Summer 2006 DsDoZ Judging Sheets:Wervyn
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== OPENING ===================================================================== Hey and hello and welcome to another DoZ. I will actually be providing comments on my scores this time, since I know you all love my witty banter (and I certainly love the sound of my own voice...um, typing). This computer is 99% guaranteed not to crash in the middle of my writing them, so no more giving up halfway through because I lost all my work. I hope. Onward dear travellers! == Judging Criteria ============================================================ = Gameplay - 75 Points = | As we all know, gameplay is really what the game is all about. Everything | | else is supplimentary. I judge gameplay essentially by how much I liked | | playing the game. Smooth and intuitive play is a big plus, along with a | | difficulty level that allows me to sit down and play through it in no more | | than fifteen or twenty minutes, without being simply too easy. (Though if | | the game can actually keep me entertained for more than that, more power to | | you.) Things that obstruct smooth gameplay, be they bugs or poor design, | | cost points here. | = Graphics - 60 Points = | MZX is capable of producing some pretty impressive graphics nowadays, and I | | definitely know what the upper edge of that looks like. You want paletting | | that works together with the art, good use of space, and well edited char | | sets earn points from me, as graphical gaffes and bugs cost them. SMZX by | | itself doesn't affect the score, but used properly it can make for an | | impressive show. | = Innovation - 45 Points = | Generally this is a measure of the bells and whistles attached to your game | | and how well they function. I consider how difficult it would be for the | | average MZXer to pull them off, combined with how common the engine in | | question is. If it's something I've never seen before, and I have no idea | | how you pulled it off, you're probably looking at a full score here. But | | I've seen a lot. And if on the other hand, it doesn't work, then I can't | | very well give it any points. | = Plot - 40 Points = | I love good plots. That said, there are some types of games where plot | | doesn't factor in as much, or it just isn't feasible or appropriate to have | | a plot. Even so, if your plot is an afterthought or non-existent, the most | | you can expect here is half score. Everything else really weighs on how | | much I like your story, which may be subjective, but that's what judging is | | all about. | = Music/Sound - 35 Points = | Finding the right music for a game can be tricky. It doesn't do to just | | slap your favorite mod in the game, it has to flow with the environment and | | the context and in general set the proper mood for what's going on, be it | | an actiony platformer or a riveting RPG drama (haha yeah right). Sound | | effects are important, but not paramount, and if they stand out too much | | they do more harm than good. The best music and sound, really, is the kind | | that you don't notice unless you explicitly pay attention to it, because it | | just feels like it's supposed to be there. Bad sound and music, on the | | other hand, stick out. | = Theme - 30 Points = | Theme is mostly there to make sure you're adhering to the competition rules | | and not starting before you're supposed to. Not that it could really stop | | you, it's mostly an honor system since what really makes the DoZ fun IS the | | time limit, I think. This year I've decided that I will award perfect | | scores only to those games that take the theme and do something really | | interesting with it, either by tying it into the game in an integral way, | | or taking it in an unexpected direction, or something like that. If you | | just make a game about pirates, say, you're likely to get a 20 here. | = Discretion - 15 Points = | The catchall category for nigling little details. Normally this gets a full | | score, I only take off points if you do something that strikes me as | | particularly stupid or obscene or otherwise shouldn't have been done. Fair | | warning, there may be extra venting here for stuff that came out of other | | categories, if I consider it a mistake that should never have been made. | = Rank Weight - 100 Points = | This is the part where I go back over all the games and decide which ones I | | like the best and which ones I liked the least. This is independent of any | | other criteria, based almost entirely on gut reaction and quite probably | | influenced by my mood at the time, subject to change if I were to rank them | | again on another day. But they will PROBABLY be relatively consistent and | | at least somewhat correspond to the point ranking, with awful games near | | the bottom and high scoring games toward the top. That's just how it tends | | to work out. | ================================================================================ And now, onto the games. = 00009 = Lesbian Space Pirates ===================== (DQ) PIRATES = [005/400] = = Gameplay - 00/75 [ 00/ 75] = | The action in this game was superbly scripted, driving the story along at a | | frenetic pace without overwhelming the player with too much information. | | Once I learned to assign areas of control to my dildo commanders, armada | | management became a breeze. And I particularly liked the erotica gun. | = Graphics - 00/60 [ 00/ 60] = | The cinematic opening was really impressive, with the grand space battle | | over Virgo VII. Granted, the concept isn't a new one, nor is it really that | | complicated, but it still looks amazing to see that kind of full motion | | video