Messages

I can't get dorothy her shoes

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I have used the brush but now I don't know

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If I recall correctly

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Try using the broom

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Glad you enjoy Blooded fields.

here some light in the dark:

First to shadow1000:

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Sorry you had that trouble with figure out how to use the spyglass. You use it with rightclick on spyglass.

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Then to your question, Creamy:

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What became to the daughter? Its up to the detective to solve the case. He is collecting the evidence und depending on his conclusion, if he is arresting an innocent or the true murder. So if you know the killer, you know what happend to the daughter.

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Thank you. I didn't realize that was how to

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use the spyglass

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I finished the game now.

So does that mean that

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there is only one "correct" ending?

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Hi Shadow1000!

You're almost there:

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The strawman is counting down from ten to zero, and you are required to input after "six" (three left flashes), so click the right eye 4 times for "five" then click the left eye to "enter", the next is 5 for "three" and so forth.

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Hope that helps!

Thank you! I don't think I would have gotten that...hopefully the rest of the puzzles will be more solvable.

[I can't complete the "countdown"]

Firstly, I'd just like to ask people to not post hints to the game just yet.

I can't complete the "countdown"

Total Giveaway Hint:

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Try writing the numbers down as words.

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I'm still stuck

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I get that the number of flashes corresponds to the number of letters in each word. i.e. RIGHT - 3 = TEN; LEFT - 4 = NINE and so on. Now what...?

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Thank you

[spy]

You need to

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spy from outside

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I've spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out WHERE to do so.

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most logical place is from on top of the roof accessible by ladder, because from in the farmhouse he says that he needs a higher place. but lots of clicking with the spyglass shows that guess is wrong...

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Thank you

I'm hoping to show The Crimson Diamond at Comics x Games, which is also held at the Toronto Reference Library! I'm going to submit it when submissions open, so fingers crossed .

Awesome...I think it's at Yonge and Bloor?

I played the demo last night. My thoughts:

First, HUGE kudos for taking me right back to the late 80s when I played text-based games. Unlike the 80s games, I didn't find myself typing 30 variants of a command to get JUST the right word combination. I found that the parser worked surprisingly well so the game progressed at a nice pace rather than becoming a word-guessing game.

The demo does state that many of the graphics are unfinished. Despite this, I can see great potential and talent in the backgrounds. The story and characters are intriguing and definitely make me want to play more. I liked exploring the lodge; more about this soon. There were few specific puzzles but that's ok; the demo is a great preview of the upcoming game.

Don't read unless you've played the demo

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I did find there to be a lot of opening things, including doors and drawers that had nothing in them. I don't know if this is intentional or just because it's an early demo. If it were the completed game I might find this aspect to make the pacing of the game drag a bit. Another point is that the last "thing to do" I found a bit confusing because i was trying to do it using a certain blue item found in the kitchen rather than the correct item found closeby in the kitchen

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Other than that, I really think this game will be a huge success and I'm looking forward to it. Especially having lived in Toronto my whole life, the Canadian aspect resonates with me.

Cheers

... my game made it into the showcase at WordPlay 6, which is a one day free festival at the Toronto Reference Library (in Ontario, Canada) on November 10 from 12-5pm.

Any Canadians/Ontarians/Torontonians are welcome to stop by the event this Saturday to play the demo, meet me, and discuss the game!

Drat...just saw this post now, 2 weeks late

Gee whiz...I just noticed this thread now! Thanks for the birthday wishes, Slasher and Mandle!

[Captain Downes and the Pirate Princess]

Here are my thoughts:

Captain Downes and the Pirate Princess

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Beautiful graphics as expected from Blondbraid! My comments and evaluation are based on the second release. A good, short game. Lots of little puzzles and things to do, combining inventory to solve problems and so on, and the miniature theme was included. Puzzles were on the easy side; the only place where I got stuck was

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finding the seam, because it blended in visually with the rest of the chair. The only way I can think a player would find it would be by moving the cursor around the room

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. Good job!

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Captain Carver's Carnival Curios

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Decent graphics and a few things to do. No puzzles per se. The miniature aspect was the voodoo doll (?)

