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I'm sure I have quite a few in my saved queue as well to try out ...

's great that you mentioned Blackudder: To Doubloon or Not to Doubloon! It's one of those games that has been on my list for a long time, but I never tried it. After your review, I became even more interested.

Please share your thoughts if you play. This thread will be a lot better if it doesn't look like one person's blog. 

I'm trying out the games from the FYC thread, and I've played about the first day of this one. I will get back to it, but will need to move to other games in order to test them a bit before the nomination for AGS awards ends.

So - is it any good? Yes, it clearly is. But, there is a but, and you already know this: You have to be a fan of parser games. You need to type in what our heroine wants to do. I must admit that I quite often found myself thinking that this or that would have been easier to do just by pointing and clicking, so I may not be in the main target group here, despite having played and loved text adventures back in the day. That being said, the parser is good, and it is not difficult to understand where to use abbreviations.

I'd say there is one part where the parser is better, and that is when talking to other characters. This largely consists of asking them about some subject, and in this regard I feel my input requires a bit more brain activity than if I simply could click on everything to interrogate the npc. (Though the latter method worked well in Discworld Noir, as I recall it.) But all right, you have to accept that this is a parser game.

The graphics are in EGA style, and provided that one likes that style, they are beautiful. Retro, but that is kind of the point. There is a long intro, setting the scene, and then we are left to explore the hotel and interview the other characters in the game. The ability to open every drawer in every room, and sit on something in almost every room, is retained from the demo version. On the one hand, this shows attention to detail, and it's cool that it's possible, but on the other side, it gets in the way of advancing the story. I think I would have preferred to have some rooms initially locked. It also struck me as odd that the player character objects to opening someone's luggage, but is perfectly fine with looking through all their cupboards, chests and drawers.

I like the story, and the eavesdropping scenes and conversations are fun. And I found an Easter egg

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in the shower

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which was fun, but as these things do, also somewhat may break the immersion. I also liked the automatic notes that keep the player informed about what remains to do and clues found.

So far, the game looks like it's very well done in the genre of choice. It's recommended if you like crime investigation games like Colonel's Bequest (which I haven't played, but I played Laura Bow II), old style EGA art and typing your actions. I'm not in the exact target group, but even so, it's easy to see that the game is very polished and that there is quality here. I plan to come back to the game and finish it later on.

I finally got around to playing this. It's a good game, and for a first outing with AGS, I must say it's very impressive.

My first impression came immediately. Commissioner Falco? Can that really be the correct police rank? Perhaps something has been lost in translation here? He doesn't strike me as chief of police.

So, Falco is a famous detective, but this time his task is trivial - he has to make some partygoers end their party. This turns out to be easier said than done, and soon this task splits into lots and lots of subtasks and puzzles that has to be solved. With only four locations, there is a lot to do! The puzzles are well worked out and quite varied. There is a fair bit of reading required in order to get the information needed for some of the puzzles, but then you should be expecting that when playing a sort of investigation game. I liked the variety and how the seemingly easy mission turns more complicated at every turn. The graphics are beautifully done in gray tones, which I suppose is a choice because of the tongue-in-cheek homage to the noir genre. (Although Columbo can hardly be called noir, and Falco clearly is a comedic version of that character.)

Personally, I would have preferred colours.

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Especially after seeing every scene in colours during the end of the game.

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There are a few pixel hunts that would have been easier with colours. But the one thing that had me stuck for a while, was not a puzzle at all, but how to

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enter the phone booth.

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I think that was not supposed to stop the player. And if I am going to nitpick, I also several times found a solution before I found the problem it was meant to solve.

Despite these small drawbacks, I had a good time playing the game, and would definitely play more games starring Falco

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which the ending kind of promises

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. Thanks for the game!

This gave me Clive Barker vibes. (Which is a good thing.)

Okay, so I threw together a shortish break-the-rules puzzle flow, which I will post in spoiler tags.
If anyone wants to participate, and need the puzzles, feel free to use this (or parts of it). I won't have the time to make it myself, but I don't think any of the puzzles here should be difficult to implement - it's fairly beginner level stuff.

Be advised, though, that in any other context than this MAGS, this will be horrible design. If someone makes the game, it will likely score zero or one cup. But I'm fine with that. 

In case you're a player, don't read the puzzle flow until after we see if someone uses it. Otherwise, this is up for grabs for anyone.

