@64: Yes, I do run the Windows Disk Cleanup Tool, CCleaner + Tuneup Utilities (Disk + Registry Cleaner).

Where / in which files are The Sign scores saved?

Pls let me check this.

.......................Moderator comment..................

I used to use CCleaner way back when it was first released as freeware. It wiped one of my discs totally of over 200GB of unrecoverable files, many of which hadn't been backed up and were no longer available elsewhere, plus loads of maps and mods for one of my favorite games at the time (Battlefield Vietnam).

I think there's a good chance one of your clean up programs has deleted the configuration/saves for your game.

Very strange bug (Win7 - 64bit): After playing under my name for some days nearly to the end of the game, my score and name suddenly disappeared and changed to this famous a m Helen! What a pity!

........................Moderator comment...................

Hmmmm!, that is strange. checked my game and it still retains my name. Have you run any registry or file cleaners recently? It could be that your saves, or name change has been deleted via one of those programs?

Thank you for the feedback. :)

I played some levels (see below). The objects are quite easy to find (too easy for some. The 'level completed' screen is not very nice and should not appear when completing part of a level (multi location search). So far I could make no sense of the story line. Not sure whether this is because of all those completed screens overlapping with story?

Anyway the game appears to crash on XP SP3 anytime I need to go to the bakery location. The game remembers my position well though even after the crash. I gave it a few tries to restart but it crashes each and every time.

I played and finished this game in less than 2 hours. It was a very simple and actually boring game. I didn't like the "clues" setup. Nothing to write home about. Just another HOG I would give a 3 out of 10.

game is to boring

........................Moderator Comment...................................

Can you expand on why you think its boring?

Great. Thanx

I'm voting thumbs down. Dissapointing. Buggy. Did not think to run as adminstrator as someone suggested, but that should not be necessary. Hardly any games nowadays require that. They especially don't require it just to get basic functions right, which this one did not. As someone mentioned, doesn't store right, which would probably be fixed by running as administrator, but that's coding 101. That kind of special exception just shouldn't be necessary. I couldn't adjust the volume either, because, even after moving the sliders down, the volume would return to default at the next level. But the sliders would remain down where I adjusted them! Eventually, I ended up with the sliders all the way down, and default volume! Please! Developer(s), go back to computer school.

I don't remember, but this does seem like they took the Amy(Anna) game and removed some of the story. Now, you're completing levels without really knowing what progress your making in the mystery, without really knowing what you've learned. I don't mind the Helen thing, some games have a default player, sometimes named after an alpha tester. But when I started this game, level 1 was already completed. To the best of my knowledge - 99% sure - I never downloaded Finding Amy on this computer, so there's no reason why a level should register as completed. That also meant I missed the opening explanations. And sometimes, when I would leave a level and comeback it would be completed even though I wasn't even close. Or keep the same time, but generate a new list and ignore my progress, as others have said. Yes, running as administrator might have fixed that, but I repeat - that is totally unnecessary! Developer, there's a great new operating sytem out there. Perhaps you've heard of it. It's called Windows.

It's possible this developer gave up on this game and Fly-Games picked it up. Again, let me clarify for some. Fly-Games is a developer but also a publisher. They don't develop everything they publish. Houses like Playrix and Alawar are mainly publishers nowadays. I say this because, although some are very up on Fly-Games, I tend to find most I've downloaded to be slightly buggy, and this one very buggy. In this case, either the developer did a revision on this after the last giveaway, but didn't really put much effort in, or Fly grabbed this, did a little half-hearted tinkering, and re-released it.

This was an easy HOG, and I'm bad at HOGS, but that sometimes made this one boring. The only challenge in the first 7/8 days was trying to not rely on hints, since it seems you only have 20 for the entire puzzle. Also, they might have fixed some of the language imprecision, but if you don't know the difference between a cake and a pie, then you simply shouldn't release games in the English speaking market.

In short, the next time this developer, and/or Fly-Games decide to release something, they need to show the maturity to just sit-down-and-do-all-the-work. And then do proper testing on it! Dot the i's and cross the t's. As it stands now, I would not buy this game for a penny. Not when you consider that there are plenty of HOGs and other games that are basically complete and in a finished state. The developers need to know the truth. Just because it's given away free is no excuse for accepting something that's incomplete, sloppy, and half-baked. Not when there's so many others you can play that are in a well-done, finished state. And many of those are free!


...............................Modeerator Comment..............................

Thank you for your feedback Watcher. hopefully you'll find Sundays HOG much better. :)

Thanks for the help. It worked this time. I'm enjoying the game. It is simple for this type of game but very cheery and distracting. Wish I could read the stamp on the postcard. I find little details like that interesting.

