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Judge #1:
Theme
After the disappearance of the entire village during a crab festival, a medical team and a bunch of mercs come in to investigate/save the village. Atmospheric and well done.
Gameplay
Standard SRPG mechanics. There’s not much to say about the mechanics since I don’t think it brings anything new to the table except for maybe one thing ,a revived ally can act immediately on that turn rather than the next turn. I like this. Also the dog is easily the strongest unit. There are however some pretty major issues:
1) The animations happen way later than the damage pop up which makes it really jarring too.
2) There are bugs where I can’t target enemies with a certain character though and really does mess things up.
3) Poison happens twice(!). One for start of your turn and end of turn. That’s way to severe of a punishment.
4) There’s many enemies and it took me a while to kill all of them to proceed through the story in a short time frame.
Presentation
For the most part the graphics and tone of the game lives up. There are a few odd things here and there that could be fixed like the crab placeholder, some odd mapping choices like a lit candle but not reflecting any light on a pitch black shack, some of the house models, enemy sprites, etc. But it is pretty polished for such a short time frame. The writing is also pretty believable.
Engagement
It was alright. Definitely one of the stronger entries on my side. I’m also glad it’s not just a bunch of teenages arguing about a ton of dumb things.
Total – 60/80
________________________________________________________________________________
Judge #2
Presentation
Graphics appear to be custom created mixed with assets. Some of them stand out quite a bit in comparison. The mapping is isometric in some areas and not in others, which stands out a bit. It's decent enough for a tactics game, though more details would be nice to see.
Sound is standard jRPG fare but fits where it is used and isn't jarring. The same with music which is decent but nothing amazing either.
Writing is quite good with not many noticeable errors. The characterisation falls a little flat when it comes to some characters, but is well done for others, so it's a bit of a mixed bag in that aspect.
The story itself is well framed and pushes the conflict along well. There's some mystery as to what happened to a town of people on the eve of a festival and now your team needs to find out the truth... and fast.
Gameplay
Gameplay is FFT in a nutshell. Different characters have different skills to use and move on a grid in battle. They can attack, defend (parry), use items... the usual tactics fare. Nothing is really exciting in this set up, but at least it all works well with no bugs that I could find.
Outside of battle you moved around the map isometrically and searched for clues. You could also check out the menu with the usual jRPG options.
Engagement
It moves at a pretty slow pace, battle-wise, which is fine for tactics games but can still get boring despite that. The story was interesting at least, even if the characters were a bit bland sometimes, and I do like a good mystery.
Also, moving around in dark areas is never fun. Less so when it's isometric mode.
Theme
Solving the mystery was the big theme of the game and while the investigation/story arcs made that work, the battles themselves had little to do with that bar providing a challenge to beat. It worked I guess.
Total = 58/80
Theme
After the disappearance of the entire village during a crab festival, a medical team and a bunch of mercs come in to investigate/save the village. Atmospheric and well done.
Gameplay
Standard SRPG mechanics. There’s not much to say about the mechanics since I don’t think it brings anything new to the table except for maybe one thing ,a revived ally can act immediately on that turn rather than the next turn. I like this. Also the dog is easily the strongest unit. There are however some pretty major issues:
1) The animations happen way later than the damage pop up which makes it really jarring too.
2) There are bugs where I can’t target enemies with a certain character though and really does mess things up.
3) Poison happens twice(!). One for start of your turn and end of turn. That’s way to severe of a punishment.
4) There’s many enemies and it took me a while to kill all of them to proceed through the story in a short time frame.
Presentation
For the most part the graphics and tone of the game lives up. There are a few odd things here and there that could be fixed like the crab placeholder, some odd mapping choices like a lit candle but not reflecting any light on a pitch black shack, some of the house models, enemy sprites, etc. But it is pretty polished for such a short time frame. The writing is also pretty believable.
Engagement
It was alright. Definitely one of the stronger entries on my side. I’m also glad it’s not just a bunch of teenages arguing about a ton of dumb things.
Total – 60/80
________________________________________________________________________________
Judge #2
Presentation
Graphics appear to be custom created mixed with assets. Some of them stand out quite a bit in comparison. The mapping is isometric in some areas and not in others, which stands out a bit. It's decent enough for a tactics game, though more details would be nice to see.
Sound is standard jRPG fare but fits where it is used and isn't jarring. The same with music which is decent but nothing amazing either.
Writing is quite good with not many noticeable errors. The characterisation falls a little flat when it comes to some characters, but is well done for others, so it's a bit of a mixed bag in that aspect.
The story itself is well framed and pushes the conflict along well. There's some mystery as to what happened to a town of people on the eve of a festival and now your team needs to find out the truth... and fast.
