Messages

I'm guessing that either CaptainD, Stupot, or Slasher is going to win this round...

It does look sort of familiar but I can't place it, so I don't think it'll be me!

I also have a vague sense that I've seen it before but I've got no ideas at the moment.

Thanks Riaise and Mandle. I had work on my bday but afterwards went for a nice pizza and treated myself to Donkey Kong :-)

Bergerac?

Ahh damn. If it was just me I could forego the football match, but my wife's booked the afternoon off work to make a thing of it so I should probably go.

Tom, from what time are you available in the evenings. Thursday's the only other day I can do really.

My wife's reminded me that we're going to a football match on the Wednesday evening. She won the tickets ages ago at work. I should still be able to meet up in the afternoon though. Depending where we meet, I'll probably have to leave about 5ish.

Is that Bill Bailey or Nick Frost or none of the above?

Law and Order?
(Or as I like to call it, Laura Norder.)

I didn't actually think I'd solved it. I just thought I was onto something with the ‘blood and pastures' bit and was throwing it out there.

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I think ‘blood and pastures' is red and green.

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So...

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Amber?

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Nice one. It's about time for another Hello Kittens
The Wednesday or Thursday would be better for me. Where abouts will you be staying?

Is it something about the words/letters themselves?

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r?

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I still think caffeine is a better answer

Are those images from either side of the ad break: ‘end of part one' and ‘part two'?

Aside from the main Fortnightly Writing Competition...

When October rolls around, and the Halloween mood is in, maybe do a sort of "AGS-themed creepypasta writing contest."

I like it. I've often thought that next time I win the FWC I would choose “invent your own urban legend” as the next theme. Unfortunately I don't enter FWC much these days, so your idea is better.

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Caffeine?

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I was quarter of the way to being right :-/

@TheBitPriest - I like your thinking. Saying that, if we were going to have a mix of broad themes and specific challenges, why don't we let the topic setter be the one to decide each week whether or not (or how strictly) to have a ‘original art only' rule?

I pretty much agree with everything Mandle (and hobo) just said about why increasing the time limit won't make any difference to the number of participants, and could even have a detrimental effect.

Also, I personally don't like the idea of setting the topics too far in advance. I really think the solution is to just have much more general themes like 'house' or 'winter' rather than elaborate concepts.

Instead of changing the structure of the contest to give people more thinking time, I think it would help if we changed our own approach a month-long game-making contest. The month should include thinking time and tweaking time. The actual game-making time is sandwiched somewhere in between. So plan as if you only have 20 days to make the game, then any extra time can be spent making it pretty.

Allowing RON assets is definitely an option. I'd be wary about marrying RON and MAGS too closely together though. The RON universe is quite intimidating for newbies and even oldbies. Some might be put off making a game if it was expected to slot into the RON-verse.

(After hobo posted)

Starting with getting MAGS on the front page of AGS and updating its own homepage (no updates in 2018).

The website has been broken a little while and I can't update stuff. I don't have the whatjamacallit to go fixing code myself. Only host access. But I'll see if Peder can have a fiddle around and get it working again.

(On a side note, Peder and I have talked about how the MAGS site needs updating. It would be nice to have a dedicated MAGS portal as part of this website rather than a seperate one. That way a lot of stuff could be automated using our regular forum accounts. I'm not really the man to go about that but it would be something to think about.)

I'm definitley up for relaxing the rules on 'original content only' (although I do think it should be encouraged). Allowing RON assets is a good idea.

We can definitely have a look at some of the rules and perhaps do a poll on some policy changes. That said, I think a lot can be done in terms of raising awareness and motivation. I'd love to also get more people to just play the games and vote. That in turn should encourage people to make more games.

Thanks for all the ideas so far. I want to leave the discussion open a while. Lots of food for thought.

@Mandle Just last week a mate of mine came over to Japan with his fiancée and we went out for dinner and drinks. At first we were considering karaoke but we ended up just going to a rooftop bar and talking. I like karaoke but, for the same reasons you mention, I was glad we didn't do that.

Mind you, it is a guaranteed way to get a private table in Shinjuku on a Saturday night.