Messages

It looks snow amazing!

Voted!

I'm looking forward to playing all of the entries! If you have something, keep going. You can do it! 

Thank you, all.

I'm embarrassed to win during a month of such stellar participation. Each entry was superb, and I think they are all winners. My comments are on the game pages.

I was tempted to not make a pick (I couldn't decide), but I finally voted for:

Spoiler

The Cat Case

All of the entries had merit. So well done! However, I really liked every aspect of this game: look, story, world-building, and mechanic. Please keep working on it!

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I wanted to get back into AGS and do a MAGS (I haven't touched AGS since working on DHAMSB). I was thinking about the theme of snow, playing around with the idea of something that would have been a lot like Ice Station Zero, but then the idea hit me. I think I watch too many movies/shows that are like this game. 

There are many things about The Cabin that were experimental. I wanted to see if I could use WSL to make a solid workflow that would iron out a few sore spots of AGS development. Also, I wanted to see if, by using real time and real time scripting, I could approximate the FPP Adventures that were popular from ~1998-2008. I'll start a post somewhere on the boards to give all the details of the experiment another time. I'll also post the backstory either in a spoiler tag, or as a recorded "Interview" with the protagonist when I get around to voicing the game.

[EDIT] Racoon posted while I was writing. Thanks, Racoon! I'll still post this as a complete guide for making the tool.

How do I make the tool that I need for making the fire?

I need something heavy.

Spoiler

It's too bad you don't have a mallet or sledge hammer. However, there's a heavy block of wood under the shelves in the pantry that has a hole in it. You could use it to make one.

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I can't seem to click it. How do I reach it?

Spoiler

Look at the lower shelf. The block is to the right of the step stool.

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I have that heavy item. How do I use it?

Spoiler

You need a handle to provide leverage.

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I have one. It was once a part of that other thing. How do I use it with the heavy item?

Spoiler

It slides through the hole, because the hole is just a little too big. A nice metal shim would provide strength and tension.

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I don't have anything like that. Where can I find one?

Spoiler

Look carefully at the washboard. One of the iron bars is loose. It is a partly flat bar that would serve to provide tension and strength for a handle.

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That's a bit contrived!

Spoiler

My apologies. You're correct. In my only defense, the puzzles in these games are often a bit contrived. How fun would it be if there were simply an ax sitting next to the log? 

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Admitting some of the flaws while talking with CaptainD, I said, "I want to say that there's some pixel hunting in this game, but at 640x400, I can't say it's 'pixel' hunting, per say. Let's call it 'hotspot hunting'" 

Spoiler

I hope you find the heavy block. Send me a message if you're still stuck, or post here, of course. Shadow1000 made it to the end.

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I'm really enjoying these games!

Spoiler

Heading onto the path, turn right, go forward, go forward...and then if you look left or right and turn front again, it jumps you back to the first "go forward" spot.  If you don't turn, you can proceed straight to the wolf just fine.

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Can't wait to play the rest!

Patched! Now there's a 1.0.4. Thanks for playing.

I'm looking forward to playing these games sometime this weekend!

This looks amazing! I can already imagine this turning into something fun.

To offer the requested "critics lounge" advice:

I think for the next revision, work on the clouds and mountains. Mute the color and detail on both of them.

If these are all the colors of your palette:

For the mountains, pick one or two of the colors that you're using in your palette with a little more white (light grey, light green). Remove the green pixels, and make them more flat (much less detail).

For the clouds, skip the blue interior pixels, and maybe use more of your lightest blue in the sky with the grey blue in the clouds to give them more depth (less of the brighter white -- just use that as a  highlight).

Again, very, very nice backgrounds. I like were this is going!

[Why can't you remember a time before the snow started falling?]

Why can't you remember a time before the snow started falling?

The Cabin is a short, first person, point and click, mystery adventure. Why is this cabin here? Better yet, why are you here? Nothing seems right. Your memory is impaired. What's going on?

Awesome game! I played for quite a long time and it's incredible how much detail there is in descriptions when right clicking. I found the journal but have no clue where the satchel would be.

Spoiler

I saw all the hints about it falling off the hook when it broke but it's not anywhere obvious in that area.

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I probably played for about 40 minutes mostly looking for the satchel to no avail. I stopped when the game crashed when I right clicked the stepstool.

Thank you for the positive comments!

On the one hand I wish the bug you found hadn't existed (I guess none of us tried that), but on the other hand, I am glad that you mentioned it. It's been patched (the_cabin_1_0_3.zip)

"Finding the inventory" was a part of the experimental nature of the game. A risky idea, to be sure. One of the things that bothers me when I play point and click adventures is that I tend to just quickly fill my inventory in the first few minutes ("click and grab"). I thought, "What if finding the 'inventory' was the first challenge?" It may be too fiddly of an idea.

Parts of the the first puzzle are a bit fiddly, but there is more to the game than first meets the eye. I heard squeals of delight from some of our play testers, and I hope others will endure.

A comment on what you mentioned in your spoiler tag:

Spoiler

You were on the trail of finding the satchel by looking at the broken hook. The satchel was too heavy, and it broke the hook. The player mentions that there aren't that many other places to store things in the cabin. The satchel is in one of those locations.

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The location of the satchel:

Spoiler

The satchel is under the bed. You can look under the bed from the closeup view of the larger chair.

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Another way is to create a deck and shuffle it. That gives you a little more control on the probability.

[the_cabin_1_0_2.zip]

@TheBitPriest - only just downloaded it, but just to say I saw the message about needing to be run windowed and notice that you've moved the winsetup file so it can't easily be changed. Unfortunately it defaulted to fullscreen for me so I had to manually move the winsetup file back and tick that 'windowed' box. Not that much hassle, but assume you meant to set it to run windowed by default before moving the setup file.

