Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Styg's Ascent takes the classic hero vs villain concept and flops it upside down. This time, you fight as the big bad itself who has fallen from their throne. With a unique emphasis on risk vs reward, Styg's ascent is a fast paced and enjoyable mayhem trip! Nicely done guys! Making a melee game with a hookshot with upgrades AND bosses is no small feat for a first year project! The game had a few bugs that I encountered, but nothing major or game breaking. The combat feels smooth along with the movement and the hookshot. The few things I had to mention were the panning of the camera and the level layouts, both of these are interconnected and I think they are easily fixed. Make sure to give the player more control of the camera, where to look etc, so that you don't plunge into spikes because you didn't see them below. The art and sound was on point, it felt consistent with backgrounds and the theme overall. It was cool that you managed to create music that changes depending on combat state! The bossfight at the end was very, very ambitious! As the game is a bit of a powerfantasy type experience, it felt alright to smash the boss completely, especially if you had low health at the end to reach full power! Something you should look into is how to inform players that their abilities and powerups have changed depending on powerlevel. It became very confusing when the game tells me that "something" has happened, but I have no idea as to what changed. Make it easier to look up what skills you have and the effects of them! Overall though, amazing game! Well done to everyone in the team, you should really be proud of what you have created! Keep it up!
• Very neat game! Art and music were great! I liked the combat and platforming gameplay mix even though I at times had some issues with the movement not "clicking". The heavy momentum of the jump is interesting: I felt it took away some control but it did fit with the "heavy boss" theme, and made things harder (I compare here to very precise movement in games like Hollow Knight or modern Metroidvanias). It's very cool that you have all those creative artifacts one can gain, but I got the float jump at the beginning and never understood it as a unique item. I think it was because since it's placed during the tutorial, I sort of assumed it was a movement-puzzle ability, and promptly forgot about it after not being "required" to use it! Overall I had a good time with the game! Great job!
• Great looking art, nice traversal and character movement. Looks and feels polished!
• Really great job, I love the overall style and "vibe" of the game. The grappling hook controls are a bit confusing and took a while to get the hang of it - not sure I ever really did.