in MZX. The quality didn't drop off, either; the pixel perfect 3D | | rendering engine was a work of genius, I still want to know where you're | | getting the characters to pull that off, it barely seems possible. While it | | was possible to see the seams when the screen got really cluttered with | | ships, that's still one hell of an optimization algorithm--and fast, too! | = Innovation - 5/45 [ 05/ 45] = | You figured out how to hang MZX by loading a corrupted world file! Good for | | you! | = Plot - 00/40 [ 00/ 40] = | Epic, that's really the only appropriate word here. I haven't been this | | engaged by an RTS since Starcraft, and the way you managed to tie it all in | | seamlessly with the action in the game blows my mind. Truth be told, when I | | started playing a game about lesbian space pirates, I thought the concept | | was rather silly, but by the end, man, I was crying for Cassandra, such | | grand tragedy. I probably shouldn't spoil it for those who haven't played | | it yet, but that was powerful stuff. | = Music/Sound - 00/35 [ 00/ 35] = | I particularly liked the fanfare for the lesbian space pirate armada, it | | was strong and militaristic yet at the same time managed to have a sort of | | haunting, sensual undertone. Very impressive. And I know there's no sound | | in space, really, but for some reason it just doesn't feel right to have a | | space battle without bone rattling explosions. Talk about bass. | = Theme - 00/30 [ 00/ 30] = | Space pirates isn't a super unexpected twist on the pirates theme, but it's | | a step in the right direction, and the rest of the game was so amazing as | | it was. | = Discretion - 00/15 [ 00/ 15] = | So by the way, don't do things like this, it's annoying. If I had my way, | | I'd bar you from participation in the DoZ for at least a year, since you | | obviously have nothing to actually contribute. | = Subtotal - 5/300 [005/300] = | I wish someone would actually make a game like the one I described. I mean, | | that would effing rule. | = Rank Weight - DQ/100 (13) [ 00/100] = | | | "I spent more time writing that bullshit scoresheet than you spent making | | your damn game." | ================================================================================ = 02398 = Mira the Pirate ================================ PIRATES = [299/400] = = Gameplay - 54/75 [ 54/ 75] = | The engine here was generally very smoothly done, and worked nicely enough. | | It was very occasionally hard to control the movement of the character | | exactly the way I wanted, but it was generally not too difficult to get the | | intended result on screen based on my keypresses. The major drawback here, | | and the reason about fifteen points are missing, is some severe slowdown as | | the game progresses. The biggest offender was what happens if you kill the | | flying bug at the beginning of the second stage, and things grind to about | | one frame per second or worse. But even if you avoid that, in later levels | | things get choppier and more sluggish regardless, detracting from the | | overall experience. Apart from that, and some very minor gameplay bugs, | | well done. | = Graphics - 50/60 [ 50/ 60] = | First impression probably ranked this higher, but after some thought I | | realized that for as pretty as the main game was, it was severely lacking | | in the graphics department for everything else, barring the title screen. | | Fortunately for Logicow and Madbrain, the main game was MOST of the game, | | but a lot of the text on the other screens wasn't even centered properly, | | and that's all it was, text on a black screen. Spare a little love for | | supplementary artwork, guys, you spent so much time on that title screen | | that you forgot to draw anything else! I also felt that the status bar was | | a little sparse, could have been blended with the game layout better. | = Innovation - 33/45 [ 33/ 45] = | What we have here is a very nice, fully-featured sprite-based sidescroller. | | It's not super groundbreaking, certainly not for Logicow and the stuff he's | | been working on in the past, but it does work quite well and would require | | a moderately high level of Robotic competence to make. Works better than | | what I put together for Fourth Power, anyway. Ah, sprites... | = Plot - 15/40 [ 15/ 40] = | You guys could have done better, here. I'm tempted to say this might even | | have been better scored if you hadn't tried to attach a plot to it at all. | | Of course, that might have something to do with the way you DELIVERED the | | plot... | = Music/Sound - 17/35 [ 17/ 35] = | There were some clunkers, notably the first stage, but for the most part | | the music for the stages fit very well, and the sound effects within were | | well used. The problem was the voice acting. I mean, my God, what were you | | THINKING? That was just downright embarrassing, not to mention entirely | | incomprehensible half the time. If you can't pull an accent, don't try to. | = Theme - 20/30 [ 20/ 30] = | Nothing particularly noteworthy about the theme usage here. It was about | | pirates. Furry pirates. Sidescrolling action on nautically themed level | | backgrounds. I think there was a pirate ghost at the end. Pretty standard | | stuff. | = Discretion - 10/15 [ 10/ 15] = | And some extra points off for the voice acting again, just to drive home | | the point that it is entirely possible to do lots of work on your game that | | can actually hurt your score. This time would have been much better spent | | creating interstitial graphics. | = Subtotal - 199/300 [199/300] = | A pretty good game. I feel like I actually liked this a little better than | | the final score lets on, but the voice acting bit