Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• You're a soldier cut off from the infiltration force, going it alone on a mission to open the gates for the invading army. I'm not familiar with the Song of Swords tabletop RPG on which this is based, but it has gruesome ASCII death blows, so I already love it. Being able to select your weapon and therefore fighting style at the start is interesting, opening up a number of different maneuvers specific to that style. Attacks aren't even just bump everything in sight, but actually require also choosing a specific location to attack on that target. I had much (gruesome) success playing swordsman slicing through everyone's neck. The battle descriptions are great. I noticed that I was cut by one of the enemies and bleeding, at which point the "bandage" option lit up red to remind me to use it, which was a nice touch, though there was no indicator on the UI that I was bleeding, information that I only recalled from the log but didn't see that it had really had any impact on me yet so shrugged it off. (Note that there's a typo on the UI, "bondage" where it should say bandage!) It's nice that there's a secondary way to "win" even if you don't accomplish your primary mission, though I won't spoil it for others who might want to play.

• I like the direction this seems headed, with different weapons and combat styles, targeted attacks, wounds, etc. I think there could be a good game at the end of the tunnel here, but this is more of a tech demo for just those parts than a solid game on its own.

• Game mechanics is very interesting and well executed, but UI needs more polish. Tracking messages is very important during clashes, and small text makes it hard to read. There is no information what is, mechanically, difference between thrusting and swinging. Description suggest that sword used with shield is short, but again - no idea what it changes; is short sword less accurate than bastard sword? It's hard to evaluate it upon gameplay experience as well.

  Combat is meat of this game. Even without knowing mechanics, it's very fun. Think about simpler and more dynamic DF Adventure Mode combat. It rewards positioning - it's easy to become overwhelmed, but there are pillars or crates to dance with...

  Controls are intuitive, but I wish I could use +/- to choose attack location, and confirm by numpad enter.

  I noticed two major issues.

  Map drawing updates too late. For example, I'm staying next to the stairs, being overwhelmed already. So, I want to ascend and try to escape. After pressing proper button, instead move player, game called attack menu. But there were stairs displayed next to me all the time! Only after finishing attack sequence, map updated to draw swordman on this tile.
  

  Game crashes without traceback quite often, the reason is probably in menus? Click here for footage.

  To sum things up, I like Man-at-arms. It shows that developer has clear goal, and managed to reach it. But has no time to playtest and debug, it seems... I'd be glad to play more polished post-campo version!