Voting time for Mixed Genre theme game competition - Jun 30th 2018

Started by Qube, July 01, 2018, 20:42:25

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iWasAdam

OkyDoke - not looking back at how anyone else voted.
1. pixel wars
2. bug hunter
3. puzz pair
complete puzz pair


PuzzPair by Holzchopf
This was really nice to look at and play. a bit simplistic, and it got frustrating, but easy to grasp and a great little time waster. I thought the 2d graphics were very well handled.

A Knight's War by Matty
This is the sort of game you either get it or not. For anyone coming to this style of game anew it's not obvious what is going on. But I generally liked the presentation. It could do with lots more polish to make it shine. the map is a great touch as is the training. I think that having it as a web game held it back. It really needed a native version with cool graphics, animation, etc.  And then really exploit the system.

Bug Hunter: Annihilation Complex by freeman69
Oh I liked this one a lot! The 2d graphics were great and I loved the sound which added soo much more. I thought it was a nice concept and one that could be taken and pushed much further with the graphics tightening up the game play, etc Maybe making the map smaller and getting everything more integrated. I've also got to say I liked the menu's and especially the font and the way settings were kept for the next time you played it. I didn't get far, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Tiny Pixel Wars by PixelPaladin
Brilliant pixel graphics and sound! Bloody hard too. Took me a while to get used to the controls with the left/right mouse buttons :( We don't all have mice you know. After a few attempts and the nice help tips on startup I soon got the hang of it. I didn't like the way the map scrolled (like really fast), and found I had to jump around a bit to see what and where things were happening.
In some ways it could have been better with a smaller map and a zoom on the main map.
I did like the concept of building, brooding, hunting, etc. I'm just not that good at it - lol
Can't help feeling that an enlarged palette would have been good here (more 16bit that 8bit?)

SacredLands by iWasAdam
I'm afraid I can't comment on this

Redshirt Fodder by therevills
Really, really well put together. I loved the intro and the bus and the starfield, etc. I know you were going for the cannon fodder controls, but A* would have made thing just that more smoother on a control front. My big gripe was the controls and the use of both mouse buttons - this made even getting anywhere virtually impossible for anyone without a mouse. I can't help thinking that click on an enemy to fire and click a position to move with the same mouse button would have made thing smoother and more fun.
Didn't get the redshirt reference at first (I thought of Mounties), but once I had lots fell into place with a grin. I do think that the limited palette didn't do the game justice. The grass could have been better - like above more 16bit that 8bit...

Triss by Morpheus
Nicely done. took a while to figure out what was happening, but it all flowed well :) The colors were bright popped nicely.

Tower Swap by curtastic
Yep. I liked this one and thought there's legs in the concept. Graphics were 'chunky' at times, but that did not spoil my enjoyment. I liked PlantsvsZombis meets CandyCrush concept. and thought that this brought something new to the match and bang genre. This is a game I could see being further developed with updated graphics and a real narrative to drive things along. I kept coming back to this one as well :)

PixelPaladin

Here it comes :)

1st: Triss
2nd: Redshirt Fodder
3rd: PuzzPair
most original / complete: SacredLands

For the rating I used the following criteria:
   • polished (how polished was the game overall)
   • sound (quality of sound and music)
   • graphics (quality of the graphics)
   • gameplay (how interesting is the gameplay, is it too monotonous, ... stuff like that)
   • usableness (controls, user interface, intuitiveness, ...)
   • theme (how good did the game match the theme?)

Criteria were rated with 1 to max. 5 points. All values went into a spreadsheet which was used to determine the three winners and the most original / complete game.
I tried different weights for the different criteria but they didn't really change the outcome, so I think this way it is okay.
I tried to vote as neutral as possible. »Triss« and »PuzzPair« are not the type of games I would prefer as a player and I must say that I had most fun playing »A Knight's War« and »Redshirt Fodder«. However it would be unfair to judge games by their genre.

therevills

My votes go to:

1st: Tiny Pixel
2nd: A Knights War
3rd: Tower Swap
Most Original/Complete: SacredLands

Love the look and game play of Tiny Pixel Wars a great little RTS which fits the  Retro / Strategy perfectly!

A Knights War was different enough to get 2nd place for me as I do like a good turn based game such as XCom, Lords Of Chaos and Laser Squad.

Tower Swap was a cool take on the classic match 3 game which could be expanded on.

SacredLands, great work Adam! I too found it really hard to control at first but got the hang of flying the ship, its a great retro game - not such about the strategy part though? Maybe I was just trying to fly the ship I missed it ;)

Bug Hunter, great retro graphics.

