Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Overview An unforgiving first-person, real-time game that has more roguelike elements than most other entries I played so far. Completeness Quite polished entry, with no obviously missing features. Maybe the game's a bit too hard for my taste, and monster spawning is a bit wonky. The only bug I encountered is that sometimes the sprite sheet is drawn over the map. Aesthetics While the art looks quite generic, the overall impression is quite good. The style is consistent, and some effects look really nice. No issues with controls, maybe except very low mouse sensitivity by default (still, it may be easily adjusted in game) Fun I'm glad I played this game. It has some issues like unbalanced monsters spawns, a bit sluggish movement, and the necessity of walking back during most melee fights to avoid damage, but the game is fun nevertheless. Especially ID minigame is a nice touch here, didn't expect it. Innovation The Prison Tower is a very classic game. Scope This game has everything that I would expect from the small roguelike. Few monsters, some items, scrolls, potions, ID minigame, exploration... OK, most of the mechanics are quite simple, but I guess it's necessary for that kind of game jam. Traditional Roguelikeness At the first glance, it doesn't look very traditional. It's first-person, it's real-time, it builds the dungeon by placing prefabricated rooms on grid. But after playing The Prison Tower for a some time, it is obvious that the game takes a lot from the classics.
• There's a lot to like about this game. The theme is strong, the gameplay is mostly obvious, and there's a decent amount of content. It's more polished than what I usually expect for a 7DRL. The ambiance created by the visuals and audio is excellent. Despite lots of experience with Minecraft-style combat like this, I was never able to beat the first level. There don't seem to be any health potions (I stopped quaffing them all when I realized they are mostly harmful), and every encounter whittled my health down until I ran out. I eventually got pretty good at timing my attacks to take less damage, but there's not enough feedback for me to get good enough at it to survive the encounters required to beat a level. I also found that the floating sphere monster was pretty much instant death on sight unless I was able to sneak up on it in a very specific way. I did try a more sprint-based strategy, but had too hard of a time finding the monsters holding keys while still surviving and not running out of sprint energy. With some balance tweaks, I could see this game being really fun. I didn't play the post-7DRL version, and it's possible those tweaks are already there. It feels just shy of the "fair" side of "hard but fair."
• This is an action roguelike from a FPS perspective, but with a more traditional feel. You'll have to appraise items such as wands, scrolls, and potions as you progress. The process of appraising items is very fun because it is accompanied by action. For example, if you throw a potion at an enemy from a distance, and the potion produces poison gas or flames, and the enemy is defeated at the same time the potion is appraised, you will feel a strange sense of accomplishment! (Of course, there are times when you end up throwing healing potions.) I also like the balance of the game, which is typical of roguelikes that require careful play. I think it's a great and original game that combines traditional roguelike elements with the FPS perspective.