Winter 2007 Dualstream Day of Zeux Judging Sheet:Terryn

Terryn's DoZ Scores, X-Mas 2007

Topics: Tranquility (General) & The Wild West (Specific)

Judging Standard: MZX 2.81g stable (Win 32 platform)

(Scores attempted to be consistent and relative.)

Right, before business.

Games under the GENERAL topic are scored with this rubric:

Theme - 100/400 (How appropriately it sticks to the above topic. Novel applications of the theme are especially welcome here.)
Gameplay - 90/400 (What the game expects the player to do, how novel/fun/considerate it is for the player, and how little the player futilely struggles with the game.)
Graphics - 70/400 (The difference between eye-gouging and eye-popping.)
Technique - 60/400 (How painless it is for the player to play through the game (disregarding obvious gameplay decisions such as difficulty), and the technical prowess shown in the code.)
Story - 50/400 (Whether your grasp of English, your grasp of flow, and your grasp of creativity align. If this cannot be arranged, partial credit is better than none.)
Sound - 30/400 (With the beeping and the blooping and the chiptunes and the Boris OGGs and all of that.)

Games under the SPECIFIC topic are scored with this rubric:

Gameplay - 120/400 (This is the core of the game; it is the interactive part of a game and hence the most likely thing to make or break a game for a player.)
Graphics - 90/400 (How pleasing the game is to the eye. No accounting for tastes, though some things have obviously higher averages than others.)
Technique - 80/400 (The complexity of the code involved, and whether if said code actually works most of the time.)
Story - 50/400 (Whether the words arranged therein form coherent sentences, and even better, coherent plot threads.)
Sound - 40/400 (The ears' domain; whether sound effects and music are not only good, but well-suited for the game.)
Theme - 20/400 (Whether you actually paid attention and bothered haphazardly grafting the right conceptual fragments to your glitzy engine.)

[33938] "Gay Cowboy and His Adventures in the Wild West with... Mecha Zombie Hitler" by Team Grey Onion Soup (Malwyn) -The Wild West-

Gameplay - 76/120

Most of it is simple old-school MZX / standard DoZ fare, and consists of talking to people and doing various tasks (you might need a little guidance to progess, though; I didn't, but others have complained). Three minigames change this simple flow, but they're all obscenely easy and short. The mining minigame at least feels like a decent addition, which is more than can be said about the other two. The game has multiple endings, which is a nice bonus.

Graphics - 70/90

It's an effective style highly familiar to anyone who's played Darkness, except cleaner-looking and less drab. The art consists (mostly) of tactfully-arranged ASCII, with the occasional large object artfully done. The color choices are appropriate for the setting.

Technique - 38/80

There wasn't too much technique needed for this game. Simple "[" commands comprised the bulk of it, as well as a few slapdash minigames. One of them, an "RPG" battle where the choices seem to matter little, is fairly broken, and as a consequence is mercifully easier than it would otherwise be. Go figure.

Story - 41/50

It's less of being a "story" and more of being "writing", but it's done well anyway. The plot of destroying Mecha Zombie Hitler is obviously not intended to be the focus of the writing, but a cheap way to help set the mood and get out lots of quaint dialogue. Tox has a flair for it, thankfully.

Sound - 23/40

It was there, it fit. There's not much else to say here. (Well, the proximity-based sounds of that building getting kicked was a nice touch.)

Theme - 19/20

Tox decided that taking the topic, beating it into the ground, and then wearing its pressed skin as a coat was the best approach, and it probably was. This was one of the most sardonic treatments of a topic I've seen since Flimsy's 24HoZZT game about hope, and it works well in Tox's favor.

Overall: 267/400

A nice-looking, quirky game that wasn't suited for this scoring rubric, but probably will do fairly well nonetheless.

[48198] "The Tranquil Journey" by Mao Xian Bin's Team (Kom, asiekierka) -Tranquility-

Theme - 73/100

Can't fault it here. Monks, nonviolence, monastaries and puzzles go well together to create tranquility. The HUD implied that there might be (heaven forfend!) COMBAT later, but in what's here there is no such thing to break the tranquility.

Gameplay - 72/90

It's loaded with puzzles. The puzzles are well-implemented, and range from the painfully obvious (the crates) to the frustrating (the rotation puzzle). Also, loading a save exhibits some speed setting problems.

