Messages

Whooops! Overlooked this one. But maybe another quote can help? (If you're still stuck.)

Nearly finished I think. I have

Spoiler

A full lighter and the metal cup with Burns' insignia found on the flagpole.
Where can I find more brass to melt?

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Just so people know. If you are stuck, try also talking to Hawkeye. He gives tips for certain situations. Not all of them but sometimes he can help out. Of course, you have to find him first .

[Maverick Gunn]

My name's Pijin Pastrana and I've been developing games with ags for a while. Robotragedy 1 and 2, Dr. Lutz and the time travel machine, Maverick Gunn and the Eye of Oggun, The manuscript of Sarmanyanha and Postcard Adventure. I believe this game's years nominations are very good and fair but I have to say that I don't feel treated with fairness because the backgrounds of Postcard Adventure can compete with some of the games like ossarium or breakfast on trappist 1, and I don't mean any disrespect to the developers, they are great but year after year the games I released , no matter how hard  I tried to achieve the best looks possible, NEVER GOT even a nomination. I wonder if the reason I'm cuban and out of the mainstream is the reason .

Hi! I second everything Babar and Cat said in their replies to you. I think especially posting in the forum makes a game visible.

Another aspect is that it seems like short games get fewer downloads, fewer comments and fewer ratings on the database pages. I can sort of understand it - if a player has had several days of enjoyment from a playing a game, he/she is more likely to take the extra time to leave comments and ratings. This year, it seems like few votes came in in the short games category, and I believe this may be part of the reason.

Personally, I think differently, and it's the short games (MAGS, really) that drew me to this site in the first place. I don't know if it's any consolation, but I nominated Postcard Adventure. And I played all the games last year. And it's a good candidate for Pick of the Month, too, like Maverick Gunn, Robotragedy 2  and Dr. Lutz has been before it. You have an audience in this group, but sure, it would be nice if it were bigger.

Recently, I've played Fur Balls 1 - evil be thy name: Bundles of mayhem!
I got stuck in a room with a smoking fur ball watching the TV . Probably a bug since the game was fair and easy up to that point. Plus, you can't leave the room and few things are interactive.

I just had to try this, of course... It's a bit of a pixel hunt.

Spoiler

There is a small piece of wood hidden somewhere on the large logs. Take it.

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I guess you will be able to kill the furball after that.

So this means...Pedro in Japanese?

[Pixely Pete]

Have you ever wasted your time trying to solve some cryptic puzzle in a game, and then it turns out it can't be solved? I thought it would be nice with a thread where we can name the games that are unfinishable, either because they are buggy, or that they are designed like that. Some joke games may take their humour from making the game unwinnable, but wasting the players' time by being vague about it is just unnecessary, in my view.

Ever since being caught in a never-ending loop in The Fabulous Wanda on the Commodore 64, I've felt this isn't really funny for the player, but rather a disappointment. Now, there may well be some play value in a buggy game, but it would be nice to know when to stop trying. Likewise with demos without a scripted ending. So let's help each other out, shall we?

Pixely Pete (MAGS 2001-07) seems to lack an ending.

Have you added aMusic1 in the Music folder under Audio while in the editor?

[Hack]

More games with no or broken links:

Hack is at https://archive.org/details/hack-2006

Murder in the Mansion is at https://archive.org/details/murder-in-the-mansion-v1.2

The Surprisingly Short Adventure of Leopold Kettle is at https://archive.org/details/leopold-kettle

Wet, the winner of the first MAGS ever, is at https://archive.org/details/wet-v2

[I'm only Sleeping]

I'm only Sleeping is a Reality-on-the Norm game not in the database. Get it here or here. Davy's little brother wakes up in the middle of the night and needs to go back to sleep. Not easy when Death is sitting in the sofa, watching Gilligan's Island. Fun stuff!

Murder actually has a very long title. It's probably an hour game, three screens long. It's at https://archive.org/details/murder-game

The Elegant Murder Mystery is a pretty good short detective game, as the title suggests. It's at https://archive.org/details/the-elegant-murder-mystery

An even better mystery game is Anticipating Murder, which is both at http://americangirlscouts.org/agsuploads/Lisa/AnticipatingMurder.zip and https://archive.org/details/anticipating-murder ,but strangely enough not in the main database.

(Can anyone tell I used "Murder" to search for Murder in a wheel and then just couldn't stop there?) 

And most of the entries from the first MAGS ever:
Highly Hip Hendrix is at https://archive.org/details/highly-hip-hendrix
Tiny Green Piece of Crap is at https://archive.org/details/tiny-green-piece-of-crap
Philip Illinilings and the Murder at Fish Hotel is at https://archive.org/details/philip-illinilings-and-the-murder-at-fish-hotel
They even had a Ceremony at the end, which is at https://archive.org/details/mags-2001-06-ceremony
(Some of these old games won't run on modern computers without some fiddling. I have an old PC lying around for such occasions. )

I need a hint for the good ending, though:

Spoiler

I opened the cave with the message, but I can't find a key for the door. I searched the caves with or without light, accidentally running into the balloon area

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I'm not sure if I remember this correctly now months later, but

Spoiler

how does the message look like without light?

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Well, I had fun on the last one...

Go go go! You can even have the guys from the last game chase each other in the background! 

