Advent Calendar: Let's Play 24 games!

I can also see them just fine. ^_^

I don't know how to start an update so I guess we'll just jump right in!

Let's start by asking Rarity about last night!
Twilight: "Could you describe exactly what happened and what you saw?"

Rarity says she was asleep in her bedroom when she heard a crash from downstairs.


Well that was unhelpful. Twilight asks if there's absolutely anything else she can tell us?
Rarity: "...No! Nothing, I'm afraid. So sorry, Twilight."

That's... quite the answer.


Seriously? Man, what to do-


Twilight: Gah! Pinkie, what are you- Actually, never mind. I can guess.
Pinkie: Ooo, ooo, can I guess too? Uh... is it a breadbox?

... That aside, Twilight tells Pinkie that Rarity is hiding something from us, which, apparently according to Pinkie, means the topic was locked.

DUN DUN DUN!.... What does that mean?



Twilight: (I really need to have a look sometime at that strange book she's got there.)

Now now Twilight, it'd be too easy if we just looked at the walkthrough!

We kinda figured on that part, thank you.

So apparently it says we need to present a certain piece of evidence to unlock the topic. Obviously we don't have that.
Adding to that, sometimes we need to present more than one piece of evidence.


With that explained, Pinkie runs off to no doubt, do something cooler than what we're doing.

That topic is indeed locked, but we have a new question!

So Rarity, could you describe everything that was stolen last night?

Rarity: "Of course! First, there was True Blue, a regular HUNK of a sapphire that shone in the light like the noon-day sky. Oh, whatever shall I do without the light of that jewel in my workshop!? Second, there was Opal. Oh my darling Opal. She's been missing since last night. Now the jewel I can understand, but... what could the thieves possibly want with Opal!?"

Oh yeah, I guess we have profiles.


Let's present some evidence!


I'm guessing that cat there is Opal.

So what happens if we present that photo of Opal?



Melodrama, that's what.
In fact, none of the photos really inspire any insight from Rarity so let's move on. Can't believe it took me 2 hours to get this far. So let's move on to the Boutique Bridge to the east!



I didn't think we'd find something this quick! Why it's so obvious... we have to examine that bush!


Okay not really. I was just messing around, let's move o-

Wait what.

The note reads:
"Sometimes, a pony just has a plain ol ball emergency, that's why I set these up! Play with it as much as you like! Just make suuuuuure you put it back here when you're done with it. Wouldn't want somepony to have a ball emergency and not be able to solve it. Okey dokey lokey?"


I think we know who put that there...
Anyway, the cloth.
Twilight: "A piece of cloth- red on one side, gold on the other. I think I know where THIS is from."
Uh.... I don't. Care to share, Twilight? No? Alright...
"CMC Cape Shred" added to evidence"
Pinkie shows up really quick to explain the "Present Evidence" button, but it's really not needed so I'm not gonna bother showing it.
There doesn't seem to be anything more of interest here so I guess we'll go show that cloth to Rarity.

Oh wow. HOW did I miss this when I was here before?

.... It looks like I needed a sharp eye to spot those though >_>

BUT that's not all we find! There's hair by the tire tracks. Intriguing... We'll need to study this carefu-

GAH! How do you keep doing that!?
Anyway, Pinkie explains that if we go into the evidence menu, we can combine evidence together... or something. Twilight decides there must be a connection between the hair and tire tracks, so I'm gonna take her word for that and try it.

Some clickedy clicky clicks here and there and we come to a conclusion.

Twilight wonders what animal it was, a pony? Well from the intro of the game, I think we have a good idea of who got hit.... Wait a minute, there are CARS in this world?

Anyway, Twilight asks Rarity if she knows about the cloth.

Rarity: "I asked her why she didn't just get Sweetie Belle to fix it up, but she said that Sweetie Belle was very busy and couldn't spare any time to do so"

There's a pony named Sweetie Belle? I guess with Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie, I shouldn't be surprised but... Sweetie Belle.
So this means the cloth belongs to Apple Bloom and she got it fixed this morning. Got it. Let's ask Rarity about the tire tracks and the hair!

This is what she says when she has no info on the item you present. Oh well.
Let's move on past the bridge and even further west.

I head into the town's square where we see...

