Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• I was really surprised to see 2D and 3D, the sounds are great and the game leaves a very good impression. Definitely has potential.
• This is a nicely fleshed out game, you kept it small and well polished, great work! From your documentation it sounds like you're passionate about gameplay programming and getting a good game feel - keep building on this if it's what you enjoy. Great job on tackling AI, it can be daunting but as you discovered it doesn't need to be complex to be effective.
• Great sound feedback!
• Really good project that I enjoyed playing! The base code provided was in 2D but I appreciate the effort of going for a 3D game instead. I think that there are a lot of features present and it will make a great piece for portfolio! Gameplay Overall I was really happy with the gameplay. The controlling the spaceship feels good once you get the hang of it although it seemed really hard to orient sometimes due to lack of reference points (e.g. planets or other visual queues) but the 3D mini-map helped a lot. The dogfight was enjoyable although I found that winning one is quite challenging (this might be down to poor skills!). The AI behavior was simple but effective but I think aiming could have been improved. Additionally, upgrading your ship, fighting against multiple AIs or an option about "bailing out" at a cost would have been nice too. The trading part/resource management is a good idea paired with market values, but it would have been nice to know which goods are in higher demand at other stations. It looks like there is (or could be) a "risk & reward" structure with travelling to certain destinations, but that is not clear if it is implemented or not. World exploration could have been another idea to investigate as it would give the sense of progression too. UI/UX I believe that the UI fits the overall visual style of the game and it was a good choice. Stock market, health and menu implementations were good. It would have been nice to have a healthbar for enemy ships too and some form of tutorial. I believe that the controls were quite intuitive and playing with a gamepad makes sense but consider having a "Controls" menu where the at least the current bindings are displayed. Also, a pause menu and a way to naturally exit the game would be something to look into. Features I think there is a good set of features here (some mentioned above) that can be iterated and improved. The AI, although although it felt simple with a "flee" and "attack" behaviors, it was enjoyable. At this point I would focus on adding some sort of progression system for the player so the gameplay won't feel repeatative. There is also toggleable music and SFX that felt quite fitting. Creativity, Design & Originality I think the blend between RPG and Open World is quite nice for this type of project. Your dev diary is detailed and has flow charts and a detailed explanation of the process you followed. It would had been nice to have be a bit more detailed in terms of next steps/ideas you want to implement. Your itch.io page looks good but I would add a GIF showcasing the gameplay too. Jason Tzaidas (Rocksteady)
• Clean release ZIP Inspired by one of my favourite ever games A lot of functionality for the time available Great work
• Really nice concept, would be good to get a clearer comparison on the profit/loss of sales, and guidance on objectives.