Messages

Well done to everyone!  I really enjoyed playing them and I wish I could have taken part.  I was really happy to see so many different uses of the AGS engine. 

My personal favorite of the bunch was probably 24 Hours.  It wasn't the best in any individual category (For me: Graphics=Brooklyn, Writing=Science!, Scripting=Brooklyn, Puzzles=TotM, Music=Brooklyn), but it did them all well.  Consequently, I had the best all-around gaming experience with 24 Hours.

Well done, AJA!

Sorry, according to the bible, you can only sell your daughters into slavery.  Guess you're out of luck, Nick.

THREE

[enough]

JJ, did you get that condescending prick attitude from your loving mom or your loving dad?

P.S.  Since I am desperate for validation in any form in my life, I tried out your "Are you a good person?" test because I firmly believe that some guy on the internet will be able to, without having ever met me, give me a simple yes/no answer that will forever put the question to rest.  But when the first page of the test posed the question, "Are you good enough to go to heaven?" I threw up just a little and had to stop.  Must've been my broasted-fetus dinner.
P.P.S.  I slept with your parents last night.

I'm only two stars in and I'm freaking blown away.

However, it should be mentioned that most of these sorts of things are made, not using a bot like Darth suggested, but using an emulator that allows you to actually slow down the speed of the game to a crawl.  It makes all of your reflexes nearly perfect.  So this guy could have actually played the game at 1/10 speed and taken nearly 3 hours to beat it.  You can also save state and restore if you make a mistake.

Then, the emulator will let you replay the full play through back at normal speed making it look like you are a god at the game.

It's still freaking cool to watch!

Last competition, some people were worried about giving critiques before the voting finished because they might influence the vote.  But as one of the contestants from last time, I remember how impatient I was for comments.  So, I've decided to write comments for each of the games in spoiler tags.  Only read these if you've voted.

I haven't finished some of the games.  I'll update this if I finish them and find something that needs to be commented on.

24 Hours:

Spoiler

This game was really fun and original.  I think I died three times before solving it, so it wasn't too difficult.  And since it only takes five minutes for a playthrough, it's a very enjoyable experience.  The graphics were appropriate and colorful.  My one complaint was that the meters on the upper left were a little hard to read.  Overall, a great job!  Unique, fun, and well scripted!

[close]

Bad Luck:

Spoiler

(I didn't finish this game: Got stuck) Bad Luck isn't anything new or interesting.  From what I saw (I got stuck a short ways in) it's just your standard stuck in a room, use the inventory in sometimes-illogical ways to escape game.  However, the game was fairly well made with decent animations, music, and graphics.

[close]

Blackmail in Brooklyn:

Spoiler

Gee, I wonder who made this...  Excellent graphics and a fun and original use of the AGS engine.  The gameplay needs some tweaking.  I found the punching to be a little random.  It was just wait for the guy to get close then hold down the button and hope that you hit him first... Kicking seemed to be to slow to be useful, and the range of the special move made it pretty weak. It would be nice if there were some powerups to gain back life along the way.  I'm really just nitpicking a fun little game.  Nice job!

[close]

Heart of Abraxas:

Spoiler

(I didn't finish this game: I got stuck and then a bug made me quit) I also am quite sure I know who made this.  Nice use of the panorama module.  The game is interesting but frustrating.  And why can't I save?  The graphics are neat though.  I like the sketchy style.  The atmosphere is also well crafted with a nice boost by Nik's music.  But I wish that the puzzles were less "use everything on everything else and hope that it works" and WAY less pixel-huntish.  Also, I somehow triggered a bug.  I was trying to figure out what to do with some objects in my inventory and suddenly my inventory was full of things that I had never picked up and things that I thought I had lost (the shoe).  I'm not sure what caused it, but I had to quit.  Too bad I didn't have a save to revert to.  Again, please let the player save their game...

[close]

Illusions 1:

Spoiler

(I didn't finish this game: Too frustrating) The game is nearly unplayable.  It's not anything new or original: Stuck in a creepy house.  The puzzles are quite frustrating thanks to your hard to find hotspots and impossible to use cursors.  Please, PLEASE put a dot or a crosshair on those cursors so that I know where exactly it is that I'm pointing at.  Also, the inventory is next to unusable thanks to the way all the items pile on top of each other.  Lots of bugs for such a short game.  I hope these comments don't discourage the game maker, but help him get some ideas to improve his upcoming game.

[close]

Locked:

Spoiler

Again, an escape from the room game.  Logical, and easy puzzles.  Pretty short.  Bizarre text.  Not a lot more to say.  I found it mildly funny and mildly enjoyable for the short time it took to beat.

[close]

Science!:

Spoiler

I quite enjoyed Science.  Excellent writing.  Puzzles that are logical in their own special way...
edit: Doh!  I get it! Great ending!

[close]

Spacemaze:

Spoiler

Adding keyboard control and upping the movement speed would go a long way towards improving this game.  There's no reason for all those other cursor modes, so get rid of those.  Using the "Walk to" function allows you to click quite a distance into the maze and the AGS pathfinding algorithm will find it's own way through.  Not that the maze was very difficult to begin with.  If you made it keyboard controlled and added a bunch more levels with some interesting puzzles (warp tiles, enemies to dodge, some simple puzzles) you could have a fun little game on your hands.  Oh, and you might want to use "You won!" instead of "You are win!"...  Just a tip.

[close]

The Tomb of the Moon:

Spoiler

Yay!  Well done.  Cute graphics.  A slick, usable, and fun user interface.  Logical puzzles.  A well programmed slider puzzle.  I loved that you could get information about something just by pointing at it, more information by right clicking, and EVEN MORE information for some things by using the notebook.  In short, I would love to see this expanded into a larger game.  Nice job.