Oh my gosh, their motherlickin adorable!
The one on the left is Sweetie Belle by the way and after agreeing to help Apple, she walks off. Twilight decides we should talk to Apple Bloom. Sounds like a plan!

We can ask the little tyke about two subjects. Let's get all possible info out of the way first. I'll start by asking about the CMC.
Twilight: "Hey, Apple Bloom. How's it going with the Cutie Mark Crusaders? Done any epic quests or crusading lately?"
Yes. Pry all the info from her. You play good cop and I'll... well actually I can't do anything. You'll have to be bad cop too.
Apple says that they're on a break (she has a southern accent <3) and Twilight questions since when do the Cutie Mark Crusaders take breaks? Apple decides to dodge the question. Only one option...


Dammit Twilight. I was so right comparing you to Elongated Man.
Regardless, Twilight remembers there's still one crusader she hasn't heard about.

Twilight: "Say Apple Bloom, do you know where Scootaloo's been?"


Totally not suspicious. Oh my god, she and Sweetie murdered Scootaloo, didn't they!?
Next question, regarding Rarity's situation. Apparently she's heard of it so we tell her that we're on the case!
I sincerely apologize for the poor cropping on these next two screenshots...

.... Apple. Is there anything you know about last night?

Uh huh. With that. We now have a new option to brutally interrogate her! (ask her about last night
Maybe it's not too late to be Batman after all! Alright Apple! Time to spill your gu-

GAH! You are gonna give me a heart attack!
Pinkie is here to tell us about interrogations. During one, our opponent will apparently say something untrue, or at least part of what they say will be untrue. And we have to find out which part.

There's also a "Press for info" option to get them to talk more about a certain thing they said. Pinkie takes her leave and now....
Twilight: (Ok, Apple Bloom, time to find out what you're hiding.)


(The music just got really jazzy)
Twilight: Apple Bloom, I need to ask you where you were around the time of the crime.
Apple: Huh, how come? I'm not a suspect am I?
Twilight: No, no, I just need to know. Procedure and all. That makes sense... right?
You're not starting off strong, Twilight.

Objection! Lies are not part of friendship.

Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh. I'm not buying it.

I'd continue but... it's kinda 3:32am here. Since this is the last game (I think), is it okay if I continue this in 15 hours? Cause I should be heading to bed. ^_^;

Sleep is important! I'm sure we can wait.

Sneaky ponies...

No worries, go sleep!
There's not really a time limit on today's game anyway, is there? I'm just glad someone picked it up. ^^;

I don't like ponies, but this game somehow seems neat!

Oh good. I couldn't get MLI to work on my machine. At least I'll get to see some of it here. I just hope they changed the Rarity voice from the Alpha build.

Aaaaand I'm back. What's kinda troublesome is you have to go through that entire sequence in the beginning before you can click the 'load' button.
Anyway, the interrogation! There's a lot Apple Bloom can tell you if you decide to press for info on any of those points. Some is kinda amusing but I'm just gonna show what's important. We gotta press her when she claims she never went anywhere near the boutique!
Twilight: "I didn't ask about the Carousel Boutique."
Apple: "Oh! Well, I still didn't. I mean, that's where the crime happened, right? So naturally I figured you were askin bout that!"
Welp. I think it's pretty obvious what we gotta do.

What do you say to THIS, Punk!?

We found this scrap of her cape near the bridge to the boutique. Adding to that, Rarity told us that she had that fixed this morning. We've got you cornered now!




Now let's get some real info. Apple Bloom, you tell us EVERYTHING you know about last night right now!
Apple: "I can't"
You see this is what happens when only have good cop.
Twilight: "And... why not?"
Apple: "Cause... I can't"
Is Twilight gonna have to smack a pony?
Twilight: *sigh* "Apple Bloom, I think I know why you're not talking."

Apple: "I, uh, yeah. Yeah, you got it, Twi."
(Music gets important sounding)
Twilight: "Apple Bloom, I know your heart is in the right place, but this isn't the right way to protect Scootaloo."
Twilight mentions that we have to get this case closed before that investigation gets here, and we emphasize that it's THAT investigative team. With that Apple Bloom promises not to hide anything more from us

Apple makes Twilight promise not to tell anypony about their surprise comedy routine.
Twilight: "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"
That doesn't sound nearly as bad as a stick. Unless the cupcake was really salty or something.
Anyway, Apple says they were practicing in town square last night when she and Sweetie Belle decided to take a break on the bridge, but she doesn't know where Scootaloo was or what she was doing at that time.




