Winter 2010 Dualstream Day of Zeux Scoresheet:pyro1588
Welcome one and all to pyro's judging scores for the 2010Q1 DSDoZ! To make things interesting, I decided to try something new: Play all the entries and perform judging while simulating a flight from Duluth, MN to Cookeville, TN! So with HOTAS Cougar prepped and both MZX and FSX running, I lowered the flaps, torrented the games, accelerated to full throttle, and took off to play a fantastic set of entries!
11617
This one was a bit of a disappointment to start out with. It's a pixel-perfect jumper with a single pixel-perfect enemy and a single pixel-perfect door. Oh, and no scoresheet specified, so we'll go with the theme-heavy one.
Theme 10/100
Not many points to give here. Your character isn't really even alone. He's got a big enemy (who may potentially be an alien invader!) keeping him company. You get a couple points for having a single player, I guess.
Gameplay 8/90
To the game's credit, there is some basic gameplay laid out. You can run around and jump in a pixel-perfect manner. In classic feature-not-bug mode, you can also jump if you've already fallen off a ledge. You can also throw some switches (or maybe you're pressing buttons?) that will make some stationary fans start flickering or open a large green door to let your potentially alien friend come down for a visit. You have health which is depleted by falling off the screen or letting your large friend run you over. That's about it...
Graphics 7/70
Again, there ARE technically graphics here. There's your little guy, there's his big friend, there's the door, the fans, and the fabled "space terminals." A question: are these terminals located in space? Or are the terminals with only a single form of input: a spacebar? Ah well, unanswered mysteries. On a sidenote, why aren't the fans animated? The fan blades just flicker in and out of existence.
Technique 15/60
Ya get some points here just for having a functional pixel-perfect jumper. You also have a PP enemy and door. The fans actually do work and help to keep your character aloft. Also you have an enemy who moves and falls in a PP manner. Really, that's about all there is to this.
Story 0/50
Aside from the tragic tale of a underdog team pouring heart and soul into a beautiful and unique engine but tragically falling short when time runs out, there's no story here. A shame, too. Isolation is such a great topic for stories.
Sound 3/30
A full 10% pity points for having no sound. If the sound were anything like the graphics, I doubt this many points would be given.
Total 43/400
Overall it's a neat engine but it's something we've all seen before. Coupled with the total lack of game and story, this entry can't hope to do too well. Sorry fellas, better luck next time =(
13210 Aliens on an Elevator
I have to admit it: this was the single entry I was the most excited about from only the title screen. It looked awesome! I was so totally pumped to go and blast those aliens off of my elevator! Oh, and once again, please specify your scoresheet.
Theme 15/20
We've got alien invaders on our space elevators! It's up to Futureman to save us! Really, the awesome title screen is where all these points are coming from. They had that awesome picture of the alien peeking out from the elevator door and the nifty picture of Futureman blasting aliens! What more do you want? I guess maybe integrating aliens into the actual game might help a little...
Gameplay 12/120
Okay, we've got a functional 3d maze engine the likes of which has not been seen since Weirdness. Except only the bottom half of the screen is there. Oh well, maybe it's that visor that Futureman wears. Anyway, you wander around for a minute and then a message informs you that the aliens left. Whether it was the elevator music or the pranksters that pressed every button from the ground floor through 3,485 we'll never know.
Graphics 27/90
The biggest area this game scores is the title screen. There are several nice little graphics that appear, including a couple of rocking pictures of Futureman and his badass visor. Again, I had high hopes for this game based off the title screen alone. Ah well.
Technique 12/80
Again, the 3d maze is about as innovative in MZX as transvestite jokes. Other than the maze, there's the map feature which beams you over to the map that the maze is sourced from. Not much here, folks.
Story 17/50
The setup for this game is GREAT! I would LOVE to fight aliens on a space elevator! Granted, this is not Shakespeare, but it's still a really cool concept. As before, it's a shame that there aren't any actual aliens after the title screen.
Sound 16/40
There's some fairly good music in here. More would be nice, but it'd kinda require more game. Still, I like what there is. EXCEPT FOR THAT DAMNABLE SQUEALING SCREECH ON THE TITLE SCREEN! I really contemplated giving no points just for that abomination, but you weren't the only team to have horrendous sounds on the title screen.
Total 99/400
In summary, I was really really looking forward to this game. It's a shame that fate always insists on crushing my hopes and dreams. Nice title screen, though.
