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“486 joined”!

Ahhh...looking forward to playing 486 games and posting reviews of every one...

I'm glad that, generally, you liked The Garden of Hades - thank you for your review.

You're welcome, and thank you for the game! Sorry for making it so long. (But isn't that what a game maker wants? To hear how the experience is for others?)

I'm sorry that you found some of the puzzles obscure.

Don't be. You can't cater to everyone, and you can see from the comments on the game page that the game has an audience. It just so happens that mazes and codes aren't my favourite puzzle types. Someone else may love that and be stumped by the maths sequences. But if the game is anything, it's varied!

Ironically, the psycedelic house puzzle was designed by my co-creator, who loves intricate puzzles - she considers that I have given players too many clues to help them solve the puzzle! 

Well, I never did understand the angle clue. I would be interested in hearing from people who have beaten this section without hints and how their thought process was. Part of my worry was that the puzzle is unskippable, meaning that anyone stuck in the maze without a walkthrough won't ever see the fun stuff later on.

But the first world was very nice, even had a Boulderdash game, which I played a lot on Commodore 64 as a kid.  The execution of the action games was very good! (If you had released them as stand-alone minigames on the ags page, they would rank high in the not-adventure genre on their own.)

You may be interested to learn that I am currently developing Gem Collector as a stand-alone game with a number of different levels.  Watch this space! 

That is very interesting! But please make it possible to continue from where you left - the main drawback of the Commodore 64 era was starting from scratch from level one every time, then wasting all lives on a hard section we hadn't figured out how to do yet, somewhere on level 23. 

And...I finished the game. With some help from the walkthrough.

Tarot segment: I liked this one. It was a nice mix of maths and riddles, using the tarot deck as base. Maybe a tad easier than the former chapters, but that probably depends on the player's familiarity with maths. This must have been tricky to code - some of these problems have multiple solutions. I ran across one correct solution that wasn't implemented in the "maths crossword", but it wasn't hard to change it into one that worked. Personally, I liked the riddles better than the maths puzzles, but there aren't any weak spots in this segment. I liked the puppet show movies a lot!

China segment: I'm divided over this one. I started out by

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solving the jigsaw puzzle of the broken plate upside down,

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but that was easily corrected. Nice with a callback to the player so I knew when I was doing it right!

Entering the pagoda:

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I understood that I had to make a connection between the Chinese symbols and the shapes. What confused me a bit, was that there were two rows of identical shape-formed buttons. There isn't any logical reason to guess the code other than it's the only sequence I had, as far as I can tell.

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The plates:

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Good story and good puzzle. My first attempts weren't correct, and I would have liked a message, like "I'll try it again later" if the player leaves the pagoda before finishing the puzzle. I thought I had solved it and went out to experiment with the map in case it had triggered something somewhere else. Now, when you do solve it, you aren't in any doubt that progress is being made. (I tried to find the teleportation points in the plate pictures and visit them in the correct order, for instance.)

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Feng Shui:

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I accidentally believed the lion was a dragon and couldn't make any sense of this. I teleported from one location to the next in various combinations before giving up and checking the walkthrough. As this said I had to click on the dragon, I went back to the map...and clicked on the lion. Repeatedly. Then I finally discovered there were new hotspots on the map. Unfortunately, I now knew the solution from the walkthrough.  The slider puzzle had a nice twist to it! 

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The China segment is very convoluted. There seems to be story-within-a-story in five layers, so clearly that storytelling technique must be one of the author's favourites. The link to the central story is not too clear, though, and I have difficulties in seeing what the player saved Ruby from in this chapter.

Final Challenge:

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I actually lucked out and won this before I had time to figure out the rules of the game. So I had to reload a saved game to go back and see what happened if Hades won.  I think this boardgame is a good puzzle and a satisfying conclusion to the game.

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Final thoughts: The game is very beautiful and switches seamlessly between styles of graphics and music. If Eric Matyas didn't make the music custom for this game, you sure have made the right choices when picking sounds and tunes! The presentation and atmosphere(s) are top notch, in other words.

The story is

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not in the foreground here, the puzzles are. At times I didn't see the connection between all the quests and Ruby's story. At the end of the game, I still don't know anything about the player character and why he's willing to risk so much for Ruby. Ruby herself is a scientist, but also likes pulp novels, Chinese culture and history, have been into recreational drugs and may be prone to depression. And she's a scientist who believes in Tarot fortune telling? Hades is a good antagonist. It's concistent with the myths to have him be annoyed by Ruby cheating death, even though he's not supposed to be evil, just stern. In the end, the story is very much open to interpretation, but you need to read a lot symbolically to make it work.

