Team: Slaughterhouse Gaming - riuthamus, shadowisadog, ByteTroll
Game: Vault Stone
Gameplay/fun: 13/25 - Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of extra to do after killing some knights, and they didn't seem to be any type of challenge.
Graphics: 18/20 - Graphically the game is quite impressive, unfortunately the tree's are weirdly black, and their are a number of random squares popping up in places.
Theme: 14/20 - Death himself is murdering folks, it fits the theme quite well, but i didn't find anything too interesting apart from that.
Audio: 7/10 - For the most part the audio was spot on.
FTUE: 8/10 - Very easy to play, no outside documentation was needed to know how to play.
Participation: 10/10 - Was quite active over the week.
Judges Score: 5/5 - I liked the attempt at the scale and scope of this game.
Total Score: 75/100
Thoughts:
Overall this game was an interesting concept. I however feel like there was more that just didn't make it in time. Graphically it's absolutely probably one of the best looking games all around, but due to some glitches i can't give it the full points in graphics. Secondly some particle effects seem to linger for awhile(most noticeable the blood splatter), the environment is top notch, but it's quite small for this game, leading no where to go. Overall it is a game I think has potential, but it just couldn't be realized in a weeks time. I found the controls quite easy to pick up, but their is another icon that looks like it should have been some sort of power, I just couldn't find anyway to activate it. The knights themselves didn't seem to offer any sort of challenge either, so after a few minutes of running in circles, i ended the game. I commend this team for what they accomplished, as it is quite beautiful to look at, it's unfortunate the gameplay isn't all there to match the graphics.
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Team: Koding Nights - dkoding
Game: Death is Awesome
Gameplay/fun: 15/25 - Relatively decent.
Graphics: 13/20 - Graphics fit the game pretty decently.
Theme: 16/20 - You play as death himself, whom must save the world from dying too much(else lose all those sweet human souls forever)
Audio: 7/10 - Pretty decent fit for most audio.
FTUE: 6/10 - The tutorial is nice, but some of the controls are a bit odd.
Participation: 10/10 - Great overall participation
Judges Score: 4/5 - Interesting little game i liked.
Total Score: 71
Thoughts:
An interesting take on the theme, making death himself have to do the farming to keep humans alive so they don't die due to the rampant plagues. There are also quite a number of maps(i played about 4 before ending), however they are mostly minor variations on the same concept. I unfortunately had a tough time actually winning at any of them other than the tutorial. Pretty much whenever i would go to actually farm wheat, the game would quickly tell me that the rats have eaten too much. if i spend alot of time fighting the rats, i can't seem to get anywhere with beating the level. in all I think the difficulty of the game lead me to giving up. I also found it strange the etherol flame shoots not in the direction of the mouse, but in the direction you were last facing(where your light faces). this makes fine aiming very difficult, and wasn't something i used very often. Although it was cool to see it became more powerful as i leveled up. the lamp idea also didn't seem to actually work, i'd light up a lamp, but no rats ever came over. It isn't a bad idea, but it could have used a bit more refinement in the gameplay department.
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Team: AngeReveur
Game: Death is Useful
Gameplay/fun: 18/25 - Mostly pretty decent, if not a bit hard.
Graphics: 16/20 - graphics fit very nicely, and aren't bad to look at.
Theme: 9/20 - While death is involved, it wasn't the best fit of the theme in my opinion.
Audio: 6/10 - Sound effects were very well placed, but no background music.
FTUE: 9/10 - Very easy to figure out, but the timing to jump holes felt a bit off.
Participation: 10/10 - you were pretty active about development!