18030 Prison Escape
This is a game where you, um, escape a prison. Yup, that's about it. The title screen simply tells you that an exciting title screen will be coming soon. No other information. The game dumps you right into a prison, eliminating all that pesky "getting arrested" and "being sentanced." This lets you cut straight to the escaping! Oh and this is also the first of MULTIPLE entries to have toilets. This must mean something. Unfortunately, I don't know what...
Theme 44/100
Technically, you ARE isolated. You start the game surrounded by 3 friendly faces, but close inspection reveals that their robots are named "Skeleton," "Skeleton," and "Skeleton," respectively. After breaking out of your cell, you meet more friends, like skeletons with a red background, which I presume to be blood. About the only living company you have are the little rats who scurry around on the floor, presumably eating crumbs dropped by the skeletons. The ending makes no sense, but it does have your character "ultimately isolated," so I guess it's the right idea...
Gameplay 36/90
The game is standard MZX "walk around walls made of faded gray characters." You explore your cell and discover that you can kick your skeletonized friends. You then proceed on a brief inventory quest where you gather a file, an iron bar, dynamite, and a syringe. The game runs into problems with this system, though. First off, to find the items you have to touch everything that isn't wall or rat. You have to search half a dozen identical lockers to find the one with the syringe in it. You have to go around kicking skeletons until a file falls out of one. Seriously, if the guy was trying to file the bars when he died, wouldn't he be over next to the bars and wouldn't the file be in his hand instead of somewhere so deep it requires kicking to free? Using the items is as simple as finding the thing they need to be used on, which isn't simple at all. I guess the section of bars with the single fileable point on the entire gate DOES have a tiny little angle on its character, but that's about it. I couldn't figure out how to throw the dynamite at the stupid gun that keeps shooting at me, so I looked in the editor and found out that all I have to do is walk back into the killzone and try to be shot. Then my character will automatically throw the dynamite. Seriously? Also for a game that requires you to touch everything to progress, making the fans hurt you is stupid. I can only guess at what the large reversing character thing is, so don't punish me for taking the same approach you expect me to throughout the rest of the game.
Graphics 21/70
The game looks a lot like Castle of Zeux, which isn't a particularly bad thing. What IS a particularly bad thing is a large board of black background, black floor, and too many identical hallways with a small viewport. If you're going to animate the stupid sentry gun and tell me it's there, why not let me look at it and appreciate the animation? And why is your small viewport only on the one board? Bonus for the reflecting mirrors and for animating the guns (if only slightly.) But what made you think that flashing colors over the whole screen was a good idea at the end?
Technique 6/60
The game doesn't do much. The nauseating flashing colors are about as intricate as it gets. Other than that, there's a sentry gun that uses playerdist to start firing. The code isn't terribly neat and tidy, but I guess what's in there works. For the record, if you're going to have 16 lockers in a room that you can't get to because of a sentry gun, they don't ALL have to be real interactable robots.
Story 16/50
There's something in here about James Chester and his sentry guns which killed the queen so he was imprisoned, but that's it. It's never made clear WHO James Chester IS. He MIGHT be the player character (judging by the type of smiley,) but then why would he be imprisoned in a prison guarded by his OWN sentry guns? And the guy at the end MIGHT be George Westers, but what's he doing outside of a remote prison waiting to kill the guy who got him crowned king anyway? Shouldn't he be off doing kingly stuff? I get the feeling that there's a deeper story in here somewhere. I'm just not sure where.
Sound 6/30
It's got a dripping sound as the background for most of the boards. It's got Solid Snake's cries of anguish. It's got gun and explosion sounds. That's it, really, but I think the lack of music kinda highlights just how alone you are. Maybe.
Total 129/400
Once again, what started out as a cool concept quickly deteriorated into a brief little fetch quest that never really reveals what it's all about. Smilies are well-drawn, though.
30641 Celestial Altair
And so we come to it: the Lancer game. You all knew this was coming. To be honest, I hit p, saw the first board, and then put it off until I'd beaten all the other games. This time it's actually a bit shorter and significantly more fun than his last entry. I'd talk more about it in this intro, but let's just dive in.
Theme 16/20
This is by far the most interesting take on alien invaders. I'd like to do this without spoiling too much, but I guess at this point you all should have played this. If not, go play it. I liked how the protagonist is an alien invader who must defeat a much bigger, nastier alien invader. I like using the powers of different aliens against the indigenous species of the planet. It all falls together quite nicely. Good choice going with the theme-lite scoresheet, though.
