Messages

Nice, congrats! 

I hate to ask, but could we please extend one extra day to Friday?  I'm so close but only have a little time to code the next few nights, but then I have all Friday off and can submit it Friday night.

No worries. Friday it is.

Mine's pretty much there. I just need to tie up a couple of loose ends and give it a proofread. ✍️

[Forbidden]

I like the idea of an annual "finish your MAGS" round, but I'm torn.

The two options would be:
(1) to have it as that month's theme, in which case it isn't fair to November's winner, who might want to choose their own theme. It also excludes potential first-timers.
(2) to have it running alongside the chosen theme. But with entry numbers already so low, it doesn't seem wise to split the pack.

Of the two, I'm personally leaning towards (2). It seems there is genuine interest in the idea of a "finish your MAGS" round. But I wouldn't want the main theme to suffer.

The good news is I've already set up a thread for MAGS December for RootBound's original theme Forbidden.


If we were to have a concurrent "Finish you MAGS" event running, I would want to make it a separate thread and have voting separately on each thread so that the regular MAGS and the Finish your MAGS entries aren't competing against each other. One benefit of this is you get a cheeky extra shot at getting a slot in the MAGGIES shortlist.

Shall I go ahead and set this up?

[Forbidden]

As a special Christmas treat, I'm giving you a few days head start and a cheeky extra week to make your games. What can I say? The rules are meant to be broken... which is fitting, since this month's theme is "Forbidden"

Theme: Forbidden
Set by: RootBound

	Not My Ron by jwalt
	Dead Phones by noblonski
	Hues of the Haunt by Kastchey

FORBIDDEN

A lot of room to interpret here. Could be as small as a parent's curfew or talking in a movie theater, as medium as forbidden love or trespassing, or as big as a totalitarian 1984 planet. Someone or something in your game should break a rule set by someone or something else.






What is MAGS?
Started in 2001, MAGS is a competition for amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the guidelines set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and provide a kick-start into making adventure games. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

Rules
Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualize your game following the month's criteria (see above). Second, create your game fuelled only by coffee. Finally, post your game in this thread, including:

* A working download link
* The title of your game
* A suitable in-game screenshot

At the end of the month, voting will begin, usually lasting for fourteen days, and the winner chooses the next month's theme.

Remember that this is a challenge to see what you can do in a month, so any tinkering you do after that, including fixing minor glitches, is against the spirit of the competition. The exception to this is that you may go in and fix major, game-breaking bugs only during voting. We want you to have a game that voters can actually play and that runs on their machines.

So to reiterate, during the voting period fixing major, game-breaking bugs is okay, fixing minor glitches or making cosmetic changes is cheating.

Tips
Here are some ways to make sure you have a game to submit at the end of the month:
* Make a tiny game. Plan small, then cut it in half. Find shortcuts (e.g. if making walkcycles is time-consuming, make the characters static or have it in the first person).
* Plan to have your game playable and submittable with a week to spare. This way you have a week to fix bugs, add some flourishes and maybe even get someone to test it.
* Plan to submit it a day or so early. This way, if there are any technical issues with uploading, they can be sorted out in time.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Need a little help with graphics? Perhaps The AGS Trove has something you can use.
Don't want to go it alone? Try the Recruitment board.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Results are in. RootBound takes the win.

Thanks for the entries and votes, everyone.

RB, I'll be in touch soon about choosing a theme for December, but feel free to start thinking about it until then.

It is a great topic. I've already splashed out a good half of mine. The planets aligned and I had a long break at work followed by a string of cancellations and I happened to have brought my laptop to work.

Edit: why does yours have black for the misses...?

I think it depends whether or not you have Wordle set to dark mode.

Generally the host doesn't enter. Occasionally they might still post a story but declare it as not an official entry.

In this occasion though, considering the three of you had been discussing the themes in PM, it's not as though Rootbound has had much more of a head start than the others, so I don't really mind if the host enters in this case.

In fact I'm not particularly against it anyway, especially if it means more entries.

Congrats, Stu! Do you get the puzzles earlier in your timezone?

Yeah. It resets at midnight.

I didn't do #879 but I've just done 880 in 2 guesses.

Wordle 880 2/6*

⬛🟨⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Great to see some movement already this month. Keep up the good work, folks. Keep us posted with updates.

@jwalt your project sounds like great fun. 40+ minutes of an interactive movie is awesome given the timeframe.

[Rootbound, Mandle and Sinitrena]

We have a 3-way tie.

First, some feedback.

@RootBound

Spoiler

A clever haiku,
Intresting observation.
Syllables: too much

[close]

@Mandle

Spoiler

An enjoyable and optimistic story about a rare case of someone possibly coming out the other side of some numerology rabbit hole. One thing that didn't make sense. The line where Janey tells Matt (but not us) the last piece of the puzzle seemed more important than it turned out to be. You've since given some explanation about that but I still think it would have been good to have had some idea of what it was that she was expecting to see.

Other than that,  it was a well-written story of sibling love, and it really made me miss my sisters.

