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[Blondbraid, Slasher and cat]

Next up, we have Blondbraid, Slasher and cat for their piece, Cave of Avarice.

What was your role in the development of the game?
Blondbraid: Mainly doing the graphics and coming up with ideas.
Cat: Puzzle design and coding
Slasher: My role in the game was mostly to give ideas and come up with suitable puzzles that we all agreed on.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
C: I didn't, Blondbraid did and asked for help with puzzles and coding on the forum.
S: I had some time on my hands so I offered to help make the game with Blondbraid who's idea it was.
B: My main inspiration was reading about the real historical Dahomey Amazons on Wikipedia, but also old adventure comics with heroes like like Tintin and Tarzan I've read as a kid.

What are you most proud of about the game?
B: That it brought so many people together to work on it, and while everyone had their own ideas that got added into the game, the final result felt like a good and coherent experience.
C: The atmosphere in the cave with the lamp light and random sound effects.
S: I'm proud of the fact that we completed a good game on time and Blondbraid's  graphics and Cat's implementation of the scripts.

What challenges did you face during the development?
B: Mainly coming up with good ideas for the ending of the story, but that's when the others stepped in with their own ideas and proposals.
C: Coordination in the team was often hard.
S: The challenges I found were to come up with feasible ideas and puzzles.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
B: More polished animations mostly.
C: A puzzle that takes advantage of the lamp light.
S: If we had more time I'm certain we would have added more rooms and puzzles.

Any final words?
B: It was a fun experience working with so many people at once, that way, there was always someone else to step in whenever we'd get stuck on how to construct a puzzle or write the story.
C: I think it turned out quite well!
S: We made a great team.

Thanks, guys and gals for your answers. I hope you will team up again in the near future.

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I like those interviews, but what happened to ours about Cave of Avarice?

It’s coming next. I was waiting for all the responses, which are now in the can and will hopefully be posted tomorrow.

@Themaninboots, try the link at the bottom of the first post. That might have something you can use.

Damn I love this theme, but sadly lack the time to develop something right now. Looking forward to see what others make, though!

maybe you could team up with someone and split the Labour :-)

[Fernewelten]

Our next interview is with Fernewelten for his game Mamma Mia: Winter Ice Cream Mayhem

What was your role in the development of the game?
Sole developer: I made the music (on keyboard), drew the sprites and backgrounds, designed the story and puzzles, and scripted the game.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
The theme was "little known traditions". In the theme giver's neck of the world, there's a custom of forward-paying an espresso for people in need, and the giver wondered what other similar customs existed around the world.

Well, I'm German, and I was stumped: A quaint and endearing custom such as that simply doesn't exist over here AFAIK. Then I suddenly remembered a blog that I read ages ago. An American expatriate broached on the quirks and peculiarities he found in Germany that differed very much from his home life in the USA. For instance, one of the posts was headed,  (In Germany, road signs specify what the speed limit isn't) When a speed restriction is lifted in Germany, the corresponding sign shows what the limt _had been_, instead of telling what the new speed limit _is now_. When he pointed that out to his German friends, they had many justifications, but the American found those to be far-fetched and the system to be circuitous and absurd.

So in another post the expatriate was baffled to see Germans queue up for ice cream whenever the sun happened to shine no matter what the thermometer actually reads. That was the inspiration for my game. I basically asked myself, So let's say it is freezing and everyone is queuing up at an ice cream stand "what ramifications could possibly arise?" and I took it from there.

What are you most proud of about the game?
I'd never managed to assemble a credible walkcycle animation for humans before. Jake does somewhat better. Still tense when walking straight upstage, still too effeminate, but better.

What challenges did you face during the development?
I found it very hard to come up with puzzles. For lack of alternatives, I put in _two_ minigames, which in retrospect is too much for a game of this size. As a consequence, I needed a lot of time to get the minigames scripted at all, and then I lacked the time to calibrate them properly.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
Better graphics: A more harmonious background for the 'street" room in particular.

Any final words?
MAGS game writing is much akin to improv: Trust your first instincts. If you constantly re-think your ideas, you won't come up with better alternatives and you lose valuable time. Instead, say "yes, and..." and build on the ideas you do have. Don't try to be perfect, it'll only block you.

Thanks very much for your informative answers, Fernewelten.

If anyone has any follow-up questions, be sure to ask away.

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Yeah, it’s always a shame when we only have one game. Still, it’s better than no games.

Once the Awards season is over, let’s try and push for another super bumper MAGS. Get all the IRC and Discord crowd involved and team up.

[LostTrainDude]

Our next Q and A is with LostTrainDude for his work on the experimental prototype TRAVELERS.

What was your role in the development of the game?
I was the only developer, so I did basically the non-graphics, the programming and the very little writing there is in it.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
I had recently started playing King of Dragon Pass (1999, remade in 2015), a game that mixes interactive fiction and resource management by putting you in charge of a clan of people over an amount of years. At the end of each year, you can review everything you managed to go through. I was inspired by this and by the feeling of "playing a small role in a larger scheme of things that I had no complete control over" that it gave me.

What are you most proud of about the game?
First of all I didn't imagine it could win that month's MAGS, and I'm both surprised and happy that it did!
Also - something a little technical, although probably far from sophisticated: I was very happy when I was able to store the game grid in a 1D array and make the player navigate it through binding simple math operations (huge personal accomplishment ) to the movement!

