Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Gameplay A prototype with a good game loop overall and an original idea overall. I think you repurposed the base project in a smart way and I couldn't spot any bugs with your implementation. Although not too extensive, you have quite a few features implemented here that I think fit well together. The progression structure is definitely heading towards the right direction. An easy win for you would be to have the circles (or even the points of each circle) as upgrades but the game loop kept me engaged over time. UI/UX I think all the basics interactions were here and you even implemented an option to gracefully quit the game - congratulations! Ideally there would be some sort of tutorial as it is not clear that you have to equip before the first battle. The constant presence of a pause-like menu is a bit confusing (personally I would had created the pause menu separately and left the store in during gameplay) as well as the lack of some sort of indication of what to expect during the next wave so you can prepare accordingly. Big positive that you have splash screen - good choice! Features A good number of features were implemented here as there was a clear progression and reward path and some AI variation. I believe that the AI spawning could be improved a bit, as it was noticeable that enemies would usually spawn quite closely to each other. Their straight path also meant that when there were only a couple of them left, there was not really a challenge - maybe adding some variation at a later difficulty stage where enemies follow a more complicated path would improve this? Another easy win would be the implementation of leaderboards as it would give players another objective. Finally, at a minimum, consider adding some ambient music and SFX as it will significantly elevate the experience. Creativity, Design & Originality I think it was a sound choice to develop a tower defense game and in my opinion this is a very good prototype given the time you were allowed to spend on it. I would expect your documentation to be a bit more detailed although the basics are covered. The itch.io page is well presented but consider adding a GIF and/or a short video so people can get a feel of the game before playing it. Jason Tzaidas (Rocksteady)
• A quite impressive project for the given brief. I particularly like that the participant made something creative out of the mechanic in the starter project instead of starting from scratch. The project is well-scoped and executed, which demonstrates professional skills much better than an overly ambitious project. I had a bit of difficulty with the controls, which could have been improved with better feedback on which ring is selected and instructions on how the controls work in the game I believe. But similar to sound and animations, this falls mostly in the realm of polish and it was a sensible decision to make those tasks lower priority. Overall an excellent submission demonstrating resourcefulness and creativity.
• Messy Release ZIP Nicely implemented main menu - just watch out for making it difficult to tell which option is currently selected - one platform had a requirement in the past to animate the selected UI element so it is obvious Would have benefited from more time to polish but nicely implemented base. Decent documentation Good work overall
• Missing some visual feedback!
• As a fan of Vampire Survivor-like and Tower Defence games, I do like what you've put together. The UI is very simple, but for this sort of game it really doesn't need a lot of complexity. The GUI is very straight forward. One area you should consider however is that "UI/UX" stretches beyond just the visual elements of the game. The actual user input device falls into that general category and a PC game without Mouse/Keyboard support is a bit inconvenient. From the report I'm assuming this was due to simply running out of time. The game has good design foundations and it's easy to see how you could further build upon that foundation. Along with the games you've mentioned such as Vampire Survivor-like games, there's a lot of Mobile games you'd be able to take further inspiration from: The Tower, Grow Castle, and others. Looking at your code, there's a few areas of improvement I'd recommend looking into. Look into using smart pointers. Scott Meyers book "Effective Modern C++" is one I'd recommend. If wanting to find online resources, LearnCpp.com Chapter 22 has a trove of useful information starting with "Introduction to smart pointers and move semantics"
• Great work adding in the menu screen & UI functionality. It's also impressive that you wanted to improve the graphics set up and thought about garbage collection. This is definitely a fun way of implementing the rings. Well done :)