Judges Score: 5/5 - i enjoyed the game, and it had a horse at the end
Total Score: 73
Thoughts:
This game was quite a bit difficult(i chose the wooden chest), I understand the chests are used to gage difficulty, so i figured difficulty would be ordered east->hardest. instead from my understanding i seemed to have picked medium. Gameplay was quite decent, but having a single life(with no sort of health bar) made the game a bit infuriating during the ending battle. it felt much more like memorizing the order to do things then it did for having skill. Theme wise i felt the game did meet the fact that death is useful(in that he appears and needs to be "found" to kill things), but since finding him didn't really take any effort it was a bit hard to say the theme was well met. I do think if the game had more levels, finding death would be an interesting mechanic. I did enjoy the fact that i had to figure out how to beat the end boss, at first i tried jumping and shooting him, this killed me instantly when shots bounced off the ice block and hit me. I then found out the iceblock contains someone inside that i need to kill. after a few attempts i finally discovered i could kill the waller guys, which allowed me access to the top. and finally i killed him! Pretty fun, and a good game overall!
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Team: Something fun - ryan20fun
Game: Chaotic Ball Carnage
Gameplay/fun: 15/25 - a bit chaotic(as the name implies), reminiscent of bullet hell type of games.
Graphics: 8/20 - Graphically the game is a bit unappealing.
Theme: 3/20 - Death doesn't seem to play much of a roll, you seem to get extra child spheres on taking damage, but it doesn't really imply anything about death.
Audio: 9/10 - Audio is actually pretty great!
FTUE: 5/10 - I wasn't really sure how to start the game at first.
Participation: 10/10 - very on point about development.
Judges Score: 2/5 - Overall i wasn't very entertained by this game.
Total Score: 52
Thoughts:
Graphically this game is reminiscent of ryan20fun's game last year. the technicolor objects are just not very appealing to look at. the background board also kindof clashes with this design in my opinion. secondly there seemed to be different enemy types, but i really couldn't make out what is what in the game. The theme also seemed be kinda there, i think we are suppose to take it that each hit is a death, and that the child balls spawn as a response, but the implementation to convey this message isn't really there(or maybe i'm wrong on this front?) audio was actually very well picked for this game however! The UI feels more like something i'd find in a level editor or tool, then an actual game. I didn't fully feel like i was playing a game, more like a level editor that let's me test the level. Overall the game feels a bit like a bullet hell type of situation, which isn't helped by spawning into a number of enemy's blasting at you. the physics is well done, and controls are easy to work with, although i wasn't certain if i was able to jump or not, some type of shadowing system would have helped me discern where i was relative to the ground. I think if the enemy's and level design(i played all 4 levels, but they seemed to be all the same for the most part) were better fleshed out, the concept could have worked better.
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Team: DifferentName
Game: Lich
Gameplay/fun: 23/25 - Quite enjoyable!
Graphics: 15/20 - Graphics are well made and fit together very nicely.
Theme: 18/20 - The use of death to quite large army's is done quite well here, combined with the secondary effect of dying yourself. quite well executed in my opinion.
Audio: 8/10 - pretty solid sound effects, although no background music.
FTUE: 10/10 - controls and tutorial are well layered out in the beginning of the game.
Participation: 10/10 - Great participation.
Judges Score: 5/5 - Very fun and enjoyable game.
Total score: 89
Thoughts:
This game was quite enjoyable, i played several times. each time getting further into the game, and seeing even more new enemy's(i wonder how many there are). Eventually i did put the game down to write this review. The wave like nature of the game is well done, once finished in an area you can look onto your army and see the devastation you bought to the enemy. unfortunately only about 6 dudes follow you to the next area. One criticism of the game i kindof have is that i didn't feel like my skeletons were smart enough to attack enemys that were further away(giving archers an advantage), and even though i noticed some skeletons gained gear from the ones they killed, it didn't seem to make them any stronger relative to the person they killed. Perhaps it was because the enemys i faced started to become much stronger than me. One other thing i wouldn't have minded is a way to self-die so that i may enter my spirit form without having to run up on others and let them slay me. Other than that, i very much enjoyed playing this game. excellent work to DifferentName!
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Team: Ovensparrow - MarioLuigiMan, Onigiri Flash
Game: DeathJam
Gameplay/fun: 5/25 - I found myself fighting the physics of the game more so then anything else.
Graphics: 10/20 - Overall the graphics are not very bad.
Theme: 2/20 - I guess the skulls count as death.