was just so horrible that | | it needed to come out somewhere. Sorry guys, next time don't do so much | | negative work. | = Rank Weight - 100/100 (1) [100/100] = | | | "I believe the word you're searching for is 'Furrylicious'." | ================================================================================ = 04092 = Pirate ========================================= PIRATES = [208/400] = = Gameplay - 42/75 [ 42/ 75] = | 1x1 character sidescrollers will always, ALWAYS have problems. Missed jumps | | to platforms, generally difficult to control, and the like. The enemies | | were easily exploitable, since they'd explode if they fell one row. All the | | bad stuff out of the way, then, this was generally pretty entertaining, | | lengthy enough, and reasonably difficult, if not in all the best ways. This | | is a pretty solid stock entry. There was a graphical bug that prevented you | | from playing through to the last level, though. | = Graphics - 32/60 [ 32/ 60] = | Nothing really wrong with them, which saves it from a lower score, but the | | graphics are still fairly lackluster, nothing really that interesting going | | on with them. Oh, and the status bar was poorly placed, since it actually | | obscures the top part of the level, and when you get to the stage where you | | have to go up and down it gets in the way. | = Innovation - 27/45 [ 27/ 45] = | Whoopty do, it's a sidescroller. The stuff with the sword was pretty cool, | | though, and generally smooth. The gun was not as impressive, and seemed to | | have some graphical funkiness. The jetpack was an easy tack-on. So this | | score is mostly elevated by the sword thing, which isn't a new concept, but | | is executed with enough interesting features to get points. | = Plot - 11/40 [ 11/ 40] = | I think it had something to do with zombies or pirates or something like | | that, but it was incoherent and not well tied in at all. This would have | | benefited from a little more work. | = Music/Sound - 26/35 [ 26/ 35] = | Nothing too special in the music department, pretty standard fare. Points | | here for some excellent sound effects, though. When in doubt, package in | | some satisfying bloody splats. | = Theme - 10/30 [ 10/ 30] = | I think the game was nominally about pirates. But there were also zombies | | (apparently, who could really tell), and the levels make no thematic sense | | whatsoever. the dude at the end was presumably some sort of boss pirate, | | but really I should be disqualifying the game for theme deviation. Just | | because you call the game "Pirate" doesn't make it about pirates. | = Discretion - 10/15 [ 10/ 15] = | Connect your game properly. Having it start on the title screen is a newbie | | mistake, and something that's easy to catch if you simply attempt to play | | through your game from the beginning once. I keep telling people to do this | | but no one ever seems to listen... | = Subtotal - 161/300 [158/300] = | I let this slide on the theme because it felt like a shame to disqualify a | | game that looked like it had a reasonable amount of time spent on it, and | | because so few games were submitted this year. But this sort of thing | | really isn't acceptable, adherence to the theme is an integral part of the | | competition. Other than that, decent game, if not particularly noteworthy. | = Rank Weight - 50/100 (6) [ 50/100] = | | | "Pirates! And now for something completely different." | ================================================================================ = 18993 = CAPTAIN BOB ============================= (-15%) PIRATES = [050/340] = = Gameplay - 12/75 [ 12/ 75] = | Wow, it's a bunch of built-ins, lazily coded enemy robots, and obnoxious | | boss fights. Locales like the missile room and the bullet room are game | | killers; just because it seems like wacky fun to program, doesn't mean it's | | any fun at all to play. Go brush up on your coding skills and come back to | | the DoZ when you've learned why filling your combat robot's main battle | | loop with simply "go randany" and "shoot seek" is utterly retarded. | = Graphics - 8/60 [ 08/ 60] = | It appears you took the time to edit maybe one character. Otherwise, the | | layout is attrocious, lazy, and really I'm embarrassed for you bothering to | | submit this at all. Learn to do more than just draw an outline and call it | | a room. | = Innovation - 00/45 [ 00/ 45] = | Again, "go randany 10", "shoot seek". This is the sum total of the robotic | | prowess displayed in this game. Oh, and I guess "zap shot". Honestly... | = Plot - 8/40 [ 08/ 40] = | Something about how "hansome" Bob the Pirate is and how ugly and stupid | | everyone else is and honestly I can't help but wonder if it's the author's | | way of lashing out at someone. Bob summarily defeats everyone else. Blah. | = Music/Sound - 5/35 [ 05/ 35] = | No sound or music. I can imagine it being worse, though, so a few extra | | points here. | = Theme - 12/30 [ 12/ 30] = | This was sort of nominally about pirates. I think there was some treasure | | involved, maybe. At the very least, it felt like it had more to do with | | pirates than CJA's game. | = Discretion - 4/15 [ 04/ 15] = | Points off for unnecessary and random use of obscenities, irritating me | | with inane and vapid dialogue, and using the same "haha I can't program for | | shit" joke three times. Try teleporting the player to somewhere other than | | 0 0 next time. Oh yeah, and for bothering to submit this game in the first | | place. | = Subtotal - 49/300 [049/300] = | What boggles my mind is that this game was not only submitted, but was | | submitted LATE. Entirely a waste of my time, don't bother playing it. | = Rank Weight - 10/100 (11) [ 