Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• This game has a very unique style and allows for some very brainy tactics that make this game feel almost more like a puzzle then a roguelike. The custom engine gives the game a step up in terms of looks and especially level design but some of the other mechanics lacked clarity. Would have loved to see the items fleshed out a little more to add more variety to combat.
• Ember Deep is a fun and engaging game where you navigate a world with non-standard (many non-hexagonal and non-square) tiles, and use time travel to defeat enemies stronger than you. This is, as one expects, confusing by nature, but the game's board-game-like visuals and solid controls streamline a lot of information delivery and let you focus on learning mechanics. Completeness: The game has a few quirks here and there and doesn't always feel balanced (some starts in particular are very different from others), but in general is complete and free of super-consequential bugs. The only quirk of major consequence is that hitting "esc" to stop movement doesn't seem to work, so don't rely on that. Aesthetics: Ember Deep boasts some charming aesthetics that make it look kind of like playing a big virtual board-game rather than playing a standard roguelike. Controls are pretty good; as well, and going mouse-based on the movement was a better idea than Fun: Especially here I should note that I was not able to finish Ember Deep. I got my butt kicked basically every time. But it was fun, and I think finishing this game would be a done deal if a "slightly easier mode" existed. However, the mechanics are still engaging and fun to play around with, and I can definitely recommend checking out ambush and retreat challenges if you want a smaller experience messing with the time mechanics. Innovation: It builds on a previous year's entry, but this is still fresh enough and is a weird enough twist on what normally happens for roguelikes both aesthetically and mechanically to warrant the rating. Scope: About as expected for a 7DRL. Roguelikeness: This isn't a fully-featured "kitchen-sink" roguelike, but for me that goes to scope, and this is pretty solidly in the tactical-dungeon-crawler genre, so I'm giving it the 3/3 (or 4/5).