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@ shadow: I managed to not get caught by the cop at all after some playing. You can hide in the dark by pressing up. But in level 4 or 5 suddenly noone had any more of these funny stuff items anymore so it was gameover for me there

I do realize that. I got to level 4 before giving up because it seemed that i would just rob one item and the cop went on high alert and hiding didn't lower the panic level anymore.

SHADOW

I commented on Mandle's game, now time for the other entry.

AWESOME pixel art, sound and effects! GREAT gameplay system. It took me a while to figure out what was going on and what the different icons indicated but I think that was part of the fun: discovering and progressing to beat the successive challenges.

In many ways it's quite similar to Mandle's game but that's expected considering that they are following the same theme.

So as far as my vote:

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I voted for Mandle. As others have said, it was not easy because they are both great games. However, I went by which game kept me playing longer, so this is kind of intuitive.

I think my one problem that I had with Night Work was that once you are caught by the cop, you don't just lose the money on hand. You lose WAY more than you've made in the game so there's a feel that it would be easier to just restart the game than to try to progress. I kept experimenting between continuing and restarting and when I saw I  was down $2000 after I had only made about $400 in the game I felt that I understood the game well enough to vote but just didn't feel compelled to keep at it.

One small tweak that would improve the game would be to lessen the penalty of getting caught. Maybe if you lost half your money or at LEAST the loss would be limited to all the money you have then it would be more compelling.

I realize that it was a MAGS entry and the art is impressive considering that, but if there's time to add to the game, maybe progressing levels can unlock new areas or neighbourhoods, new NPCs to  rob or challenges. As I said, once I was down $2000 and running around the same few blocks robbing the same people of the same items I felt "ok this is just deja vu, rinse and repeat with no progress" and stopped playing.

Overall a REALLY good entry with great potential.

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SHADOW

Geez..thanks for the correction to my typo. I fixed the post...

I just beat the game. My comments are on the competition page.

One thing I want to add is that I didn't realise that you can add to your violence by equipping more weapons. In real life this would not make sense; you cannot really equip 6 brass knuckles and 15 switchblades but once I realized this I got my violence stat up to 100 pretty quickly and that really helped.

Thanks for posting more info about the stats. That was also very helpful in terms of understanding the gameplay. You got a fabulous entry and I hope that you do expand it with more gameplay and use the other stats.

Cheers

SHADOW

@Stupot: Cheers! I'll try to get a bug fixed version up ASAP.

@Shadow: Yeah, the cops are a pain in the butt. Some tips I can give are:

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The police pressence in an area fluctuates up or down every 5 seconds or so. If you have some vigilance stat you can "Be Vigilant" before picking pockets. If you are lucky you will get some information. Vigilance should also increase with use.
Getting caught by police and beating them up or running away increases police pressence (the former more than the latter). These means more cops and a greater risk. Laying low will decrease police pressence a bit. Leaving an area and coming back resets police pressence to the default (but can be expensive).
Fighting police can train up your violence stat if you don't get hit too often. Police get increasingly tougher the higher the level you are in, so training a lot on the countryside cops before moving up to higher levels is a good idea.
Running from the cops depends on your creeping and vigilance stats, but as creeping has no other use in this version yet, it's better to put those points into vigilance instead.

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But yeah, I'd advise waiting for the bug fixed version if you care to try again.

Cool! I didn't realize that the vigilance button helps detect cops. I have clicked it a few times and it said "no Idea" and I didn't know what that meant. Using it to increase its stats sounds like a great idea to get me out of the cop rut I was in. Is there a stat that makes it easier to run from cops?

Honestly, this game is so awesome in its originality, the game play is seriously addictive, I really like the way the player moves on "rails" like the older Resident Evil games. There's a lot of strategy in assigning your skill points and moving levels, as well as careful timing so it has a lot of replay value. The fact that it was done under time constraints for a MAGS entry just makes it all that much more impressive. I've always been addicted to games where your stats increase because you want to keep playing to see the numbers rack up.

I think that for now, I've played it enough (over an hour and a half) and although I did not complete it, I have enough of an educated opinion to vote once I play the other entry and then make a decision. Once it's been touched up, I'll definitely give it another spin! And likely another and another

Cheers

SHADOW

Loving it so far! I got to level 3 then got caught by a cop and died. How do you save so next time I play I don't need to start over when dying?

SHADOW

Thanks for the kind words, mate, on what is a very unfinished game.

And yeah, about that whole save/continue issue:

Erm....it's a roguelike..

Well, it actually is intended as a roguelike (by which I mean that once you die it's over and you have to start again) but also I couldn't get the autosave function working for some damn reason. I had it working once and then it broke out of the blue. The good news is that the autosave was only meant to be for if you quit the game while playing a character and wanted to come back later and continue. As the game is pretty short at the moment I hope that's not a huge problem.

