MAGS 2008-09: Broken Game

[Klaus]

What is MAGS?
MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to use AGS to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner.

For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

Why should I enter MAGS?
We're not here to tell you that you should enter MAGS, but merely allow it as a creative opportunity to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, and generally as a good kick-start for the new comers (a.k.a n00bies).

MAGS is the perfect opportunity to make a game, and the wonderful prize is to announce the next month's rules, and all competitors get the game placed on the MAGS website.

MAGS is meant to be fun and is aimed at everyone, despite their skill. If you have poor art skills work on graphics, and vice-versa, as the voting is based on "favourite" games, and not the most artistic, you may get help for the competiton, but should try not get anyone else to do any part of the game for you.

You are not allowed to (re)use material already created before this competition, you game must be completely new! An exception goes for sounds and music where you can also use free material that is available to the public.

Please do not just enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created in just some hours or a few days)!

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Topic: Broken Game

This month's guidelines were set by last month's winner ProgZmax:

Do you remember all those games you've played that seemed to be really striving for greatness but kicked themselves in the teeth at every turn with multiple features that were a chore to use, horrible bugs that hindered gameplay, furious difficulty settings that made you see red, or a control scheme that seemed designed by Satan himself? And what about all those early Sierra walking deads, eh?

Well, now it's YOUR turn to fumble with the best of them!

This month, the rules are simple:

1. Make a game that is fundamentally broken in some important way (saves randomly don't work, mouse control falters, jump button takes ages to trigger) and design a GOOD game around the flaws.

2. Any genre is allowed, though for time constraints a standard adventure formula may be easiest.

3. The game must be interesting enough to really frustrate the player when something goes wrong/isn't implemented/crashes, so put some effort into the design!

4. Once again, having fun doing this is a must. It's time to satisfy your dark, bitter sense of sadistic humor. You know you want to!

Let's make some great broken games!

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All games need to be in by September 25th.

Please post a download link of your game entry to this thread, best with a screenshot. Thanks and good luck.

[Akatosh]

Now you've made me think of (and therefore want to play) Arcanum again. I hope you're proud of yourself. 

In different news, great theme.

[Brad Newsom]

Now you've made me think of (and therefore want to play) Arcanum again. I hope you're proud of yourself. 

In different news, great theme.

Is the game that bad? I've always wanted to play it an never heard of it being related to Bugs or Dead Ends. haha

[Ryan Timothy B]

I'd post this in the last MAGS thread but it's already locked.

That's the second time now I entered a MAGS competition and completely failed to deliver in the given 25 days.
Sorry for falling off the face of the earth, I left for an unexpected-last-minute, long weekend trip with some friends.  I'm glad Progz came through with his game.

I think I'll try to forget about this competition and actually try to finish the game I was working on.

Good luck guys/girls.

[The Suitor]

Found this interesting...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unwinnable

[Gilbert]

Hehe this topic somewhat reminds me of META.

[ThreeOhFour]

Now you've made me think of (and therefore want to play) Arcanum again. I hope you're proud of yourself. 

In different news, great theme.

Is the game that bad? I've always wanted to play it an never heard of it being related to Bugs or Dead Ends. haha

Arcanum was incredibly buggy (I remember my brother once crashed the game by leveling his character up to lvl 50 ). It was also incredibly good despite a bunch of people complaining about the graphics (which were fine imo).

EDIT: Oh, and due to some cheap tricks with the map screen designed to prevent all but the most persistant and geeky players, I managed to get my character to level 50 (the level cap) in the demo. I had far too much time on my hands, obviously. An interesting note - I found many, many aspects of Arcanum quite similar to Fallout, so if you liked Fallout, it's a safe bet.

Sorry for the off-topic post

[Akatosh]

Exactly. I lost two long-range-rifles and one of these steam-powered machine guns to a weapon-smiting bug. Gah.

But there aren't too many walking deads, except maybe

Spoiler

dropping the Vendigroth device before entering the void AND killing the guy you meet there

[close]

.

[Radiant]

Hm, can I just submit META again? 

(seriously though, time permitting, I'll give this mags some thought)

[Radiant]

Ta dah!


Awesmoe Quest

A Crystal Shard original. It's completely awesmoe!

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Provided that the room1 crash when starting the game is intentional:

3. The game must be interesting enough to really frustrate the player when something goes wrong/isn't implemented/crashes, so put some effort into the design!

[FSi++]

Not an entry, but suddenly I remembered I've made the game that fits all the rules.
Alas, I made it seven months ago, so it won't qualify (but it was made in two days, so it'll qualify if February's rules were like September's). Damn stupid me making games ahead of schedule

Anyways, here it is: A Walk In Da Tomb Deluxe.
I'd post it in the completed games if it wasn't that crappy (mind that it was intentionally made crappy instead of being crappy because I can't make a non-crappy game (which is also true, but that time I realised that and set up a goal of making a CRAPPY game)).

Oh, and if you haven't noticed, it's a remake of pmdee's epic.

p.s. alas, you can't make sage-posts on this board, otherwise, i'd hid my post that way

[Klaus]

Short reminder:
24 hours left (see timestamp of this message) to post your entries... Then the voting will begin!

[Radiant]

Ah. And just to prove I'm slightly more serious than that,

KATA

From the twisted mind that brought you META comes another exercise in surreality. Remember the buggy game Awesmoe Quest? It has a sequel, Amzaing Quest, which as the name suggests is really amzaing! Only, it's a fundamentally broken game: you can't get it to install.

I'm sure all of you have fond (?) memories of getting some freakin' game to work on your particular system setup while it worked fine at your neighbor's, and all your friends had already completed level five while you were still clicking furiously on installshield dialogs. KATA recreates that atmosphere, as you get to maneuver through Softromike Skylights (an operating system by the makers of BHT) in order to get it to work.

If you don't understand what I just said, play the game to find out. It's without doubt the best thing since sliced milk.

[Leon]

I'm having fun playing (or actually not playing) Amzaing Quest but in this case (you never know what's supposed to go wrong and what isn't) the application (Kata that is) crashes when using My computer / CD-Rom drive:

In Global Script (line 39)
from Global Script (line 169)
from global script (line 474)
Error SetLabelText: invalid object number.

Too bad the cursor isn't really a cursor-like shape.

btw. Just finished the game. Nice simulation with lots of options and hidden features. I think decompressing kata.bin was the most fun of all... ;-)

[Klaus]

Seems as if there's more broken in this contest than just the entries... Well, two entries - an exciting competition. Kind of...
For voting please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

KATA
Awesmoe Quest

Please vote only once and be sure to have played all games before sending your voice! Good luck to "all" participants.
Oh, you can already make up your mind(s) thinking about next month's rules - in case you are the winner...

[Play_Pretend]

I kept turning all my folders into the same folder?  And I couldn't fold up my 5 1/2" diskette into my CD rom, so I trimmed the corners off to make it a circle.

Teeeechnically I kind of won the game, by the expedient of just changing one of the game folder names to Amzaing Quest.

[Klaus]

So time is up! Not really many votes and voters this time, still there is a winner.
Well, the winner was pretty clear already: The cup goes to Radiant of course.
But which game made it to the broken top..? Most votes for KATA!
Congratulations and many thanks for your double participation!

[Radiant]

Well, that was a broken contest

Leon and SV, thanks for your feedback. I think I'll do a KATA-deluxe version some time in the future, considering there's numerous Windows functions I haven't parodied yet...