MAGS January: "The Pub" (WINNER)

[Atelier]

Topic: 'The Pub'

This month's guidelines were set by icey:

Create a game featuring a pub, bar, or club in some way. The pub could be a visited location in the game, but if it's not, reference to the pub and it's importance in the plot/action of the game is sufficient.

Ideas to help you:

• The player meets a shady pub-lurker in the corner, who has a nefarious proposition for them.
• A ghost-hunter is called in to investigate a haunted pub.
• A pub bet is taken to the next level...
• An elderly couple save up enough to become proprietors of their dream pub.



Ending 31/1/12



What is MAGS?

MAGS is a monthly competition for all amateur adventure game makers. The idea is to create a game in under a month, following the rules set by the previous winner. It aims to help you work to a deadline, improve your skills, or provide a kick-start into making adventure games. Regardless of skill, MAGS is for everyone. Voting is based on "favorite" games, and not the most artistic, or the best coded. If you have bad art skills, use it as a chance to do some graphic work. If you're sub-standard at coding, use it as a chance to give scripting a go. Ultimately, people will vote for the most enjoyable entry.

You may get help for the competition, although you must end up doing something yourself. You should however be warned that it proves difficult to organize a big team within thirty days. You are not allowed to use material already created before this competition. Your game must be completely new! Music and sound is an exception; you can use free material that is available to the public, if you wish. Modules and templates are also allowed. Please do not enter the competition with a rushed entry (a game created last minute). Sure, you can make a game and rush it - but don't do this just to win by default.

Entering MAGS is simple. First, conceptualise your game following the month's criteria (see top). Second, create your game fueled only by coffee. Third, finally, and most importantly, post your game here, including:

✓ A working download link.
✓ The title of your game.
✓ A suitable screenshot.

At the end of the month, the all-important voting will begin! This period usually lasts fifteen days. Should you win, along with announcing the next month's rules, your name and game will be immortalised in the MAGS Archive. Yet hopefully, at the end of the month, the accomplishment of finishing a game will be your greatest prize. For more information please visit the Official MAGS website.

[Ghost]

Ah. All great adventures start in a pup, usually in the cellar, where there are giant rats and jellymoulds, your first conveninent money drops, and (somewhat unexplained) merchants who give you your starting stuff. The DSA stories I could tell... *fond memories*.

Time to get the BakeSale out of my system, I'm starting to get a taste for these MAGS things.

[Icey]

I won't be making a game for this mags. Instead I will be offering help to those who plan to enter :]

[Bogdan]

Hi
I was wondering if you could answer my question.
So, I am working on this game for quite a while.
I have finished all the backgrounds and maybe 5-10% of scripting.
But I have still a lot of work to do in the game (there are no dialogues, few more character have to be imported, there is no music, nor sounds, ...).
Since I read from your(Atelier's) post that "...game must be completely new!".
Does this mean that I can't enter MAGS if I finish it on time? Because I think it would not be fair from my side to enter the competition with a game that I was working on for a long time. By the way I forgot the mention the most important thing, and why I am so interested in joining this MAGS - my game is about ghost hunting AND there is a pub as one of few locations you can visit and gather a lot of information about ghosts and the haunted area.

Thanks in forward.

[Icey]

I think the only way it would be able to get in this mags is if(And I hope this works) Atelier let's me make 3 trophies for this mags. The voting stays the same so if you get the most votes then you get the 1st place golden trophy. 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive the silver(2nd) and the bronze(3rd).

Truth be told I don't it will effect the MAGS rules by a long shot seeing how the OSD one let you use older osd sprites to make your entire. But....there was a reason to that cause OSD is open source.

[Atelier]

Hi
I was wondering if you could answer my question.
So, I am working on this game for quite a while.
I have finished all the backgrounds and maybe 5-10% of scripting.
But I have still a lot of work to do in the game (there are no dialogues, few more character have to be imported, there is no music, nor sounds, ...).
Since I read from your(Atelier's) post that "...game must be completely new!".
Does this mean that I can't enter MAGS if I finish it on time? Because I think it would not be fair from my side to enter the competition with a game that I was working on for a long time. By the way I forgot the mention the most important thing, and why I am so interested in joining this MAGS - my game is about ghost hunting AND there is a pub as one of few locations you can visit and gather a lot of information about ghosts and the haunted area.

Thanks in forward.

It's fine Because I know from experience that time working on a game ≠ relative effort on the game. It might be true in your case I'm not sure, but it's not true that a game that has spent longer 'in the making' has actually had that much time solely dedicated to it. The only real way to guage it is by hours worked exclusively on the game. But even then that doesn't factor in the productivity of the hour.

