Messages

I generally play a game with all options on. Listening to something else will be massively distracting to me, so that's not really an option. I turn off music or sound if it's annoying enough, but most of the time I won't. Silent games are fine with me, as well, having played a lot of text adventures in my time. A game like If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers is made even better by the music and sound design. (I doubt it could be done much better than that one.)

Voices. I completely understand Formosa Falanster's point of view, and I can agree that very text heavy games may not always benefit from being voiced. However, I think games with a lot of dialogue can be better from it. This is down to how well it is been done, both acting and how well the voices fit the characters. A game like Pedro's Adventures in Spanish, where the whole point is to learn Spanish while playing, needs its voices. Games with voices also will be playable to people who can't read very well, either dyslexics, people with eyesight problems or in the case of children's games. Good voice work may also add significantly to a game's atmosphere, like The Garden of Hades, or it can be used humourously, like The Detective Boiled-Hard games. But it's a good idea to have an option to toggle voices on/off, especially for quick replays of games or part of games.

I played the demo, and although short (tutorial length), it shows good promise. The game looks and sounds good, and the characters are getting on each other's nerves in an entertaining way. So far it looks more like you are going to play with the known tropes than trying to be extremely original, but the title of this thread tells me there may be more to come.  Good job!

[Trade it Forward]

For Your Consideration:

Trade it Forward
by Cassiebsg and heltenjon, with music by Eric Matyas.

AGS Database



Charly needs to have the new DroneMaster 5000! Unfortunately, all he owns, is a trouser button.
Help Charly doing some good trades and perhaps cut some corners in his attempt to get a hold of the toy of his dreams!

Please consider for:

Best short game
Best Gameplay
Best Writing
Best Puzzles
Best Background Art
Best Music (by Eric Matyas)

Why?
I'm really pleased with the puzzle(s) in this one, as I think we managed to work the puzzles into the story. Basically, the puzzles are the story. That means the writing is good in that regard...and then there's the banter.  Best  Gameplay will apply if this kind of puzzles is your thing. Oh, and art and music talk for themselves.

Could it possibly be this? Herman Toothrot's Monkey Island?

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=25233.0

Something about the interface reminds me of Dragonsphere so I'm wondering if Microprose made any more graphic adventures, but I still have no idea what game this is, sorry can't even guess! 

They did...but this definitely isn't Rex Nebular, which is the one I can think of at the moment.

I haven't played this game, as I can't recognize these locations, but I _may_ have played a demo of it or seen a rolling demo of some sort if it was on a coverdisk/disc back in the days. 

You may add voice work to the following games on the list:

La Maleta
Pedro's Adventures in Spanish
The Garden of Hades
AVC's Survival Guide

Edit: And Strangeland, of course.

[For your consideration:]

Viktor is busy with his newborn son, so I'll make a post on his behalf.

For your consideration:

M*A*S*H: Point n' Click adventure game

by Viktor

AGS Database

[imgzoom]https://mashthegame.viki.si/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/demo-screenshot-300x187.png[/imgzoom]

[imgzoom]https://mashthegame.viki.si/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/full-game-300x188.png[/imgzoom]

In 1950 on June 25th, the Korean conflict started. In the midst of the conflict, there is also a troop of surgeons and nurses that patch up the wounded in what they call meatball surgery. Our story takes place at the 4077th. The best M*A*S*H unit far and wide. It has an astonishingly low casualty record. One of the 4077th members is also the company clerk Walter O'Reilly. After an 8-hour stint in OR, Radar finds something is missing.

Please consider for:

• Best Game created with AGS
• Best Freeware Game created with AGS
• Best Writing
• Best Character (Radar or Hawkeye, take your pick) (Suggestion withdrawn because the characters are from the movie/tv show and not created for this game.)
• Best Puzzles
• Best Gameplay
• Best Background art
• Best Character art
• Best short game

[Gifting Spirit]

Here's some feedback:

Gifting Spirit by Pax Amino:

Spoiler

This was a lot of fun! At first, it seems like the list of stuff to do is impossibly long, but after a while you figure out how to do the tasks and it becomes more of a race to do stuff in the correct order and not run out of time. Besides the adventure parts, there are also object  hunts that remind me of those casual Find the Object games. At first I hadn't discovered that I could run by double clicking. The game was a bit easier after I read the instructions properly. The theme is well applicated by all the gifts the protagonist has to get hold of.

