SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

We have our winners

Congratulations to everyone that took part. A great amount of entries for this competition so plenty of fun can still be had

The top three winners are :

		1st place winner :   Title : Dexter   Author : Morpheus   Link : Take me there   Vote points : 1st = 4 | 2nd = 3 | 3rd = 5 ( Total = 675 )
		2nd place winner :   Title : Neon Overdrive   Author : iWasAdam   Link : Take me there   Vote points : 1st = 3 | 2nd = 2 | 3rd = 3 ( Total = 475)
		3rd place winner :   Title : Super Grouper   Author : STEVIE G   Link : Take me there   Vote points : 1st = 3 | 2nd = 1 | 3rd = 0( Total = 350 )

How was the scoring done :

1st place awarded 100 points
2nd place awarded 50 points
3rd place awarded 25 points

Complete voting breakdown :




Winners, PM me your PayPal address and I'll magic over your winnings

The prize fund is £1000 and split equally between the three winners. Advanced math breaks that down to £333 each ( forget the 33p ).

NOTE : If any winner does not want the prize sent to them then also PM me and it'll be rolled over for the next competition.


Comments about the games ( if sent with voting ) :

Comments by hosch :

Neon Overdrive. Sometimes I wished the collision for power ups was more forgiving, otherwise perfect!

Dexter. Cute little puzzle platformer, let's hope the speedrunning community picks up on it 

Robotekus. When you got the timing of a level down just right and everything flows towards the goal: super satisfactory!


Comments by Xerra :

Darts
-----
Hit the wire far too often for my liking.

Very polished but you get the feeling a lack of time at the end has caused some areas to be lacking, such as no sound.

Don't think darts is a good choice for a one-button game. It's been done ok here but there's a lot of waiting between input to get the right place to aim and the hand moves a bit too random for player to get any kind of skill in the game.

Takes a while to get through a game. Maybe a practice option and a way to skip watching the AI player and just add their score for an update later on.


Neon
----
Looks fantastic with coloured vector graphics and introduction screens.

Great music and lots of it.

Fun to play. I tried several levels and all the difficulty levels. There's a lot of scenery variations in this game and little touches like how the ship gets destroyed when getting too much collision damage is great.

So many options to play the game. There's even a tutorial which I suspect references a part of Adams youth, if you read the story through to the end

Really does feel like an arcade game, even down to the high score table and attract mode screens.

2nd place for me but only because Dexter was also such a great game.


Dexter
------
I was almost reluctant to play this at first because I'm crap at platform games and they usually don't interest me. However, Morpheus is a coding mate so I gave it a chance, and it's great stuff.

Great sprites, some nice music and really cute sound effects work well for this game.

What I really liked is the levels starting off really simple (first 5 are pure tutorial to teach you how it plays) and the game is well balanced in that the levels mostly get a little bit harder each time. You think you're playing a one-screen platform game and then suddenly you find some levels will scroll and also sometimes get flipped upside down.

The nearest game I can think that this reminds me of is probably Superfrog on the old Amiga. That was also a great platform game for people who don't usually like playing them. This game even has hidden areas.

Mostly this game wins because of how its presented with the owl academy back story, the speed running potential, the tightly designed jumps and traps, and how it actually manages to work well with a one-button control. There's a few areas where you sometimes need to backtrack a fair way if you mistime a jump but, even then, there's usually something you can bounce off on the way that's available and will put you moving back the right way.

Winning game for me. Neon was the only other game that I considered possibly my winner but I just ended up playing Dexter so much longer until I completed it.


Super Grouper
-------------
Who else spotted the "Fishics engine by Stevie G" credit? That gave me a little giggle

It takes a bit of time to get used to the control system but it helps that there's a few messages written on the levels themselves to explain bits. I had real trouble getting the fish to jump although the controlling up and down with the button and relying on the scenery to turn around worked pretty well. It's a bit frustrating when you don't get a movement right and have to keep going back and forth until you finally force Bullet to flip 180' so you can control his up and down movement with the counter, flappy fish style.

This is the most original game I think in the entries this time round. It's got both very good animations and great use of suitable sound effects but I suspect it wont be to everyones taste. I got to level 4 and ended up mostly frustrated because I wasn't very good at playing it.