PuzzPair - nice little puzzler, wished you could match more than two at a time.

Triss - the most polished game of the bunch IMO, if you could make it so the scrolling of the parts better and slow down the drop rate.


Overall - great job everyone!

freeman69

Reading other comments just made reaching a decision harder!

1. Tiny Pixel Wars - highly sophisticated.
2. A Knight's War - the game I most wanted to have 'just one more go'. Nice balance of all aspects.
3. PuzzPair - slightly addictive and a professional polish. Interesting combination of ideas.
Complete/unique: Triss - always a gamble to try something different - very well done.

Very difficult to judge against the others...

Sacred Lands - I see others had no problems, but the tutorial didn't seem to work and on crashing the explosion looped endlessly, often into the next game. I did somehow plant a tree and shot down a couple of saucers though, as well as blowing away all the trees in one game. Fantastic look/sound and presentation that really drew one in.

Redshirt Fodder - as a Trekkie this really appealed.

Tower Swap - I must admit I couldn't play. 3 Browsers, none of which were compatible and I decided against trying to download a fourth onto my clunky machine. I feel mean, but didn't want to not vote for the others (again).

Bug Hunter - Thank you to all for the comments, especially the nice ones :). I write what I want to play.

curtastic

Quote from: freeman69 on July 05, 2018, 09:01:10
Tower Swap - I must admit I couldn't play. 3 Browsers, none of which were compatible and I decided against trying to download a fourth onto my clunky machine. I feel mean, but didn't want to not vote for the others (again).
Ok I didn't think anyone would have old browsers. I can probably Babel the code to make it work. Did you try on your phone?

iWasAdam

@freeman69
QuoteI see others had no problems, but the tutorial didn't seem to work and on crashing the explosion looped endlessly, often into the next game. I did somehow plant a tree and shot down a couple of saucers though, as well as blowing away all the trees in one game.

Would have been good if you had mentioned this over in the worklogs so it could have been addressed quicker.
crashing/explosion in tutorial confirmed and fix is coming :)

freeman69

@Curtastic: I don't have a smart phone! (I am retro in all things).

@IWasAdam: First time I encountered problems I held back until I had time to play it again to see if it was just me doing something wrong. Then I kinda assumed that those sorts of problems would be encountered by all. :(

Apologies to both.

Just want to add thanks to Qube for hosting these competitions. I probably wouldn't have written any of the stuff submitted otherwise.

iWasAdam

there are (weird) things that happen on different systems. E.G. shader errors, different internal task scheduling that means each system (MacOS/Windows/Linux) will need additional tweaks to get everything running the same.

I've just found that on Linux responds slightly differently to mouse input. This has meant some recoding - particularly with the tutorial. It's more about catching system bugs and differences, so the more input the better  ;D

next update 1.02. will address these bugs and some minor rebalancing (easy becomes easier), plus much better fullscreen handling - again this needed some deep system digging cross platform.

iWasAdam

ok,
V1.02 is now ready for updating.

https://adamstrange.itch.io/sacredlands

The changes mainly address fullscreen and tutorial bugs as found above:
lots of minor bugfixes

added the current location of the rings to the grid display

fullscreen mode is now standardised across Windows/Linux platforms with correct resizing and saving.

Tutorial mode has been fixed - there were bugs that caused constant ship explosions.

Tutorial mode text has been changed to make it obvious which keys do what and how rings/horns operate

Tutorial mode bug fix to prevent 'next' tip/help from not advancing

Internal key scanning code changed to make it work the same across platforms

land height detection modified to prevent the ship from exploding when close but not actually hit.

difficulty slightly changed so that easy and medium give a little more fuel to make it not quite as brutal

3DzForMe

1st: Triss
2nd: Redshirt Fodder
3rd: Tiny Pixel Wars
Most Original: Sacred Lands

A very high standard of entries, well done to everyone who submitted an entry. Triss is very addicitive, took me back to playing tetris on a gameboy on a piquet post job a few years ago, great modification of the tetris genre.
BLitz3D, IDEal, AGK Studio, BMax, Java Code, Cerberus
Recent Hardware: Dell Laptop
Oldest Hardware: Commodore Amiga 1200 with 1084S Monitor & Blitz Basic 2.1

Morpheus

Here are my votes...
1 - Tiny Pixel Wars
2 - Tower swap
3 - Redshirt Fodder
Most Complete/Original
Sacred Lands

I didnt want to rush my votes out, I have given each game a real good play through. I didn't think it would be fair to not give some time to each entry. If I had gone entirely on first impressions my votes would have been much different.