Sorry about that... I thought we straightened out the settings.

Sadly, the game's videos are touchy, and I didn't have enough time to work out a better solution. 

There is a the_cabin_1_0_2.zip. This is the one that you want.

I moved winsetup.exe, because the very first thing one of my play-testers did was open it and change it to fullscreen, causing the game to freeze.    I put it back. Just know that the game will not work in fullscreen mode.

[Why can't you remember a time before the snow started falling?]

Why can't you remember a time before the snow started falling?

The Cabin is a short, first person, point and click, mystery adventure. Why is this cabin here? Better yet, why are you here? Nothing seems right. Your memory is impaired. What's going on?

The Cabin is a proof-of-concept game created in 15 days for the November 2020 AGS monthly adventure game challenge.

Get it here:

AGS Games page: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2494-the-cabin/
Itch.io: https://thebitpriest.itch.io/the-cabin

Instructions:

• Left click to interact and Right click to examine (examine all the things!)
• W, A, D or Arrow Keys to move (forward, left and right)
• F5 to save
• F9 to restore
• Control-Q to quit

First hint: find the journal and satchel before anything else.

Finished! Woot!

It's playable from start to finish, and hopefully, it makes sense. I'll still take the extra day to play it a few more times, smooth out any kinks, and then have it hosted somewhere.

Nice. I just signed-in to say, "I'm still in for MAGS, and will have something posted by the end of the day..."

...I'll still push to have it done, but...

...this will give me a chance to actually test it, and maybe, just maybe, iron-out a wrinkle or two in the narrative. 

Again: This game is a bit of an experiment. I'm just throwing in assets from here and there. The idea was arguably too much to have started on the 15th. It's going to lack the polish of a "second take revision." Plus, I've had to take a short-cut by making some videos to get the player more quickly to the end. Apologies for all of that... 

Plus, I miss doing "Captain Disaster comedy;" this is more serious. I've had to bite my tongue, so to speak, when I've been tempted to throw in the self-referential gags. Myself as "the player," however, is making fun of this as I create each element. 

In all, thanks for MAGS. It has been good to be motivated to get back into AGS after a bit of a hiatus.

"I  think I can... I think I can..."

Working hard.

Remember, this is very experimental. I'm cobbling things together and racing for the finish line.

:fingers crossed:

Hey all!

I'm pretty well into a game, and I might be able to pull it off by the 30th.

I started it on the 15th. So, I won't feel too bad if I don't have it finished by next Monday. 

It's ambitious, a little bonkers in scope, but mostly an experiment. I currently have 55 rooms with over 40 more to go, but that's mostly because I'm trying a few new techniques. The gameplay, while not completely foreign to AGS, is not typical of the classic Sierra/LucasArts game. It's still retro, but it's a first-person adventure. I won't say that it's like Mist, The 7th Guest or some other similar game. They're better. However, my plan is to approximate one of those games.

I'm cutting corners, but if I can effectively convey the story before the end of next weekend, I'll submit it in "The 11th Hour" ( see what I did there?  you classic adventure enthusiasts...   )

@TheBitPriest - I like your thinking. Saying that, if we were going to have a mix of broad themes and specific challenges, why don't we let the topic setter be the one to decide each week whether or not (or how strictly) to have a ‘original art only' rule?

I think that could work. However, the reason I suggested alternating between broad themes and specific challenges was:

1. Participants could anticipate the scope of the contest ("June is here in a week... I can expect a broad theme. I'm in!")
2. The contest wouldn't be weighted too heavily in one direction or the other.

Many good ideas...

What if we did something like this: Intentionally vague, broad topics on even months and specific gameplay/story challenges on odd months.

Broad topics would restricted to newly created art assets, while gameplay/story challenges would allow preexisting backgrounds and animations.

For example, in December the theme may be "Any game about winter or holiday," while in January it would be "A game with multiple player characters that have different strengths who work together to solve a mystery."

If you tend to like stories or interesting gameplay challenges, you know that every other month, MAGS is your place to shine.  If you prefer more freedom in game design, but like to paint and animate, you know when to set aside some time for a MAGS.

So, it would still be *M*AGS (occurring monthly), people would be able to anticipate the scope of the project based on the month, and game makers with different strengths would know when to participate.

For some people, it would be an every-other-month event. Others may still like to participate in them all.

Plus, we could try it then reevaluate... It doesn't really change the contest very much.

What do you think?

On the one hand, MAGS has some issues:

• The allotted time can be a problem (only one month)
• Timing can be a problem (being ready to start at the beginning of the month)
• The challenge of creating all assets from scratch can be tough if you lack skill in either backgrounds or animation.

On the other hand, these issues have some benefits:

• The need to do a game in a month requires the developer to narrow the focus.
• The start times are very predicable.
• Gathering assets outside of your skill set fosters teamwork.
• Requiring original assets results in original games.

But still... a few ideas to pick from... I wouldn't imagine implementing all four of those changes.  Just continuing the discussion...

• Add categories to the voting system, instead of finding one winner (best original art, best animation, best game, etc.)


• Allow RON or other freely available assets, but categorize the game as such (best gameplay, best original art, and so forth), or let the "market" decide (if it's the best game ever made with Sam and Max since Sam and Max, then fine, otherwise mega-down-vote for making another Sam and Max game).
• Announce the topic one month earlier allowing one month for design and one month for implementation.   
  OR...
• Allow all of the winners between the months of X and Y - 1 to plan the 11 game topics from Y + 1 to X' for the next year.  Announce all of the topics in month Y, giving people the freedom to pick a month that they want to join and plan for it (take a week off, gather a team, sketch a few thumbnails, practice a new skill ... but no actual game code or assets). With this idea we should keep the "all original" restriction.