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Congratulations, The GUE! Funny game and a worthy winner! Now how about that Not My First Apocalypse world...

I probably shouldn't speak for myself because your issues sound all too familiar but I can share what Slasher once said. He had made himself a "generic game template" - title screen, basic GUI, locations map, save/load, settings, on hover text label, some generic functions etc., that he would use for most of his MAGS games. This would save him tons of time setting all the basics up.

He would also re-use assets, such as characters with finished walkcycles or talking animations, now being cast in new roles. He would see it as an actor now playing a new role, and not be concerned that he would have to make this the same character and that all the connections fit. Famously, he used the same character sprite with different colour clothes for a set of goons in the same game. The art was just a means to an end to him.

I recognize Babar's work process, though I'd usually breeze through 1-3 and never get started on 4, because that involves art, which I have little to no talent for. I guess what can be read from what you write is that you may be overly self-critical. The puzzle sequence you describe may be perfectly fine if it's told right, or with some small twists. (Or maybe I'm not critical enough about my own puzzles.) Even in a game with great puzzles, there are usually some things to do that are fairly easy. Which is nice, because it makes the player feel good, as there is some progress, even though there are puzzles that seem impossible to solve at that point.

[The Man Who Mistake His Wife for a Hat]

Here are some more games from Itch. (I don't think they are in TheTMD's lists yet.)

Beachcomber
Abomination Obtainer
Vox in Rama

4kbShort (Christopher Forlines) has a couple of entertaining MAGS entries not added to the database yet. (Please do!)
The Passenger
The Delivery
The Gift

The girl in the House
https://paranoic.itch.io/the-girl-in-the-house
A FMV game done with AGS: how many have you seen? i don't remember any other...

I played this - it's a lot of fun! I guess it's somewhat of a pixel hunt and kind of repetitive by nature, but I love that these people acted out these scenes and made a short escape from the killer game.

Fixer

This was really cool. It's a long demo, and admittedly, many empty rooms, but it's nice on atmosphere because of it. You play a sort of fixit man for the local crime guys in a world of anthropomorphic animals. It captures the MS-Dos cga look nicely.

Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, The

My comment from the $104 adventure game jam thread:

The Man Who Mistake His Wife for a Hat: A bit experimental with using different senses. Not always logical solutions to the puzzles, more of clicking around to see what happens. A lot is not implemented. Don't play if that bothers you.

That's some sweet looking art.

I think the idea of having the item in every room might work somehow. But the scrip might get messy. If the player enters the room with iKey from room 1, then iKey2 can't be visible
and if the player drops the iKey, then iKey2 is visible, etc... I can already feel my head spinning trying to make that work.

No, the iKey is the key that is in your inventory. The Key you see on screen if it is lying around in the current room, must be coded as an object (oKey) or a character (cKey). If you want the key to be droppable in every room, it will be easiest to code it as cKey. What you do then, is that if you drop the key (lose iKey from inventory), you have cKey arrive in the current room at coordinates you set.

If you want to put the oKey (object that is limited to a room) in every room, you set it as invisible everywhere except where it starts out. Then you need to make it visible in the current room if iKey is dropped on the floor. Doable, but cumbersome.

Disclaimer: I have no experience with the parser template. This reply deals with the general AGS behaviour only.

The actual question is: how do I implement a system that allows me to drop items in any room? Since room objects cannot leave their room, you would have to add a key object to every room in theory.
You also cannot create room objects on the fly, so this question is in fact much more complex than it might seem unfortunately.

Hmmm...could he solve it by making the key a character instead? A cKey could enter a room when iKey is dropped?

[if]

Items are in your inventory, while objects are visible (or not) in a room. You need to make an object in the room (oKey) which you turn invisible when the player picks it up, and visible when the player drops it.

So you should code that the oKey turns invisible and that the player gets the iKey. Likewise, if your player loses the iKey, the oKey gets its visbility turned on again. You also need another if to check whether the oKey is visible in this room before letting the player pick up the iKey.

Yet another one to add to my long playlist. Congratulations on the release!

I'm a bit curious on the pros and cons of "manipulating" graphics like you do here up against drawing it all from scratch. How does that process compare? I ask because I know you are perfectly capable of doing it either way.

[Wagu Ogambo -- A Reality on the Norm game]

Whoa, four great entries! You all did really well!

My thoughts about the individual games this month:

Wagu Ogambo -- A Reality on the Norm game by jwalt:

Spoiler

It's been a while since I've played the RON games, but even though I couldn't remember all the characters' traits very well, this worked out fine and was a fun play. It's a funny story, and while the puzzles mostly consist of doing things in the correct order, I didn't mind. I agree that using the characters as a "map" is a good idea (I've even done that myself  ) that saves the player from walking around too much.

[close]

The Play of Life by tbook:

Spoiler

Great story. It looks like you had intended to include some more content, if the unused inventory items are anything to go by. The design seems to be a mix of different ideas - walking between locations or movement through a sort of map, for instance. Cool use of the same locations in daytime and at night. I like the puzzles and the story, but I don't think they are completely integrated. Like gathering money before knowing the price of admission.

[close]

Dreamscape: Silent Serenade by Kastchey:

Spoiler

I want this game now! Exceptional in art, mood and puzzles, but of course, it isn't finished. I broke the game by entering the dreamscape while wearing the helmet, for example. I found multiple solutions to puzzles, three sleepers, but no way to complete the first task. Is there one? I made a decoy, but had no place to put it. This is the only entry with challenging puzzles this time.