Audio: 3/10 - The background music is not very fitting of the atmosphere, and the high pitch of the music hurts my ears a bit.
FTUE: 7/10 - straight forward controls, but i did find myself fighting in corners to move pieces out of there place.
Participation: 5/10 - you posted a couple updates, but that was about it for the most part.
Judges Score: 0/5 - Very short, no real challenge.
Total Score: 32
Thoughts:
This game is extremely short, and really the only thing that made it kindof take a bit was because the bones would get stuck in a corner, and i had to fight to get them out. I think there is a concept here, but it just didn't get the time it needed to make any real level design. The artwork itself is very simple, I think the main player is some sortof ninja dog? but i'm not sure. Audio was not a good fit, if the game was darker it might have felt better, but a lighter tone would have been better. I don't really have much else to say about the game, so this is where i'll leave it.
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Team: New Old Things: - endurion
Game: Bunny Hop
Gameplay/fun: 25/25 - Incredibly well done game, levels are fun and interestingly designed.
Graphics: 17/20 - Very simple, but very effective.
Theme: 16/20 - Hit the theme pretty well!
Audio: 10/10 - Music and sound effects were matched perfectly.
FTUE: 10/10 - Very nice and easy build up of teaching you the concepts.
Participation: 10/10 - lots of great updates and communication.
Judges Score: 5/5 - Incredibly fun and long!
Total Score: 93
Thoughts:
Wow, what a game, i can't believe this was all made in a week. the number of levels, the polish. it's all absolutely great! The death of each bunny is over the top gruesome which plays against the cutesy look so well.
Combine this with a relatively long game as well, and each level seemed to have a great progression. It also manages to quite well surprise me, where i begin to think the game might be limited, it shows me it can make large levels just as easily as small levels, and force you to think differently about your game. The controls are incredibly well done. my only criticism of this game would be that determining exactly where you are is sometimes difficult. The feeling of where exactly you are on the map is sometimes lost because the background blends together. so i became a bit hesitant sometimes on when to jump. However other than that, this game was also great at making me feel like the more i played, the more skillful i got at doing things. The only thing i wish there was some form of grading(either each level, or at the end), as it would give an incentive to come up with potentially more creative solutions to each puzzle. Great work Endurion, this game was very well done!
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Team: Mud Pit - Lactose!
Game: Death and Flowers
Gameplay/fun: 19/25 - quite enjoyable!
Graphics: 18/20 - extremely lovely graphics, well done with a weeks time frame
Theme: 16/20 - death becomes a gardener, a nice interpretation of making death be useful.
Audio: 10/10 - extremely well fitting audio.
FTUE: 10/10 - very simple and intuitive controls.
Participation: 10/10 - gave us lots of updates!
Judges Score: 3/5 - fun, but rather short and easy.
Total: 86
Thoughts:
Death and Flowers is about a cute looking death that simply wants to water his plants. I found the execution and polish here to be quite top notch, and the audio and graphics were very on par for this game. However having only 3 levels makes the overall game very short, and I was left wanting more. Some things i'd think that would improve this game is to make the game world larger than 4 tiles, and perhaps adding finding the water can as part of the puzzle. The weeds were an interesting addition, but didn't seem to serve a purpose in the actual game's puzzles.
i think overall there is potential here for a great game, and what was made in this week is a solid base, but the puzzles for what i had to play were just too simple. Still a great entry overall.
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Team: Oddfellow Games - WASDMagician
Game: reincarnage
Gameplay/fun: 15/25 - not too bad, but not the best implementation.
Graphics: 12/20 - The graphics were a blend between flat colored objects and detailed sprites. with some decent shadow and lighting tossed in.
Theme: 10/20 - As you get closer to death you become more powerful, but other than more ammo i didn't notice much else to dying.
Audio: 4/10 - no background music, and little sound effects.
FTUE: 7/10 - pretty simple controls and concept.
Participation: 10/10 - Great participation.
Judges Score: 3/5 - not too bad of a game, but it could have used some more time to work out the end goal.
