Amusing Awards Artifact Adventure - Lounge (Postgame Feedback Welcome!)

Well, we made it! This has been in the works for a while and I'm very happy that I was finally able to bring it to life for you all, and I really hope you enjoyed it! From a host's perspective, I would consider this a success overall. It wasn't perfect, there were some flaws that became apparent and a few bumps along the road, but at the end of the day, this was an experimental format and we all found out what works and what doesn't work together. I would like to see other users iterate on this format and I'd be interested in hosting another one myself at some point, so please offer feedback if you have it!

Speaking of feedback, I have some of my own! These were some things I observed or was given feedback on that I think could've been done better.

Quest design - I'm mostly happy with these for a first game, but there were a few that turned out kind of railroady with not much room for variation or creativity in solving them. Each quest had an intended solution, but the players were generally really creative in solving them in their own ways, so although the ones that didn't leave room for that seemed fine in the design process, they ultimately stuck out like a sore thumb. To their credit, the players did manage to come up with some pretty neat ideas for these anyway, but still, don't do ones like these! They are boring.

For quests that were completed by delivering an item to an NPC, the creativity tiebreaker rule inadvertently caused players to come up with really elaborate and flashy drop-off submissions, and although that wasn't necessarily a bad thing and they were fun to read, it's not something that I ever really intended to happen. Putting energy into creative solutions makes more sense when you're working on solving the puzzle versus performing a menial task, so I'd like to see quest design push players more in the former direction. Ideally, you automatically complete the quest by getting the item, or have deliveries be part of the quest but not the end goal.

Although I didn't get any complaints about this, the design of Spanner's quest ended up clashing a little with the idea of quest instances. Normally, what you did in Action Phases wouldn't affect Explore Phases until a quest was completed, but the WT animatronic running around necessitated affecting the Explore Phase somehow, otherwise it'd just be a shot in the dark which wouldn't have been fun. Just keep this in mind and make sure quests are designed around it. (Unless the game is specifically designed for it, I wouldn't suggest removing quest instances since it prevents various dirty plays.)

Last little note on these, the quest objective for Commander Nebula was a little vague and didn't mention the space battle at all, so multiple players seemed caught off guard by it. Weird oversight where the final objective wasn't actually mentioned. Just a general notice to make sure quests are descriptive!

Clarification of mechanics - Yeah, experimental format and all that, so this one's to be expected. As the game played out I had to make a few clarifications that weren't there initially and come up with/allow some things on the fly when the players tried things I didn't expect or think about. Transferring items between teammates without wasting a meetup during the Action Phase, being able to send items to other locations if you're clever enough, and puppeteering inactive teammates are the three big ones that stick out. The general mechanics of Explore/Action Phases could've been clearer since there was some confusion there from several players - there's a learning curve with a new game format but you should also expect new players in any game! Not much to say here other than make sure this stuff is clear at the outset now that it's been established.

Pacing - Based on feedback, it seems like the release of content was too much, too fast, and got overwhelming with lots of things in different places happening all at the same time. A suggestion I got was to have these be similar to AKGO's day zero where it would start off with a more linear guided tour that gradually revealed everything, and then players could use the remaining time to poke at it further, which I think would be a great idea (I would've implemented it here if I didn't think it would've been a jarring change midgame, honestly). Also, the content rollout felt a little unbalanced as it played out, Phase 2 was lighter on new content and Phase 3 was heavier.

Player count - 18 players may have been a little too much for competing over 13 artifacts? I'm not entirely sure, so this will probably depend on player feedback. The game length seemed pretty good for something of this scale, at least.

Anyway, since I'm sure more than a few players are curious, here's the intended solutions for each quest! Some were closer to what actually ended up happening than others.
  • Band Stage/Spanner - Once you find the WT animatronic on the ferris wheel, you interact with him and he runs away. The intended solution was following him to the Spinning Bowls, then to The Chuckster, and at that point he'd just go back to the Band Stage on his own.
  • Big Top Hat/Rigatoni the Great - The intended foods to pick up and bring to the clowns were cotton candy and beef jerky from the Fun Center and Freaky Flakes from the Fear Factory.
  • F-Seafloor Bumper Cars/Blooper Arrow - Fight The Draqen in ranged combat of some sort and knock him off of The Chuckster. Once you defeated him he'd tell you that he shoved the Blurp in the Cereal Box Ghost's box, so you'd have to go there and ask him to open it.
  • Fear Factory/Vincent Overpriced - Get milk (Splash Carton was the intended source) and give it to the Health Inspector to revive him. I ended up cutting an extra objective where he would run off and Vincent would ask you to take a bag of bribe money to him to stop the report because it wasn't very interesting and would've just dragged it out.
  • Fun Center/Shbeeg Mascot Guy(s) - Find an NPC who appreciates Shbeeg and get them to follow you. The intended NPC was actually dropped from the game because this was finished early! When the Spinning Bowls opened, there was going to be a rabbit kid named 208 (the joke being that he has so many siblings his parents just started numbering the kids, and a reference to the then-upcoming Issue 208 of The 'Shroom). At first he would be too bored to move so you'd have to give him cotton candy, and then he'd follow you back to the Fun Center. He likes Shbeeg because it's cool to see rabbits in high business positions.
  • Mertle's Fortune Tent - Go to the Fear Factory and get into Lactosi's office. Since he tells you he'll only trade for new candles, you'd have to go to the Recycling Center and make a new set out of trash. I don't know why I thought the natural progression was to trade them and not just give the new ones to Mertle, in hindsight.
  • Pop's Shop/Mal Itt - Pretty obvious, this was just a trading quest across the park.
  • Recycling Center/Bin Brothers - The solution was pretty much given in the objective! This one also had a cut objective where the machine would break down when you came back and you'd need to go tell Spanner to fix it, but again, this was just an extra step dragging out the quest.
  • Splash Carton/Milk Man - Pretty much only one way to complete this one too.
  • Star Blasters/Commander Nebula - Get the Power Star and bring it to Mertle to remove the curse, then come back and fight General Stellon. I didn't really have any intended solution for the Stellon fight, basically just put some effort into something cool and it'll be a valid submission.
  • The Beast Beneath the Dome/Captain Hairbanks - Get a weapon to put on the submarine and fight the Porcupuffer. I didn't have any specific item in mind.
  • Wasino/Wheeler - Roulette was rigged. Pressing Gamball further would've revealed the existence of the casino's back room, and by getting in there you could shut off the power to the device Wheeler used to stop the wheel on his own, allowing you to play a fair game (still coin flip RNG, though). You'd have to get past Teller to do it though, and the solution I came up with was bribing him with something spinny.
  • Wheeluigi Time/King Kong - Knock King Kong off with an attack at the Hall of Reflectinators.

