Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• 'Snake but it's also a Roguelike' asks the hard question of what happens when you put a snake game and rogue in a blender and punch it. Over 10 levels, climb, collect health and a few items, and try to avoid those stupid disks that move faster than you do, ending with an thematic boss fight I won't spoil here but fits right in. Aesthetics are functional, key bindings are as expected. Enemy design varies from ingenious (the counter snake things), to expected (the blobs that move slower than you), to frustrating (the blue + robots that move faster than you). My only negative feedback is how turning snake into a turn based game really involves hitting the arrow keys a bunch. Hundreds of times in a run easily. My hand started to get sore. Maybe some sort of system where you can hold down space to continue going in your direct could have cut it down? Not sure, it's a bit mandatory w\ the theme when you make it turned based. I was able to complete it, and while I'm not sure I'll be back for more I think there is a lot to be proud of - it's a complete unique mashup that I would have never come up with in a thousand years taken to its logical conclusions. It is what it says on the tin, that's for sure. Well Done!
• The page for this game calls its premise "a tough question no else is asking". In fact, this is far from true: there were already snake-inspired submissions to the past 7DRLs, and this very contest features several other variations on the same idea. Luckily for us, the seemingly simple idea a "roguelike snake" can be taken into many different directions, so each such submission ends up quite distinct, and not only in terms of aesthetics. (Which are very workmanslike here relative to the comparable submissions, with too many grass tiles, meh SFX and lack of music, but do not get in the way of gameplay either.) This game in particular nixes "eat food to grow" part, as your snake grows in size every time it moves already, and food only exists to restore health from the losses you'll inevitably sustain on your way through the dungeon's 10 floors. Given its short size, there's some pretty good enemy variety, and you'll likely be losing for quite a while until you learn their quirks (some move slower than you, others keep pace, and others stay immobile for several turns before suddenly making up for it in one burst of movement) and how to handle them. You only take damage if they collide with snake's head, so trapping them within the folds of snake's own body neutralizes their threat - unless you accidentally end up locking off the path to the exit that way, in which case you'll have to shed everything below the head with Space and sustain damage in process. There are also items, activated with Enter (do not confuse the two commands!) although they are random, and while Invincibility and Freeze Time are always useful, Sever Body is situational at best, and Panic is an item which re-rolls the room - potentially into a worse layout. It's also the worst item you can bring into the boss fight with rival snake, as it'll reset your progress in it. However, the fight itself is surprisingly good for a 7DRL final boss, and the game as a whole is just the right kind of challenging.
• This one is a neat idea. The ability to spend health to sever your body is great, and I enjoyed blocking enemies when I could. The art is nice and simple, but clear. It's always good to have different enemy types as the game progresses, and I liked the items. The sounds are very cute. While I could sometimes trap enemies and make interesting decisions about them, other times the enemy's behaviors limited my choices-- the small fast blue ones and the three-turn ones often get into situations where there is just nothing to do except get hit. I would like to see enemies that move multiple tiles per turn but only in one direction, and the challenge comes from anticipating their positions and cutting them off when there are a few around at once. Some enemies move into my body and then hit me from behind. The final boss could just be right beneath me for many turns. In other cases, it seems like the enemies hit a part of my body that isn't my head and it causes damage. The instructions for the final boss appear in the middle of the screen all of a sudden, white on light green, and fade very quickly making them hard to read. The instructions are not quite accurate as well-- it isn't that the snake with the most rocks does more damage, but rather that the snake with the most rocks does damage at all. There are a number of interesting ideas in this game, fighting another snake at the end being one of them. This idea has a lot of potential and could be a cool mobile game.