Christmas 2006 Dualstream Day of Zeux Judging Sheets:KenOhki2112
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Kenohki2112's Judging results:
DOZ 2006 Q4
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Teams by score:
#1 F 34239: (311/400)
#2 M 12984: (269/400)
#3 F 90100: (234/400)
#4 M 99115: (214/400)
#5 F 65131: (170/400)
#6 M 77665: (152/400)
#7 M 21079: (135/400)
#8 M 32427: (111/400)
#9 F 48625: (106/400)
#10 M 05389: (98/400)
#11 F 00525: (64/400)
#12 M 51976: (53/400)
#13 F 83038: (51/400)
#14 M 86715: (15/400)
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Teams by number:
F 00525: (64/400)
M 05389: (98/400)
M 12984: (269/400)
M 21079: (135/400)
M 32427: (111/400)
F 34239: (311/400)
F 48625: (106/400)
M 51976: (53/400)
F 65131: (170/400)
M 77665: (152/400)
F 83038: (51/400)
M 86715: (15/400)
F 90100: (234/400)
M 99115: (214/400)
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Score break down
00525: Flight
theme 11/20
gameplay 5/120
graphics 8/90
technique 6/80
story 16/50
sound 18/40
total: 64/400
05389: Memory
theme 9/100
gameplay 26/90
graphics 12/70
technique 6/60
story 35/50
sound 10/30
Total: 98/400
12984: Memory
Theme 41/100
Gameplay 64/90
graphics 61/70
technique 50/60
story 28/50
sound 25/30
Total 269/400
21079: Memory
Theme 24/100
gameplay 46/90
graphics 23/70
technique 22/60
story 18/50
sound 2/30
total 135/400
32427: Memory
Theme 19/100
Gameplay 9/90
Graphics 27/70
Technique 10/60
story 19/50
sound 27/30
total 111/400
34239: Flight
Theme 15/20
Gameplay 104/120
graphics 82/90
Technique 70/80
story 22/50
sound 38/40
total 331/400
48625: Flight
Theme 2/20
Gameplay 30/120
graphics 30/90
technique 27/80
story 2/50
sound 15/40
total 106/400
51976: Memory
Theme 25/100
gameplay 3/90
graphics 2/70
technique 3/60
story 10/50
sound 10/30
total 53/400
65131: Flight
Theme 12/20
gameplay 31/120
graphics 38/80
technique 40/80
story 18/50
sound 31/40
total 170/400
77665: Memory
Theme 61/100
gameplay 22/90
graphics 16/70
technique 10/50
story 32/50
sound 11/30
Total 152/400
83038: Flight
Theme 3/20
gameplay 9/120
graphics 12/90
technique 15/80
story 4/50
sound 8/40
total 51/400
86715: Memory
Theme 1/100
gameplay 2/90
graphics 1/70
technique 0/60
story 1/50
sound 10/30
Total 15/400
90100: Flight
Theme 2/20
gameplay 61/120
graphics 66/90
technique 58/80
story 22/50
sound 25/40
total 234/400
99115: Memory
Theme 33/100
gameplay 20/90
graphics 60/70
technique 49/60
story 38/50
sound 14/30
Total 214/400
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Comments: please excuse grammatical and spelling errors. In the case of any score inconsistency, default to the scores below.
Theme 11/20
The selected theme was flight, the entry was more about the characters exotic fantasy (which happens to be flight), and subconscious dream stuff (where you are flying). Close enough to get a lot of the points, not focused enough to get you all of them.
gameplay 5/120
This entry went out of it's way to make the intro annoying, it's one thing to neglect adding in a skip intro feature, or failing that some rapid advance option.. It's another thing entirely to disable the F2 menu and try to force the player to rewatch it. (-points) the intro takes over two minutes and thirty seconds, way too long.. (-points) Things get worse very quickly once the intro is finished and you take command. The scrolling is all wrong and visually confusing, Conventional looking bullets.. 1x1 everything, 100% exploitable game play.. DoZ games shouldn't be too hard, but
moving my guy to the top of the screen and holding down the space bar is not fun at all. I did like
the custom pause screen I guess, token points awarded for that. Will-o-meter? What? No. Just.. No..
