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I've been playing this game over the past 2 nights I'm wondering if I have to change something in the setup to get the sound or is there no sound in the game?

This remake features no music or sfx, same the original Atari ST version...

I actually was unaware of the Atari game till this remake was released. Thanks, and I'll keep playing!

I've been playing this game over the past 2 nights I'm wondering if I have to change something in the setup to get the sound or is there no sound in the game?

Good to see two solid entries this month. My thoughts:

Alien Prison Escape by Bulbapuck

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Great idea, good story, really funny and what stands out is the puzzles. I particularly enjoyed the "close up" puzzle.

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Santa Quest by GOC Games

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Despite missing Christmas by a few days, still a good seasonal entry! Rather than having a variety of puzzle, this has a lot of (I think 12?) matchup puzzles based on clues. I got some of them off the bat but some I had no idea. When the game was over I got a "Better luck next time" message. I suppose that gives the game an opportunity for replay by recording which present you gave to which child and then using a process of elimination approach improving the results each subsequent time until you get a perfect score. My own preference was to leave the game as is rather than continuing to play repeatedly

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My vote went to

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Alien Prison Escape because of the variety of puzzles as well as the story. I had an overall more fun experience playing this game

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I played this game last night.

- Top-notch, professional-grade storybook backgrounds and characters. Well designed maps and no effort was spared to design an explorable world with so much to look at.
- Great story and interesting characters. The story unfolds at the perfect pace to draw the player into the game and make you want to keep playing.
- I found the puzzles to be delightful to solve and got a lot of satisfaction out of how my mind was moving constantly, putting together all the different things to do to get through the puzzles. I never found any of the puzzles frustrating. I will say that despite all this, they were on the easier side, and were solved quite intuitively. My absolute FAVOURITE puzzle was:

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The pig-head tracking. I think I may have seen something like this in the past but it is DEFINITELY a creative way to give hints as to where to look

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Overall, exceptional work and congrats.

I made a game!
It's called Alien Prison Escape and I sincerely hope I fixed all the bugs   


Completed games announcements thread
Games page
itch.io page

I had the game crash on me. I 

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tried using the rock on the bed once the bedding was gone

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Other than that, the game is FUNNY and really well designed, clever puzzles. I recommend that the save and load is built into the interface to make it more obvious.

Good job.

[Highland Spirit]

But then I read what Shadow1000, fellow AGS-er whose opinions I value a lot, wrote about Highland Spirit, a game he clearly loves:

My only criticism is that there were some puzzles that you had to literally click every item out of a few dozen till you came across the one you are looking for. This is not unheard of in traditional point and click adventures (in fact, most of the time that you encounter a bookcase, you can expect to have to click all the wrong titles till you find that book you're looking for) but still a bit tedious.

So I guess we're a divided lot. He's critical to the very thing I tell you I want in your game.    In the end, you'll have to do what feels right to you. There's a fine line somewhere between engrossing and tedious, you just have to find it.

Hey, thanks for the shout-out. As far as a divided lot, you're 100% right. There's no such thing as a game that will cater to everyone with every puzzle. I know that (as you pointed out) I can really enjoy a great game even though some of the puzzles aren't my speed, and someone will like the same game for the puzzles that I didn't care for and not like the puzzles I enjoyed. The key is to vary up the types of puzzles and test it on a broad enough group that there's a consensus of people who enjoy it.

Cheers

[Don't give up the Cat by eri0oA]

Well, we got five contenders this month and I've cast my vote. Here are my thoughts:

Don't give up the Cat by eri0oA

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The strength of this game is definitely the amazing 3D immersive experience. Gameplay itself was somewhat straightforward but a very creative implementation of the theme of the month. I enjoyed it for the most part but I did spend about half my playing time wandering.

