Messages

In the scene with the credits, is the game supposed to end on its own or is it supposed to just go on until the user quits or is there something you are supposed to do?

I was able to continue using my saved games and version 1.2

There is a problem with configuring the game, at least with english version, the name of game exe has a Unicode letter in it (àŸ), and it looks like winsetup does not recognize it for that reason and fail to launch setup window. This may be an AGS limitation (it probably stores the game name in ANSI everywhere).

Does this happen to anyone else? This may be also related to system's default locale.

I had that too. I just opened the executable and I've been playing, slowly making progress until I hit what might be a glitch.

SHADOW

I think I hit a scripting glitch:

Spoiler

I picked up the knife and went to the room that loads when you pick up the knife. The words "Pick up knife" are stuck on the screen. Even after the dialogue the words are on the screen and you can't interact with the screen anymore.

[close]

Is there a way past this?

[Noah's Quest (V1.00)]

Noah's Quest (V1.00)

"God did sayeth:'Noah, buildeth an Ark made of gopher wood and fill it with two of every animal, for it will rain for forty days and forty nights and the world will be cleansed and then reborn...'"

I played this game and really enjoyed it. 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. Great useage of the contest theme.

Well done!

Okay, managed to upload and make it a bit more complete (as with explanation that it's only demo, and where the demo ends)... There really isn't much to do, so you'll probably be done in 5 minutes or so...


BTW, if anyone wishes to help out with the writing to finish this game, just say so either here or via PM.

I like the theme and the graphics/shading/lighting. The story started to get interesting just before it ended

I hope you do continue!

I finished the game a few days ago. My comments are similar to Mandle.

Here's my overview:

First, I really enjoyed the game. The plot, while not ground-breaking, is definitely exciting enough to justify the length.

Second, the graphics are absolutely beautiful. Graphics good enough to really push the enjoyability of the game to the next level.

As far as the puzzles, Mandle said it right: there are LOADS of puzzles in this game. And the range of puzzles go from the traditional to some really clever ones, with lots of "close-up" puzzles, dialogue puzzles, inventory puzzles, math puzzles, word puzzles, pattern matching and the list goes on and on. And I happened to have found them all to be just a lot of fun. Very few were difficult or frustrating so you really feel that you're moving along in the game (this leads back into the pacing of the plot with the progress of the game). I like the way Mandle refers to them as "casual puzzles". Unlike Mandle, I did need to use some of the in game hints and I needed the walkthrough a few times. I've told amanta4ray which puzzles required the walkthrough and I think that the reasons were more technical (such as not being able to see certain colours, or something that went by the screen too fast) rather than weakness in the puzzles themselves. I think that this range and balance in puzzles really opens up the fun of the game to a very wide spectrum of players.

My only suggestion is that a bit more beta testing would have ironed out some of the bugs that people experienced, as well as some typos and grammar and the game would have been that much more polished.

But overall, the experience was just such a delight that I strongly recommend the game to anyone looking for a longer immersive play.

Looking forward to the next adventure!

Wow...what a great surprise. I would not have expected another beautiful-looking release so close to the previous game. I can't wait to play...

Ah...that's clever! Definitely meets the contest's theme! Good luck!

I played the game.

Friendly characters, decent and good concept for a short game. The main character's walk cycle looks really weird...

I missed the connection to the contest theme.

Congrats to Brane and Tycho on the well-deserved win. This really was an outstanding competition both in entries and votes.

That was great! I enjoyed the puzzles and the multiple ways to solve it was a nice bonus.

Well done on a first game.

I'm just thinking that the bald stick figure looks kinda like Hitman agent 47

SHADOW

[Terror of the Vampire!]

Now that I voted, I'll leave some comments:

First, I'm very pleased that there were so many entries this month. I congratulate anyone who took the time to work with the deadline to get something in to be played and evaluated. It's amazing to see people put their talents to work for the competition.

My vote went to The Robolovers. The reason for this decision was the overall experience playing. I took into account the gorgeous graphics, the well designed puzzles, variety of puzzles, lovability of the characters, perfect length of the game, plot, humour, dialogues and overall presentation. Great application of the Rescue theme. I can't believe that something so complete and almost flawless was made in such a short time period.

I did experience some frustration with one of the early puzzles that requires the player to have good colour-vision, requiring me to get the exact answer from the author. It's worth suggesting that future games account for the 8% of male players who will be locked out of such puzzles.

Runner-ups:

Terror of the Vampire!
This was a real treat. The puzzles are great, the scripting is hilarious, the spoofing of 18th century european superstition as well as psychology as well as British superciliousness is BRILLIANT. I love vampires and this is almost a complete twist on the Van Helsing character and I LOVE IT. The Psychoanalyse verb-coin was a GREAT touch. There were some other parts that I think are genius in how they were presented but I don't want to ruin it for others. Again, hard to believe that it was developed considering the time constraints.

The two things I didn't like were the drawn out dialogues (just too much talking that gets in the way of the flow of the game) and I just don't like the colours. Pixel art is great but the colours just didn't work for me. I am overlooking the bugs that I and others encountered and am focusing just on the finished product.

Busting the Bastille
Another classic showcasing Blondbraid's cartoon graphic style being applied to European history. I enjoyed everything about the game. The message is actually quite thought-provoking. Great puzzles and humour.

Hang On
Very attractive art. Great adaptation of the Rescue theme.

To me the best part was the well-designed puzzles. It's amazing what you can do in a short game done with time contraints - exactly what MAGS is about.