Total Score: 61
Thoughts:
Reincarnage is effectively a top down never ending shooter. The menu asks you to get to the other end of the room to activate a computer, but when i get there, nothing can be done it seems. The number of enemys that swarm you becomes pretty overwhelming, and basic kiting tactics fail when their is effectively no avenue of escape. The pathing seems to work relatively decently, but i did notice some enemys sometimes run past you and just keep running into a back wall(trying to turn around? not sure). bombs are very effective at clearly large crowds, but the ammo i have only let me use them sparingly. after about 5 minutes of continuous death/killing i quit the game with no clear indication if their is anything else i was suppose to do. I think a bit more polish would have made reincarnage a better game, or some form of wave based mechanic would have provided an indication of where to go, but as it is the game doesn't have much direction at the moment.
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Team: SpaghettiSauce - __Toz__
Game: A Death a Dozen
Gameplay/fun: 20/25 - decently fun puzzler
Graphics: 15/20 - the nightly mood is well set, but the ground texturing seems out of place
Theme: 15/20 - Good use of the theme.
Audio: 7/10 - Good background music, but no sound effects.
FTUE: 10/10 - Very simple and easy controls.
Participation: 10/10 - Great participation during the week.
Judges Score: 4/5 - nice addition of hidden levels(subbed a point due to a bug i encountered).
Total: 81
Thoughts:
This game was a pretty good game, and the concept of having a certain number of total lives forces you to think about how to use your deaths. Although not overly long, the addition of hidden rooms was a nice treat i stumbled upon. The first giving you an extra live, and the second i was unable to figure out. I spent alot of time in that second hidden room trying to figure it out, but unfortunately a bug cropped up that left me unable to leave the room(each time i left it kicked me right back in). I wanted to explore and see if there were other hidden lives i had missed, but i decided to call it quits when i hit this bug as i'd already spent alot of time in the game. I also enjoyed the way each level transitioned in, and the ability to go back and forward, it was a nice touch that made me feel like i was exploring the world, rather than playing a single level. It was fun, controls were simple, and I see potential. The graphics were for the most part easy on the eyes, other than the ground and some background rocks seem to clash with the overall tone, but those are relatively easy to ignore. This game might be worth further fleshing out if __Toz__ were so inclined.
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Team: Thaumic Games - Thaumaturge
Game: Powerthief
Gameplay/fun: 18/25 - fun, but potentially extremely difficult.
Graphics: 15/20 - decent graphics, but nothing too exceptional.
Theme: 20/20 - lovely twist on the use, but also makes me hate you thaum.
Audio: 8/10 - audio was mostly well fit.
FTUE: 10/10 - easy to start, controls very simple.
Participation: 10/10 - Absolutely amazing participation.
Judges Score: 4/5 - fun, but i hate/love you firebird.
Total: 85
Thoughts:
Boy powerthief is something. All i can say is that once an enemy gets firebird the game becomes very difficult. I unfortuantly could not reach the end(although i did in 1 of his prototypes) There were a few issues i had with the mechanic itself, it's great and fairly well executed, However the number of enemys that are able to use that spell just becomes overwhelming. The thing that made me final quit(after probably 20-30 attempts) was when i walked into a room and 5 enemys all shot firebird at me at once, since i can't outrun firebird when it's shot so close, i was instantly killed. Since i so commonly used firebird, there was no way to really make the enemys use other spells. I tried to run through without firebird a few times to get them to change tactics, but they seemed to always favor firebird. I resorted to alot of different techniques to overcome this problem. for example i abused the turning speed of firebird by hiding around outcoves so that i could jump out, fire a few shots, and hide from their attacks. I also took each room very slowly so that i could face as few enemys at once as possible. I really wanted to get back to the boss i had faced in an earlier incarnation(which was a doozy of a battle). but in the end i just couldn't see a way to do it. The level generation was nice for the most part(until i got into an open field and had no way to hide). but the staggering amount of enemys you begin to face makes the game quite difficult. Secondly many of the other spells seem extremely ineffective. the shards do little damage, and have such a tiny range compared to other spells. the flaming attack seems to stop when it hits an enemy, and do no damage. and the lightning ball has potential, but is nearly impossible to use against the jumping enemys. I think had the amount of enemys that can use a spell you lost been toned down i would have been able to make it further. secondly I think some fine tuning needed to be done to player movement to make kiting more feasible(perhaps a way to dodge, or temporarily sprint). Still a relatively good game that has a number of strong points in it's favor, and kept my attention even when it was torturing me.
