MAGS October: "Hallowe'en" (Winner Announced)

[miguel]

Time is running fast but I can do it this time. I'm only missing the last scene and a set of walking sprites.
Turned out bigger than I thought although is still a short game

Because everybody is posting pictures here's a close-up done C64 fashion:

[imgzoom]http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm54/miguel20000/Docs_face_zps89116ad5.png[/imgzoom]

I also would like to learn how to zoom pictures Thank you Tabby!!!!

[Nightfable]

I won't be able to finish mine in time. I caught my daughter's stomach flu and have been sick for the past two days.

I'll make it available for download when I can. Sorry, guys. 

[Mandle]

Miguel: I love the retro feel like in the last one!

Nightfable: Aw shucks! I hope you feel better soon...Selfish reason really though: I want to play your game!

As for myself...Well, I'm almost there...Stupid bugs are killing me right now but I'm just gonna have to release despite them. Nothing game-breaking I hope...

Gotta get done in the next 2 hours so bye for now!

[shaun9991]

Nightfable, your game looks incredible - I love the graphics! Looking forward to playing it.

[Mandle]

Well, here it is...Not perfect yet and still has some issues (detailed below) but playable I think:

T.O.T.S: Trick-Or-Treat Simulator

This game was created for the October 2014 MAGS Contest. The theme of the contest was "Halloween".

My little effort is an attempt at a 2-player simulation of a child Trick-Or-Treating on Halloween. By 2-player I mean that two people participate in the game over the internet. However, the game is turn-based, not real-time, and no direct net connection to each other, or file-swapping is needed.

The data is transferred via a file in the game folder called "Halloween.txt". Just open the file, select-all, copy, and send the text to another player via PM etc, or simply post it on the forums as an open invitation to play, as I will do below. The second player then copies this text and pastes it into their own Halloween.txt file in their own game folder, starts the game, and selects the "Continue" option.

Players can decorate their houses for Halloween, mix-and-match pieces of Halloween costumes to dress up in, talk with each other in-game, slam doors in faces, give treats, play tricks etc!!!

Here are some screenies:



The above shot shows Player 2 selecting their costume.



Here's a shot of Player 2 announcing their presence.



Player 1 has opened the door here and is saying something to Player 2.

FEATURES:

* Spooky Halloween atmosphere. (I hope)
* Nice creepy music by JasonB!
* Customizable Halloween house decorating!!
* Customizable Halloween costume making!!
* Tricks!!!
* Treats!!!
* Two-player play without using a net-link or file-swapping!


KNOWN ISSUES:

* Currently legal characters usable in player names and messages are:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz !+$%&'()=;:,.?0123456789-

IMPORTANT: The + and ? characters were NOT available in the original download when the game was released so please re-download the newer version at the same link.

If you use characters that are not on this list the game data in the Halloween.txt file will become corrupted. The game is still playable but house decorations, costumes, and player names will all go out-of-whack. I will code a fix for this oversight but it's quite a big job so will have to wait. As long as you stick to these basic characters and punctuation for now the game should be fine.

*Previous issues with long player messages containing typos have been fixed in the latest version.


CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

[Mandle]

Oh....and here's my house open for any Trick-Or-Treaters who would like to stop by:

A*DM**g**a*n**d****r***d***l****e**b*R****VT****F***N**********************y**Ua****V***u**K******U***************************************************

Just copy/paste that over the data already in the Halloween.txt file in your game folder, start the game, hit Continue, and follow the in-game instructions to visit me! Feel free to PM me your data after you get into costume and I will open the door for you and maybe we can have a little chat and you might get some yummy treats too!

(It's a good idea to set font size to 6 or so or that line of data really stretches the forums screen out)

[yamipanda]

Meh. Couldn't finish mine on time.

[miguel]

MAGS OCTOBER 2014

CHARAMBA - CHAPTER 2

Hallowe'en

DOWNLOAD HERE

DOWNLOAD HERE

[Dread Spectacle]

My game will be ready in a couple hours.  It'll be a little rough but fully functional.

[Mandle]

My game will be ready in a couple hours.  It'll be a little rough but fully functional.

AWESOME! Can't wait!

[Dread Spectacle]

My game is complete. I'm sure I'll be the proud winner of last place with this creation. I was unable to get the main character to walk to a spot when looking/interacting/inventory using. But it doesn't hamper the game too much. I would have liked to add some more interaction to make the world a little bit more alive but I guess you can't have everything in a month.