10/100] = | | | "Noh, i wastd 15 minute of my life fiteing stupid boses." | ================================================================================ = 32865 = Zombie Fighter =================================== DEATH = [143/400] = = Gameplay - 30/75 [ 30/ 75] = | This is a standard overhead shooter with small perks. Lots of things | | exploding. Lots of explosions turning into fire. This is, in general, a BAD | | gameplay decision. Yes, you give the player a flameproof suit for 50 coins, | | but I don't have 50 coins at the beginning of the game, and that's where | | they all have to go when I collect them. Further, any game that requires me | | to bomb enemies that move around randomly automatically loses points. At | | least the cyborg's shooting routine was broken, that would have made it | | even more obnoxious, since you HAVE to stand aligned with them to get them | | to move in any sort of predictable pattern. Apart from all that, it worked | | well enough, but there wasn't anything special about it at all, as far as | | I'm concerned. | = Graphics - 29/60 [ 29/ 60] = | Better than nothing, but could have benefited from a little more care and | | detail to the background. There was at least some creative contouring going | | on with the level design, but fire detailed to look like little flames has | | always looked really stupid to me, especially when there's a lot of it. | = Innovation - 12/45 [ 12/ 45] = | There was a store thing, but that was generally unimpressive. The enemies | | were simplistic and quickly became uninteresting. The most innovative thing | | was probably the keypress game for the roof stage and the boss fight, but | | that really looked like a minimum effort necessary sort of thing. | = Plot - 13/40 [ 13/ 40] = | Kill zombies and cyborgs through a series of entirely unrelated levels | | straight out of the cliche level-design handbook (forest level, check, fire | | level, check, ice level, check...). Oh, and some guy teaches you to jump on | | rooftops. There's nothing really tying this together, and no real motive | | for the action. | = Music/Sound - 14/35 [ 14/ 35] = | Listening to the same ogg over and over again gets old after about two | | minutes, especially when it does absolutely nothing to set the mood of the | | game (whatever that is). No sound effects present. | = Theme - 10/30 [ 10/ 30] = | You killed a lot of things. Some of them were zombies. That's about it. By | | the way, I'll go ahead and say this now, putting zombies in your game does | | not make your game about death. You need to do a little more work than that | | to pass muster. The best and easiest way to drive a theme is in the plot | | category, so with the pisspoor quality of the plots I've seen so far, | | perhaps it's not surprising that the theme scores are also doing so poorly. | | It takes extra work to convey the theme of a game through gameplay and | | graphics and music alone. | = Discretion - 15/15 [ 15/ 15] = | There are actually no other problems with the game that would merit taking | | points off here. That's something at least. | = Subtotal - 123/300 [123/300] = | A bit of a snoozer of a game, not particularly interesting or engaging. | | There was obviously some effort put into this, but it really needs more and | | better work to compete with the high rollers. | = Rank Weight - 20/100 (9) [143/100] = | | | "But what about zombie pirate cyborgs?" | ================================================================================ = 39966 = Pirates of the Exploding ======================= PIRATES = [035/400] = = Gameplay - 7/75 [ 07/ 75] = | Talk to things that explode. End of game. Maybe I can award a few pity | | points for having to do something to collect keys to finish. Otherwise, not | | even a funny joke entry. | = Graphics - 11/60 [ 11/ 60] = | Pisspoor, for the most part, but slightly better than the Bob game. The | | second board showed at least a little effort. Intentionally bad graphics | | are still bad graphics, and are scored accordingly. But you knew that | | already. | = Innovation - 00/45 [ 00/ 45] = | Captain Bob I can give some minor pity to. I have nothing for a game whose | | only coding accomplishment is the explode command. | = Plot - 00/40 [ 00/ 40] = | Nonexistent, and with nothing else to provide filler points. | = Music/Sound - 1/35 [ 01/ 35] = | Ow, my ears. This would have been better silent. | = Theme - 14/30 [ 14/ 30] = | Surprisingly the game actually was on theme enough to not be disqualified. | | At least in the art direction department, pirate ships and buried treasure | | will fit the superficial bill. | = Discretion - 2/15 [ 02/ 15] = | Haha i'm noahsoft and i no cusswords, :frostyangel:. Plus the general time| | | wasting penalty. | = Subtotal - 35/300 [035/300] = | I don't see why people still bother turning in games like this. I guess | | when you're not capable of anything better, you want to find some way to | | participate, but still. | = Rank Weight - 00/100 (12) [ 00/100] = | | | "Joke games are supposed to be funny." | ================================================================================ = 40165 = Super Mario 65 ================================= PIRATES = [204/400] = = Gameplay - 34/75 [ 34/ 75] = | Interesting enough sidescroller, but there isn't really a whole lot to DO | | in this game. The walljump might have been neat if it worked more fluidly. | | Puzzle at the end was maybe a good concept in theory, but in practice it | | worked out leaving you with lots and lots of useless pieces. Oh, and don't | | make me press a key like Shift without telling me I'm supposed to press it, | | I don't like having to hunt through the code to figure out what