Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Completeness: 4 I didn't encounter any bugs while playing. Escorial has a tight gameplay loop that keeps you coming back for a higher score. Aesthetics: 4 The colors, shapes and point of view work really well together to establish this as puzzly game. The squish animation is great! And everything looks just as good on a mobile phone. The sprites are a bit fuzzy when full screen though. Fun: 3 Escorial is definitely worth playing, especially if you enjoy Sproggiwood or Hoplite. I feel the concepts and aesthetics here, with some polish, could easily achieve that level of fun. Innovative: 3 This game forces the player into a challenging, but engaging balancing act. Scope: 3 This game has a great spread of abilities and each ability can be modified as well. It is exciting to imagine all the combinations available. Roguelike: 3 Escorial is definitely within the Roguelike family, but is a little more on the puzzle side of the spectrum. Other: I like the addition of the highscore and mobile functionality. Great job this year!
• This is a super, super solid broughlike. The roster of abilities has a good variety, the controls are obvious, and the core mechanic causes plenty of emergent complexity. Definitely worthwhile to play for a bit. I did find the "lose an ability" mechanic to be much too punishing and never got past 12 points after about an hour of trying. It's especially devastating because it's very easy to lose 2 or 3 abilities at once if you get backed into a corner. I tried ignoring other colors to regain a solid ability on the one I lost but the enemies scaled too quickly for me to ever make it all the way.
• An excellent little puzzle game. I enjoyed the smoothness of gameplay and the quick-to-learn nature of it, although it is very luck-based in a way I really don't want in a puzzle game. Mouse selection also felt really off - I feel like it could easily have been keyboard-only or mouse-optional. The roguelike elements feel fairly tacked on. Certainly worth anyone's time!