The puzzle flow:

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Puzzle flow proposal for the MAGS "Break some rules"

Room 1
There should be several items available (on the floor?), with no rhyme or reason to them. Most of them are going to be red herrings. Among the items are BLUE PAINT and YELLOW PAINT. There is a WALL to the left which is a huge hotspot. It is possible to use the paints on this to change the colour, and if both are used, the result is a green wall. Nothing of that yields any results, but makes the player lose the paint (walking dead).

Another item is a COWBOY HAT.

There is a MOUSE sitting on the floor. The mouse will disappear, and if it is not caught by using the COWBOY HAT, it disappears forever. This can be done with a timer, or by triggering an animation of the MOUSE running away either when a certain item is picked up, or when the player comes too close.

To the right, there is a door. When the player walks through this door, an anvil posed on top of the door in the next room kills him. Restart. The player has to USE one of the seemingly useless items on the door to trigger the trap. This should not be an obvious choice for throwing, but rather random, like a BANANA. The BANANA is now lost, crushed by the anvil. The trap can also be triggered by one of the PAINTS, resulting in losing the PAINT (walking dead).

The player can now walk through the door.

ROOM 2
Again, the obvious exit is to the right, where there is a white door. In front of it, there is a CAT. Amazingly, the player cannot pass the cat and is stopped by it. No explanation is given for this. The solution is to USE MOUSE on CAT. The CAT takes the MOUSE and runs away with it. The COWBOY HAT also disappears in this move, possibly destroyed by the cat, or maybe worn by it, depending on how much animation one wants to make.

A BLUE KEY has appeared where the CAT was. Apparently it was lying on top of it.
The player will try the WHITE DOOR. It is locked. Using the BLUE KEY does not work. The player has to USE BLUE PAINT on the WHITE DOOR, making BLUE DOOR. Then USE BLUE KEY on BLUE DOOR, which of course unlocks it. The player can progress through the door to room 3.

ROOM 3
In this room we see the BLUE DOOR to the left, a GREEN TABLE in the middle, and a WALL to the right.  The point here is that the GREEN TABLE is covered in green glue. Every item used on the GREEN TABLE will stick there and turn green.

If the player clicks on the BLUE DOOR, expecting to return to the previous room, he will instead tear the door from its hinges. The KEY will fall to the ground, now inexplicably turned grey. BLUE DOOR will be added to the player's inventory. The exit to the left collapses, and there is no way back.

The player must now USE KEY with the GREEN TABLE, resulting in a GREEN KEY that is glued to the table surface. Then he has to USE YELLOW PAINT with the BLUE DOOR, getting a GREEN DOOR.

Now, the GREEN DOOR or the BLUE DOOR (before it turns green) may be used with the WALL. In true Bugs Bunny logic, it fastens and becomes a regular door that can be opened...except that it is locked. The only way to unlock it, is to USE GREEN DOOR on the GREEN KEY that is stuck to the table.

After putting up the GREEN DOOR that is unlocked on the WALL, the player can walk through it into Room 4.

Room 4
This contains a DOCUMENT which can be read. The DOCUMENT says that in the first room, there is a small hotspot on the WALL and a description of where to search for it.
There is no way for the player to return to Room 1, so he's stuck in a walking dead position.

However, he can now RESTART, and in ROOM 1, he can now search the WALL on the left for a small hotspot a few pixels wide. This can be labelled WIN GAME or something misleading, like "Hotspot1", depending on preference.

Clicking WIN GAME will give a small message of congratulations and end the game.

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On the other hand, what you mentioned about the name entered into the computer doesn't use that workaround at all. It's simply stored in a global variable of type String (global variables don't just store integers).

Yes, I wondered if you doubled it by naming the saved game in the same input. Then possibly making the choice of continuing or starting from scratch depending on the username. (I don't know if that's feasible or not.)

Anyway, very cool!

EDIT: I guess that means that to start from scratch, I'll just delete the saved games. (If someone else in the household wants to play the game.)

I played the game...twice. 

That means

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I have only played the main two endings yet.

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But I think you misinterpreted my question. I was wondering how you coded it. 

Congratulations on the release! I remember the first game well, and it will be fun to see what Karina can uncover this time. 

I gave this comment on the gamepage at the time:

This is a charming investigation game. I liked how the puzzles/tasks spin out from the people in the small town and their relationships. Also good graphics and animation. Well worth a go.

This is such a cool idea, and it's very well implemented, too. Recommended play.

I played the game...twice. 

Like @bicilotti , I too had some initial troubles with how the controls worked, but once I figured it out, it was nice going. I'm not a member of the GameBoy crowd, but I enjoyed the game in its own right.

