May MAGS madness?

Title: I'm not crazy, right? - The Cell
Author: King_wiking
Release date: 25 may 2008
Playtime: 15 minutes
Size: 4,7Mb

An entry for the May edition of the MAGS competition with a conspiracy theme. Well, the only entry so we have a winner here! And a winner it is... or actually, can be.

You're Rolf and without knowing why, captured for five years already. But not much longer! You're going to escape. Easier said than done. But you have a secret weapon! A gift! You can 'feel' things.

The game has good, original graphics. The story is nicely build and there's an user action that you don't encounter in the average adventure game: the 'sense' action. I think it's a bit overused but it's an original addition. The whole game is a big escape-the-rooms themed hunt for the exit. But the puzzles are too easy. The clues of them are already given during the intro of each room. So it's not much of a puzzle, it's more an exercise. That makes the length of the game on the short side. A pity because the game has much potential.

The puzzles could have been extended a bit more to enhance the game play. For instance the orb could have been more interactive (let the player do the work), the picture lock could have been with inventory items (collect images and apply those to a lock-pad) and the teleport pads could have been between rooms, not just a moat of goo (first get some items or solutions/hints elsewhere before proceeding). Now it's all done for you in a textual way and that eliminates a bit of the game play.

I'm just suggesting here because I very well realize that this was a time pressured effort and under those circumstances very well done. Certainly your first game.
The extras are great, certainly in the sewer maintenance area where you can do more than you have to. Good animation and good distraction. Some very bloody animations but if you don't mind the colour red and some violence, you'll have a good time here. Well used opportunities to extend the game play.

The author already said that there might be more episodes and I hope they will be under less pressure, have a bit harder puzzles and more user interaction. But to start your series this way is not mad ... eeehhh bad...

Wee Cough

I've got a wee cough, or perhaps a week off. But anyway, no updates from me next week, although Leon may have a review.

Have a nice time! See you in June!

If you have any suggestions for June's pick of the month, add them as comments, please.

Your dream becomes.... an adventure game

Title: Feuersturm 2: Der Unheimliche Zug
Author: FireOrange (Tobias Schmitt)
Release date: 13 may 2008
Playtime: 30 minutes
Size: 7Mb

The fourth game that was released within a week is one in German. Also the sequel to a series of many and, Andrew already predicted that, I missed the first, so, as also recommended by the author, I played that one first.

It's the same author as from the Second Moon series (published under the name das Tobi-AS) and having played these, I was pleasantly surprised.

Feuersturm is completely in the Lucas Art style, unlike Second Moon which is mostly photo manipulation, with the well known interface. With help from Loma, Raymann and BlueGryphon, the game has decent made graphics and very good sound quality of the opening dialog. The game is completely in first person view and the navigational arrows in the screens remained, but less obvious. Improvements on all points here.

The story is based upon a dream (or maybe a nightmare) and all plays around the time of a firestorm, destroying and changing the world as we know it. You have been sleeping for 60 years and you're now looking for your brother (still). The story itself is fairly easy to understand but the fact that it's a non-native language for probably most of us makes it a bit harder. Add the fact that this is part 2 (without part 1 you wouldn't even know what was going on) and the technique of flashbacks and you're lost. At one point I didn't know who I was or where I was in the game. Furthermore is one of the first puzzles in the game a password puzzle. You need some knowledge of the language there. My tip: try this site (also without adventure games good fun) and you'll be closer to the solution.

An English translation (if there will be any) will make it easier. It doesn't take the joy away from the playing because there are a few pretty good puzzles in the game that don't need any translation. What struck me most was the fact that every action has it's unique response. Not the standard: "not now" or "you can't do that here" but good responses to your action that made the puzzles even more enjoyable and playable. The scenes aren't overcrowded with items, but also not empty to make it look like a rush-job (which this game clearly isn't).

My conclusion: if you have a reasonable German vocabulary and you like a few good puzzles to solve with good graphics and sounds, this is a game to play. And if you're stuck at some point because you don't know the meaning you can always try interglot to find out. If that doesn't help, the game might turn into a nightmare for you.

Space Race

Two competitons have just finished, both with a spacey theme. The Sprite Jam challenged people to have a spaceperson with an unusual job, and pslim won with this space-poo-catcher.


Meanwhile, in the Animation competition, the task was to animate a guy on a Trekkian-style transporter when something goes wrong. Lionmonkey won, but I preferred Twinmoon's third-placed entry which you can see here.

Viking music

Well, the monster under the bed tune contest is over and Viking has won with his excellent "Under the Bed" entry. nyu01 came a close second and all the entries had good aspects to them. It was an intriguing anonymous competition and vote, which isn't usual, but seems to have been popular.

Leon makes me popular

Well, just have a shufti at the visitor rates since Leon's reviews went on the blog... a new record of 60 unique visitors and 130 page views yesterday.

3... 2... (rc)1... Blast off!

Over in the 3.02 beta thread, CJ has just put up AGS 3.02 Release Candidate 1 with quite a few fixes from the last beta, so its even better than ever! Now with added vitamins!