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[Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week]

Thanks, Shadow.

Indeed the winner is Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week by newwaveburritos. Congratulations. I’ll PN you in the coming days about choosing a topic for April.

â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"-

MAGGIES 2021

Thanks to all those who participated this month.
If you haven’t already, it would be great if you could head over to the MAGGIES thread and vote for your best three among the 2021 MAGS winners. This will decide the best MAGS game of the year, and the winner will be announced as part of the upcoming AGS Awards ceremony.

Thanks everyone.

I also got today’s (272) in two goes. Got very lucky with my first guess

Wordle 272 2/6*

🟩⬛🟨⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

It’s only my third 2-guess win in 55 tries, but I so far have 100% win record.

I generally mix it up with my starting word but it always contains two vowels.

People keep calling this Josh Wardle guy the “inventor” of Wordle. But I’ve been playing this exact game with my students as a filler activity for at least 5 years now. I can’t even remember where I got it from but I’m kicking myself that I didn’t turn it into a web app and sell it to the New York Times for several million dollars.

I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head.

It can be quite easy to assume a game is bugged when you are certain that you’ve exhausted every possibility. A recent example for me was playing Slasher’s In Search of Marina*. It’s only a short game with a few rooms so it didn’t take long to do a complete sweep, clicking every possible hotspot, trying every item on everything and exhausting all conversations with NPCs, but still I was stuck. I was this close to PMing Slasher to tell him his game was broken when something flickered and I realized I had missed a hotspot after all. And sure enough, clicking that hotspot triggered an important item to appear in another room.

This kind of thing happens all the time and I’m usually quite quick to assume it must be the game’s fault, rather than mine.

^{(*for MAGGIES. Please play the games and vote!)}

Dunno what strange stuff happened here, but anyone played 2? I've not heard good things about it...

Nah. There seemed to be a bit of hype up to the release and then it all went a bit quiet. I didn’t hear great things either, but I also didn’t hear anything too damning. I suspect it’s a perfectly fine game with little to write home about. I don’t expect many people were expecting to have their minds blown.

I’ve got an idea and have brainstormed it a little, but I don’t think I’m gonna be able to sit down and write it. We’ll see.

[RESULT]

Voting is over and the results have been announced as follows:

RESULT

This year, there were two joint winners and two joint runners up:

Joint 1st place
Breakfast on Trappist-1 by FormosaFalanster and Lorenzo
Santa Claus in: A Flight to Remember by OneDollar

Joint 2nd place
One More Fathom by WHAM
I Rented a Boat by eri0o


Thank you to everyone who made a game for MAGS in 2021. And thank you to everyone who played the games and voted, rated, commented, and otherwise got involved. You all rock.

Now it's time to decide the best of the best. The cream of the crop. The cherry on top, the icing on the cake, the toad in the hole... Now I'm just hungry.

It's time to cast your mind back to 2021 and vote for your favourite games among the winning MAGS monthly entries. There are 11 entries to choose from (as we had no entries in November).

Voting is simple. Just choose your best three games no particular order. The game with the most tallied votes will be the winner.

A few requests before we proceed.

1) Please try to have played as many of the games as possible (preferably all of them). If you really don't have time to play every game, some of them have videos you can watch instead. (Keep an eye on this thread)
2) Only one submission per person.
3) Please vote for games based on their own merits (visual, enjoyment, puzzles etc.). Don't just vote for your friend or fellow countryman's games.
4) You do not have to be logged into a Google account but you will be asked for your AGS forum name for verification purposes.


Click here to vote
Voting lasts until midnight (BST) on Wednesday, April 6th The winner will be announced as part of the forthcoming AGS Awards ceremony.

	January Under the Sea In Search of Marina by Slasher and Racoon		February Greed One more Fathom by WHAM
	March Journey I Rented a Boat by eri0o Watch		April The Cure What a Whopper by Slasher
	May Growing Breakfast on Trappist-1 by FormosaFalanster Watch		June Into the Breach Belly of the Beast by Slasher Watch
	July The Bride Castle Escape: Chapter 1 by fernewelten		August By Hook or Crook Guy: By Hook or by Crook by remz
	September Scales Scales Training Game by heltenjon		October Halloween with an Unexpected Guest Halloween with an Unexpected Guest by heltenjon
	November Oops! No Entries this month		December Gift Trouble Santa Clause in A Flight to Remember by OneDollar

Any takers?

Sorry for the delay.

Here are the results:
Mandle: 29
Baron: 25
Sinitrena: 21

Update with my own feedback:

Mandle: This was a really nice story. It's a well-captured feel-good snapshot of the experience of backpacking in a distant land. You really smell the sea air as you read. And the misunderstanding itself, far from being a problem for the main character, is actually the best thing that ever happened to him. In fact, 'problems' are the only thing really missing from the story. I think if you'd added some obstacles, an antagonist or a bit of tension (like when his clothes are stolen, maybe instead of laughing it off, he actually has to chase the people who took them because in his pocket was something that belonged to the old man).