DUN DUN DUN!

Fraid so.

Apple Bloom insists that Scootaloo is not a thief. Twilight seems to think so too, so she promises we'll clear her name and get to the bottom of this.


We got things!
I try presenting all other evidence we have to Apple Bloom but aside for some amusing dailogue, she doesn't have any insight for us. Since there don't seem to be any more areas past here, it's back to Rarity! Maybe if we show her our new info, she'll have something to share.
She doesn't react to the testimony. So let's try some of the new profiles.

Sure enough, it leads us somewhere!
Twilight: "Rarity, I hate to say it, but I don't think you're telling me the whole truth here."
Rarity daresay she resents our accusation! Hey, I can use fancy words too.


Rarity: "Immediately of course! Though I don't see what relevance that has to anything"


We're about to go psychological on your pony mind.
Twilight: "Rarity, I spoke to Apple Bloom earlier and learned that she witnessed Scootaloo crashing through your window last night. I also learned Scootaloo stayed for roughly a minute before leaving the boutique. Now if you came downstairs immediately after hearing the crash. Don't you think you might've seen something?"
Rarity: "Ah! I mean... that is... *sigh* I suppose you do have a point."
Yeeeees, our Twilight is a master of mind games.

Alright. That was the evidence needed to unlock the topic!
Let's ask about that right away.


Twilight: (Alright, time to get to the bottom of this)



Rarity is probably (maybe) tougher than Apple Bloom, we might need to channel Jack Bauer.

Alright, let's get started! Rarity, please tell us everything you saw last night.
Rarity: "Of course Twilight, I shall do my best."

Just so you know, I'm gonna press her for info every point we come across. The screenshots show her 'testipony' while what is typed out is what we're pressing out of her.

Twilight: "Which 'certain client' was this, out of curiosity?"
Apparently it was Sapphire Shores. According to Rarity, she gives her great business but man, does she love jewels.
Rarity: "Although her request is what got me searching for jewels in the first place, which was what caused me to find True Blue in the first place.... it wasn't so bad, all things told."

Twilight: "What kind of crash are we talking about, exactly?"
Rarity: "The... kind of crash a window makes when it gets broken."
Uh... I knew that >_>

Twilight: "If they were potentially dangerous thieves in your home, why would you have gone downstairs so quickly? Weren't you worried for your safety?"
Rarity says that she did not consider that she might have been in danger, but that's pretty beside the point.


Twilight asks Rarity if there's any chance at all that who she saw wasn't Scootaloo. Apparently it went by so fast that when she turned on the lights, the pony had very nearly left. All she can say is it was definitely moving and it was the colours orange and purple. All she saw was her backside, so perhaps her cape got wrapped around the front when she came in through the window.
Is Scootaloo really the only one who fits this description?

Twilight: "Is that really the only interpretation for what happened?"
Rarity: "I'm afraid I can't think of any other, Twilight. I do truly apologize."

So that's all the info she's got. Now we gotta present evidence somewhere during all this. While I think about that, I'm gonna go get some chocolate.

And below this are the same thing except with Davian Korran. Is this what's it's like to be stalked? Neat.

Also, uh, I've been interrogating Rarity for sometime and presenting just about everything I have to her at every opportunity... and I'm not getting anywhere. I hate to have to ask CuteCat for help but I might have to if I don't get somewhere before dinnertime, haha...

HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THAT.

Let's try showing that to Rarity... and she has no insight.
Okay maybe Apple Bloom.... she doesn't know what it is either.
Let's try combining it with a bunch of stuff.... Nothing.
Okay, I'm not any less stuck than before.

Hey, I sleep, I wake up, I read, I like what I read! I don't ALWAYS...

Most of the time, maybe. BUT NOT ALWAYS. And anyway, Marius has taught me it's not stalking until you start keeping a diary over your stalking.

You know, we never found out where that hair came from. So let's try combining with Scootaloo... nothing. But how about Opal?

So obviously the hair is from Opal. Which means someone swerved and crashed into the window to avoid hitting Opal...

