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I second this

(I'm starting to repeat myself.) Maybe next time we could get the old voting system back? (Give each game a score of 1-5 or 1-10 or whatever in each category.) It sucks every time when I'd really want to vote some game but there's this other one that deserves it just a bit more and I can only choose one.

and this

I vote for more categories, and grouping sound/music and concept/writing should be split up but hey that's something for next year.

oh and this

And sexiness! There should be a sexiness category.

Very curious. I like curiously looking games.

Lovely collection. The Of Light and Darkness one looks simply beautiful.

As does Ben304's of course. ^__^

[Best brilliant hilarity]

Well, wow. What a variety. The competition is fierce, it's really hard to choose even for yourself what is more best than the other (i haven't made my vote at the time of writing yet) and no doubt our feelings about all the different wonderful things in these game may get a little lost in all that voting process where only winners matter.

So I'd like to express my personal impressions of some of submitted entries so their creators may get their bonus moment of glee even if the golden trophy doesn't end up in their hands.

I mean I didn't spot anything saying that the voting is supposed to be all that anonymous as well. But if I did miss that then

Spoiler

Oops.

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Anyway, here are my votes:

Best brilliant hilarity
Barrier
This game is simply ingenius. Just bloody brilliant. Amazing.   out of   Beautiful. Etc etc. I can't wait for the voting to end just to discover who the author is and officially worship him/her/it. Dear author, you have my deepest respect.

Best dopey WTFness
Dehaunt
This game seems to be taking a piss at everything from the common sense to the competition's one room-oriented theme. I love that. I really do.

Best game that doesn't work
Entrapped
Well, at the time of writing this is the only one game from the entire collection that doesn't work. So obviously it wins in that category be default. If later some other games will stop working too, I will of course reconsider my vote on this.
EDIT: Oh. Laugh as much as you will, but suddenly it started working. Disqualified from this category then! Let's reaward it properly.

Best 65536 hotspots adventure game
Entrapped
That's what we're after, after all, isn't it? Interactivity. One sweet overly interactive room flooded with loads of hotspots. What more can an adventure gamer wish for?

Best keeping the old formula fresh
Office Shenanigans
Obviously, the fact that from the whole competition only two three games are typical inventory puzzle-based adventure games supports the opinion that everyone wants only adventure games made only with ags.
Anyway, office shenanigans takes the classic adventure game gameplay and presents it in a new, lovely, clever-written narrative. Why, I love when that happens.

Best THIS GAME IS AAAASS!! game
One Room One Cheese
Well, it's a lovely game with a lovely design and lot of playful references, but. The controls and the utterly challenging level design gave me a strong temptation to record my own playthrough of it in Angry Video Game Nerd style in order to make my own playful reference and also express my frustration.
Because I didn't even finish it. Because I kept dying and dying and-
ASS!
FUCK!!
WHAT WERE THEY THIIINKING?!?!?!

Best sexy fun
Outrage Dreamer Roads 3
Well, this game is sexy and fun. Beautifully vulgar. Ironically overly ironical. I charmed the hell out of me even before the gameplay has begun. Pure win, if you will.

Best intense artsy platformer
Requiem
It's good that Braid wasn't competing in this OROW otherwise it'd make a tough competitor for this game... no, wait a second. I think Braid is boring bollocks actually. So Requiem would take this award anyway. Yes.
So, it's a little bit cheesy stylish-y game, but it's more than enjoyable and playable and even finishable. It has my full sympathy and support.

Best stylish moody immersive drama
The Devil Got My Woman
It was incredibly plesant to stumble upon something like that in the collection. Something dialogue-based, story-centered, feelings-centered, characters-centered, situation-based, you get the idea. The way story went was barely suprising (except maybe the very ending that I can't claim I got 100% right) but at least it was very sincere and didn't fail in any major way and it was very captivating to explore the story's microworld while it lasted. So, er, yay!

In conclusion, as you can see by the size of this post I really miss trying to convince Snarky that King's Quest is boring shit. So yeah, play these OROW games if you haven't! They're fun!

I really like the screens and the atmosphere they give off. Waiting for this with curiousity and high expectations.

Absolutely lovely. I loved this game. I can't possibly express how much I and the nerd in me enjoyed this game, the situations, the characters, the references, the jokes. Loved it to bits. At times it made me teary-eyed. Thank you so much, Akril15, for this beautiful experience. Even knowing that such a game like that thoroughfully pays homage to so many adventure games collectively exists warms the heart, and to actually play it is even more uplifting and wonderful.

My picks: Legend of Kyrandia trilogy, Blade Runner, Beneath a steel sky, King's Quest 6, Laura Bow 2, The Messenger (the whole soundtrack would barely make two minutes in length but it's so insanely good), Myst, Space Quest 4, URU Ages Beyond Myst (even if only for the Gallery Theme), Gray Matter, Runaway A Twist of Fate,  Sanitarium, The Last Express, Gabriel Knight 1.
Also I have favourite bits from all Broken Sword games and I agree with what Ali said about their music so it deserves a mention too.
Anachronox if you count it as adventure which you really should because it does clever funny storytelling better than most adventures do.
As for AGS games: Apprentice 1 & 2, Ben Jordan 3, Mind's Eye.

