Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• If you only have five words to describe this game, "Spelunky as a traditional roguelike" will do. Both are clearly inspired by the same modern mythos of Indiana Jones, and share some key attributes like snakes, mummies, whips and revolvers. The crucial difference is that you do not have to go down a set number of floors and can (indeed, must) go back up instead. In fact, you can get back out pretty much immediately at the expense of 0 score, so playing it is a constant trade-off between your caution and your greed. The other difference is that you heal with much more convenient potions here, while the whip is not a starting item and must be found randomly like everything else. However, it's a game-changer once you do find it since it lets you strike the square in front of you, with only the rarer revolver superior. And of course, while some roguelikes reroll the floors whenever you re-enter them, the crypt here goes further and also rerolls itself every dozen turns - which often temporarily exposes or buries some treasure as well. Altogether, it's a pretty fun game, and you can potentially spend quite a lot of time playing it and trying to get better. However, its current state lacks notable technical polish, with occasional issues that need to be fixed ASAP. Not only can you find yourself standing in lava upon entering the level (which is thankfully not immediately lethal), but under some unclear circumstances, your character can apparently get misaligned with the grid - after that, enemies will be able to move into the same square as him without dealing any damage (and vice versa), and you'll also not be able to move in certain directions, rendering the run unwinnable.
• There's something deeply interesting about ever-shifting worlds, even after the path has been laid out. Putting it in a setting where you're looking for treasure works so well - it feels like the dungeon itself is doing its best to protect itself from the plundering player. Games where the greed of the player factors in make for interesting experiences - I like my YASD experiences part the game punishing me, and part me overreaching for that extra bit of treasure. The only downside is there were moments where I got stuck going around in a circle waiting for the path to open back up again, but that's something that can be solved. Aesthetically, the style is simple but works. The controls are a little clunky and don't always pick up my direction inputs. The audio - the music is nice and fits well, but the audio for the enemies is all over the place in quality and quiet in volume compared to the game.