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I downloaded and played this game.

I absolutely, ABSOLUTELY loved it!

The backgrounds are stunning. They pull you into a candy world using vibrant colours and depth. There were times that I felt my mouth watering. The animations are just gorgeous. The puzzles are cute and just perfect for the game. The puzzles are not difficult so I was thinking that this game because of its candy theme would be a GREAT introductory game for children who want to enjoy point and click genre adventures. What blows me away is how such a FLAWLESS game was made in such a short period of time. Even some of the best MAGS entries have little glitches or rough edges that can be overlooked because there just isn't enough time for complete testing and revision. There is NOTHING about this game that indicates that it was put together for a contest with a deadline.

Congratulations to both of you, Cat and Miez.

SHADOW

I'm removing this game. It isn't good enough. I've no intentions of working on it any further. Other people managed to play it, save, load get through the into, play it a bit without any problems. So it stays as is. It's too bad considering I have 3 more stories but since I suck at it why bother making anymore games

Starlite:

I don't know how you concluded this. Everyone who commented on the game said that the game has great potential but requires a bit of tweaking for the scripting and interface so people can enjoy your efforts. I hope you reconsider and release it in the improved version.

SHADOW

I downloaded the game and put in about 25 minutes playing. To kind of echo what Mandle said with a few differences:

- The strength of the game is the art. I really like the backgrounds and animations.
- It looks like the backstory is well-developed and unfolds nicely as you play.

It's clear that a lot of work went into this game.

However, the voice acting did not do it for me. Jemma's voice did not match the character at all. Her cadence might have matched a nursery teacher better than a real estate agent.

In general, I do not like the first person view. When you have an animated sprite navigating a room, you have a sense of where the character is in the room. While I did not find it disorienting, I did find the general gameplay consisting of pointing all over a picture waiting to hit a hotspot. Additionally, as Mandle said, I did not find the hotspots to be consistent as to when and where they would pop up. The navigation is more of a personal taste and took getting used to but the hotspots made the gameplay quite cumbersome.

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I had the same problems as Mandle. Whatever it was in the closet next to the baseball bat disappeared. I stopped playing when I got to a puzzle where you put the pieces on a frame but there was one piece missing! I thought that maybe you had to keep searching the house to find the missing piece but I could not X out of this screen

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At that point I wanted to save the game but there is no obvious way to save. I ended up pressing F5 hoping that it would work and I saved but really any game that lasts more than 10-20 minutes should have a proper save in the menu. To reload the game I had to wait for the game to start and I pressed F7. I couldn't read the buttons on the screen so I clicked the first one which happened to be "Delete" so I lost my progress.

I do think that this game has potential and I have to ask why this kind of thing did not surface during testing. What was the testing process?

I hope this didn't sound critical. I don't generally comment on games I don't like and I hope that some of these issues get ironed out and the game released again!

Good luck

SHADOW

[WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE GAME:]

I finished the game last night. Here are my comments:

(I recommend that you do not read this review until you finish playing)

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE GAME:

It didn't take long for me to completely love the game.
- The backgrounds, animations, sound effects and music are just perfect for the environment.
- Very strong story. Almost cliched Western Theme with some fresh elements is enough to draw the player in
- Many crazy and lovable NPC with strong personalities
- I have to give a strong rating to the puzzles. To me, the difficulty level of the puzzles was just perfect. I had to put in just enough effort to feel challenged by some of them but (almost) never got so stuck that I had to resort to hints. Some of my absolute favourite puzzles:

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the poker game and the chapel bell puzzle. It's hard to quantify exactly why but I LOVED those two in particular

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- More about the puzzles: I liked that there was a great mixture of types of puzzle, ranging from inventory puzzles to dialogue puzzles to object puzzles to password/combination/code puzzles.
- The humour! It's not often that I find myself actually laughing for most of a game but this one had some really good lines!
- Overall, a well-developed and polished game. Extras like cut scenes really make a difference.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE ABOUT THE GAME:

