Messages

I played the game and really enjoyed it for the most part. It's very polished in the graphics, animation, story, characters and interactions. I really enjoyed the puzzles. I found them to be challenging and fun.

I have a concern that

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The end seems a bit abrupt and it's not clear what happened.

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Tres bien...

Oh, and I want to add that I LOVED the character art sketches at the end!

Tres bien!

I finished the game and I enjoyed it very much. What a great blend of popular fiction ranging from novels to TV and movies! The puzzles, the characters, graphics, animation,  pacing, game length and story are really done well. I'm really glad that Paolo translated it, making it available to the English-only crowd.

I do have to comment that I've never watched Dr. Who and I'm only vaguely aware of the programme, so the TARDIS, Daleks and other references were new to me. Fans of the series might relate to the game differently but as I said, I really enjoyed the game independent of the series.

I only got stuck once, and that's where a number of other players got stuck if you look at the Hints and Tips section. The reason I (and probably the others) got stuck there is

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because unlike all other areas of the game, the entrance to the bar is not marked. There's really no way to know that you can enter it

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One other comment, if you plan to tweak the game and released it again. There is a possible dead end in the game and I had to reload in order to bypass it.

Spoiler alert!

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It is possible to get the water after solving the Sherlock Holmes planet and then go to the Desert planet and then get stuck at the Rancor battle. You can't win unless you've solved the centaur race and you can't leave the battle unless you win.

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I don't want to give away more than that but it's important when designing a game that requires you to finish sections in sequence to make sure that the player doesn't get stuck.

Another thing you might want to fix is the Save and Load. It would be better if the player could name the saved games. Otherwise you literally have to memorize where you're at.

Well done!

SHADOW

Nice game !
Early in the game, I suppose...

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that I need to get the bag from the merchant in Hogsmeade. What does he want in return for the bag ?

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Thanks

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Give him the hair

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How do I get hair ?

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Thanks

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Lucius Malfoy casts a spell and cuts off a lock of hair. He's one of the guys to the left of the screen where Harry is arguing on the right side after you find Ron

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Nice game !
Early in the game, I suppose...

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that I need to get the bag from the merchant in Hogsmeade. What does he want in return for the bag ?

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Thanks

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Give him the hair

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[Blondbraid:]

@Mandle: That's a different puzzle He's on the Letter puzzle

I know.

And from your hint it looks like you might have:

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Bruteforced the puzzle without realising the code key disguised in the letter.

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Blondbraid: (and possibly Shadow1000)

HINT:

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There is a code key in the letter you can use to figure it out.

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BIGGER HINT:

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The dates.

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SPOILER HINT:

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They indicate how many words to count from the start of the letter to find each word you need in order.

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That is AMAZING! I don't consider my approach to be brute force but rather a logical reconstruction. It seems that your mind just approaches puzzles differently and I am just amazed at how Riaise buries both approaches into the puzzle and on top of it all, this is a contest created under time constraints!

It's probably no surprise that this game got my vote.

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It's a call for help. Henry hid his message in the letter. Find some words in the letter that can be assembled as a 4 word sentence that would be indicating where he is

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I hope this puts you on the right path. I'm not sure it's what you're after or if you gathered that already!

Yes, I knew that already, they did state outright that I need to find a 4 word message,
but I can't find any combination of four words in the message that makes sense.

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There's a numerical code key in the message.

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@Mandle: That's a different puzzle He's on the Letter puzzle

@Blondbraid: without giving it away altogether:

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The message is in two parts: First is an instruction (2 words). So, you want a verb and noun. Next, you need to know Henry's location (2 words). So you want a location and a preposition describing where Henry is relative to the location

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Does that help?

I'm stuck with the letter puzzle, any clues to what words I'm looking for?

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It's a call for help. Henry hid his message in the letter. Find some words in the letter that can be assembled as a 4 word sentence that would be indicating where he is

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I hope this puts you on the right path. I'm not sure it's what you're after or if you gathered that already!

Here's what to do so far:

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About all you can do so far is go to the desert area and kill a creature, eat it, and then return home to your cave.
When you encounter a creature (run into them) two meters will appear. One is your bite attack and the other is your claw attack. Click on one of the meters before its timer runs out. This should kill the creature (sorry, no combat system yet) and you will eat the meat icon dropped. This should take care of your hunger (water is available in your cave and also sometimes in the desert). Now try returning to your cave. The demo should tell you when it is finished.

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Thanks for the explanation. I completed the demo. I don't know if figuring that out is part of the puzzle or if it would be better to provide that kind of instructions with the game?

Ok I played twice and I'm not sure what's going on.