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Team: StoutWalrus - ArThor
Game: Orc Party
Gameplay/fun: 22/25 - Very fun puzzler
Graphics: 14/20 - Decent graphics
Theme: 17/20 - Pretty nice use of the theme.
Audio: 0/10 - no audio
FTUE: 8/10 - Easy to play, but questionable controls.
Participation: 9/10 - Mostly good participation for the week.
Judges Score: 5/5 - fun creative use of the theme.
Total: 75
Thoughts:
If only this game had some audio! but in all this game had a great puzzle mechanic, sacrificing others so that you may make off with the loot(and get around certain traps) I found myself spending alot of time on the last puzzle. I think it's a little odd the orc doesn't have to return to get the loot however. Using the numpad for sending out Orc's/rouge's is a bit questionable, and I found myself tripping over which to send by mistake sometimes. I did like the art design, but there wasn't alot of variety. The traps were decently well thought out(spikes, holes, yellow death balls). and the puzzles also seemed to have a fair bit of thought put into them. One thing i think is nice is that the last couple of puzzles seem to offer several different ways to solve them, which is a nice addition. unfortunately no audio takes away the points that would have probably put Orc Party into a potential placer, but it's still a good effort!
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Team: Unicore - Orymus3
Game: Death is Useful(unsure?)
Gameplay/fun: 25/25 - Incredibly fun
Graphics: 14/20 - The cubes and sphere look nice, but the platform was given an...interesting texture choice.
Theme: 16/20 - killing you enemys to keep your placing space.
Audio: 7/10 - decent audio, but no background music.
FTUE: 10/10 - very easy to pick up and play, tutorial is well placed.
Participation: 10/10 - amazing participation.
Judges Score: 4/5 - incredibly enjoyable to play(had to deduct a point due to a bug i encountered)
Total: 86
Thoughts:
Wow, this is such a great game to play. I truly enjoyed the hell out of it. Gamepad is absolutely the only way to play however, the keyboard 8 directions are simply too imprecise to really get anything above 130 or so. The platform growing based on beating your opponents off is a great concept, and well executed here. Secondly for the amount of time orymus3 had to develop this game, he chose something that he could execute very well. The different enemys and obstacles you have to face is varied enough to keep the game constantly interesting. If there were a way to turn this into a mobile game, i'd whole heartily recommend it, but due to the nature of the controls, i don't think it'd be very touch friendly. Overall a great game that i didn't quite want to put down, but had to, to write this review. I did have to deduct a judging point though for a weird bug i encountered, as I was shot into a blue area that wouldn't let me die(where i also discovered the "give up" button apparently does not work). forcing me to restart it. However after getting a +300 score:
I have moved on to more reviews!
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Team: BecauseNerdsCanBSexy2 - Alienguard
Game: apocowlypse
Gameplay/fun: 18/25 - relatively fun, but nothing to really change things up.
Graphics: 18/20 - very good graphics.
Theme: 0/20 - disregarded theme completely.
Audio: 7/10 - most of the audio was pretty decent, but the super power sound effect was very agitating.
FTUE: 10/10 - very simple to play
Participation: 6/10 - did an alright job of keeping us informed with what they were doing.
Judges Score: 1/5 - disregarded theme, and not much variety in gameplay.
Total: 60
Thoughts:
Well, this game jumped off the deep end that was very much far away from the theme. space cows are attempting to eat one of the last patches of grass in space existence. An interesting concept. The artwork was pretty top notch, and if the super power sound effect wasn't so out of place to the rest of the music i'd also have given high props to the music. but the gameplay is extremely repetitive(i think the cows might have even been on a static wave repeat?) finally after a score in the 380+ the cows finally defeated me. and the game kicks right back to the opening splashscreen with no hiscore screen to show me what my real final score was. This game might have potential as a mobile time waster, but i do believe some more work and thought needs to go into making a larger variety of enemys to face.
