Messages

Here's "Mazzled!"

The downloadable zip is busted and doesn't contain the actual game executable. You've probably made changes in AGS after compiling the game, so the compiled exe is gone.
Simple recompile, zip and upload should fix that up for you!

Thanks. I'll see if I can figure that out. But try running the engine from inside the top-level Data directory. That works for me.

Edit: It should be working now. Thank you for pointing that out.

Here's "Mazzled!"



https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2816-mazzled-

It's only one of the three levels I intended,the easiest one. Find your way to the end. You'll know when you get there. The interface is pretty barebones. Use the mouse to press the "up" button to move forward and the "left/right" buttons to turn. When you're ready to quit, press Control-Q or close the window. There's no saving games.

Edit: It may be necessary to run the AGS editor from within the "Data" directory rather than trying to run an executable. I'll see if I can get the executables to work.

Edit again: I updated the download to include the missing Windows executable. Thanks to @WHAM for the heads up.

Right now I'm just polishing the proof-of-concept I did at the beginning of the month in order to make the original deadline. If there's an extension, I may try to get my planned level finished, but it's pretty involved compared to the prototype.

I have a couple of ideas.

I just noticed the original post specifically mentions "adventure game".

Don't worry about that. That probably needs rewording. Non-adventures have always been welcomed in MAGS. Unless the specific month's guidelines calls for adventure games only (which I don't think has ever happened), you can safely submit a non-adventure.

I'll change the phrasing of the generic text for future versions.

Thank you. I thought I was confusing MAGS with something else.

I've completed the prototype and got all the game mechanics working. Now I'm working on the game proper, which is a little more involved and has its own challenges.

The game doesn't have much story to speak of, but it does involve going on a journey of sorts. I hope that's adventure enough for MAGS. I've always thought of this as a monthly AGS game jam, as in a game made with AGS that fits the topic, but I just noticed the original post specifically mentions "adventure game".

I've done too much work to turn back now, so I'll just keep plugging away at it.

Huh... This is kind of the idea I had for last month that I was unable to do. Though I was going to go more the Rashomon type. I'll see if I can come up with a a good enough new idea to do.

Rashomon was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the topic.

OK. This time I put off mentioning I was in until I was absolutely sure. I'm far enough into a proof of concept build that could be submitted as it is right now if push came to shove. So I'm in.

I'm bowing out. I was very excited about the script I came up with, but the puzzles were kind of meh, so I got distracted with other things.

I'm trying to think of something while my game dev hat is still on.

Does anyone have a premise or idea you're not using that you'd like to see made into a MAGS game this month? I'd like to have something nailed down very early so the rest of the month can be spent implementing the game.

I don't have any specific suggestions, but you could always look into public domain sources for ideas. You could look into mythology. Perhaps something involving selkies or a kelpie. Or you could get inspiration from The Odyssey. Perhaps a public domain book like Robinson Crusoe or Treasure Island.
Or you could randomly choose a location with a large enough body of water and look into legends from that area. There are so many possibilities. The main thing I'd ask is what kind of game do you want to make? DO you want something mystery related? You could do a murder mystery on an tiny island. You could do something like what if some Agatha Christy story happened on that island and adjust things accordingly.
If you want more ideas or want to bounce ideas back and forth, feel free to ask.

Thank you. I think I'm going with the mystery/quest approach. I already have a story idea based on a premise heltenjon sent me. It looks like I'm in for this month if nothing unexpected comes up (like a soon-to-be hurricane that's supposedly aiming right for us).

I'm trying to think of something while my game dev hat is still on.

Does anyone have a premise or idea you're not using that you'd like to see made into a MAGS game this month? I'd like to have something nailed down very early so the rest of the month can be spent implementing the game.

I was rushing to finish assets so I could throw something together for midnight my time. But now is past the real GMT deadline, and I only just finished the major assets. It wouldn't be fair to spend another couple of hours to get something in. It wouldn't have been more than a quick walk-through of the scenes with a couple of interactions anyway. Next time we have a "finish your MAGS game" topic, I'll have most of the assets done.

I'll edit this with some images of the assets.

Edit: Here are the assets, minus a couple of puzzle spoilers:

To be honest, if you submit it before I close the contest, I'm not going to be checking the timestamp too closely.

GMT! I was thinking I had until late tonight to work on it. We may have something. I'll try to get it in before you close it up.

@jfrisby Those are some beautiful screenshots. I can't wait to play it.

Thank you @Stupot . We wouldn't have made it for midnight anyway. I've gotten a lot done in the past twenty-four hours, but my perfectionism is slowing me down. That and not cutting things out of the game like I should have done. Now maybe we can keep at least most of heltenjon's script.

Here's what I got done in the last 24 hours, not including sketches for scenes and props that I still need to get to.

I also had a lot of new work come in since telling heltenjon I was working on this again. So now I'm cramming at the last minute. This probably won't be more than a proof of concept, but we should have something in, at least.

I upsized to 640x480, and I'm having a lot of problems with portions of the BASS template GUIs

I noticed this when I scaled up as well. The logic scales up, in other words invisible buttons are where they should be for a scaled-up interface. But the graphics are too small and in the wrong place. I'm assuming if I replace the graphics with scaled-up versions it would work. But I'll probably just work at the original size for now.

My understanding is that the transparent parts of images still count in the collision detection. I had an issue with that in a game a few years ago. In the video it looks like the character might be getting blocked by part of the fishing hole image.

If you have extra space around the image, you may try trimming it down to only surround the visible parts. If the girl and the fishing hole are all part of one image, you might break them into separate images so that the rectangle surrounding the different parts can fit more closely.

You could also try having the character first walk to a spot from where you know he can always reach the correct spot to trigger the dialog.

Thanks for the responses. If I decide to stay in with this game, I'll redo some of the design work.

I'll finish my part of a game heltonjon and I worked on a while back if it's not disqualifying to have done a little design work outside of the challenge month. I think I'm going to have to redo the assets I made, but some of the designs for them were worked on after the month was over. Very little actual game logic was done, and even that will probably need a fresh start.

Edit: Would this be allowed, Stupot?

Edit again: Given that it's probably outside of the spirit of MAGS to have done any work outside of the competition month, I'll finish our game outside of MAGS. Maybe I'll revive one of my own unfinished MAGS ideas.

When is the deadline for voting?

To be confirmed. It's all down to when the AGS Award ceremony is set for (late-March-ish). When we know the exact date, I'll close the voting a few days before it.

If I were to make videos, should they be full playthroughs?

Whatever you can do would be great. My personal preference is full playthroughs with no talking over the game audio, but if that's not your style, that's cool. Anything that gives a flavour of the gameplay and graphics, and  shows off some of the puzzles, would be awesome.

OK. Thanks.