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Character starts off drinking and having to eat. 2 screens later climbs a tree and then has one item to eat but nothing to drink for about 15 screens. Eating animals doesn't kill them but you can only eat them once. Eating the animals doesn't seem to affect the hunger meter. Eventually you get to a modern city but can't access it so you turn around. You can then eat the same animals again but there's still no water so the character dies

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I am not sure what part of this is my lack of understanding or due to the demo nature of the game.

WOW! What an awesome game.

- The whole idea is such a perfect and creative application of the theme for the month
- I loved the graphics and animation. There's one thing that would have been better but I assume that it was done the way it was due to time constraints (I can PM if that's ok so I don't give it away)
- Great puzzles. Not a huge number of puzzles but a very appropriate amount for this short-ish game. Well done and a good variety. I don't want to elaborate but I really enjoyed some of the more unusual ones. Kudos for inventing those for a MAGS entry!
- I really felt the excitement and tension. It's a real art to create an immersive and compelling game like this.

Well done!

SHADOW

I just played it and all I can say is AWESOME!

- Great adaptation of the theme
- REALLY Funny. I laughed most of the time while playing.
- A LOT of puzzles. Some quite creative and some classic Slasher style
- I would probably play just for that looping music score
- Very impressive number of rooms for a game made in a short period of time.

Question

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what the heck was Betty doing there? You couldn't interact with her and the location was very surprising.

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Overall, an excellent entry.

Cheers

... as is the lego-themed time travel one I forget the name of right now...

You're thinking of Minifeg http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1834/

And I agree with your assessment of those games

I played the game. Nice concept and I really enjoyed the graphics. I found the game on the simple side so it might be a great choice for players who are newer to the adventure genre.

There are a few areas you can tweak the game to take it to the next level. Verb-coin is a good choice for games where you might want a wider variety of interactions with objects rather than simply right click to look and left click to use/take/interact. However, there are very few interactions in this game. Almost nothing you do has some reaction from the game other than the actual actions to complete the game. So you might want to either forgo the verb-coin OR activate more descriptions when you Look or Use items that have no effect or both

Sound effects would really dress this game up as well. Lastly, I realize that the game is in first person but a bit of animation would enhance the environment.

Otherwise, an enjoyable first game with great visuals. I didn't come across any bugs.

Good luck on future projects!

SHADOW

[10 Ways From Sunday by HanaIndiana]

The voting is over and the winner is.....
10 Ways From Sunday by HanaIndiana
Well done Hana. You'll be contacted soon about coming up with a theme for October's MAGS.

Congrats again.

Congrats, Hana! I really enjoyed your entry and I'm looking forward to your theme for October!

Ah, yes I had got there, but I didn't realise it was a scrolling room. Thanks for the tip!

Most welcome!

Nice visuals, effects and gameplay.

Are the actions done by pressing the letters for Open, Use, Talk, give and so on active? I found those by pressing W, A, D, etc. If they aren't part of the game they should be removed, IMO.

[Noah's Quest:]

My comments:

First, great choice of theme and some great adaptations of different parts of the Bible by the entries.

My thoughts:

Noah's Quest:

Most of Slasher's games feature humour, and I think this one may be his first that features drama. This is a traditional "complete the list" game with the additional angle of money management, which is a great touch. Great useage of the contest theme.

THE LAST SUPPER, A WHODUNNIT

You can count on Mandle to come up with an unexpected and innovative way to create a complete game using AGS outside of the traditional point and click adventure. This game reminded me of Clue (remember Mrs. Peacock in the library?) requiring careful analysis of data to find the flaws in the reports of the other disciples. The interface is flawless visually and the adaptation of the bible story is brilliant. It took a bit of clicking around to understand the rules but that is what one would expect from a game that is so different.

10 Ways From Sunday

Another classic "complete the list" game with well-designed puzzles. Impressive graphics and effects, number of rooms and good story line to pace the game. The game is a bit linear and the puzzles could be a bit more challenging but overall, very complete and fun, and it's clear that a lot of planning and effort went into it especially considering the time constraints for the competition. Voice acting is a great plus.

After considering the three entries, my vote went to

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10 Ways From Sunday

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. This game gave me the most overall enjoyment while playing. 

Kudos to all three entries!

SHADOW

Clearly I'm more virtuous than I realised, because I'm stuck on the first commandment. I think I've been everywhere I can go, but I still don't know what to do.

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Do you know how to get to Mercury Motors? If not, have you spoken to the receptionist at work yet?

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I really enjoyed this game.

A classic "complete the list" game with well-designed puzzles. The game is a bit linear and the puzzles could be a bit more challenging but overall, very complete and fun, and it's clear that a lot of planning and effort went into it especially considering the time constraints for the competition. Voice acting is a great plus.

Well done!

SHADOW