Taking the line out of context is often hilarious.  Now I want to see a MAGS named

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Throwing the Banana into the Darkness

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. Looking forward to the release!

Hi!

You can use the link you provided here. (I just did.) You have to right click and select save target as... then confirm a couple of times that you really want to keep the file and download it (because Windows thinks it's a threat).

If that's not working for you, you can also find it at https://archive.org/details/RON-im-only-sleeping

Have fun!

And while you're at it, why don't you also rate the games in the database? Only one of these games has enough votes to get a cup rating. And one of my games is one of only two totally unrated games for 2021. It may be one cup, but I currently have no cups, dammit! 

EDIT: And big thanks to whoever it was that took that message and rated my game. Only four more to go before a cup now! 

Any takers?

I'm already working on an entry and I'm quite confident as to completing it in time.

Sure looking forward to that! BTW, your excellent Maniac on the Mississippi never was added to the main database, as far as I can tell.

[look]

I'm flattered to learn that a player as actually taken the trouble to look at all this lot. 👍   I was wondering … but then it was already too late to stop my endeavour.

+1

[Prep Time]

My thoughts this month:

Prep Time by myself

Spoiler

In hindsight it could have been a fun experiment to name the game Batman: Prep Time just to see how many random outside downloads that would generate.  I'm not in it to win it, this was made to keep the contest going and for my own (and hopefully some others') amusement. I wanted to make a game that was dialogue only, and as such has happened upon all the technical limitations of that - not being able to save or change room without leaving the dialogue. (Although I managed to do so anyway.) The joke part of the game is the ridiculous plot and the deus ex machina tech Batman can produce, while the fanboy in me wanted to play the comedy with straight faces, so I tried to write the dialogue as close to how the characters talk as I could. It was actually most fun to write Alfred. (Hope I have avoided any "tally-ho, old chaps" moments.) The research done also adds up to the weapons he is portrayed with in the combat picture.

Part of the joke is that the player can't fail. Batman has placed this game (?) in our reality for someone to play. 

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So, did anyone spot which game Batman is playing on the Bat-computer? 

Then on to the two good games:

Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week by newwaveburritos:

Spoiler

Eye candy! The game looks incredible, and there are lots of shadows, reflections and animations to gawk at. The storyline is funny and confusing, and the gameplay doesn't really involve any real puzzles. There are some hidden stuff, like the beer that is not marked as a hotspot. I took delight in making my character drink a lot of it!  It was a fun experience to play, and it bodes good for the author's long time project. Not a challenge, though.

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Castle Escape: Chapter 2 by Fernewelten:

Spoiler

Fernewelten is one of my favourite puzzle makers in here, and he didn't disappoint. Solid puzzles, even though the shoes part I did while trying to achieve something else... Funny characters with their own personality. Great idea to make a puzzle out of the communication between the playable characters! It's also commendable how you use theme music connected to the character who is in the spotlight, even if our music tastes doesn't match 100%. I liked the music at the "This has happened" screen the best. You can really play! I also got a laugh out of how the ghost held his head in various positions.

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My vote goes to

Spoiler

Castle Escape. The puzzles make a game, usually.

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I can offer the neighbour/vigilante from “Jake's Very Last Journey”: He's so full of teaching Jake self-righteous lessons that he can't listen to anything whatsoever that Jake tries to say. And he's male. 

I suspect this is the only game of yours I haven't yet played. 

More games with broken/missing links:

Bob can be found at https://archive.org/details/bob-2003

The New Adventures of Zak McKracken is at https://archive.org/details/fanadv_zak2

The Glass Splinters is at https://gamejolt.com/games/the-glass-splinters/40452

Perhaps it's time for a more sympathetic female character then? […] (This comes after playing most of your games.)

You're dead right there. You're probably alluding to the bridge troll in “Huggles”?  That latter one happened purely “by construction”:

Bridge troll, Ratzelda, Lady Anemone. Now these are all good, funny characters in themselves. It just looks a bit one-sided if one considers your collected output. Interesting to read how the bridge troll character came to be! (Though something of the same effect could have been if you wrote a character hung up on the differences between rabbits and hares.) 

It would be kind of cool if I could come away from that “escape” theme in further installments of the saga, it's getting a bit old (for me). Instead of “Castle Escape”, the game could be called, “Tales of Castle Burburton” or some such. Perhaps Lady Anemone could be the next protagonist and redeem herself somehow whilst explaining what turned her into the possessive, domineering personality in the first place. Some credible reason would need to be provided.

It's kind of hard because there's not much room for character progression in those game jam miniatures. You need to transport some specific personalities quickly, and the easiest way to do this is by drawing on clichés.

I haven't planned an overall story for the saga; I'm making up things as I go along, aligning the installments to the respective jam theme.

Well, I like to follow the characters and see how they develop. What starts out as cliches may turn into something else by the time the story is done. Turning the tables and giving her the lead role would be interesting!

Later: Windows version works (Wine). Clever puzzles again, unexpected but logical.
I have
(Crystal ball)

Spoiler

but it seems the ghost cannot help me with the crystal ball, so I am a little stuck here

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You are close.

Spoiler

You don't need the crystal ball to show the last letter. But you do need to remember what a crystal ball does.

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My mother has died this Friday, that I have tended to and cared for until the very end, and I've got a full book with chores, tasks and duties right now.

Our deepest condolences.