Gameplay
Gameplay is FFT in a nutshell. Different characters have different skills to use and move on a grid in battle. They can attack, defend (parry), use items... the usual tactics fare. Nothing is really exciting in this set up, but at least it all works well with no bugs that I could find.
Outside of battle you moved around the map isometrically and searched for clues. You could also check out the menu with the usual jRPG options.
Engagement
It moves at a pretty slow pace, battle-wise, which is fine for tactics games but can still get boring despite that. The story was interesting at least, even if the characters were a bit bland sometimes, and I do like a good mystery.
Also, moving around in dark areas is never fun. Less so when it's isometric mode.
Theme
Solving the mystery was the big theme of the game and while the investigation/story arcs made that work, the battles themselves had little to do with that bar providing a challenge to beat. It worked I guess.
Total = 58/80
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djbeardo
1834
djbeardo
View playlists
CloseI grabbed these from the itch.io page they were pasted on, considering rmn is more of where I consider my home to be. As I stated elsewhere, I wanted to include all feedback on this game - no matter what it looks like.
I want to thank the two judges who played my game! It sounds like it got a 3/4 star rating or so, looking at their scores. I'm pretty happy with that.
I'm particularly happy with their kind words regarding the theme, atmosphere, and writing. I pride myself on those aspects more than other things, so it was nice that it came through.
Random thoughts:
1) Slow pace: Yep, that's kinda the nature of tactics games. Not sure what I could do to speed that up. Fewer enemies? Lower enemy HP? Smaller maps? All good ideas for the next game.
2) Noticeable writing errors: If anyone sees some, let me know. Typos bug the shit out of me. But I am only human, so I'm sure I made some mistakes that I've gone blind to after looking at the same lines of text for so long.
3) Dog is strongest unit: You're damn right he is! There's an in-world reason for this...
4) Allies acting upon revival: Thanks! This is all part of the tactics engine. I wish I could take credit for it.
5) Animations happening later than damage: Whoa. Weird. This does not happen for me. I'll look into it.
6) Can't target enemies: Another weirdness, considering the other judge said they didn't have any bugs. I've found that the tactical engine has a few quirks, especially if you're running on a slower machine. Also, the Bril character is buggier than the other characters. But it only happens on some playthroughs and I can't replicate it. Grr.
7) Poison happens twice: Yeah, another engine quirk. It's one reason why I made an auto heal after every battle and plentiful items.
8) Hard to kill all the enemies: There were 6 heroes, so each map (except for the end "boss") has 6 enemies. That seemed fair. But maybe it's still too much?
9) Custom graphics: It's the crab decorations in the first map, isn't it? Okay, I deleted them. They didn't work, and I knew that. I should listen to my gut.
10) Graphics being weird: The tileset has a lit candle on a table, and I didn't add a glimmer to it. Also, I should make the darkness bubble bigger in the houses - I'll do that. Hey, I thought my houses looked okay, though! XD Especially given the Layy Meta engine limitations... And I would like to know which enemies look derpy. I got lots of enemy sprites... Which ones do people not like?
11) Moving around in dark areas: The isometric maps are night tinted, but not particularly dark. Not sure what else I could do here. Inside the houses - yes, I can make the moving bubble bigger.
12) More isometric map details: Agreed. And I figured out how to do it after the deadline. That will be done in the next tactics game I do.
Anyway, thanks again to the judges. I'm glad that people found it generally okay. At least one of the judges thought it was one of the stronger entries!
I want to thank the two judges who played my game! It sounds like it got a 3/4 star rating or so, looking at their scores. I'm pretty happy with that.
I'm particularly happy with their kind words regarding the theme, atmosphere, and writing. I pride myself on those aspects more than other things, so it was nice that it came through.
Random thoughts:
1) Slow pace: Yep, that's kinda the nature of tactics games. Not sure what I could do to speed that up. Fewer enemies? Lower enemy HP? Smaller maps? All good ideas for the next game.
2) Noticeable writing errors: If anyone sees some, let me know. Typos bug the shit out of me. But I am only human, so I'm sure I made some mistakes that I've gone blind to after looking at the same lines of text for so long.
3) Dog is strongest unit: You're damn right he is! There's an in-world reason for this...
4) Allies acting upon revival: Thanks! This is all part of the tactics engine. I wish I could take credit for it.
5) Animations happening later than damage: Whoa. Weird. This does not happen for me. I'll look into it.
6) Can't target enemies: Another weirdness, considering the other judge said they didn't have any bugs. I've found that the tactical engine has a few quirks, especially if you're running on a slower machine. Also, the Bril character is buggier than the other characters. But it only happens on some playthroughs and I can't replicate it. Grr.
7) Poison happens twice: Yeah, another engine quirk. It's one reason why I made an auto heal after every battle and plentiful items.
