Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• This is a really terrific gem of an entry! Despite taking a few deaths to figure out, the gameplay was solid and a really innovative entry to the roguelike category. The sound and music were on point, and the overall pico art style was fantastic. My kids and I enjoyed this one.

  The difficulty is quite punishing, especially as you hit Autumn towards the next Winter hibernation period, but it does sorta "make sense". It's also possible that I just had a few bad streaks of randomized food drops..

  Nice work!

• I'm glad for this opportunity to be a bear in a roguelike format. Very clear interface, clear and vibrant game screen, and I killed many humans for chopping down trees. Good survival twist on the roguelike mechanics.
  

• This is an absolute gem of a game. Some thoughts in no particular order:
  

  The concept of the game (being a bear and living your bear life) is so charming and executed so well that I found it downright inspiring.

  The general gameplay is a simple concept (literally just finding enough food to survive from moment to moment) that's somehow been made incredibly addictive. There are a bunch of interesting little mechanics like waiting for berries to grow in number before you eat them, or taking the gamble of whether to go for that big juicy fish when you know it might swim away and leave you doomed. All this adds up to make the game so much fun that it was even a hit with my girlfriend, who does not play games and certainly not 7DRLs.

  I love the little opening jingle - it's this not-very-musical sequence of beeps that perfectly evokes that retro game feeling.
  

  The art is gorgeous. It's great throughout, but I was especially struck by the winter, when the snow starts piling up unevenly across the landscape. I'm a sucker for sort of naturey landscapes, changing seasons and things like that; this game pulls it off beautifully, especially for a PICO-8 title.
  

  The lumberjacks are a masterstroke of design. When I saw my first humans, it wasn't immediately clear to me why I should eat them, other than the obvious fun of it, since they give no nutrition. It becomes apparent later: by deforesting your habitat, they pose a long-term threat to your survival when you find yourself needing those trees for food. Beautifully thought out.

  The hunters are cool too - it's fun and scary to have to avoid and/or sneak up and eat them, and they add a real sense of tension to the later seasons. I loved the urgency of that final rush through the snow back to the bear cave to hibernate.

  I'm not sure I can consider this game a full-fledged roguelike. It's got some of the features of the genre, with turn-based movement on a randomly generated tile map, but ultimately I feel like it's best categorized as kind of an arcade game. That did not take away from my enjoyment one bit. Fantastic entry.