DOWNLOAD HERE

[Mandle]

WOAH! Looks amazing! Now I have two new Halloween games to drool over tonight!

[Cassiebsg]

Congrats on the release Dread Spectacle... even though I would have loved it that it was bit longer, but what is there is good.
You even got me stumped for a few minutes...
There's few typos and missing "description names", but otherwise just fine.

Oh...

Spoiler

You left the debug mode on.

[close]

[Mandle]

My game is complete. I'm sure I'll be the proud winner of last place with this creation. I was unable to get the main character to walk to a spot when looking/interacting/inventory using. But it doesn't hamper the game too much. I would have liked to add some more interaction to make the world a little bit more alive but I guess you can't have everything in a month.

DOWNLOAD HERE

I must say that I absolutely LOVED your game!

Spoiler

Sure it lacks a lot of the proper interactions between cursors and most hotspots etc. Sure the gameplay is quite directionless EXCEPT that you know this is the night that changed your life forever...which intrigues you enough to keep playing...

At the end of the day, the great story you have created:

BIG SPOILER WARNING:

Spoiler

A kid selling his soul for a treat by being mistaken for a real demon in his costume (after disobeying his parent).

[close]

is what I LOVE most about this game!

Second only to the awesome and moody graphics which you obviously did not have time to fully flesh out: I sooooo want to see the rest of the neighborhood you had planned out but did not have the time to finish...

There are however, quite large problems with:

BIG SPOILER ALERT!

Spoiler

I had a LOT of trouble finding the Element Corner hotspot (it was one pixel wide) and even the Beast Corner Hotspot was iffy...You really need to make these hotspots much larger: With a MAGS game the players are just going to give up at this point assuming that the game is broken and they cannot progress further...

[close]

BUT! Wonderful entry that definitely gets my vote!

Cheers for the Halloween fun!

[close]

[Cassiebsg]

BIG SPOILER ALERT!

Spoiler

I had a LOT of trouble finding the Element Corner hotspot (it was one pixel wide) and even the Beast Corner Hotspot was iffy...You really need to make these hotspots much larger: With a MAGS game the players are just going to give up at this point assuming that the game is broken and they cannot progress further...

[close]

Spoiler

Funny, I had trouble with the hotspots right in the bedroom, but as soon as I realized that there was a mouse over name display for hotspots and objects, I had no longer problem with. Just moving the mouse very slowly where the "logical" hotspot should be until the name appeared, solved the problem.
My problem was actually finding the path to the haunted house... I thought "that" was actually an elevation on the terrain, with maybe something buried that did not make it to the game. So I went up and down the street a couple of times, tried to cross the street, find a missing hotspot somewhere... until my little demon started walking another way...
A brown/tan color instead would probably had been better to determine that that was a path... but might just be me.

[close]

[Mandle]

I had a bit of trouble with the same thing Cassie just mentioned actually, but I just kind of wrote it off as an extra challenge for the player in a fairly short game. I assume that more graphical hints were planned to make it more obvious what it was, such as a sign, a fence, or somesuch, but time just ran out?

[AprilSkies]

Congratz to all the partecipants!
I played Mandle's one and playing Miguel's one. after Miguel's I'm going to play Dread Spectacle's one!
@Dread Spectacle: why don't you open a "Complete games announcement" thread?

[Atelier]

Thanks guys! Sorry for the delay - I'll open voting and start MAGS November as soon as I can later today.

[Dread Spectacle]

Thanks to everyone for their nice comments regarding my game. I apologize for the issues you had during gameplay. About the small hotspots, I was thinking the status bar gui would help alleviate that since a player could see when on a hotspot but I'll use larger hotspots in the future.

Spoiler

It may be too dark or not obvious enough but there is a tree branch in the shape of a pointing finger that was intended to help lead the player to the old house.

[close]

I was thinking I would put it in the "Completed Games Announcement" thread in a weeks (after fixing a few things) but I'll go ahead and do that now.

[Mandle]

I vote for: A Tainted Treat

Miguel's effort was also awesome (as usual) but I must say that I had the most fun with Dread Spectacle's game: It fitted the theme perfectly, being a Trick-Or-Treating misadventure set on Halloween night. I really hope to see more games from this author!