Last but (hopefully) not least, my inspirations for the various locations and characters! I pulled references from a lot of community projects over the past few years and some other sources. Hopefully someone besides me finds behind the scenes content as interesting!
The Waluigi Time Amusement Park itself comes from a set of comics I made for 2021's Beaches vs. Amusement Parks 'Shroomfest. Pretty much all of the locations were what kind of makes sense in a theme park, but a few of them have some semi-interesting stories.

The comics established a few of the attractions seen in the final game as WTified versions of standard amusement park fare - the Band Stage, Fear Factory (at the time known as the House of Shmellogg's, but I ended up dropping the direct Kellogg's references for the final game), Fun Center, Spinning Bowls, and Wheeluigi Time. The Hall of Reflectinators is a hall of mirrors but based on the reflectinator item from WT Cereal Mafia. Funko Pops ended up being in the game as an answer to Living Game's Nesoberis on Rose's suggestion, and the name of the shop was a slight variation on an unused suggestion Rose also gave me a while back for a candy store in Shmaluigi, Private Investigator. Splash Carton is a spoof of Disney's Splash Mountain. The Chuckster was an idea that MightyMario gave me in unrelated talks also involving the park.

  • Bin Brothers - Reference to the idea of the Awards bins, design based on Junker from Bowser's Inside Story
  • Blooper Arrow and The Draqen - Parodies from Blooper Race of Super Arrow and Draq from F-Zero, infamous history here thanks to Mach Speed Mayhem overshilling
  • Captain Hairbanks - Spoof of Captain Fairbanks from AKGO
  • Cereal Box Ghost - Reference to the Hatbox Ghost from Disney's Haunted Mansion
  • Chuck, Kameron, Lakilarry, and Spanner - Recurring characters from Mushroom Kingdom Smackdown
  • Commander Nebula - I think she loosely started off as a Cayde reference but basically just ended up becoming a Samus Koopatrol with Rosalina colors
  • Ferris - Spoof of MightyMario's character Zerris for the pun, he's a Koopa Troopa based on his suggestion
  • Gamball - I needed a good pun
  • General Stellon - Stellon and the Lumas in general are based on the running joke of Luma-related Scribbles being cursed, name is a reference to General Zellon from ClawgripFan's Sport Report: The Movie section
  • Hectinator the Reflectinator - Combination of reflectinators from WT Cereal Mafia, Hector the Reflector from Yoshi's Island DS, and the mechanical bosses from Terraria
  • King Kong - King Kong reference but taking the name more literally, pink coloration is a nod to Pink Donkey Kong Jr. since he was the only community-based Kong reference I could think of
  • Mal Itt, Vee Achis, and Platypi Guy - Pretty sure I came up with the Funko Pops they wanted first and then designed the characters around that
  • Mertle - First used for an Awards presentation parodying GBA's Horrorscopes section
  • Milk Man - Running community joke of a horse on the beach with the caption "man" (was originally going to be a ghost in the Fear Factory fridge, but didn't have anything good to use this for)
  • Mr. Poe - Fear Factory's version of Revin's character Cornelius, he's the raven pictured on the Freaky Flakes box and named after Edgar Allan Poe
  • Mr. Shbeeg - Recurring character from lots of WT-related projects
  • Muercello & Spectra - First used them in a one-off Shmaluigi, Private Investigator story, some design cues from Shaggy and Scooby-Doo
  • Pop - Designed to fit the name of the store, he's a Poplin from Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • Purple McPurplepants and Tueaday McGee - Obscure pulls from an old mindless junk thread by TPG, designs based on Waluigi and the Tueaday girl community joke respectively
  • Rigatoni the Great, Mr. Beefy Man, and Unicyclops - Character concepts that were taken/adapted from another project in development, Rigatoni is meant to evoke Wario to match McPurplepants' Waluigi
  • Shbeeg Mascot Guy(s) - Appeared in the comics that introduced the park
  • Shmwario - Recurring character from Shmaluigi-related projects, adventurer outfit is from a 2023 Awards presentation
  • Snackrat and Vending Machine - Reference to the rat spawning incident during Minecraft Games 2023, Vending Machine is a dual reference to The 'Shroom Mafia 4 and features graffiti presumably left by Flygon's character Gamer Cat
  • Teller Vision - Major character from ARKG, stuck him in the casino because he likes wheels
  • Vincent Overpriced, Sporis Karloff, and Bela Lactosi - Spoofs of prominent horror actors Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Bela Lugosi, general Van Shoeul's House of Ghouls reference
  • Wheeler - Reference to the running community joke of flamingos and wheels, Animal Crossing-esque design
 
Last edited:
With regards to tiebreakers and people being a swarm over artifacts, I'd like to propose that since we're already pissing off the Temporal Committee, it might work to do like. A points system. Like, the first/most inventive group to get an artifact gets 10 points, the next one gets 7, and so on from there. And then most points wins. Feels like it could also keep it more competitive as it goes!
 
Ok, so, feedback.

As I've said once before in the AKGO lounge thread, my aim when leaving these kinds of posts is to provide useful, actionable information. That means I will place more emphasis on the parts I thought could use improvement. At a cursory glance this may come across like I'm trying to tear down the game or am being ungrateful. But I assure you, that is not my intention. I think WT did a good thing by hosting this game, so that's going to be the bottom line.


