Results of the 3rd AM Game Contest

[Mystery]

First of all, I would like to say once again a big THANKS to all the participants of the contest - the jury had a lot of fun playing your games!

We have made our judgements upon the following criteria:
Game Play; Graphics/Audio; Atmosphere; Puzzles; Originality/Player Engagement; Interface.

And now I'm very happy to announce the two winners:

1st place: Twilight Of The Idols by Von Knudenberg (commercial licence AM)
2nd place: Freeze by bmatt (noncommercial licence AM)


Congratulations to the two winners!

The jury members will post in this thread a short feedback on each game as soon as possible.

[Mystery]

Here are my feedbacks on the games, in random order:

Halfling Quest:
I've enjoyed this game, it has very nice graphics, and there is enough motivation to restart/finish it despite of dying.
It's a pity that the game screen is so small. Additionally I would have wished to have a skip option for the introduction - watching it every time after restarting got a bit boring; or even better: to have a button that takes you automatically back to the screen of the game start (without the introduction).

Don't Get Squished:
It's a very funny idea - and a rather unusual game for AM. I (and my children) had fun playing it What would increase the motivation to replay the game or to put more effort as player, is some kind of score system - then you could also compete against family members or friends.

Frozen:
I think your puzzles are quite creative. You have used funny items in this game that made me jiggle.
If you put a bit more effort into your graphics (no need to be a great artist, but draw some simple furniture for example instead of mostly using strange spots), I'm sure that your games would gain a lot more enjoyment.
Unfortunately the game was a bit too short.

Galactic Snowballs:
It's an interesting game, and a promising beginning of a longer game. I've enjoyed it, but would have wished there was more to come.
Just as a sidenote: I've experienced a Dialogue error after pulling the lever twice, I'm not sure if it's only me, or if there is a bug.
I hope you make it a full game, I'd like to play it

Twilight Of The Idols:
Wow, I was very surprised about that game of professional quality! There is a very impressive atmosphere and great graphics! What can I say? Really great game!
It's quite understandable that it ended rather abruptly because you didn't have enough time to submit a full version of it. I really hope that you will continue to work on it, I'm definitely going to play the full version!

Freeze:
I've enjoyed this game very much! It has great graphics, and a lot of puzzles that are not too easy, but still solvable without using a walkthrough. So the difficulty level was quite right (for me).
I would have wished a clearer ending (maybe sounds of a siren or sth like that). When can we escape from prison?

The Cube:
This was the only game using the panorama plugin, and I think it added a lot to the enjoyment of the game.
Being a science fiction fan, I liked the game idea and story, and enjoyed the graphics a lot! Wow!
The puzzles were partly too difficult and less logical for me - brute forcing a 4-digit code twice - okay. But I had some problems understanding the traveling method despite of the text on the computer. Probably a little more or clearer in-game hints could have helped me.

[alala777]

I'm happy for those who won...

(Though losing a contest is hard )

[Imari]

Congratulations to all who participated, and especially to the winners. I was very impressed by the quality of the games as well as by the ingenuity of their creators in using AM to create their individual visions. I'll add my comments to Mystery's.

The Cube:
A very nice intro, the tesselated images and clean white backgrounds of the screens were very classy and added a great deal. Beginnings of a good storyline, that I assume, was abbreviated for the contest. Definite points for integrating the panoramic plug-in into the puzzles of the game. The puzzles did not quite make sense to me, however, and the screens were so dark that I had great difficulty with my pixel hunting.

Don't Get Squished:
The timed puzzle was an innovative use of AM. The "intro" graphic and the puzzle graphics did not complement one another. Very short game play.

Freeze:
I think the thing that I most liked about this game was the ending. In adventure games, we're so used to going through strange people's cabinets and reading their letters (things that one would never do in real life) that the end came as an amusing shock. The snow scene used at the start of the game was very attractive, but was too different in style to the photographs used inside the house. The puzzles, however, were many and quite logical. I very much enjoyed playing "Freeze".

Frozen:
The game gets points for presenting a very complex puzzle. However, I had no idea what I was supposed to do or why.