AHA! So that explains the broken window.
Naturally, during the interrogation, we have to present this new info to Rarity when she says she thinks Scootaloo broke into the window.

Now we're getting somewhere!

Opalescence makes me wants to watch Bones again. But I always cry when I watch Bones...

(Music gets all mysterious)

The hair could not have come from anyone other than Opalenscence.


That probably spooked Opal and made her ran away.
Rarity: "Really? But, then, that makes things all the more peculiar... because it is still the fact the she must have stolen True Blue, no?"
Twilight: "Let me ask a very important question, before answering that. Do you, by any chance, keep your door locked, when you go to sleep at night?"
Rarity: "Why yes, of course I do. But I don't see what that has to do with anything."
Twilight: "One followup question then: Do you also bring in Opal from outside when you go to bed?"
Rarity: "Of course! The poor dear, I couldn't leave her to fend for herself at night."
With that, Twilight decides to reflect on what we've established.
Twilight: "We know you heard a crash and came downstairs to see Scootaloo quickly leaving your Boutique. We can reasonably conclude that she was probably responsible for your broken window. However we also know that the broken window was also an accident, and that she veered of course with her scooter because she was avoiding Opal... Who was immediately in front of her path. You just told me though, that you bring in Opal and lock your door at night. So that raises perhaps the most important question of all here... Namely, "What was Opal doing outside in the first place?"

Okay, so obviously, if the door was locked, Opal couldn't have been outside.



So yeah. Someone was inside before Scootaloo AND they're the ones who opened the door so Opal could get out. Scootaloo's name is thus clear but there are still questions about!

Just who was it that came into the boutique before Scootaloo?

Right on! So let's see wha-

GAAAAAH!
Wait huh? Oh. We're done.


Heck yeah! Demo beaten!
That was pretty fun. A bit of a pain in the end but it was neat. I would love to play the whole thing for myself when it's done.

But MAN this was a lot more trouble then I thought it would be. This was my first LP thingy and I'm glad I got to contribute to this thread. Probably won't ever do it again but who knows. My only regret is I didn't end this on Page 24. That would have made this perfect.

Hey, we must be close to it, al least, and thanks for aiding the project. Overall, this entire thread had been very enjoyable and I am impressed it ran to the end, thanks to the hard work of Cat and guest writers.

Gentlebeings, my applause.

Good job! Sorry, I was asleep!

... Not that I could've helped anyway. That particular part is the one I can never remember how to do, the solution's so out of left field.
Sad that the demo isn't longer, but oh well... It's a fun game, so I at least am looking forward to seeing it get completed. Let's hope they implement a "load game" function on the main menu!
Anyway, merry (sorta late?) christmas! Hope everyone enjoyed all the games and guest games!
Might have to see if I can figure out a game to play next... hmm... at least it wouldn't have a "daily update" requirement.

And yes, yes this is what it's like to be stalked. Likes everywhere.

This was a lot of fun. I hope someone starts another one next year.

As do I!
... Hopefully not me though, because goddamn. Not having a backlog backfired on me HARD.

Watch me start another one next year and not keep a backlog.

This thread was a pretty creative thing to do, and despite what you may say, Cat, I think it turned out quite well and entertaining. I really really hope someone does it again next year, and to be here myself to read it.

LOL, what kind of annotations are these? When I had Spanish lessons, we saw more grammar than vocabulary, since we find it easier to learn Spanish here, at least the basics.
I studied Spanish in school for like, 5 years? I dunno. But I don't remember fucking nothing I learnt.

No idea. If the guy wanted to learn Spanish, he should've done the conjugation tables for the verbs, phonetic and grammar exercises.

For English speakers it's harder to catch on the vocabulary, to be fair. Still, those annotations are rather dumb. No offense to anyone who studies like that.

Yeah, I think Latin-based languages speakers or whatever usually find it easier to learn other Latin-based languages.
I say Latin-based cause I don't really know how to say it in English.

Still, I don't get a clue on French.

Romance languages? Yeah. French is kinda hard, but if it's just reading it or listening to it spoken VERY SLOWLY, I can kinda make sense of it. Italian and Portuguese, though, are pretty easy to understand. Unless it's spoken like a gangsta, fast and full of slang.