Gameplay 108/120
The gameplay is great! It's a text adventure very reminiscient of Choose Your Own Adventure books (right down to the would-be page numbers,) only this time it has battles! Oh, and all the text is backed by blurry images of the local area. You basically click your way through the game using a nifty pixel-perfect mouse. Oh, and right-click is used consistently and effectively. The battles are fun, if a bit simple. The game uses a 2-on-2 battle system, letting you have a buddy follow you around. You're pitted against 1 or 2 different enemies. There are a handful of interesting enemies with niftily-animated attacks (is "niftily" even a word?) You've got your standard attack, defend, magic and item options. There are four magics and four item types. I want to call it a little too simple, but the truth is that this game was made in 24 hours, so having 4 different magic attacks with unique and awesome animations is actually quite a feat. The only place where I think the gameplay falls short is in the end where you're required to navigate a somewhat confusing maze. I never liked mazes in text adventures (or many games at all, really,) so this was where the walkthrough came in perfectly. Again, there are a couple of tiny nits to pick at, but the entirety of the multi-path adventure game is solid and great! This game was a joy to play.
Graphics 90/90
I know, shock and awe that someone got full points. But really, this game has genuinely pretty visuals. The majority of them are rendered in half-char background pictures with relatively few colors. In spite of the monochrome look to the game, the visuals are still great for MZX. The battle animations look great and I LOVE how the enemies get sliced up when you finish them off! The best part about the graphics is how smooth and unbroken they are. The use of half-chars makes the background a tad blurry but lets the text blend in with it gorgeously. Best looking game this DoZ.
Technique 80/80
As I said before, the engine is fantastic! The mouse controls as smoothly and accurately as it does in [insert OS of choice here]. Aside from a quickly-patched glitch, the game works excellently. The battle system is pretty much perfect (aside from the typical 'flee' option that wouldn't make much sense in an adventure game like this.) I can't really think of much else because nothing really stood out as bad; the engine just fit the game so well.
Story 45/50
The story was also surprisingly good. It sets up a nice typical fantasy-ish setting before throwing in the whole alien invaders twist. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I wasn't a native but rather Khan, only more magical. I started having difficulty following it during the final monologue where it got all multi-dimensional and confusing, but the story still stands out as a good solid adhesive that holds the experience together.
Sound 36/40
There's a variety of music that's generally pleasing to the ears. The piano piece used during the long explanation of your backstory fit particularly well. The final boss theme is also pretty awesome. We also have a plethora (read: 24) of different sound effects. These range all over the board quality-wise but none of them are conspicuously bad. I really hope we start seeing some decent looping OGG music. If you're going to use the format for background music, you may as well take advantage of the looping capability. Fading background music out really breaks continuity, so as soon as MZX has OGG looping capability I hope everyone jumps on it.
Total 375/400
This is easily the most technically accomplished and polished entry this DoZ. It's always fun to see what Lancer can cook up. I'm glad he took a lesson from last time and made this one a bit less repetitive. Entertaining gameplay, extremely pretty graphics and a compelling story make this the one entry that everyone should definitely play.
34477 Duck Rescue
How fitting that we should leave the Lancer entry and come to the Logi entry. Logi has a history of making games that bend MZX outside of where its comfortable and force it to do new and interesting things. He had the first solid pixel-perfect sidescroller. Without further ado, Duck Rescue! Actually wait, I have one more ado before beginning. Why do you refuse to specify your scoresheet? Or your topic, for that matter? Are the little floating guys alien invaders? Or is this game about the pain and solitude felt by the duck because of the forced isolation from his ladyduck? Oh well. Alien invaders and lite scoresheet it is!
Theme 14/20
As I mentioned before, the enemies in this game are presumably alien invaders, though really, the ducks could be the aliens invading these guys' planet. Or maybe it's like Lancer's entry and both races are aliens invading this innocent planet. Oh well, 70% for having little flying ships.
Gameplay 96/120
And so we come to the core of this game: the sidescroller action! Duck Rescue is a sidescroller where you control a duck made out of half-chars in an environment made out of half-chars fighting aliens made out of half-chars. We'll get to the graphics in a minute, but let me say that the half-chars actually make sidescrolling action relatively smooth here. What doesn't is the speed. This engine runs very slowly, and while this makes the game a tad bit easier, it doesn't make it a lot of fun. I got bored fairly quickly just because it took me so long to waddle across the screen. My duck bullets travelled across my screen slower than a real-life duck can (that sentance only makes sense if you've actually had a duck walk across your monitor.) Moving on, combat is straightforward. Shoot them, avoid being shot by them. You can jump, the aliens can run, jump, and fly. If you make contact with them or their bullets, you lose health. Your health is regenerated every 2 screens or so. When you reach the end, shoot and avoid the large alien for slightly longer than the small aliens. Yay. Not particularly challenging, not particularly original, but in no way bad.