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Dr. Chuckles' Miniature World of Madness

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Before my comments on the game, I want to point out that part of my ratings of a MAGS entry includes how the entry relates to the theme. This one wins that hands down, in the sense that 80% of the game is based on the theme rather than forcing something small into a game. As far as the game itself, the graphics and animation are AWESOME. Good job to Slasher for engaging someone so talented. The game is really well-designed in terms of the concept, story, puzzles, gameplay, atmosphere and length. Even had it not been a MAGS entry I would have a glowing review. A lot of the crazy evil scientist reminded me of the Joker from Batman with the HA HA all over the place, booby-trapped teddy bear, nursery rhymes and so on. It just had so much evil all over it that it was particularly perfect for Halloween. Some small pointers: a bit of proofreading for the spelling would add to the polish. As well, the last puzzle would have been nice had the bottles been labelled so players who cannot tell colours visually would be able to solve it without almost random guessing. Otherwise, EXCELLENT job; possibly Slasher's best so far

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Soo....it's probably not difficult to predict that my vote goes to

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Dr. Chuckles' Miniature World of Madness

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Well done!

I played the demo. It took about 25 minutes to complete. All I can say is that it's INCREDIBLE! The graphics and animation are outstanding. I liked the puzzles and the story is gripping. This has huge potential.

Nice short game with beautiful graphics, as always. I did get stuck because I missed

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the seam. The only way to see that is by moving the cursor carefully across the screen

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. Otherwise, a nice experience.

It's not often that we have a tie! Congrats to all entries.

Shadow1000 - Thank you very much. Unfortunately it really did end abruptly since I was working on it up until 15 minutes before the deadline. I already have added dialog to all of the characters and plan to work on it a little bit at a time. Hopefully in a month or two I'll have a version completed which actually shows the mermaid(s), siren(s), and harpies.

I can't comment on your schedule but I really believe this game is worth extending!

I think this one is going to be close.

My thoughts:

Jason and the Golden Apple by Slasher

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This game is based on a number of quests contributing to a mission. I agree about the mixed assets but I also realize that when it comes to working with time constraints, the focus has to be either the graphics, or the story, or the puzzles, or the length and so on. The ingame hint section was a nice touch, especially for a MAGS entry. The idea was good and overall fun to play. There is a nice variety of things to do. The ending could have been a bit more elaborate.

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Here be NO Sirens by Kastchey

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I liked how this game had a beginning, middle and end. There were some decent puzzles and even one that had me stumped for a bit (getting the figurine). A classic "complete the list" game. I think that for the time given as a MAGS entry this was a great shot, despite being short.

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Sweet Mythery by VampireWombat

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While playing this, I actually was thinking "WOW! This one is going to have my vote!"...and then it ended The graphics are great, the story works, dialogues, NPCs to interact with, quests, mystery man in the corner, rooms to explore, there is so much going for the game.

Except that it's over just as it was getting good.

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My vote goes to

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Jason and the Golden Apple. I just enjoyed it the most because there was just so much to do to complete the mission.

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Cheers!

I got it, but...

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Now I still can't go to Mars, I got the complete space suit with the suit, the helmet and the oxygen tank, but when I clik on the map, he still says he needs a space suit...

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1. Where did you find the

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oxygen mask

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?
2. More important, how did you realize you needed one? I'm finding that the game is giving very little feedback as to what needs to be done and I'm kind of clicking around a lot on items that have no response.

Thank you

Edited to say that I figured it out by clicking around a lot more...

@ Jack

Thanks for the review, Shadow.

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The connection was supposed to explained later in the story, which there wasn't time for, but basically it turned out that the company responsible also published the newspaper that suggested the murder was actually a mugging. There was supposed to be more articles from them as the "investigation" went on, trying to maintain the cover-up.

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Understood. MAGS games are made with time constraints and a game author has to be selective on whether to have something fairly complete and self-contained or something that would fit in as part of a longer game, assess how much time to spend on graphics and a cool game environment and so on. It's almost impossible to get it all so you have to decide where to cut. I'd love to see this one developed into a medium or full length game. The potential is there.

@ The Outer Zone

I am looking forward to more games. BUT don't forget that this really has the potential to be developed into a full-lengther.

I just want to mention (I should have said this as part of my remarks) that I had no problem downloading and playing Daphne White right after the release.

