Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• This is a very interest premise, the strategy of descending & ascending and the allocation of power vs HP makes for an interesting setup. However it ultimately feels like the start of a good idea, rather than a full experience. There's no real loss condition as far as I could tell, failure is simply a setback of time, that's not inherently bad, but it does greatly reduce the longevity of the experience and impact of following a good strategy. I'd enjoy engaging with this more if there was some failable goal, or even a score/leaderboard I was trying to manage to push me to think and optimize rather than brute force my way through. Overall with the straightforward combat, the strategy is a bit flat, there's some choice in how you allocate the powerups, and trying to take out a tough enemy when you're about to die on a floor, but otherwise things are pretty straightforward. With some expansion on the mechanics this could start to have very interesting gameplay as the layering system does work quite well otherwise.
• This is a fairly simple game; sort of an essence of RPG grind; but it plays smoothly. You will win; it just might take a while. You start on level 0, a random maze with some stationary numbers sprinkled throughout. The numbers represent monsters or challenges; moving onto a number defeats it, and defeating all the numbers completes the level. You won't win level 0; you will die. This is where it has a bit of a twist. Instead of restarting, level 0 is saved and you descend to level 1. If you die there, you descend to level 2, etc. You carry over some of your power as you change levels, and the levels seem to get easier, and you get upgrade points on each level change, so eventually you'll start winning levels and ascending back toward level 0. Eventually you will get back to level 0 and be strong enough, or have cleared enough of it previously, that you can complete it and win the game. I wish outcomes were conveyed more clearly. When I click on a number to fight it my eyes are on it, so it's hard to see the changes to the power and health stats at the bottom of the screen. Something like a "+1 power / -5 health" flashing at the combat location might help. I wasn't sure if the tint of the numbers mattered or if it was purely aesthetic. I also wish I could see the outcomes from the final combat that wins or loses a level, and then see the power-to-health transfer afterward. The game is smooth and bug-free. I used the mouse interface, which has a nice smooth movement and repeat rate so you can hold the button instead of clicking repeatedly. The mouse doesn't quite pathfind to where you're clicking but it can get around some obstacles. The stacking structure, where the first level you start on is the level you complete to finish the game, is dramatically satisfying.
• This game's title invokes time travel: unfortunately, it is represented in what is arguably the simplest way possible, as its primary feature is metaprogression. Everything else is extraordinarily simple: from the dungeon layouts, which have nothing but in walls in them, to enemies, which are immobile and are simply depicted with numbers correlating to their power, as if this was Hero Wars or some other mobile puzzle, to the unnamed player character only possessing two stats: Health and Power. Essentially, you are doomed to get killed by the very first enemy you encounter, and then you'll likely keep getting for a while before you'll eventually upgrade yourself enough to start pushing back up. Having beaten the game, it seems like the optimal approach is to keep sinking all your upgrade points into Power at first, as Power is halved whenever the @ sign dies, yet the HP is increased by half of whatever that power was. Keep doing this, and you'll eventually become strong enough to clear a level. Once you do, you should reverse the approach and pour all level-clear points into HP to heal yourself. Then, if you eventually start getting killed again, you go back to just buffing power. Eventually, you'll win, and since there are no high scores or the like (only an "I have escaped the dungeon!" message), there would be no reason to come back to it again. I still had some fun with this game: more fun than with some more traditional and ambitious submissions. However, it was in a pure "numbers go up!" sense, rather than the kind of challenge and planning that is usually desired from the genre. In terms of aesthetics, the game lacks any sound, but looks simple and clean. Destroyed numbers popping like balloon was a neat effect. There's little else to say.
• Completeness: It appears mostly implemented, but the game doesn't appear to properly lock the keyboard. Hence the keyboard controls are effectively unusuable. Also, there isn't a way to restart the game after winning, which is...mostly fine, really, since it's a browser game, but not high on polish. Aesthetics: It's very clean and readable. However, the UI is awkward, as every time you go up or down a level (and you will go up and down a lot of levels) you have to click a whole bunch of times to reassign your stat points, which is a major drag. Fun: It feels like there isn't much decision-making. Feedback, and the rules of the game, are extremely unclear. As far as I can tell the winning strategy is just to always hit the smallest number you can reach, with little variation, and if that's correct the levels seem very similar and repetitive. Also, as far as I can tell, you can't actually lose, so you can sort of just mash your face on the game until you win. Innovation: The mechanic of death-as-level-up, after which you return back to the place that killed you, is really cool! Having second-life or after-death mechanics in more roguelikes would be nifty. Scope: Wholly reasonable. Traditional Roguelikeness: It's mostly feature equivalent to a trad roguelike, barring that I don't think you can lose, which actually transforms the experience into something that feels completely different while having a similar feature set.