Graphics 8/90
Also really not good, I'm not sure why this bald kid is having dreams of himself turning into a naked pink starfish and firing bullets out of.. Something O_o The pregnant girl with the mullet is also visually a catastrophe, I did kind of like the white sheep in the intro until I found out it was supposed to be a dog. I don't really understand why the mutant squiggly snakes in the dream sequence were changing colors when I shot them. Really there is just nothing graphically pleasing here at all. Pretty much no robotic was effectively used to aid the graphics.
Technique 6/80
The robotic prowess displayed in this game makes Atari's 1982 release of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" look good. Everything is buggy, there are multiple linking errors, etc. What things do work correctly are not in the slightest bit impressive.
Story 16/50
This entry did have a lot of words in it. Most of which were assigned to making the player aware of the characters romantic view towards flying, however it was pretty much completely uncompressing and as a result I felt entirely detatched from any of it. The delivery of the story is also
painful, with the harsh breaks in "action", boring ending, and heavy frontloading of the game (long
intro)
sound 18/40
Quite a bit of music was attached to this entry, most were put to use moderately effectively, some just weren't very good though, I'm pretty sure there wasn't a single sound effect in the game,
Summary: 64/400
This team picked the wrong topic, please pay closer attention to the scoring tables. If your intention is to release a not very fun game with heavy use of theme, select the general topic not the specific one. Your score would have _doubled_ or more if you used the other topic.
Theme: 9/100
there is almost no connection to the theme with this entry, which is a real shame because actually it was a little fun. "memory" was said once or twice, that was really it. Seems to me if your intention is to make a game with almost complete disregard to the DoZ topics, at least aim for the specific one where you will be penalized far less.
Gameplay: 26/90
I cannot stress this enough as it is a common problem with games in general, Abruptly ending the game, or making the game unplayable due to a single miss step is a horrible model for a game, THANKFULLY this one DID warn me to save right before that, and as such it will retain a large number of points it would have lost here. As a pseudo-puzzle game this entry delivers in a style befitting a DoZ game. Basic movement mechanics and heavy use of built-ins do however cap the points I'm willing to give by a considerable amount.
Graphics: 12/70
Again, heavy use of built-ins, weak backgrounds, total lack of robotic support in graphics, this game aimed low here and was scored appropriately. These days you just can't compete in this category without some serious work.
Technique: 6/60
A very minimal amount of robotic went into this game, the low score here should not be a surprise in any way.
Story: 35/50
The story was straight forward, and simple, the dialogue in rhyme form was a nice touch and made reading it much less painful.
Sound: 10/30
No sound is better than bad sound. I'm hard pressed my self to think of any music that would be very fitting to the game, as such I have no option but to recognize the team's choice not to
include any with some points.
Summary: 98/400
Fun to play, but set the bar really low and almost completely disregarded the topics.
Theme 41/100
The story, as vague and incomplete as it was did have a pretty good angle on the memory theme, most of the images didn't, and when the actual game did start pretty much nothing struck me as having to do with memory. Most of the images used in the intro didn't help the theme very much.
Gameplay: 64/90
Lack of a rapid advance or skip option to the story (until replay) and disabling of the F2 menu (during story parts) did hurt the game a little bit, being able to skip most of the intro after the initial play did grab most of those points back, nice touch. The game's main engine, even considering the included documentation was still pretty confusing, far too much of the game mechanics were hidden from the player. The melee weapon was pretty satisfying to slash around, the charge up shots were a little troublesome but not bad by any means. Sadly the game was very short, I assume incomplete, and so I'm sure I wasn't able to experience all of what it could offer, this turns out to be the most significant penalty to the gameplay score.
