Messages

[almost]

In all seriousness, if you have time to play do let me know of any bugs. Also please do tell me if it's too easy or hard. I think I have a balance of sorts struck but... well...

I tried it briefly yesterday and didn't encounter any bugs. I don't think it's too easy, at least. I had to have multiple goes at level one and two and didn't beat level three in my first attempts before I had to call it a day.

The difficulty is influenced by one random event, and that is how long it takes before the patrons start to line up. If it takes 30 minutes + of in-game time before the first guest approaches, it will be a lot harder than if someone walks straight into the queue.

I repeatedly almost beat a level, which probably means the difficulty level is spot on. (And I think I know why I didn't beat the levels, too.) I'll come back with extended comments later.

Here are some more games with broken links, followed by the correct link.

Chick Chaser
https://archive.org/details/chick-chaser

A Christmas Blunder
https://archive.org/details/a-christmas-blunder

A Christmas Tale Demo
https://archive.org/details/a-christmas-tale-demo

Christmas Quest 1, 2 and 3 - The link to game 2 gives a 404, while 1 and 2 goes to the main page, and there is some searching needed to find the games. I suggest the article with download options for each:
https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18379

Merry Christmas, Alfred Robbins
https://gamejolt.com/games/merry-christmas-alfred-robbins/3

Search for the Christmas Presents (remake)
https://archive.org/details/search-for-the-christmas-present-remake

Santa's Sidekick
https://archive.org/details/santas-sidekick

Perhaps there's a copy in your speech folder? (You mentioned using speech for the intro.)

[Elia, Ilaria & the Kids Having a Good Time at the Sea (or at least they try)]

I guess this thread is a place to discuss the games in the jam. I've tried a few of them. Didn't try the two non-narrative games that were submitted and removed.

Elia, Ilaria & the Kids Having a Good Time at the Sea (or at least they try) has its own thread here.
Great game - highly recommended.

Duty First also has its own thread here.
Another great game - highly recommended. (These two games can get their comments in their own threads.)

The shop of good memories is a small feel-good-piece with limited interaction. I can see why some people may like this kind of thing, but it's not my cup of tea. Basically, you click on objects to read some nice memory, and you can write in your own.

The Party Line is a text adventure where you click instead of type. It's actually great fun with some nice puzzles. You walk around in a mansion where there is a huge party going on, trying to find and steal treasures. Along the way, you have to solve or create problems for the partygoers who get in your way.

SCART Insertion Happy Time Adventure 2020 is a joke game in text adventure (typing) form. It's realistic, I'll give it that. But not very funny, IMO. My greatest problem was that it didn't run in Edge, but once I tried in Chrome, it worked fine. Very short - playtime a minute or two, perhaps.

A Further Shore is one of these choose your path tales, or visual novels. The player needs to escape from a mysterious island. The whole game may or may not be read metaphorically. There's decent writing here, so this is not a bad piece if you like this kind of thing, but I doubt it will convert those who are not into the genre.

There're 43 games submitted. I'd be happy to read anyone else's recommendations.

[Sin City]

I totally get Snarky's point about liking movies because of their flaws. That being said, I think I have a few movies that I think are close to perfect in their genre. I think genre movies is the way to go here, which again means that my favourites won't be everyone's darlings. And some genres are meant to be cheesy. 

I think Sin City is a perfect adaptation of the graphic novel. It's done frame-by-frame in a way I wouldn't have thought possible. But if you thought the graphic novel was crap, then you won't like this either. The story takes second seat to style and execution, and there's plenty to be offended by. But I loved it.

I also think Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns are perfect. I'll mention For a few dollars more and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The music, juxtaposition of the characters and the use of different zooms and camera work is great.

Needless to keep saying that it would be great to have a crossover of all of your characters in one game! 

Maybe one day I'll make that crossover game, although I believe you're the only one who would want to play it!

+1
I even thought when playing this how great it would be to have a game where the other family members trick their father. 

Another great game! I want to compliment the music especially, because the game's premise really needs the background music to fit - and it does! Also great humour, fun puzzles and fine graphics. 

Played and enjoyed! I simply love this art style, and the sense of humour shines even more than your last game. The music you've chosen fits the theme very well, too. I particularly like that the family members show some personality (even if parodied) in such a short game. And I like that there are tons of items in the house to be examined.
I like that the player can try to

Spoiler

combine objects from the inventory with the non-takable items in the house

[close]

.

I'll head over to the games page and give some high scores. 

A couple of small annoyances: When the player examines a kitty toy, the reply is that the "sons" are into that stuff. But there is only one son. And when the player character is on the far right of the screen, the arrow from the speech bubble still points to the left, which looks odd if there is another character in that spot. (Like standing to the right of the son.)

On the Games page, I suggest that Eric Matyas is credited with the music, as it adds a lot to the atmosphere. (He is credited in-game, but I think it ought to be searchable in the database.) And perhaps Snarky for the use of the speech bubbles...I don't really know what the custom is there.

