Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Solid controls, solid gameplay, excellent use of magic mechanics to give a new twist to combat. I love how it wasn't just "different elements give different damage", it actually had different effects. It took me a little to get used to having to remember to keep track of the number of attacks I had left, but it was a great way of forcing people to use whatever spells were around. Absolutely loved it.
  

• Wizards and spellcasting! Octarine is based around charging up to three different wands at once with a variety of abilities, gained by standing on a rune with an empty wand. And there are runes *everywhere*. Figuring out all the spell effects and interactions is fun, and monochromatic tiles really suite the gameplay. One color per wand or element. In terms of what to improve, there doesn't seem to be much, although it might be better to have the entire left strip of the UI have a black background, to include all 8 of the current wand's uses rather than just blacking out the background above the top ones. Also a persistent way to see at a glance what three wands are currently held, rather than have to cycle through them all. Something like having the rune icon in the UI, as well as the number of charges remaining, if possible. Depends on what might fit. Oh yeah, also a way to exit out of the attack action if you've already activated your wand but change your mind, like just pressing 'z' again to return to normal movement. Love this one, a really good example of a tightly focused and fun 7DRL.

• Completeness:

  Looks like complete game. I didn't encounter bugs, and this entry seems very polished. Some elements of game mechanics are to exploit, though.
  

  Aesthetics:

  Nice tiles, fluid animations (but a bit to slow for my taste, at least for unskippable ones), straightforward controls and rules.

  Fun:

  Octarine is another proof that best 7DRLs are these with one simple, catching mechanics, and whole game is built around it. This game is about zapping wands. Just it. And it works. Combat is very simple, but there is variety of rods to use - green tangles enemies, white heals both caster and monster, etc. It makes experimenting engaging, especially at first. But even after few runs, Octarine remains fun game.

  Innovation:
  

  Playing as caster without melee attack at all, recharging mechanics - nice things, but sadly - not enough to score "4".

  Scope:

  Reasonable for 7DRL.

  Roguelikeness:

  +