- Notwithstanding the overall excellent puzzles, unfortunately there were a few that even with reading the walkthrough either did not make sense or I just fail to see how the player had enough hints to solve; In particular:

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I still don't get how the cemetery map corresponds to the clue provided even when it was explained. I don't want to elaborate because people read before playing even when warned not to but the red paint puzzle is ALMOST solvable but honestly not quite there

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- Possibly most critical:

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unfortunately, the ending didn't work for me. I get the idea of trying to break the cliche and jumping to something unexpected and creative and funny and silly but that was just too over the top and dragged on for me. Instead of finding it to be a "twist" I just found it jarring and wanted the game to end

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RECOMMENDATIONS:

Of course you can just leave the game as is. It really is an excellent game and as I said, especially for a first game. Many people will play it and enjoy it and move on. However, considering the years you sunk into it you might consider:
- See how other people react to the points I raised above. If others think it was good then just ignore me However if enough people agree, then consider a second release with those areas revised accordingly.
- You MIGHT consider animating some of the NPCs. When you enter the bank in Ft. Buzzard, for example, instead of having the NPCs just frozen on the screen, it might be cool to see them moving a bit. The only reason I point this out is because it's clear that a LOT of work went into the game and if you want a real masterpiece this might do it.
- Clean up some spelling errors. It's "cemetery"

Overall, an EXCELLENT game, especially for a first. It's rare to come out with such a polished game even over a long time. I was wondering how long the game development took and how many people playtested it?

I hope to see more outstanding titles from this author. I do expect to see a masterpiece one day.

Cheers

SHADOW

Help below:

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Do you have the diary? If not, then you need to find this first (what else does the grave robber have to say?). If you do have the diary then read it - once you've read it, look at the graveyard plot map and follow the directions to find the grave. You can brute force this by looking at every grave BUT you must have looked at the diary first before looking at the grave to progress this (it provides the link). Once you know the grave plot number you'll need to find someone who might know who was buried there.

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WHERE on the cemetery map is the guide? Those arrows on the bottom right seem to be the closest thing to the guide but there's no way to match that up with the actual cemetery. I tried by starting at the arrow on the bottom left but it really doesn't correspond. I found the grave I'm looking for by clicking around but I still have no idea what was intended.

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SHADOW

I downloaded this and I've been playing for about an hour. EVERY aspect of the game is awesome...the puzzles, story, graphics, animation and humour. LOVING IT! Amazing first game.

SHADOW

Hmm...I got three out of the four. I could not figure out how to kill the troll.

Also

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I see from the observatory that there is a spot with a glowing dot near the troll's cave. I don't see any way to get there

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SHADOW

I had to check the walkthrough twice:

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* Phone recharge - As others have mentioned, this was a tad unfair to me, but not the end of the world. The thing I have a complaint about though is that I had already tried to talk to Dan after hearing the answer machine message telling him to turn the radio down, but the posibility to have this conversation wasn't triggered until I had put the mobile phone in the docking station.
* EMF puzzle - This was a good puzzle and I would have solved it myself if I hadn't stupidly fixated on the idea that the 'vegetation' on the next screen was where the pathway would be. I thought I needed to find something to cut the stingy nettles away.

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Actually that was exactly my experience too! I thought that was the spot with the highest reading as well but I didn't know what to do there!

SHADOW

Found another bug:

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During the race, when the squirrel is dead already and you click it, the dialog will start again and only after that the end sequence will happen.

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I was going to comment that I experienced this during the race where I clicked him by mistake.

SHADOW

I just played again. The game ended with the game abruptly turning off and I got the message:

In room91 line17
Error: EndCutscene: not in a cutscene.

What was supposed to happen? Is there an ending scene or just credits or something?