I spent a lot of time playing and I don't think that in its current state that I'll try again.

Essentially, what happens is that I will keep progressing nicely, adding money and stats and occasionally running from cops and then I'll hit ONE cop that I just can't get away from and it's basically all over. I've played again and again and every time I get somewhere I end up getting stuck on ONE nasty cop.

If I'd be able to save after levels or knew how to get out of cops you can't defeat then I'll try again...

SHADOW

Well here we go at the 11th hour for my entry into this MAGS:

If you do happen to play it mostly ignore the ingame hints as to what stats do as most of them are not currently doing their jobs.

You can ignore Charisma and Creeping. These stats are not yet useful at all.

Loving it so far! I got to level 3 then got caught by a cop and died. How do you save so next time I play I don't need to start over when dying?

SHADOW

Thank you so much for your nice words!
This really makes all those hard hours of work worth it

I'm happy to hear that!

Regarding speech skip, you CAN actually skip speech by pressing Return
You can also use W, L, P, and U to select the verb modes.
Those are all in the manual PDF included in the game folder, but perhaps I should have included a small controls section on the start screen as well...

Indeed. Like most people, I don't usually read manuals, I just wing it. It happens to be that I started reading the manual and at some point I thought "ok, yeah...I know how to play an AGS game!" and I didn't bother to finish reading.

You're right that since it's documented that I have no right to complain. However, one thing I learned a LONG time ago about releasing any product is that it's much better to provide something the user is used to and expects than something not expected even if documented.

Thank you for taking the time to review my game

Most welcome! It was a pleasure to play.

Do you agree with my analysis of the character or was I off from what was intended?

SHADOW

I was NOT expecting that...

This game is excellent in every way. The simple colours and graphics are beautiful. The puzzles are well-designed and pace the game and story at a perfect rate.

But what really stands out is the emotions that this game evokes. I was very moved in the first few minutes because this game is so REAL. I think we all know someone who is so focused on work and has little ambition past work, no life, relationships or common sense that life really amounts to very little. I don't get emotional easily but it was hard not to empathize with the character.

My only points where you can improve the game is that the player should be able to skip the speech. I found it taking too long for the speech to finish and it got a bit annoying. As well, the music seemed appropriately depressing BUT I think there is one note in the score that is played constantly and I found that to be really grating.

Otherwise, my overview of the game is: I haven't used the words "must play" in a long time. Well done!

SHADOW

Congrats, Riaise!

Can't wait to see the January theme...

SHADOW

Ok, psychopomp got my vote. My comments are in a previous post and on the game page...

SHADOW

I just played psychopomp and it's awesome! I enjoyed the animation and the music fit really well. Short game with good puzzles. It's unusual to have multiple playable characters in a short game made for a MAGS entry, so good job on that! I agree with the comment on the fact that the mission and story is conveyed with zero dialogue being a great touch. Great entry that fits the theme.

Well done

SHADOW

I really liked that. It just took a few minutes to play. Not much in terms of puzzles but definitely moving and thought provoking. I liked the references to Sniper and Spotter. Fits the theme of the MAGS really well.

Well done!

SHADOW

Looks amazing! Can't wait to play...

SHADOW

ok, I see I'm getting tired. Thank you!
But why this?

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why should the seagull want the crook?

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GREAT question. I wondered the same. I solved many of the puzzles by using the old "use everything on everything" method.

SHADOW

did you

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catch the seagull? how?

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I gave it the weaver's crook

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SHADOW

Spoiler

For the head.. you need to make a mirror. Do you have the polish yet?

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yes, I have the polish but there's nothing to use it on yet. Maybe I'm missing an item? the most logical item is the pan but it won't allow that. I have the bra and bone as well

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SHADOW

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Use it on the shield from the room where El Choco is

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Thanks for the tip!

SHADOW

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For the head.. you need to make a mirror. Do you have the polish yet?

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yes, I have the polish but there's nothing to use it on yet. Maybe I'm missing an item? the most logical item is the pan but it won't allow that. I have the bra and bone as well

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SHADOW

Stuck again!

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Made quite a bit of progress in part 5 and have got something from the head, thread and dead for the voodoo doll recipe but can't find something from the body. Have tried giving the governor the Popsi Lie, chocolate coins and gold herring but it doesn't seem to do anything. Suspect I might need to do something to the Popsi Lie before giving it to her?  Also can't get past the choleric commode.

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I gave her the popsi lie and she tosses the can which I retrieved. I assume that's something from the body since she drank from it? Also, I got the dynamite...not sure if you found that. What did you get from the head?

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SHADOW

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Yes, that sounds right.

For my game (2 portions, 1 spider-pig foot, 8 drops of tippex) I needed to set it to this.

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WAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!! Now I get it...

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I put the disc with the numbers UNDER the disc with the mushroom. NOW I put it on top and it works.

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THANK YOU!

SHADOW