[Cola Skunkette: A Bit of Cleanup]

Great turnout for this month's competition.

Here are my thoughts:

Cola Skunkette: A Bit of Cleanup

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What a vast improvement in graphics and animation compared to past releases! Teaming up with Blondbraid - a master of graphics and animation - was an excellent idea. It was a real pleasure to play this game because of the visuals. The connection to the theme was understandable, but the connection that I made was the fact that it was about cleaning up some foul language. However, there was a lack of puzzles in the sense that with one exception, everything was right there and the actions to be taken were quite set out. The exception was that to receive something from someone, you had to give them something. I didn't find this to be that logical and I only solved it by doing the old "try everything" approach.

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The Campaign Of Daphne White

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This one has Slasher's style all over it! This game stood out in the sense that it doesn't just make reference to the theme, it is COMPLETELY about the theme and I want to credit that. A great mix of puzzles ranging from puzzles that combine inventory with dialogue, a small maze and a word puzzle. Even some money management in there. Four unrelated quests to complete was a great idea. Puzzles are generally on the simple side but I did get stuck at one point and I needed a hand from Slasher for the password puzzle. I'm curious if others will share my experience. I have to conclude my remarks with the fact that I had several good laughs and overall enjoyed playing this one

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Cyborg Seppuku

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I played the first release and this game is AWESOME. The story and environment are very creative; the puzzles are very well-designed. I see the connection to the theme as being the fact that you are in a society that is monitoring you and has a point system to punish wrongdoing, including foul language. The connection is not as essential to the game as other entries but it still adequate. Once the game was re-released with the upgraded graphics, I was BLOWN AWAY! It now has everything the first game was missing and considering this is a first game, I want to really commend this title.

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The Man Who Liked Cats

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There is not enough here to really comment. I think that the story from the description is intriguing. The graphics look attractive. As Mandle said, there is no connection yet to the theme. I look forward to the full release in due time

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Vacant Bodies

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As others have commented, it looks like the beginning of a good game. There are no puzzles yet and I don't see a connection to the theme. Maybe the game will be fleshed out in the future into a full release

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Fists of Murder

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Stunning presentation and immersive world! It looks like a bit of an segment from a story. The game mechanics look like they are in the preliminary stages of a full release, including map navigation and some fighting. I didn't quite get the story enough to really follow what was going on and I didn't get the connection to the MAGS theme. That said, there is a lot of talent and polish in this one

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And my vote goes to:

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Cyborg Seppuku. Mainly because of the puzzles. I usually judge games by how much I enjoyed them overall and this one stands out. The puzzles are in "complete the list" style where completing a task opens the door to the next task and everything just fits together brilliantly. As I said, the story is clear and easy to follow and looks like the beginning of a real masterpiece. I'd love to follow the character as he tracks down his wife and attempts to woo her back. Perhaps he will succeed and we get a happy ending and perhaps he won't...I can't wait to find out

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Well done!

What a well-made game! The graphics and story are really sweet.

I especially like the puzzles. There are very few controls and all the puzzles are essentially of the "escape the room" sort, but with the combination of the three you were able to really make a fun gaming experience. I give a lot of credit to the creativity of this game.

I know it's not that similar but it did remind me of Machinarium.

Well done!

  I did hope that I might have provided sufficent clues for a walkthrough to be unnecessary, and I have included solutions to a few of the harder puzzles in the Museum of Curiosities.

I also try to answer personally any cries for help on individual puzzles.  If you send me a PM I will always answer it.

To be honest, after many hours of trying this over the course of a few weeks, I just dropped it. I know that some people found it playable but while I usually complete most games with few to no hints, I found myself asking for help more than actually playing and I gave up. I am not criticizing but I hope this feedback is helpful in future games.

Some positive feedback: the graphics and animation are BEAUTIFUL! Probably the strongest part of the game. Some of the puzzles I completed and enjoyed.

Just to round out my thoughts: in addition to the problem with the puzzles, I found most of my time just wandering the maze finding it very difficult to navigate even using mapping on graph paper. Some sort of story unfolding during the course of a game keeps the player wanting to play. Otherwise, even if the puzzles were solvable then the player's only reward for solving a puzzle is another puzzle to solve. I think that's really why I ran out of motivation to continue.

Good luck in future games!