SHADOW

I just played the game. Took me 10-15 minutes and I enjoyed every second! Outstanding art. Great puzzle

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really only one puzzle at the beginning and the other 2 scenes were more for humour

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. This one definitely gets my vote!

SHADOW

Shadow1000: Thank you for such informative feedback. Regarding your first point in the complaint time section (SPOILER ALERT!):

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While I was watching someone playtesting it, they had the same problem with exits in the toilet. I should of had alarm bells ringing then, instead of thinking it was just that person missing the obvious.

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(POSSIBLE SPOILER!):

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Also regarding 'the thing' you had to do a certain number of times to trigger progress: I fully intended to reduce the amount of times you had to do it by one before release but I totally forgot about it until you reminded me here...darn it! Also the fact that you missed it by one backs up exactly what I had thought.

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I don't know if the issue is the number of times that you have to do it so much as the fact that you have to do something repeatedly not being aware that each time you do it you are getting closer to the goal. I don't know what a better way to implement this would be.

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For example, if he would say after the third attempt "oh damn, battery's running low. I better be careful", that would notify the player that using the phone is draining the battery. BUT that would backfire at least for me, because I would probably stop using it until I knew that I'd have reception or that I could recharge it if necessary

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SHADOW

[Here's what I liked:]

Drat....Mandle beat me to finishing and commenting! I was playing till after midnight and was going to comment in the morning.

Overall, this game is exceptional.

Here's what I liked:
- The areas that I use to rate any game really shine in this one:
- The plot is excellent. The story is captivating and unfolds at a perfect rate with the game. The fact that the backstory unfolds as well just draws the player into the game even further.
- The atmosphere is CREEPY. All attempts to make a haunted and supernatural environment are successful.
- The interface is really good. Creating the tools you need to solve the game

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such as the cell phone,EMF reader and flower guide

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are a great touch and add to the overall polish of the game.
- I LOVE exploring! Many recent releases have good stories and puzzles but this one adds the fact that you explore the world. The photograph-turned room backgrounds worked really well. Every part of the game world just flowed perfectly. I have no beef with the fact that certain parts of the world were accessible only after certain tasks were complete. Something a lot of game designers overlook where the world requires substantial walking is the speed of the character. I either have to set the walk speed to the highest OR, where that's not available to the player, just get bored and frustrated when the player is walking at a snail's pace. The pacing in this game was just perfect. I think that the exploring the world aspect may be one of the strongest components of this game that made me love it.
- I really liked the puzzles (see below, however). They were logical and just at the difficulty level where the game progressed without getting stuck or frustrated and there were enough puzzles that required enough stopping and thinking that the game did not progress too fast. This is one of the most tricky parts of designing puzzle because making them too hard or too easy will either frustrate a player OR make the game flow so fast that it's not much of a game.
- Just too add: I liked the mini arcade sequence! That was fun

Complaint time:

- I was able to complete 90% the game without resorting to the walkthrough. I did have to use the walkthrough 3 times, though. I realize that's what it's for BUT I do want to express what I feel were weaknesses in this otherwise excellent game. Of course the fact that I got stuck on a puzzle doesn't mean that the puzzle is flawed but I do think that as a game author it's important to know how players interact with the game.

Please do not read this section unless you've completed the game. I will try to be as vague as possible.
- The first time I got stuck was because of a navigation problem

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I did not realize that there was another room in the toilet. If you move the cursor around the entrance room of the toilet you will see the "Exit" notification pop up as you hover over different areas but most of them lead back outside. I didn't realize that the "Exit" hotspot to the inside of the bathroom was different than the others.

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- The second puzzle that I got stuck on was of the type that you have to do a certain action a certain number of times to trigger progress, especially if you don't know that doing the repeated action is actually doing something!

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I naturally kept trying to use the cellphone in different locations trying to get reception. But I didn't have any knowledge that you have to use it a specified number of times for something to happen. Ideally there should have been some indication. Happens to be that I was only off by one use!