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Team: YAG - lede, zylick, and janderson2005
Game: Orcs Vs Zombies
Gameplay/fun: 14/25 - not much to really do.
Graphics: 8/20 - a mismash between decent lighting and ground, but basic/untextured objects.
Theme: 10/20 - you can reanimate the dead.
Audio: 4/10 - menu music, no in game music
FTUE: 6/10 - tutorial helps, but game doesn't fully work.
Participation: 10/10 - solid participation over the week.
Judges Score: 1/5 - attempted to do multiplayer
Total: 53
Thoughts:
I don't have much to say about this game, it looks like a potentially interesting concept. but I think a week's time was just too much for team YAG. I did the tutorial, and it's straight forward about what to do however, when i attempted to play multiplayer with actual people, they were simply unable to connect to me, and the orcs that came to me(after waiting awhile) were just too much for me to handle alone. I'm not sure if they had networking working on there end, but we were unsuccesfully making it work here. The graphics are a mishmash between potentially good looking, and simplistic placeholder art, which distracts from any other potential the game has. I think i understand how the game was suppose to work(each death allows you to spend points to become more powerful), but due to the game not working properly, i wasn't able to really explore this feature. My opinion if team YAG is up for competing again is to stay away from multiplayer. In theory it can work out nicely, but getting the judges to coordinate for a session is not easy.
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Team: mousetail
Game: Lazer of death
Gameplay/fun: 16/25 - decently enjoyable
Graphics: 15/20 - nice tron like design
Theme: 12/20 - Death is somewhat useful.
Audio: 7/10 - mostly good audio, but has a lack of sound for firing.
FTUE: 10/10 - very simple controls, no bugs or issues found.
Participation: 10/10 - great participation
Judges Score: 4/5 - mostly fun, but nothing that kept my attention very long.
Total: 74
Thoughts:
This game has a nice tron like art style, that makes the game very appealing to look at, although the coin design seems to be relatively out of place compared to everything else. The gameplay mechanics are pretty simple, but unfortunately I didn't find it very lasting in appeal. The game is pretty fast paced, making it difficult to actively engage targets. The death zone is a nice addition, but the amount of coins you can ultimately make from it is so tiny that it's not really worth going there(if you can help it). As well due to the rate that you fire at, spinning in circles and firing kills basically everything without much issue. I found the sound mostly fitting, however starting a level and not hearing any firing sound effect feels empty. Overall A decent entry from mousetail to say the least.
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Team: Aletheia Game Studios - Cefleet, Matthew P., Rebecca V.
Game: To die is to gain
Gameplay/fun: 7/25 - infuriatingly difficult.
Graphics: 16/20 - relatively decent graphics and tone
Theme: 16/20 - it does fit the theme.
Audio: 7/10 - background music is pleasant on first level, but not a great fit for second level.
FTUE: 6/10 - no tutorial on how to play, learning by trial.
Participation: 10/10 - great participation over the week.
Judges Score: 4/5 - I liked that your teammates were your students.
Total: 66
Thoughts:
Wow...this game might have broken me. It is infuriatingly difficult to play, but for some reason i was bound and determined to somehow beat this game. until i reached a point that as far as i could tell is impossible(a ledge jump has a heart that you get, which makes it so you can't jump, and no other path exists). I have no idea how i beat the first level a stroke of luck, the level was excruciatingly long with no check points, and 1 mistake means restarting. over and over and over, as a judge i do my best to beat every game i'm presented with, and as far as i'm concerned I made it as far as physically possible. This game is extremely unforgiving, requiring you to almost always carry only a single life. as it tries to fit the theme, it makes the game nearly unplayable for all but the most patient players. It took me a long time to realize i could actively control when i got up by pressing the 'w' key(before i thought it was random time based, so I usually was just pressing random keys while i waited, and didn't make any such connection). There seems to be some type of opening story, but it was not made very clear to me what it was. I did like the graphical tone of the game however, it was for the most part nice to look at. All in all the game really could have used some outside playtesting, if making it so incredibly difficult was the goal, it was well achieved i promise you that.