Graphics 73/90
It feels weird to be giving Logi so low of a graphics score, but the graphics here don't do a lot for me. With Lancer's entry, the low-res pictures provide a nice background to crisp and clear text and the simple-but-clean menu system. In Logi's game, the low-res graphics are used for the main game and don't look so good in the limelight. It's not that the sprites aren't nice; it's just that they're low-res and take up a large portion of the screen. The colors are nice, but they can only do so much to offset the resolution. Again, it's still really good, just not enough to justify full points.
Technique 64/80
Here again I want to give more points but one or two things are bugging me. It's a great sidescroller engine, but it's still just a sidescroller engine. Sidescrolling shooters aren't exactly new in MZX; rather, what sets this apart is the display code. The problem there is that it's so slow. I'm running on a dual core at 3GHz and it still crawls along at an almost intolerable speed. When I'm jumping around and shooting, I want it to feel fast and fluid, not like Neo got stuck in bullet time and can't speed up. I guess that analogy is a bit stretched, so let me rephrase it: the game plays too slowly.
Story 10/50
Nope, not much here. You're a duck happily hanging out with your lady duck. A large turquoise man walks up and vamooses with your lady duck tucked under his Gumby-like arm. You must then pursue him, armed only with your duck gun and a seemingly unlimited supply of duck bullets. You will face aliens, flying aliens, and more aliens! At the end, you'll face the large alien! That's about it. There's no text after the title and so there's really no story here.
Sound 10/40
There's one song. It's not bad other than the fact that it gets old quick. Since you get 4 points for having no sound, I suppose 10 isn't too bad for having only one song.
Total 267/400
Overall I DID enjoy this game. It's just that I would have enjoyed it more if it had been longer, faster, and had more enemies, weapons, and gameplay mechanics.
36306 Voluntary Solitude
On the more traditional single-char player end of the spectrum, we have voluntary solitude, an interesting journey into the world of the last surviving man on earth and his epic struggle against the creatures that have murdered those dear to him and indeed, all other inhabitants of the planet. Oh, and it also has a toilet =)
Theme 72/100
The game is about the last man alive whose only company are hordes of evil purple masses who seek only his death and destruction. You can't get more isolated than that. Still, the general feel of the game doesn't do much to capitalize on this. You spend the entire game in your small trailer home. If you were in a big mansion and could wander around eerily empty halls or something, I could see giving more points. As it stands, your isolation is only highlighted by the absence of other characters in a single board that's too small to accomodate them anyway.
Gameplay 36/90
You wander around an empty house looking for scraps of a note left by your late wife. These scraps are hidden in such places as a weird thing (of which there approximately 200 in the house,) the left side of a 2-char weird thing (of which there are approximately 38,) and the corner of a brown thing which might be a table or maybe just a brown thing. In between notes, your house is broken into by a bunch of giant mouth creatures that rush at you with all the intelligence of the "walk seek" command. You gather copious amounts of ammo, let them pile up around a corner, and then step out and unleash a torrent of full metal jacketed rain (read: MZX bullets.) They die, you look for more notes, etc. That's all there is. I got tired of touching everything that wasn't background (and some that was) and looked in the editor. Yay for Shift+F2.
Graphics 16/70
Not a lot to say here. There ARE custom characters; it's just I have no clue what they're supposed to be. There are these bizzare salt shakers with a big Z on them all over the house. There are weird two-char things that might be tables or coatracks. There's what appears to be rubble in the kitchen and bathroom, but I can't really be certain. There's also some awful red carpeting in one room...
Technique 9/60
As I mentioned before, your enemies "go seek 2" until they get to you, at which point they "dec 'health' 10" until you die. If you shoot them, they go randns 2 and randew 2. This isn't exactly high-tech. As I've stressed with other games, it's not BAD. Good gravy, my first several DoZ entries weren't even a fifth complete; you've done much better by aiming low and finishing a game. Next time you can learn some new techniques and try something a little more daunting.
Story 35/50
It's not terribly original but it's there. I pretty much had the whole thing figured out by the second note, but that doesn't mean it's a bad story. Actually the only reason I knew what was up is because Lancer's previous entry had a pretty similar premise. As with your engine, it's not bad, but try to improve from here.
Sound 26/30
The music was the best part of this game, and it was great! The old standby of a steady high-pitched violin note that we all came to know and love while exploring Magus's castle makes an appearance. Your wandering music in general is what makes me feel alone, isolated and scared. You did a great job picking out your solitude music. Your battle music could be worse. I'm not a fan of really frantic metal, but it DID make battles feel scary and hectic (even though they weren't particularly.) Your sound effects ranged from okay to pretty good. I really need to highlight this again: you did a GREAT job picking music that matched the game. This is a good thing that a lot of DoZ entries don't do so well. Good job on this!