One Slap
--------
Controlling the menu with the one-button wasn't needed. I know some others have done it as well but the gameplay only needed to work that way. I kept quitting trying to do it with this game, instead of starting or going to the next level until I realised it's hold the button down when on the option you want, and not the other way.

Ok, so there's basically one opponent in the game and, once you've defeated him (press space twice) then you are told you have to wait for the next update?

This is not a game. Maybe you can turn it into something if you have more than just a bit of timing to hit a progress bar in the red zone and actually have a few levels but I honestly get the feeling it will be a poor game even then.


One button Tetris
-----------------
Interesting idea this one. It's certainly a different take on Tetris, I don't think it works as a game here yet, but with a bit more work perhaps. You've got a buggy shape issue when you have something in the last column which makes it play a bit odd. Also piece selection can be a bit dodgy because it's accepting the line selection and then the piece with one tap intermittently, which does render it almost unplayable.

The other gameplay problem I think is the "Faster" prompt every so often, which I don't think the game even needed. It's tricky enough with the one-button mechanism as is.

On a positive note it's nice that you've included a demo mode, even though it isn't actually playing, and just selects a column and a shape every so often

Overall not the worst entry by any means. Just not on the same level as my top three games.


Capeman
-------
Nicely presented game. You can configure your one-button and the capeman animation on the title screen is pretty cool. Nice music as well.

This game started off well with the platform jumping getting progressively a little trickier in the first level and leading you into the game but it went a bit off for me once you actually got your cape and started flying up and down. I struggled with the control then as you have to also try and use the one button to change mode into enemy splatting and I struggled doing more than just keeping myself in the air. This could just be me that can't play this that well, though, I'll freely admit. I just think it got hard a little bit too quick for my liking. Mostly I was trying to avoid the enemies rather than screwing up by trying to change into the kill mode.


Next train to Mernda
--------------------
I actually drove the train all the way to Mernda to finish the run just to basically see what happens. I missed the end screen, however, as I had my finger on the enter key still so I could keep up the maximum speed of the train and it skipped it.

So, I stopped and started the train for the first five or so stations and I think I'd racked up around 169 points with penalties for overshooting deductions because I never quite got it right. My closest was 1m overshot for 50 points, I think. That wasn't bad, I thought.

Naturally, just like anyone else who played the game for more than a few stops, I just put the train on full speed, overshot the rest of the stations and didn't give a hoot because it was probably tea break at the end of my run, and I was hoping to try and crash the train. No such luck, unfortunately.

Whilst It's cool that you've got map data for accuracy in here, and the potential for a person to supply spatial coordinates in the game and maybe drive a train round their own neighbourhood?!?!?, it's pretty boring. Acceleration and braking are soooo slow and the view is elevated so far from the top of the train that you don't really have any impression of much going on.

I don't feel it's actually a game as such but I get that you must really like trains.


Ryth Zard
---------
Nicely presented again and options to choose mouse/keyboard etc.

I really struggled trying to work out how the rhythm thing really works. I got the charges building up after some experimenting but, even with the hand tapping back and forth as a kind of demo on the tutorial to guide you, I was still clueless and couldn't get lasers working fast enough to kill the bad guys. Even in the early levels. I just found the whole experience very frustrating. I did try many times before I pulled out the last of my hair.

Shame I couldn't get into the game as the art style is good and it has nice music etc.


Robotekus
---------
Nice interface for the titles and options.

Took a little while to play the game before it sunk in. It's kind of like lost vikings where each different colour robot either thrusts, drops or moves left/right. Once I sussed that I could play a fair bit.

All this pressing ctrl to play the game and press space every time you die or finish a screen a bit fiddly. Also some spelling corrections needed in the instructions.

I went through a few levels and it got a bit too hard a bit too quickly for my liking. Due to having three control states on your robot, you get situations where you know you're dead as soon as you switch modes and there's nothing you can do about it. Unfortunately it's a bit hard to be able to work around that with a one button game so perhaps it should have been a little easier to progress early on.

I did also find that you could make the game easier by using the home and end keys in play to control the overall speed of the game but I don't think I can count using them for the competition. They directly change gameplay so I'd be concerned it's not a one button game if you need to use them as well to play it. So I'm judging the game based solely on just using ctrl. If you'd put the game speed selection on the title screen then this wouldn't have been an issue.