keys I'm | | supposed to be hitting. | = Graphics - 41/60 [ 41/ 60] = | Pretty good stuff here. The animation part of the intro was a little meh, | | but good effort. The level backgrounds were also well drawn, and I love the | | second one in particular just for the colors. Maybe could have used a | | little more work on the inter-level screens than just text. | = Innovation - 15/45 [ 15/ 45] = | There was actually a lot of stuff attempted in this game, but the problem | | was that none of it actually seemed to really help the game all that much. | | Wall jumping was cumbersome, the game at the end wasn't planned very well, | | And sidescrollers have been done to death in general. | = Plot - 21/40 [ 21/ 40] = | Interesting, but not very well connected, and I'm taking points off for the | | beginning especially because I should not be expected to read a full screen | | worth of text in five seconds. Think about what you're making me do when | | you program these things. But it had more plot than a lot of the other | | entries this time around. | = Music/Sound - 16/35 [ 16/ 35] = | The music here was really just okay, and the only sound effect I noticed | | was the "Oh yeah" during the puzzle, which became really irritating after | | awhile. Not enough to award major points to. | = Theme - 25/30 [ 25/ 30] = | I like the creative use of the theme here, as tied into the plot. Software | | pirates on a mission to foil the RIAA (and it's the MPAA, not the MIAA, by | | the way). | = Discretion - 12/15 [ 12/ 15] = | Minus a few again for the super sped up plot screen, that shouldn't have | | happened. Otherwise nothing objectionable. | = Subtotal - 164/300 [164/300] = | Good enough for what it was, though actually considering the rest of the | | games submitted it was a little short. Guess all the time when into hand | | crafting that cinematic, over designing levels and enemies. | = Rank Weight - 40/100 (7) [204/100] = | | | "What exactly did Mario have to do with this, again?" | ================================================================================ = 54340 = Death ============================================ DEATH = [266/400] = = Gameplay - 30/75 [ 30/ 75] = | Heh, this was a nice way to spend a few minutes, going out and hacking | | people to bits. At the end of the day, though, going around a level and | | pressing space, without any sort of game difficulty involved, isn't really | | much of a game so much as a stress-reliever. Given that that's all there | | was to the game, I can't really give it much more than this. | = Graphics - 49/60 [ 49/ 60] = | Really cute graphical style, I like it. It made me giggle. Honestly it's | | probably the same kind of style I'd use if I were making art for a game. So | | the gameplay was all beautiful, but the opening was a little sparse. Still, | | very good stuff. | = Innovation - 20/45 [ 20/ 45] = | Mostly points are awarded for the large player sidescroller, minus some | | that it might have gotten for being a bit glitchy and under-featured. Game | | needs more than just an adorable hopping Death to be innovative. | = Plot - 19/40 [ 19/ 40] = | The opening spiel was a bad call, it was too long, uninteresting, and left | | me looking for a way to skip it. After that, the story was amusing enough. | | But it really would have been better to just start with the cutscene. | = Music/Sound - 23/35 [ 23/ 35] = | The music is just sort of there in this game, nothing special. The sound | | effects are perfect, though, good choices on those, add very much to the | | whole morbidly cute feel of the game. | = Theme - 30/30 [ 30/ 30] = | This is definitely my favorite use of theme this competition. I guess it | | was a little obvious for someone to do a game like this, but it's still | | amusing and offbeat enough to get full marks from me, good work. | = Discretion - 15/15 [ 15/ 15] = | Nothing particular to count off on. I guess I could count off for language | | at the end, but I really only do that if it feels like it doesn't belong, | | and it felt fine here. | = Subtotal - 186/300 [186/300] = | "Cute" is the only word that can describe this, and that's a good thing. | | Looks like you may pull second or third place after all. | = Rank Weight - 80/100 (3) [ 80/100] = | | | "I really would have liked to see Death on a pogo stick." | ================================================================================ = 61464 = Pirates of the Arctic Circle =================== PIRATES = [167/400] = = Gameplay - 28/75 [ 28/ 75] = | A side scroller that makes me use a mouse to attack. Now gee, given my | | history of judging games that try to make use of both mouse and keyboard | | control, when have I ever rated such a cumbersome control system highly? Oh | | that's right, never. Clicking after things that jump around is, in general, | | a pain in the ass, and is much harder to do when trying to move the player | | around at the same time. The ninjas in general were only tolerable because | | the AI was easy to exploit, which is a poor way to make a game. | = Graphics - 33/60 [ 33/ 60] = | Sprites were decent, but heavily lacking in the background department. The | | first level wasn't too bad, but everything after that was really just a big | | mess of brown logs and empty black. SMZX can be put to much better use than | | this, as the game was really just very dull to look at. | = Innovation - 20/45 [ 20/ 45] = | Eh, it's another sidescroller. Points for that, and doing it in SMZX, but | | the combat was poorly conceived. Something is better than nothing, I guess. | = Plot - 14/40 [ 14/ 40] = | Visiting the age old question of who would win in a fight between pirates | | and ninjas. Evidentally, the