Just wondering, @glurex -

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It's not possible to activate the orb the first time through, is it? How did you do that? Does the game load an autosave or something? Like when you type your name?

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I played this tonight, and I was not disappointed. This jam game lets the story lead the way, and while there are puzzles, the limited setting helps the player along. Graphics are really good!

It's one of those games where it's hard to give much praise without spoiling it, so I'll just say that I enjoyed it, primarily for the story and the presentation.

The fighting system looks like I will finally be able to put the old saying to the test: "Never send a metaphor to a symbol fight!" 

Love the wackyness of it all.

I read up on the original Chiller and gave this one a try. Not really my cup of tea, although I'm unsure whether or not there are some hidden spots to shoot, like the original coin-op had. I guess some timers, limited ammo, points or a story could improve the game as it stands now. But as I haven't played the original game, I can't really tell how successful you have been in recreating it.

This type of game will have a limited audience, and even more so if there is no real challenge. That said, I remember there were lots of torture games starring Osama bin Laden after 911 with similar gameplay, for instance, so there is a niche, I guess.

What's really astounding for me is that you've made three games in AGS and none of them are point and click adventures. Perhaps number four?

He's active on Twitter: https://x.com/3DdotBastard
The last post is from 14 hours ago.

Are you sure it's the same guy? (I'm not on Twitter, so it disappears on me.) He has linked to 3DdotBastard's Itch page in the thread for games not in the database, at least. I can read the posts made on Bluesky, which includes posting games in an Australian game jam. I guess you see a connection that I do not?

Hi there, people.

I was wondering if anyone have been in contact with TheTMD lately. He has not been active in the forums since late August, and frankly, I'm worried. He's not answered PMs either. Any of you Italians, perhaps? Or the collectors/archivists?

Good to see that you are well on your way to creating your VN. Best of luck! I promise to play it when you're done, the story sounds interesting. 

Sadly, I seem to be the only one using these threads. 

But there are more puzzles that need bragging about.

Day of the Hamster sports good puzzles. I particularly liked finding hidden items.

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This had me construct a sort of geiger counter from a blueprint. There's some more info gathering that shows this can be made in different ways, with different results. Delightful!

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MORT: Manageable ok response team manages to make puzzles simply out of using the interface.

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I liked sending items through vents, using the robot as a third player character, and having to coordinate where everyone was because of pressure plates and the likes.

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An English Haunting is very good at integrating the puzzles in the story. I think my favourite had to be the boxing match.

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Having to dress up a corpse to, in a roundabout, fix a boxing match and fool the Irish mob kept me entertained. I loved how the historical period was used for making puzzles that involved fact finding, inventory and dialogue with multiple characters.

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Brownie's Adventure simply have to be mentioned because of the opportunity to solve some puzzles in a way a good guy normally won't. You get the chance to

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Let a guy drown. And steal someone's wooden legs.

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Not exactly hero 101.

Use it all (or forget your ball) for the most part has my own strange puzzles, but one of Kastchey's is one of my faves this year: The Pig dialogue puzzle.

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Basically, the pig has a type of colour blindness, and the player has to manipulate him into believing something about this mysterious hidden colour. I loved how Kastchey took this idea and ran with it.

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The Sphinx of Time. The puzzle involving the pattern machine.

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It's kind of hand-waved how the puzzle came into being, but I like very much the pattern recognition involved to solve it. Especially seeing as how the viewpoints change.

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I nominate the ones I've already played, then edit when I've played something else good.

[Mystery Mansion Mayhem]

I played the games.

Mystery Mansion Mayhem by VampireWombat

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This looks promising. I got Cluedo vibes and think I spotted the murder weapon. I hope you finish it in an upcoming Finish Your MAGS game round.

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Mazzled! by Pell

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That's a cool prototype. The change of viewpoint to the map view is of course necessary to fit the theme of the month, while leaving it out except for the first screen would have made the game harder. (Especially if you placed traps or monsters at the wrong turns.) I hope you finish the other levels, too.

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Place of Importance by WHAM!

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I'm sure when you look at this, you see mostly the stuff you had to cut, while us players merely see all that's in it. And wow, is that a lot! The idea is very good, and the storytelling as well. It's very cool that what you do in one era can be referenced in another. I've only played through it two times, but I guess I'll need to do some more playthroughs to see every variation. The only minor drawback will be that on later playthroughs, the waiting will be noticable. Great game!

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