But first, some positives. The visual designs of the NPCs was top-notch. They were all very varied, visually interesting, and colorful. The sprites were well-drawn, easy to parse, and had a consistent, appealing style. My favorites in that regard were Muercello and Nebula. The game was also well-scheduled and everything generally happened during the times it was said they were going to happen. There were no unannounced delays or parts where we had to run after the host trying to pry vital scheduling information from them. And though I've been hearing occasionally that the three-player team mechanic was a bit controversial, I actually kind of liked the idea myself.

As for areas where I could see room for improvement, there are two particular ones that jumped out to me: Depth of information and immersion.

Let's start with the bigger of the two, depth of information. Don't take this the wrong way, WT, but it is at times difficult to get you to divulge information. Many times people have asked questions and only got a line or two of a response that covered the bare minimum of the exact thing was asked. Very often this necessitated follow-up questions and unnecessary back-and-forth exchanges that could have been consolidated into one blurb. I've noticed this issue here, as well as in ARKG (the most egregious example there was in Moss' case, where unbelievably critical intel was omitted due to an extremely literal and direct interpretation of a question). You seem to generally err on the side of giving too little information rather than too much, and occasionally, this can be very frustrating.

Unfortunately, this intel stinginess permeated most areas of this game as well, and some suffered for it. The NPCs were incredibly varied and interesting-looking, but any attempt to interact with them usually yielded very basic, very short, generic one-line responses. This is a shame because it meant they were unable to develop a personality to match their intriguing designs.

When hosting this kind of game with an investigative element, I believe it is important to look at the queries you receive from your players and try to interpret their intention, rather than sticking to the exact literal meaning of the question. When a player says "I talk to Rigatoni", you can generally expect that they want to know what that character's deal is. So having the NPC say "I'm Rigatoni, what's up?" is a bit useless and requires additional unnecessary prodding. Rather, you can skip that and just have him go "Hello, I'm Rigatoni, the ring master of this circus! But ah, woe is me, we currently have this specific problem: (insert detailed explanation of what the problem is). Ah, sorry, you probably don't want to hear me whine, you're likely here for (list of interesting landmarks within the area)." This skips all the back-and-forth and hits the players with pertinent, rich information in one single post. It also discourages the breadcrumb-trail style of inconsequential questioning that creates thread-bloat, as that kind of thing usually happens when players don't have enough info and don't know what to do or ask.

The overall sparseness of information also caused some issues for locations and the quests tied to them. I think the best location in the game was the Fear Factory, as it was a relatively large environment with a healthy number of diverse sub-areas. You had the outside of the factory, the main production room, the kitchen, the storage area, and the staff offices. Lots to do if you go here, in theory. I wish every area had been as diverse as that one. Unfortunately, for the rest of them, they mostly boiled down to a single point of interest that could be described in one line. "The roller coaster", "The bumper cars", "the fortune teller tent". Whats more, the locations themselves were very sparse on pre-established details. I found it very difficult to be creative with just the things that were described to me, and I had to basically make stuff up myself to have anything to work with. It felt at times like I was garysmodding in props to solve puzzles to such a degree that it seemed like I was cheating.

This came to a head with the Power Star quest, where, upon completion of the task and purifying the star, we were suddenly informed that there was a second phase to that quest, but not what the parameters of that second phase were. All we knew was there was a bad guy, but not where he was, what his resources were, which obstacles we had to overcome to get him and how we were supposed to engage him. I essentially had to invent those parameters myself and then engineer a solution to them. It felt weird doing that, like godmodding. I would have wished for some kind of prompt like "You have reached the second stage of the quest: Captain Bad Guy has holed himself up on this asteroid mine and blocked the door. There is a side passage that could circumvent the block, but it is filled with, idk, space eels who will rip apart your suit. By the way, this is in space and you need a suit. Find a solution to this problem I have created." That would have given me a host-ordained challenge to struggle against, instead of solving a problem of my own invention.

Overall here, my impression is that you came up with a lot of different theme park-relevant locations, but then struggled to fill all of these with content beyond their basic, immediate function. If that's the case, what I would have preferred is less locations, but each of them having multiple points of interest like the Fear Factory. You could have merged the Funko Pop store into the concession stand area for example, or the bumper cars and space ride with the roller coaster into a thrill ride section. Or, if that's not an option, axe some of the less intricate locations in favor of fleshing out the ones you like. Kind of a quality over quantity thing.

I want to share with you something I wrote about halfway through the game. It is an alternative area description for the roller coaster area. I wanted to give this to you then, with some added feedback about depth of information, but decided against it because I didn't want to drop this kind of heavy thing on you mid-game. But now that the game is over, here it is:

You approach The Chuckster, a steel roller coaster which--much like the employee it was based on--towers over its surroundings like an implacable behemoth. You count three trains riding along its track, weaving and plummeting in ways you believe has to violate some kind of guideline.

At its base you spot a winding queue line full of people, waiting for their turn on the contraption. A large flat screen was installed nearby, displaying advertisements for facial hair trimmers and various flavors of protein shakes, seemingly to try placate the impatient masses.

Forking off from the start of the queue, a small gravel path lined by cacti circles around the side of the coaster. Here, those who've had their turn with Chuck are exiting the ride in small groups. Their walking is notably stiff and labored, as if several of their bones have been dislocated. Some of them are heading for the small first aid station that sits near the middle of the way, where a muscular nurse is laughing at them and calling them 'nerds'.
Click to expand...

Doing something like this gives the players a better idea of where they are and what they can expect. You have multiple points of interest here: The coaster itself, the queue of moody people (could be used to incite a riot), the screen (could be stolen for shenanigans), the first aid station (source of medical supplies), and even the little side path (cacti could be stolen to make a spike trap), etc.. As a player, I look at a setup like this and my mind gets going. "If I get a milk jug from the milk ride, I can put it on this roller coaster and the excessive G forces will turn the milk into butter, which I can then use to lay a slippery grease trap into some cacti spikes." I could do this and I would not feel scummy because I am using details that you, the host, has given me, instead of stuff I cheated in myself.