Galactic Snowball:
Good intro screen and music. The graphics for the town, tavern, and console were very well done, but differed a great deal from the style of graphics used in the other parts of the game. No puzzles to speak of and player interaction in the game basically ended with the first dialog chain (other than pulling the lever).

Halfling Quest:
This was a cute game with great old-style graphics and a very nice intro. Also pleasant music and good use of the inventory. It was a surprise to see this game done in AM, and it was very enjoyable. I'm not a fan of hot spots that only become active once you've done something elsewhere, and the last puzzle was totally trial and error, so I took points off for that.

Twilight of Idols:
Wow, well done! A game in the tradition of Jonathan Boakes' Dark Fall series, and has all the makings of a professional quality game. The musical score, graphics, cut scenes were all excellent. Some of the translations into English will need to be reworked, but I truly enjoyed playing this. Abbreviated for the contest, the game (understandably) took shortcuts with the puzzles. I hope that you'll finish this game!

[Shafayat]

The best judgement I could've expected

Nice work everyone, especially the judges as it surely been tough deciding the winners.

Galactic Snowballs:
It's an interesting game, and a promising beginning of a longer game. I've enjoyed it, but would have wished there was more to come.
Just as a sidenote: I've experienced a Dialogue error after pulling the lever twice, I'm not sure if it's only me, or if there is a bug.
I hope you make it a full game, I'd like to play it

- Fat Chance

The graphics for the town, tavern, and console were very well done, but differed a great deal from the style of graphics used in the other parts of the game

- These are my wasted drawings. These were lying sin some corner of my harddisk. Just before the day before the contest would end, I found them.
So, they couldn't be better.

[ZeornWarlock]

Congratulations to the winners!

Good feedback Mystery, the same goes for Imari.

Halfling Quest:
I'm not a fan of hot spots that only become active once you've done something elsewhere, and the last puzzle was totally trial and error, so I took points off for that.

Hot spots became active once you saw something. Not once, you have done something! As for the last puzzle, it was not trial and error. If you noticed the odd symbol on the effigy, you would have guessed it easy.

Thanks.

ZW.

[Von Knudenberg]

Thank you very much!

This was pleasant surprise and major relief. Now I'm able to do many things which previously weren't possible to do. And that evil "150" won't bother me anymore.

But it is more than true, that this "game" isn't ready. That's why I didn't believe my chances so much. And Imari, you are absolutely right about those translations. I have good excuse for this in my hip pocket (which I'm not going to use) which contains such things as: "last night's pressure", "too few cups of coffee", "not enough sleep if at all", "too much coffee"... But the real reason is, of course, that my skills in English are mainly from National Defence College and that's why those skills includes mainly terms from crisis management to radio language used between different artilley batteries. No game making, or "how-to-speak-decent-English" courses involved sometimes I really do thing how you native speaking people can keep yourself in one piece when playing games like this, or reading these forums etc... It must be a little hard sometimes (even if you would be very polite person), if you know what I mean...

What comes to those comments, I won't say anything, but I think you both, Mystery and Imari, were just too polite. But it gives huge boost for motivation and believe that something decent could be done even with my scarce modelling and game making skills. I have two good weapons: Imagination and huge passion to create. Now I'm able to create better with this prize, so thank you for your trust!

And of course I'll continue to work with this project. I have quite a large piece almost ready (which sadly didn't manage to fight it's way to contest) and huge amount of ideas I'm eager to try and test. I have done much content for different engine (SCream used in Scratches) and I have to render everything again. This is most time-consuming state and needs plenty of test-and-explode method. But I'm constantly working with it.

So thank you again (this one last time) and apologies for this nonsense. I'll try to make something playable next time, so I don't need to "explain" this much

With best regards,
Pete

[Dalton]

Congratulations for the winners!