answer is pirates. But there isn't any more | | depth to it than that. | = Music/Sound - 12/35 [ 12/ 35] = | Ugh, this is horrible. The only reason I can give it points at all is that | | it is actually somewhat piratey sounding and thus suits the game. But it's | | still awful music, surely you could have come up with something better. | | Remember, intentionally bad is just as bad. | = Theme - 20/30 [ 20/ 30] = | Pretty standard take, you are a pirate and you are fighting on ships. There | | isn't a whole lot of imagination put into enhancing the theme beyond that, | | but it's good enough to suit. | = Discretion - 10/15 [ 10/ 15] = | Your humor does not agree with me sir. Pick some less ear-bleeding music | | next time. Largely, this game just seemed to get under my skin, and felt | | like it deserved a few less points. | = Subtotal - 137/300 [137/300] = | Like I said, this game just irritated me all over. I think I'm getting a | | rash. | = Rank Weight - 30/100 (8) [ 30/100] = | | | "Next year: Monkeys versus robots." | ================================================================================ = 68805 = Termination =============================== (-15%) DEATH = [243/340] = = Gameplay - 25/75 [ 25/ 75] = | Oh my oh my, where to start with this. I attempted to play the submitted | | version of the game as much as I could before it became impossible to | | proceed any further. Then I played all the way through the fixed version | | submitted the next day. The good news is, this game is absolutely awesome. | | the bad news is, I can hardly credit any points in gameplay to it because | | the submission is too broken to play. All I can really give it credit for | | are the first few boards, which played perfectly well (if the balance was a | | little off--fixed in the patch), and then I have to take off massive points | | for being unable to finish the game at all. Such a pity. | = Graphics - 52/60 [ 52/ 60] = | Quasar's graphics are excellent as always. Points come off mostly for the | | borked title screen, one of the many time-crunch bugs plaguing this game. | | The levels are well designed and pretty to look at, and the supplementary | | graphics are very good as well. | = Innovation - 26/45 [ 26/ 45] = | Most of the points here are going towards the weapon engine and the enemy | | code, especially with the 360 degree projectile firing. The weapon engine | | itself isn't a super new concept, but it was very well executed, and each | | weapon made sense as a separate entity, no useless repeats. Points that | | might have been awarded for enemy respawning and dynamic board transitions | | are docked, since the transitions weren't working as intended in the DoZ | | version. | = Plot - 36/40 [ 36/ 40] = | Finally, someone takes the time to attach a serious, well thought out plot | | to their game. I'm marking this based on my playthrough of the fixed game, | | since all of the plot elements are present in the DoZ version, just not | | sequentially accessable due to the connectivity bugs. Oh, and minus a few | | points for having to wait for the slow crawl of the text in the opening | | (fixed in the release version, I was happy to see). | = Music/Sound - 27/35 [ 27/ 35] = | All very good music, really enhanced the mood the way good music should. | | The sound effects were also top notch, though it seemed to me that a sound | | for the explosions was notably absent, so points off for that. | = Theme - 15/30 [ 15/ 30] = | I have to dock points here, I'm afraid. I get how the Lucentia plot was | | connected to death, the death of the crew being an integral part of it, but | | the connection is very tenuous and lacks the force that a well-themed game | | should have. | = Discretion - 15/15 [ 15/ 15] = | Nothing particular to take off here, I think the decision to submit was the | | correct one, considering the work that went into the game. | = Subtotal - 196/300 [196/300] = | Again, it's a crying shame this can't be higher, since the fixed version of | | this game is by far the best thing to come out of this DoZ. Download it and | | play it now, and try for both endings, you won't regret it. Note on the | | ranking, this would have been my top pick, but I can only place the bugged | | version second from the top (which really doesn't speak well of the quality | | of the rest of the games in the DoZ). | = Rank Weight - 90/100 (2) [ 90/100] = | | | "Lucentia is people! PEOPLE!" | ================================================================================ = 75318 = The Accidental Death ============================= DEATH = [227/400] = = Gameplay - 37/75 [ 37/ 75] = | Oh my, it's ANOTHER sidescroller. Hold on, let me count...that makes six | | platformers submitted this competition, out of twelve real games submitted. | | I mean, it's interesting enough, and has enough neat features to save it | | from a worse fate, but ultimately it's still a 1x1 sidescroller, and that's | | only worth so much no matter what you do. As always, control is clunky, and | | it's too easy to accidentally plunge to your death due to jumping a moment | | too late. At least there were no lives... Oh, and minus five points for not | | connecting the second level to the third properly. | = Graphics - 31/60 [ 31/ 60] = | There were parts of this that were fairly decent, and other levels that | | felt really sparse, but the level of graphics here never advanced beyond | | the use of full blocks for the background, and light character editing. Not | | much more than average. | = Innovation - 18/45 [ 18/ 45] = | Points for the features you implemented in your engine, but honestly none | | of them are that impressive or worth a whole lot here. I