Messages

[That]

try logging in with their username and the password they provided when they registered.

You get a message: “An Error Has Occurred! | Your email address needs to be validated before you can login. Need another activation email?”

That seems to work according to specification! 

(But requesting another email doesn't make another email actually get sent â€" that's not quite according to specification.)

Here's the link to the Facebook posting, in case an Administrator wants to contact the foiled joiner first-hand:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/adventuregamestudio/permalink/10156930934507529/
(You need to be logged into Facebook first before following this link.)

Seemingly, when you register for the board, fill out the questionnaire and the inscription form, the system claims that an "activation link has been sent successfully" but the mail did NOT get sent. And no, it doesn't end up in the spam folder, either.

When you aren't a user yet, it is nigh impossible to report such an issue. There is a "staff list" column in the forum, but you can only see that when you are logged in. So you can't send PM, and there isn't any email address provided you could send a report to, either.

Even if you _are_ a forum member, it's kind of hard to contact the administrators: The _first_ name in the "Administrators" block is Pumaman, and they seem to block PM.

STUCK AT BEGINNING CANT GET ANYWHERE TALKED TO EVERYONE LOOKED EVERYWHERE WHAT DO I DO HELP

When you've exhausted the dialog with the ice cream vendor,

Spoiler

RIGHT-click on the snowman.

[close]

Right-click = "look at" things; left-click = "interact with" things (talk to them, push them, etc.). To right-click means to put the pointer over the thing and click the right mouse button.

Don't try to "look at" things by clicking with the left mouse on them.

[New version]

New version published â€" now with superior Italian swearing due to native speaker input from @LostTrainDude and @lorenzo.
Many improvements in the interactions, particularly in the parlour room.

Download the new version via the AGS Game Database

Many thanks for the feedback so far!

As concerns the graphics and the contents, I'll definitely keep them in mind; I'll probably be able to incorporate improvements of those into the update after the next.

I currently estimate around three dozen downloads and around twice as much views.

[completely new]

Can't help but be reminded of Phil Fish, who rode the 'Jesus, are you ever going to release this thing?!!' to unbelievably glorious heights! 

Thanks for the pointer to this interesting video!

Interestingly, this whole affair was completely new to me. I'd never heard of Phil Fish before in all my life, neither of that game “FEZ”.

I was definitively on this world in 2008, and I definitively owned a computer at that time. Thinking back, I mostly played Adventures, and Caesar III. For casual gaming, I played Flash games, the ones that Armor published for instance; but only occasionally, every few months or so in binge evenings.  And I didn't do Twitter at all.

For Adventures, I strongly preferred the “atmospheric story with puzzles” approach, and apart from the Wadjet Eye games I only considered games with a resolution of at least 800x600. (I hated, hated being told that a five pixel blob was a pair of scissors. )

Apparently, this set of preferences is completely disjunct from FEZ or FEZ-style games. That's the only explanation I can think of.

So this film has given me a lot to think about.

Do you think that the AGS game machine seems to attract an audience that likes a certain type of game, and that other types were better written with another game machine, say Visionnaire?

And how would you characterize games that the AGS machine is suited for?

[title]

Hi folks,

Have a look at the pitch for “Mamma mia!”.

1. What do you think of the game title?
Does it put you off in any way? (In which way does it put you off?)
Is "Mamma mia â€" winter ice cream mayhem" better or worse than "Mamma mia"?

2. What do you think of the screenshot below (top)?
Does it work better or worse than the one beneath it?

3. What do you think of the pitch text?
Does it get you to download the game?
Does it get you to download and play the game?
What is missing in your opinion?
What should be re-ordered or left out?

Bonus question:
4. Does the fact put you off that a game is a MAGS entry or has evolved from a MAGS entry?

[should]

The way 03 is structured it does make little sense, especially as a way to swear.
If you were directly translating from English I *may* be able to give you a better equivalent for it?

Trouble is, the English speakers aren't particularly good at swearing creatively. The most common swear words by far are "f*ck" / "f*cking", “hell”, "bl**dy", "b*st*rd" and "b*tch". Even "d*mn" seems to be an order of magnitude less common than those.

