Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• In a way this is the perfect 7DRL; it takes an unusual and interesting idea and explores the possibility space in a small experience. I'm a big fan of being an amoeba. It is satisfying to absorb things and break them down. Having organelles as abilities or powerups is such a cool idea. It might be nice to choose your upgrades, to make a build for yourself. Being a bright green thing in a dark environment makes you feel like you don't belong, which is appropriate. The enemy design is interesting as well, and you have to make decisions about which nuclei to move. However, I did have an issue with the difficulty curve. It is a 7DRL and critiquing the difficulty curve is perhaps a nitpick, but I felt that I would start building up my amoeba, and then all of a sudden there are two mechs, a tank, two marines, and a hunter surrounding me and it feels that there is nothing that I can do. Because you have to surround many enemies it takes several turns to kill any one of them, and each turn you are torn apart. Even two tanks next to one another are almost impossible. The color choice for enemies is also really unfortunate, as it is very easy to miss a dark blue tank on a black background. I also wish I could make more active use of organelles like the maw. I really tried to beat this one but I could only get up to 88 mass before being utterly destroyed. Maybe I am missing something. That being said, if this game gets updates, and I sincerely hope it does, I will return to check it out. One of the most memorable games this year.
• Completeness 3 The level of polish is very impressive, there were plenty of very helpful features that really improved the experience, for instance the highlight on what parts of your slime are going to move, and the timer on the doors. I'd say it could use a bit more balancing though, the difficulty curve right now is quite frustrating. I found that the early game is quite fun, with lots of interesting a satisfying decisions to make, but when the number of enemies gets too large it rapidly becomes impossible to fight back. Aesthetics 3 Very readable, the only difficulty i had was telling at a glance what in my body was a digesting enemy, and what was an organelle. All the enemies except for the Mech were lowercase, maybe it would have been a good idea to have the Mech lowercase too. Fun 4 Although I never managed to beat it, I enjoyed my time with it immensely. Consuming enemies is very satisfying, and there was a plethora of interesting choices to make as far as organelle development went. I was a little hard to control organelle positioning, but it's hard to say whether making that easier would make the game more or less enjoyable, as working around the positioning difficulties also adds to the experience. Innovative 4 Really great and out there idea, with the added benefit that it actually works. This has definitely convinced me that a more fleshed out ooze based roguelike could definitely work. Scope 3 A good range of enemies and organelles, enough to give the player plenty of options and interesting situations they can end up in. Roguelike 4 Character progression in the form of upgrading organelles is there, so is perma-death, turnbased combat, and pretty much everything else I'd associate with a roguelike.
• This game is a pretty well-done look at a sci-fi horror...from the perspective of the horrific blob. It's never made clear whether you are some sort of atomic horror or a blob from space escaped from some government facility, but play is tight and tactical. As of the time of this writing, I've yet to beat the game, but it's pretty good and engaging all-around. If you want a challenge, play this one for sure.