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Very Serious Plumbing Simulator by Falsely

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Very minimalist in terms of both the graphics and inventory items, but surprisingly packed with things to do and figure out to solve the game. I enjoyed the story and found the gameplay enjoyable and suspenseful

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Highland Spirit by ddavey1983

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This game is the closest of the batch to being a traditional point and click adventure. The graphics, animation and sound effects are all superb. The story is detailed but amazingly opens an even more detailed backstory. I will confess to having more than a few laughs while playing. Having a map that expands as you play is a great touch.

All that said, the puzzles are what really makes this game shine. Most of them are quite logical and follow traditional puzzle patterns in terms of digging around for clues and revisiting old areas. My own experience with the puzzle solving was that I was able to proceed at just the right pace that I always felt rewarded at my progress and never felt stuck or frustrated.

My only criticism is that there were some puzzles that you had to literally click every item out of a few dozen till you came across the one you are looking for. This is not unheard of in traditional point and click adventures (in fact, most of the time that you encounter a bookcase, you can expect to have to click all the wrong titles till you find that book you're looking for) but still a bit tedious.

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Two Ghosts of That House: The Missing Toy by Volcan

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I really enjoyed the background and character art. There is one task to complete rather than any puzzles so the game took about 5 minutes.

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Ghost Hunter: Dracula by newwaveburritos

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I don't think I've ever seen anything like this 3D maze using AGS before! It reminded me of the Bards Tale that I used to play on the Apple II back in the 80s. At this point the gameplay is a bit basic but this sure has a lot of potential, especially if it gets worked into a bigger game

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My vote went to

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Highland Spirit. It's amazing that a mid-length game with this much polish and well-designed puzzles was made in such a short time period.

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Well done!

I can help out, I think, since I wrote the thing!  It does actually only run in browser right now.  I didn't have time to upload the downloadable version before I ran out of time. Certainly I can add it to the page since it doesn't actually change the game but I wanted to err on the side of caution.  Alt+Enter will get you to fullscreen but I was having problems with the fullscreen popup on itch in that I couldn't always get the keyboard to work and it's actually  keyboard only control.

As to goals there's a magical map you need to find in the second "room" of the maze.  If you get stuck though you can actually just press "M" to bring up the map at any time since I didn't bother to add a check in the game to make sure you actually had the map before using it.  There really isn't a ton to do in the game but hunt down the ghost.  You'll get a bit more direction when you find the map but essentially you're just traversing the length on the maze which is relatively linear in that it's four "rooms" on top of one another.

Thanks! I played the game and took out the ghost. It looks like it has potential. I had no problem playing in fullscreen mode.

I can't imagine there's not a few bugs in here but you can finish the game if you play it exactly like I did!!

A different maze every time you start a new game!!  EriOo inspired me to do a ghost hunt dungeon crawl and I barely made it in time but it's all there.

Ghost Hunter: Dracula

If you like dungeons this is really the bones of a larger project so stay tuned.

Tough to pick just three since the whole game looks so different screen to screen lol...

1. It seems that this game only runs in a browser rather than from the desktop. Can anyone confirm this?

2. Is there a way to play in fullscreen mode? I don't know if it's because it's in a relatively small window on the browser payge but I can't read anything the character is saying.

3. Is there a way to know what the objective is of this game? I wandered around a bit and I'm wondering if I missed something.

I can see this theme lending itself to a bunch of escape-the-room entries. Good luck!

[Highland Spirit - a traditional point-and-click adventure by GOC Games]

I managed to get it (more or less) done! It works fine, just would have ideally given it a little extra polish.

Highland Spirit - a traditional point-and-click adventure by GOC Games
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2646-highland-spirit/

Becky Speed is an aspiring novelist who is seeking to break her writer's block with a relaxing solo trip to the Scottish Highlands.

However, Becky is about to discover that in her idyllic cottage, she is not alone at all...

I spent about 30 minutes playing this game and I'm really enjoying it. I just can't figure out how to Save and Load/Restore? I clicked the S button but when I click R nothing happens. When I try to load from the title screen, it doesn't show my saved game. How do I continue without losing my progress?

