Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Loved the fact that you leaned into the experimentation side of alchemy. Testing out different material combinations to make unique items that affected your attacks was very enjoyable. I felt like the intro was slightly confusing. The instructions of "Hold [shift] to line up a shot" made sense, but for actually firing the light beam I had to press a few button combinations before I realized that you had to hold Shift, press a direction on WASD, and then press space to fire. That kind of action felt a bit frustrating at the start. There were a few other mechanical parts that felt a bit unfinished as well. Having to hold WASD until she got to the next square instead of "one press = one square of movement" took some getting used to. The transition from free roam to turn based was very unique, but was a bit jarring the first time. I didn't realize you had to click the "End Turn" button with the mouse. I was stuck for a few seconds while I figured that out as well. Music was enjoyable and felt at home in the game. It has an almost ethereal soundtrack and I really enjoyed that. The simple and straight forward art style made it easy to differentiate enemies, obstacles and materials. When playing in full screen, you lose a lot of the shading clarity. Not a big issue, but the sprites definitely look better in a smaller window. The storyline is interesting. After reading the story, I expected something relating to "starving", but looks like it didn't make it in due to time. I think adding in that extra layer would have a little stronger impact. That being said, I had a lot of fun with the mirror mechanics and finding creative ways to bounce light to destroy shadow creatures. Overall, the execution was good. Some issues with the controls and figuring out how to navigate the map slowed gameplay. The music and art felt connected. Story feels compelling, even if it's unfinished. Themes were incorporated well. Keep making games!
• While the art style you presented was done quite nicely; from the color scheme to the characters and environment, along with the music that was nice to hear, I couldn't say that my overall experience playing was eventful. In regards to the controls, movement was possible, and so was picking up the items (as the instructions stated too), but when it came to looking at your inventory, I could only hover over it before it went away/off screen. Also, even though the controls said to use the mouse to click things around you, nothing seemed to work with that input, before or after collecting the two items available. When it came to the themes, due to there not being much else to do within the starting space provided, I couldn't speak to the themes implementation at all here. Outside of what was put as the description of your game, where one could interpret shadows as 'secret society' or 'shadow government', the alchemy part wasn't something I experienced here. I am interested to see more of what this could become, especially if there was a narrative involved, as well. Even with what you presented, I still think this was a good start to something more, so, all the same, keep up the hard work.