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Team: Casey Hardman
Game: Soulwielder
Gameplay/fun: 20/25 - pretty good and fun
Graphics: 14/20 - graphics were pretty decent.
Theme: 12/20 - killing humans makes you stronger.
Audio: 0/10 - no audio
FTUE: 6/10 - I had a difficult time mastering the controls
Participation: 6/10 - Kept us somewhat informed of what he was working on.
Judges Score: 4/5 - Started to really get a hang of the controls and concept near the end.
Total: 62
Thoughts:
Ah, this game surprisingly left me wanting more. At first i found the controls...weird(perhaps space should have been the jump, instead of dash), and a bit difficult to keep remembering the correct button to
press when either jumping or firing. I finally did start getting a solid base by the third level, using my dash to jump back and forth as mobs of enemys came after me, and really started to enjoy the game.
Then the game was over, just as i had begun to start enjoying it. Unfortuantly no audio was included, which really knocked the score down. But overall this was a good and fun entry, that while having questionable
controls, has quite some potential.
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Team: That Big Fat Chicken team - brunoscholz, KalVasFlam
Game: A gift from Hermes
Gameplay/fun: 18/25 - interesting and fun concept
Graphics: 18/20 - very solid graphics
Theme: 10/20 - The theme is basically explained away in the opening cutscene, but isn't really used in the game.
Audio: 10/10 - very nice audio and sound effects
FTUE: 6/10 - had to keep restarting when i died
Participation: 7/10 - decent amount of overall participation.
Judges Score: 5/5 - opening cutscene alone for these points.
Total: 74
Thoughts:
Gift for Hermes is a very good concept, although it seems to have a few bugs. dying nearly always forced me to restart the game(although a couple times it did reset the level). I could only make it to the 4th puzzle, since each time i restarted the game it didn't save my progress. Eventually i grew tired of having to rerun through each level for one more chance at a level i wasn't sure i could figure out how to solve. Anyway, I did enjoy the gameplay, it was a decent puzzler, and i wish i could have seen the last couple of puzzles. The opening cutscene was amazingly well done, and the graphics are extremely good, props to the artist big time! sound was also excellently picked, and gave to a very nice atmosphere. I think if the respawning bug was taken care of, and death had been better incorporated into the game, this game would have had a real shot at placing. still excellent work overall!
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Team: Mussi
Game: Dype
Gameplay/fun: 10/25 - an interesting but far too short text adventure.
Graphics: 10/20 - font was a good pick.
Theme: 2/20 - um...you could die i guess.
Audio: 0/10 - no audio in a text game(but that would be interesting to have)
FTUE: 7/10 - it's a text adventure, so i had to guess at some of the possible keywords.
Participation: 10/10 - even though mussi joined late, he was participation before being an official contestant.
Judges Score: 5/5 - seeing a text adventure is pretty nice.
Total: 44
Thoughts:
Well it was pretty great to see mussi throw something together for this week, and i applaud what he came up with. The actual text and coloring was pretty great, adding real time events was a great touch. but the game is incredibly short, still it was pretty decent for what it was, and hopefully next year mussi can give a solid go at the competition!
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Team: CodeMus - IYP, GTE, newtechnology, iDingo
Game: Post of Death
Gameplay/fun: 5/25 - No clear indication of what to do.
Graphics: 15/20 - World looks pretty decent, although there is a bit of texture shearing on the hills.
Theme: 12/20 - Death seems to be crucial, i just coudn't figure out how.
Audio: 8/10 - some decent(and kindof scary) audio.
FTUE: 6/10 - not very clear on what to do.
Participation: 10/10 - good participation.
Judges Score: 3/5 - I liked the attempt at scope.