[close]

Worlds Literally Collide by The Great Underground Empire:

Spoiler

Great humour and a really fun, yet short play. I liked the literal take on the rules. Constant breaking of the fourth wall and a rounded game.

[close]

I basically liked all four games and think all of them could be worthy of my vote. I'll give it a think before I decide.

While this question really was about how to import a global function, I was wondering when I saw you making a function called "dialogue".

Just in case you haven't noticed, right-clicking on the Dialogs node in the editor will create a dialog for you. (Note the spelling.) https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/EditorDialog.html

Edit: He knew. 

Congratulations on the release! Looks fun! I'll make sure to play it soon. 

Please also add the game to our database on the game page: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/add/

I understand, ok - then what kind of workflow are you supposed to use with the verbcoin, when you want to interact with an Inventory item, but not using it with something else?
Say I want to open, or eat an inventory item? Are you supposed to always "use inventory item with player character"?

The Inventory window will use the BASS standard, which is look and use. In the case you state here, I'd argue that using a food item with the character would be a logical way to eat it, but if you need something to be opened, I'd rather go with having the "examine" option automatically opening/unwrapping.

A possible workaround if you want those options available in your inventory, could be to add items in your inventory that symbolize eating or opening or whatever action you want to be available. Then you could drag your item to the "interact item" to get your desired effect. (It would probably be wise to not make it possible to do it the other way around, or else you need to make responses for the player using the "interact item" on everything in the game, not limited to the inventory window.)

A bit more professional-looking would be to add extra icons to the inventory GUI, but that requires extra scripting, too.

There may still be things that are incorrect, especially regarding game length. Any input may be useful, like the bride said to her shy groom.

It's not an exact science, so I'd say go with your gut. As for kinda-non-adventure games, if the narrative or adventure-type elements are second to the arcade or simulation elements, I'd lean towards classifying it as a non-adventure, myself. If they share equal importance, I'd probably go...adventure?

Regardless, if you need a hand with specific games, let me know.

Thanks, LimpingFish, I may do that. Like Kastchey guessed, I'm going with the same broad definition of what constitutes an adventure game as the $100+ game jams on itch.

Dread McFarlane is actually an old game re-uploaded to the database, and not the visual novel/comic version, so I guess it should be removed from the possible nominees list?

That is correct. These games have already had a shot at ags awards, because they have been in the database before. Even though I'm happy they are back, they aren't eligible this year.

Some other old jam games that are added for the first time now, is eligible under our rules, though. Like America 2000. I don't think this will be a problem for anyone.

Hey Der, Undy!, to quote the developer: "There are two versions available. V1.3 has no voicing, but has more textured graphics, a better user interface and a "jokeatron". V1.2 has the old AI voicing and older, simpler graphics." Will this be a problem?

This will not be a problem. People may nominate from either of these versions if they want to, but I don't think it's necessary to do anything about it.

Also, I noticed a handful of games use free or paid asset packs for the majority (if not all) of their graphics. Should we address this in regards to the visual award?

Isn't the criteria something about original art? I must admit I would think that Marion's Star Trek Comics, for example, would not be a natural choice because of this, even though they look like a million Euros.

[Iskra Igra]

I did some changes. Posting them here in case of objections:

* removed Demo tag on Iskra Igra
* changed Super Author Simulator 2023 to non-adventure
* changed Lost & Found to non-adventure
* changed How to: Witchcraft Cuisine to non-adventure
* changed Karelian bath steam house (Finnish) to non-adventure (will change it back to joke game after the nomination process)
* changed Super Star Trek (1978) meets 25th Anniversary to non-adventure

Jury is still out on

* The Weird thing under the bed Is it an adventure game? (Probably not important in this case. Sorry, Mandle.)
* Katura's Chronicles These games of Marion's are visual novels. In my head that is a subcategory of adventure games, so I haven't changed anything.
* Menial; a Utopian Bagel Simulator This is a hybrid of several game genres. So: non-adventure or not?

There may still be things that are incorrect, especially regarding game length. Any input may be useful, like the bride said to her shy groom.

We are happy to accept volunteers to sift through this year's database and let us know if any of the games are misclassified in the following categories: Non-Adventure, Demo, Freeware, Short.
Please PM me or cat if you think you can help.

I've informed cat that I'm doing this. As I have played many of the games and have the database admin rights, this shouldn't be too much hassle.

I think a great motivator would be if many of us played the games and provided feedback. To hear what people think about your creation, praise, friendly advice for improvement, basically just other ags-ers taking an interest in what you do. Making games in a vacuum is a lonely business, and encouragement is crucial.

Thank you, @TheTMD 

This will help putting Lost in the Nightmarev1.1 back in the database. The McReed game you have, seems to be The McReed Case, the first (and only finished) game in that series.

I like this idea, too. There is the small problem that these games will have more time, but I am in favour of everything that can get us more games.  Such a thread could in theory run all year.

We also are missing a working link to The McReed Case: Interrogation Betademo. I guess many of our collectors don't keep the demos, but i have to ask if someone has this lying around.

I think I have v1.1, but I'm not very sure, I don't know how to check it.

Lost in the Nightmare

It looks like this is version 1.0, and that I need a patch to upgrade to 1.1. Without the patch, there is a bug that I think breaks the inventory and makes the game impossible to win. (According to reloaded.org, where @Frodo seems to have played this game back in the day.)