Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Had a blast with this one. The idea of the cards in your hand also being your health really works well. There may not be much art, but the UI is fluid and does a really good job of making the gameplay intuitive. One area that seemed odd was the inability to see the number of cards remaining in the opponent's deck, as you can your own, although that's a really minor issue. It was fun to come up with new strategies as additional cards were added each round, and picking cards from among the presumably randomized options was a challenge as well. The AI would occasionally make some clearly bad moves, but that might not even be considered a bug since we don't always want perfect opponents! The pacing was spot on. Well done!
  

• Cantrip is great. The game is simple – you proceed automatically through progressively more difficult opponents – but its pacing and balance are really great for something made so quickly. I found the presentation of the information to be very clear, and the simple animations of cards sliding from place to place did a great job of letting me know what was happening , of letting me follow the flow of the game. I played the game several times, dying sometimes, succeeding others, always choosing new strategies with the card drafting.

  There are a lot of games in this year’s 7drl with card-based mechanics, and they can be tricky to get right. I think Cantrip makes two really key innovations: adding an AP system, and using hand size as health. The latter is something that you can see informing the design of so many of the cards. The Rest card, for instance, is powerful, fun to play, and unique to a game where your hand size is health. And using AP the way the game does eliminates the need for mana or energy or any other resource type. These two innovations, combined with a good variety of cards make for a very fun game that doesn’t feel derivative of other card-based games.

  There are definitely some places that still need polish or development. The AI of the opponents, I found, to make lots of mistakes – playing a Do Damage with Shield cards right before playing Get More Shields, for instance. Though, I’m sure designing an AI for such a game is a challenge. Also, I’m sure the power and frequency of some cards could/should be tweaked. Without going into specifics, the number of 0 AP cards can result in some lightning fast kills currently. Other than that, however, I would just like more of this game. More cards, more enemies, etc. 

• This is a D&D-themed card game. Not a roguelike, but still fun! I haven't played a game  before where the cards in your hand are hit points. Other than that, it seems like a decently well balanced two-player deckbuilding card game.

  I have some minor criticisms and found some bugs, but for a 7DRL I don't think they matter. The animations are pretty slow, so I hope the author puts out another build with some delays removed.

  I won on my 6th or so playthrough, which means it's pretty well balanced!