Graphics: 61/70
Very pretty indeed, I expect a lot more from games that throw down with some SMZX, this one delivered. Robotic was greatly used to assist in the graphics allowing for a very high score. Excellent use of color, sword swinging on several occasions caused some nasty flashes on the floor that were very distracting though.
Technique: 50/60
Good use of sprites and SMZX mode (which is rarely used effectively in a DoZ). I wasn't able to produce any significant bugs other than some minor graphical problems. A more inventive magic system would have benefited quite a bit, people have been shooting balls in 4 directions for years now.
Story: 28/50
On the first play through I was really put off by the story, but I'm not sure why, the second try I decided I really liked the direction it was headed. This could have gone pretty close to a full score on story if the rest of it made it into the game. Even considering it's incomplete state, it was worth some serious points.
Sound: 25/30
The music fit nicely, the sound effects were intuitive, everything felt like it belonged. I would rethink the noise made when holding a full charge though, that one was a bit awkward.
Summary: 269/400 Very pretty game, all the pieces were there but just not enough content to really take the doz. I would advise this team to also pay closer attention to the scoring tables, the strengths shown here would produce a much higher score on a specific topic, this seems to be a recurring problem this DoZ however.
Theme: 24/100
loose connection with story, loose connection with gameplay, theme is hard, what can I say.
gameplay: 46/90
The single biggest factor in this score is the parabolic flight path of the players jumping. Thank you. Thank you so much for giving me some float time. I cannot stress enough how important it is to the enjoyment of a side scroller. The gun was pretty boring, I did like how it charged up rather than needing ammo. Enemy design was a pretty simple, barely adding any difficulty, and the tree level was pretty retarded with the sudden drops. Starting with more lives would have been a good
idea too.
Graphics: 23/70
Not a whole lot going on here, a lot of the use of color was very confusing and made it difficult to differenciate between the ground and the backdrop.
Technique: 22/60
sidescrollers are pretty straight forward, nothing too ambitious here. It works, it has some nice touches like the float time and bullets pushing you back. Again, nothing very advanced here, but some nice flavor.
Story: 18/50
weak uninteresting story, almost no character development, this entry aimed low and scored appropriately. On the plus side the story was rationed out throughout the game, that's always a plus.
Sound: 2/30
Evidently fuzzy can play the guitar. Maybe he should have made these songs instead of who ever the credits say did.
Summary: 135/400
Nice solid jumper, significant difficulty issues (inconsistency). Other than the rushed ending this one actually feels like it's completed.
Theme: 29/100
Loose confusing connection, altering the past through memories... Sounds more like time travel.
Gameplay: 9/90
Frustrating text, bring puzzles, retarded combat, after only 15 seconds of game I was just waiting for it to end.
Graphics: 27/70
clean enough, very simple, quality seems to degrade significantly as the game goes on, completely unassisted by robotic,
technique: 10/60
Bugs AND conventional bullets? Pass.
Story: 19/50
Not too bad, but the delivery was horrible, severe pacing problems, very bad dialogue etc.
Sound: 27/30
A good example of how fitting music is more important than good music. Good choices were made here.
Summary: 121/400
Had to re-add this score several times, it just doesn't seem like it should get as many as I gave it, but I can't justify lowering it any more. =p
Theme: 15/20
Solid connections across the board, not dead on but close enough.
Gameplay: 104/120
Very fun to play, responsive controls, challenging but not frustrating, VERY good level design, and that's the key here, you can't just sit in a dead zone some where and hold down the fire button for cruise control through each level. Bosses were innovative and fun. Several nice features added to
the game such as difficultly level, which on dissection proves to change most aspects of the game. Holding shift to navigate tight areas. The only thing holding the game back would be the lack of alternate weapons, either upgrades or special weapons. Nice length, dialogue is not intrusive to
gameplay.
