y) to have them appear where you want.

Check out all the character functions here    :
https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/Character.html#character-functions-and-properties

Get ready! Action and story await in...

THE SOCIAL APPROACH!

Spoiler

Offer the APPLE to the GOAT in exchange for him using his climbing skills to go down the well and see if he can spot the golden ball in the water.
But it's too dark! Use the KNIFE to reflect sunlight down the well so that goat can see into the water.
It works! You know where the ball is! But how to reach it?
Among the MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS is a MINI HARP. Its strings are intact but the frame is broken.
Take a BONE from SKELETON and wedge it into the mini HARP frame to make the strings taut.
You now have a sieve to dredge the bottom of the well!
But you can't just tie it to the rope--it needs to be able to lift the ball, not just swing back and forth.
Pick some MUSHROOMS from the ground and offer them to the PIG in exchange for his building skills, which include intricate rope work. Right? Right.
So you attach the HARP, which can now be suspended horizontally as a lifting device, to the ROPE at the top of the well.
But the FROG is onto you. He keeps leaping at your face when you get close, so you have to distract him.
Take one of the CRUMBLING STONES from the well and throw it near the OWL.
The owl swoops down to attack! The frog leaps away! But now there's an ANGRY OWL on the well.
You have one last idea. You take a RUSTED TIN WHISTLE from the wagon and blow it at the owl. The owl merely cocks its head.
You blow it at the SHEEP bur the sheep runs in the wrong direction and does not scare the owl.
Finally you blow the rusted whistle at the GROUND BURROW.
A FRIGHTENED MUSKRAT runs out!
The OWL swoops over and snatches the plump muskrat away for dinner.
Finally! You lower the HARP into the well and use it to scoop up the GOLDEN BALL.
At last! You hold it in your hands and admire it!
You turn around only to see...
The SKELETON stands before you, eyes transfixed on the golden ball. Stealing the bone must have awakened some dormant curse!
You run down the overgrown ROAD to the next plot point.

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Thanks for hosting this round, both of you. This looks fun and I'm excited to try it out!

I've been asked if the hosts can post entries, and I think the best thing would be to follow the lead of most of the other competitions here and let the hosts post entries but not consider them as "votable" unless there isn't enough participation from others. I hope that's fair.

If anyone feels strongly that it should work differently, I'm certainly open to discussing.

Are there specific areas that you struggle with?

Honestly, right now it's picking an art style. How detailed or minimalistic to be, how broad or limited a color palette to use, what resolution I want the screen to be... all these things have such a huge effect not only on the tone and atmosphere of the game but also on the speed at which I'll be able to draw them. I'm trying to find a balance between aesthetics, speed, and my skill level, and it's not simple. 

"What has a nose and is attached to the ceiling?"   

A bat.

Well! Looks like we have a tie!  Ordinarily I might cast the tiebreaker vote, but my favorite entry was Creamy's and an extra vote there wouldn't change anything.

Congratulations @heltenjon and @The Great Underground Empire! Thanks so much for your detailed and creative entries!

If you two are able to collaborate, I'm fine with that. It would mean fewer participants if we don't allow either of two hosts to submit solutions, but maybe some new people will enter next round.

You could brainstorm together (a reasonable approach), or you could have one person come up with the room and goal and the other simultaneously come up with the inventory and NPCs (a chaotic approach), or whatever process you like.

Feel free to DM each other and send me the result. If you could make it happen within a few days that would be preferable, but I get that this is slightly more work for the host than the other competitions require.

Thanks to everyone for all the participation and for getting this competition off to a strong start!

It's been lots of fun to see people playing around with the  elements I put together for the first room. I hope everyone has just as much fun in the next round. Cheers!

Yes, have to agree about Trapped on the Balcony. Best puzzles of the year out of the games I managed to play.

Last day to vote for your favorite solution to the puzzle! 

Spoiler

Concept: @Creamy
Playability: @jwalt
Artistic Execution: This is very tough because the styles are so different. However, I am an absolute sucker for pixelated 3d renders, so I'll give it to @jwalt. Basically flipping a coin because both backgrounds are very well achieved.

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Great job to both of you!

Here are my votes.

Spoiler

A) 2 points of humor and 1 point of originality to "Coincidences."
B) One point of humor and 1 point of originality to "Time Works Weird in Heaven"
C) One point of originality to "Layers"

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Voted. 

@The Great Underground Empire I finally got around to playing Worlds Literally Collide, and I have to say, it was hilarious. I really appreciated

Spoiler

the combination of ridiculous humor and references to realistic physics. As a space fan, I was thoroughly amused. 

Got stuck with the babies though. I have the gold disc but can't figure out how to use it. All the other entities have been chased away.

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I have the old KeyboardMovement module installed too that I recently set to Pressing instead of Tapping, and then upgraded from 3.4 to 3.6 AGS. It told me it needed to update the code and it wouldn't be backward compatible. Could that be it?

I doubt it, but I haven't used that module so I don't know for sure.

I've recently imported a Tween module that I'll dig through to see if it's conflicting with any of my code.

The tween module from these forums shouldn't interfere with anything unless you're writing your own tween code elsewhere and using the same names for things (which still shouldn't affect character views at all). It's self contained. It just adds extra commands and functionality that you can call when you want it.

And if you weren't, don't worry, you may have gotten some votes in after all.

Very true! I voted for The Devil's Teeth in a lot of categories just as you did, so I suspect there were some very popular runners-up.

Huge congrats to all the nominees!! You all made some amazing games this year!

And thank you SO MUCH to everyone who voted for Tunnel Vision--I am so incredibly happy and grateful that so many of you enjoyed it, and this makes all the time and effort beyond worth it. So many thanks. Seriously.

And also, WOW is "best short game" going to be a difficult vote!    Those are probably my top 5 games of the year all together in one category!

[The Sledgehammer Approach]

Hey everyone, we are NOW VOTING!  Thanks for all the engagement with this fledgling contest.    4 entries is great! Here they are:

The Sledgehammer Approach by @cat
The Long Approach by @Creamy
The Heavy Approach by @The Great Underground Empire
The Long and Silly Approach by @heltenjon

Read their posts above, and then please VOTE BY FEB 7 using the poll above, basing your decision on the following criteria:

a) how logical the puzzle seems
b) how creative or unexpected (but still sensible) is the use of elements
c) how satisfying is the solution (Too simple? Too complicated? Or just right?)

Feel free to comment and explain your vote after using the poll.

@heltenjon Thanks for getting one last entry in just under the wire! I think that rounds it out for a really nice competition!

@Snarky @cat Looks like this is on a potential list of things for the website update, mentioned in that thread:

And these ones are on the "For future consideration" list (not in any order):
...
- Hobbes: On the topic of Modules/Plugins, I was wondering... if we're building a Games Database, should we also build a Modules/Plugins/Template database where people can upload, categorise etc