Laying this kind of setup also pays dividends for you, when you have to write investigation results. You can use this basic framework to create even more details when players prompt you. Like, when Kay asked to ride the roller coaster, instead of saying "You ride the roller coaster. It's fun but doesn't seem useful.", you can build on what you already established and write something like:

You decide to get yourself Chucked, despite all of your survival instincts protesting. A nearby Toad employee smiles at you vacantly, but does little else to prepare you for the ride, meaning you have to fasten your restraints yourself.

Then the ride starts. A sharp drop goes right into an unbanked turn, followed by a helix winding 37 times. You try to survey your surroundings, but all of your senses turn into a smear of nonsense as excessive G forces push every ounce of blood into your head, then immediately back into your feet.

Suddenly you find yourself at the ride exit, not quite sure what happened. Maybe you blacked out? All you know is that your bones feel like someone stuffed you into a burlap sack, beat you with a shovel, and then suspended you from the arm of a windmill.
Click to expand...
This kind of thing makes you look good because it shows you took the player's inquiry seriously, it gives Kay a return-prompt for additional roleplaying, and other players might get additional information/clarification out of it (like me, noting the G forces for my idiotic milk jug plan). It isn't actually that much more difficult to do; with a solid setup this stuff writes itself, and your players will love you for it.

Ok, I've jabbered on about depth of information at length, I think you get the point.


As for my second point, the immersion. This concerns stuff like play feedback, how responsive the game is and whether it feels good to play it. In the previous iteration of this format there was a bit of a problem with people laying the groundwork for solving quests, then someone else swooping in and stealing the solution. Your attempt to solve this problem was to move all the quests to their own instance, which is an interesting approach. It solved the issue of reward-stealing, but may have created a slew of new problems in turn.

Frankly, the game setting seemed kind of dead to me. I walked around in various places and saw no one else. No other players were around doing stuff, it was a bit uncanny tbh. Even more so because there wasn't really any incentive for "doubling up" on a location, so I never saw any of my teammates either. It felt a lot like playing something like Elder Scrolls Online and having players and objectives fade in and out of existence around me. I was always by myself, surrounded by invisible phantoms working on solutions I would never get to see.

This compounded another issue, which was what happened when someone else managed to snatch a reward I myself was going for. I didn't know how they did it, or how I failed. I never saw them or their solution, all I knew was that suddenly, talking to the quest NPC gave me an error message and kicked me to the curb. Sometimes my solutions seemed to fail for arbitrary reasons too.

It would have been great if finding an artifact would have triggered some kind of cutscene in the phase opening post, where NPCs reacted to the stuff players had been doing. That would have signaled to me what was going on, instead of our solutions fizzling out randomly and me wondering "wait, was my plan garbage or were other teams just on fire this round? Did I write in too many props? Or not enough? Am I doing something wrong?"

Overall here, I felt like what I was putting into the game wasn't really given back and it impacted my motivation at times. Pito kind of had to bail me out a bit on phase 5. Doing something like what Rose suggested once, with solving a quest but not being first still giving you some points or some other form of acknowledgement, would be a step in the right direction.


To bring this to a close, I thought this was an interesting experiment. There have been a number of improvements over the previous attempt at this format, and overall I think it was a good idea. But all the kinks aren't out yet, and I'd be interested in seeing another iteration on this concept. Hell, if my schedule permits, I'd consider hosting one myself somewhere down the line.

But anyway, that's that. I would like to thank my teammates Pitohui and Toadettefan for their excellent cooperation, and Waluigi Time for hosting. It is one thing to sit here and attempt to deliberate what worked and what didn't, and a whole other to actually go and get something like this off the ground and stick with it til the end. So regardless of everything else, that is an accomplishment he has made and that no one can take away from him.
 
Action phase submissions:

DAY 1

Location:
Fun Center

My general goals:
  • Solve the mascot guys' problem by making a more appealing costume.
  • Obtain a Kazoo and mayonnaise.
  • Negotiate with the vending machine rat.

Specific actions:
  • I have a quick talk with the mascot guys, explaining to them that the reason for their lack of popularity is the character they're portraying. Business execs are very out, quirky characters are in. I promise to make them something with more mass appeal that will have them more appreciated by the guests.
  • Patronize the merch stand. I buy as many plushies as I can, as well as acquire paperclips, one of which I bend into the shape of a sewing needle. Then, using the fabric and stuffing from the plushies and wiring from the clips, I put together a costume of Shmaluigi, intrepid detective. I use the merch here as a reference to get his face right.
    • From the rest of the fabric I also make a little rat-sized beanie, as well as a stylish tail sleeve.
    • I buy a cheap 10 cent kazoo from the stall.
  • Head over to the vending machine and speak to the rat. Get a general feel for their motivation and desires. I note how having to sleep in an uninsulated metal box must get really cold, so I offer to trade my rat beanie and tail warmer for the mysterious action figure and a can of soup (not a beverage). If the rat doesn't want to trade both, I prioritize the action figure.
  • Return to the mascot guysand present them with their new costume. Use my wings to cover them while they change, idk. This should boost their mass appeal considerably.
    • I assume Muercello is going to come over at some point and admire the new spectacle. This will surely make those guys more appreciated and I'll receive the trinket from them.
  • If the action figure from the vending machine turns out to be the Shmaluigi Funko Pop, I'll trade it to Muercello while he is here.
  • Since the cotton candy stall sells mayonnaise cotton candy, I assume they have that stuff around to flavor it. I stealthily grab a tub of mayonnaise while everyone is distracted by the new costume.