LOL, you'd be damned listening to me talking then. I have one of the most difficult-to-get brazilian Portuguese accents. I'm from Minas Gerais. That means speaking really fast, cutting parts of some words and gluing them together, and using strange slangs. Like "Trem". Literally, "Train". But here in Minas Gerais, it could mean absolutely anything. Even Brazilian people have a hard time comprehending us.

You'd be damned listening to me too. We Chileans in general are... well, from where I was raised, we don't talk, we... kinda sing, I realized while watching Peruvians talk. We also cut words and use slang for everything. We have a word that can replace any common sustantive: "wea". With it comes "weón/a" for the people, "webear" for the verbs.

*cough*

So, summarizing, if we were to run into each other at some point in life, we would have to speak English to understand what the other says, despite both of us speaking romance languages. Fun!

These accent things are so fun, in my opinion! I love it when relatives from other places come here to MG, then I ask them to "arredar", that's a slang word to "afastar" (move away) when someone's sitting somewhere and you want them to make space for you to sit too. And then the person's like "Huuuuuuh??? What are you talking about?"
There's also "uai". I don't really get what "uai" is. I usually use it when I'm confused with something, then I ask "Uai?" that means something like "If it's not what I thought it was then I don't know anymore" or "That's really strange". Sometimes we also use it to express something's obvious, like "Penguins live in South Pole, uai" or to confirm something, like "yeah, uai". You can use "uai" in many ways.

Changing topic. I'm a good English listener, but I can't seem to get music lyrics right by hearing it. Sometimes I can't get nothing, and sometimes I'm pretty sure the singer said one thing and then when I go check it I'm wrong. It's frustrating.

About the "uai" thing. We here have "cachai", that is like "get it?", and "po" (abbreviation of "pues") that is... uh, no idea how to translate it. "Cachai" goes after most of our questions and "po" after most of our normal phrases. Or at least the ones that don't finish with "weón".

We also cuss a lot, and with pretty offensive to females insults... it comes naturally, and without any malice towards women. You trip on the stairs, hit your knee and exclaim "¡Puta la weá!". You just called the "weá" a female prostitute, but it's nothing more than a pained yell. Or you hear something awful and say "Conchetumadre...". You just called something a sonofabitch.

And yeaahhh changing topic. I learnt to understand spoken English by watching LPs, lol. Before that I only read and therefore couldn't understand crap with the songs. Now, though, I do... a little bit better. Songs are pretty difficult, most of the time. The same thing happens to me, either I don't understand at all or I get it wrong. Why is it, I wonder?

We curse a lot here too, mainly with stuff like you said. There's "puta merda", (literally: shit whore) "filho da puta" (literally: son of a bitch) as examples of females insults, but yeah, it has no meaning. We also like to curse with male genitals and it's secretions a lot. And people usually use pejorative synonyms to "homosexual" as offensive words to somebody (also often used in jokes between male friends. They go around calling their friends "viado" or "boiola" a lot).

I was already okay with listening to English before LPs, but they're helping me to improve a lot too. And I think is more difficult to get what people are singing because they can sing it in a way that makes it look like something else? I don't know, it even happens with Portuguese songs sometimes for me.

I stopped getting alerts for this thread and had to catch up :P Wait until you have an actual LP, it's that x 20.

Sorry to revive a dead thread!
Just wanted to post that I haven't forgotten about that VN I decided I'd make for you guys on a whim. And to help keep myself motivated and all that jazz, here have a sample! (Also marvel at my awesome temp BGs, apparently searching for "pet shop" brings up mainly Littlest Pet Shop things and I was incredibly lazy.)

Also, this VN is not about dating/love, just about ... befriending I guess. I am pretty sure I can't write love by now, it just trails off into "and then we became good friends" instead, but I CAN make difficult-to-befriend people and adorable scenarios to keep interest going. Or depressing ones. Sometimes both at once.

There will also be a secret extra scene hidden somewhere. :3

............ The background is a Pet Shop Hop picture.

I played this game with a friend. Pet Shop Hop, I mean. I don't remember if we got to finish it. I think we didn't.

Also, cute sketches! And cute non-sketches too! When do you think you're going to finish it?

No idea! It depends on my mood -- some days I do a ton of writing, other days I just get stuck.
Sketches are fun, linearting not so much... Though at least expressions are pretty easy.
We'll just have to see!