Graphics - 49/70

They get the job done. Nothing is particularly impressive, but nothing looks shoddy, either.

Technique - 43/60

Lots of puzzles, all done through considerable Robotic implementation. Robot-controlled player. Nothing broken, except the HUD during some of the puzzles.

Story - 21/50

You are a monk out to seek enlightenment, and must undergo a series of trials to do so. Pretty standard.

Sound - 21/30

The music relegates itself to the background, for the most part. There are sound effects for most of the puzzles, and walking sound effects that differ depending on the terrain. Pretty good overall.

Overall: 279/400

Looks like more was bit off than could be chewed, but at least it was cleanly encapsulated. Good work.

[48631] "LumineSMZX" by Technocracy of Planets (pyro1588, commodorejohn) -Tranquility-

Theme - 59/100

A transparent and weak stab at the theme, but it actually works well in spite of this, so it's somewhat forgivable.

Gameplay - 68/90

It's a Lumines clone, which consists of rotating a 2x2 square to form squares, which are cleared when a constantly-patrolling line sweeps over them. The remaining pieces over the completed squares fall, possibly creating more squares. Special pieces can clear all touching blocks of a color if included in a square. You can rotate the pieces with the Z and X keys, something completely unmentioned in the welcome notice. Those initially unfamiliar with Lumines (such as myself; I ended up playing through the game without even using it) may not realise the functionality is even supposed to exist. The game indeed has an end, and it comes a bit too soon. The game never gets challenging.

Graphics - 41/70

For primitive shapes, it's implemented well. The title screen's a bit garish, and some of the color choices are a bit ill-advised, but there's nothing wrong with the game's graphics per se.

Technique - 44/60

Sprites and SMZX mode pulled off without a glitch in sight. The game feels clunky, though.

Story - 15/50

_Cannot find story.txt_ Don't worry, it's not really necessary.

Sound - 18/30

Serviceable, and helped the theme out of its potentially precarious position.

Overall: 245/400

Looking forward to your Qix clone next DoZ (*duck*).

[49946] "No Reason" by Team Naked Books (KKairos, Mshprk11) -The Wild West-

Gameplay - 33/120

Ugh. What was here was an interesting idea - a battle system done with an action puzzle game shooting colors at an arrangement of them to repel enemies would have been at least quirky, if the thing actually worked. The rest of the game has little interaction outside of reading text boxes.

Graphics - 34/90

They remind me, oddly, of Emotion MZX. It's probably the characters. The graphics would do their job if it weren't for that blinding yellow. As it stands, the graphics are plainly average for a DoZ. Brownie points for brewing up your own font, but it wasn't all that good of one so it balances out in the end.

Technique - 25/80

Broken. The sprite control of the character worked, but the battle system in-game keeps having the blocks collide where they obviously shouldn't, and the procession of zombies can get distorted; no sprites were reserved for that, obviously. Also, the overlay text engine uses char 32 for a space, leaving holes everywhere in the text boxes. To the credit of the programmer(s), the engine works fine in isolation.

Story - 16/50

It's a ZOMBIE OUTBREAK in ye olde west. As a bounty hunter, you've got to kill them to save the town and earn some cash. Not much was done with the plot, though, as the game is woefully incomplete.

Sound - 11/40

Sound was absent. Music was present in some locations (oddly absent during battles), but the tune selection wasn't too great. It was oddly fitting for the theme, but that's all.

Theme - 11/20

Standard, simply put. A bit overdone to boot.

Overall: 130/400

Everyone gets rushed eventually, It's a shame it was your time in this DoZ.

[50121] "Gold CRUSH" by NeoFunk Industries (NeoScriptor, k1ngfunk, Wz886) -The Wild West-

Gameplay - 22/120

None. Move the player character a little bit, enter a conversation or two, watch a cinema, and it's over.

Graphics - 17/90

It's sub-par, save for the utilitarian logo (GO FIGURE). I felt like I was playing a lost game from 1996 throughout, although the cutscenes would be a bit "daring" for that.

Technique - 10/80

Naah. Not even default MZX action was applied. The most technique used was implementing board transitions and moving the viewpoint in cutscenes.

Story - 19/50

It's short, but otherwise par for the course. You become a cowboy and pan for gold to buy a new house, and somehow end up fighting a demon for gold? huh?

Sound - 7/40

None outside of the music, which is time-worn music easily associated with cowboys.