Overall it's a good little game. Not the best game of the competition but nowhere near the poorest.


Rokart
------
Skaletrix on a computer. Great idea as I mentioned previously in the forums.

I did encounter an issue which may just be because I'm playing on parallels emulation on an iMac. There's a background shell window on display with a constant DrawImage error: Invalid renderer being printed.

Some instructions would have been good. It took me a while to work out that it's the right control key to adjust car speed.

What's with the cpu? He goes round the track at full pelt without ever going off the track. I slide off almost every corner and there's zero chance of ever getting to even the 6th lap before he finishes his 10 and wins. Am I missing something here?

The bottom view is interesting in that the camera is shifted to give a different pseudo 3d effect but is there any function to it? I'd have preferred to play either the top/down or isometric view on maybe a bigger game window than having both at the same time.

It seems the game is pretty limited. I couldn't find a 2 player option or more than the one track? Or perhaps you need to win a race for that?

A novel idea with a nice background tune, which I spent ages listening too, but the game itself is rather shallow.


Extreme Pro Tray Surfer
-----------------------
Love the tray station logo on the intro screens

I like the idea of the game and think there's probably a lot more game in there that I've not seen yet. Not been able to unlock the Xerra character for starters.

The menu system I thought would work ok but, on reflection, it's just annoying. For a game you have to restart often - and you do have to do this. I played a shedload of times just trying to work out how to control the tray once you jump on it. I can see the gauge and follow that but it's still bloody hard as well as avoiding objects and trying to hit ramps to get the points.

I wore out my wrists experimenting with different speeds by banging space to get my run up but, even with a high speed and hitting at least a couple of the ramps, it seems the bar runs down so quickly that you just can't progress very far into the level. I'm assuming there's more in there but how on earth would you get to them? The tray slows down so quickly that you never get very far, even if you don't smash into something?

This feels so much like an old PS1 game - definitely a good thing. I was in two minds on putting it third but, in the end, I just considered how long I'd ended up playing it, trying to actually get a reasonable score. Think it's around 1156, which is probably crap, but like I said, the games hard, man.



Comments by Morpheus

Extreme Pro Tray Surfer:
Great trip down memory lane with the Playstation styling, very impressive. Struggled to get very far in the game as I couldn't work out the control system and when I did seem to get a bit further I ran out of speed. I tried holding and tapping but never really got what I had to do. If the game had a tutorial system then maybe it would have helped? Make this into a non one button game, add support for a gamepad and id defiantly be back for more.

ROKART:
When I saw the screenshots of the game I was really excited to play this one, I had thought about a doing car game myself. Works well with the 1 button theme. I think it would have been more fun if the CPU player wasn't so good, it was impossible to keep up. A two player mode would have definitely had me playing more. Playing this with a trigger button on a gamepad would be more fun. Nice job.

Neon Overdrive:
Technically, visually and aurally this is by far the best entry. For me it didn't suit the one button game genre, in fact it spoiled what could be a great game! Really hope this is developed on to use more than one button. Great Job though!

RhythZard:
Really like the graphical style and the music, very polished looking game. Sadly I just couldn't work out the timing. I was about to give up after dying as soon as two enemies hit me. Then I somehow managed to get a cloud over my head and then I shot a laser. So I persevered a few more goes, managed to get the cloud a few more times. Then lost it again so no idea what I was or wasn't doing. Shame because it does look like it has potential.

One-Button Tetris:
When I saw this entry I was intrigued to see how it would work, I have a soft spot Tetris games (TRISS). Unfortunately it doesn't work very well and there are bugs that make it quite a frustrating process (timing button taps and shapes overlapping or disappearing off the side). With some work it, it could be OK?

Robotekus:
The first impressions of this I wasn't too sure, found the controls for the character a bit confusing. With some time I actually really enjoyed the game, the puzzles are well thought out. Unfortunately when I got to level 9, I wasn't able to get passed the little flying things as their motion is too random. Really enjoyed this game, definitely justified being in my top 3.

Next Train to Mernda:
This is not the sort of game that I would normally play, but I drove the train all the way to Mernda! Technically a clever thing using the GPS data, I wouldn't have a clue how to get it or use it. Found the it too slow to accelerate and decelerate. Overshot most stations, somehow managed to get one perfect. Would have helped if the view zoomed in near the station? Feels like the game was rushed and has no polish like some of the other entries? Not a game for me.

