Roughly how far are you in the adventure?
FAQ
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<< Prev | Next >> doesn't work. It links back to the same giveaway.
- I know.
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How long does the adventure take?
- Although the giveaways will last for about a month, the last time I went through and simply read everything I had written (when I was about 30%-50% done writing the adventure), it took me a little over an hour. I roughly expect it will take around 5-6 hours to fully complete, likely over the course of a few days, so I recommend starting it as early as you can.
- Fastest solver: 1 day, 3 hours, 20 minutes, 25 seconds
- Average completion time from first SGTools giveaway to last: about 6-10 days
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What games are included?
- There are some good ones, there are some mediocre ones. Some newer, some older. I recommend playing this for the adventure and letting the giveaways be secondary, but one of the giveaways was on the number one spot for the SteamGifts community wishlist as recently as July of this year. Three, including that one, are in the top 25 now. And one game has never been given away before.
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Okay, but what games are included?
- I prefer it to be a surprise. People may comment on their impressions of the giveaways, but please don't mention the specific games being given away.
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No, seriously, this thief puzzle is crazy. Is it really worth my time?
- Quite possibly. ...okay, okay!... here's a list, in a mostly randomized order...
| Giveaways in The Cake Factory |
|---|
| MMW |
| HRM |
| IDa |
| DRT |
| ToT |
| KMI |
| HM2 |
| SUn |
| Ubx |
| RL7 |
| BMe |
| Cup |
| FPu |
| LPX |
| DSJ |
| MCG |
| RL0 |
| RL9 |
| RL5 |
| Cln |
| TBS |
| TSP |
| Inf |
| CSD |
| RL8 |
| Pre |
| GnC |
| Pre |
| WoG |
| RL1 |
| L11 |
| RLg |
| CBE |
| DOM |
| FTL |
| TIS |
| SF4 |
| ESV |
| PoE |
| RL2 |
| RL4 |
| MEd |
| DfX |
| TSP |
| DDA |
| PE2 |
| RL3 |
| PDT |
| RL6 |
| DXM |
| [SECRET, Alleyway bonus!] |
| [SECRET, 'thank you for playing' bonus, Level 0] |
| [SECRET, 'thank you for playing' bonus, Level 0] |
| [SECRET, Requires Level 7] |
Stats
- Number of games in the cake factory: 52+ (or 62+, counting multi-copy giveaways)
- Total P required to enter everything: 830+ (an average of 16 P per giveaway...)
- Poll totals immediately before launch: a) 5, b) 10, c) 4, d) 3, e) 3, f) 5, g) 3, h) 1, i) 5, j) 4, k) 9, and "waiting") 92
- Number of visitors to The Cake Factory: 594
- Number of Thief/Supply puzzle solvers: 38
- Number of full solvers (100% completion): 27
- Poll results so far (see image).
- SteamGifts' favorite color: blue (see image).
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Old main post placeholder text from 2017 preserved below...
tl;dr; not a puzzle yet!
My cake day snuck up on me (well, sorta... I was expecting it in about thirteen hours, but I wasn't going to be ready for it anyway). Apparently I can't rely on the date/time that pops up on my profile as my join date -- I think that happened last year too. Anyway, as those of you who applied for a position at the Cake Factory a few days ago might have already surmised, I do have something in the works to celebrate. But it's not ready yet. If it gets the polish that it needs, it'll probably take about another week [edit] or two... seriously though, it'll happen [/edit] [edit2] or three... got a job though! :D [/edit2] [edit3]...or more... job is full time now! might postpone this to my RL birthday (December) [/edit3] [edit4 (March 2018)] ...still working on this... planning for next year...[/edit] [edit5 (June 2018)] I should work at Valve. [/edit], but I'll launch it as soon as I can, and it'll end up being on this thread.
In the meantime (public, level zero) o_0 ...'cause I gotta do something for my actual cake day!
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The Cake Factory introduction...
Hi everyone! So about seven years ago, a big cake factory was built nearby, and last year I finally decided I should go take a tour of it to celebrate my cake day here. I actually enjoyed the tour so much that I thought you all should come and visit! Unfortunately, it took me almost a year to find the place again, but I'm pretty sure this is it!
I've set up appointments for everyone, which you can use by redeeming the appropriate Tour Party Group Reservation Code listed above.
You will have to have made it to Level Two here for the code to be valid; I'm afraid that just seems to be one of the factory's rules.
Since I've been pretty darn skint the past few years, the giveaways herein were originally intended to be mostly from old bundles, and many still are. I've generally avoided giving bundled games though, so I still had some good options to select from. As a bonus, since I managed to get some half-decent income last year, the giveaways are a bit better than they would have been if I'd managed to get you all into the factory last year, and they run the gamut of genres -- they definitely aren't all adventure games.