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The puzzles are the meat of the game. You have all kinds here, and the players will probably see from the very first puzzle if this is a game for them. (Guessing a word and manipulating a device with buttons to spell that word.) There is little in the vain of inventory or dialogue puzzles, but there are codes, sliders, mazes, jigsaws, contraption manipulation, maths, riddles, sorting and much more. My opinion is that some of the puzzles are excellent, while some are too difficult, at least for this player. I would think very few wouldn't find something they like here, but at the same time, most of us may not like all the puzzles. And chances are we may be stuck along the way.

I'd recommend this game to people who like Myst-style games. If you play for the story, humour or action, this may not be your type of game. But if you are into "pure" puzzle solving, this may be up your alley. Download the walkthrough or enlist some friends - some parts are insanely difficult.

My own experience:
Fixing the power:

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I had to resort to putting the cylinders in and spinning until I got the ones I needed. I had no idea what was going on or how this was to be solved. I didn't get the logic even with  the walkthrough

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I tried that, too!  But eventually,

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I broke out the legos. I guessed from the colours in the schematic where the circuits were, and then tried with different colours to see which made the power output rise or fall on that circuit. Then I was in the process of putting all the yellow cylinders away from each other to get an even flow, when it suddenly worked. When looking at the walkthrough afterwards, I see that the white circuit is three-way, which I didn't guess. So I was a bit lucky. 

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Space segment cleared. I liked the look of the space ship, and the humour in the names of the crew was very welcome. (It's in her head at this point, so why not.) I'm not entirely sure how fixing the space ship saved her this time, to be honest. Is it about beating the coma?

Three main puzzles this time, and I liked two of them.

Generator door code:

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I liked searching the space station for clues, and I found the birthday, the room and the name of the ship fairly easy. However, I couldn't be sure about how to write the date (DDMMYY/MMDDYY/DMYYYY/MDYYYY). I wasn't entirely sure about the room either - it could maybe be another one. But that's okay, I had it right, and I could try different things if necessary...if it hadn't been for the third part about the ship. I tried subtracting the number of letters in the name, and came to the conclusion that the solution could be almost anything. And given that I was uncertain about the first two numbers, I'd have to test each theory 16 times (4x2) to be sure it wasn't right. So I decided that wouldn't be any fun and went to the walkthrough.

I'd have liked some sort of assurance that each part of the solution was correct, like there is in the navigation puzzle.

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Fixing the power:

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I liked this one, although it would have been better if the colours of the batteries/power cells were visible when inside the rotating wheel. I basically solved this one by putting lego pieces in the same colour on the table in front of me, and adjusting the pattern until it worked. Hard puzzle, but doable.

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Fixing the navigation:

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This one was fun and brilliantly designed. Very nice to be able to switch between the two screens mid-process. Also very thoughtful to include a system for showing where the error is, otherwise it would be virtually unsolvable. (I disagree about switch 4 in row B, for instance.) As the screen is cracked, it's not always crystal clear which solution is the right one. One thing: I thought for a while that I had to find a four-digit code in order to unlock the box, not simply pushing the unlock button! 

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Sorry for multiple posts, but I'm posting under the assumption that game authors want a lot of feedback, and the game is so huge that it's easier to comment on one segment at a time, lest I forget something.

I'm playing this. I'm taking my time, just went to Pluto.

First of all, the graphics, sound, voices are so polished! The game looks and sounds better than many commercial titles. Some of the sections must be quite hard to code, as well. But the work done here is very, very good.

The puzzles and storytelling, then. The game is clearly inspired by Myst and the 7th Guest and games of that ilk, however, in this game the order of the puzzles are set in stone. I think I would have preferred to be able to tackle them in any order and piece the story together myself, but it's hard to judge for certain before I'm through the whole game. I guess Elentgirl wants to tell the story of Ruby chronologically, and that makes sense, particularly if

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Ruby would have died if the player doesn't intervene like a guardian angel, thus the future timelines wouldn't exist.

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The story is told in small pieces in each segment, and will probably make up a whole later. But so far, I'm really playing it for the puzzles, not for the story, as was my approach with 7th Guest and Myst as well, back in the day. (But I don't think I finished those. I got stuck somewhere and just put it aside. That's the danger of not "needing" to see how the story turns out.)