Capeman in Nightmare Realm:
Liked the graphics and the music. Found the collisions with the backgrounds too unforgiving. Played through to the 4th level where it was no skill, just if I was lucky enough to get passed enemies. Switching between attack and flying modes was too hit and miss. More often than not I died. Good effort though, certainly could be expanded to a non 1 buttoner!

Super Grouper:
Really liked the graphics and sound, both were used to create a nice atmosphere in the game. Technically the fishics engine is very neat. Like the way things move and are affected by the water. Found the control frustrating, having to use the scenery to turn around 180 degrees and then miss the food by minuscule amount then trying to find a way turn around and go back got annoying. Then I got to the bit where you had to jump out of the water, I managed to jump a couple of times, but no real control over the direction made it even more annoying. Overall a original game that I am sure can be made much better without the one button constraint to hold it back.

Darts Night:
Damn! I wish I had thought of this game for the one button! Even though the game isn't finished, and has a few issues. I keep coming back for another go, so that's why it's my first placed game. The graphics are spot on, the throwing mechanism works very well, and is frustrating just like the real game. The players hand looks like its owner had been pushing up daisies a while ago, or is it a zombie arm? Zombie Darts 😉? The 'hit the wire' gets triggered far too easily. The AI is interesting (no idea why it goes for random doubles at times). But the game has a lot of polish, looks great and is fun to play, well done! Really looking forward to seeing this when its finished.

ONE Slap:
I played it a few times, found the one button menu system illogical, the game lacking. Not the best entry, when comparing it the other entries.


Comments by iWasAdam:

tray surfer - liked the graphics. disliked the music. particularly hated the ui one click system - this was an almost break situation. playability not brilliant

rokart - strange double window with multiple render errors in console. game more or less unplayable. really nice graphics and concept though

rhthard - opened in fullscreen with no window options - 1 point! not obvious menu system with save slots. game started and not a scoobie what to do. looked nice with nice music though - but flawed

onbutton tetris. very nice soundtrack. simple concept - unfortunately not brilliant gameplay

robotekus - all round well done. nice graphics, good concept (although a tad slow for my liking) nice sound design. excellent This is a very good concept

next train - refused to download. very sad as I was looking forward to this one - suggest using itch.io to host next time around

capeman - very amigesque fits into the pixel perfect, miss and frustrate box. nice graphics and sound plus general concept. a good suggestion would be to have a good look at arcade game 'moon buggy' to see how it could be improved Re controls.

dexter - beautifully realised, but some flaws with the simple game masked by the nice graphics. better controls and overall feel than capeman which has a simpilar concept

supergrouper - window opened - pc completely crashed!!! vdmp3.dll (or something like it as windows rebooted andI  just caught this in the error - bottom of the screen. come on MS you can do better than this) caused the problem

darts night - superb. everything about this felt like a whole product that had thought and style behind it. simple controls simply executed. would be brilliant as part of a larger set of group pub games - bowls, billiards, etc

oneslap - not really a game. poor controls (hold space longer to select, etc). graphics a bit ropy - nothing wrong with low res graphics but they should have the feel that there was a single though behind them. these just all felt 'meh'. Strange double console too, but at leest no errors


Comments by ricardo_sdl:

Dexter - really impressed by the quality.
Robotekus - liked the puzzles, payed until the end.
Neon Overdrive - Great the visual style.


Comments by STEVIE G:

Capeman
Cool retro graphics and simple concept.  Controls were generally pretty good, the attack was quite tricky to get right and I found myself attacking thin air alot of the time. Also, a few times when I respawned the starting leap meant there was only a millisec window to get my jump in before dying repeatedly.  Might be better to respawn just running?