My inventory at the end of the day:
  • 10 cent kazoo
  • Tub of mayonnaise
  • Leftover paper clips
  • Can of soup (maybe)
  • Mystery item from Muercello (maybe)
DAY 2

Location:
Fear Factory

My general goals:
  • Get the Health Inspector out of the kitchen.
  • Gain entry into Bela Lactosi's office and obtain Mertle's candles.
  • Clean the place up.

Specific actions:
  • Before departing for the factory, I give my paper clips to Toadettefan.
  • At the Factory, I begin doing a deep clean of the kitchen facility. I pull out all the drawers and grease traps, clean behind and under the stove, throw every expired ingredient from the fridge and freezer into the trash, then scrub the floor to a mirror sheen.
    • All the grease that I'm scrubbing out of the traps and deep fryers I'm collecting in a separate trash bag.
    • Stash the mop in a corner for later.
  • In the now clean kitchen I channel my inner Gordon Ramsay and combine the soup with mayonnaise, making a delightful creamy soup rich in calcium. I feed this to the Health Inspector, to hopefully convince him that this place is not entirely a lost cause.
  • With the inspector fed, I go up to the offices. I take the grease I've collected and spread it on the floor in the hallway/stairs/whatever leading up to them.
    • Bela is playing the organ, a traditionally massive, refined, and intimidating musical instrument that was often owned by the wealthy and requires a large amount of skill to play with any degree of finesse. I have meditated upon these properties and determined that a cheap plastic kazoo embodies the exact opposite on a conceptual level. Trust me, I've measured this.
    • I stand in front of Bela's office and play a counter-melody to his song on my 10-cent kazoo. Our opposite performances will send waves through the musical aether and result in a clash so horrifically that Bela will have no choice but to come out and investigate the interference.
    • Once Bela steps out of the office, I give him a good tackle and send him slip-sliding away on the grease trail I've left. While he is busy sliding I invade his office and grab the candles.
  • Finally, I retrieve the mop and wipe up the grease to leave no evidence. If Bela reappears and attacks me out of revenge I use the mop to fend him off.
  • Let's keep a knife, a spoon, and a handful of fridge magnets from the kitchen as souvenirs.

My inventory at the end of the day:
  • 10 cent kazoo
  • Teller Vision Funko Pop
  • Mertle's Candles (maybe)
  • Knife
  • Spoon
  • Collection of Fridge Magnets
DAY 3

Location:
Recycling center

My general goals:
  • Hand in the litter cleaning quest.
  • Elevate the hip hop genre to new heights.
  • Distribute propaganda from the dairy industry.

Specific actions:
  • Before departing I give my fridge magnets and Funko Pop to Toadettefan and the candles to Pito. Then I borrow some of the paper clips and one of the milk pamphletsin turn.
    • While I'm walking to my destination I'm linking the clips together until I have two chains of roughly a meter. I might have to double up the links for moderate sturdiness.
  • On site I touch down with the bin people. I tell them that picking up trash is good and all, but to really make a difference they need to touch the heart of the people, especially the slobby ones who can't be arsed to walk 10 feet to the nearest garbage can. To that end I have choreographed a performance for them.
  • Form two humanoid figures out of trash from the landfill, make them look like a pair of hunky bears. Anchor the two chains somewhere near the centre of their mass. These will be my backup dancers.
  • Step over to the trash machine control panel and press buttons rhythmically to enhance the performance with button beeps and mechanical whirring noises. Play a swanky intro on the kazoo.
  • Once the intro is done, perform this song:

Here, here, here we are

So we're finally there
we're mopping for cash
if you know what's good
you will mind your trash

Keep your hands down, don't
clap unless you must
I just can't deal with
you kicking up dust.

Huh!

Clean-up
Clean-up Crew
Clean-up
Cleaning up for you

He's the leader of the team
No one knows his name
His mop's not sturdy
It's kind of lame

But still, he's Lakilarry
he's got a cloud, so
he won't leave any foot prints
when he mills about

I haven't seen him clean
he didn't help us out
but he's still employed
so he must have clout. Huh!

Clean-up
His mop is lame
Clean-up
He's coasting on our fame

While we speak of clouds
This fella is green
He's the oldest geezer
you've ever seen

Went over to the milk place
sorted out their junk
Ever smelled old milk?
Now that's some funk

He can't handstand
on account of his lack
but you gotta give props, un-
less you're a hack. Huh!

Clean-up
Cal-ci-um
Clean-up
Fuel for your bones

This bee's got guts
So listen up twat
He can fly around, and
check out what's what

He went to the spinning cups
and that's all good
Now everything's dandy
in that neighborhood

You need your bowls cleaned
there's no better guy
Now I have to move along, cause
my beak's getting dry. Huh!

Clean-up
Birds and bees
Clean-up
On a cleaning spree

And finally
Or so it would seem
she's the last member, of
the clean-up team

Her beak is sharp
and her feathers red
if you don't keep tidy
you will wind up dead

Have you seen that kitchen
at the factory?
It used to be a sty
now it's heavenly

She may sound mean
and she honestly is
but this bird
throws one hell of a diss. Huh!

Come on, filthy!
Take it to the bin!

Full bags, trash bags, pine needle scent
Stash, wrap, recycle, it's your time well spent.

Ah yeah!

Full bags, trash bags, pine needle scent
Stash, wrap, recycle, it's your time well spent.

mic drop

    • Toss them the milk pamphlet during the bridge part about calcium.
    • Pull on the chains to make the backup dancers fall apart on the final beat.
    • I then offer the bin men full legal ownership and distribution rights to the song in exchange for their artifact.
  • Dig through the landfill for some old, moldy cheese. Also try to find some rope (or facsimile of rope).
  • Take the remains of my backup dancers, put them into the trash machine, and press buttons. Take whatever this concoction turns into. Do the same with the spoon.

My inventory at the end of the day:
  • 10 cent kazoo
  • Knife
  • Old cheese
  • Rope
  • (Trash compactor mystery item)
  • (Trash compactor mystery item)
DAY 4

Location:
Star Blasters

My general goals:
  • Get the Power Star purified
  • Maybe deal with pamphlets.