About my game: well, i had time to make the grafics but i didin?t had time to create great puzzles (and i was using the windows vista, so my Cinema 4d was crashing all the time, it was a nightmare... i was planning to create some tips on the walls, and a new place to explore, maybe a beach... ).
About the storyline, it was abbreviated for the contest. But Imari, in my pc the screens it wasn?t so dark, i also used the photoshop to make the screens more clear. And about the travelling (spoiler) , the cube is a cage, so all inside of the cube was fake, it was created to induce the gamer to drink the pill. In a situation like this, if someone awakes in a strange room, without doors and then suddely finds a new tecnologie, the first thing is try to find the exit. No one wants to find more about the aliens or something, because is too much for a human mind. That?s why many objects it wasn?t hiden. But, sure if a had more time (and used in the begining the windows xp), the game could be better.

[Dalton]

And Von Knudenberg, a question: the SCream engine is freeware?

[Von Knudenberg]

Dalton,

Nucleosys released demo version of their SCream engine. With some trial by error you are able to create rooms with nodes wich forms your panoramic room, add hotspots etc. It contains a little demo code so one can see what happens with each command. But as it is, it is somewhat hard to use before whole version/good reference is released.

Regards,
Pete

[Dalton]

Thanks Pete.
I?ve downloaded the SCream engine some minute ago, and you know? You?re right, is hard to use.
Oh, and congratulations again.

[Imari]

The games submitted to the contest were all very engaging and quite different in style of graphics and gameplay.

Dear Von Knudenberg,
I did not mean to criticize your translations, just to note that you will need to clean them up if you go commercial and publish your game in English. Because of its high quality, I just assumed that was your goal.

I very much admire the people in our forum who can post in English when it is not their native language.

Dear ZeornWarlock,
You, of course, are correct that I only need to look at something in the next couple of frames, not actually to do something. I'm sorry that I missed the symbol on the effigy, even though I did play the game through to the end twice (not including deaths ). I enjoyed playing it.

[Von Knudenberg]

Well, Imari,

Going commercial really wasn't in my mind. I have thought that quality isn't really that high. But maybe some day. Now I'm just pleased if I get something ready and someone dares to test and play it But so to speak, something like making commercial game (or just a game) has always been like a dream for me. From C64 days when Sid Meier's "Pirates" was the name of the game. And when first adventure games in style of Indiana Jones, or Gabriel Knight hit me, it was sure that I would make adventure game some day, in some way...

And no offense taken about translations, if I gave that impression in that post. Every comment and critics are very valuable for me, especially those conserning language etc, wich are relatively easy to make right, but as easy to make wrong for foreigner. So you are more than welcome to note, or criticize and it is even desirable

Sincerely,
Pete

[bmatt]

I just wanted to say congratulations to Pete for your first place win.

I also wanted to thank the judges for taking the time to play the games and give the feedback. It really is a valuable tool for future development.

As for the snow scene in the beginning of my game... I created that image by hand using Adobe photoshop. I planned on creating all scenes in that fashion, but time didn't allow it. So, I resorted to using photographs instead and creating "pieces" within the scenes as needed. For example, the photo of the kitchen did not have an open refridgerator, so I had to "piece together" two photographs to get the image I wanted. I also created the instruction manual for the safe, the broken mirror, the trapdoor, etc.

Now that I have the full version, (and not limited to 150 frames ) I plan on creating many more games. I have plans for 3 more already. Obviously one of them is a prison/jail escape. Another is a continuation of Hidden Jewels (my first game for those of you who aren't familiar with it), and the last one to be kept secret.

Oh, and did anyone have any thoughts about the safe? I was so proud of that part of the game. I believe it took the most time to complete (and the most frames - 117 to be exact) I had to create each number on the display 0 - 99 in Photoshop along with the error, and correct messages, and then save each frame. Then create the hotspots for each number on the number pad in each of those frames. I created it so that if someone hadn't found the instruction manual, they could enter any combination of number (0 - 99) and get an error message when hitting enter unless the numbers were entered in the correct order. Took a lot of thought to do without any scripting. Maybe now something like that will be less painstaking

Thanks again and look forward to more games from me
bmatt

[Von Knudenberg]

Thank you, bmatt, and congratulations to you as well!

