Messages

A very good Czech-French animation titled La Planete Sauvage sticks to mind, though. It has a decent story, but the atmosphere is nothing short than brutal:

I've seen this movie and recommend it.

Hm. I can't seem to get this to run on my mac even using Windows Parallel (yes I'm a mac user now). I will try to get it working, but if not I won't be able to take part.

Worst case, you can still join using a regular IRC client (even a webclient will do). Would be a pity if you missed out on this!

[March 30 at 20:00 GMT]

The ceremony will take place on
March 30 at 20:00 GMT

There will be a beta of the client out about a week before the date for public testing. Details to follow.

Congratulations! I like what both games made of the theme 

[Voting has ended!]

Voting has ended!

Thanks to everyone who played the nominated games and voted.

As every year, the results will be revealed in a ceremony using a special client. There are going to be quite a few new features this year so it is really worth joining. To decide on a date when the ceremony will be held, I created a doodle. Please let us know which days you will be able to join. This also helps me finding presenters. As a time I suggest 20:00 GMT (I hope I got this correct in the Doodle, please let me know if not).

Participate in the Doodle here

@VampireWombat:

Spoiler

Are you referring to the backgrounds?
It's about the inside. AFAIR the rooms were huge compared to the amount of furniture.

[close]

[Last few hours!]

Last few hours!

@Durq

Spoiler

I tried to hide behind the wrong bush at the beginning. And then I needed several tries when escaping the house.

[close]

Played and voted! I like how you both interpreted the theme differently but really funny.

New Kid Gotta Steal Somethin

Spoiler

The character sprites are great and the costume hilarious but the backgrounds felt a bit empty. The puzzles were mostly trial and error for me. It felt a bit unfinished.

[close]

Thrymly Disguised

Spoiler

Great graphics and hilarious costume. The puzzle with the lock was actually quite difficult but I liked that. In the carriage scene I was not sure if I should collect the small birds or not. It was clever that I had to use my weapon to slay the dragon. It's a pity that it was a bit rough around the edges with missing interaction responses. The voice acting added to the fun. The screen with the hammer that was shown between scenes was great.

[close]

Regarding both games:

Spoiler

I thought it was a funny coincidence that both games had scenes where you could die with auto-save.

[close]

I voted for

Spoiler

Thrymly Disguised

[close]

Remember, you don't have to vote in every category. If you didn't have enough time to play all non-adventure games, just skip it and vote for the rest. Or if you just can't decide which game has the best puzzles, vote for all the other categories.

I vote for josiah1221.

[cat]

I only found one ending, which I guess makes sense for a regular commute, but it was a slight disappointment given the illusion of choice.
...
But, in the end, I guess that misses the point of the story: that small things are different on a commute if you choose them to be, but basically it's always the same. 

I also almost went with cat for capturing the subdued drudgery of the daily commute, but in the end I'm a sucker for stormy action scenes.   

Best Atmosphere: cat with A to B (What can I say, I like trains)
Best Branching Plot: cat with A to B (What can I say, I like trains)

I have to admit, my story was more an experiment than an adventure. I wanted to create a scene where tiny choices can change the atmosphere and feeling. I'm glad that you found the essence of my entry and that you liked the atmosphere.


About the other entries:

Frodo You were the only one who told the story from a 3rd person view which might be difficult but you made it work. However, the mix and match of ancient Greece but 17th century, Egyptian gods and Italian names left me confused instead of immersed. I also didn't like that the information that might have helped me to make a decision was only presented after the decision but then copied to both branches. The time leap was an interesting idea, but I didn't buy the love story, it was just too sudden and also happened if I didn't spend the afternoon with him.

Baron Exciting setting, I like that you could visit various scenes that are totally different but at the same time all the same. The writing is great, every scene is described in much detail and creates a great atmosphere. The Sgruck is a powerful character. I like that one end scene is totally different depending on whether you took the girl with you or not. Decisions are a bit random, though.

WHAM Branching-wise, this is the complete opposite to my story. I like how the story fans out and the vast amount of totally different endings. The main character is also awesome. You don't know anything about him or her, but still you are soaked in by the charismatic personality, just like the people on the square.

My votes would have been:
Best Character: WHAM
Best Atmosphere: Baron
Best Writing: Baron
Best Branching Plot:WHAM

Which means my votes wouldn't have changed the result anyway.
Thanks Sinitrena for the topic! IIRC this was my first Fortnightly Writing Competition.

1st > Flugeldufel
2nd > VampireWombat
3rd > Cassiebsg 4

*bump*

5 days left! How is everyone doing?

Sorry, I didn't manage to play all stories yet. I hope the thread will stay open a few more days so I can add my comments.

I vote for Jack's Mr. Bean homage. It made me crack up.

I agree with Baron. Not reading every branch is part of the experience. I once heard about a game with lots of decision and branches, where the author wants people to play it only once, because what they get is THEIR ending and experience.

I think reading two branches, as suggested by Baron, is a good idea. Reading each and every branch is not enjoyable but work. My story is very short with very few branches, but I'd rather have people experience it once (or maybe twice if they feel like they are missing out something) and then tell me what they chose and how they felt afterwards.

How is everyone doing so far? Remember, February is a short month 

The award is decided by a committee where members change every year. I assume that you could post suggestions, but usually the committee has no shortage of suitable candidates and deciding on a single person is sometimes very difficult.

Here is a list of all nominated games sorted by nomination count:

Lamplight City	11
Unavowed	10
The Knobbly Crook	8
Commissar's Contrapasso	7
Detective Gallo	7
Football Game	4
Wilfred:2088 [MAGS Feb. 2018]	4
Tales From The Outer Zone: Cyborg Seppuku	3
Racist [MAGS]	2
The Shaft	2
Adventure: Welcome to the Genre	1
BlindSweeper	1
Don't Ice Your Cool	1
Echo in the Clouds (Demo)	1
Lab Rat Maze!	1
Space Tunneler Deluxe	1
Subterra (DEMO)	1
Tales From The Outer Zone: The Goat Crone	1
The Clockwork Labyrinth	1
The Rat Pack (MAGS version)	1