Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Hey, sorry I didn't get a chance to give this game more time, but I kept on dying on the first two levels; the game is just HARD! Also what's with the levels not being procedurally generated? I think the idea of a roguelike where your method of attack is kicking a soccer ball is creative, but the execution just left something to be desired. Playing in the "classic" mode is next to impossible; I had to mash keys repeatedly and it's hard to line up shots on the grid. Fortunately the "fast" mode let me hold keys down for continuous movement! Why can I walk through walls? Oh well. Learn something, make an improved version next year? 🙂
• Football Crawl (in the global, round-ball meaning of football) is notable for including two modes: Classic and Fast. The latter is a pure real-time roguelite; the former is meant to have strict roguelike grid-based movement... except that while you and the enemies (all of which only differ visually) may move turn by turn, the ball still travels completely in real-time. Altogether, Fast Mode is far easier - partly because it's a lot easier to outrun the enemies and manage the ball, but also because while in it, you lack collision with the brick walls of the levels and can walk right into them and chill there, completely safe from any of the enemies - which always deal damage if you try bumping into them, but somehow disappear even if they walk into a completely stationary ball. Meanwhile, Classic mode is barely playable with how wonky the ball physics are, how substantial the numbers of enemies get in every room and the limited room for manoeuvre on each floor, which do not resemble football fields or anything in particular, with especially unappealing combinations of empty large square rooms and very long corridors. Altogether, this is an amusing idea that needs a lot more development time to work properly - from fixing substantial bugs to making each floor actually look connected to the theme and be interesting to navigate.
• This is a great concept with questionable execution. Of the two modes of moving - Classic, grid movement or Fast, free movement unconstrained by the grid system. Free movement is perhaps a little too free as I quickly found out, the the player is not constrained to the map boundaries in Fast Mode. This does make the game a lot easier, and honestly more fun to manoeuvre around the ball and kiting enemies around. Kicking the ball around is not easy with the mouse but works just fine walking into it, though navigating the ball into corridors was not always as easy as I'd like. Oftentimes the levels became a fight between me and the football rather than me and the enemies while using the football. The maps are not randomized, neither are enemies, so I'd be hesitant to call this a roguelike/lite. Has the potential to be a fun one. The title music is great, the graphics could use a bit of polish to find a cohesive style, but otherwise it's a good start.