mean, they worked, | | but so what? Sidescrollers are just old news. | = Plot - 25/40 [ 25/ 40] = | It wasn't a particularly interesting plot, but it's better than a lot of | | the other games submitted. You actually put together something that, if a | | little non-sensical in terms of level progression, but it had a beginning | | and an end, even if there wasn't really much of a middle. | = Music/Sound - 20/35 [ 20/ 35] = | Average music, no sound. No real theme connectivity, it's just there. The | | result is an average score. | = Theme - 22/30 [ 22/ 30] = | Not a bad take on the death theme, but apart from the plot points at the | | beginning and the end there wasn't really much sense to what was going on | | in the levels, they were just random terrain as far as I'm concerned. Still | | slightly better than average, though. | = Discretion - 14/15 [ 14/ 15] = | Nothing especial to take off for, here. Well, maybe a point for the | | disconnected board. But that's all. | = Subtotal - 167/300 [167/300] = | If I have to play through one more sidescroller I'm going to scream! | | Fortunately this is the last one. I don't really know what it was with this | | competition and sidescrollers, but whatever. | = Rank Weight - 60/100 (5) [227/100] = | | | "There are more embarrassing ways to die...but not many." | ================================================================================ = 81621 = Incomplete! :( ============================ (DQ) PIRATES = [129/300] = = Gameplay - 22/75 [ 22/ 75] = | This appears to be a half-finished MZX adaptation of Breakthru, which would | | have been interesting, had it been working properly. The main playing point | | worked just fine (reminds me of how poorly made the samegame engine in | | Freedom Bound, back in Summer 2000, was). However, the piece regeneration | | can't possibly have been working as intented. Additionally, as far as I can | | tell, most of the special pieces did nothing at all. Some of them worked, | | but what this game was sorely lacking the most was instructions, and that | | really makes all the difference in fun factor. | = Graphics - 35/60 [ 35/ 60] = | Pretty enough, but a little pixelated for my tastes, such that it's hard | | to tell what the special pieces are supposed to be. Did this really need to | | be in SMZX mode? There's not enough game to give it points for anything | | else. | = Innovation - 26/45 [ 26/ 45] = | Your basic puzzle engine is sound, and I like the concept, but the problem | | is that it's also incomplete, as the title suggests. I'll give you credit | | for what's there, though. | = Plot - 15/40 [ 15/ 40] = | No plot whatsoever, but it was a puzzle game so I can forgive it some of | | that. | = Music/Sound - 20/35 [ 20/ 35] = | Good choice of music for the puzzle, and nice sound effects. But there was | | really only that one track to go by, there's not enough music in this game | | to give it a higher score. That probably owes to the fact that there's not | | enough game to put music into, but whatever. | = Theme - 5/30 [ 05/ 30] = | Here's the big problem, there's just nothing to tie this game to the pirate | | theme at all, except for a smiling pirate standing there under my game | | board. Cute, but not a theme. After all, that looks like Indiana Smiley on | | the other side, and as Zombie Fighter taught us, cyborgs are dead. I'm | | afraid I have to disqualify this. | = Discretion - 6/15 [ 06/ 15] = | Next time include an instruction manual. That is all. | = Subtotal - 129/300 [129/300] = | An interesting concept, but missing the critical components it needs to be | | a real game, and missing the most critical component a DoZ entry needs, a | | theme. Better luck next time. | = Rank Weight - DQ/100 (10) [ 00/100] = | | | "So how exactly do you win again? Is that a goblet or something?" | ================================================================================ = 97212 = Booty Tycoon =================================== PIRATES = [250/400] = = Gameplay - 30/75 [ 30/ 75] = | There's some really interesting stuff here, and I really like the game | | concept, but sadly it just isn't implemented as well as it needed to be. In | | particular, the battle balance is way off, relative to the amount of cash | | you start with, and what really kills the game is that there's no way to | | repair your armor at all, at least that I could see. Various other issues | | with the hair trigger interface force me to lowball this one. | = Graphics - 37/60 [ 37/ 60] = | This is a cute graphical style, sort of close to mine, but it lacks the | | depth it might have, particularly in color use. It's not bad at all, but it | | needs a little more oomph to really score points. | = Innovation - 25/45 [ 25/ 45] = | The game has some reasonably sophisticated engines, though nothing too | | complex. Notably, content and story progression is all managed dynamically, | | there's only one board for each major game component. This is a very good | | system for this sort of game, easily expandable too. It actually puts me in | | mind of the sort of things KenOhki has done with SFMZX. | = Plot - 29/40 [ 29/ 40] = | Points come off for the cumbersome method of plot delivery, and how that | | all works witht the gameplay. I had to go reading through the text files | | containing all of the plot points to suss it out. What's there, though, is | | certainly interesting, and it's all worth it for the last segment. Pirates | | and aliens, what a hoot. | = Music/Sound - 17/35 [ 17/ 35] = | There's no really notable music in this game. The sea surf track is good | | enough, I guess, but the battle tune is just irritating (and perhaps made | | moreso by the irritating nature