Total: 59
Thoughts:
This game actually kindof spooked me out, I'm playtesting it in the night. exploring the real world, when suddenly gushing sounds occur, and i'm taking damage. It felt a bit like i was playing slender. even though their was no physical monster it was an interesting experience. Anyway, past that i eventually figured out i could follow certain gravestones in the death world to find my body relatively quickly. The problem was i couldn't do anything with my body, the screen would turn white as i got close. but nothing ever happens and eventually i get a game over for spending too much time there. Eventually with no real direction on what to do(i think i'm suppose to find the spot to dig and find my wife?) i gave up on the game. There's something that could be spooky and interesting here, the sunny but empty atmosphere gives me a bit of a chill down my back, but unfortunately i can't really find anything to do in the game.
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Team: Calinabris
Game: Snack Snack
Gameplay/fun: 10/25 - Very slow paced, an interesting combination.
Graphics: 12/20 - Graphics were decent, but badely meshed together.
Theme: 7/20 - Not really sure how death is useful here.
Audio: 7/10 - decent background music, and sound effects.
FTUE: 7/10 - simple interface, explained at the beginning. inbalance ratio is hard to figure out.
Participation: 5/10 - not much participation.
Judges Score: 2/5 - tries to give a message on animal testing.
Total: 50
Thoughts:
I can appreciate the attempt at a message on animal testing, I'm just not really sure a game Jam is the best forum for sending such a message. Anyway the game is very slow, making playing pretty easy. I think the idea of meshing too game concepts is interesting, but it wasn't very well executed here in my opinion. I also had no indication of what food gave copper or zink, so randomly ate things until an inbalanced was triggered, and mice were tossed down the screen. Overall I think more time should have been spent on the gameplay mechanics and polishing.
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Team: hu3 team - rodolfodth, devn00b
Game: Try. Die. Repeat.
Gameplay/fun: 25/25 - extremely fun, and enjoyable
Graphics: 20/20 - Graphics fit together amazingly
Theme: 16/20 - excellent use of theme.
Audio: 10/10 - perfectly fitted audio.
FTUE: 10/10 - very simple and easy to pick up, no bugs encountered.
Participation: 10/10 - great participation
Judges Score: 4/5 - very fun, but kindof short.
Total: 95
Thoughts:
An extremely awesome game, the narration is very reminiscent of Portal, the entire game just feels like a portal like game, and it is executed and polished extremely well. I enjoyed the puzzles presented to me. I loved the wacky designs(and i also enjoyed that this served some purpose depending on the puzzle). This is a clear example of simple, but effective. I really can't say more than to give this game a glowing review, it is a tad short. but the ending twist with the boss fight was extremely fun to play with. Great solid game.
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Team: Great White North Productions - XXChester
Game: Army of the Undead
Gameplay/fun: 18/25 - real time like features, but a bit difficult to kill in groups.
Graphics: 14/20 - decent graphics
Theme: 17/20 - your a ghost, and killing others makes more of an army.
Audio: 7/10 - sound effects were decent, background noise was a bit much though.
FTUE: 8/10 - tutorial was helpful, except it say to right click to select, when it's left click, and ghosts were ungroupable once they got ontop of each other.
Participation: 10/10 - great participation during the week.
Judges Score: 5/5 - I quite enjoy real time strategy type of games.
Total: 79
Thoughts:
Army of the Undead is a pretty fun strategy game, you try to keep as many of your guys alive as possible while killing as many enemys as possible. I found running in a large group usually ended in failure since no matter what the enemy was always able to get at least a single attack off. So, i found 2 ghosts could instant kill any enemy(although 1 or both might die). but 1 ghost could handle 1 enemy and survive if at full health, so I started off by killing, and then using my new full health ghost to kill the next one, this began my army. the levels get a bit harder because multiple enemys would need to be fought. However i eventually would chase them all together, then kill as many as i could in a single blow. I didn't like that the ghosts grouped ontop of each other however, which made individual control hard, and i had to be careful which ghosts i sent out. I wish the enemys had a bit more variety(maybe patrolled areas?) but for what could be made in a week, it was a good entry, and a fun play!
Congratulations to all that competed!