There are, without exaggeration, two very rare giveaways here. Being the grand prizes, these two have higher restrictions to enter. They are both no longer on Steam, and are in my inventory. The first is for users at Level 7 (where I've spent much of my time at SG), and is behind the last puzzle at the end of the entire cake factory tour. The second is still Level 2, but is a DLC for which I will need you to apply to an exclusive Steam Group, and make a form submission so that I can verify your existing achievements in the base game are legitimate, and that you passed the SG Tools gates in the event. The Group exclusive giveaway will start and end one week after my other Cake Factory giveaways, to allow me some time to respond and you some time to manually sync with SteamGifts, but all verification form submissions need to be sent before all of my other Cake Factory giveaways end. [edit August 29th] Of those adventurous travelers who've made it to the end, none have shown much interest in the group giveaway, so it will instead be replaced with something else I've yet to determine. The other, Level 7 rare giveaway is definitely still there. [/edit August 29th]
All of the Cake Factory giveaways, apart from the Group exclusive giveaway just mentioned, end at 5:21 pm Pacific time on September 15, 2018 roughly seven years and a month after I first joined SteamGifts! There are also some bonus nostalgia giveaways in this post that are separate from the main event and each lasts for only a week.
The puzzles, while somewhat involved, were not intended to be mind-bendingly complex. The initial two thief and supply puzzles are probably (unintentionally) arduous, but everything else shouldn't be too bad, and I will be adding an ItsTooHard after the first week to help solve the first one -- consider those first two puzzles a rite of passage toward increasing your chances at the better giveaways. Apart from SG Tools and the form submission, you probably won't need to use any other web sites. But since this is a text adventure, understanding English will definitely help. There are no "hidden" links where you are required to view the page's source code, but spoiler text, and false links (invalid URLs) are used extensively. Mobile navigation has not been tested, and isn't recommended. However, I would definitely suggest taking notes throughout the adventure. Feel free to ask spoiler-free questions if you're stuck -- I won't tell you how to get to the next area, but I will tell you if you've gone down a strange path that I didn't anticipate.
A special thank you to dingbat for creating the ZORK homage giveaway adventure, a large part of the inspiration in creating The Cake Factory. And a big nod to other adventures in a similar vein that have popped up on SG over the years.
(Apologies if portions of the factory seem to be caught in a time vortex from 2017 -- in particular, any old user names. Also, apologies for putting words into user's mouths. Hopefully none of the conversations are too far out of character. In case you're feeling left out (or surprised at your inclusion), all of the recognizable employees in the factory took part in a short-lived survey here on SG a year ago and I tried my best to include everyone who took part.)
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thanks! (yeah, I can't believe it's been that long!)
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So that's what it was for, nice to know (i say nice, but I´m actually really bad with puzzles, so i'm fucked)! I'll have to keep an eye on this and happy cake day ^^
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I wouldn't say a year is soon, but maybe soon™ ;)
Thanks for the other giveaway! :)
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The Cake Factory, an interactive text adventure... [SGTools Lvl 2+]
A walkthrough for The Cake Factory has now been posted.
Although this topic is now closed, The Cake Factory adventure will remain available for the foreseeable future should you wish to play it.
The Cake Factory closed on Saturday, September 15th at 5:21 PM Pacific time!
If you're stuck on the thief puzzle, make sure to use the assistance of the ItsTooHard quiz (also linked from the comments in Orders & Fulfillment) as well as the table in Human Resources! If you've found the thief, but are stuck on the Supply Inventory puzzle, use the ItsTooHard puzzle again -- it identifies every item type of the items it asks about.
You can read more details about the event or the FAQ for the event (now including a list of games found inside the factory) in the first-post replies below.
The Cake Factory
An interactive text adventure...
Look > This appears to be some sort of puzzley giveaway event.
You vaguely recall that there are Guidelines about Entering these sorts of things and that leaking puzzle giveaways is a bannable offense.
You wisely decide never to do that.
Talk > There are a few people to talk to here in the comments below.
Use > Tour Party Group Reservation Code (Don't be late!)
Every other day nostalgia bump adventure game bonus giveaways [Lvl zero]...
(roughly in order of personal affection, lasting one week each; dates based on Pacific time)
A trilogy originally set in ParisFrom a well-known author, although the book was written by his friendCold and mechanical? Yes, but also no, not at all!Helped revive classic comedy style adventure gamesA modern adventure game based on a popular TV seriesA simple game with roots in Flash from a consistently great developerA beautiful classic whose follow-up's sequel was released over the past four yearsOriginally exclusive to Mac, it also helped popularize the CD-ROM formatAn early example of successfully adapting movie to game. (First graphical point-and-click I ever played?)A great modern contributor to the revival of classic point and click adventuringA darker iteration of one of the very first adventure games(region locked)Continuing the trilogy from the previous giveaway......and concluding the trilogy from the previous giveaway!I know the capital of Iceland because of this time travelling adventure(region locked)The real fourth movie of the franchise (imho)Another modern point and click, I'll be looking forward to "Whispers of a Machine" nextIf a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, what color is the tree?The bike from the Sep 5th giveaway was manufactured here.A hilarious adventure game not made with any pixels. (Also, this is a lie.)The sequel's coming out soon, better play the original first!I feel like I could... like I could... ... ... like I could... take on the world!You're still here? Hmm... maybe you know me too well. And you were expecting me to end this list with another game.(ended)Month-long public level zero.(ended)I'm sorry, did you need a train?(ended)Comment has been collapsed.