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@Creamy thanks very much, that's helpful.

Hey all, I'm thinking of doing a version 1.1 once MAGS is done. The general consensus seems to be that the gameplay could be significantly more fun.

@Creamy @heltenjon @CaptainD since you all have played it (and thank you very much for doing so and for commenting), I'd be grateful for any more thoughts. What do you think of the following?

1. Change monkey powerup to give 1 word/second per monkey.
2. Increase frequency of bonuses for number chapters completed.
3. Potentially add another powerup. (I'm not sure what it would do though).

I feel like this might shorten the keyboard bashing.

Anything else you think could be tweaked to make it more enjoyable? Which powerups had the longest stretch of repetition between them?

Thanks in advance for any additional feedback you might have. I very much value it.

Fun short game! Took me a while to figure out a few things, mostly because I kept overlooking stuff. I enjoyed the graphics a lot, too. Nicely done.

[Vertices and Vagaries]

Here's a hasty haiku:

Vertices and Vagaries
Triangles build the
strongest bridges, yet break the
weakest relationships.

Massively insightful, I know. 
Someone outdo me please.

@heltenjon There's no difference between typing it all in by hand versus using the power-ups. It would be the same ending.

As far as keyboard bashing, I was hoping the randomly-combined chapter openings would be interesting or absurd enough that people might actually have fun using them as writing prompts (hence the export button if the player writes something worth keeping).

But it does basically turn into Cookie Clicker. Maybe I should have made the power-ups slightly cheaper and faster to achieve? 

There's a tutorial in the manual here:

https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/acintro1.html#getting-started-with-ags

It takes you through the basics of using the editor and creating game functionality. Hope it's useful. 

Ah, I see!

Spoiler

No, that's not the cheat code. It was originally put in for testing but I left it in for fun. The only way to find it is to try random keys, and once you do, you can win any time you want.

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@CaptainD Looks like your embedded images aren't showing up for some reason. I only realized they were there when I tried to quote-reply and saw the links.

EDIT: AHA! They show up on my phone but not the laptop. Congratulations on reaching both endings!  

I'm impressed you reached an ending with only 11 chapters. Did you

Spoiler

find the cheat code?

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Hey @Stupot the most recent game listed on the ags website says it's a MAGS entry but I don't think it was posted anywhere in the forums. Also doesn't seem obviously related to the theme, so could be a mistake. Not sure.

This was fun! The puzzles were just the right level of difficult, I think, and I liked

Spoiler

that switching between the different characters was necessary in order to complete the puzzles, and even to learn more about the world, since the characters have different reactions to things, for example the portrait of the princess. It really adds another layer to the gameplay.

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Looking forward to the sequel!

Finally got around to actually playing it--this was great! I laughed out loud multiple times, and the puzzles were straightforward but just difficult enough to keep things interesting and make me have to think for a minute. The animations and dialogue were fantastic, and as stated above, the color palette adds a good atmosphere. Honestly, this was a flawless execution. Great work!

My entry, SUPER AUTHOR SIMULATOR 2023, is live!



Once again, a single-room, non-adventure game offered the quickest route to finishing. 

Huge huge thanks to @Nahuel for playtesting and for compiling the MacOS version.

Here's the Completed Game Announcement!

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/completed-game-announcements/super-author-simulator-2023/msg636658487/#new

[SUPER AUTHOR SIMULATOR 2023]

Hello all! Here's my newest game, an entry for this month's MAGS contest. 

SUPER AUTHOR SIMULATOR 2023

DOWNLOAD HERE:
https://rootbound.itch.io/super-author-simulator-2023

AGS DATABASE ENTRY HERE (please leave a rating if you play it!):
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2702-super-author-simulator-2023/


Can you make it to 500,00 words without losing your sanity--or your payday? Can you brave the finishing of abandoned chapters with random openings? Can you bear the heartless feedback of a condescending literary agent?

With all these drawbacks and almost no benefits, why would anyone ever want to be an author? It's baffling.  At the end of the day, it may be that only a clever combination of hard perseverance and supernatural power-ups can save you. Maybe just the supernatural power-ups, to be honest.

Made by me and playtested by @Nahuel . Also uses NormRnd module by @eri0o and Shuffler module by @Gurok .





FEATURES:

-Short or long playtime, depending on your endurance

-Random chapter prompts combined from strange sentence parts

-Fun and dangerous power-ups

-The ability to export the wacky things you'll end up writing

-Endless screaming

-The dulcet tones of Antonio Vivialdi

Have fun! Or don't! You've been warned!

Just about done! Anybody else jumping in? 

Wow, this question made me remember games I hadn't thought about in a VERY long time.

The first AGS game I remember playing is Wet by Spyros. Evidently this won the very first MAGS competition!

You could try making a string variable in the global variables window.

Then at game_start you define that string as whatever the skills are that the player starts with, for example "ABC."

Then in game repeatedly_execute you set the character's text property as the string, using Character.SetTextProperty (assuming you have this property set up).

Whenever you update the string using commands like string.append, the character's text property will update as well. I believe you can check it using string.endswith.

https://adventuregamestudio.github.io/ags-manual/String.html?highlight=string&case_sensitive=0

But if you're already using a string variable that contains all this, it seems redundant to also use the custom property, as the two strings would always be identical.

You could also probably do this using structs but that is a bit above my level.

Looks like this thread kind of died. I wasn't running it, but I feel like at this point it must be voting time, lol.

Out of the above entries:
-Box of chocolates
-Redacted self-portrait
-Dead rodent

I vote for self-portrait because it's funny and conveys so much personality. I feel like would take a very particular kind of person to send such a thing. 

Enjoyed both games and played them both more than once - @4KbShort 's because I died, and @Creamy 's because I wanted to get a higher score.
I voted for

Spoiler

Creamy, because it has more play time and feels like a more immersive experience. And even with the speed turned down, it's challenging!

I do think 4Kbshort had a stronger connection to the theme, though. It was a close decision.

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One minor bug(?) in Creamy's entry:

Spoiler

Perhaps not a bug exactly. Returning the shoes plays the sound but doesn't change the artwork in the way the other items do.

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Oh 'chute!

Spoiler

The book of Jim was a strong second, and very clever. But I think Oh Chute really nailed the theme and did a great job structuring the narrative in a way that both revealed the back story with motivations AND managed to keep all the flashbacks off solid ground. Stupot did it well enough that I don't think I would have realized it if I had read the story without knowing what the prompt was.

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Making progress! Almost ready for playtesting.