Total 194/400
This really feels like a first DoZ game, so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it is. Like I said before, finishing your game is always a good thing and you managed to do this. It's a good start and you can only improve from here.
47527 Abandoned
A quick search of my comments thus far reveals that I haven't used the word "favorite" yet, so let me say that this is my favorite game for the isolation topic. It does the best job thus far of making me feel alone in the dark and scared.
Theme 93/100
The game starts you off in a prison cell by yourself. You escape to find yourself in a hallway, alone. You enter a dark blood-soaked passage without anyone there to hold your hand. It really did a great job of making me want to call up John on my phone so I could talk to someone while playing it.
Gameplay 58/90
It's a brief inventory adventure game. You walk around small rooms and collect, inspect, use and apply items to your environment. The movement works well, although it's a tad slow. The puzzles are all fairly straightforward. Where I ran into trouble was the inventory system. You have both "use" and "apply" options and it took me awhile to figure out that they mean the same thing but are used randomly in different situations. Just because I can't "use" the coin on the screw in the vent doesn't mean I can't "apply" it to the screw. My character sits there with a single-pixel pouty lip waiting for me to word my request just right for him. Sadly, the gameplay ends all too quickly after the second floor. A brief look in the editor reveals how to turn the power on at which point you take the elevator to a black room where the message row explains that the author ran out of time. It's a shame because I really liked where this was going.
Graphics 64/70
The game is pretty. Very pretty. It's a bit more of a traditional approach to graphics than Lancer or Logi, but it still manages to look awesome. The game uses a small viewport, but the level of detail in these small rooms is great! There are cracks in the wall, mold and bloodstains on the floor and ceiling, and a flickering light that makes the whole room a tad dark when it flashes off. The bloody handprints, the blast mars around the destroyed door, the little symbols on the computer screens are all pretty cool. I've always been a fan of little details and this game has plenty of those.
Technique 36/60
The game uses a solid engine to move you around your environment and gather items. There are no major bugs that I've found and it holds together pretty well. That said, it's not terribly complex. Your sprite moves around the room. In the dark room, he's got a little visible area around him. What there is here works pretty well.
Story 16/50
You're given the premise of the story and not a whole lot more. It's a fairly standard premise, but it works well. I wish there'd been more because the game honestly had me intruiged. Ah well, the smattering of explanation we got was a good start.
Sound 21/30
Good ambient music. It feels ominous. Good sound effects, too. I like how the footsteps are played at random frequencies so that it doesn't sound too monotonous. Again, while there isn't a whole lot here, what there is does the job well.
Total 288/400
As I mentioned, this game has got to be my favorite for isolation. I love the whole feel of it and all the little graphical details. I'm sad to see it so incomplete. If the team is looking for a post-DoZ project, finish this game please!
49781 Turncoat
And here we have another interesting take on alien invaders where once again, you play one. This game starts out with a brief little adventure part and ends with a brief little action part. Sandwhiched in between is a brief little cutscene.
Theme 20/20
You play an alien from a race of aliens who are about to begin invading earth. You can't get much more alien invader than this. Well, maybe if you were like the Ridley Scott alien and had an eggplant for a head.
Gameplay 66/120
Nothing too profound here. You wander around the house and look at your dog. Then you go to your toilet, which is yet another in what must be the biggest toilet frenzy of a DoZ we've had to date, and use it to teleport to your secret lair. It may not be the best looking toilet in this DoZ, but its teleportation ability makes it by far the coolest. Then your bosses arrive and you decide they can't invade earth because it might upset your dog. You shoot them, crash your shuttle into their ship, and then wander around long green hallways shooting sprite and non-sprite enemies with 3 different weapons. They're each rather unique, but once you figure out a pattern that works for the big sprite enemies, you'll just spam that until they explode. The brief little puzzles to open the doors are obnoxious. You must move around at a locked speed and shoot single-char targets very rapidly in a precise sequence and then try to make it through the door before it closes again. It is nothing short of aggrivating. While we're here, let me address an issue common to more than one entry. If you're going to restrict the player's ability to use MZX defaults like the F2 menu and saving, you'd better have a damn good reason for doing so. For instance, Lancer and Logi both lock their respective games' speeds because the games are designed to run at a certain speed. They will appear slow and choppy if they don't. Lancer disabled saving because he had a nifty saving system built into his menu. You, on the other hand, have restricted my ability to adjust my speed and volume and to pause my game. Now instead of pausing with the enter menu, I pause with the help window. Are you really trying to make me look at the stupid help window whenever the phone rings? If you're not going to replace the default functionality, don't replace it.