Specific actions:
  • Give the old cheese to the person who is going to the big top (I think it's Toadettefan?) so they can feed the troupe. Put it in a trash bag for odor protection.
  • At the Laser show thingy I look for a tall, fixed structure made from a somewhat bendy material (wood or plastic or something, maybe a rubber tree, or a lamp prop). Use rope to construct a trebuchet out of it.
    • Get the Power star from Nebula and load it into the trebuchet, then cut the rope with the knife to launch the cargo over to Mertle's tent.
    • Wait for the star to bounce back, then catch it. Operation Shooting Star is complete.
  • Return the Power Star to Nebula. Tell him I will be assisting his endeavor by going to the now powered weapons system and calibrating his gun for him.
    • Give Nebula a Pamphlet
    • Steal a laser pointer and a blaster prop as a souvenir
    • At the weapon system I load the remaining Pamphlets into the gun (attach them to torpedo props or something if they are too light) and use the laser targeting system to shoot the pamphlets with pinpoint accuracy across the park:
      • One at Hectinator,
      • one inside a window in the fear factory leading to someone's office,
      • one onto the stage where Spanner is,
      • one into the operator booth at the ferris wheel.
      • According to my math that's all of them, but if not I shoot some more at the shipyard for Hairbanks and/or the funko shop.
    • Load my two cubes into the gun and shoot those too; one at the guy squatting on the roller coaster and one at the trash machine in the junkyard.
    • Finally, load myself into the gun and shoot myself at Splash Carton to hand in the delivery quest. If that is not possible, shoot myself into the milk river and go for a swim. If that is not possible either, please shoot me somewhere random and make something funny happen.

My inventory at the end of the day:
  • 10 cent kazoo
  • Knife
  • Half a rope x2
  • Laser Pointer
  • Fake blaster pistol
DAY 5

Location:
Star Blasters

My general goals:
  • Get the space dude

Specific actions:
  • Trade the knife I have for Toadettefan's paper clips, link them together and bend them into two vaguely humanoid shapes. Decorate these shapes with lights from the attraction (something like a chain of christmas lights, idk). Grab an extra set of lights as a spare.
  • Report to Nebula. Apologize for misgendering her in my last set of instructions. I have no idea what the parameters of this mission are, or really anything about what I am supposed to do, but I assume this will involve space combat, so I'll be gearing up for that.
    • We take our stations inside the space ship (I assume there is a space ship?). Nebula takes the helm, I'll give her the laser pointer and kazoo. I'll take position at the gun turret.
    • Once the luma gang appears, we'll have a grand laser showdown to whittle down their numbers. Nebula will point out targets with the laser pointer and I'll shoot down the thing she is pointing at whenever she gives a signal with the kazoo. We'll do this offensively by targeting the gang members, and defensively by shooting down their projectiles before they can hit us.
  • Once only the leader is left, I declare that I will engage him in an honorable space duel.
    • I take the two humanoid light constructs and attach them to myself via the two ropes (use a space broom as a support to hang them from or something). Then I throw the third set of lights onto myself to make myself indistinguishable from the light dummies. This will confuse the enemy, who will not know which of the three constructs is the real me (see EXAMPLE).
    • Grab a space helmet so I don't suffocate in space. Put two spare helmets onto the decoys to sell the illusion.
    • Exit the ship and do combat with the gang leader. Do some cool flips off of planetoids and comets in the area, then grab a bunch of asteroids and throw them to wear him down. If he shoots me, I spin around to have his shots hit my decoys instead.
    • Once I detect an opening in his defense, I smash some of the light bulbs on my chain of lights, then take it off and wrap him in it. Once he is tangled up in lights, I take out the creamy soup and dump it out on him. The moisture will seep onto him and the light bulbs and the exposed circuitry will fry him.
  • Once he is cooked, drag his unconscious rump into the space ship. Restrain him and present him to Nebula. Mission complete.

My inventory at the end of the day:
  • 10 cent kazoo
  • Body double made of rope, wire and lights x2
  • Laser Pointer
  • Fake blaster pistol

Example:
1722032393740.png
[/SPOIILER]
 
