Today is Saint Joseph's day, (March 19/07) and I got a cake for the feast day! If it's a feast day/holiday, and made something for it, take a picture and put it in this topic. Here's a picture of the cake! Yummy!

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No I haven't written it yet and probably won't until at least 1.08 is out but my question is:<br />
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How many of you think it would be a good idea?<br />
What sort of information would you be interested in seeing?<br />
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Thanks,<br />
<br />
Joe B<br />
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PS - Lets keep this on topic, not well in my mansion I do this, or I do that but more along the line of:<br />
<blockquote>I'd like to be able to do this or that, can I?</blockquote><br />
<br />
thx<br />
<br />
joeb

Vern,<br />
<br />
I know this is kind of late but I was just thinking that it would be nice if instead of being penalized just by death there could be a point decrementer. For instance you run into or over certain types of bricks or critters and instead of dying or taking a shield you take points. Just a thought.....<br />
<br />
Joe B

<strong>Dark Sorts 1.0</strong><br />
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Designer: Mikee<br />
Rooms: 32<br />
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  Dark_Sorts.zip (Size: 19.53 KB / Downloads: 2)

It would be so nice to connect faces to screen names, and since Vern was brave enough to put his picture up a while ago, I thought I'd start this topic.<br />
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This is my husband Lou and me. This pic was taken for our church directory, so we were cleaned up real good.<br />
Come on, anybody else want to join in? And no cheating!<br />
;D 8-) :<br />
<br />

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We have just beaten the record of being with 9 members together on line!<br />
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[smiley=birthdays.gif] [smiley=beer.gif] [smiley=birthdays.gif] [smiley=beer.gif]<br />
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EDIT: 10 !

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I don't know if anyone noticed that before. But that is more or less the average since the start of the new boards.<br />
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Thx for everybody's contributions, but mostly I want to thank Vern who made these boards possible. And the fact that it is immediately linked to the ActionSoft site is a:<br />
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[smiley=tekst-toppie.gif]

Let me begin by apologizing to any Catholics in the room for the title of this post (and to everyone else for the bad pun). Sometimes I just can't help myself. <br />
<br />
Ahem. This is a post in the spirit of <blockquote>The Sins of the Mansion Builders</blockquote>, but with the opposite theme: this time, I want to point out things that I really like and appreciate when I see them in a mansion and invite others to do the same.<br />
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<strong>Good Hints</strong><br />
I just love it when mansion builders find clever ways to hint at the presence of things. Some examples:<br />
<ul class="ppgc-ul">
<li>when you enter the room, you hear a money bag drop, although there are none visible onscreen.<br />
<li>One used frequently in Catacombs is that you are able to see the secret but not the means to reach it.<br />
<li>Snakes can be completely hidden because they make noise. Wingy did this a lot in the second part of Volcanis, and it really cheesed me off at first ( > Wingy) because I wasn't paying attention. I learned to listen soon enough, though, and appreciated the cleverness. MM's great stereo sound helps with this sort of thing too.<br />
<li>One aural hint that I've not seen used is the torch sound. Place an invisible torch to mark the entrance to a secret room. Alert players (myself not included ) will stop and wonder what on earth is making that noise.<br />
<li>Sometimes a monster can be a hint. One of the built-in mansions uses this to great effect (can't remember which - nightmare mansion maybe?). There is in a certain place a spider that the player does not have to pass beneath at all. I looked at that and wondered what purpose it served. So I walked under and, sure enough, there was a secret on the other side. Clever!<br />
</ul>
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Remember when composing hints that you have three senses to work with - sight, sound, and <blockquote>touch</blockquote> (movement). A subtle hint rewards those who notice them and garners accolades from your players.<br />
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<strong>Detail and Coherence</strong><br />
What would Midnight Mansion be if stripped of all background work and all decorative sprites? The gameplay wouldn't change a bit, but I for one wouldn't enjoy it as much. Atmosphere and ambiance are so visceral and unquantifiable that I won't attempt to describe them in much detail, but I know that I enjoy mansions that possess them.<br />
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Another really nice touch I've seen used is when the mansion is actually built like some kind of structure. Good examples of this are Cathedral Towers, Wingy's Midnight Pyramid, and Matt and Joe's Sphinx (in Mummy's Revenge) and Space Station (in Dominator). This is more than just putting a roof on top; the <em>entire mansion</em> is shaped like a real structure, and has numerous features that reinforce the theme and make the experience more immersive and enjoyable.<br />
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The almost polar opposite of the above is the archetypical Freddy mansion. Freddy seems to me to focus almost exclusively on nifty puzzles an cool tricks when building, to the detriment of things like background/foreground detail and atmosphere. There is something to be said for this style. MMaM is an astounding achievement and likely would have been impossible if he had put more effort into decorations.<br />
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I prefer shorter, more detailed mansions myself, but I think the MM world would be impoverished without designers like Freddy to add diversity into the mix.<br />
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<strong>Clever return routes</strong><br />
I love it when mansion builders recognize that passing a difficult challenge more than a couple of times is more tedious than enjoyable. Building quick return routes that are only accessible after completing the challenge is a very nice and appreciated feature.<br />
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And uh...I'll think of some more stuff later, but right now I'm sick of typing. I hope others will add to this as well!

A couple of days ago I have started work on the 2nd installment of <span style="color: #cc0000;">The Mansion Family</span>.<br />
<br />
I had the idea to let it begin - just as Vol. 1 (Mind Mines) - in Jack's modest house. He goes up to street level, but instead of turning to the right, he will walk to the left, thru another part of the city until he comes to......... <em>(wait &amp; see)</em>.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Now a question:</span><br />
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As it is now, I created a version that simply expanded Vol. 1, expanded the city etc. (<em>meaning:</em> When finished, Vol. 2 will be a mansion of its own, but it will also include all of Mind Mines.....the player starts in the same little house of Jack, and in the city he decides whether he'd like to go to the Mind Mines or to the new section).<br />
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Or would y'all prefer a clean version 2, with all older (Mind Mines) rooms erased ?? <em>(Answers please)</em><br />
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(To clarify: When I'd be releasing the <blockquote>combined</blockquote> version...this would NOT mean we would take off MindMines as a mansion of its own, and replace it with the combined version.... My plan is to have a Vol. 2 that just happens to also include all of Vol. 1; later maybe a Vol. 3 that has all of Vol. 1, 2 and 3....etc. Of course: there is a certain limit to that..... there are only 2 more possible routes that lead away from Jack's house (after Vol. 2)....and they're not very logical either (UP - thru the sky or what ?? ...and DOWN - welll....that might work).<br />

Again, since I don't have my own blog yet...<br />
<br />
I think my next game project will probably be a Galaga type game. That is, a space shooter with a simple starfield background, tight keyboard controls, and ships that have interesting movements. I don't feel any Mac games have really gotten this genre right. I hear from Psychotronic that Kaijin is popular, but I don't understand why. The game feels so weird to me. <br />
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Anyway, I know many Midnight Mansion players may have no interest in a <blockquote>twitch</blockquote> shooter, but I'll be making it for *me*, to do something that *I* want to work on and play. As a nice simple game project that will be a break from things like Midnight Mansion, where I have to deal with legacy code, legacy resources, etc. And a break from a project I started last summer, which was a casual game that I hope to finish some day, but it was hard to work on because I don't really enjoy casual games myself. <br />
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Psychotronic may end up being an alpha tester for this game too, because he also likes twitch shooters like Galaga.