I liked the first segment a lot, except that I

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solved the wrong jigsaw puzzle picture, and had to swap to the one with a fairground. I didn't really find any clues as to which picture was the right one, it was all trial and error for me.

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But the first world was very nice, even had a Boulderdash game, which I played a lot on Commodore 64 as a kid.  The execution of the action games was very good! (If you had released them as stand-alone minigames on the ags page, they would rank high in the not-adventure genre on their own.)

The second segment started out okay, with the jumbled words. But then came the maze. Arrgh! I have to admit this section was too hard for me, and I had to resort to the walkthrough to make it through. Some comments on how I played in spoiler tags:

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I have to say first that I generally don't like mazes. I thought this one wouldn't be too hard, as it looked like it was in a three by three grid. But I soon lost my bearings with turning around in the psychedelic landscape, and for some reason I thougt some doors were teleports due to the effect when I went through an unlocked door. In my mind, that was what the blinking colours on the map meant - these aren't normal doors. Anyway, just by stumbling around, I found the central room with the puzzle, and again I misinterpreted a clue. I had read on a wall that three was the magic number, so I set the "clock" to three. The next time, I tried with the "arrow" pointing the other way, as I didn't know what was up or down on it. Further by accident, I found myself holding a jigsaw piece that had appeared in a room. I did not make any connection to the clock turning at all - it could have been there all along, for all I knew. But I did place it in the central room, and set the clock again, getting another piece, which turned out to overlap when I tried to place it. I knew there was a written message about overlapping, and I gathered that I could probably find out which pieces I needed from the piece of paper in my inventory. But as I didn't know how to make a certain piece appear, and had a hard time finding my way, I threw in the towel and resorted to the walkthrough, where I also read by accident which three pieces I had to use.

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Conclusion: I may have stumbled upon the correct solution purely by accident if I had given it enough time, but I think the fun is in understanding, not brute forcing a puzzle. Big kudos to anyone who solved this one without hints!

I said this puzzle was too hard for me. So, how could it be dumbed down to my level? 

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My first problem was finding my way and understanding the colour codes. If I could have always seen the map, and how the colours changed, I would know where I was, that there weren't any teleports, only logical passageways, and the lock system would be easier to understand.

When I set the "clock", there could have been a sound effect or something, or perhaps when the player picks up the jigsaw piece there could be a comment like "this one must have opened up when I did the thing." This may have made me understand that those two things were connected and that I could orchestrate which jigsaw piece appeared next.

I'd also have liked to be able to collect more pieces in my inventory. If the last puzzle was to pick from all available pieces which ones fit together without overlapping, it would be a very good puzzle on its own.

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I'm going to go into space now...I hope the maze segment doesn't stop players from playing the other parts of the game due to being stuck. I know I would have skipped it until later if I could, but that's me and mazes.

Played the demo. Funny concept and a nice puzzle to beat the demo. Good idea to use one of the characters as a hint machine (not that it was needed here, but maybe later in the game). Personally I like better the graphic style of the wizard than of Bow and Dork, but that won't stop me from playing the full game. The map looks promising. 

I guess I'm showing my age then, as I'm referring to the "very very original" version.  I agree about your point, but we would play like
1 2
3 4
when playing the "easy mode". Perhaps this came naturally to us because we also grew up with physical slider puzzles, which may be the very reason why I _don't_ hate those, like some players apparently do, but think of them as relatively easy.

In this game, the lit up nodes signifying correct placement is starting from the same side all the time, if I recall it correctly. The player ought to be able to deduce that they don't correspond with the peg guesses...which is actually kind of what Creamy did, when I think about it. 

I just watched the Dune movie, and I quite liked it. I haven't read the book, only played Dune 2 and watched the Lynch movie, which didn't make a huge impression on me.

Of course, any comparison to a huge novel is bound to be disappointing. However, I felt there was spent enough time with the characters to give me an idea about who they were. It doesn't explain everything, but rather shows examples that I could get an impression from. For instance, it's not explained what a mentat is, but you see them in action, and you can recognize them from how they look. I had no trouble following the storyline, and I liked the actors and the world building.

But the familiar landscape of coastal Norway is probably more exotic for other viewers than me.  I didn't get a "different planet" vibe out of that.