Keys of a Gamespace has a broken link.
Working link is https://expressivegames.itch.io/keys-of-a-gamespace

Class Notes
Broken link AND a link in the comments doesn't work either.
Working link is https://archive.org/details/class-notes

The Dark Trial
Both links are broken. The game is at https://archive.org/details/the-dark-trial-demo

Carver Island 2: Mrs. Rodriguez's Revenge
The link is broken, but the game is at https://archive.org/details/carver-island-2-mrs-rodriguezs-revenge

EDITS: I'll keep adding messages instead of making new posts. If it's more convenient to make new posts, please advice.

When browsing the games lists, there are lots of games in the category "Newly Added" that are anything but new. I guess the "Not set" category, which is choosable in a refined search, is a bit better, but still doesn't give any real information.

Reading through the old threads I see that the game length was originally decided by the ratings panel, then later added as something the game creator could choose when uploading a new game to the database. I guess the games with "Newly added" tags now are games added before the option became available for the game creator and games where the creator forgot to make this setting when adding the game to the database.

When we vote/rate games, we also put it in a length category. (Or content, like Joke games.)

Is it possible to make an automated process where "Newly added" changes into the length category chosen by a majority of the voters? If and when the ratings panel go operational again, they may overwrite this if they feel it's wrong. But I'd rather have some information about a game than none.

Wizard Hangover ExtreamZz!!

The download link is dead, but it can be found at https://archive.org/details/wizard-hangover-extreamzz

A night in Berry - long version
This is listed with a broken download link in the all games list, but I just downloaded it just fine.

Mandle, I guess when the character dies, he goes to Dagger Hell?  I probably need to set off a week to play this exclusively , if that one is something to go by.

Here you have it:

https://mega.nz/file/AZ5wkaoZ#ZcPqVqOuxVTBd3q6qPW62KhL2-7k3L1i9dCkS-B5Wa0

Thanks, Gabriel, you're the best! 

Does anyone have the kids' game Chicken Fraction? (The download link is broken on the games page.)

It's so annoying when the solution to a puzzle is to use something that isn't marked in your inventory, but you in hindsight understand that you had. Like all those games where you are supposed to use your nose hairs to make an air filter. Or pick your nose to make your character sneeze and set off an avalanche.

Pester Quest
Download link is broken, but the game can be obtained from https://archive.org/details/pester-quest

Vic Wreckle's Halloween Costume
I couldn't download the game through the link. But got it from https://archive.org/details/vic-wreckles-halloween-costume

Oh no not again!
The download link doesn't work, but the game is also at https://archive.org/details/orow_oh-no-not-again
And shouldn't the game be credited to Dualnames? (on top of the page?)

Background Blitz Collection Screensaver
The download link doesn't work anymore. But it can be downloaded from https://archive.org/details/background-blitz-collection-screensaver-v1.3

BONE
A working link to this game is https://archive.org/details/bone-2015 (The link provided gave me an error message.)

Veggie Tales 3D
The correct download link to this one is https://gamejolt.com/games/veggie-tales-3d/1484

Twenties Flappers vs The Mummy
The correct download link to this is https://gamejolt.com/games/twenties-flappers-vs-the-mummy/955

The New Adventures Of Billy The Kid
The correct download link is https://gamejolt.com/games/the-new-adventures-of-billy-the-kid/2317

The Astonishing Captain Skull
The correct link to download is https://gamejolt.com/games/the-astonishing-captain-skull/2976

Ghost Voyage
The download link is wrong. The correct one seems to be https://gamejolt.com/games/ghost-voyage/1256

Too Many Kittens
The download link gives an error. The game is at https://gamejolt.com/games/too-many-kittens/1605

Confessions Of A Cat Burglar
Working download link without downloading the torrent: https://archive.org/details/confession-of-a-cat-burglar

Alpha Dog
I had troubles downloading using the given link. An alternative download is https://archive.org/details/mags-alphadog

Murder Dog IV: Trial Of The Murder Dog
The download link seems to be wrong, but the game is still up, at https://gamejolt.com/games/murder-dog-iv-trial-of-the-murder-dog/5807

The Adventures of Josh and Dyan
The game can be downloaded from https://archive.org/details/the-adventures-of-josh-and-dyan

I'm getting The Thingvibes here. Which is a good thing.

Remember, I was here first 

I have a sneaking suspicion about something in your game...won't say until later just in case I'm right. 

I'm getting The Thingvibes here. Which is a good thing.

Andreas, [offtopic]nice to see your music taste is good.[/offtopic] I don't agree that you "failed" in MAGS, however. You went a bit over the deadline, but delivered a nice game, and you started late, so it was done within a month of time. But to each their own. Just keep reading the MAGS threads, and suddenly the inspiration will hit you like a ton of Telefunken U-47s.

VW, you're great with art and animation. You seem to like the feel of jams and contests, perhaps not because of the competition so much as being given a theme and trying to make something out of that. For us lurkers it's very interesting to see different takes on a subject. That sense of a common goal can be very motivating in itself. Perhaps that is why you seldom release expanded versions of MAGS entries later on, despite having plans for further improvements? It may not be too inspiring to work on by oneself. If that is the case, you're in good company! But in a sense it's unfortunate that you don't get to show the full vision you had for the game(s), because more often than not, there is something there. I hope you stick around.