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So, are people playing these games? So far, my favourites are the ones released on this site: The Halloween Party and Bartolomeo, mislead by circumstances, learns that appearances can be deceptive. I've tried a handful of the others. No way am I going to manage to play all 50 games before the Voting period is over, but if someone wants to discuss the entries they've tried here, I'm all ears.

A suggestion from me for a game I really enjoyed that needs some more rates:
The Clockwork Labyrinth

Downloaded and tried it a bit. This game oozes quality, and from the presentation alone it screams for five cups. Unfortunately, I managed to freeze up the right mouse button function somehow, so I had to quit. But unless there are other technical problems that hinder further play, I think this will be a wonderful game to play.  The first impression is "awesome".

Another game that made the threshold with my rating:

The Wicked Witch of the West: Even though it needs no more ratings for them to show up, this game is well worth the play nonetheless.

+1
I rated this today, as well, along with a lot of MAGS games that I have commented on in the threads and played, but for some reason not rated until now. Sinitrena is making an impact! Join the winning team and rate, people! Think of all the power...Bwahaha! 

This is the way: Rated and commented, I'm curious what other people think about this one.

I think I commented in the released game thread something along the lines of that with this type of story, the most fun is probably to discuss possible interpretations afterwards. I'm not normally a big fan of the visual novel/branching story genre, but I'll recognize it as a minimalist game. A problem with writing Kafkaesque stories, is that you're inevitably compared to, well, Kafka.

It's working already - the cups are popping up. Come on you guys! Chime in with some games you want to play and rate, or some you already have played.

Sinitrena's suggestion, The Clockwork Labyrinth, won the Best Puzzles award in 2018, so there's got to be some AGS-ers who have played this and forgotten to rate it. I'll download and eventually play and rate, but my schedule is more fitted to shorter games, so that one will take some time. But those of you who voted for this one in 2019 surely remember enough to cast your rating votes as well. We can't have award winners with no rating. 

There've been rating drives earlier, and it's time for another one. Far too many of the games in the database is unrated. We just need five players to vote on the Games Page for a game to receive a player rating. But as with everything, this is funnier to do if we do it together. 

So, why not pull together? If you have a suggestion for a game that needs more votes, make it here. Then others can jump on the bandwagon. Perhaps if five or more of us play an old game to rate it, there may be some funny discussions or we can help each other out. 

I'll start, then. An obvious place to start is this and last month's MAGS games. They are short and so new that the download links probably are in working order.

To cheer on "our" participants in the $104 Adventure Game Challenge, I'd also like to suggest you fine people play and rate The Halloween Party and Bartolomeo, mislead by circumstances, learns that appearances can be deceptive. They are short and very good games.

So who's in? And what other suggestions do you have?

Thing is, that you can comment and not vote. So having 20 comments and not enough votes is completely possible, if only 3 or 4 people decided to vote.

I know - I've used it myself to report that the download link isn't working and similar issues.

I think the voting rating is automatic.

I just found out for sure that it is! I went back to see if I'd forgotten to rate something I recently played, rated A Prelude to an Adventure by Hobo, and the game got its player rating right away.

Sorry to ask something probably obvious, but: When a game reaches five player votes, is the player rating set and published automatically? Or does someone (a mod or someone from the ratings panel) have to give an ok first (to avoid manipulation or abuse)? There seems to be quite a few games with many comments, but not enough votes. I hope the process is automated with possibility for the mods or AGA to check votes.

Very interesting and original premise/plot idea! Also looking good. 

I've had this one on my to-play-list since you released it, and tonight I finally played it. What a gorgeous comic book feeling! The art is splendid, and though it's a bit easy (more tasks than puzzles), the humour throughout is really entertaining. I just wish it were longer, but I guess 14 days limits the scope. Great snack-sized game! (Now off to vote and rate!)

I guess I have a few.

The Golden Baton: This was my first adventure game experience, IIRC. So then, my first time drawing a map and learning how to think in the terms of those games, always with a dictionary at hand, learning lots of English in the process. This process continued in other games, so it was more the game type that made an impression than that particular game.

The Pawn: This was the first time I remember spending a lot of time on the easter eggs. (I didn't know the term back then.) There was this wise man or monk in the game, and my friend and I would sit the entire evening coming up with subjects we could ask him about, just to see if they were implemented in the game.

Elite: I played this space game on a Commodore 64 with a cassette tape deck. I remember sitting up late in the summer nights, waiting for my ship to approach some planet or being attacked. I would have something to read in the meantime - there really was a lot of waiting while flying through space. I imagined this was how it would probably be to sit in that cockpit, too. A lot of waiting.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: When a kid, I would make up stories that connected all my games in some sort of conspiracy that I could unravel only by playing the games. One of the games that had the leader of the bad guys (in my head) was Frankie Goes to Hollywood (I guess it was the Soviet President I thought about - the game really lacks a villain). My friends and I were stuck at 98% for so long before we discovered the last task by accident.

Wing Commander: I remember skipping some university classes in order to play and beat one of these games. Afterwards, I thought that that behaviour wasn't productive - I had stayed away from other people for a couple of days just to blow up an imaginary space station, and I hadn't been doing any studying either. So I decided to quit studying and get a job.