Theme - 14/20

Sure enough, this was there. Good job, guys.

Overall: 89/400

Practice helps :<

[50482] "A Fist Full of Entrails" by Devils (Maxim, Klinger B Goode) -The Wild West-

Gameplay - 103/120

What a quarter-sucker. This game is an overhead shooter with controls much like Robotron or other similar games - four keys to move, and four to fire in cardinal directions. The game swamps the player with enemies and enemy shots, with the player able to wrap around in a level. This goes on for several levels, each with a different layout. Enemy types get introduced about one new type per level, each progressively harder to kill and with its own shot pattern.
The game was fast-paced and fun, although the fire keys cramped my hands in a matter of seconds. Mapping the controls to a gamepad would be a highly recommended course of action if you want to play the game. The game was difficult (in small part due to the controls), but merciful with unlimited continues.

Graphics - 67/90

Polished and with an obvious style. The game looks somewhat like an evolution of early 80s computer/console games.

Technique - 74/80

Here in spades. The game practically drips it with its frenetic action and sprite overload, but overlap of enemies knocks this down a bit.

Story - 25/50

It's enough. It's a short blurb that is an appropriate backdrop for the mindless action to follow.

Sound - 32/40

The sounds were fitting, and hearing most of them around 3000 times didn't become annoying. The original music also fit fairly well, although I didn't like the dirge playing through the first few levels. Some deep voice acting work tops off the sound.

Theme - 15/20

It fit, and its implementation wasn't groan-worthy.

Overall: 316/400

This was quite an unexpected entry, overall. It was nice to see.

[71046] "Ataraxia" by Team Grumpy + Quasar (Quasar, Exophase, Lancer-X) -Tranquility-

Theme - 92/100

Heavy implementation of it, done in a novel way.

Gameplay - 82/90

Typical MZX-style hack 'n' slash refined to its purest form. A spell engine is grafted on, leading to mutliple puzzle boards. This makes the game feel more predictable than it really is (and does a number on that "suspension of disbelief" thing), but thankfully, one or two spells are useful after the board on which they're most needed. Difficulty is present, but this game is not by any means hard.

Graphics - 66/70

Exo's character design + Quasar's scenery mastery + a bit from Lancer's bag of visual novel tricks = wow. I never thought I'd end up killing Mayor McCheese clones in an MZX game, though.

Technique - 53/60

Highly polished, for the most part. Board resetting, multiple projectile arcs, sprites; there was heavy code done for this. Unfortunately, a critical bug surfaced, and a loose end or two is left dangling.

Story - 45/50

Sparse spattering of a strong, novel storyline throughout gameplay. Haunted by dreams of a horrifying murder, Renin goes to the setting of the dreams to dispel the trauma that haunts him. It's a rare sight - it's a story Exo's involved with that doesn't start directly in the middle. The writing is very good, and the underlying thread is intriguing, especially the ending.

Sound - 24/30

The game's weak point, relatively speaking. The music was unobtrusive, and the most prominent sound (the sword swipe) was loud and distracting when used several times in a row (as it inevitably will be).

Overall: 362/400

About time. Congratulations.

[78046] "Tranquility" by Da Contender (Old-Sckool) -Tranquility-

Theme - 84/100

Adheres to the theme oddly, revolving around tranqulizers (the drugs).

Gameplay - 39/90

The gameplay is pretty standard sidescrolling fare - or, it would be if it were complete. The game has a problem detecting when some patients are tranquilised (creating an unwinnable state), and the collision detection code is buggy enough to cause some weird glitches. Only one moderately-sized level.

Graphics - 36/70

They aren't bad on the eyes, not even the obviously rushed picture of the institution. Standard fare, almost entirely multi-character.

Technique - 27/60

The game is sprite-based, decent enough. However, again, the collision detection code is a bit bugged.
The zoom to your original location once you die is a decent touch.

Story - 34/50

It's a brief but cute story. You're put into a mental institution and try to tranquilise all of the other escaped mental patients for your freedom, or else you get the DOOMMACHINE.

Sound - 11/30

There is just a Marble Zone remix for sound and music, but it is mellow enough to supplement the game.

Overall: 231/400

It was a standard entry.

[79705] "western_civ" by Team Daijobu (afkHideki) -The Wild West-

Gameplay - 81/120

The gameplay is spread out between two small areas - quick draw and rifle evasion. The quick draw is pressing a given number on the NUMBER PAD (not the number row) to damage your opponent; the rifle evasion is simply being behind cover when the (instantaneous and periodical) shot is fired. It's simple, but it works. Very easy, even on Hard.