I should have learned a lot of different swears because I was on a British boys'  boarding school at the age of fourteen. But as it turns out, no.
Alas! 🙁

So I've mostly been working from the German language. Creative swearing has fallen out of favour in Germany, too, by now, so in the end I even had to resort to sailor's speak. I reasoned that even though you'd probably only come by those swears in comic books, those swears would at least be commonly known.

So, the original was:
03 â€" “Death and damnation!” â€" „Tod und Teufel!“

What do you think? We could put another “porca” variation in -- “porca miseria!” perhaps?
“Manache!”?

01 "Cazzo!"
02 "Merda!"
03 "Porca miseria!"
04 "Cavolo"
05 "Per l'amor di Dio!"
06 "Non puo' essere vero!"
07 "La mia bella macchina!"
08 "Manache!"
09 "Tutta rotta."
10 "Sono fregato."
11 "Tutta incasinata."
12 "Terribile!"
13 "Non funziona più niente!"
14 "Voglio morire!"
15 "Che casino!"
16 "Completamente fot-tu-ta."
16a "Porca puttana!"
17 "Aiuto! Aiuto! Aiuto!"
18 "E' la fine."
19 "Al diavolo!"
20 "Ora sono incazzato."
21 "Ne ho avuto abbastanza."
22 "Maledizione!"
23 "Sono finito."
24 "Sono spacciato."
25 "Oh, no, no, no!"
26 "Mi ucciderò."
27 "E' andato tutto a puttane."

Well, well, well! You'd think that this is something we'd be able to do in a minute or so. Turns out to be much harder than it looks.

About the barks: …

So would the following list be okay (apart from the fact that swearing isn't okay)?
01 "Cazzo!"
02 "Merda!"
03 "Morte e demonio!"
04 "Cavolo"
05 "Per l'amor di Dio!"
06 "Non puo' essere vero!"
07 "La mia bella macchina!"
08 "Porca puttana!"
09 "Tutta rotta."
10 "Tutta fregata."
11 "Tutta incasinata."
12 "Terribile!"
13 "Tutta fritta."
14 "Voglio morire!"
15 "Terrificante."
16 "Completamente fot-tu-ta."
17 "Aiuto! Aiuto! Aiuto!"
18 "E' la fine."
19 "Al Diavolo!"
20 "Ora sono incazzato."
21 "Ne ho avuto abbastanza."
22 "Maledizione!"
23 "Ho finito."
24 "Sono spacciato."
25 "Oh, no, no, no!"
26 "Mi ucciderò."
27 "E' andato tutto a puttane."

[more than 20,000 (!) views]

Hello,

Have you noticed? There are some forum threads in "Completed Game announcements" that have more than 20,000 (!) views; others published at about the same time have about 150 views, and that's it. Even taking into account that some threads are much longer than others, this must translate into massively different reader amounts.

There must be thousands of readers that open one specific announcement but not another next to it.

What makes this surprising is that the title in that forum is rather constrained by the Board Rules; and all the pictures that a thread may contain are only visible after the thread has already been opened.

How come? What about you yourself: what makes you read some game announcements and ignore others that are right next to them?

The act of opening or NOT opening a game announcement is in and of itself a rudimentary critique: namely, a critique of the way the game is announced and advertised. So I think this forum might give useful insights.

What do you think?

Phew! I hope this is useful!

Wow! Big thanks for the detailed reply!
That really helps a lot!

[General:]

General:

* My character is being very obtuse. I want him to do X, but he stubbornly tries Y, instead.

Spoiler

Right mouse click, right mouse click, right mouse click! There's a good chance that Ego hasn't noticed something that you as a user have noticed, because Ego hasn't Examined it. Remember that your mouse also has a right mouse button!

[close]

Keypad puzzle:

* How do I swap keys?

Spoiler

Let's say you want the 3 to go where the 7 is and the 7 to go where the 3 is. Solution: Click on the 3, the 7, the 3, in order.

