- -Gameplay – Does the project have clear mechanics, win / lose conditions, and player progress / interaction?
- Through the grafting concept demo, that portion of the gameplay loop seems relatively clear, although it is a little unclear to me how some of the minigames will work gameplay-wise, even with the minigame demo video. The gameplay descriptions are succinct and clear, though, and seem well thought-out.
- -Aesthetic – Is there cohesive visual, audio, and/or narrative direction?
- Unrelated to my other thoughts, but I love the little dude dancing on the itch page :3
- Based on the visual design of the production plan, all the concept images and gifs of the little dude, and the queen, it seems to me like the visual direction is very consistent across not only the game, but the project and team as a whole. It definitely is helped by the presence of multiple multi-disciplinary team members.
- The music is absolutely beautiful and imo fits rlly well with the theme of like grafting plants together and the visual style. Also I am a huge sucker for low strings, so this is like hitting all the right places for me. The development throughout the song is also absolutely wonderful too, and really encapsulates the feeling of going from a little bit of variety through the song into the very thick with strings texture near the very end.
- -Synergy - Do the game mechanics and artistic decisions support and enhance the project's intended theme and call to action?
- While I don’t think there’s quite enough yet to talk about the art in this moment quite yet, I may also just be blind, I think the gameplay more than enough supports the theme and call to action of the game, in the very heavy emphasis on using grafting as a way to reintroduce diversity into an environment, as well as the very careful and thoughtful process that is grafting plants.
- -Scope – Is the scope of the project reasonable for the timeline of the jam?
- From what I have seen so far, it seems that the project is definitely in scope, as you not only have what seems to me like a very scalable idea, but also a clear idea of how to follow through with the idea and have identified potential challenges that might get in the way during production.
- -Production Plan – Is there a clear path to completing the project?
- The production plan powerpoint quite literally has dated timelines of both production and playtesting, with identified challenges and proposed solutions if you do run into said challenges, along with scalable concepts if issues occur. This project seems well on its way to a successful production and release. I am looking forward to this.