[close]

@Sinitrena

Spoiler

Very interesting concept. I honestly thought Baron might be the one to do something high-concept and weird like this. My guess was a story from the POV of the Bermuda Triangle. The descriptions of all the polygons folding and stretching and changing shapes was fun, and you managed to give real characterization to the shapes, which is commendable. The end twist was frustrating (for the triangle, I mean). Reminded me of times in my life where I thought I'd "leveled up" only to find myself at the bottom again. The mathematical elements were a fun touch too.

[close]

@Baron

Spoiler

This was another fun read. Those kind of three-way stand-offs are always dramatic. You gave each of the three characters some depth and a real reason to be there. The twist was unique and it was a funny pay-off but I think I personally would have preferred the stand-off to have played out with a bit of bloodshed and/or someone running off with the cash. I thought for sure Lunaro was lying about his moma's situation and thought Garaghan was an idiot for believing him.

[close]

On another day I might have chosen to pick a winner to break the tie, but considering the fitting triangular nature of a three-way draw, I hereby announce that Rootbound, Mandle and Sinitrena are joint winners.

You may work together how you see fit to decide on the next FWC theme.

Keep voting guys!

I realised today that we haven't had more than two entries at all this year.

Between January and October we've had an average of 1.8 entries. August's experiment of hosting the jam concurrently on Itch.io failed to increase numbers.

What is keeping people away?
I understand finding time is hard for a lot of people but there must be something else at play.

Are people not seeing/checking the theme at the beginning of each month?

Are the themes themselves not exciting enough? Too specific, too generic?

I'm interested to know if anyone has any thoughts as to what puts them off and what might entice them to have a go.

Cheers.

Also, definitely start the process earlier. Nominations in the first two weeks of January, votes until late January at the latest, ceremony (or results) in the first week of February.

I agree that it needs to be earlier, but your timeline is extremely optimistic indeed. I think a more reasonable target is to have the ceremony in about late March / early April, but that is for the team to say.

While I do see the logic in putting programming in with game design for streamlining purposes, it does seem a shame not to shine a spotlight on those games which do incredible things under the hood, especially if a game has a dedicated coder who isn't the lead designer.

One way to approach this could be to have another panel award called something like 'Best technical achievement in a game" to acknowledge a particularly great bit of programming. I realize there could be a bit of crossover with Best Innovation, but that mainly deals with things related to the engine/editor or the website/community, whereas a "Technical Achievement" award would only pertain to a game or part of a game.

I pretty much agree with what @LimpingFish said. If the wider community were only asked to vote for one or two awards, it might make it feel less daunting and will encourage more voters. It might be worth trying once anyway to see how it goes.

The only issue I can see is realistically expecting a panel of jurors to have played all of the games. Plus there could be more risk of bias, if one of the jurors is close friends with (or a massive Stan of) a particular dev.

[Earlier ceremony]

I have a few thoughts:

Earlier ceremony
I do think having the ceremony earlier would help keep people interested. Last year it was right at the end of May, and I think that is rather late.

One idea is to set the date in stone earlier on so that we all know when to look forward to it and have more of a build up.

Better banners
I don't think the red text banners at the top of the forum are as effective as they could be. They're supposed to be noticeable and remind/inform us, and they do at first, but they soon just become easy to scroll past, which is bad when the text changes for the next stage of the process.

I suggest a more engaging and eye-catching banner, not just in the forum but on the main website, too, all building to that set date mentioned earlier.

Separate MAGGIES
Traditionally, the MAGGIES winner is announced as part of the AGS Awards ceremony. But one option would be to have this announcement a little earlier. It could help by giving people something exciting to whet their appetites in the build-up to the main awards. And the MAGGIES winner could still be announced during the main ceremony, even if the winner has already been declared a month or so prior.

More forgiveness
I think there is sometimes a pressure to have played every game in a category before voting in it. I can't be the only one who has decided against voting in a category because I wasn't able to play all the games in it. While this should definitely be encouraged, I think we should be more forgiving in this regard.

For MAGGIES in the last couple of years I have tried to include links to video play through for anyone too busy to download and play all the games. I'm trying to get this sorted even earlier for next year, so that every entry will have a video to watch. Maybe something similar could be done with all the AGS Award nominees.

Of course nothing beats actually playing the games and this should absolutely be encouraged, but if less people can feel dissuaded from voting then it should help keep the overall buzz alive.


Anyway, those are just some thoughts. Feel free to pick and choose the best bits. Thank you to the Awards team for all your great efforts.

[Vertices and Vagaries]

Thanks for all the entries, everyone.

It's now time to vote.

The entries are:

Vertices and Vagaries by Rootbound
Topping the Triangle by Mandle
Of the Creation of the Pyramids by Sinitrena
Three's a Crowd by Baron

Please vote using the poll above, but feel free to share your votes in the thread. Feedback is very much encouraged.

[Super Author Simulator 2023]

The time for voting is now.

Please vote using the poll at the above by November 17th

	Super Author Simulator 2023 by RootBound
]	The Weird Thing Under The Bed by Mandle