Graphics 45/90
There are definitely custom chars here. They range from fair to middlin'. The houseplants are fairly obvious. The blocks in your inexplicably delapidated house look worn and inexplicably delapidated. The dog looks like a dog or baby holstein. The rooms in the whole game (and especially the enemy ship,) however, are bland and repetitive. Your aliens are blocky and not that interesting, plus they're a rather disgusting shade of orange that reminds me too much of cheap halloween candy. Overall it's a mixed bag and you wind up squarely in the middle of the points range.
Technique 42/80
Sprite-based enemies that move in a predictable pattern that makes them easy to kill. A message window with a little rolling-out animation that WOULD be nifty if it were faster and I didn't have to stare at it EVERY TIME I interact with something. And even then, you have random breaks in the middle of sentances when you still have half the window available. And when the message is done the next keypress just empties the window without closing it. The saving grace in this category are the 3 weapons that you use to fight the predictable aliens. There's the short-range beam with infinite energy, the medium range grenade launcher that's used for taking out the orange guys, and the long range minigun with the nearly invisible dark-blue-on-black bullets that you use for... oh wait, you don't really use it because it sucks up far too much energy to be useful.
Story 32/50
What we have here is another interesting twist on alien invaders where you, the would-be scout, have a change of heart because of your dog and decide to stop your own people's invasion of earth. There's not a whole lot more to it, but the initial twist plus the continuation of the dog subplot makes me smile.
Sound 14/40
Not so hot in this department. Your music starts out okay but gets a little bit grating after awhile. Your sound effects are all standard MZX fare, and that leaves me wishing I'd hear something new whenever a door opens or something explodes.
Total 219/400
As a final note, final stands can be cool in games but they can also be really boring. If it's CoD4 where you're in Prypiat after an awesome mission and you have to hold off attackers from multiple directions with an array of awesome weapons while waiting for a gigantic awesome chopper to rescue you, it's cool. If you hide behind a desk and hold down the spacebar with your default weapon while the timer slowly counts down and your ears slowly begin to weep blood from the sound, it's not so cool. There are two strategies in the final stand: 1) Hide behind the desk with your default weapon on the whole time or 2) Run around blasting with your nifty new energy-hog chaingun, run out of energy, die, load, and hide behind the desk with your default weapon. A bit of an anticlimax, really.
60441 Forsaken Daylight
And so we come to CJA's entry which is almost as fun to make predictions about as Lancer's and Logi's. If memory serves, this isn't the first time CJA has had us blasting zombies into pieces with fun weapons and a melodious soundtrack of flying giblets. It is the first time, however, that we've had to run around in a raycaster blasting zombies. I suppose it was inevitable given our communal fascination with them of late.
Theme 4/20
For a game based on isolation, you sure have a lot of shambling necrotic friends. I guess the idea is that you're isolated from your fellow humans whom you continually call and who eventually rescue you. Looks like theme-lite was a good choice for you =P
Gameplay 120/120
- GASP* FULL POINTS!
Ya know, the thing about this game is that it is genuinely fun to play. I really enjoyed blasting my posthumous compadres into extra-chunky peanut butter. I like the nifty little lighting system that forces me to check my 6 every so often just to make sure I don't have anyone shuffling up and trying to take a bite out of me. I love walking right up to an undead monstrosity and blasting it clear across the room with my good ol' 12-gauge. And then we come to the raycaster part where my shotgun magically transforms into a pistol. The controls were a bit lacking here and you run into the issue that NO ONE LIKES 3D MAZES especially when you can't strafe, but the section still works overall. It's a nice break from the 2d levels and a second copy of MZX can provide that helpful map that I really wish I didn't need. Still, in spite of some slight issues with the controls, I like this entry just for the enjoyable zombie blasting mayhem.
Graphics 68/90
I run into the problem of deciding whether to give points for having a textured raycaster or whether to take points for it looking kinda crappy. Admittedly, MZX is NOT a system meant for raycasters, so in light of that I'll have to go with giving points just for having textures on those walls. The rest of the graphics are solid as well. Zombies look decayed, the shotgun blast looks impressive, and that lighting engine is nice and rounded and fades nicely when moving.
Technique 64/80
The game basically has 2 engines, presumably by 2 different team members. The first is the nifty zombie-blasting one that works so well. The second is the raycaster that still works fairly well, but isn't as fun to use. Technically speaking, though, it's a good technical accomplishment, especially in 24 hours, and thus it warrants points in the technical technique section. Good technique, guys!