EPTS
Love the old PS1 aesthetic but this one got off to a bad start.  Loud annoying long intro that didn't allow me to skip. Menu was also moving too fast so I quit straight away which probably didn't help.  I probably missed a tutorial but managed to leap onto my board and do a few jump and tricks on most occasions before my dude went for a burton!  Quite tough and probably takes lot of practice.  Lots of effort has gone into the various options and whatnot and I'm sure it would be a lot of fun once you're used to the control.  Other than that - solid effort - apart from that intro

RythZard
Was never a big fan of rhythm style games but this one was simple, easy to play and quite fun.  Music was far too loud and it was upsetting when the options sliders for Mus and Sfx were barely functional.  They certainly didn't work like any slider I've used.  Other than that it was very well done with some nice pixel work.

1 Button Tetris
Excellent concept although it took a few blocks before I fully understood the mechanic.  At that point my blocks were all over the shop.  A quick and slow tutorial for level 1 would have been good.  I played for a quite a while but found the cycling through the line to drop and then the pieces was too time consuming if you wanted a specific block.  I think it might benefit from you just being given the next shape and the only thing that cycles is the drop line?  I didn't play multiplayer but I can imagine that would have been fun - assuming you added lines to opponents and whatnot.  Simple but functional graphics.

Rokart
SPACEBAR reset you at the start line, no idea what you used to control the car!!  Really should have had a one liner, which would have taken 10 second to add, to tell you the controls.  I like the concept and did something similar with Micro Sprint many moons ago.  I found the AI to be far too good and could barely get around any corner without coming off the track. I appreciate that this is how the original game worked but there was too fine a line between making a corner and making an arse of it so you had no chance of winning a race if you weren't perfect. Too frustrating for me I'm afraid.

Next Train to Merdna 
Couldn't download - comp and anti-virus didn't like it I'm afraid. 

One Slap
It had the best backstory of all the games BUT far too easy and short.  Badly designed menu - I ended up quitting 3 times by accident before I even got started.

Neon Overdrive
I thought this would have been my no 1 TBH as Adam had it finished within a couple of weeks and had a month or so to polish things up and refine and nail the controls.  I was disappointed with the Neon aesthetic - didn't have enough oomph - wasn't bright enough - more like coloured lines with slightly more faded versions behind.  Have a look at how Geometry Wars did this.  I think there were a lot of lines being drawn unnecessarily - not sure if this was mesh normal's, the back face culling technique or just the mesh design.  Might just be my eyes.  This was also probably the only one of Adam's games that didn't need a tutorial - I think he did this one for fun - 'the number beside the word SCORE shows your score' etc.. The main problem I had was with the gameplay and control - having to press space almost continually without respite is RSI waiting to happen.  It quickly got uncomfortable for me which took the fun out of it I'm afraid.  The length of the tracks didn't help - maybe if you're hitting all the overdrive boosts then it'd be ok but I wasn't.  Critique aside, clearly alot of effort went into this one, the tracks, the graphics, the presentation and the fantastic music.  As usual Adam shows us how talented a musician he is.  Gameplay is key for me.   

Darts Night
I think if Qube had time to finish/refine this one it would have taken top spot.  Who doesn't love a game of Arraaas after all?!  Some slick stuff going on here what with the scores being drawn by a hand and some nice meshes etc..  As I'm sure he'll agree it really lacked much needed atmosphere and sound - some Bobby George style commentary, a stage entrance and a pished crowd falling about the place and holding banners such as 'the Mrs is on her blobs - let's play darts' (maybe not the last one).  I initially thought the AI was spot on as the Lassie I was playing scored a total of 1 (including 2 wire hits) on her first shot - similar to the last woman's game I watched on the telly (only kidding!!).  She then proceeded to hit a 180 and had a 5 dart finish - jammy cow!  The control system was pretty good and felt simple and intuitive.  I think it would have been better if the target hung about the 20's longer at the start of each leg before cycling around the rest of the board, or at least until you had a finish available.  Also, far too many wire hits - it was almost like it was a 5cm thick.  Yes, I score f*ck all on one of my shots!!   All in all - good fun even without sound.   

Robotekus
Very well made puzzle game.  Lot of different mechanics going on here and probably the best variety and most imaginative control of all the games.  I didn't get particularly far - level 5 I think so I'd imagine there are many more levels and mechanics to see.  If I was going to be critical it'd be that there is an inconsistency in the graphics resolution with some enemies more blurry looking and not really in fitting with the general look.  Also, if I'm playing with CTRL, why do I then need to press SPACE to go to the next level?  I think the concept and execution more than made up for those.