It won't run on Windows 7 :-)


........................Moderator Comment........................

Hi Carolyn, it worked fine on my Win 7 installation. What was the problem exactly? It may be that you need to update your graphics drivers or one of several other problems that I've outlined in a FAQ over in the Game Discussion forums. (See the problem section of my review for a link to the FAQ.

Hidden object is in my top two fav genres so I grabbed this game fast, but I am not enthused. It would have been great ten years ago. It is so very old fashioned, and easy to complete. The whole game is over in under 2 hours. Boring really, for lack of a better word.

If you like hidden object then you might like this; it did seem to run a bit more smoothly than "20 days to find Amy", however . . . . . . .

This is a very poorly done remake of "20 days to find Amy" with a different name, except this time you really are looking to find Amy, except I remember "20 days to find Amy" having something of a storyline; this just does not. This is "20 days to find Amy" with some minor changes. I never got to finish "20 days to find Amy" as I got to one point where it was asking me to find a specific item that just did not exist and no matter how many times I tried it kept asking me to find this specific item, but that item did not exist in hidden object screen.

I say this remake is very poorly done because other than there being no storyline it is riddled with errors. Once again I was being asked to find items that didn't exist, but after persisting, this time, the items did eventually show up, but it happened way more than once. That and it kicked me out of the game twice after completing levels or days.

The above not withstanding if you like hidden object then you may like this. It did run smoothly when it was working correctly, but other than that this is even worse than what the commentator said it is. I won't install another Fly game.

Can't figure out why should hight rating. It would suit kids maybe. No challenge to the game. Buggy also, Occasionally shuts down and if you click on map to get to other rooms without finishing, when you go back the settings have change with different oblect and number of objects to find.

Thank you comment #25, Peter, for converting the icon and sharing it with all of us on dropbox.com! I can honestly say that I have never before seen a computer game executable without an embedded or included icon!

Timer?!
Enough stress allready.

Downloaded and started test playing and then realized I already played it the last time ;-)

I can recommend it though it wrecked my nerves a bit cause the items are hard to find.

Thanks again.

No mouse working!!
Deleted

This game is pretty crapily stupid. The items you are told to find are often misnamed. The "pie" is a birthday cake, the "worm" a snake, the "rhinoceros" a hippo, "balls" are glass balloon decorations, and the list just goes on and on.

#7 Why did you post a link to Mysterypi games. Yes, they are free to download, but only trial version.???

..................Moderator comment..................


Please forgive my lack of response today. We had a late birthday party for my son, which has taken up most of today. Been too tired to moderate effectively this evening and haven't got around to writing up tomorrows game (which looks like a good one). Will attempt to cobble something together in the morning. :)

How do I uninstall this game? I can't find anything in my Revo Uninstaller list pertaining to it. Is it a standalone game that I just delete?


.....................Moderator Comment....................

Hi Naomi,yes just delete the installed foldeer. Most game giveaways are the same.

This is the same as '20 Days to Find Amy' (previously given on GGOTD) with only minor differences. Like other correspondents here, today's game thought I was Helen - and as there is a Helen here too this was a tad confusing! It didn't start at the beginning either. I found all the same bugs as have been mentioned above - and also, since when has Cancer been a lobster? Unless it was a pretty funny looking crab anyway! But I love HOGs so thank you for this one - but can we have it with the option to be played without the timer next time?

Pretty basic HOG game but an enjoyable way to spend some time chilling out at the computer. Thanks for a good game.

thanks GAOTD

i don't understand http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/20-days-to-find-amy/ it's the same game but not same name,
what this different ?


@9
@Toolman
@Moderator

in the past i have already try explain this without the full manipulation (because i don't want deliver the hack), and my post was deleted with the lonely explain "it wouldn’t be fair".

Game also closes for me when I click on the Pastry Shop. I thought I was going crazy but glad to see it's not just me LOL

Windows7, this game kept closing (crash) but reloaded again and continued where I left off as if I had closed it.

Other than that, and a full-screen-only limit, the game itself plays fine and is is just a little more challenging than other HOGs I have played. I actually had to use the hints a few times. :-)

The game does work on XP (SP3, DX9c, all the updates) and a graphics processor with no memory of it's own and up to 384 MB shared with the system (2.5GB installed). It IS IMPOSSIBLE to turn off the music without deleting it from the folder, it IS POSSIBLE to change your name (though you're still being called Helen in the game). You can "work around" the time clock and have a "relax mode" if you click "Pause" and look around for items whule the clock is stopped, then click "Continue" and "find" them. The graphics is so-so as is the English of the developers, e.g. they call a registration plate "car number". Can't comment on the gameplay as I only got through the first screen and it's almost 10 pm. But hey, it's free and you can always delete it, so grab it while you can. I voted thumbs up regardless of all the shortcomings.