Graphics: 82/90
Very pretty to look at, excellent imported backgrounds, the style does limit the resolution greatly, other than that drawback though this is a very pretty game. Great support from robotic.
Technique: 70/80
Mostly awarded for the level design, (enemy spawning firing patterns bosses etc.) Some of the enemy patterns were a little too predictable and, I guess I want to say "mathematical".
Story: 22/50
Basic story, not very good, well paced and on topic though. Ending was abrupt, I would have liked to see a little more than just a finishing screen.
Sound: 38/40
excellent use of sound, very fitting to each level catchy stuff, I plan on swiping some of this for my own use later on.
Summary: 331/400
Nice solid game, this is hands down my favorite of the competition. I'm pretty sure this Entry will win, if for no other reason than they were one of the few to pick the best score table for their team.
Theme: 2/20
Token points awarded for liberal use of balloons which are almost associated with flight.
Gameplay: 30/120
Very short, almost no difficulty to speak of. Some what satisfying to run around.
Graphics: 30/90
Best thing here is the freefall lip pucker (at least I assume that's what it is). Very nice touch. Over all though this was a waste of SMZX.
Technique: 27/80
Pedestrian use of SMZX and sprites.
Story: 2/50
Some words were used.
Sound: 15/40
I did laugh a little bit at the music, this is seriously the most I can spare the entry for the chuckle it got.
Summary: 106/400
DQ for topic please?
Theme: 25/100
The game at one point requires you to remember some stuff that was said, That's it though and that's just not enough.
Gameplay: 3/90
Almost none, The concept while not completely flawed was delivered in a very poor manner, zzz.
Graphics: 2/70
This entry made almost no effort to earn any points in this category.
Technique: 3/60
See above.
Story: 10/50
points awarded for having a story inside the game, while the game it's self seems to have nothing.
Sound: 10/30
No sound is better than bad sound!
Summary: 53/400
poorly executed high risk venture by team 51976.
Theme: 12/20
Story mentions but didn't connect very well, half of the gameplay did, Overall pretty good use of theme considering what other people tried to pass off.
Gameplay: 31/120
Pretty frustrating buggy 2 char engine, for serious use a sprite, save lots of time and have something less buggy. Thankfully they lowballed that part of the game and went into the flying part. Much less buggy and with some neat touches like 8 directional movement and firing. Still falls short of "fun", aiming and moving are frustrating and there's little incentive to shoot or kill anything when you can just fly right overhead everything.
Graphics: 38/90
I liked the intro screen and the flying boards at least a little bit. Over all points reduced due to lack of robotic support, buggy nature of the graphics, inconsistent graphics, this really feels like 2 completely different games tacked together. Also seriously what is wrong with this persons face? Seriously.
Technique: 40/80
This entry did try to get around built ins in two distinct ways, Neither one was too great though, Writing errors in the text boxes at the ending, I don't think they were intentional..
Story: 18/50
weak story, I'm not sure why I was blowing up some retarded flying submarine but I did. The intro was kind of fun actually but that's about it.
Sound: 31/40
Good use of sound mostly, none of the music was too irritating and the sound effects were used nicely.
Summary: 170/400
This team needs to refine their robotic skills, learn to build some engines that are more fun and enjoyable, then come back next DoZ and blow some of the incumbents away. They also need to learn how to draw a face.
Theme: 61/100
True to the topic this entry was pumped full of flashbacks, The main drawback is the general confusing nature of the game. The smileys- the graphics in general didn't really play too well into everything. Still one of the higher scores I'll be giving out for theme this DoZ.
Gameplay: 22/90
A bit confusing at times, What was happening in the flashbacks was not always very clear, Who was who, who was talking etc, There's really just not a lot for the player to do here, it's mostly just an interactive video.
Graphics: 16/70
Basic graphics, in a game like this there really needs to be a better solution for talking and making the player certain about what represents who. Virtually unassisted by robotic.