of the battles). | = Theme - 27/30 [ 27/ 30] = | Pretty good use of the theme, though it might have benefited from a little | | more piracy over foraging. Still, the ocean map made me think of Puzzle | | Pirates, and that's always a fond memory. Very solidly themed game. | = Discretion - 15/15 [ 15/ 15] = | No particular discretion points to remove, here. | = Subtotal - XXX/300 [180/300] = | A would-be entertaining game crippled by extremely poor balance. It's a | | tricky thing to get right, I know, but in general it's better to err on the | | side of too easy over impossibly difficult. | = Rank Weight - 70/100 (4) [ 70/100] = | | | "Our innumerable Grovarians is enjoys this pleasure sphere." | ================================================================================ == TOTAL SCORE (RANK WEIGHT COMPARISON) ======================================== Initial Rank Rank Weight Penalty Assessment Final Rank Rank Game# Subtotal Rank Bonus Pre-loss Amt. Final Score Rank 1. 02398 [199/300] 1 (+100) [299/400] 1 2. 68805 [196/300] 2 (+ 90) [286/400] (-15%) [243/340] 4 3. 54340 [186/300] 3 (+ 80) [266/400] 2 4. 97212 [180/300] 4 (+ 70) [250/400] 3 5. 75318 [167/300] 5 (+ 60) [227/400] 5 6. 40165 [164/300] 7 (+ 40) [204/400] 7 7. 04092 [158/300] 6 (+ 50) [208/400] 6 8. 61464 [137/300] 8 (+ 30) [167/400] 8 9. 81621 [129/300] 10 (+ 0) (DQ) [ DQ/400] DQ 10. 32865 [123/300] 9 (+ 20) [143/400] 9 11. 18993 [049/300] 11 (+ 10) [059/400] (-15%) [050/340] 10 12. 39966 [035/300] 12 (+ 0) [035/400] 11 13. 00009 [005/300] 13 (+ 0) (DQ) [ DQ/400] DQ == RANKING ===================================================================== -| DEATH |-------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. 54340 = Death ========================================== DEATH = [266/400] = 2. 68805 = Termination ============================= (-15%) DEATH = [243/340] = 3. 75318 = The Accidental Death =========================== DEATH = [227/400] = 4. 32865 = Zombie Fighter ================================= DEATH = [143/400] = -| PIRATES |------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 02398 = Mira the Pirate ============================== PIRATES = [299/400] = 2. 97212 = Booty Tycoon ================================= PIRATES = [250/400] = 3. 04092 = Pirate ======================================= PIRATES = [208/400] = 4. 40165 = Super Mario 65 =============================== PIRATES = [204/400] = 5. 61464 = Pirates of the Arctic Circle ================= PIRATES = [167/400] = 6. 18993 = CAPTAIN BOB =========================== (-15%) PIRATES = [042/340] = 7. 39966 = Pirates of the Exploding ===================== PIRATES = [035/400] = -| DISQUALIFIED |------------------------------------------------------------- 1. 81621 = Incomplete :( =========================== (DQ) PIRATES = [129/300] = 2. 00009 = Lesbian Space Pirates =================== (DQ) PIRATES = [005/300] = -| COMBINED |----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. 02398 = Mira the Pirate ============================== PIRATES = [299/400] = 2. 54340 = Death ========================================== DEATH = [266/400] = 3. 97212 = Booty Tycoon ================================= PIRATES = [250/400] = 4. 68805 = Termination ============================= (-15%) DEATH = [243/340] = 5. 75318 = The Accidental Death =========================== DEATH = [227/400] = 6. 04092 = Pirate ======================================= PIRATES = [208/400] = 7. 40165 = Super Mario 65 =============================== PIRATES = [204/400] = 8. 61464 = Pirates of the Arctic Circle ================= PIRATES = [167/400] = 9. 32865 = Zombie Fighter ================================= DEATH = [143/400] = 10. 18993 = CAPTAIN BOB =========================== (-15%) PIRATES = [050/340] = 11. 39966 = Pirates of the Exploding ===================== PIRATES = [035/400] = == SCORE CHART ================================================================= +-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | Game# | GPL | GFX | INO | PLT | M/S | THM | DSC | RNK | TTL | PNL | +-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | 00009 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | 5 | DQ |X | 02398 | 54 | 50 | 33 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 10 | 100 | 299 | 299 | | 04092 | 42 | 32 | 27 | 11 | 26 | 10 | 10 | 50 | 208 | 208 | | 18993 | 12 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 4 | 10 | 59 | 50 |* | 32865 | 30 | 29 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 143 | 143 | | 39966 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 35 | 35 | | 40165 | 34 | 41 | 15 | 21 | 16 | 25 | 12 | 40 | 204 | 224 | | 54340 | 30 | 49 | 20 | 19 | 23 | 30 | 15 | 80 | 266 | 266 | | 61464 | 28 | 33 | 20 | 14 | 12 | 20 | 10 | 30 | 167 | 167 | | 68805 | 25 | 52 | 26 | 36 | 27 | 15 | 15 | 90 | 286 | 243 |* | 75318 | 37 | 31 | 18 | 25 | 20 | 22 | 14 | 60 | 227 | 227 | | 81621 | 22 | 35 | 26 | 15 | 20 | 5 | 6 | --- | 129 | DQ |X | 97212 | 30 | 37 | 25 | 29 | 17 | 27 | 15 | 70 | 250 | 250 | +-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ Best 02398 68805 02398 68805 68805 54340 ----- == CLOSING ===================================================================== So that's it for this year's DoZ. Congratulations to the winners, whoever they may ultimately turn out to be, but as far as I'm concerned, Termination is the best thing to come out of this competition. Even though it wasn't finished at submission time, the fixed version of the game deserves a spot with the DoZ greats, those games that surpass many of the offerings we see during the rest of the year. Once again, thanks for a good DoZ, if a bit small turnout-wise, and I'll see you all again come wintertime, most likely. -Wervyn