Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• A faithful and entertaining roguelike imitation of Valve's classic game! (Not sure why the creator considers it a It features pretty much everything you have come to know in it - from shotguns, molotovs, adrenaline and boomerbile found in care packages to Tanks, Smokers, Witches and large hordes of the basic Infected, who function much like you have come to expect. The ASCII is easily readable, the sound effects are well-chosen (especially the footstep sounds, which are often hard to get right), and the AI of the other three survivors is good enough to fend for themselves and not cause you any problems. Pretty much the only issue is that it's on the easy side - as long as you do not piss off Witches needlessly and remember to toss Molotovs at hordes and pipe bombs at Tanks, you'll typically get to the level exit without any real issues just by heading straight down. The final "survive for ~150 turns" showdown upon using the Radio is likewise not particularly challenging to endure. Even so, it's a worthy example of making a squad-based roguelike (no idea why the creator considers it a lite) in a limited amount of time.
• I had a good time with this one. In my first few games I just moved around and fought some zombies before dying, but after getting the hang of it and after understanding that the green areas are staircases, I got my first win. Most situations can be solved by kiting the zombies into your squad. I like the fact that if you start losing people, things get much more difficult. In the end, after using the radio, the hordes slowly wore us down as I throw explosives at them and used the last of my ammo. As the last of my squad members was killed, I used adrenaline and ran from the hordes until I was rescued. It was very cinematic, and an unusual experience to have in a roguelike. There are a few other things that I liked, including just the fact that there are so many zombies; it is satisfying to throw the explosives at a horde. I know that the game isn't completely finished, so feel free to disregard my feedback if you are already aware of the issues. You should be able to drop items-- as it is, once you use up a gun it just sticks in your inventory. Picking up multiple weapons should just increase the ammo of your existing instance of the weapon. The camera shift along with the close-up view is a little jarring. It would help if dead squadmates changed color. Once, after using up the shotgun, the game stopped taking input. Once, after dying during the countdown, the end screen switched from a losing to a winning message. Some more closed and varied environments would help to make the interactions with zombies more interesting. There were some cases where I could just run straight to an exit without fighting anything or taking any damage. I wish that the different types of items on the ground used different glyphs. Although some of the mechanics, especially the squad, are unusual for a roguelike, the game definitely fulfills all of my criteria for being a traditional roguelike because it is turn-based, grid-based, and procedural. I really appreciated having a new and interesting roguelike experience, and I had a good time splattering zombie blood all over some dots and hashes.
• I couldn't tell if the levels were procedurally generated or not.. they're basically wide open spaces, and I'm not really familiar with Left4Dead, so I can't really speak to the faithfulness to the original IP. At one point, I had an inventory full of empty weapons that I couldn't drop, which was a bit frustrating. The idea of turning Left4Dead into a roguelike is kind of neat, and I think a little more work could turn this into a fun game, especially if you made it a multiplayer game somehow.