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. I don't want to specify but the next thing you have to do to proceed seems kind of arbitrary.
- I don't think I would have ever solved the

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EMF meter

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puzzle on my own. You really have to step on an exact spot while moving the cursor around the room. I would have preferred that when you step on the spot that something happens to notify you. Mandle liked this puzzle so I won't complain too much!
- Not meaning to pick too much but a few grammar and spelling improvements might give it a bit more polish. You mean "must have" rather than "must of". I saw "loose" when I think "lose" was intended and POSSIBLY "proove" for "prove"

Anyway, overall this game really stands out in every important area. Congratulations on achieving the result after so much hard work.

SHADOW

I completed this short introductory game. It is excellent in every way. However, there are several technical glitches that should be cleaned up as they detracted from the game:

- Save/Restore is hit and miss. Most of the games I saved could not be restored. It just crashed when I tried to restore.
- There is this blue icon on the top left that seems to flash during the game which I found annoying. The inventory bar also did a bit of flashing.
- I got into some sort of loop while using the phone where upon exiting the phone I'd end up in the newspaper and then exiting the newspaper takes me back to the phone. I could not get back into the game so I had to quit. As mentioned above, restoring from a save usually does not work.

The story, graphics and interface are really good. My only comment is that although the graphics and colours work well for this horror/mystery, a bit more detail in the graphics might be a good idea so the player can see items that are supposed to be interacted with better.

Overall, great work.

SHADOW

It seems like it's just a slice of a story. Almost like reading a chapter in middle of a book without enough of the beginning or continuation of the story. It would be great if it could be expanded that way.

Shadow, I think I can say with confidence that if we manage to turn our plans into reality on this one, it's going to make you very, very happy

Awesome news! By the way: It goes without saying that a game made for a MAGS entry is not going to be a full length and fully developed game. MAGS developers have to work with real time constraints and decide what areas of the game they want to shine. And shine this did...

SHADOW

I played this game and I enjoyed it. It meets all the areas that it is intended to achieve: a lot of detail in the design of the environment and characters and the graphics were perfect for this game.

It seems like it's just a slice of a story. Almost like reading a chapter in middle of a book without enough of the beginning or continuation of the story. It would be great if it could be expanded that way.

SHADOW

I played and completed this game. Overall, the puzzles were fun and clever and not too difficult. Many took a fair amount of trial and error and some took noticing fine details on the screen.

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The last item in the list was quite difficult and took me about 1/3 of the playing time

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Not much in terms of plot so the many puzzles made the game worth playing.

It should be noted that this game is not for minors or for people who find constant sexual references to be offensive.

SHADOW

Ok, I'm a year late to the party but...

I'm playing through all the games entered into the MAGGIES 2015 that I haven't played yet and apparently I missed this one when it was released. I want to echo the compliments everyone else has expressed:

This game is polished in all aspects. The theme, graphics and puzzles are all excellent. The animations are smooth. Even had this just been an independent short game rather than a MAGS entry it would have been an excellent contribution. I want to add that the puzzles were at a perfect difficulty level that I really enjoyed solving them without getting frustrated.

Well done.

SHADOW

Hilarious game - fun puzzles!

Thanks for the game!

SHADOW

I don't see a completed game announcement for Among Thorns so I just want to make my comments here.

I just played the game and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. The story is exciting. The environment is very, very impressive. It fits the contest theme but in a novel way. Most of all, the puzzles were AWESOME. My only small concerns are:

- The backgrounds are a bit busy. It would be a bit more pleasing to have less crowding on the screens.
- The interface for using inventory items is a bit cumbersome. If you polish up the game then it would be nice to see an icon with the selected inventory item move on the screen so you can use it on whatever you want to use it. That way the player knows that it is selected and what item is selected, AND one used, it should continue to be selected until the player releases it. Playing a game with great puzzles like this requires a fair amount of trial and error and having to reselect an inventory item is awkward.

Other than that, great job!

SHADOW