Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Congratulations on submitting this entry! Glad you entered the 7DRL jam, and hope you enjoyed the process. I really enjoyed this entry, and felt that the arcade-y sound effects really added extra weight to this. I found the difficulty quite hard, but I'm also famously not very good at roguelikes (despite loving them) :) I definitely urge you to spend some additional time on this, maybe at least allow for a fullscreen mode? Thanks for participating!
• ## General review This game is very hard, and very fast paced. An interesting roguelite, for sure, with a lot of character and a distinct feel. I prefer games where you have to evaluate carefully your actions so this one is not for me. But congrats on a successful entry to 7DRL 2021 ! ## Detailed review Completeness: 4 It's a full game, I did not experience any bug. Aesthetics: 3 I like very much the aesthetics of the game, the lighting effect, the minimalistic design. I find the controls perhaps a bit too obtuse, but that may be just me. From the webpage, I learn that some keys (arrows, numpad) are used to move around the dungeon. Other keys seem to be for actions, but which actions ? In the first room, you encounter a "=" symbol. Stepping on it gives you access to one of these actions. Some are easy to understand (e.g ">>@(Q)" means that pressing Q will make your character run), but others I could not figure out. What does "/@/(W)" mean ? Pressing W creates a flash around me, but for what purpose ? I tried to test it but all enemies one-shot me before I can even press the key. Fun: 3 This is very subjective. For me this game is not fun for two reasons: real time action, enemies kill you in one shot. I have no issue with either, but together they make the game unenjoyable. I cannot take the time to figure out what symbols on the screen mean, or what action to use, because enemies are rushing me and I have to act immediately. But at the same time I am not allowed any mistake because enemies will kill me instantly. So it's very difficult to learn how to get better. That being said, I totally see how such game could be appealing to other people, and I think everyone should try it ! Innovation: 3 Usual mechanics, but I like how you have to discover what actions you can take, although I wish it would be more explicit. Scope: 3 What I expect from a game developed in a week. Traditional Roguelikeness: 3 This game is labeled by the author as a rogueLITE. It has some roguelike features, but also real-time action and quick thinking.
• Completeness 4 Completed and well polished, with a significant amount of content. Aesthetics 4 Looks really nice, the level generation really plays hard into the aesthetic as well, with the curtains and other doodads around the place. Fun 3 At first when I saw it was real time, I was a little grossed out, as the enemies still seemed to be moving in a turn based manner. But it grew on me pretty fast, and once I got the hang of it and figured out what was going on, it was plenty of fun. There were two things that were pretty frustrating though. Firstly, it would have been nice to have some indicator of how soon an enemy is going to act. It felt pretty bad dying to a weak enemy because they just happened to be acting on the same frame I moved on. Secondly, each dungeon layer is maybe a little too long. The second layer was suitably much harder than the first, and once I got there I found it frustrating to have to trudge through the first again every time to get there. Having it be just a little bit shorter would have been nice. Innovative 3 There's plenty of cool innovative stuff here. Scope 3 There was a lot of content, but the game was quite minimalist, not a huge number of features. The features that were there though were very nicely polished. Roguelike 3 The lack of loot on each level made it feel a little less roguelikey than it otherwise would have, but other than that it ticks most of the boxes.