Graphics - 71/90

The graphics were simple, but they worked so damn well. The style looked unified, which meant no garish changes or distractions. The initial cutscene picture was pretty good-looking too.

Technique - 46/80

Somewhat low, with ye olde 1x1 characters showing up instead of sprites. Thankfully, technique really wasn't needed, and sprites aren't everything. A problem with the game progression popped up, unfortunately.

Story - 29/50

The story looks intriguing, but is sadly incomplete.

Sound - 34/40

Fitting. "Voice-acting" was done with sounds that sounded like they were culled from creature voices in an anime, which fit the character design; this was a nice touch.

Theme - 17/20

Adhered strongly to the theme without feeling ham-fisted. Thank you.

Overall: 278/400

A pleasant surprise. Please make a full game sometime... please.

[80677] "Rage Channeller" by OH MAN I'M OBSESSED WITH FF8 (NihilistMatt) -Tranquility-

Theme - 87/100

Simple and surprising approach to the theme dealing with the opposing realms of tranquility and rage controlling the physical world.

Gameplay - 44/90

The game is a puzzle game (except for the last area) where you step on squares to turn them from tranquil (blue) to enraged (red). However, you cannot step on a square of your color, or else you will have to restart. The concept is good, but the layouts of the levels are disappointingly easy to solve, even with the later mystery squares and already-red squares. The boss battle, where you have to just walk on four specific squares and ignore the turning rule, can either be obscenely easy or kill you pretty quickly, depending on the whims of the RNG.

Graphics - 40/70

Mostly unnoticeable, which is a good thing. They were fairly simple, with a few heavily-repeated blocks of multi-character work, and didn't demand an unnecessary amount of attention.

Technique - 30/60

The sub-par controls for the puzzle levels managed to make the game more difficult than it should have been, argh. The player is unresponsive, and one wrong move means restarting part (or all) of the damn level over again. On the other hand, there was nothing wrong with the saving/restoration system, and the game wasn't actually _broken_.

Story - 35/50

The interesting theme helps it here, as the idea is the strongest part; the writing itself is pretty ordinary.

Sound - 20/30

A "main" module is exploited using JUMP MOD ORDER a few times, which is admirably economical. The other music blends in well. The sounds made when you step on a square and convert it is unobtrusive, and the "death" and explosion sounds fit well enough, it's the sound made when you win a level that annoys me.

Overall: 256/400

Not a bad play. Would have been a lot better if I didn't have to fight with the controls.

[84567] "Disturbing Tha Peace" by THA JENA SIX (SEGA) -Tranquility-

Theme - 32/100

fshgshsgsh it's the old "cram the topic in as forcefully as possible" technique. How have you been? Long story short, the application of the theme in this game is a considerable stretch, hammered in by references to popular culture things related to the topic, such as "The Serenity Now". Can't blame it for trying, though.

Gameplay - 53/90

There are two relevant sections: the inventory puzzles and the sidescrollers. The inventory puzzles are programmed fairly well, though the text engine is sloooowww. Their planning is a bit worse, though; some solutions are in inconspicuous places. The sidescroller sections aren't hard, but you can't play them with your brain off.

Graphics - 62/70

Somewhat cut down from his usual ability. The sidescolling levels look either very good or like what they're meant to be (when these two traits are mutually exclusive), and most of the other graphics are refinements of the 1x1 smiley inventory games of old. Random cutscenes that have nothing to do with the game provide added flair. Thankfully, the blinding brightness in his style seems banished for good.

Technique - 45/60

Nice touches involved, such as a permanent expanding menu based on cleared areas, as well as speed selection (pick FAST if you want to play this game, period). Sidescrolling section counterbalances simple inventory puzzle sections. He included a cnf mapping gamepad buttons for the game, which was an unusual bonus. Nothing's broken, a plus.

Story - 37/50

It's a weird mish-mash of typically irreverent Drelick themes. KING KOOPA STOLE YO BIKE, BITCH, AND STARTIN' A RACE WAR! OHH MAN! You know what to expect from the writing.

Sound - 26/30

Bump, bump, bump. The music exploded the game size, but if you enjoy the type of music Drelick likes (maybe even if you don't) you'll get a kick out of it. Sound effects are sparse but fair.

