Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Tried about a dozen times to get slots to appear in the ring - my guess is there's a missing file or something - unfortunate really, and emphasises the key point for situations like this - test your project on a different machine to the one you're developing on to catch issues like this. Some new elements, but unable to test them, so difficult to give credit for much here :-) Tidy release ZIP which is good
• I appreciate that you chose a mechanic which you enjoyed in Starfield and recreated it - the result is definitely fun to play
• Someone's been playing Starfield! At first I didn't like the fact there were more arrows than slots available, however as I played it actually made it less obvious the position you needed to rotate to in order to complete the lock. A simple concept, but it's implemented well. I didn't run into the bug described in the game page, though I did have to find a controller to play! Would be good to add keyboard input. I would also add to the game to polish up the graphics a bit and add a Menu screen with some information, as well as a way to quit the game using controller/keyboard.
• Well done for getting your project submitted despite the lack of time mentioned in your writeup. What was submitted was complete and playable, giving yourself a solid base to build on. Once I grokked the controls (which didn't take long) and aim in the game (I’ve not played Starfield before), the base concept felt like a solid foundation to build new features and gameplay on top of. I did manage to ‘beat the system’ by realising there wasn’t any penalty for wrong moves so just by spamming right and the A button, the timer never reached below 8 secs. So my high score was infinite. A few rough edges on the UI/UX including the game immediately starting on startup, timer wrapping off the screen and the window not quite fitting on 1080p monitors. For a small game like this, spending time getting the polish and feel right can make a huge difference on the perception of ‘fun’. The YT video ‘Juice it or lose it’ is a classic to watch, especially for gameplay programmers. Some suggestions you can make for your next steps: - Add some sort of penalty for wrong moves. Not being able to move for X secs would prevent the loop hole to some degree. Or reinforce positive behaviour by adding bonuses/multiplayers for getting it right the first time. - Add some extra complexity or an added extra thought process on top of matching. eg stacked inner circles as a multi stage lock where getting it wrong would require a reset. - Add the ability to change the spacing of the key to add another level of puzzle/thought. Adding an extra core gameplay mechanic should help when it comes to adding different game modes and challenges.
• Thanks for your application. I liked the approach you took to implement one main feature only. 80hours is not much time, as you had found out. I'd recommend to add just a little bit of interpolation/bounciness to the keys when they move/fit/do not fit, or when the ring rotates. These little bits improve the "juiciness" of the game. The smooth motion creates comfort and coziness in games. Great work in just under 80hours. All the best!