Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Very nice take on mechanics which I knew previously from Space Hulk board game. The game sticks to its atmosphere and tension, but the effect is a bit weakened by slow pace — moving around with 4 characters on big levels is tiresome. Maybe smaller levels or some kind of automated “follow” mode would help here. The UI impressed me with style and clarity. I think I was close to finishing it (many, many eggs around on last level), but I ran out of ammo which wasn't fun. Maybe there should be no limited ammo in the game (it made the gameplay too much dependent on luck for me).
• The squad-based tactics and alien-infested spaceship setting make Space Marines a unique roguelike experience. The art and style are effective. The controls are very manageable but switching between squad members did not feel as fluid as you'd like. The game remains a true roguelike while incorporating squad-based mechanics not often seen in the genre. The core "overwatch" mechanic was very effective at its goal of making the squad-based mechanics more user-friendly, but movement still felt tedious. I'd love to see this concept explored more in the genre!
• Wow, I really enjoyed this one. The core 'overwatch' mechanic works well -- it's a nice distillation of an X-Com-like tactics game, stripping away all of the unnecessary bits. Scope is tightly focused, but it's in service of the design rather than a shortcoming. Despite the simple visuals, there is a real sense of atmosphere and danger. The use of the static-filled screen when the squad members died (individually and at 'game over (man)') really contributed to that. I do wish there were some UI quality of life improvements, though -- for example I found myself wishing for a way to group the party to move them all together. (Probably as a "snake-like" linked entity?) Also found the text log at the top left kind of useless, but stylistically it does give the whole thing a bit of a text adventure feel. All in all, this was a very tight, well-designed, and truly fun experience. Highly recommend.