The Era-Gone Trail MAGS APRIL 2019

[Mandle]

THE ERA-GONE TRAIL


This game is the very bare-bones version of a project that will outgrow its humble MAGS roots, hopefully.

Players can ignore most of the characters' stats for now, except for the all-important HPS of each.

The other stats are signs of game play yet to come...

You play a group of small mammals running for their lives to escape the horror of the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs.

Watch your food levels, dodge the meteors, and gather food every now and then in the rare surviving grasslands areas... But watch out for lurking snakes!

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO SURVIVE THE ERA?!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME

[Mandle]

After playing my own game about ten times and only being able to win twice, and not yet with a full crew of mammals, I decided to write this brief guide about the game and how some of its less-than-obvious mechanics work:

THE GUIDE

The goal of the game is to run the full distance to the next era without either starving to death or being killed by meteors or snakes.

The meteors are easy. Just learn how to dodge them best but also be aware that there is quite a bit of splash damage from the impacts so get as far away as possible. Don't just stop when you think you're not going to get a direct hit.

When you reach one of the grasslands areas you must keep in mind that you have to do the best you can here gathering meat and fruit or you probably won't survive until the goal is reached.

The fruit is the orange globes here and there in plants.

The meat is gotten from the skeletons that still have some red around their ribs.

The fruit and meat both give random amounts of food so its a bit of a gamble how much you end up with.

There is no time limit here so, unless under immediate threat from snakes, you can take your time to have a look around and take in the lay of the land.

Walk slowly, a bit at a time, as there may be snakes on patrol for food around the area.

Snakes, however, usually prefer to lurk in the long grass clusters waiting to strike on prey wandering nearby.

It's best to stay away from the long grass whenever possible. However, often the fruit and meat is only available near or in the long grass. In these cases you must risk-assess and go for it or not as a case-by-case decision. Think about how desperate your crew is for food for the next leg of the run.

Snakes...

Run from snakes as fast as you can. If a snake latches onto you combat will begin on its own. One successful chomp and the snake will be dead, and you will obtain a small amount of meat from the kill. But, if you get bitten twice by snakes, as indicated by the squeals of pain, you will be forced to run from the area and all of your mammals will receive 1HP damage each. You will still keep your collected store of food so far.

There is no penalty to HPS for leaving a grasslands area with only one snake bite.

While being attacked by a snake or snakes you cannot collect food or exit the area.

When you are satisfied that you are done with the area just go to any border to exit, north, south, east, or west.

There is a potential strategy to hunt snakes for meat if you are really desperate for food, but the risk is high. Only do so if you are going to die on the next run anyway, I would say.

But what do I know? I hardly have a good track record of winning my own game yet.

Going back for another try or two now...

Best of luck!

[Mandle]

Finally getting back to working on this game to make it a full release someday...

Stats are now working and the second level "The Ice Age" is in development!

[Cassiebsg]

Sounds good. 

[Mandle]

Sounds good. 

Oh, and I made the mammal in the first level a big brighter to stand out better against the background. Cheers for that feedback before!

[fbagnato]

Looking for this game as the link on the website to download it is dead.