MAGS 2008-11: Points of View

[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)!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Topic: Points of View

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

Your task this month is to make a game in which the same overall story is told more than once, with each retelling either exposing different facts or changing the story. There are two ways you can go about this:

1) Play through different strands of an overarching story so that by the time the player has finished each version they see the whole picture
2) Tell two different versions of the same story

This is kind of a hard concept to get across, so here are some examples to illustrate each method...

Example 1:
Sally and Tim are robbing a bank. The first part has Sally making her way along the top floor of the bank using her feminine wiles to distract the guards and take down all the security systems. In the second part the player plays as Tim who makes his way through the basement to the safe, cracks it and steals all the money. By the end of the game the player will have seen both sides of the bank job and will have an idea of the part each character had in the overall story.

Example 2:
Captain Cool and his sidekick Small Boy have just returned from their latest mission. In the first part of the game the player plays as Captain Cool telling in flashback how he saved the day in typical hero fashion. In the second part the player plays as Small Boy telling in flashback what really happened. This lends itself to puzzles such as in Captain Cool's version he leaps gallantly out of a window, but in Small Boy's version Captain Cool is afraid of heights and Small Boy has to push him.

Rules:

• You must tell one overall story (at least) twice, with each telling showing either a different side or a different version of the story
• That's pretty much it!

Advice:

• You may want to have more than one playable character, but you don't have to!
• If you're using the multiple strands approach try and interlink the stories e.g. a character finds an item in one part, while another part can explain how the item got there
• If you're using the retelling approach you could have a simple story then make it more complicated in the retelling, e.g. a character 'just happens to have' a useful item, but the retelling shows how they actually had to do something embarrassing to get it.
• As an alternative to the retelling method, you could do a 'What if?'

So it's a bit complicated this month, but hopefully the rules are open ended enough to inspire some great games!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All games need to be in by November 25th.

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

[CodeJunkie]

A great topic! It reminds me of the Simpsons episode Trilogy of Error, sadly I have neither the time nor writing skills this month.  I look forward to the entries!

[Radiant]

Run, Cuppit, Run!!!

[Akatosh]

Heh... I had just the (super-pretentious) idea for this kind of game some months ago. Unfortunately, I'm occupied enough with NaNoWriMo, Uni and another unspecified AGS-related activity, so... 

[Klaus]

Today is November 25th - the day of the deadline. Not too much activity here so far. Hm.
So please post your entries within the next 24 hours. Then we shall see what happens next:
Voting or not... Oh and do not start to create an entry just now!

[Eggie]

Oh and do not start to create an entry just now!

Awwww...

[Buckethead]

I could post what I have so far. Which isn't much. November turned out more busy then I could ever have expected. 

[Radiant]

I've got nothing but plans. I didn't have time for a prototype, even. I'll file them under "future plans for 2016".

[Apocalyptic]

Too bad there were some entries no need to bother with mine any more

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Did you happen to miss this part?

Oh and do not start to create an entry just now!

[Dualnames]

November ended up so busy that I didn;t even have the time to see the topic of the MAGS.

[Matti]

It really is a pity. This topic was great but I didn't have much time and I don'T think I'll have much the next months...

[Dualnames]

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

That's Klauss

[Cheerios]

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=590f8f99d4ab94e1d2db6fb9a8902bda

Both are hungry.  Only one will eat.  Who will prevail?  Man or fish?  Play from the point of view of both man and fish.  Switch between points of view during the game.

[Cheerios]

Hey guys,
     Sorry to double post.  I didn’t want to edit my first post, because it has a time stamp of 4:59am… which is actually 11:59pm on Nov 25, from where I’m posting from (east coast  USA.)  So, I just made it in with a minute to spare.
      This is my first game, so a lot of my time was spent learning about the program.  Although I wish it could have been more,  I had lots of fun making it and I hope you enjoy it!  I also hope to use my learning’s with this to make a really polished game in the future.
Thanks,
Cheerios

Also, Here are some images of the game Man vs. Fish.

[Buckethead]

here's my piece of game:



download NightWatch

[Dualnames]

This looks gorgeous(apart from the sprite which is ripped(I know you know))

[kaputtnik]

I played Man vs. Fish - and I won! It plays a bit sluggishly, but the graphics look quite nice, especially the GUI, and there is not very much of a game to play, yet. But it's good to see that MAGS brings new people to make their own AGS games, stick around, Cheerios!

[Klaus]

Too bad there were some entries no need to bother with mine any more

Aaaaaah, thanks for that... Okay now, time is up. Let's start the voting!
For voting please visit the MAGS site or make your choice right here:

Nightwatch by Buckethead
Man vs. Fish by Cheerios

Please vote only once and be sure to have played all games before sending your voice! Good luck to all participants.

[Buckethead]

I didn't really intend to enter with that. But I guess it's to late anyway. Atleast gives Cheerios some form of competition.