[adore]

I love AGS competitions, and I love the spirit of AGS competitions, and I love people who take part in them and I love what they make. And man, I adore the community. And that's exactly why I don't want it all to be lost to blind worship of the engine itself and "use AGS or fuck off" attitude. I love and understand the tradition, but still it wouldn't be nice in my opinion for that tradition to turn into alienation of everybody or everything else. I want to join in with AGS people, but I don't want to use AGS for my game, why can't I, Gilbot and Ryan? Why?

If you want a use any game creator to make an OROW game challenge, then make a different challenge later.

That's a very valid suggestion and maybe a more wise way than trying to redefine a tradition... however, does it really differ that much from what we have now, except the possible name of it?

I imagine lots of people could make tons of cool looking 3D games with easy to use particle effects and such modules/plugins. Or me making a simple physics game with box2d in flash.

You see that as a bad thing? Seriously? You don't want tons of cool looking 3D games? You're a very strange man to say the least.

How do you compare an AGS game to something like that?

By the enjoyment? By the usual standarts you compare games with really. You can never  compare any games unless they're made with the exact same engine and toolset? Do I really need to point out that adding "cool effects" doesn't instantly make your game to be a winner above everybody else's? Oh no, these poor indie competitions where any game making tools are allowed, they must be in complete doom, not being able to compare or compete at all!


If AGS itself is THAT important let's stop talking about adventure games and doing creative fun things then, let's just read AGS source code together over and over again not daring to touch a single letter in it until our minds go completely numb in that very special blissful bonding with nostalgia and everloyal love for the software tool.

may I inquire if THIS is enought to get someone banned from the forums?

Well there's no download link and it's the completed games forum, so obviously yes!

Yaaay! I loved the first one, totally looking forward to this one! Can barely wait, man. Cheers!

Well since it got bumped anyway, I'll use this oportunity to say that I love this game, it's lovely, it has beautiful music, and everyone should play it.

Definitely the completed game announcements section

Thanks a bunch!
And btw, Heil Hitler, fellow nazi!

I'm unsure if I get this right... If I need help with how to blow it out my butt should I to ask here or should I make a thread in the tecnical forum? 

A bloody WHORE.

 Very inspiring, very good ideas, very good narrative that grabs you and doesn't let rest until the end. Definitely a game i was looking forward to and was happy to find released and play.  Loved the dialogue too. Well done, Technocrat. And very nice music - good work, ShiverMeSideways!

But. Pales in comparison with part 2 since it gives much less story or feels like it does. And I absolutely hated these minigamey puzzles. They didn't put more fun into the game, but rather took it out for me. Had to struggle for a good hour or more with nodes puzzle which solved accidentally, and was nearly put to sleep by drone puzzle even though solved each room almost on the first go. It's just my opinion of course but still i'd really advise to seriously reconsider inserting such puzzles in the future, since, well arbitrary puzzles don't equal fun and also they make the whole thing feel too self-aware "hey, since we're playing a game, how about some logical puzzle that has nothing to do with anything before we proceed with actual gameplay and narrative?". You know.

Still, I congratulate you with the release and wait forward to your next developments. May they be pleasant for you and for your audience. 

Love at first screenshot! Totally looking forward to it!

Loved it. Really loved it. Excellent game. Please make more such games.

Oh holy Roger Wilco, this game is so horrible, evil and offensive even while bearing in mind that there're dozens of games and the whole sandbox genre that allow you to kill innocents in thousands!

I agree with Igor, but still the lack of irony in the audience can be very irritating at times.

The game is pretty funny because of its absolutely dumb blatant harshness. Or in other words: it's so silly it's funny. Though I'd say it should've been called "cowardly backstabbing torturers anonymous" or something because I kinda imagine wifebeaters to be more straightforward about their attitude, but then maybe it's only my naive misconception.

Hahaha, i LOVE the newspaper! XD Downloading!

I'd like to join people congratulating JBurger on releasing this. Very well done, one of the most pleasant game experiences of the last time. I'll be honest: I wouldn't call it mindblowing, but i enjoyed it thoroughfully and by all means appreciate it and look forward to your future projects, JBurger.
I found it very pleasing in visual and audial senses, great job, Nathan, especially that track that plays when they come to

Spoiler

weather tower

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Obviously in terms of atmosphere too. Really liked a lot of design decisions such as multiple solutions to certain things.

Spoiler

being able to fail to convince the lobby manager and ask your partner to do that for you entirely? brilliant!

[close]

Really liked the main story twist (and particulary OMG SPOILER the director's explanation END OF HORRIBLE SPOILER) and the way two stories connected. But my only problem is that while the whole story's composition is very good, it feels unexciting at times and some parts feel a bit empty story-wise because protagonists chase some simple goals without much feeling of global progress. And it's not even a real critisism, since 1. relaxed, slow, engrossing parts add to the experience and 2. i have no idea how would i fix it. So I'm not even saying it's necessarily bad, BaSS was actually full of such parts too and I enjoyed it deeply, and in no way i'm implying that sense of importance it necessity for a good story, but you know, just sharing how i felt in the hope that you may find it interesting and/or useful. It's just felt for me that the story is good, but it's not enough of it to fill in such length.

But then again, I really appreciate a game made entirely of sincere attempts to make a good game, not corrupted by any typical game design faults stemming from laziness and lack of care. So you deserve every buck and every praise you get from this game and I wish you to make more and that all possible good things come to you!