Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• I Really liked the concept of the tower defense. The amount of towers you could get was impressive for a game jam game. Also, I enjoyed the art style and the music a lot. The coding seemed to work well and was pretty fault tolerant and the UI worked as intended. Very impressive work, and well put together.
• I was very impressed with this game! The artwork is well done, the UI looks good. The tutorial was explained well, and the game worked without any issues that I noticed. My only critique, is that there is no way to exit the game. I had to close it from my desktop. But after everything is said and done, that's only a small issue. I'm not a programmer, so the best review I can give is for the artists. The style works well with the game. Even with the mix of 2D and 3D assets. That's usually something I'm not fond of, but I actually didn't even notice until a fellow judge had pointed it out. The background looked awesome, and I loved the touch of comic style shading. The enemy's following the paths exactly as they were drawn was a nice touch, too. Programmers, I assume you managed your time well. Both years I did a game jam and creative jam, the programmers were the most behind. So the fact that you guys pulled this off so well leaves me very impressed. Well done!
• Very impressed with this game, it was really all around solid and fun. The art was well done and the targeting AI for the turrets did a great job at attacking all relevant threats, even switching shots between two instead of being laser focused. Only thing I might critique in some of the balance, I couldn't tell for absolute sure but the sniper turret seemed superior the the bomb turret in the majority of fights. Leaving me little reason to pick the bomb turret again as I acquired more. Other than that, great job!
• The use of the 2d background is effective, although it would be interesting to not only limit the areas the towers could be placed but also the areas the bot is able to roll over to create more challenge in retrieving the drop boxes. The different effects from the different towers work well, although the tower damage in comparison to the enemy damage/health/speed is too high so there isn't much strategy needed in placing towers. The mechanics are all in the game and the different towers and enemies have different mechanics, and the artwork is there for everything. Just a few updates to increase the difficulty of the game, but overall a job well done for the given time period.
• I must know weather or not ST Gonk is beatable, very cool
• Very Impressed! Overall, the game has a consistent art style. The grey background and UI are professional and create a nice penwork style. The grey color also brings out the distinctive colors of each side for excellent clarity. The particle effects from the turrets were responsive and expressed their use concisely. I commend you and your programmers on having the ability to upgrade the turrets with a variety of options. The game was a bit confusing at the start, consider allowing the user to place a turret without retrieving a box as a first freebee
• This is, in my opinion the stronger of the two entries. I was immediately blown away by a very clean main menu, WITH MUSIC. The UI felt clean and the implemented tutorial at the beginning was comprehensive and excellent. The jump from the art of the menu to the art in the game felt a bit distanced and a blend of a 2D map and 3D models felt a little awkward at times but that is an overall minor nitpick. The controls were smooth and there is something to be said about the entertainment factor of the tower defense. I especially enjoyed the added layer of having a character who had to gather resources and upgrades to fortify the defenses. Music stayed consistently pleasant as I played as well. A design critique I would offer would be to include a tracker of a high score of some kind to give a positive incentive for players alongside the worry over maintaining the health of their base. I was thoroughly impressed to find a boss level though I have not had enough time to play beyond it so if there are more bosses, even more impressive.
• The animations and art were all great! I really enjoyed the music, and the explosions were a very nice touch. The 3D objects/characters were very well done and the little robot guy was very cute. Having a tutorial in the beginning was very helpful, but I was still a little lost on what to do. So maybe having access to the tutorial/hints while playing could add to it! The background was a little hard to understand, at first I thought we were just floating in space until I noticed it! So something more for the background could be beneficial as well. Overall, great game and they used up their time very effectively!
• In the context of a jam game it is quite well polished. Having sound and music is a really nice addition as even my games lack any sound for the most part lol. The UI is great and is nice to see that it is consistent with the rest of the art and not just default UE buttons and such. The addition of an in-game tutorial was very appreciated. I also found the game to be exceptionally well balanced. I don't know if it was luck or if you have some guru of game balance on your team, but enemies were regularly getting close to the power core and I never felt overpowered or like the game was too easy. The only drawbacks I found were that late-game performance took a dive, there were leftover debug prints, and a bug where you could place turrets where you shouldn't be able to. I can't really knock you for the performance taking a hit as, for a jam game, it keeps itself together quite well overall. Also the debug prints are a pretty easy fix and didn't detract from the experience. The turret bug if you want to look into it is like, go to place a turret next to the power core, then click but immediately move the mouse over the power core and it will place the turret on top. Not really 'game breaking' as it more or less has to be done intentionally, but I did find it so I thought I should let you guys know. Other than that, the game is fun and works 99% of the time, very well done!
• The art looked amazing. I wish I could see the enemy's health and that it was easier to move my defense around. Some more explanation on my goal would've been nice, but it was easy to catch onto the objective.