I completed the game in about 25 minutes.

Overall, the idea is excellent and the interface is outstanding! I did find myself wandering a bit but ultimately I did solve the game without getting too lost.

Gostei muito; parabéns!

Wow! Congrats!!

I really enjoyed this game. Like Lorenzo's previous games, pro-grade comic art, creative theme and decent puzzles. Although the puzzles were on the easier side, they were enough to make the game an enjoyable experience. Some feedback:

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1. The character can walk right past the nurse. He can't do anything once there but you probably should block his ability to proceed past where the nurse is standing until the time is right.

2. I realize that the game was made under time constraints, but if you expand the game, you can put in a few things to do or even some challenges or things to go wrong once you've collected the necessary items rather than have the game just end there

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I finished playing Son of Xenon last night and I absolutely LOVED every minute. I don't remember the last time we AGSers were treated to a good full length game.

- Graphics, sound, animation, music, all top notch in capturing that 90s gaming experience.
- Good story that progresses nicely as the game unfolds. I like how the story is "chapterized" with specific characters and tasks in each "chapter".
- I don't usually like games where you die frequently, but it actually worked well in this game, and the smart-a$$ caption on the "you are dead" screen captures that 90s Sierra feel.
- And now for the strongest point: PUZZLES. I love how the puzzles are complex and not obvious, but with just the right combination of logic, intuition and trial and error (ok and some pixel hunting at times), they are ALL solvable and exactly at that perfect difficulty level. I won't say more but the approach in the last chapter was AWESOME.

In all, the game must have been a huge time investment over years and the effort really shows.

Big congratulations.

I completed this game last night. VERY impressive entry: graphics are stunning, the story is hilarious and the puzzles are far more sophisticated than the average MAGS entry. I have to confess that I did NOT just breeze through the puzzles so every time I got a bit further I said "Oh YEAHH!!!" in joy. I noticed that almost everything you click or combine has clear and detailed responses.

Big congratulations

Incredible remake! I don't think I played the original (it was SO long ago) but thankfully there are plenty of walkthroughs because some of the puzzle solutions are not ones I would have figured out on my own. (this remark is towards the original, not to remake)

One small scripting bug:

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I am at the point in the game where I have to retrieve the unicorn. I went back on the mountain to see what happens and it says "the unicorn seems paralyzed with fear" even though I don't yet have the unicorn

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Gee whiz...I just noticed this thread now! Thanks for the birthday wishes, Slasher and Mandle!

Well I will add that at certain points the crudity level gets really, REALLY high. I still thought it was funny, but I must admit being a little shocked myself at points.

To be honest, I THINK that the reason I laughed so hard was mostly because of the the shock value of the crudity level more than anything else. It's kind of how Andrew Dice Clay became so popular in the early 90s: simply by saying things that are so shockingly crude that most people would just not think of let alone say in public. Of course you can only push that envelope so far before it's no longer shocking which is why he became an irrelevant bore within a few years, but while it's new still, it makes people laugh

SHADOW

I finished this game last night. This one is a must-play (but see below)

To me, probably the strongest point in the game is the puzzles. The puzzles in this game are clever, creative, unexpected and never cliched. I definitely got stuck and had to use the hint forum but the difficulty level was perfect. A close second strength is the humour. It's not often that a game has me laughing uncontrollably almost every step along the way. This game is FUNNY! To round out the strong points, the art matched the game perfectly and the story and plot were just right for the game in terms of length, complexity, and setting the environment.

The game is well-structured with chapter divisions and the puzzles are fairly linear. I happen to like these elements but some people may prefer things to be more "open".

The only final point I will make is that the game is crude, replete with foul language, sex reference, cartoon violence, sexual activity, nudity, drug and alcohol use and just about everything else offensive. As such, it is not appropriate for minors or people who take offense at these things.

But for the rest of us, it's a MUST PLAY!!

Well done.

SHADOW