Ah, I'll stop rambling. Until I receive a poison pen letter written in blood, it's ok to enter and good luck

[OneDollar]

It's fine

I'm too attached to my blood to write you a letter, but I don't agree. The spirit of MAGS has always been that games should be new and created solely for the current month's competition. The exception to this is using materials that are freely available, for example music, graphics and modules. This covers the Oceanspirit Dennis games Icey is talking about because they are new games based on assets that are free for everyone to use.

So I would have said that Bogdan's entry wouldn't be covered, unless he released everything he made before the month started to give all the MAGS entrants the same start. Even then I still think it goes against the spirit of the rules as you are supposed to be *making* a game, not adapting or finishing a game. Otherwise I could fix up one of my old MAGS entries and release a much better version this month because it has a pub in it.

Still, you're in charge of MAGS so I guess it's your call.

[Ghost]

I agree with OneDollar because this really can turn into a spiral. I have games around that I've been tinkering on for ages, with lots of polish and all the time I wanted. If I can easily put them in as a MAGS just by finding a convenient "hook", where's the fairness? Having one month for a game is a strict and harsh deadline but also part of the fun, and MAGS games have their own category anyways, to indicate that they are not made under "normal circumstances".
A theme that provides assets/allows usage of them is one thing, yes, but I somehow liked MAGS for stating that a game has to be specifically made for it.

That 's not to offend anyone! Not Bogdan and especially not one of the best hosts MAGS ever had. Just my opinion.

[Bogdan]

I am sorry I never really ought to cause this unexpected commotion.
I won't compete in MAGS with this game. Besides, It will just make me more time to polish it and finish it.

[Khris]

Not sure I have any say in this matter since I never entered even one MAGS but if I do: a decisive "no" to entering with a game started before the beginning of the current month.
That's just absurd, no matter the circumstances; it's like entering a car in a horse race. (Or a bicycle, the point is, something that isn't a horse.)

(Btw, I plan to enter a shitty 5 minute game into every MAGS that doesn't get entries from now on, please start polishing my trophies whoever's responsible.)

[Atelier]

If it's the will of the people then ok.

But still, the point I was getting at was that working on something for "quite a while" doesn't mean it is close to completion. I mean, 5% of scripting, no music or sounds, no dialogues, and still lacking imported characters doesn't sound like it's got an inordinate head start from people just joining. We can also trust Bogdan on that otherwise he wouldn't have been truthful enough to ask in the first place. I reckon a game with those completion statistics would be undistinguishable from another entry at the end of the month.

But yes, all backgrounds finished definitely changes that, as well as a convenient theme (which may/may not be relevant, because all entries would have similar themes anyway; apart from providing a 'get-in' clause). Primarily I just didn't want anybody to miss out. In future though I will definitely be less slack on that rule.

(Btw, I plan to enter a shitty 5 minute game into every MAGS that doesn't get entries from now on, please start polishing my trophies whoever's responsible.)

Woo!

I am sorry I never really ought to cause this unexpected commotion.
I won't compete in MAGS with this game. Besides, It will just make me more time to polish it and finish it.

I'll look out for it in Completed Games

[ddq]

Yeah, you've got to do it all within the month. That's kinda the point of MAGS.

[Ponch]

Since we're discussing MAGs so thoroughly, I have a question: What if I wanted to tell a story in an existing series, but used all new assets to tell it?

For example, what if I wanted to tell the story of a person living in the universe of Barn Runner, but the player character, his sprite, GUI, etc was all new and the backgrounds and objects and stuff were also new. Would that be acceptable, since the story and the art was made for MAGs, even if the universe is borrowed?

I've always wanted to know the answer to this question, but I've never asked until now. So thanks, Bogdan, for opening this can of worms.  

[Icey]

That would work.... I think

[Armageddon]

I'm sure that's fine, how many OSD games were made for MAGS in the last three months?

[Radiant]

Since we're discussing MAGs so thoroughly, I have a question: What if I wanted to tell a story in an existing series, but used all new assets to tell it?

I feel that should be okay - I did a RON game for MAGS a couple years ago (when the theme was not RON-related), and nobody objected to that.

[Ponch]

Okay. As per the new rules, I am officially declaring that I'm in. Look for my game at the end of the month... maybe.  8)

[Ghost]

You're brave. I'm still sufering adrenalin and caffeine withdrawal, and when I close my eyes I see "z"ombies dancing with an @. Maybe next month...

[Moogle]

i read up on the new rules in the last thread. Boy was that a lot of back and forth but glad to see it was resolved. I would like to make a game for this competition but i just one question. What if you don't know how to create music?

[Ghost]

Ask around here. There are several talented musicians on the forums, just post a request here or in the recruit thread.
Alternatively, use free/public domain music.