Overall: 255/400

Drelick loves what he makes. This is the best DoZ work I've seen out of him, and it looks like he enjoyed himself like crazy making it.

[86709] "Stan Dirtbike in: Space Gold Is Where the Heart Used to Be" by Toot toot mr train (Revvy, Wervyn, asgromo) -The Wild West-

Gameplay - 74/120

A pointless overhead section (multi-char with a unique weapon, at least) was combined with a horizontal SHMUP containing several large sprites. Unfortunately, the former is pointless to even try to play, and the latter is far too easy. What's there plays well, at least.

Graphics - 74/90

Very solid throughout, including a well-done title screen and ending splash screen. The initial section has good detail and nice colors; the SHMUP section puts all of its detail into the enemies and bullets, which can be allowed because it takes place in SPACE#)($%)

Technique - 50/80

Looks like Wervyn dragged out his trusty radar again. Good to see, though it was a lot less useful this time around. The enemies even in the overhead section were sprites, and the SHMUP section was loaded with them. Even the revolver was a nice touch here. However, the SHMUP has a glitch where the gameplay starts crawling if you create a powerup at the right edge of the screen, making the powerup unobtainable to boot (I think this is what triggers it, anyway). CHUGGGG
I broke the cinematics by holding space and chugging over to another terminal after I'd already activated one =D Nothing to discount the game, just thought I'd mention.

Story - 30/50

A quirky mashup of outer space and wild west movies, where you stake a rich claim, and later (after you find out it's been pre-claimed) battle against the forces of the industrialist who stole your claim to gain your fortune. Abrupt ending.

Sound - 24/40

COUNTRY.MOD! That takes me back. It's counterriffic!...AUGH, no, i mean... nevermind. The rest of the music was pretty fitting. The sounds were appropriate, with the exception that there was no sound at all in the SHMUP section.

Theme - 17/20

Space/western hybrid still counts. It wasn't steampunk, though, so I can't give it a perfect score :<

Overall: 269/400

It was nice, but it unfortunately felt pretty hollow.

[95831] "The Technicolor Adventures of Sheriff Bob" by Mighty Morphin' Failure Rangers (Captain Failmore, Ceresyne, paul) -The Wild West-

Gameplay - 70/120

The meat of the gameplay involves shooting zombies with the mouse (using R to reload, for some reason, instead of the right mouse button). You can't shoot a zombie when it's already firing at you. This section is fairly well-adjusted for difficulty, but it takes its sweet time progressing. Seriously, it goes on for forever.
The secondary game is a timing game; you have to jump and duck when you need to, or else BEES will get you. Typical length-padding minigame.

Graphics - 76/90

Pretty good-looking, as a whole. Lots of cutscenes, and the in-game graphics are presentable.

Technique - 50/80

The usual, sprites and gameplay. Nothing spectacular.

Story - 22/50

It's the age-old struggle of a rowdy bunch of men trying to do the best with what scraps they're given, struggling to not only survive but thrive... wait, what? in the game? pfft, there isn't any. The patchwork of humor helps it out a *LOT*, though.

Sound - 28/40

Outside of the cutscene sounds, the sounds were pretty obtrusive. The music was deliberately twangy and annoying, but not to a large degree.

Theme - 18/20

Sticks to it as passive-aggressively as it can. Nothing to do but drink.

Overall: 264/400

Good to see you persevere through a topic you (probably) hated. THAT'S TH' GUMPTION WE-ALL NEED, YESSIR

Final Rankings

#1. Ataraxia, 362/400
#2. A Fist Full of Entrails, 316/400
#3. The Tranquil Journey, 279/400
#4. western_civ, 278/400
#5. Stan Dirtbike in: Space Gold Is Where the Heart Used to Be, 269/400
#6. Gay Cowboy and His Adventures in the Wild West with... Mecha Zombie Hitler, 267/400
#7. The Technicolor Adventures of Sheriff Bob, 264/400
#8. Rage Channeller, 256/400
#9. Disturbing Tha Peace, 255/400
#10. LumineSMZX, 245/400
#11. Tranquility, 231/400
#12. No Reason, 129/400
#13. Gold CRUSH, 89/400

All in all, I was shocked at how good this Day of Zeux was, especially considering how sleepy the build-up to it was this time. Good work, and I hope the next competition is even better.

~Terryn.