Now we just have to make sure, that those full versions are in good hands

-Pete

[Mystery]

Pete, I don't think Imari and me were too polite to say that your game has professional quality. I'm convinced that you could sell the full game if you continue in this quality - and with somebody to proof read your English (hehe, this is also my problem as non native speaker ). But if you decide to sell it, remember to give me a free copy

Bmatt, you are right that you have been very creative and skilled to create your puzzles (especially the safe puzzle) with the free version of AM! I'm happy to hear that you're going to create more games, because you are very talented in my opinion. And the full version will make your work easier, that's correct

Dalton, with my difficulties about the travelling, I didn't mean that I didn't understand that I was in a cube, but rather that I had no idea how/where to use the picture exactly for the first time. I admit that I had to take a look at your walkthrough at this point, because I was stuck too long
But as I said, I really liked your game, its story and atmosphere, and I hope that you'll continue to create games

[Harvester]

Oh, I see I'm a bit late with my comments, sorry for that. But as the 3rd judge here are my thoughts, a bit late, but still I hope still ueseful.

Halfling Quest
Overall: I liked the game's idea, this sideview perspective is interesting. The graphics and the surroundings were okay, enough to create a basic atmosphere; it reminded me the old Prince of Persia games. Had some puzzles to think about, but was short. Music was not very good for my ears, some sounds or atmospheric music would have made the atmosphere stronger. All in all, I liked it, even if it was not my favourite at this contest. Would like to see a full-lenght version.

Don't Get Squished
Overall: As a mini-game the basic idea is nice, but there is a lack of motivation in it. Maybe more levels, some variety would have added some goals to it. Graphics and other technical stuff is okay.

Freeze
Overall: I must confess that I didn't expect such a challanging game at this contest. For me it's a likely winner... very challanging puzzles put in a single house, and there are plenty of tasks to do and to think over. I liked the graphics, but some parts were let's say not that professional like the others. Music was fitting in the beginning, sad that the game lacked sounds and more music. Even some animations could do good for it, but all in all it was a pleasure for me to play this game.

Frozen
Overall: Nice idea, just lacked what I'd call atmosphere for me... maybe just graphics and technical background couldn't provide it. The basic idea on the topic is original, I would have never thought of this personally. The problem for me really was that it was short and lacked much interaction. A missed opportunity of having multiple endings is a pity but nevermind, just my opinion.

Galactic Snowballs
Overall: I liked the graphics of this game quite much, it gives a unique look for the world. However it lacks challange as there are no real puzzles in it and it is also short. I guess there's much work in graphics and music and the basic idea is also good, but it is simply not a game but a slideshow.

The Cube
Overall: A panoramic game with unique atmosphere. It could generate enough suspense for me. Graphics are nice, puzzles are okay but for me the pixelhunting part was a bit too much. Music serves it's purpose very well.

Twilight Of The Idols
Overall: A surprise for me. I simply didn't expect such a professionally looking -and sounding- game. Atmosphere is created very well, I liked that part very much when we wake up in the night... very well done. As I like interactive movies, it was a nice experience as in some ways it was like that. The only thing I could criticise is that there is too much reading needed in it to understand the story and there are too many things unexplained (which I understand as this game is definitely not complete yet). Otherwise another likely winner. Plus points given for very well made camera movement, animations, and that the game is put together very well.

And I would also like to congratulate to the winners, they deserved their prize, and it's a pity that only they got a prize as there were other potentials too! Thanks for the nice time you got me with your games!

[Mystery]

Harvester, I think your feedback for Galactic Snowballs was meant for The Cube, and you are missing the comment on Galactic Snowballs - at least I think so...

[Harvester]

Corrected that, was my mistake as I just have deleted a whole paragraph from the document the results I kept in But now it's supposed to be okay.

[Mystery]

Thanks

[Von Knudenberg]

Thank you, Harvester, for your critics and nice comments.

Just few notes on that "reading" subject...