Dexter
Best game for me.  I understand that the Gfx were not made by Morpheus (which we all know is a time consuming process) so I expected him to have plenty of time for polish and gameplay.  Wasn't disappointed - simple concept, simple and intuitive controls and well paced level progression and hand holding.  There were some really tricky puzzles and a few eureka moments.  It wasn't frustrating to die a few times and was all rounded off with some nice consistent artwork and glorious mobile style UI - good job!   My only critique is having to use the mouse to select the next level, rather than space although I think you reserved space for retry.  I wouldn't give any priority to retry a level you've just completed.  Maybe this was just a bug.  Anyway, top work Sir! 

Congratulations.

Summary of the programming languages used for making each entry:

1st place: Dexter
(Game maker Studio 2/ Xcode)

2nd place: Neon Overdrive
(Wonkey)

3rd place: Super Grouper
(Vanilla Blitz3d)

4th place: Darts Night
(AppGameKit)

5th place: Robotekus
(AppGameKit Classic)

6th place: RhythZard
(AppGameKit)

7th place: One-Button TETRIS
(PureBasic)

8th place: Extreme pro tray surfer
(Blitz3d[custom modded])

9th place: Rokart
(RCBasic)

9th place: ONE slap
(GDevelop 4)

9th place: Next Train to Mernda
(BlitzMax NG)

9th place: CapeMan in Nightmare Realm
(Lua with the Love2d engine)

Congratulations to all contestants.
Double congratulations to the winners!


Here some short notes for the games:

Capeman:
Fun little game with this "this must be possible" moments making you try it over and over.
"Savepoints" were a bit bad placed here and there (you spawned inside monsters and died, respawned and died ... for some seconds).
That killed monsters stay killed over tries is an interesting gameplay element.


DartsNight:
As usual great and smooth visuals. Gameplay itself was a bit "slow paced" (but what can you expect from "Darts" in that area).


Dexter:
Good start into a casual-game look (still has some corners here and there). I enjoyed the "tutorial" (the hints the owl gave). The owl itself looked a bit "alien" compared to the environment - I mean artistic wise (smooth vs pixels). Became a bit disappointed in level 5 or so because I did not find the 3 secrets there (and I jumped around crazily ... even achieved to finish in 17 second because of jumping into a corner for fast direction switch :p).


EPTS:
Hm...I am just not a friend of this "should look like a PS1" game thing (or older). I played it ... listened to the music (I understood the choice but it is not my preferred music). So gameplay wise it looked complete with various game elements (multiple chars, levels ...) but as said, not my favorite this time.


Neon Overdrive:
I enjoyed the music and overall presentation (except for the text "neon flicker" on the level selection). Looked quite complete but I think it will lack on long term "re-playability" a bit.


OneButtonTetris:
Hmm .. the basic idea to make row selection an extra step (so it is playable with one button) is interesting but the gameplay looked "disturbed" to me. In a sense of not playing the game smoothly but always having a "and now the next step" in mind. "Tetris" was always a bit more fast paced for me. I think the approach would work better for a "puzzler" where it is common to have "steps".


OneSlap:
Slapped .. done


Next Train to Mernda:
The basic idea of controlling a train is really smart... because the train cannot steer left or right it is a perfect vehicle for the "one button" control limitation. Presentation was a bit dull and the start was quite "slow paced" (it takes some seconds to identify the moving train ). I think it could be quite "entertaining" for these model-train-fans out there.


RythZard:
Nice GFX and some fancy music (albeit visuals looked a bit "medieval" and so the sounds seem to not fit to that theme). Wondered why you had to choose between mouse click and Space bar... why not allow both and skip the hassle of not checking why "space" did not lead to any "rhythm detection". Basic idea is good but maybe some more audio visual indicators could increase "variety". Good basement for a little rhythm game.


Robotekus:
Hmm some elements in the map confused me - thought I needed to move there but did not find a way. But somehow I was able to play it. Graphics are a bit inconsistent - some looked really nice and integrated, others ("ctrl") looked a bit "simple" (compared to the rest). Think some hours of polishing and it would improve quite a bit. The help screen / "guide" was a bit confusing (too many things going on) maybe split that into multiple screens so people are not overwhelmed.


