Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Striking visual design and really interesting narrative set-up. The game play is a bit confusing and could use a bit of onboarding/tutorial because it's really not straightforward what we're supposed to do.
• Absolutely beautiful art. Pretty cool that you have a cutscene too! Nice and mellow experience, scanning plants and exploring the environent. This game got an excellent atmosphere and a lot of potential
• Well done Ortus team! Sadly, I didn't get to play the entire game, but oh man did I love the parts that I did get to play. The atmosphere of the game is amazing. I could spend hours just boating around to explore this world! Speaking of boating, you have managed to really nail the controls on this one. It feels responsive, and remote controlling the boat works wonders for the puzzles! Collecting plants and analyzing them is great way to introduce the player to your system. However, I cannot say that I fully understood how to know what plants go where, especially when you have more than four. Maybe I missed some crucial part of that mechanic. When I played, I felt like I just chucked in the plants to see what worked. Is there a way you can make it more clear? Can the plants be marked by specific tags? Either way, it does work, and I bet once I understand it, it will make sense! The music is great, it is calm, but mysterious. It really adds to the experience along with the tiny sounds of the boat. I think you have a great game going! Keep it up!
• Very nice atmospheric feel of this game. From the narrow caves that opens up to a big chamber with a tree to the breathing notices inside the helmet and the sound of a giant door opens in the distant . It all comes together like a fully thought out product. I didn't think you could have interesting or challenging puzzles with the push pull boat but you guys managed to do that as well. Very clever to use a numeral value to each plant, math is universal so its easy to understand. The itch presentation is condense and you can download the game quickly without scrolling down tons of information but you should have sold the feel of the game more than the mechanics. The big tree or a giant door opening is much more inviting than a gif of the boat. An atmospheric game like this needs a soundtrack that is just as gripping. BUT this is a tall order to give to a student project so well done. A bit of color variety in the cave to help navigation and makes it feel less "repetitive" in the scenery. Overall great job, you nailed the aesthetic feel of this game. The page on itch is condense and punchy but don't sell the game as well as it should. An animation of a giant cave door opening or the three in the big cave would have sold it better than a gif of the boat.
• It was all going so well, then when I got back into my boat off the DNA check island the boat wouldn't move.