Messages

I know nothing about 3D printing but I had a fun experience playing this game! Nice puzzles and gameflow. To be honest, the highlight for me was fiddling around with a gadget I've never seen and figuring out how to make it do its thing. I actually liked the puns, possibly a first in any adventure game. I finished with 387 points.

Good job!

My thoughts:

Shoaly You Can't be serious!

Spoiler

Great application of the theme of the month! I played it a few times to get the hang of it. There's a lot going on there, with obstacles to avoid and trying to snag those fish.

[close]

In Search of Marina

Spoiler

To be blunt: this is everything a MAGS entry should be. Checks all the boxes that make a good adventure game: pleasing artwork, well-designed puzzles good story/objective/resolution to problem. I have to admit to feeling that emotion of despair when I NEEDED to get my friend back. The music score was actually just right to help create that mood. An impressive number of rooms for a short game. This entry easily got my vote.

[close]

My opinion is to use them, but sparingly. Miguel has a good point but you have the opposite extreme where you need to get the bottle for the mechanic so you can get the key to the house, which lets you get the hamburger so you can feed it to the dog in front of the bank so you can get enough money to use at the laundromat to clean the clown suit that you're going to use at the....you get the picture.

Too much of that flowchart-style gameplay eventually gets tedious, so when I rate games, one thing I like to look for is a good variety of puzzles. I really get annoyed by games that just slap you in the face with slider puzzles literally one after the next because of the reasons Miguel explained. So to have a small number of them, in proportion with the length of the game in addition to dialogue puzzles where you gather clues, inventory puzzles like I described in the first paragraph and so on does give a nice balance to the puzzle design.

Just my opinion, anyone is free to trash it

Weird, does it block the direct link to the Itch page too?
https://captaind.itch.io/shoaly-you-cant-be-serious-mags-version

That worked great. Thanks!

[Shoaly You Can't Be Serious]

I've released mine:

Shoaly You Can't Be Serious is a fast and fun 1 or 2 player arcade game in which you gather as many fish to yourself as possible - but be careful!  Sharks, nets and electric eels will hinder your progress to become the boss fish!

AGS Games Page: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2508-shoaly-you-can-t-be-serious-mags-version-


I'm really pleased with how this game came out so I hope you have fin... er fun with it!

All the best to everyone still making entries.

When I click the link it gets blocked (I assume by my antivirus). Is there an alternative download site?

I stayed up late last night playing this game and it was worth it. Overall an excellent release. Good puzzles and the way the game progresses in a way that you learn more about what's going on in the player's mind is really compelling. There is an amazing amount of objects and quite an impressive world to explore. Puzzles are well designed.

The only problems I encountered were similar to what was mentioned: your saved games are missing (now fixed) but when you start the game again you can restore from a save.

Another problem is that many things to do can be done over and over

Spoiler

one example is getting the incense.

[close]

If you plan to develop the game further, I would recommend some music or sound effects. That might bring it to life a bit more. Otherwise, very well designed and executed.

Right now my only choices are:

Spoiler

-Give me that key, you vermin
- Nice nose..
-tell me again about your chores
- Tell me again about your cheese hobby. 
- Are you living alone?
- How many children do you have
- Nice ears
-Nice weather
- Have you seen a key?

I've been through the cheese and chores options many times and get the right answer and no new options appear. Anything else makes her get upset. I can't get the brush. Can you please advise as to what to do next?

[close]

This may be obvious, but:

Spoiler

Have you noticed that you can click on the arrow-type thing underneath the dialogue options to see more dialogue choices? Does the colour work make it invisible to you somehow? The dialogue options you list doesn't have a "talk more later" sort of option, which is supposed to be the one on the bottom.

[close]

Spoiler

Yes, I realize there's an arrow for the rest. I just omitted the "I got to be going" from my list because it was obvious that it's not the one to get to the point where the mouse asks me for the broom

[close]

Thanks!

I voted

Tom and Jimi in: Blowout by Slasher

Spoiler

Not particularly challenging, this game was really fun and funny, had a good variety of things to do and fit the theme very well

[close]

Ka and Da by VampireWombat

Spoiler

I see a character move around a big room. Doing different things will make different stats change. Talking to the other character will basically end the game. Because you can't speak to the other character, it's hard to say if the entry meets the theme

[close]

Jason Saves Christmas by fernewelten

Spoiler

This game seems to be the most complete and polished, with some solid ideas and puzzles. Great application of the theme. Unfortunately I did not complete the game as I seem to have hit a bug that doesn't allow me to proceed.

Some detail to my thoughts: the intro was good but a bit long. The last section where you see horns moving around a dark room felt like it really dragged on to the point that I wasn't sure if something had gone wrong or if the game started. I noticed some elements that are common to some other entries, such as the maze and the dialogue puzzle. About 11 1/2 months early for Christmas   I feel that I spent a disproportionate amount of time on the hints thread as compared to actual playing.

Overall a great entry and I completely understand the challenge of getting out a solid entry under such a time constraint.

[close]

My vote went to

Spoiler

Tom and Jimi, as the most complete and best overall player experience of the entries

[close]

Well, I'm stumped.

On a hunch, can you re-download the game? Just to make sure that nothing has been corrupted somewhere.

Sure, I can try that. Would my progress be available or would it require starting over?