[close]

Santa Clause in A Flight to Remember by OneDollar:

Spoiler

Very polished entry with amusing Easter eggs and good-looking graphics and animation. Good and clear usage of the theme. I liked the puzzles very much. They were logical and amusing. (And I secretly want a sequel starring the goose.) Above all, the humour made me laugh a lot when playing this game.

[close]

Knorrig the Gifted Troublemaker by Pogwizd and his wife:

Spoiler

Humour again wins the day. The puzzles are moderate to easy, but still very fun to solve. Good pixel art and strong writing - the characters are given personality even in such a short story.

[close]

A caixa by Cassiebsg and Elen Heart:

Spoiler

This may be a one-puzzle demo, but that puzzle is hard, at least for me, who seemingly lack the ability to think in three dimensions. So there is a bit of a challenge here. The top view is unusual, but kind of cool. I'm starting to wonder if the box in the title is the house, rather than the one delivered to Roger's door. The game looks _very_ nice!

[close]

I haven't decided which game to vote for yet. All the games are good, so it will be down to choosing among puzzles, characters and scope.

What is this topic for?

This part of the forum is for posting stuff one want other members to give feedback about. Like here, an animation.

That cracked me up!  Thanks for pointing it out. There's no way I would have found it otherwise.

I finally aced it after having trouble with rebuilding the group of snowmen. I ended up skipping everything else and just trying to get that right, and when I did, I hastily ran around and did everything else. Ended up waiting around for the time to go out. I guess that's realistic, but perhaps the game could have skipped to the ending when there was no more tasks to do? Or perhaps there are easter eggs to find?

Very strong entry with festive atmosphere and certainly an amount of gift trouble, plus all the other tasks. 

Why should Easter have all the eggs?

That's not the only Easter Egg in the options...

I suppose you're talking about the goose, or is there something else I missed? Small bug report: When I set the Goose to "forgiving", then had it chase me around and went into the options again and changed it back, it immediately attacked me. And after that there was no way to get out of the options screen. (Workaround: simply don't do that.) 

Would blueprints (for a gadget or a building) count as a picture?  Just asking hypothetically.

Sure.

What a great time waster this one is going to be the coming days... I played it three times today and am nowhere near solving it yet. I'm very glad that Jack goes to the bus on his own without me having to walk him there. 

I do hope it's not too much of a waste of your time trying to complete the game.

As for not walking "Jack" to the bus after the timer ended was a game mechanic I played around with for a few days but I unfortunately couldn't come up with a better solution to having the player walk to the bus stop rather than an abrupt stop to everything due to the game blocking in certain situations.

Oops, I didn't make myself clear. I meant "time waster" as in the kind of game where you just need one more go, and then one more... It's definitely not a waste of my time in a negative way. The game is addictive, and there are lots of stuff to figure out. I like that.

And I'm very happy that Jack goes on the bus himself. I've played a few of those games where you do a lot of tasks, but lose it all if you can't get back to the base in time. This one is a bit more user friendly.

What a great time waster this one is going to be the coming days... I played it three times today and am nowhere near solving it yet. I'm very glad that Jack goes to the bus on his own without me having to walk him there. 

No Alan around, so this time Santa has to do the job himself. This game looks, sounds and plays really polished. Great animation and a very funny story with the puzzles making up a natural part of it. Lots of little touches...I simply love the "festive" mode for the mouse cursor! (You can find it in options, people. Why should Easter have all the eggs?) Great game!

Very nice! The characters come alive, even in such a short story. The music sets the mood and the puzzles are fun. Easy to moderate, I guess.

My daughters (10 and 12) are drawing, but we're not trying to meet the deadline. Our game will be finished when it is finished, but we _will_ make something and release it.

@heltenjon

It could be the same universe, but perhaps this game is almost a standalone.

The reason is that the background of the game so far has been a Western country. This time, because my home country, Asia, is the background.

Therefore, it was difficult for the characters of the previous work to appear naturally.

Yes, I wondered if the monster was the same type of overgrown natural beast like in the previous games, or if it was more of a kraken-type mythological beast, apart from the conspiracies of the former stories. Anyway, if you want to make a connection to the other games, you could

Spoiler

have a cat video from the last protagonist run on a screen in the background. 

[close]

I'm all for getting more stories from Asia, so that will be cool.

Those monsters are looking scarier and scarier! Looking good, and it will be cool to play something in a Korean setting. Will there be connections to your other games, or will this be a standalone story outside of that "mythology"?