I have to admit, that "Read-Every-'Kin-Papers-Scattered-Around-And-Everywhere"-method is too much used and, in some way, dull expedient in games. Especially in first person perspective adventure games. But same time I think it is somewhat indispensable way to describe something essential when other methods are out of the question, like voice acting, cut scenes etc.

I'll try hard to avoid every unneeded papers or documents. Some are essential , like those two letters in Twilight Of The Idols, to tell needed information and because they just belong to whole plot as they are. But then there sure will be those which could be done in other way. Many times when I play something, I end up to curse all those letters and diaries, but when I start to make own game, I end up doing just that same thing. Writing many pages long letters and diaries. So there sure is problem to solve: How to avoid too long letters etc. without losing essential content from the plot?

Sincerely,
Pete

[Harvester]

Of course I see your point Pete. Some days after playing your game I got the game Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within, and now I know that your game contanied just enough documents to read compared to this one (although I like both games).

If I can make a suggestion to solve this problem: try to put voice acting under the letters (as used in GK2 for example) or -what is I know a harder and more time-eater way, and doesn't work at every cases but at least at the most important letters or diaries it would definitely worth it- when reading a letter aloud, some cutscenes should be put in it. So e.g: you see a letter and can read it if you want. And if you click on the letter, a voice starts to read it out aloud, and if it comes to for example a description of an important event, the image of the letter fades into a cutscene while still hearing the reading out of the letter.
But these are just my ideas, your game was still very good and worthed the prize it won!

[Von Knudenberg]

Harvester,

In your post you pointed out just what I have thought from the beginning and what, in my opinion, is most enjoyable way to give some touch to reading letters. Unortunately at this point I'm not able to use this method. adding voive over would be my choise number one, but hearing Finnish officer speaking English would drive you to your closest game shop (by nearest pharmacy) and buy Wii console with "Rapala Tournament Fishing". In this project, it would be ideal to have English speech with German accent, but at least for me, it is impossible to do without sounding too much lousy A. Schwarzenegger imitator. (<-- Maybe I should try to find a good voice actor)

Fading to corresponding cutscene would naturally follow this method, but without voice to hear, this wouldn't be ideal if usable at all...

So, actually my problem is to find good and reasonable way to do this without voice acting. Or maybe I should take one problem over this one and find some voice actors...

Thank you for your good suggestions!

-Pete

[Harvester]

In my opinion you can't avoid voice acting forever. Your game is close to what I'd call commercial level -or it might even reach it-, and commercial games nowadays (since a very long time) use voice acting SO if you want to make something (even if not commercial, but) perfect, try to find those damned voice actors You know, even a guy with accent but with some theatrical abilities can do wonders, compared to silent reading But it's your way to go, if you have a better solution, use it anyway, I just thought I'd share my point of view. Nevermind.

[Von Knudenberg]

Harvester,

your point was absolutely right. I didn't mean that I try to avoid voice acting. Or because my pronunciation is bad I wouldn't want to face some hardship. I ment that your suggestions were good and similiar to those what I have thought to be ideal for me to use also plenty of literary content in game. But just recently I have heard those comments about being close to "commercial level", or that there is some potential. That is why I haven't thought anything so "professional", like voice acting, seriously. It has only been like dream far away. This was first time when someone saw what I have made (besides of some screenshots) and I was surprised that it got so positive feedback, even being so short and hasty hurried. I do mind.

-Pete

[Harvester]

I see then Very well, then I repeat that yes, your game has a potential. The last advises which I'd like to give if you need it or not:
1. Use voice acting. That's good, and it is not that big work at low number of charachters. Just choose someone who is really enthusiastic and he/she will do the best.
2. I don't know what kind of story do you plan to make for this game. Till the point we have seen it it's great, but I still would like to remind you: in my opinion it would be a horrible mistake to use any manytime used WWII and other sort of themes. Your story seems to be creative; keep it that way!
3. Use as many animations as possible. Even the elevator door's animation gave a lot to the feeling!
4. Use some ambient sounds besides the great music if possible, but that's a harder work, that's why I mention it in the last point.

That's all I wanted to add.
Good luck with your game(s),

Harvester