PuzzPair by Holzchopf
Very slick game, graphics and sound are great. Easy to play if I didn't have the memory of a goldf..

A Knight's War by Matty
I wanted this game to be good, but just found it painful to play. Maybe its just me, I just don't get these games?

Bug Hunter: Annihilation Complex by freeman69
Nice concept for a game, with some good artwork this game could be top notch.

Tiny Pixel Wars by PixelPaladin
Really good pixel graphics, easy to pick up and play. Not usually a game type that i would play, but thourorly enjoyed it. Well done!

SacredLands by iWasAdam
Everything on the game looks great, love the style of the vector graphics. Spent a long time trying to get through the tutorial and I am stuck. Is it a bug or am i missing something?

Redshirt Fodder by therevills
I like the sense of humour and the style of this game. The controls need some work, would like the men to be able to go around objects and not get stuck. Apart from that a promising game.

Triss by a g(r)eek god
By far the best game ever written, I should be a millionaire =)

Tower Swap by curtastic
Really like the mix of match 3 and tower defence, I have played both genres to death and have got bored of them! But there's something about this game that keeps making me want to get another day further (Best is day 26).

Holzchopf

1st Tiny Pixel Wars
2nd Tower Swap
3rd Redshirt Fodder
Most complete: Tiny Pixel Wars


I played all entries multiple times on different days, so every one should have had equal chances ;)

A Knight's War
I found it super hard. I won one battle. Things that might improve the game: A bit more clear instructions like "click on the green fields and place your units there and try to place as many of them as possible", it would also help to see how many you could place rather than just finding out at some points than obviously you ran out of money or something..? Also, when units would have an over head indicator that shows how many moves they've got left, this would be handy. Otherwise it's more like try and error to find out you that you have to end your turn. Also I don't think the music fits but this is clearly just my personal opinion.

Bug Hunter: Annihilation Complex
I believe to remember you stated somewhere it's on purpose the player can't outrun the enemies. But seriously, this is no fun. I didn't enjoy this. I tried a few times, blew up a few hives, collected a few health potions and so on but it always ended in "enemies you can't do anything against raping you to death". No, I don't hate you for this, it's just that I don't like your game this time ;D And at least the only bugs visible are the ones that belong there :))

Tiny Pixel Wars
Wow! Just wow! I feel it's well balanced but then again I must admit I usually suck at strategy games but I finally did it! I won once! So maybe add more difficult levels? Maybe? But sounds and graphics and everything goes very well together! :)

SacredLands
Okay... controlling the ship ain't easy. Can we agree on that? :D I tried it now several times but I just can't fly. I finally gave up when I managed a "game over"... in the tutorial :o Not cool. I can barely steer my char and even before I know what's it all about the enemy sends his forces at me? ??? It *looks* fitted well together and complete, but I honestly can't say this for sure for a game I stop playing before even completing the tutorial because it's kinda depressing me... :'(

Redshirt Fodder
Fun game. Sounds and graphics well executed. Although it's somewhat repetitive it kept me entertained quite a while. Must be the humour you sneaked in there ;) Some graphical flaws occurred (tiles not sticking together creating gaps) but overall very solid.

Triss
Very clever twist to Tetris :) I think you should have addressed the collisions bug sooner :( My best so far is around level 8 but then it gets too complex for me and arranging blocks of four when there are just a few of that colour in the left takes up too much time.

Tower Swap
Damn I wish I came up with this idea :D I really like it! God I just played for so long I didn't even notice how time flies. Addictive! Too bad the graphics look a bit stretched =/ I made it to day 32 btw =)

iWasAdam

Re SacredLands tutorial issues - all sorted in 1.02 update :)

Morpheus

Quote from: Holzchopf on July 09, 2018, 09:00:40

Triss
Very clever twist to Tetris :) I think you should have addressed the collisions bug sooner :( My best so far is around level 8 but then it gets too complex for me and arranging blocks of four when there are just a few of that colour in the left takes up too much time.

A fixed executable was updated on itch. This includes the shape bug being fixed.

I have also coded the a drag system for the block picking side. That will be updated post competition as I don't think enhancements are allowed?

Morpheus

curtastic

Quote from: Holzchopf on July 09, 2018, 09:00:40
Tower Swap
Damn I wish I came up with this idea :D I really like it! God I just played for so long I didn't even notice how time flies. Addictive! Too bad the graphics look a bit stretched =/ I made it to day 32 btw =)
Yes it is addicting. Glad you like it. My wife has played for about 3 hours each day for the past ten days. I keep telling her it doesn't need any more testing. Her best is day 68. I'm going to improve the graphics and add sounds next week.