Messages

I too have started something.  Progress is slow and completion seems unlikely, but hopefully posting this will serve as incentive.

Good Lord! Someone remembers me?!  I'm honored.  Honored and extremely busy, but I may have to give MAGS a shot this month just for that.

Also, while I'm here happy birthday to Quikstrike, and happy belated birthday to Ben304!

How did you end up there?  Whatever link you used must be out of date: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/acintro.htm

If you need to you can access what I assume are the exact same pages through the editor.  Go to Help>Contents then open 'Tutorial' and click 'Starting off'.

Awesome!  I've been waiting for this.

I wish I could start playing but it's 2am and I need some sleep.

I like the idea of a team competition, but it seems like it may be too ambitious.  A competition like that would be very hard to organize.  Teams would become unbalanced very easily.  Plus you'd need eight people to sign up just to have an actual competition (which is a lot if you look at how many people enter any given MAGS or Hourgame).

Back when Ben304 and Calin released 'Hope' I had an idea for a competition very much like this, only with teams of just two people.  Basically it would work exactly as Questionable suggested, only during recruitment, instead of applying for one specific job you list your strengths and weaknesses as a designer and get paired with someone who complements your abilities.

Of course, the balance issue stated above still stands, but at least this way there's a better chance of having enough participants and it's less likely you'd get screwed over by one of your teammates bailing out mid-competition.

Is anyone doing entries without counting me and Tzachs??

I'm still working on mine.  I may have to give up on those super secret bonus points if I want things to get done and still make sense, but I'm optimistic about finishing something.

Goldfish, I agree, but there doesn't seem to be a way around it; you can't force people to enter unless you want a bunch of unfinished games, and you can't really not have a winner cause there won't be anyone to make the next theme.  I guess winning by default is more of a "congratulations for finishing" rather than a "your game was best" sort of thing.

I do hope we get some decent competition this time around, maybe now that the holidays are over people will have more time.

No replies yet?  I've been meaning to do another MAGS game for a while, hopefully this will be my month.  Anyone else planning something?

[Lodge]

Up to me to break the tie then?  It's unfortunate that I'm not able to give fair consideration to all of the entries, but I honestly fear that if that were the case it would have been too hard to choose.

At any rate, I cast my tie-breaking vote for Lodge by AtelierGames.

Congratulations to you AG, the trophy is yours, as is the honor of creating the next competition.

My thanks to everyone, I could not have been more pleased with the turnout.  I'd love to stay and ramble, but I really must be getting to bed.  Keep on writing!

I blatantly missed the deadline so is my entry still counted? (It's in the first post). I had it all ready but never managed to post it...

I'll count it, only because you had mentioned before that it was done before the deadline.

Okay, we should be well past the deadline in every time zone at this point.  Let the voting commence!

Two very good, very different entries so far.  Not much time left so get your stories done soon.  I've updated the first post with a nifty trophy for our winner.  It's not much, but it'll do I think.

So I put down my book of Lovecraft stories, log in to the forums and see this. Kastchey, you have just made my day.

Glad we got an entry, and a very pretty one at that.  Well done Kastchey, can't wait to play it.

Anyone else still working on an entry?

Sadly no.  I thought I'd have a lot more free time than I ended up with this month, and I don't think any amount of extension will help.

I hope we get some entries though, it's a really cool theme, just a busy month for a lot people.

[winter myths]

I've always loved mythology, and since this competition is starting on the Winter Solstice, I thought it would be appropriate to make the theme for this fortnight winter myths.

Guidelines
For purposes of this competition a 'myth' is a (somewhat fanciful) story used to attempt to explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon.

That being said your writing task for this fortnight is to create a myth set during the winter.

-You choose to adopt an existing myth, or create your own.
-Your myth does not necessarily need to explain anything about winter time, but it must take place in the winter time.
-Holiday-related stories are neither discouraged nor required.

Deadlines:
-Entries are due by Monday, January 4 at midnight in your time zone.  I'll make a post to let everyone know when the deadline has officially passed.
-Votes should be in by Thursday January 7 at midnight.  I may give an extension depending on voter turnout and overall number of entries.
-The winner will be announced the day after voting closes.

Trophies:



-I'm not much of an artist, but I have made this lovely trophy for the winner.  If anyone would like to offer a better looking trophy just send me a message.

Well that's a nice surprise, I honestly didn't think I had a shot with so many great entries to choose from.  Thanks to all (two) of you who voted for my story, to Oliwerko for a great topic, and all the participants for their wonderful stories.

I'll be happy if my topic gets half as many entries as this one did, and on that note; the new thread should be up and running within 24 hours.  I apologize for the delay, I'm away for the weekend and computer time is limited.  I've got a couple ideas to choose from, so hopefully I'll have everything sorted out and ready to go the next time I'm online.

[Ghost Story]

Welcome to the forums, ashmc2.

Here's my entry.  It's a bit rushed, but I've been telling myself I'll enter this competition for at least three fortnights now. 

-------
Ghost Story

There is a ghost, they say, who haunts the Palisades.   A twisted, writhing wraith; the shadow of a soul now departed.  It dwells along the cliff side, and in the swamps below, its form grotesque, and subhuman.  It emerges in darkness and in light, and whispers words of caution, cryptic and terrifying, to the bold, and the foolish who come to provoke, or to refute its tortured presence.

The entity, they say, is young, and there are still many left alive who can recall a time before its birth.  When asked they lead us to Alex, who was first to encounter the ghost, and to whom alone was imparted the story of its origin.

“It was once a man,” Alex tells us, “but no more.  That is what it told me, its voice hoarse and broken, like the sound of falling rain.  He followed the gravel trail, as many once did, to the top of the cliffs, and there he simply ceased to be.” 

“This is the most frightening kind of ghost story; for the man who vanished and became a ghost had no reason to do so.  There are no forlorn lovers, embittered rivals or unjust circumstances.  There is simply a man, who ceased to be a man.” 

“You see,” warns Alex, “there is something evil that lurks in the swamps and on the cliffs; something wholly and purely evil.  It waits there for those such as you; those who are brash, those who are foolhardy, and those who are simply ignorant.  It will rend you from your flesh, and gorge itself upon that which you once were.  There is something vile, and terrible up there.  And it isn’t the ghost.”

@dualnames: Fair enough, I only asked because December MAGS always seemed to get a special deadline in the past.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, you can come up with your own story.

I got that impression as well.  I certainly hope so, because I wrote this whole thing out last night...

That's kinda funny, one of the themes I had considered if I won back in October was an end times sort of thing (albeit slightly different and far less festive than Abstauber's idea  ).

Hopefully I'll have the time to do another MAGS this month.  I kind of missed it in November but I was much too busy.

What's our deadline duals?  I hear in the past it's been changed due to Christmas and all.