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I started in on playing Becalmed, which is excellent so far..

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..but I think I hit the same thing someone else mentioned, since I left the hair / coal dust gel something puzzle for last..  I'm not sure if I'm blocked... but wow I loved the game so far, I'm gonna give it another go

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Something I came close to missing:

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Jacob's knife has a second use, beyond the BBs.

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Having trouble with both games. Got practically nowhere in Hoopoe. Reached 50% on Becalmed, and asking for a nudge:

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Have clam shells and think I know what to do with them. Have hair gel, but don't seem to have a way to color it. Figure I'm going to need the knife to dig out the BBs for the whistle, but no dialogue option to talk Jacob out of his knife. Spritzed the cat into the coal, but doesn't seem to work on the hair gel. Li'l help.

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I'd really rather finish the games before voting. Seems unfair, otherwise. I'd ask for help with Hoopoe, but I'm clearly not making any progress beyond meeting the badger. Not sure I'll ever be able to finish that one.

Edit: Looked at Wham's video and found two hotspots I'd missed. Now sitting at 90%. Think I got the wrong tat?

Edit 2: Finished it 100%. Enjoyable. Now thinking which tat doesn't matter, but might be wrong? Thanks Wham, for your video!

Voted. Enjoyed all three of these!

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My vote went to Carnival of Shadows, mainly because it's the one I enjoyed the most. Nothing wrong with Zoo. Stew seemed pretty far out there, and for me, it suffered as a result.

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That was fun! I got some FnaF vibes here. The graphics are eerie, especially the dark child spirits. The music is frantic and fits the story well. My main gripe was the controls. I'm not used to keyboard movement, and I needed it to be able to switch rooms. I also repeatedly accidentally ditched my friends and had to go back and get them to follow me.

So, what does

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NG+ unlocked

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mean?

Thanks for playing!

You can click to walk and click on doors if you prefer, also I put the signs in so you can click on them to quickly switch rooms( in the carnival part ) but maybe there are some dodgy hotspots that I missed!

If reference to the spoiler tag, it's just a stupid joke.

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it stands for new game plus

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I didn't use the WASD keys, using the mouse, instead. Regarding the hot spots to change rooms: it may be more of an issue of those signs fading into the backgrounds. Once I noticed the signs, it became much easier to move between rooms.

It's fine to go in and fix game-breaking bugs during voting, so feel free. We want people to be able to finish the games.

That Ferris Wheel/fuse box thing I mentioned may not be an actual game breaker. Not much reason to revisit the fuse panel in the normal flow of the game. I appeared to get stuck inside the Fun House and decided to recheck the areas outside a second/third time.

I managed to get through all three entries this month. All had their good points.

I don't think you've missed anything, just pay close attention to what the guy on the couch says! Thanks for playing!

That was the nudge I needed. And thanks for making a very enjoyable game! May be a bug if you click on the fuse box a second time after getting the Ferris Wheel to move. Seems to lock up the mouse movement and stall the game.

Trying to play them. Made it through Zoo but currently stalled out on the other two. Made it into the Fun House in Carnival but seem to be stuck there. I suspect I've missed something. Also haven't hit on the right combination of stuff in Stew.

Thought I'd take a minute to point out that Cat extended Creamy's Near You Background Blitz until the end of June. Since a Tourist Attraction might well be Near You, an enterprising game designer might be able to parlay a twofer and win both competitions. As the Blitz currently stands, there's only one entry.

Here's something for your consideration:



Based on a photo inside Casa Bonita, a restaurant here in Denver, Colorado. Modeled and rendered in Anim8or.

Hopefully, someone else will have an entry before the deadline!

The on again/off again "current" Background Blitz sent me out on the web looking for inspiration. Found an interesting photo that seemed, to me, workable as a background. I'm thinking about modeling the scene or trying to pixel paint over the scene. Also thought it was worth dropping the resized photo into a game, to see what it might look like. Results:



Is there a general consensus regarding the mixing of pixel art and shrunken photography?