Technique: 10/50
Nothing advanced going on here.
Story: 32/50
The main problem with this story is the confusing nature of it. When making a game that so actively involves flashback scenes, the writer must be VERY careful. Nice pacing though, it's always nice to have a game that isn't just front loaded with a bunch of text I have no intention of reading.
Sound: 11/30
weak sound, didn't seem to fit the scenes very well, really hurts the games atmosphere, especially in a genre like this.
Summary: 152/400
Pay very close attention when playing this game, or just be confused. Severely lacking in polish.
Theme: 3/20
I guess this guy is flying, I'm not really sure, he might be swimming with a broom. This game is about magic, that you happen to be flying while shooting basketballs at people is only worth a few token points.
Gameplay: 9/120
The controls are very counter intuitive, I really don't understand why the mouse is being used. Enemy design is really poor, level design is even worse, it's extremely short etc.
Graphics: 12/90
You can't just turn on SMZX and score big here. We all expect a lot more when you fire it up, and this just didn't have it.
Technique: 15/80
sprites are a good start but that's really about it, SMZX seems to have hurt this entry more than it helped.
Story: 4/50
everything is wrong here, that shouldn't be a surprise at all.
Sound: 8/40
Summary: 51/400
get out of SMZX and make a game with some content. Failing that at least make your game pretty if you're gonna fire up SMZX.
Theme 1/100
Gameplay 2/90
Graphics 1/70
technique 0/60
story 1/50
sound 10/30
Summary: 15/400
Meh.
Theme 2/20
Basic reference to flight in the story, completely irrelevant to the rest of the game. That's too bad too because if not for the possible DQ of the game this was a pretty neat entry.
Gameplay: 61/120
Old school sierra style adventure game (although personally I like the text boxes better than the click menus). Neat idea, some what successful. The game however is pretty short, the combat is confusing and irritating to the point where I just cheated to beat the game. Random encounters are not good for this style of game, especially random encounters that occur every 40-100 cycles. Pathfinding was kind of crappy and sometimes that menu just wouldn't get out of my face.
Graphics: 66/90
The people were a little bit awkward but over all not too bad, nice animations, the enemies looked pretty cool. Decent use of robotic to help out here.
Technique: 58/80
I haven't seen these ideas out in an MZX game yet, all together nothing too advanced, but still effective.
Story: 22/50
The story is unfortunately frontloaded and incomplete, it's clearly rushed towards the end, oh well.
Sound 25/40
Nothing special here, nothing painful though.
Summary: 234/400
Another few hours here might have made this game a lot better. The combat was pretty bad though. A full game made like this would be pretty interesting though.
Theme: 33/100
Good connection to the story, not so much to the gameplay or graphics, etc. Though.
Gameplay: 20/90
The tragically broken player attack.. Thing will turn out to be the main flaw here. I'm not even 100% certain what this fuzzy ball is supposed to be doing. Overall it's much too difficult, mostly due to the games buggy nature. Very difficult to get through narrow passages.
Graphics: 60/70
2x2 pixel perfect player and large pixel perfect enemies, visually this is VERY appealing. The players character seems to have a real zombieish stagger when walking around. Backgrounds looked very good, very ambitious use of robotic equals big points even if it breaks apart later.
Technique: 49/60
If this team had more time to finalize everything they probably would have topped this category. The nature of the bugs are just too crippling to the game though.
Story: 38/50
Some where in this mess there's a pretty good story, I personally had to dig most of it out of the editor, that's going to cost some points right here under the theory that the story was "poorly
presented".
Sound: 14/30
I wasn't too impressed with the music, better than no music though!
Summary: 214/400
A real heart breaker right here. I wanted this game to work so bad but it's just not all together, it's hard to give any advice since I'm not actually sure where too much time was spent- not leaving enough to get everything working. Even if the gimmicky weapon worked correctly it didn't seem that great any way. I'm sure they know what went wrong already and what to do to fix it.