What did this game do well?

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I spent a non-trivial amount of time playing through this game trying to get every ending, around an hour or two, and the fact that a mostly non-random game made in a week has that much content to it is impressive! The level of craft and aesthetic polish that went into this game is just tremendous. The background, the day/night cycle, the gameplay of constantly trading off resources for one another... when it all comes together it's really quite incredible!

I feel like this was the best representation of 'Resource Management'. I especially liked that it gave us many different ways to take power, and no single one way too easy to obtain. The day/night cycle was also cool.

Balancing between all of the different supports felt a bit like playing Stellaris at a smaller scale. The random events that occur also force you to change tactics to properly adapt, adding a really palpable element of skill to this.

Very clever design. Forces strategic choices. Color choices and aesthetics are nice. Sound after actions provides nice feedback

I really liked the presentation and the click of the numbers as they tallied up.

The theming is solid too.

When I tried to bumrush a certain goal I did actually find myself resource starved, which means that at least degenerate strategies aren't completely free, and that's good.

The game has various components that fits well with the medieval theme such as the fonts, maps, the scrolls keeping track of game resources. The map dimming effect and lighting that simulates torch is a nice touch. Movement is simple, just one mouse click on different cities to manage resources. I really like the game, especially when this is the first strategy board game we have in the class.

I like the the idea of there being secret town activities at night. The randomization was a good touch. Also really love the ambience of the game at night.

A good game in civilization theme. Give a strategic feeling on playing this.

Very impressive game given the scope of the project. Resources are intuitive and interact in an interesting and meaningful way.

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What could this game have done better?

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'First, there's the bugs. When I played, there were two major gameplay bugs.

1) The random event prompt often didn't appear, making it hard to tell which stats went up/down and by how much.

2) The Castle Location would often not appear when I hovered over it, making using it exceedingly difficult.

Ignoring the bugs, I think this game has two issues that really hold it back, and they both concern the resource system. Problem A is that the systems don't really interact at all? Like, if you describe the game's mechanics it feels like they should, but they don't.

To play well, because you're constantly trying to trade resources off for each other, you need to pick from the start which victory you want to achieve. So while in theory there are 8 potential options each half day, there are really only ever one or two you would consider for each playthrough. For Popular Support, you would basically only ever click 4 options: Slums/City Square for Day and City Square/Home at night. So there are a ton of resources, but a lot of them just play like ships passing in the night.

Problem B is that these individualized loops for the 4 methods (Popular, Noble, Military, and Assasination?) are not anywhere near the same degree of difficulty. The Popular and Noble victory loops, which I got every time I tried, are drastically easier than the Military victory, which I only got once, and whatever assassinating does, which despite my best efforts I didn't see at all.

Sorry this is so long, I just really thought highly of the effort of this game, and wanted to give it that effort in turn, absolute 5/5.'

I think the game could have benefited from an extra day or two, so that we have more time to get accustomed to the different locations and their benefits/consequences.

I think that maybe having popup windows for certain events could really add to the feeling of this game. Certain splashes for different locations when events occur (e.g. someone sick in bed when Pneumonia triggers) might really add to this.

Labels of areas blend it a bit with the background map. Play around with colors to make them pop more. Mousing over areas doesn't always prompt an action, like the Docks during the day.

Having each location visually display their gains and losses without hovering over would be nice. Also, the daily events take a while to come up, so sometimes I forgot they existed and other times I confused hover prompts for daily events and accidentally clicked on an action I didn't want to perform (though that could easily just be a me thing).

The game rule is a little difficult to follow without reading the long paragraph guidance. It would be better to have simple game level to instruct player about different features of the game or design the gameplay in such a way that it would click to the common sense of the player and not having them struggle to understand the rule. A little bit of medieval music background is a good addition since the game is pretty slow pace.

Maybe some light background music. Maybe if the numbers dip too low, you could have the text turn a different color to indicate danger and that you're close to losing.

It is not easy to hand on this game at the beginning

The RNG element of the daily events can feel a little bit unfair as they can have a big impact on the game despite the fact that the player has no agency, but the game is mechanically sound and decently balanced overall.