Diablo: I'm not sure if this was game 1 or 2, but I spent 10-12 hours playing, neglecting to eat or sleep. The next day, I decided that this wasn't healthy, and I couldn't keep up with work if I started doing this. So I quit the game. Never touched it again. I try not to get involved in any games that I suspect will be time thieves and have stayed away from a lot of Internet gaming for this reason.

Angry Birds - I think this was the first game I played that had bonuses if the player checked in regularly. This is commonplace nowadays, of course. Identifying this as a pattern behaviour was useful - I've never cared for having a snap streak, but I understand how that mechanism works.

WordFeud - The game that got me into some sort of social gaming (through WF League of Honour) at an acceptable pace for a family man.

Yatzy World - The game that made me start designing rules and tournaments. Through the Yatzy League of the mentioned WFLOH, there was an established base of players who were already interested in playing Yatzy cups/tournaments through their mobile app. And then I started making new rules, some times introducing the new concepts gradually, one in each tournament, before arriving at the complicated design I had had in mind without scaring off the potential participants.

Oh my. Sorry for writing a whole essay. I'll go start a blog now.   

And I finished it. The ending was a bit confusing, but brilliantly drawn. The end credits lists a lot of music. While there was some music during the ending, most of the
game was silent.

Thank you for the game! I enjoyed it. Now off to vote and rate.

I'm in the middle of this. I absolutely love this kind of game or movie. The graphics, particularly the monsters, are very atmospheric and well done.

My gripes are the same as the others have remarked on. The unmarked hotspots makes the game a bit cumbersome to play, especially when it comes to exits. I was actually stuck for 30 minutes before I discovered that there was a location on the other side of the bus, too. Even though I've managed to solve the puzzles so far in the game, some descriptions of the inventory items would have been another improvement. And I got the drone bug, too. Have anyone got the correct graphic display when flying the drone?

Despite this, I'm playing on. Which means that I'm enjoying myself and the game. I like the unconventional storytelling with segments out of order and the voices in different colours. The red voice is appropriately marked for me, but perhaps it could even have a different font (for the colour blind)? The game was also longer than I had expected - when I thought it was about to end, it jumped to another segment of the story. While unpolished, there is a lot of fun to be had here, at least for horror fans. I'll vote as soon as I've completed it.

Did you manage to finish the game? Very few did, which is a clear indication i need to work harder for the next game. It should not be as difficult. At least not in the start of a game!

Lesson learned there for sure...

I just wondered: how do you know that few have finished the game? Unless you have been bombarded with PMs asking for hints, that is. One should think there would be a hint thread or questions here if people were really stuck. Or is it your friends and family who are stuck? That would be understandable - this is a site for people accustomed to the game genre, after all.

Well, at least four or five people on here have asked for somekind of hint, it could also be that they just don't want to "get frustrated", so they ask to avoid getting frustrated, which i guess also is a little bit of sign that something is "off". But i am highly critical here of course!

(Psst...you may add a spoiler to your last post-) 

Ah, that counts as a PM storm.  IIRC, I found some bugs and asked if the game was winnable before trying further. Some frustration about a fair puzzle is okay, but I guess I don't want to spend time until the game works. I thought the puzzle was fair, by the way.

From the opening post, Frightfest and Eternal Chrysalis has been mentioned. I also recognize The Dark Plague (duh) and The Terrible Old Man. But what is the last game pictured?

Did you manage to finish the game? Very few did, which is a clear indication i need to work harder for the next game. It should not be as difficult. At least not in the start of a game!

Lesson learned there for sure...

I just wondered: how do you know that few have finished the game? Unless you have been bombarded with PMs asking for hints, that is. One should think there would be a hint thread or questions here if people were really stuck. Or is it your friends and family who are stuck? That would be understandable - this is a site for people accustomed to the game genre, after all.

So, I finished the game! I REALLY enjoyed every minute. It was funny, unpredictable, and great puzzles. Ending was a bit sad but I think that when a game evokes emotion, it speak a lot about the immersiveness.

Good luck in the competition!

I second everything Shadow1000 says. Now, let's vote and give the game a rating in the AGS database! I've voted - the game needs five AGS-ers to vote in order to get some cups.

I've learned that the game I was going to make would basically be a lesser version of Phasmophobia, so I'm going to have to figure out another idea that will work.

If you want story help/ideas, send out some PMs. I'm sure we could get you back on track. 

I do have trouble seeing colours so I got past this using trial and error. I am wondering HOW you figured this one out? As I said, it took me about 5 minutes to get to that point and then stuck for an hour. I am trying to understand the thinking process to figure out that

Spoiler

Yellow means valid halo

[close]

My reasoning was that

Spoiler

Death said he had never seen a halo glow like THAT. So I thought that I had to change how it looked. In hindsight, yellow or white would be the obvious choice, given how halos are usually depicted, but I tried with other colours first. 

[close]

What does the voting say about participants. Say i wanted to vote on the My Fathers Secret, am i aloved to even vote?

This differs a bit from contest to contest, so it's a fair question. In MAGS, the participants may vote. You don't have to tell anyone who you voted for, although a bit of positive feedback on things you like is welcome. Most participants don't vote for their own game, but there is no rule about it.

Everyone who votes or plays these games should also take the time to vote on the games page for each game. I keep forgetting to do this, but we could make it a habit. Then at least the MAGS games will get the five ratings necessary to get a player rating.