Story 22/50
It's got dialogue and cameos. The dialogue is decently witty and made me smile. The story iteslf isn't that great, but the dialogue manages to carry it well enough in this department. Dialogue, that is, between characters in a game about ISOLATION.
Sound 22/40
The music is decent. The sound effects are great! The deep shotgun blast and visceral zombie exploding sound effects are the delicious cherry on top of a wonderful sundae of violence and gore =)
Total 310/400
Again, this game is extremely fun to play, if a bit hard in the last level, and I heartily recommend it to all MZXers. Good job!
62239
Another entry in the long line of games that were just too ambitious. What we have here is the start of a randomly-generated magic blast fest with unique and nifty mouse controls. It's a real shame it falls kinda flat.
Theme 4/20
There are alien-looking things that throw red carpet at you, but honestly you look like an alien too. The title screen actually has many stationary animated creatures that look non-terrestrial. Graphics only, really.
Gameplay 46/120
There's a fun little engine where you wander around a random dungeon (created courtesy of another fun little engine) slinging spells at one type of these critters. They throw large amounts of red carpet at you while sprinting joyously towards your character and you throw 4 different spells at them. The spells are actually kinda cool. There's the exploding one, the other exploding one (that can go through walls,) the expanding wave one, and the direct zap one. You'll basically hold down one of the first 3 number keys and point your mouse at whatever you don't like until it dies or you decide maybe you do like it afterall. Not a lot here, but what there is works fairly well.
Graphics 56/90
Tox never fails to bring spiffy graphics to the table. Like I said, the title screen is full of very pretty multiframe animations. It's a shame they don't get used in the actual game. The spells aren't all that ornate, but they still look pretty good. It's really too bad the graphics weren't really integrated into the game.
Technique 52/80
You've got a decent random dungeon generator and functional if not terribly bright enemies. You've also got the start of a nifty mouse gesture-based attack system. It's a cool idea and could be put to good use in a slower-pace game. At the breakneck speed the enemies move, though, it's much easier to hold down the number keys and spam a colorful rainbow of death on your foes.
Story 0/50
Not much to say. No story indicates no points.
Sound 4/40
For some odd reason, though, no sound still gets points...
Total 162/400
I see some interesting potential here for a unique dungeon crawler. As it stands, either make the combat turn-based and stick with the gestures or use the number thing and go for a faster pace. It'd pretty much be top-down underground fantasy Contra, but that's not neccessarily a bad thing =)
66482 Those Alien Invaders!
One final entry in the pixel-perfect (or double-pixel-perfect) try-to-bend-MZX list. It's a bullet hell game where you play a small ship dodging small bullets while you fight a slightly less small ship.
Theme 16/20
You're doing battle with ALIEN INVADERS, so I don't see why not. I suppose technically it's just one invader, but then you defeat him and the game sends you right back out to defeat his twin brother who was apparently running 10 minutes late. Anyway, 16 points because you really only have one alien and he seems more intent on destroying you than invading.
Gameplay 72/120
If you've ever played a bullet hell game then you know exactly what to do. Point at the bad ship, hold down the fire button, dodge bullets using extremely forgiving collision detection. I don't like giving so many points out for repetitive gameplay, but you're making me split points out between technique and everything else. Also, unlike some entries, this doesn't get old too fast.
Graphics 25/90
You've got graphics here. They're small and barely above monochromatic, but they serve well enough. You run into the typical pixel-perfect problems of overlapping colors, but I still have to give you some points just for getting that many bullets onscreen at once to not look horrible.
Technique 72/80
Another good engine. This uses a PP engine for something new and interesting and, overall, does a good job of it. There could have been more content to the engine (like more weapons,) but as with many other entries, what was there worked well.
Story 12/50
Aliens invade, destroy them, blah blah. Points for having one, a few more points for tricking me into thinking I'm winning and then sending me back out into an identical battle. Not a whole lot of points, though.
Sound 8/40
You included 3 songs and used 1. Bit of a waste, but the single song used wasn't bad and fit well enough.
Total 205/400
I like innovative ideas and implementations. This game is innovative in both concept and implementation. We've seen bullet hell and we've seen PP but it's cool to see them used together to provide some (relatively) smooth gameplay. Good entry overall.
70273 Antares
Another game where you have to fight off alien invaders. Or maybe you're an alien invader fighting alien invader invaders. I'm not really positive... Anyway, this time instead of shooting them with duck bullets or invisible chainguns, you punch and kick them to death. Oh yeah, and I guess you do shoot them as well. Also FOR THE LOVE OF CAKE please indicate your scoresheet. Lite I guess?