Rokart:
Hmm ... graphics reminded me of Super Mario Kart (these colourful boundaries). The acceleration "detection" seemed to fail here and there - so I started after going "offroad" and right on "acceleration" I already was thrown out again. Basic idea of a "one button" car race is really good ... could even benefit from some different art style (not low res but ... high res with fancy visuals). Console (on Windows) spammed "DrawImage: Invalid Renderer". On Linux I did not see that but there no music was played (invalid format...).


Super Grouper:
On first start I just enjoyed looking at what all these fishies were doing, what that "fly" was doing. I was a bit annoyed to have to move "into" the pipe for level 1 ... but this was needed so I could "grasp" how the controls worked.
I sometimes found it a bit "itching" when just passing a ROE a tiny bit too high or low ... because this meant to have to change direction somewhen and to come back. But disregarding this the gameplay was quite entertaining and the visuals were more than suffice enough. Placing the hints as "signs" in the game area is a good approach (similar to the hints of the owl in the other competition entry "Dexter"). Also need 1-2 rounds to understand how "eating" worked. Game looked quite complete and polished.



Edit: It is interesting to read that I noted similar stuff as the others did.


bye
Ron

Err ...
disappointed but Ah well.

Congratulations to the winners. I played all games and took notes, but thought we were only required to give them for our top picks. Sorry!

There is no requirement at all to give any note ... it just could be interesting for the authors ("feedback").


bye
Ron

I'll remember for next time. And of course I'll take the feedback to heart. Thanks to everyone who wrote such an in depth text.

My takeaways for future games:
- option for windowed mode
- streamlined menus
- better Tutorial
- try to improve on sliders (those were my very first and looks like it shows ) @Stevie what exactly was so off putting?

I want to add that you are supposed to die at some point during RhythZard, so you can spend the gems on upgrades to get further in your next run. It is a grindy game. This of course implies that you can kill enemies. Hit 4 beats and your spell goes off. To all who didn't get the rhythm to work, I'd like to ask if you tried the easy mode and if it did something for you. Would you want to keep the charge, if you mess up a beat? Currently you lose 1/4 of the required charges on mistake. Well I hope that clears things up a bit and you might be able to enjoy RhythZard. I'm playing a little guitar since 15 years or so, maybe I made the game too hard for non musicians.

Well done to everyone who submitted a game and thanks to those who made an effort to play the games, vote and provide feedback. Pretty poor turnout in terms of voting which was disappointing.  I think one button games are pretty tricky to get right in terms of controls. Just because the dev gets used to them doesn't mean anyone else will.  I don't think SG was suited to a one button scheme in hindsight but have been working on an analog update.

It seems that a few voter were on linux or other os so weren't able to play all the games. I'm not sure that's fair as the games were designed to be played on a PC.  It's hardly the devs fault if it doesn't run on wine or parallels and it isn't helpful to be told about it the day the vote closes.

I think feedback is key though and should be mandatory for at least the fellow devs and for all games.  If nothing else it shows you actually played the game  . I'm only talking about one or two sentences of critique out of courtesy to those who spent a couple of months painstakingly putting the games together. It's nice to know what you liked or didn't etc to understand if further development is worthwhile.

I think the main point I'll take away from this one is to keep the game short and focus the effort on earlier levels.  You can't expect everyone to play until the end so alot of effort was probably wasted for most.  I'm sure there were a good few who designed loads of features / mechanics and levels which never got played which is a real shame. For example, I spent 3 days getting the Shark working and it doesn't appear until stage 14.  Lesson learned.

Anyway, really enjoyed this one 










@Hosch. The sliders just didn't work, clicked to the left/right, tried to drag them but no response. Managed to move one by accident - no idea how I did it.  Not really a big issue in the grand scheme as had no impact on gameplay.

Thank you to you all! Congratulations to the winners!

Quote from: STEVIE G on November 08, 2021, 11:08:51
I think the main point I'll take away from this one is to keep the game short and focus the effort on earlier levels.  You can't expect everyone to play until the end so alot of effort was probably wasted for most.  I'm sure there were a good few who designed loads of features / mechanics and levels which never got played which is a real shame. For example, I spent 3 days getting the Shark working and it doesn't appear until stage 14.  Lesson learned.