What challenges did you face during the development?
I had to learn how to handle text parsing correctly, as the game reads and writes from text files it uses to "write down in history" the "memory" of players' actions.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
An actual gameplay . In other words: less randomness, more authored content and a way to make players' actions more meaningful in the long run.

Any final words?
Thank you for playing and also thanks to MAGS, for being an endlessly inspiring source of ideas and community

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Thanks LostTrainDude. I look forward to seeing what you've got coming for us in 2020.

Thinking cap on 

Is that a thinking ice-cap?

[A Frozen World]

Topic: A Frozen World
Chosen by Alan v. Drake

Voting is open. Please vote using the poll above.

	Frozen Kingdom by Slasher
	The Frozen Shore by JackPutter
	Unfreeze by TheManInBoots, PlayPretend and Cassiebsg

A curse was cast, the heroes failed, or a cataclysm happened. For some reason the whole world was frozen.
Make a game where the protagonist works to put an end to the everlasting winter.

You may use existing artwork to make your game.



Deadline: Feb 28th

Need a little help? Perhaps The AGS Trove has something you can use.

[Fritz the Cat]

Well, it looks like just the one entry this month. Hopefully that means everyone was too busy playing the games for MAGGIES and AGS Awards. 

Thanks to Slasher for your winning game, Fritz the Cat.
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2403

You'll be contacted soon about choosing a topic for March.

We’ve taken back control of our bananas.

Well this is all very intestine but we need a new puzzle.

MAGS January ââÂ,¬ŠÂ"MisfitsââÂ,¬Ã, (OPEN) looks like the OP's client text encoding was something different than the server's.

Yes. I noticed this yesterday. That should be quote marks. " " I sometimes do it from my phone or laptop or my wife's MAC and I can't remember which one I used for that post. But something in the server must hve changed how it appears.

[Retro Wolf]

Time for another interview. A solo affair this time with Retro Wolf for his game Hydrate.

What was your role in the development of the game?
Everything.

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
I'm a sucker for science fiction, I'd been watching a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Poor Tasha Yar!) and wanted to do something in that genre. I'd also been messing around in 3D design software making alien heads and thought they would make good characters. 90% of the artwork is based on something made in Blender, I outputted an image and hand traced in GraphicsGale.

What are you most proud of about the game?
That I was able to complete a project not having done anything creative in such in a long time. It's been a long time again, oh dear!

What challenges did you face during the development?
Time, I have kids and work 50 hours a week half of the year so it is hard to get motivated on games development. I figured that in order to complete the project I would have to make it easier on myself, so I did not make any animations, everything is a static image.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
Animated characters and voice acting, I've never made a game with voice and I like doing funny voices, at least when there's no on else around.

Any final words?
I found Blender especially useful in creating the backgrounds and characters, I've always struggled to draw characters in different angles but in Blender you only need rotate the camera. Hand tracing is tedious but I get better results than drawing something from scratch.

Special thanks to CassieBSG for doing the testing, her input gave me that extra little push to make it the best it could be. I very nearly released a version that had no character portraits, and no item sprites (just a list box).

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Thanks Retro Wolf and I do hope to see some more entries from you in the coming months.

They did actually film two versions.

[Blondbraid and Cassiebsg]

Next up in our series of interviews are two frequent MAGSers Blondbraid and Cassiebsg (again:)) for their game, Thrymly Disguised.

What was your role in the development of the game?
Blondbraid: I mainly came up with ideas, some of the dialogue and drawing the graphics.
Cassiebsg: Basically coding it, tried to introduce as many puzzles as I could and did a few missing graphics (mostly buttons).

Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea?
B: I had read the original legend of Thor dressing up and thought that it was a funny story.
C: I didn't, Blondbraid did. I just offered to code it, so the game would became one. 

What are you most proud of about the game?
B: That the project drew in so many talented people and that we even managed to get voice acting on so short notice.
C: Learning Dynamic Sprites and using them to create the intermission fade-in/fade-out and the Jewel box puzzle.

What challenges did you face during the development?
B: It was mostly getting everything done on time and finding voice actors, but my part was probably the least challenging of it.
C: Getting the jewel puzzle to work and figuring out where the bug was. Also coding the chariot mini-game, as I'm more of an adventurer and not so much into arcade or mini-games. I'm sure it could be improved.

If you'd had more time, what else would you have liked to have included in the game?
B: That's a good question, more unique animations probably.
C: More puzzles! 

Any final words?
B: I was very glad to finally win a MAGS competition after making so many entries.
C: MAGS rule!  Looking forward to doing more of these.

Thank you both. And can I just add that I really appreciate your frequent support of MAGS and look forward to seeing more of your entries in 2020.

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On a side note. I'm still looking for people to make some gameplay videos of the remaining games, if anyone thinks they can help out. Cheers.

What about having nominations open the whole year? When you play a game and like it, just nominate it for a few categories.

This could help take the sting out of it. Another idea could be to have the For Your Consideration thread open, maybe stickied, all year round. That way it's could help keep noms in the back of everyone's mind as people add to it.

That said, I'm not sure how many of us (with all the best will in the world) would actually remember/bother to nominate in the off season. We hardly ever rate and comment as it is.

Happy Birthday Selmiak!

Congrats on the noms. This is a very good game and I think you are definitely in with a shout for at least a couple of those awards.

What's an Nlock? I prefer my answer