This is an OK HOG, pretty easy. I finished in 52 minutes. The hardest part was figuring out their spelling. "Papper" turned out to be pepper and a chandelier was a candlestick. There were a few other strange labels.
Anyway, I have downloaded tons of free games from you and I really want to thank you for doing this. Some of them turned out to be favorites. This is the first time I've commented on this site. Thanks again!

Thanks to 35 I ran the game as administrator and was able to get past the pastry store but the game still has lots of glitches. In one level I cleared everything, got the 'level done' postcard but couldn't get past the day. I replayed it several times (clicking on the level would always bring back the same 2 items - starfish and picture frame) and finally gave up and closed the game then reopened it and had no problem.

Like others I am having some problems with the game. Installed fine on W7 64 bit but I am unable to adjust the volume of either the sounds or the music. I finally muted my computer. On day 2 I moved between the 2 parts of the level. I completed one but when I went back to the other it showed I had 0 objects to find but the clock kept ticking. I finally had to delete the user and switch to another one to get past that day. Then I had the same problem as 26. Clicked on the pastry store and the game shut down. Pity as I was enjoying it. I will keep my eye on the comments and will try again later as I seem to have missed this the last time it was out and I'd like to play it.

I'm going to download and try, though I'm not that enthusiastic, because the original version - 20 Days to Find Amy - looks like it was dashed off in a hurry. There were a number of glitch reports, and the biggest laugh was that you weren't looking for Amy in the game, anyway, but for Anna. Probably the reason for the name change. lol. I don't believe this is an English speaking developer. Can't remember, but many had problems with Amy because of peculiar clues, like "steamer" for cruise liner (steamship).

This game was probably written in the older Visual Basic, instead of the current most common protocol - .net framework/Visual Studio. With the advent of .net framework, Windows made changes to the handling of memory to prevent programs from trying to get the computer to perform illegal processes, which was the principal reason for Blue Screen(s) of Death. In older Visual Basic, the developer had to create instructions that would work with just about any hardware - a tough task. That's probably the reason for the glitches being seen here.

For example, #21 Chris, XP doesn't have UAC. The access violation you're getting is because the program tried to execute an illegal instruction. It could be a problem with your RAM - one of your memory cards may be loose for instance - but is more likely that the game just doesn't work well with your hardware. I would check to see if your video card driver is up to date, and your Windows DirectX too. Other than that, you're probably out of luck.

That's probably also why the game is crashing for some people. Less than ideal game code.

Back with something more to say. Continue from message #26:

Right-click on the game icon and run as admin done the trick to play on 7 July (in the diary), Visit Pastry Store. The same error occurred on 17 July, Visit Pastry Store (again). Solution: Keep on opening the game with double-click and click on "Visit Pastry Store" and some time after few trials you might get on to the next level/day.

Thank you GOTD and the creators for this game.

Thank you poster # 4, Angel. I knew the screen shots looked really familiar. I had looked in my games folder and Bigfish purchase history for 'The Sign Retrieval' thinking I had played it before. After reading your comment about the other name, sure enough, there it was in my game folder as '20 Days'.
To others who have not downloaded and played it, I recommend it. A fun game. It has been awhile since I played it (apparently finishing it, as it wants me to start a new game)and I don't remember the ending, so I think I'll play it again.

Good thing I love to read moderator's reveiws - I.E. name change -20 days to find Emily to The Find! Don't mind reissue of games on gotd becus we dudes occasionaly miss a game, but I GOT DIAL UP and it would have taken mutible hours to download this game! Quote whiterabbit - only difference I can find between the two games is that you could play 20 Days to find amy in windowed mode. (thanks to angel for pointing! You forgot the name was changed, 2nd differance! Think of possiblities - can change name 5 times and sell it five times!
Note whiterabbit mentioned alawar free game is still - Finding Doggy!
On reading about gamebox - it is mentioned that it has lots of bugs and frequent complaints that the game doesn't change!One solution keep the installer and if game doesn;t change - delete gamebox and reinstall! I did this two weeks ago and my current free game is - Sheep's Quest! Before I did this - my game box had Curse of Montezuma for several months! Thanks Fly Games and gotd and the whiterabbit!



........................Moderator Comment......................

Thankis Diud0o, will reinstall Gamebox.

Downloaded The Sign..1/12/13 giveaway. Got to day 8 3rd place and it kicks me out. Redownloaded got to the same day the same place and it kicked me out again. Ive got windows 7 is this a kink on your end?
Karen

I get to July 7, game 8 and the game simply closes. Can't figure out why. Running on Win7.