Sinitrena: I enjoyed this one, too. It took me longer than it probably should have done to realise Tim and Tom were branches, but I enjoyed the descriptions and the image of the boys playing with the sticks and the idea that the sticks might be conscious of what's happening, and even enjoy it.  I think the story might have had more of an emotional kick if it had been less ambiguous about which stick had broken. We know one of them died, but the fact that we don't know who takes the emotion out of it a little, for me. whereas if it had been clearly Tom who died, I think that would have been more tragic.

Baron and the folks: I love that you wrote this collaboratively with your parents. Are they into writing, themselves? I loved the image of these two bumbling bank-robbers with all this money realising they couldn't spend it. I knew the joke was coming when I saw launder in italics, but it was still funny. And then you just ran with it. Mrs Phong is a great character. And better still for the fact that we don't really know if she was actually trying to help or was setting them up, though I suspect the latter (The title suggests that these thieves were 'Taken to the Cleaners' by Mrs Phong). I demand a Mrs Phong spin-off series.

Right'o. Sorry for the delay. It's about time to get the voting going.

Here are the games. Please vote using the poll above

	Prep Time by heltonjon
	Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week by Newwaveburritos
	Castle Escape: Chapter 2 by Fernewelten

[Topic: The FoolGuidelines set by: BrewtonDeadline: March 31]

Topic: The Fool
Guidelines set by: Brewton
Deadline: March 31

The Fool represents new beginnings, having faith in the future, being inexperienced, not knowing what to expect, having beginner's luck, improvisation and believing in the universe.

Shakespearean fools are usually clever peasants or commoners that use their wits to outdo people of higher social standing.

Fools are a pretty common trope in adventure games and there's a lot of room to play with. Roger Wilco and Guybrush Threepwood are two such examples, kind of stumbling their way to success.

This isn't limited to characters who are idiots. Much wisdom can come from those considered fools. Socrates was called a fool because he questioned conventional thought. Diogenes the Cynic was another fool philosopher who was unafraid to challenge authority and societal norms.

You could make a game where your goal is to fool someone, or you could fool the player with an unreliable narrator. Perhaps a counterfeiter minting coins made of fool's gold.







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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks for the entries guys. Some cool-looking stuff.
I'll rig up the voting soon, so get playing.

People who whisper. It’s not cool. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are actually whispering about the other person in the room or not. If you are whispering to someone else and there’s another person in earshot, then you are a monster.

I’m not a paranoid person (usually - though I have my moments), but today two colleagues whispered something while I was going about my business. When I turned around, they looked a little shifty. Were they whispering about me? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t actually care. The fact that they whispered loud enough for me to hear that they were whispering at all is just rude.

How are the entries coming along, guys?

Just a few days left.

I also recently bought a new laptop with Windows 11 after my last one died. No problems with it so far.

I downloaded the game the other day and was enjoying it very much. However, I died at a particular point and the 'load game' dialogue came up but there were no saves to choose from even though I had saved the game several times before this point. Is this a bug or a feature?

[25 points each to play with]

Thanks for the stories, folks.
Voting is now open until Feb 27th

This time, I think we'll go back to sharing votes, rather than giving a score out of ten. However, rather than only ten points to dish out, you now have 25 points each to play with. This should make it a little easier to express your opinion through the points you give and also decrease the chances of a tie.

Vote by PMing me your point distributions by the 27th.

By the way, anyone reading this is encouraged to vote, not just participants.

Happy reading.

[Signal Loss]

Voting is over and the winner is:

Signal Loss by Brewton (not Breton, sorry for the typo)

Well done mate. I’ll be in touch soon about setting the theme for March.

I go through phases where I dream a lot (or just remember them more). These days, I’m having such a phase, but they’ve been some quite disturbing dreams. One I had the other night left me shaken and I nearly cried remembering it today.

It was really quite nasty so I don’t want to describe it here. I’ve had some disturbing dreams in my life but this one was like my brain was testing me to see what it could get away with.

I’m glad for this thread though. Dreams are fascinating, even the messed up ones. It’s become common for people to say it’s “boring” to hear about other people’s dreams, but I don’t think 90% of those people actually believe that. They just say it because it’s become a thing you say which makes it sound like you have an opinion when you’re just copying what seems to be the general consensus. It’s much like the people who say their favourite (or least favourite) word is “moist”. Well done, you’re the 168th person to tell me that, this year.

I think I do, indeed, need a few more days. If you could be so kind?

Granted. The new deadline is Feb 20.

I'm working on something, but I'll need a bit more time (and even then I'm not sure I'll finish it - I'm not exactly healthy right now).

If you need an extra few days just say the word. Hope you feel better soon.