More to come..

So what did you miss in 12 hours?

-Empty Mind is not Dead Empty Anymore

Well, Nergal, fell insulted by an email, sent by someone that didn't like the game. Well, we probably all get those. At least I am. Anyway, but as fans always prevail, he put the game back. Downloading and checking it out, I have some things to say about it.

Empty Mind-Blank Fate:

First of all, the intro is very short, but not necessarily bad. The words are chosen carefully, thus making the game very interesting from the first minutes. You find yourself in a warehouse, reason unknown to you.
The music is quite good. The background art also seems to be given a lot of effort into. Though I must say, that I definetely think the ones in Quiero Morir were of a better quality(at least I like them more). Comparing it with the first game of Nergal, the character walks a bit weird on this one. As for the puzzles, they seem to be mostly based on logic, except for a few occasions, but well there's always a walkthrough. Since Nergal is having a way of telling a stories, so unique that you can't stop playing, I suggest you give this a try.


-Recent Newbie Activity(I'm not calling anyone a noob):

This is usuallly done by SSH, but I'm posting some info on the guys I've picked up.And a similar article was last time down in June...

Clarvalon:
Well, he's actually trying to give a different approach to game development(XNA). Remarkably, even for a newbie, he took some time to read the rules.

Pilferinloot:
Well, she's been there for a while. But we've known her for a much longer time. She's Sylvr's sister and if you want to meet her, you should check the competitions or just enter the AGS Stickam Room because those are the places where she lurks most of her time. She's also hosting the current sprite jam Seasons.

Cheerios:
He came,he made a game,he posted it. Talked about it on my previous article, see the MAGS site, or the MAGS topic, he double-posted on his second post, but he seems to respect the rules.
Some of which fail to.

-Things to Check Out

Certainly, I'm not a fan of Yahtzee in general, but well, we should admit, that he can really make some excellent games. So cruising the internet, I found two cool videos. One is called ask a demon about himself and features 3d models of Trilby,Chzo, ecc.. and the other is called 5days contains a couple of fan art.

It's all about Andail

Petter Ljungqvist is one of those people who is so awesome that you feel compelled to write a blog post all about him. He wrote the classic AGS games series of Tulle's World, created the AGS Dictionary, has been a moderator on the forums since, like, 1842, is a fab artist, wrote some AGS Operas, hosted a Mittens once and generally exudes elf-like coolness.

What do you feed a digital seal?

Erin 'Ivy' Robinson has won a digital seal in the Notes on Gamedev Aspiring Women Gamer Artists competition. She also gets an online art course worth thousands of dollars! Perhaps she can use the new skills to draw digital halibut to feed her digital seal with...

Spring has sprung, some n00bs have riz

Well, its time for another roundup of the most notable newbies since my last look. Since more than 250 people have signed up to the forums since then, please don't be offended if you're not in the list!

S

Fellow blogger S is making Witch Quest, which looks to have some pretty good artwork in it. The blog is a design journal, so can make some good reading.

The Awesome

Already an animation competition winner, is also making a game featuring a lady with a bare midriff which is never a bad thing.

ShonenAiGuy

This chap has already won a Sprite Jam, and a MAGS with A Walk in the Park, so looks like some good stuff can be forthcoming from his direction!

Ultra Magnus

Released the LazyTown game, proving that "its a piece of cake to make an AGS game". Also has waded into to the odd contraversial debate with some thoughful replies.

brokenbutterfly

Parisian, artist, girl, lurker since 2003 and French/English translator for Far Nowhere. What more could one want in a n00b?

Mr T

Coder of the fab NES Quest and member of the A Team. What more could one want in a n00b? Oh, I said that already.

The curse of acclaim

First Ashen wins the Lifetime Achievement after disappearing, and now after my post yesterday, monkey_05_06 announces that he'll have very scant internet access due to personal circumstances. Is there a curse on getting adulation?

Unsung Heroes

In the AGS Awards there's the lifetime achievement award which has been won by some great people over the years. However, there are many other unsung heroes on the forums, so I thought I'd pause an give them a little respect:

Rui Pires
In his time, Rui has run the skimbleshanks AGS resource page, administered a mirror of almost all AGS games, Helped out various people with modules and technical help and also contributed enormously across all parts of the AGS forums (he's the 7th most prolific poster ever, despite having disappeared off for a year or so). He signed up for the forums the day before me, too!

Radiant
He made a great font editor used by many, has stretched AGS to the limits of what it can do, masterminded the colossal Tale of Two Kingdoms and brought the world Cuppit. He's also brought some very sound suggestions into the melting pot that CJ has used to improve AGS to its current fabbiness.

monkey_05_06
Monkey has put together some great modules, is often foudn helping people in the Tech forums and also has made great suggestions which have improved AGS when CJ implemented them.

ProgZMax
Renaissance Man Progz keeps the Critics Lounge in line, draws fab artwork for The Shivah, Resonance, Blackwell Convergence and a series of his own games and also made the award-winning Mind's Eye which is another push-AGS-to-the-limit game with some great programming.

AGA
Along with his sidekick, hajo, AGA helps keep the AGS server running,. He is a global moderator, runs the annual Brittens meet at his house and has contributed to AGS since before some forum members were a twinkle in Roger's eye.

GarageGothic
Never quite having got a game out yet, but GG has been developing for a long time with AGS and so has made many helpful suggestions and bug reports in the Tech forum. He also helps out n00bs there and is the voice of reason in many a heated debate.

Rosie and Jane
Rosie and Jane are the most prolific of the forumites who generally keep themselves to the Hints and Tips forum. There these two ladies help out others who are stuck, are the first to try out many AGS games and so become unofficial beta testers and probably know more about more AGS games than anyone else.

So, AGS heroes, I salute you. And anyone else who greatly contributes, I salute you too. If you want your name to be mentioned, send $20 by Paypal to this address...

Noo noobs

Well, as usual, a handful of people are signing up for the AGS forums each day, although shockingly there were two days in January when not a single person signed up! But I looked over those who have joined in 2008 to see which of these newbies are posting a lot, this is who popped up:

Emerald is an Irish guy who has managed to average nearly 8 posts a day since he joined in early February. His post rate does match some of the notorious n00bs of the past, and he seems to have had some argument in the Competition and Activities forum. However, he does seem pretty well-read and his humour although hit-and-miss does at least hit sometimes. In fact, somewhat like me... and many great forumites posted 200 times in their first month, too, before they calmed down.

thebaddie is an Italian guy who has had a big argument with Radiant about what swap space means, but seems to be able to draw pretty well, although there is a somewhat phallic theme to some of his elephants and pumpkins.

egamer has popped up and dived into beta-testing Flux World.

Leon, a fellow-Brit, seems to have single-handedly taken on creating a walkthrough for every AGS game ever on his website, and is also helping out a lot in the Hints and Tips forum. Lots of respect to him for this.

hieronymous has released a demo version of House of Whispers, a pre-rendered 3D adventure that looks pretty good. So far has kept it to the Games in Production forum and not added it to the games DB, though. He apparently has made some "adult" games with AGS before but has not released them in case people were offended, but he says that he runs an adult art site, so no doubt half the AGSers will be running off there to get their cheapies.

So, thanks for your contributions to the forums so far, new folks, and I hope they continue to increase in quality! If I missed anyone, its only becuase you haven't posted that much yet: please don't be offended!