Good point!
I think the games should concentrate in a way that the users are able to see "most of it" (feature wise) in a 30-45 minute time frame (even this might be "too much" - if you add tutorials, getting used to it for "unused to the games genre" players). I must confess that I did not finish one of the lengthier competition games (was running out of time and was afraid to then play one game so long that the others do not get their time).
Regarding the shark ... I assume people (or maybe only me :-) who voted mostly voted for the gameplay, short term (audio)visual impressions and controls, maybe also how "complete" the game felt. So nobody would vote better because of a super smart Level #137 or a mighty shark. So this is as you pointed out something "nice to have" but should only be added if the coder does have the time to do it (and the enthusiasm/motivation .



Would be interesting now who of you contestants now plans to extend its game into something "bigger"... hope you guys keep us informed then.


bye
Ron

Quote from: Derron on November 08, 2021, 12:17:49

Quote from: STEVIE G on November 08, 2021, 11:08:51
I think the main point I'll take away from this one is to keep the game short and focus the effort on earlier levels.  You can't expect everyone to play until the end so alot of effort was probably wasted for most.  I'm sure there were a good few who designed loads of features / mechanics and levels which never got played which is a real shame. For example, I spent 3 days getting the Shark working and it doesn't appear until stage 14.  Lesson learned.

Good point!
I think the games should concentrate in a way that the users are able to see "most of it" (feature wise) in a 30-45 minute time frame (even this might be "too much" - if you add tutorials, getting used to it for "unused to the games genre" players). I must confess that I did not finish one of the lengthier competition games (was running out of time and was afraid to then play one game so long that the others do not get their time).
Regarding the shark ... I assume people (or maybe only me :-) who voted mostly voted for the gameplay, short term (audio)visual impressions and controls, maybe also how "complete" the game felt. So nobody would vote better because of a super smart Level #137 or a mighty shark. So this is as you pointed out something "nice to have" but should only be added if the coder does have the time to do it (and the enthusiasm/motivation .



Would be interesting now who of you contestants now plans to extend its game into something "bigger"... hope you guys keep us informed then.


bye
Ron

Yeah, seeing or being eaten by a shark wouldn't have changed any votes.  Stage 14 had some skinny dippers, complete with  animated tits (don't ask  ) The controls let it down.  If anyone wants to see the Shark. In the options.ini in the data folder, change STAGE = 16 and save. It'll appear on the title screen, with other fish you might not have seen.  Quite amusing watching them eating each other.

Stage 16 gave the shark but no tits (I ask!).

But at least I had the amusing moment to got bitten by a bigger fish and while this happened I was starting to bite a smaller fish ... chain of feeding frenzy.


bye
Ron

Hang on, nobody said Stevie's game had tits in it. Can I still change my vote? :-)

Congrats to all of you who entered, not just the winners. Getting a game out of the door is tough enough, even without a restriction like making it one-button to play only. It took a lot of effort for some of these games and it's very obvious. I couldn't manage it after all, and I've been known to enter a few of these compo's the last couple of years.

Qube, you've got a slight error in the voting report where it looks like Morpheus has voted his own game 3rd place points. Makes jack shit difference to the end result but probably worth amending, as someone must have lost out on some morale boosting points there.

Dexter got my winning vote just cause of how long I played it and managed to eventually finish the game. I very rarely finish any games these days as I have the attention span of a gnat. If any of you haven't played it through to the end then I recommend you have a go. Some of the later levels are just fantastic. Screen flipping and speed running areas etc. Like Stevie said, a lot of games have some good content in that a lot of people never get to actually seeing. Such a waste when that happens because a lot of games are well worth the effort of exploring deeper.

QuoteHang on, nobody said Stevie's game had tits in it. Can I still change my vote?

I wonder if anybody managed to unlock the sexy stripper in EPTS. 
Rather unfortunate no one got that far. it's designed to feel hard but it's actually easy. 

Hi Guys,

Firstly thanks for everyones votes. I am chuffed to bits to have won the competition!
And no, I didn't vote my game in 3rd place. So apologies if someone has missed out on the 3rd place points! I am sure Qube will correct this 

Congratulations to everyone who managed to get a game over the line. It's not an easy thing to do!

I will take on board any comments that I have received. I will add some comments in the worklog as I do intend to further develop the game soon.

Thanks,

Aaron