It's elementary to swap the empty key with any of the others, of course: Just click on that respective other key.

[close]

* How do I approach the minigame?

Spoiler

One way to do it:

First try to find what each of the columns and rows need to sum up to. Focus on each individual one without minding the respective others. If the sum is too low (high), swap higher (lower) numbers in. See the previous spoiler for swapping any two numbers.

Only when you have deduced all the exact sums, then swap keys around to try and balance each row/column.

Avoid trying the same combinations again and again: Try something different.

If you get the message that some key has stuck, then it is in the correct position; take this as a hint for finding where the others have to go to.

[close]

Ice cream parlour room puzzle:

* How many components of the machine do I need to start?

Spoiler

Five.

[close]

* Where are the starters for the individual components of the machine?

Spoiler

• Air pump - hammer hanging from the box on the left
• Fluffer - button on the window sill
• Vanillizer - grey touch sensor surrounded by the blue puddle of goo
• Conifier - "on" button on the dashboard on the back wall
• Wisdom imbuer - Chain on the front right, blurry.

[close]

* I can't seem to start some component.

Spoiler

Examine it (right mouse click) before interacting with it (left mouse click).

[close]

* I can't start the machine. All the components stop after a while after I start them.

Spoiler

Before you start the individual components, you must hit the ramp up button.

[close]

That button is ...

Spoiler

... in the middle of the dashboard on the right wall.

[close]

* How do I start the machine?

Spoiler

You need to hit the ramp up button and then all the five components in the correct sequence.

[close]

* In what sequence do the individual components need to be activated?

Spoiler

Sorry, this sequence changes on each game run.

[close]

* What's a good way to find that out?

Spoiler

Play a game of Simon Says. For more specific hints, look at the next spoiler.

[close]

* More detailed hints to find that out:

Spoiler

• Have a piece of paper ready so that you can note the sequence bit by bit whilst determining it.
• To determine the first component, hit the Ramp Start button (on the dashboard on the right wall) and then the starter of any of the components. If that was an incorrect component, then the ramp up will fail. In that case, begin again with the ramp up button and another component. Eventually, you will have found the correct first component in the sequence.
• To determine the second component, hit the Ramp Start button and the starter of the component you have determined in step 2. Then hit the starter of any other component. If that letter was an incorrect second component, then the ramp up will fail. In that case, restart the sequence and try another starter for the second component. Eventually, you will have found the correct second component in the sequence.
• Continue in the same vein until you have found all the components.

[close]

* What do I do when I have started all the components?

Spoiler

Don't do anything. After some seconds the game will continue.

[close]

[Note changed download address:]

Note changed download address: I'm moving my game from my personal (limited) webspace, so the download link for the competition will cease to function.
Get the game via the AGS game directory; I'll see to it that its link remains current.
Entry in the AGS Game Database

[Help a hungry customer get an ice cream!]

[C]omplete game with a funny story and some interesting puzzles

Help a hungry customer get an ice cream!

Germans crave for ice cream as soon as the sun is shining -- even when it is freezing and there is snow in the streets. Or so it is said (maybe without justification). 
This is the story of a hungry German that must battle

• an Italian ice cream vendor,
• a crazy helicopter mum
• and outlandish machinery

to get his beloved cone.

Overall playing length: Around an hour.

Features DIY voice acting: If you want to hear what\'s being said, then read the captions aloud! 

Note: Contains Italian swearing; protective Italian parents might want to cover their children\'s ears eyes.

Winner of the MAGS competition for June 2019

Entry in the AGS Game Database
Download via itch.io

[/yabb/]

Hi,

A lot of forum posts contain links that have "/yabb/" in them, e.g. http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=29356.0  This even pertains to sticky posts, for instance the post "Quick Links to Forum Tutorials!" in the Critic's Lounge.

These links are all broken. There must have been a site reorganisation that moved all URLs http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php to the respective URLhttp://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php . But contents of existing posts weren't changed, so all links to older posts were left dangling.