If you enjoyed "20 Days to Find Amy" then you'll probably like this; from all the screen shots I've seen it's exactly the same game with a slightly different, just slightly different, theme. And so, if you can't come up with an original game just change the name, write a slightly different theme, and proceed to scam players.

And judging from the commentators remarks regarding suggestions it would seem that Fly games doesn't learn or take suggestion to well; many of these suggestions were made last time and apparently not heeded.

And so Fly Games if your sales aren't doing so well perhaps you may consider listening the the people who support you.

...haven't seen each other "for ages". how long can that be when thy are how old, 15?

Got this game the last time it was offered. I like HOGS and enjoyed it at that time. It installed fine on Win. 7. Thank you for the games.

Seemed to install okay in XP but after a level there would be a black rectangle behind the postcard that would partially obscure the "dialog." This may be a Win XP thing or may be my rubbish ATI video card. Then after about five or six levels it suddenly stopped and I was back to my desktop, pretty much the same way a trial version times out and will just stop and disappear.

HOGs have become fairly routine and boring and this game even more so because it was often the same objects and the graphics weren't particularly good. These days I would expect some kind of audio or video dialog and better graphics, etc. It seems like games from over a decade ago. Game play wasn't interesting enough for me to want to try again or install it on Win7x64 machine so I just deleted it.

I really appreciate GGOTD and have gotten some great games, but irrespective of the technical problems this just wasn't one of them.

Hi. Great giveaway. Thank you for this. I like hidden object games.
But I have a problem: In the game, on 7 July (in the diary), Visit Pastry Store => after I click on it, the games is shutting down every time I click on it.

I use
Win 7 SP1-U

PS: GOTD, why are you not allowing my comment? How many times I suppose to wright the same message?

Thank you for this game!
Strangely, the options appear at the second start of the game, not at the first time. I found no icon, so I generated one: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3030567/game_thesign_120.ico . It's the jpg from the top left of this page converted to .ico.

OK, I just played along, and I guess July 1 IS day one. duh. Not much explanation to the game, so I was confused.

Nice game. I remember it as 20 Days To Find Amy. An easy game that could use a relaxed mode and a difficult mode. Outside of that, not bad at all. Thanks GameGiveAway.

How do you get a free .gcd program. I've been unable to play any of the last free games of the kind I like as I don't have a program to open them.

..............................Moderator Comment.......................

Hello Elaine, click on the wrapped (orange colored file with a key symbol) setup file (not the setup.gcd file). that opens up the installation wizard. You can select where to install the program if you wish, for example I chose to install it to my G drive in the games folder:

Once installed a window pops up saying the program has been successfully activated:

Then you need to create a shortcut by going to the folder where you installed it to (the sign retrieval):

open up the games folder:

then right click on the theSign.exe file and select either send to or create shortcut. Creating a shortcut in the games folder just drag it to the desk top, or have the shortcut install directly to the desktop by selecting 'send to' then select the appropriate command from the drop down menu:

hi guys i just installed it on win xp and i found some trouble. When I launch it a messagebox apperars which says

Windows Exception:
exception_access_violation

any suggest? thanks a lot

.....................Moderator comment......................

Can't remember whether UAC is part of XP? if it is try disabling it. Hopefully some of the more tech ortiented community members will be able to help. I'd also consider posting in the main forums as well.

To #9 -- Thanks, Toolman! I've actually stopped using most MyPlayCity games because of this annoyance! Your fix may actually get me back into their games and make me feel like buying some of them too.

Fairly easy hidden object game, graphics ok. Found some of the objects weren't labled right, looking for a pie, when it was a cake. Must have been a different language thing, british english compared to canadian english maybe. Alot of the items were repeated a few times along with alot of the rooms. Great game for kids but agree with White Rabbit, maybe 6 out of ten. finished the game in 48 minutes and used 2 hints. (one on the cake lol )

It's a dated HOG. Most HOGs have moved past this and the HOG market seems to have been saturated lately. I've personally lost interest with HOGs since they get so repetitive after a while. You're just looking for the same stuff over and over again.

Hi. Great giveaway. Thank you for this. I like hidden object games.
But I have a problem: In the game, on 7 July (maybe the 4th-5th day in the diary), Visit Pastry Store => after I click on it, the games is shutting down every time I click on it.

I use
Win 7 SP1-U

@Peter, the Mystery PI games aren't free -- the free downloads are trials that require purchase to fully unlock, according to the license agreement.

For what it's worth, the HOG genre has moved on quite a lot in the last couple of years or so. The Mystery PI games and The Sign are both looking quite dated, in terms of gameplay style, I feel.