Hi all! I'm going to be writing out my reviews for each entry I was assigned to judge and posting it to the respective gamepages, along with VODs of when I played them. This'll happen very soon! Cheers.
EDIT: Also, grats to the winners! <3 And to those who didn't get a prize - every game is a gift. There were so many good games. You all are bursting with talent. Thanks for making this such an enjoyable experience by offering up great games. :)
EDIT #2: I'll have to pause my plan to review all the games in writing since I am not currently in the headspace to manage that right now. However, all VODs of the games I played and judged are available at https://twitch.tv/rpgmakercola are available there, and if I am not able to review each game individually, I hope that this will suffice. Thanks all, and if you have an issue with this, please contact me. Much love.
Viewing post in Touch the Stars Game Jam Winnners!
Going through the trouble to help out with feedback is very kind of you. I'm sure the others will appreciate it
You can save yourself a little time by skipping the write up for my game (S.Space), as I have moved on from game making.
But I added that one reverb you complained about (in a probably totally wrong way ^^)
Anyways thanks for everything Benny.
Cheers, Miha. In my experience, your game was fun and unique to me, and very custom. The judgement of art is subjective, and for us to expect to create something that pleases everyone is near impossible. Getting to Round 2 actually means that your game was in the top 50% of games, so I wouldn't personally judge it as dropping out of the contest "that early", but I guess each person has their own particular ambitions and standards.
Do note that even though some people gave you 2-star reviews (I can't seem to them find them, personally), that people have also given some of my favourite games of all time one or two-star reviews.
If I were to give your game a general rating out of 10, I think it would be a 7/10. Incredibly polished, promising, highly atmospheric game with impressive mechanics that has a few quirks that could be improved with further polishing. Things like controls, spawning, save points and great shooting system, which are nevertheless very difficult to do in the RPG Maker engine anyway, but I can't let that influence the nature of my review.
I wrote down in my notes: "Really, really impressive and would become even better with more work. I really liked the flavour and style of this game! Very incredible in ways, just needs some improvement with quirks and was unfairly punishing with lack of save points sometimes. Good use of lighting system, even if it is a bit janky in some places."
In the end, your decision whether or not to continue making games is entirely up to you. I just wanted to assure you that in my opinion, I thought that from playing your game, you had a lot of potential to create awe-inspiring games, and in many ways, what you created was indeed awe-inspiring.
Criticism can come from many different angles, and it's important to recognise that our personal biases can overamplify the weaknesses of our work, since it so precious to us - I know this from experience! We are often our own harshest critics. In the end, I wish for you to be happy.
Cheers, Miha.