Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• My first play of rollcave was tough. The game doesn't do much to explain itself, and the interface can really overwhelm with a lot of information. The characters are also quite small, and various pickups affect that game in different ways, which can be difficult to discern at first. This is combined with the fact that the central mechanic is about moving very, very fast,  further making it difficult to stop and puzzle things out. That being said, once I got a grip on the mechanics and figured out what the different powerups did, I had a fun time rolling through the dungeon several times. The map generation had pros and cons: I loved the weird diagonal hallways, and that there were features planned to accommodate the rolling movement. I also liked the subtle but present changes between levels as you went down. It did both me, however, how IMMENSE the levels were. Because the levels were so big, and because there are multiple stairwells spread throughout the stage, it meant that I didn't feel I had to pay attention to where things were, I could just randomly roll around until I found a way down.

  That might be my biggest takeaway of playing this, which is that while there is a LOT of detail churning under the surface of this game -- multiple enemy types, the calculation of momentum, different character class abilities -- most of that flattened out to me to just the simple experience of rolling around a map. The pickups are frequent enough and the enemies weak enough that I never really had to pay attention to the combat of the game, and so a quick key-hunt was the majority of the experience for me. Still, I was surprised by how much fun I had just rolling these little @ signs around, there is something satisfying to the movement (I liked the fighter's slower pace the most). I think further development of this game/concept would want to strip out some of the complexity and to ask what element of challenge the player should be experiencing.  As it stands, the short length of the game (5 or so levels?) is actually the perfect bite-size amount to experience the mechanic. Nice work.

• Neat idea for a game!  Game felt complete, no bugs were encountered.  Momentum mechanics are fantastic.  Items, dungeon features, and monsters were very difficult to differentiate.  Controls were simple and intuitive.  Map has simple aesthetic but is pleasing to view as you navigate.  Combat and movement are innovative and a big jump from standard roguelike mechanics.  Combat not very interesting.  Enemies felt as though they could be ignored with how easily they could be ran from and how plentiful healing items were, but I only used the rogue class.  Game could have easily been realtime, I'm not sure if being turn-based brings much to the table in its current state.  I was never in a situation where I felt that I need to stop and think out every action.

• Completeness -  3

  Mostly works as you'd expect, though some things, like FOV, seem a little inconsistent. 

  Aesthetics -  2

  A very simple design, and the information given is not very clear. It felt difficult to find the right things to pay attention to, and to know what was important. 

  Fun -  2

  With the purpose unclear and the movement (intentionally) awkward it was challenging to get a good flow. The interactions with the environment and the enemies were quite limited, too. More feedback during the run would be improve things quite a bit. 

  Innovative - 3

  The rolling/momentum mechanic is interesting and works quite well when the environment allows you to take advantage of that, like bouncing over shallow walls when moving at speed. 

  Scope -  4

  A good number of enemies and the addition of a tutorial, some game modes and classes was quite impressive. 

  Roguelike - 3

  The momentum in the core loop sometimes added a feeling of time pressure which isn't there in the standard roguelike but otherwise it fits the bill.