Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• As the name suggests, Pico-@ is a roguelike made in Pico-8.  Games on that platform tend to be a bit simpler but with a charming retro aesthetic, and Pico-@ is no exception.  

  I liked how it was able to pull off traditional Rogue level generation (albeit with short, straight halls).  Movement was properly turn-based, with all actors taking a turn with every input of the player, and we have traditional room-to-room FOV.   There's essentially only one item to recover, little blue energy balls, and this replaced the RPG advancement mechanics.  This makes fighting largely optional.
  

  I was a little flummoxed by how I was taking and doing 0 damage a lot, but eventually wrapped my head around what was going on.  I like how the radiation mechanic discouraged backtracking for more energy balls.  But the levels get really sprawling as you get further in and I was just trekking through a lot of empty rooms trying to find the one with the exit.

  Overall though, Pico-@ was a pretty nice and well-scoped project that definitely had a proper game presentation about it.
  

  • Completeness - 4 (Very complete, even has an animated victory screen!)
  • Aesthetics - 4 (As good a UI as I could expect from a Pico-8 Roguelike, bolstered a bit by the nice intro and win screens.)
  • Fun - 2 (Combat felt more like an obstacle slugging match, I ended up avoiding it when I could.  The rooms got really monotonous the further I got in, I felt like I just wanted it to end.  These mar what would otherwise be a pretty good experience.)
  • Innovative - 2 (As vanilla as a roguelike gets, but the radiation mechanic added a little something.)
  • Scope - 3 (Very much in line with 7DRL expectations, possibly a 3.5 with that win screen!)
  • Roguelike - 4 (Very, very roguelike.  Somewhat taking a Pico-8 allowance in mind: of course it doesn't have the sophistication.  But it's still a few features short of being perfectly roguelike.)

• Well done. The game feels complete but is missing much needed balance. The aesthetics are good and controls are intuitive but bare-bones. Unfortunately I didn't find it fun because the player isn't centered in the screen so you cannot see what's in a room when moving upwards and you cannot outrun enemies to get back to an energy ball so the game is hard with being challenging.
  

  I was hoping the radiation mechanic was going to be innovative but its really a long time actively avoiding energy balls before anything happens and touching an energy ball immediately restores you to full health and sight.

  The game's scope feels more like a tech demo at the time of writing but at least its on its way to being a roguelike.