@Shadow1000

Spoiler

• Before ringing the bell, look (right-click) at the lamps, the doormat, the door (If you're in the middle of a dialogue and want to catch up on that, repeatedly choose the last dialogue option until the dialogues exit -- Scratchy shouldn't get miffed because of it).
• Ring the bell.
• Greet Scratchy, e.g., by choosing "Hi".
• Compliment Scratchy on the lamps, the doormat, the door until you get the audio clue. Just two of them should be sufficient.
• You should now have access to the following dialogues:
  
  
  
  • "You keep everything spotless here..." (on repeated visits: "Tell me again about your daily chores")
  • "Mice are said to be real cheese connoisseurs." (on repeated visits: "Tell me again about your cheese hobby.")
  • "Your maze is very well constructed! ..." (on repeated visits: "Tell me again about your tunnelling career.")

[close]

Right now my only choices are:

Spoiler

-Give me that key, you vermin
- Nice nose..
-tell me again about your chores
- Tell me again about your cheese hobby. 
- Are you living alone?
- How many children do you have
- Nice ears
-Nice weather
- Have you seen a key?

I've been through the cheese and chores options many times and get the right answer and no new options appear. Anything else makes her get upset. I can't get the brush. Can you please advise as to what to do next?

[close]

@Shadow1000


Scratchy has the following dialogue, too …

Spoiler

Scratchy has the tunnel dialogues (reached by “Your maze is very well constructed! ...”)

[close]

How do I get to that particular dialogue? It's not in the list of things I can say. Do I have to say something else first that's available?

Spoiler

I have already told the mouse that I will find a broom. I've been through the whole cheese and chore dialogues and she says she likes me. I read the hint that says that i need the brush. When I try to take it, Jason says that he doesn't want to waste time. So, how do I get the brush?

[close]

Ok so I finished the game with a few hints.

Hope you liked it

Overall, pretty good! I never saw the original although I did play quite a few lo-res games on the C64, Apple IIE and Amiga in the pre-windows era. These games were in the mid to late 80s (ok, I'm old). 1993 was the year that the original Doom came out and the graphics were far superior to Barahir (assuming your remake was comparable to the original)

One example:

Spoiler

I found the wand, used it as needed and ended up dead. When I reloaded from my last save, I didn't have it anymore. I couldn't remember WHERE I found it but I literally pixel-hunted every room to find it again because it really didn't stand out in any way

[close]

Have fun with the LSL1 remake. I remember that back from when I was in high school...

Ok so I finished the game with a few hints.

Some thoughts:

The lo-res made it REALLY hard to identify objects, so having marked hotspots are especially important.

Spoiler

I don't think there was one on the ladder

[close]

As Crimson Wizard pointed out, it's ok to have the death traps but it should give you the ability to restore a save rather than ab-end. One ab-end didn't even let me start again; I had to replace the game files from the original zip folder.

As far as the bread/fish, I assumed that was a reference to the story where Jesus turns loaves into a fish 

As far as the gameplay, I will hold off commenting because I assume that as a remake of the 93 original, any pros or cons are straight from the original so this is not the right place to comment.

Overall, good effort. If you do it again, I'd probably suggest making the resolution slightly higher. There was a LOT of clicking around to find things because pixelated items just blended with the pixelated background.

Spoiler

when I give the cloak and manuscript to the prisoner he says he needs something more magical. I have no idea what that would be. I haven't been to the locked room next to the library. If whatever it is that I need is in there, can I have a hint to opening that door?

[close]

Spoiler

That door is opened by manuscript.

[close]

You're too fast! I figured that out

Ah, I remembered where I found manuscript.

Spoiler

Right near the prison there's a room with a skull, crossed bones and a shield, and the manuscript is in that skull's teeth.

[close]

Aha, got it.

Spoiler

when I give the cloak and manuscript to the prisoner he says he needs something more magical. I have no idea what that would be. I haven't been to the locked room next to the library. If whatever it is that I need is in there, can I have a hint to opening that door?

[close]

Spoiler

IIRC the manuscript was in one of the bookshelves, I just kept clicking around them. And workshop is the small locked door, not far away from the prison.

[close]

I am trying to

Spoiler

release the guy from the prison. I realize that not all hotspots have names or look different so I clicked like crazy on the books in the library to no avail. Does anyone have any more info?

As far as the small locked door, would that be the one in the library? Do I need to find the manuscript to open it or is there another way?

[close]

I don't know if forum rules allow me to give hints in this thread, but
@Shadow1000

Spoiler

IIRC the manuscript was in one of the bookshelves, I just kept clicking around them. And workshop is the small locked door, not far away from the prison.

[close]

Ok I'll move the questions to the hints thread

Spoiler

- When placing items on a pillar (where you need to place magic orb), if you place a wrong item the game displays incorrectly formatted string with "%s" unfilled.
- Close to the end, in one of the generic rooms there's an item on the floor, that sais "loaf of bread", but when you take it it appears to be a "cured fish" in inventory.
- The biggest screw up was when I found Daeron in prison, but did not have a magical rod to save him. And the room does not provide a hotspot for going back, so I had to reload. I don't know if this is intentional, but Daeron hints you that manuscript can open doors, so it feels like you should be able to use that hint and go back to open door to the wizard's workshop.

[close]

I actually got

Spoiler

as far as Dearon in prison. I gave him the cloak. I don't know where the manuscript or wizard's workshop are. I must have missed something!

[close]

Thanks

Shadow1000
bug: probably, have not seen that

Spoiler

Right idea to mix water with something revived, but not the carrot

[close]

Spoiler

Carrot can only be used once in the right place, so perhaps you have to finish another task first

[close]

big spoiler

Spoiler

There is an old, dead tree close to the rabbit hole - rest should be obvious now

[close]

Thanks, I didn't know about that area and I overlooked completing that task! I got rid of the errant wolverbogg by visiting its room again. I finished the game.

GREAT game. Lots of puzzles and things to do, and really good puzzle design. Thanks for reviving it after 10 years!