Per request, here are the winning solutions as well!
Waluigi Time said:
  • Band Stage/Spanner - Once you find the WT animatronic on the ferris wheel, you interact with him and he runs away. The intended solution was following him to the Spinning Bowls, then to The Chuckster, and at that point he'd just go back to the Band Stage on his own.
  • Big Top Hat/Rigatoni the Great - The intended foods to pick up and bring to the clowns were cotton candy and beef jerky from the Fun Center and Freaky Flakes from the Fear Factory.
  • F-Seafloor Bumper Cars/Blooper Arrow - Fight The Draqen in ranged combat of some sort and knock him off of The Chuckster. Once you defeated him he'd tell you that he shoved the Blurp in the Cereal Box Ghost's box, so you'd have to go there and ask him to open it.
  • Fear Factory/Vincent Overpriced - Get milk (Splash Carton was the intended source) and give it to the Health Inspector to revive him. I ended up cutting an extra objective where he would run off and Vincent would ask you to take a bag of bribe money to him to stop the report because it wasn't very interesting and would've just dragged it out.
  • Fun Center/Shbeeg Mascot Guy(s) - Find an NPC who appreciates Shbeeg and get them to follow you. The intended NPC was actually dropped from the game because this was finished early! When the Spinning Bowls opened, there was going to be a rabbit kid named 208 (the joke being that he has so many siblings his parents just started numbering the kids, and a reference to the then-upcoming Issue 208 of The 'Shroom). At first he would be too bored to move so you'd have to give him cotton candy, and then he'd follow you back to the Fun Center. He likes Shbeeg because it's cool to see rabbits in high business positions.
  • Mertle's Fortune Tent - Go to the Fear Factory and get into Lactosi's office. Since he tells you he'll only trade for new candles, you'd have to go to the Recycling Center and make a new set out of trash. I don't know why I thought the natural progression was to trade them and not just give the new ones to Mertle, in hindsight.
  • Pop's Shop/Mal Itt - Pretty obvious, this was just a trading quest across the park.
  • Recycling Center/Bin Brothers - The solution was pretty much given in the objective! This one also had a cut objective where the machine would break down when you came back and you'd need to go tell Spanner to fix it, but again, this was just an extra step dragging out the quest.
  • Splash Carton/Milk Man - Pretty much only one way to complete this one too.
  • Star Blasters/Commander Nebula - Get the Power Star and bring it to Mertle to remove the curse, then come back and fight General Stellon. I didn't really have any intended solution for the Stellon fight, basically just put some effort into something cool and it'll be a valid submission.
  • The Beast Beneath the Dome/Captain Hairbanks - Get a weapon to put on the submarine and fight the Porcupuffer. I didn't have any specific item in mind.
  • Wasino/Wheeler - Roulette was rigged. Pressing Gamball further would've revealed the existence of the casino's back room, and by getting in there you could shut off the power to the device Wheeler used to stop the wheel on his own, allowing you to play a fair game (still coin flip RNG, though). You'd have to get past Teller to do it though, and the solution I came up with was bribing him with something spinny.
  • Wheeluigi Time/King Kong - Knock King Kong off with an attack at the Hall of Reflectinators.
Click to expand...
  • Band Stage/Spanner - After finding him at Wheeluigi Time, Toadettefan got a shortcut on this one by jamming up the WT animatronic with cereal dust at the Spinning Bowls so it couldn't run away, along with sabotaging the Spinning Bowls with paperclips to get Spanner over for repairs.
  • Big Top Hat/Rigatoni the Great - Pretty close to the intended solution on this one. None of the F3 Squad had beef jerky on them, so Perch made most of the drop-offs and then used a circus cannon to shoot Mr. Beefy Man to the Fun Center and into the Vending Machine, stunning Snackrat long enough for Turb to buy beef jerky and give it to him.
  • F-Seafloor Bumper Cars/Blooper Arrow - Yap ended up knocking The Draqen off of the coaster using a turret at Star Blasters. To get the Blurp, Toadettefan used explosions from sugar dust to stun the Cereal Box Ghost and take the box, then used another one to shoot the Blurp over to the bumper cars where Pitohui was waiting with a makeshift landing pad.
  • Fear Factory/Vincent Overpriced - Blathers took the Health Inspector's head and brought it to Splash Carton to revive it in the milk river, then kicked it back towards the Fear Factory (assisted by Dry Bones' natural reassembling properties) where GBA was waiting to reassemble him.
  • Fun Center/Shbeeg Mascot Guy(s) - Already highlighted this one as a Bonus Star, it was pretty close but not at all! Yap made them a new Shmaluigi costume while Toadettefan went over to the Fear Factory to send Muercello & Spectra there. Naturally, they liked it.
  • Mertle's Fortune Tent - This one went pretty closely along the intended solution until Smasher had the idea that I didn't have of giving the new candles to Mertle instead of spending a phase making the trade.
  • Pop's Shop/Mal Itt - Standard stuff for most of this, Snack got a shortcut by capturing Snackrat earlier and sending him to the shop with the Hammond Hammer Funko Pop where Flygon was waiting to make the final trade.
  • Recycling Center/Bin Brothers - Not too many ways you can finish this one. Rose got all three themselves by using reflectinators, which scored some creativity points.
  • Splash Carton/Milk Man - Again sped up by using reflectinators to make multiple deliveries at once.
  • Star Blasters/Commander Nebula - Yap already posted but tl;dr create a catapult to send the Power Star to Mertle's for un-cursing and bring it back in the same phase, then a cool battle plan involving paperclip decoys to distract Stellon and then frying him with a string of broken lights and mayonnaise soup.
  • The Beast Beneath the Dome/Captain Hairbanks - Flygon used a hammer borrowed from Spanner's toolbox for the weapon. Canonically speaking hammers are pretty powerful so it works!
  • Wasino/Wheeler - TPG cheesed Wheeler's cheating by tricking him into thinking a reflectinator was a person. "Both" of them placed bets in one round, preventing Wheeler from rigging it and guaranteeing the artifact either way.
  • Wheeluigi Time/King Kong - Pitohui worked with Ferris and played off King Kong's ego to get him to come down for the opening of a special parliament, then trapped him in the ticket booth for aggressive negotiations, preventing him from sabotaging the ferris wheel again.
 
GGs yall. All I have to say is thank you to Waluigi Time for hosting this, and great job to all the players that made this happen! This was my first real foray into a community event, and I had a lot of fun strategizing and working with my teammates. The experimental format had its hiccups, but in the end I would say it worked out pretty well.
 
I had of fun here, but there were some issues I'd like to address. No sense of co-operation in the Explore Phases, as well as the underdeveloped npcs and lack of areas to explore around the locations meant that a lot of Day 1 and 2 from my playthrough was mostly spent messing around the locations. It came to a point where I often tried dropping off items or acquiring them during Explore Phases because at first I thought progression was going to be similar to a point and click adventure game. It also meant that the teams didn't really work together to investigate areas outside of divising plans and exchanging certain items which felt like trading Pokemon during Action Phases.

Second, because of the underdeveloped npcs and lack of things to do, I didn't post as often during the later phases because I felt most areas had nothing to do besides investigating and talking to npcs. That's why I did that reference to Attack of the Clowns from Billy and Mandy during Day 4, and that's also why I didn't post on Day 5 because I was busy with a dinner party happening irl as well as completing my Dexter's Lab drawing. I mainly spent my wait times between posts, as well as the Discord chat periods and intermissions doing a variety of things. These included tending responsibilities irl, checking the other Discord servers I followed, replying to my ask thread, writing for MCCW, playing Mario Party 3 on NSO, checking out Flash games on Flashpoint, and watching cartoons and Youtube videos. Having more stuff to do would allow me to divise plans quicker as well as use my wait times more efficiently.