[close]

EDIT To Scotch:

When we're voting, does "Not Played" count as "Not Applicable."  For some of these games, one or more of these scores does not apply.  For example, SpaceMaze and Brooklyn have no puzzles (though I suppose we could interpret "Puzzles" as "Gameplay") and SpaceMaze has no Writing.  I would hate for these games to be rated as the sum/average of these five categories when the categories apply to each game in different capacities.

Worried about AOL claiming the copyright of every file and idea that passes through its messenging system?  The solution is simple:

1) Make an .iso file of your Windows XP installation CD
2) Send the .iso file to yourself via IM
3) AOL claims ownership of Windows
4) Sit back and watch the legal fireworks display!


Edited because it's!=its

Dude!  A few nights ago I was totally thinking about Japan!  I think I can read your girlfriend's mind too!

Luckily for you, End User License Agreements are not legally binding documents.  There has been U.S. court precedence on this, and I would find it for you, if it weren't midnight.

Basically, if you ever made something and the AOL bigwigs claimed ownership over the intellectual property because you sent some files or discussed it via their instant messenger, a judge would just laugh at them.

I thought about this kind of thing before, but decided that the average AGS game's filesize didn't warrant a torrent. 

However, this would rock for the larger games (for instance: Soviet Vonbananasdorf).  Also, I think it would be a great idea to have torrent collections of the best games, or themed collections (The "Escape from..." collection, The "Hey, I'm in jail with no recollection of my past" collection, etc.). 

Or a single torrent containing all the games nominated for the upcoming AGS awards so that people could play them all without hassle before voting!

Nice work!

I'll let people with better pixelling abilities than me critique the art, but I just want to say that the sprite wont work that well with the background.

The vanishing point on the background is way too high for this sprite.  In other words, the background is like a picture taken from a very high place while the car is pictured from the side.  If the car was actually on that background, we'd be able to see quite a bit of the inside.

I like the car, but I'd redraw the background from a lower angle.

[X Times]

What a good resource!  Usually, I hit up flashkit.com for my font needs but this is so much cleaner.  Well done!  The flash previews are great and the design is clean and usable.  Fantastic!

The one suggestion that I would make would be to somehow rearrange the indexed Flash previews so that they didn't take up so much vertical page space.  I'd do this by moving the "Downloaded: X Times" text to the top right under the download button, but not in a place that would get in the way of the preview text.   I'd just like these to be a bit smaller so I could have more previews per page.  (to clarify: I'm talking about the indexed previews, not the front page featured previews, which can take up all the space they want)

Also, is there a reason that your links aren't Firefox "Open in new tab" compliant?  I don't know much about that, scripting-wise, but it always annoys me.  I surf almost exclusively with my middle mouse button now...

EDIT:  Was your disclaimer written by the twinDesign Department of Redundancy Department?

It's gonna be totally hot when you two make out.

*ducks*

Haughty Intellectual?  That's bullshit.  I'm not "haughty."  I'm just smarter than everyone else...

Sorry, taken.

Why all the Gates hate?  He's not so bad.  In fact, he's pretty sexy.  I remember that 1983 Teen Beat photospread that I pinned up on my wall and fantasized about.  I mean check out that manly bulge!

That was intended as an example of a game that -does- have that feature!!!

And I was one of the people who complained about it not being an option in your game until you pointed out that it was...    teh heh...

[*Best Documentation]

I'd like to submit my short OROW competition entry, Anna into the hat for the following categories:

*Best Documentation -- Anna uses a unique Flash-based manual that can detect how far you are in the game and provide an appropriate hint if you're stuck.  It also unlocks some interesting background information that will be increasingly important should a sequel ever be made.

*Best Scripting/Programming -- Anna has a unique pseudo-3d look thanks to heavy use of custom-coded paralax movement.  It also incorporates some rather scripting-heavy puzzles and full keyboard control.

*Best Short Game -- Helm liked it!

*Best Gameplay -- It's definitely original.

*Best Dialogue Writing -- I'd like to refer you to Madmanmunt's comment on the AGS Game's Page:

...while the game achieves a perfect, detached futuristic feel, this is countered by real warmth in the superb script. A heavily philosophical 15 minute introduction introduces us to our two main characters, Hero and the 80% organic computer Anna. That Anna can feel emotions means that her relationship with Hero is complex and compelling. During the introduction it is set out for us as the pair bounce good natured insults off each other during a debate about free will. The script is intelligent and wonderfully observed. It would be easy to ignore the characters in favour of simply setting out the philosophy that Anna has come up with but the game intersperses this weighty dialogue with realistic emotional responses.

Anna is not even a physical presence in the game and yet her relationship with Hero is the most intimately observed and convincing relationship I have run across in an AGs game. The pair lapse into their career dictated roles only when necessary. The rest of the time they are sparking off each other with witty barbs or engaging in emotionally escalating debates. I may be going to far here but I'm sure I even sensed a little sexual tension between the two...

*Best Non-player character -- Anna.

Thanks for your consideration!



Oh, and while I'm at it... Domestic Conspiracy for:

*Best Demo -- It's unique and challenging!  Plus, it has a sweet menu!

I want to get in on this.  I have another wacky idea I want to try out... but arrgh am I busy.  I don't stand a chance of finishing anything presentable in a week.  I'm out.

But I look forward to playing and voting!  I hope to see lots of experimental and weird uses of AGS this time!

Bonus question?  That's not in teh rules!!

Choose a new name that's neither yours nor his (I predictably suggest "Robocop") and change both of your last names to that!  Marriage is all about compromise.