The placement of the tags doesn't match the placement of the symbols. So if you have two correct symbols, you don't get to know which two symbols are correct right away.

Ooooh, I didn't know that. I suddenly realize that my brothers and I have been playing Mastermind with bad rules as children    .

I think we all have.  Even though I don't think it's mentioned in the rules, that variation is a fine way to make Mastermind easier for children or beginners. Any box photo with an example will show that you're not supposed to do that, though.

I like it already!  This looks and sounds really good.

The feedback to the Mastemind game seems a little broken. For instance, if you place the same symbol at the same place twice, it can be tagged green then orange.

The placement of the tags doesn't match the placement of the symbols. So if you have two correct symbols, you don't get to know which two symbols are correct right away.

"Atmosphere" is a bit difficult to define, so I would guess players would put different things into it, varying from world building to mood.

If we look at the games on the top of the list of this category, they are games where the player character is transported to another world/setting and begins interacting with other characters early on. (Not exactly in Nadir, but there are the letters).
Thinker starts out in a clean environment, and we know nothing about the circumstances or the world around the robot. The player will spend some time in the first room, playeing "escape the room", and probably several people will give up before coming to the second or third room.

As I experienced the game, it was the second room that was the most enjoyable. The room involves other voices, and these and the puzzles tell a lot more about what kind of society this is. And after the third room, Thinker draws his philosophical conclusions, building on what he has experienced so far in the game. Now, if you play the whole story, you get a much better insight in the robot's personality and the world he lives in. BUT, many players will never see that.

I think that having other characters to interact with, probably would add to what is loosely described as atmosphere. If people started in the second room, they would experience the best puzzles in the game and the other A.I.s and how Thinker can out-think them. Perhaps in a game jam setting, it would be an idea to put some of the best stuff first? Or at least let the protagonist meet other people in some way or another? I realize you can't simply do this in Thinker without ruining his character arc, and personally I think the game is fine as it is. But I think that the intro from your Flight of the robots game makes that game a lot more atmospheric, just because we have seen a glimpse of the world it's set in.

Perhaps adding some A.I. in the first room of Thinkerwould have made a difference? Like making the door make sarcastic comments when the player attempts to open it? (But then again, that's not in tone with the A.I. voices in the second room.)
Your Commando Raid rat game starts out with a situation between the hero and his boss, giving them both lots of personality from the beginning.

Maybe someone else can define what they would put in the category "atmosphere"?

Remz, you'll see that Mags for September is already started. The theme you pick, will be for Mags October. Stupot will contact you via PM.

Congratulations, Remz. You have to make more now! 

Well, if you actually decide to do this with this particular game or another set in the same world, I'd recommend that you switch the hint hat with a loyal robot companion, to keep it consistent. (Perhaps the Thinker?)

something like this:
https://dam1976.home.xs4all.nl/AGS/FotRv3a.png

I get a Page 404 error?

Replace the "a" in the filename with a "b", and you get a screenshot. Although I'm not certain it's the one arj0n intended.


In other news, the jam this game was released in ended, and this game ended up far down on the list. Now, I haven't played all the other entries, but judging from which games came out on top, I'll wager the votes went to easy games with little to no problem-solving, but with emphasis on storytelling. It frankly looks like this game was too difficult for the crowd in this jam, and they seem to have given up before making any progress whatsoever. (And some participants are young and seem to have another sense of humour, and end up voting for each other. Oh well.)

Out of the eight entries I've tried so far, this game  is by far the best one. But then my criteria of a game is probably a bit different than the ones competing in a narrative jam. To please that crowd, a hard game would probably have to include something ridiculous like a Walkthrough-mode, where Ian could solve all the problems on his own when the player just clicked on the appropriate hotspot. It would be a little like watching MacGyver. (This is not a serious suggestion, more of a lamentation.)

Ray and the Guitar can be scrubbed. I do not have that game anymore sadly.

We're in luck - it's preserved in the MAGS collection: https://archive.org/details/ray-and-the-guitar

Ray and the guitar is lacking a download link, but is at https://archive.org/details/ray-and-the-guitar

Practice Script: The 1 Room Puzzler also lacks a link, but can be found at https://archive.org/details/practice-script-1-room-puzzler

I saw my Nightmare Demo on this list, which amazingly I still have lol. I can update the games page for it although there isn't much there (after all I was like 12 years old).

Please do! All your four entries in the Database have missing/broken links now, so it would be great if you could make them available again.