Third, not only would a Points system make the game more competive, but it would also be a lot more strategic, frantic, exciting, and fun as well. This would also attract more players who might find the Explore Phases too boring by incentivising creative solutions to the quests, developing the npcs properly, and giving the areas a lot more setpieces to interact with and/or investigate.

I would like to thank Hooded Pitohui and Gabumon fot their support, co-operation, and creative solutions to a lot of the quests within the game, as well as Waluigi Time for putting a lot of effort into the character designs, storyline, and gameplay. I had a great time with this, and while I do feel ready for Mafia and Killing Games, I think these Relic Hunts will allow me to use characters who wouldn't be comfortable hurting others, like Cream the Rabbit, Klonoa, or Cinnamoroll, for example. I also think these games have a much wider appeal because they can be enjoyed by anyone, no matter how young or skilled they are. I'm glad to have been a part of this, and am hopeful that the next game I join will be just as memorable of an experience.
 
Last edited:
Charmy Bee said:
I had of fun here, but there were some issues I'd like to address. No sense of co-operation in the Explore Phases, as well as the underdeveloped npcs and lack of areas to explore around the locations meant that a lot of Day 1 and 2 from my playthrough was mostly spent messing around the locations. It came to a point where I often tried dropping off items or acquiring them during Explore Phases because at first I thought progression was going to be similar to a point and click adventure game. It also meant that the teams didn't really work together to investigate areas outside of divising plans and exchanging certain items which felt like trading Pokemon during Action Phases.

Second, because of the underdeveloped npcs and lack of things to do, I didn't post as often during the later phases because I felt most areas had nothing to do besides investigating and talking to npcs. That's why I did that reference to Attack of the Clowns from Billy and Mandy during Day 4, and that's also why I didn't post on Day 5 because I was busy with a dinner party happening irl as well as completing my Dexter's Lab drawing. I mainly spent my wait times between posts, as well as the Discord chat periods and intermissions doing a variety of things. These included tending responsibilities irl, checking the other Discord servers I followed, replying to my ask thread, writing for MCCW, playing Mario Party 3 on NSO, checking out Flash games on Flashpoint, and watching cartoons and Youtube videos. Having more stuff to do would allow me to divise plans quicker as well as use my wait times more efficiently.

Third, not only would a Points system make the game more competive, but it would also be a lot more strategic, frantic, exciting, and fun as well. This would also attract more players who might find the Explore Phases too boring by incentivising creative solutions to the quests, developing the npcs properly, and giving the areas a lot more setpieces to interact with and/or investigate.

I would like to thank Hooded Pitohui and Gabumon fot their support, co-operation, and creative solutions to a lot of the quests within the game, as well as Waluigi Time for putting a lot of effort into the character designs, storyline, and gameplay. I had a great time with this, and while I do feel ready for Mafia and Killing Games, I think these Relic Hunts will allow me to use characters who wouldn't be comfortable hurting others, like Cream the Rabbit, Klonoa, or Cinnamoroll, for example. I also think these games have a much wider appeal because they can be enjoyed by anyone, no matter how young or skilled they are. I'm glad to have been a part of this, and am hopeful that the next game I join will be just as memorable of an experience.
Click to expand...
Could you elaborate on how you envision incorporating a better sense of cooperation for Explore Phases? I'm struggling to imagine how that would work without big structural changes, so I'd be interested in hearing more specific suggestions on that front.

In regards to not having enough to do, I will say that, while I am very pro-fleshing out locations and NPCs, Explore Phases aren't really meant to be the meat of the game. The puzzle-solving aspect is the real core of it, and Explore Phases are meant for getting information in service of that. Much like a KG day phase, there's an inherent limit to how much relevant information there is to uncover, so there's naturally going to be investigative lulls, especially as the game reaches its later stages. Basically, I'm all for making the world more developed and interesting to explore, but I also don't think it's good for the scale of the game to have so much content that an individual player feels like they need to spend several hours investigating. (That's my preference for the format, at least. Someone probably could host a greatly expanded version of this with a KG-level scope if they wanted to, but it's not something I'm personally interested in hosting.) I don't mean to minimize your feedback or anything, but if I'm understanding it correctly, I think part of it just comes from a disconnect between expectations and actual game design.

(As an aside, I'd be interested in exploring having new quests open up based on game progression instead of being tied to specific phases so all of the content isn't front-loaded. That might be neat.)
 
Waluigi Time said:
Could you elaborate on how you envision incorporating a better sense of cooperation for Explore Phases? I'm struggling to imagine how that would work without big structural changes, so I'd be interested in hearing more specific suggestions on that front.

In regards to not having enough to do, I will say that, while I am very pro-fleshing out locations and NPCs, Explore Phases aren't really meant to be the meat of the game. The puzzle-solving aspect is the real core of it, and Explore Phases are meant for getting information in service of that. Much like a KG day phase, there's an inherent limit to how much relevant information there is to uncover, so there's naturally going to be investigative lulls, especially as the game reaches its later stages. Basically, I'm all for making the world more developed and interesting to explore, but I also don't think it's good for the scale of the game to have so much content that an individual player feels like they need to spend several hours investigating. (That's my preference for the format, at least. Someone probably could host a greatly expanded version of this with a KG-level scope if they wanted to, but it's not something I'm personally interested in hosting.) I don't mean to minimize your feedback or anything, but if I'm understanding it correctly, I think part of it just comes from a disconnect between expectations and actual game design.

(As an aside, I'd be interested in exploring having new quests open up based on game progression instead of being tied to specific phases so all of the content isn't front-loaded. That might be neat.)
Click to expand...
Hmm...in regards to that, maybe try allowing people to work together in certain areas by investigating together. That way, you can find out about stuff you might've missed if you just went by yourself. It could also work for talking with npcs because one person could make them feel scared or unsure of themselves, so having a second player could make things more comfortable for them by reassuring their feelings and putting them in a better mood.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back