Now I'm no website buff but I seem to recall that websites can have a place for "rewriting rules" or some such. Mainly, if some incoming request asks for an URL of a certain form, reply with the content of a changed URL instead. So wouldn't it be possible enter a rule to rewrite all URLs that contain "/yabb/" automatically to use "/forums/" instead?

That would probably be only one line in one place to repair tons of broken links in one fell swoop.

Some information I turned up with a quick search: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/11/introduction-to-url-rewriting/#how-to-rewrite-urls

Thanks for the feedback!

Spoiler

I appreciated the Italian swearing! Not 100% accurate, but loved it nonetheless

[close]

Thank you! Turns out that this was one of the harder parts that I had to put some work into.

Spoiler

I don't know any Italian at all (apart from “si” and “prego” and stuff), and i don't have any Italian acquaintances. So first off I spent some time doing research into Italian swearing. For instance, one of the first phrases that Germans think of when they think of swearing Italians is “Mamma mia”. I mistrusted that stereotype a lot and looked it up and made up my mind that Italians probably wouldn't want to say that in such a situation.

Then, armed with some dictionaries, online translators and very faded memories of Latin lessons in high school and with a lot of cross-checks, I tried to cobble together some fairly authentic Italian flair. Or swear. 

Some of the things I remained suspicious of:
* I feared  that “macchina” might be mis-interpreted as “car”, but I hoped that the word would be clear in context.
* One source would make me believe that Italians swear in groups of three, but that might just as well be an artifact of the translating algorithm. Do Italians really prefer “Merda! Merda! Merda!” over “Merda!”? In the end, I concluded that my safer bet would probably be to go with single swears.

[close]

Speaking of which and seeing that I'm talking to an Italian, would you mind helping me out and proofread the passage?
Here's the game code:

Spoiler

switch(current_swear)
    {
        case  1: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Cazzo!"); break;
        case  2: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Merda!"); break;
        case  3: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Morte e demonio!"); break;
        case  4: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Cavolo!"); break;
        case  5: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Per l'amor di Dio!"); break;
        case  6: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Non puo' essere vero!"); break;
        case  7: cVendorWin.SayBackground("La mia bella macchina!"); break;
        case  8: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Gesu', culo e filo spinato!"); break;
        case  9: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Tutta rotta."); break;
        case 10: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Tutta cannata."); break;
        case 11: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Tutta incasinata."); break;
        case 12: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Terribile!"); break;
        case 13: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Tutta fritta."); break;
        case 14: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Tutta fregata."); break;
        case 15: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Voglio morire!"); break;
        case 16: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Agghiacciante."); break;
        case 17: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Completamente fot-tu-ta."); break;
        case 18: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Aiuto! Aiuto! Aiuto!"); break;
        case 19: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Questa è la fine."); break;
        case 20: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Al Diavolo!"); break;
        case 21: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Ora sono arrabbiato."); break;
        case 22: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Ne ho avuto abbastanza."); break;
        case 23: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Crocifere turche!"); break;
        case 24: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Ho finito."); break;
        case 25: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Oh caro."); break;
        case 26: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Sono spacciato."); break;
        case 27: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Oh, no, no, no!"); break;
        case 28: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Mi ucciderò."); break;
        case 29: cVendorWin.SayBackground("Maledetto! "); break;
        case 30: cVendorWin.SayBackground("E' sparito tutto."); break;
    }

[close]

Again, thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback!

I'll set up the nice tables in the next day when I can get to a computer.

Would you please? Because the download links are getting increasingly hard to find; by now there are around 20 postings beween the entry posts and the end of the discussion thread.

Or do you mean by random that this is randomly generated for every game?

Yes, in the current code, both puzzles have solutions that are randomly generated for each game, I'm afraid.
Re-starting the game will give a different solution to find., for the keypad and for the ice cream room.

Spoiler

Yes, the puzzle is RIGHT at the end of the game -- when you solve it you see the end screen immediately afterwards, click on it anywhere and the game terminates without further ado.

[close]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I wasn't referring to your game at all; I was referring to my game and the ice cream room puzzle. I've modified my post to clarify that.