Judge feedback

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• ## General review This is the 10th game I am reviewing, and so far the best I have played. Definitely a very strong entry in this year's competition ! ## Detailed review Completeness: 4 A full game with no bugs. Everything feels very polished. Note that I am playing the post-7DRl version, which fixed some bugs without adding content. Aesthetics: 4 Awesome graphics, leveraging some work from previous 7DRLs. UI is very clear and easy to understand. Nice starting screen. Help screen gives you all information you need to win the game. Fun: 4 You like Rogue ? You like Tetris ? Try this game now ! Innovation: 4 Mixing Tetris and dungeon crawling is not a new idea, several games have done this before. But it's the first time I see in a 7DRl and it works very well. Congratulations ! Scope: 4 The level of polish is quite impressive for a 7DRL. Part of this is due to the author reusing some elements from previous games, but the game play itself is completely new and one can read in the devlog how much effort went into putting all systems together. Traditional Roguelikeness: 4 Disclaimer: For me, a roguelike game must "feel" like Rogue. It does not have to be a procedural dungeon crawling with perma-death, but I need to feel the sense of exploring the unknown, the chess-like thinking to get out of tough situations, and the relief when you succeed. Dungeon Tetris fullfill all criteria to me. Definitely a must try for traditional roguelike fans.
• Dungeon Tetris is a pretty solid effort that hits the right notes for traditional roguelikeness. There are some interesting ideas with its central mechanic--certain areas become like a Tetris level and pieces naturally appear, with the hero able to manipulate them rather than move for the round. It's a fun idea that is a little compromised in balance by the randomness of enemy spawns, but (rather thankfully for this reviewer) also contained an easy mode. Scope is about on par and it does some interesting things with positioning. The mostly-scrolling-upwards direction of movement complements the general choice of conceit in this game. Occasional breaks give way to more a room or two of more "traditional" roguelike layouts, then it's back to the Tetris. An enjoyable experience that would be more or less unmissable with some greater tweaks in challenge.
• Completeness 4 Very high level of polish. Range indicators, examining stuff, dynamic tile borders, it was all there. I didn't run into any bugs while I was playing. Aesthetics 4 The pixel art is gorgeous. Don't have much else to say besides that, but not much else needs to be said. Fun 3 There are a couple factors that I feel like hurt the experience and made it not as enjoyable as it could have been. One of those was blocked pieces spawning and overlapping each other. One of the really cool parts of tetris is the idea that you have to deal with every mistake you make, if you misplace a piece, you have to find a way to fill that hole you've made. Having pieces spawning in and overlapping each other removes those holes without any real challenge to the player. That said, there were plenty of cool touches that added a lot to the game. The side areas you could build to for more loot were awesome, and I really appreciated the design choice to have enemies not hit you on the same turn you kill them, letting you save a lot of HP. Innovative 3 I always love tetris mechanics shoehorned into other games, but I feel like they could have been explored a little more here. Enemies that pushed the pieces around would have been cool, or some kind of row making bonus. Having the boss interact with the tetris mechanics would have been really cool as well, maybe through healing beacons you gotta cover up with blocks before you can hurt the boss. Scope 3 While the game was quite long, many of the content you face later on is very similar to earlier stuff, for instance the ice flowers turning into the later shooters, and the air elementals replaced by skeleton imps. The tetris environment does change though quite significantly, and I appreciated how as the game continued the layout of the block placing areas changed. Roguelike 4 This is definitely a roguelike.