8) Hard to kill all the enemies: There were 6 heroes, so each map (except for the end "boss") has 6 enemies. That seemed fair. But maybe it's still too much?
9) Custom graphics: It's the crab decorations in the first map, isn't it? Okay, I deleted them. They didn't work, and I knew that. I should listen to my gut.
10) Graphics being weird: The tileset has a lit candle on a table, and I didn't add a glimmer to it. Also, I should make the darkness bubble bigger in the houses - I'll do that. Hey, I thought my houses looked okay, though! XD Especially given the Layy Meta engine limitations... And I would like to know which enemies look derpy. I got lots of enemy sprites... Which ones do people not like?
11) Moving around in dark areas: The isometric maps are night tinted, but not particularly dark. Not sure what else I could do here. Inside the houses - yes, I can make the moving bubble bigger.
12) More isometric map details: Agreed. And I figured out how to do it after the deadline. That will be done in the next tactics game I do.
Anyway, thanks again to the judges. I'm glad that people found it generally okay. At least one of the judges thought it was one of the stronger entries!
bicfarmer
3346
1) Slow pace: Tactic games are slow since they are supposed to emphasize tactical thought in battles, but that doesnt really happen here because this game is really easy. So when your too overpowered it might get a bit boring.
2) I dont remember any glaring typos, but I had loads of typos in my ultimate game that I never noticed so I'm pretty bad at checking this
3) Way too OP. Usually i can expect him to oneshot whoever he's targetting.
4) I never had anyone die to have seen this feature. Doesnt sound like a bad feature though.
5) Maybe the lag causes it
6) Dont remember this ever happening. Though I did notice the dog cant heal his own status effects and grandma missed some heal stabs on the dog for some reason. Defend also didnt seem to reduce any damage from an enemy attack.
7) Maybe reduce its percentage?
8) They werent hard at all if you uses typical tactics RPG strategies, like focus fire and positioning. It might be overwhelming to new players though.
9) Yeah those crab boxes were flipping ugly. Thought those were errors when I first saw them
10) Check your tilesets, I can walk up cracks inside the houses. Graphics turn completely black if the camera is outside the bounding box of the map.
11) It's fine for being night time but some moving shadow cloud effect or something makes it extremely dark outdoors.
12) Not just details maybe events and everything? Hahaha good luck
2) I dont remember any glaring typos, but I had loads of typos in my ultimate game that I never noticed so I'm pretty bad at checking this
3) Way too OP. Usually i can expect him to oneshot whoever he's targetting.
4) I never had anyone die to have seen this feature. Doesnt sound like a bad feature though.
5) Maybe the lag causes it
6) Dont remember this ever happening. Though I did notice the dog cant heal his own status effects and grandma missed some heal stabs on the dog for some reason. Defend also didnt seem to reduce any damage from an enemy attack.
7) Maybe reduce its percentage?
8) They werent hard at all if you uses typical tactics RPG strategies, like focus fire and positioning. It might be overwhelming to new players though.
9) Yeah those crab boxes were flipping ugly. Thought those were errors when I first saw them
10) Check your tilesets, I can walk up cracks inside the houses. Graphics turn completely black if the camera is outside the bounding box of the map.
11) It's fine for being night time but some moving shadow cloud effect or something makes it extremely dark outdoors.
12) Not just details maybe events and everything? Hahaha good luck
djbeardo
1834
author=bicfarmer
1) Slow pace: Tactic games are slow since they are supposed to emphasize tactical thought in battles, but that doesnt really happen here because this game is really easy. So when your too overpowered it might get a bit boring.
2) I dont remember any glaring typos, but I had loads of typos in my ultimate game that I never noticed so I'm pretty bad at checking this
3) Way too OP. Usually i can expect him to oneshot whoever he's targetting.
4) I never had anyone die to have seen this feature. Doesnt sound like a bad feature though.
5) Maybe the lag causes it
6) Dont remember this ever happening. Though I did notice the dog cant heal his own status effects and grandma missed some heal stabs on the dog for some reason. Defend also didnt seem to reduce any damage from an enemy attack.
7) Maybe reduce its percentage?
8) They werent hard at all if you uses typical tactics RPG strategies, like focus fire and positioning. It might be overwhelming to new players though.
9) Yeah those crab boxes were flipping ugly. Thought those were errors when I first saw them
10) Check your tilesets, I can walk up cracks inside the houses. Graphics turn completely black if the camera is outside the bounding box of the map.
11) It's fine for being night time but some moving shadow cloud effect or something makes it extremely dark outdoors.
12) Not just details maybe events and everything? Hahaha good luck
Oh hey! I just saw these replies! Thanks for your input! I fixed that crack problem. Also, I lightened up the maps. All good suggestions!
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