The two-playable characters just adds to the overall polish of the game.

Comments on the other games:

Rotary Club
As others have mentioned, it's amazing what you can do with AGS. Definitely fits the theme. Once you get into the game it can be really addictive. I had a bit of trouble getting used to the controls and I posted my comments on considering a way for new players to learn the controls without the Game Over so they can get a chance to get into it.

Forgotten City
This game gets the award for the cool factor! Mind-blowing art, well-performed voice acting. As the title says, it's a demo and incomplete at this point.


Bury Me in the Sand
In a similar vein, this game is a small part of a bigger game. The puzzles were decent and the game was playable, but there was a lot of feeling that there's much more going on that never became clear.

Rosaura Docelestial: Rescue From Despair
Great first game. Fits the theme well. Impressive that it was made in a short time period. I get the attempt to give people personality with some humour, but like others, I didn't care for the language stereotypes. There were some other stereotypes that I didn't care for either.

Thank you to everyone who entered, played and voted!

I just played. It took me about 25 minutes to complete. AWESOME game and I'm waiting for the next episode!!

SHADOW

Are you playing on fullscreen mode or something? What's different to the default?

Ok I ran the setup and played in window mode and I was able to load my previous game and complete it.

All I can say is that this game is absolutely BRILLIANT - beginning to end! The ending honestly outweighs the frustration of the crashing; I'm glad I persisted. I'll post my comments when I vote (although I've finished all the games, I am still undecided, especially after playing this one!)

You guys definitely have a talented team. Congrats on that and I hope to see more titles from you guys.

Just a suggestion: people might be more inclined to keep at it if you had a 3-life system or something like some games. That way you don't lose all progress when you crash.

Some ways to implement this:

- You can start the game with three helicopter icons in the top and when you crash you lose one. Lose all three and it's over
- Instead of a crash ending it all, maybe have a certain amount of damage sustained as a percent and when you're down to 0%, it's game over. There are many other ways to further this graphically (icon depicting helicopter on fire, and so on). Maybe you can pay for repairs at the shop if you earn money, etc.

The point is that I think people would stick to it more if they didn't just lose everything with one mouse-slip. And it would let people get past the initial learning hump so they can really get into it to the point of addiction.

Just my opinion!

Cheers

Yeah, I thought of the damage to HPs option for the helicopter and a repair station back at HQ, but it was one of the concepts that I eventually ditched because: Helicopters don't just take damage when they hit a mountain, they crash, and I wanted to maintain the feeling of the fragility of the machines that these badasses actually go out in and risk their lives in choppers that can barely even fly at such high altitudes.

And also: I wanted to maintain the risk factor of knowing that this is your one and only life on the line, and hence no extra lives.

So I guess this means it's a difficult game and not suited to everyone's tastes, but I was curious if people gave up before or after learning how to fly the heli...

I agree as far as making it life-like, and as the author that's certainly your prerogative.

However, every game from Pacman to Mario Brothers to Call of Duty has a 3 life or hit point system to let the user progress and get into the game rather than giving up. Imagine playing Call of duty and it's game over with no progress saved the second you're hit by a bullet, which is sadly the reality of war. No save-points, no magic healing, no med packs, etc...no one would play.

Just to repeat: just my opinion! There's no right or wrong in game design

Cheers

I'm trying to fix it, I'll release a bugfixed version in a bit, I'm trying to get together all the bugs and do em at once.

Cool! Will I be able to continue from where I left off or will my saved games not work with the new version?

Are you playing on fullscreen mode or something? What's different to the default?

Yes, playing in fullscreen. I can't remember if I changed any defaults but I don't think so.

Cheers

In that case I must have been lucky, because that's exactly what I did and the game carried on. Sorry about that.

Okidokes. So far nothing from the author so I guess I'll call this one a wrap and proceed with my comments and voting.

Thanks anyway!

I'm a bit bummed out by this comment to be honest. I would like to ask how much time did you spend on trying to learn to fly the helicopter? Did you just crash a few times and then give up? I understand that going back to the main menu and trying again is time-consuming and tedious (my bad there, as I got so good at piloting during my own testing that I didn't consider repeating that over and over as a new player would get annoying)...

I stood behind a student of mine today and taught him to fly the heli in about 5 minutes (in English of course...it's an English lesson... ) and then he could fly it masterfully...

I'm a bit bummed out, still... Could you give it another try?

Just a suggestion: people might be more inclined to keep at it if you had a 3-life system or something like some games. That way you don't lose all progress when you crash.

Some ways to implement this:

- You can start the game with three helicopter icons in the top and when you crash you lose one. Lose all three and it's over
- Instead of a crash ending it all, maybe have a certain amount of damage sustained as a percent and when you're down to 0%, it's game over. There are many other ways to further this graphically (icon depicting helicopter on fire, and so on). Maybe you can pay for repairs at the shop if you earn money, etc.

The point is that I think people would stick to it more if they didn't just lose everything with one mouse-slip. And it would let people get past the initial learning hump so they can really get into it to the point of addiction.

Just my opinion!

Cheers

@Shadow1000:

Spoiler

You mean in the bell tower? Don't leave the room once you're in there. You need to pick something up and use it to get up to the beam.

[close]

Or have you already done that?

Spoiler

Yup. I'm up there and I'm using the flattened crucifix on the yoke. The bell starts to drop and the game crashes.

[close]

I had this 4 times and can't get past this point.