I'd likely get in trouble using the image, since I don't own it in any way, but it often surprises me how well some of the photos shrink down to something game sized. Any insights about why some photos work so well, and others are a waste of effort?

The photo resides here:

https://remezcla.com/culture/disneyland-mexican-restaurants-featured-south-park-files-bankruptcy/

And, in passing, Casa Bonita isn't dead. The South Park creators bought the place. They'll be reopening it following a long period of renovations. Went to the old iteration a few times, and it was a magical place.

Seems to have been an interesting enough topic, but looks like it fell off the edge of the earth? Maybe if Creamy gave it a new deadline? Only reason I stopped by was my looking for something to do to get me moving again.

I mainly use MS Paint for what I try to do. Went looking for MS Paint tutorials on YouTube, and came across this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130qUUM7TQ4

Apparently, the artist committed to using MS Paint for a year, and he did some amazing stuff with it. There are a number of his "speed paintings" on the channel. He does go pretty in depth on one of them involving a tree; it's an actual tutorial. Worth a look. Appears he's moved on to other programs, but I was impressed.

Voted. Thought both games made excellent music choices.

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I voted for Mathilde's Dream, mainly because I never got the hang of Blackbird Pie. In fact I took enough swings at it that it became frustrating and left a lot of dead birds on the playing field. Radiant gives a number of in-game clues about the mechanics, but I just never figured them out. Almost seems that I came up a bird short? Then again, based on the last several MAGS entries, I suck at solving puzzles.

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Sherwood is also giving me troubles, but doubt hints would help me for this type of game.

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Start by staying in stealth mode so enemies can't hear you, and avoid the "sound" symbols that indicate when you hear them.

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Throw a rock against a tree far away, and enemies will hear the thud and chase that.

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Use gold near an enemy to bribe them into looking away. Predictably, this doesn't work on dogs, but something else does.

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HTH! There's a lot of little details like that in Sherwood.

Thanks for that. This is a very professional looking game, but not my cup-of-tea. Also, I did lever into Level 3, and found myself unable to move out of the entry slot, penned in by the wall and surrounded by foliage on the other three sides.

Edit: Just discovered the two-arrow combo that allows diagonal movement, so... Never Mind.  ;-)

@OneDollar Thanks. I'd missed one of the control panels. Had fun with the game.

Edit: I also voted. Not an easy choice.

Stalled out on In Our Midst. Been stalling out a lot in these MAGS games, lately. Little help OneDollar, if you please:

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I have scissors, blue cup of goo, card, key, and rope attached to space toilet. I'm also aware of airlock opening and closing. From that point on, I seem to be dead in space. Those pictures in crew's quarters seem clickable, but nothing in inventory seems to do anything to them. Same thing for the various floor grates, except for the one below the engine drain and filling the cup.

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Sherwood is also giving me troubles, but doubt hints would help me for this type of game. Got through the other two games without major problems.

Stupot, those links don't seem to work for me?

Half-time! Before you leave for your break, please tell us how you are progressing. Who managed to make a game that is playable from start to finish?

I won't have anything this month. I normally have better luck with the project than I am at the present time. I do hope to continue the effort, but it's not happening this month.

Would not say I'm making a lot of progress with this one. Tentatively titled: Mir Amesh. GameBoy video capture for one of the rooms:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qf6yhuaqt6j0upq/Mir_Amesh_2024-03-09_16-15-03.mp4/file

Not happy with much of anything, but still trying.

Edit: Worked on fan, and added piano:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ia1yinimjm3bc8y/Mir_Amesh_2024-03-10_06-00-05.mp4/file

It is getting kind of weird in jwalt-ville, regarding the last few MAGS topics. Here, once again, the topic seems to be falling nicely in line with my story arc in the effort to get Josh and Davy back home. I saw my Thorvald's Sphincter as two halves of one tool. Only, not sure I'm up to another effort? Have to see if I'm able to make any progress?

PS Thanks, Cat! Just as we planned...