Theme 6/20
These guys are aliens in name only. They look like humans in suits. You look like a human not in a suit. Heck, maybe your guys just got confused because you're not wearing a suit and are attacking you mistakenly. Anyway, the points you get are from the plot on the title screen. I'm assuming the Dracos are alien, or at least Mexicans who crossed the border illegally.
Gameplay 50/120
It's a would-be brawler. Would-be because it really boils down to finding a technique and spamming it. You either walk up, punch and walk back or you get them all in a row on the top or bottom of the screen and then hold down the punch key. Not a lot of strategy here. And then you go through 6 more levels of it. Oh yeah, and there are also guns but you're given such a limited amount of ammo that you'll only potentially use them for shooting other guys with guns before getting all of your little alien friends in a row and standing at the front handing out right hooks like an author at a book signing.
Graphics 32/90
Not a lot here. There's you, there are a couple of different types of aliens that look nearly identical, and there's the obscenely chromatic backgrounds. Maxim had an entry that looked like a seasick clown that had been eating skittles for the last DoZ and I guess he liked the spectrum design enough to repeat it. I still don't find the colors very attractive or easy on the eyes.
Technique 48/80
You've got a functional sprite-based brawler here that mostly avoids enemies stacking up on top of each other. You've also got some basic gun mechanics. It all works, mostly, but there's not much here. Still, it works and it continues to work for 7 levels.
Story 15/50
Aliens invade, your ship has a large collection of fetish porn you'd rather your mother not find out about, and so it's up to you to destroy the ship before the aliens make it to that folder you hid so cleverly in the system32 directory.
Sound 6/40
You've got music. I don't particularly care for any of it, especially since it sounds like low-quality MODs and yet still manages to take up 2MB as OGGs. Sound effects are generally low-bitrate but they do their job okay.
Total 157/400
Upon further inspection of the "plot" board, it appears that you are either a) a human with VIVID magenta hair and radioactively red lips or b) an alien that has adopted GMT for ease of scheduling purposes. I prefer zulu time myself. Anyway, this is another interesting concept but it really needs more variety. Jumping and dodging, for instance, would have made the combat MUCH more entertaining, as would blocking. Still, a solid entry for 24 hours.
72165
Alright, I have NO idea what this is. notes.txt says it's a ripoff of Puzzle Quest, which I have never played. Realistically, it's a semi-functional puzzle game that pits you against the random number god as an opponent.
Theme 0/20
Nope. notes.txt again seems to think that the game has something to do with aliens. It looks more like an extremely confusing version of chess where you plop down random units each turn that may help or hinder you. No aliens here.
Gameplay 18/120
Nothing to see here, folks. You're assigned 3 random tiles each turn. You try to group similar tiles together. If you do, they disappear and either help you win or help you lose. In retrospect, grouping a bunch of skulls together looks like a bad idea, but some explanation of what those skulls do would have been nice. Your opponent puts down random tiles in random locations. He is about as sinister as a toddler throwing their cheerios around the kitchen. Less, in fact. At least your opponent doesn't leave a huge mess of crunchy crumbs for you to pick up.
Graphics 18/90
Yeah, not a whole lot here either. There are 11 tiles that you can plop down. There are some squigley lines up in each of the character's portrait windows. Um, nothing else really.
Technique 13/80
You've got some sort of pattern-recognizing algorithm that removes sets of tiles. You've got an opponent with the intelligence of 3 "set counter random" commands. You've basically got a semi-functional engine with absolutely no explanation. No real points to award. Sorry.
Story 0/50
No story, no points.
Sound 0/40
Normally you'd get pity points for the whole "no sound is better than bad sound" thing. Unlike the other entries who had no sound, however, you chose to INCLUDE some really obnoxious music and almost 2MB of unused sound effects just for everyone's listening displeasure. If you're not going to use it, don't include it.
Total 49/400
The interesting thing about this entry is that the included notes.txt tells a much more interesting story than the game and is arguably more fun to read than the game is to play. Unfortunately, this is not NaNoWriMo, so you don't really get points for it. You had some interesting concepts in there. Personally, I want to know what an "anti-matrix" is. Is that where we have the machines trapped in a dream world so that they can't revolt?
79530 For Liberty
Another adventure game where you can't get out of the first room. I feel for you guys. It took me a handful of DoZs before I could get anything completed. The difference is that you still managed to make something that's interesting, not ugly and worth a play (vs my upscaled robot animation from Weirdness SE.) Oh, and we have yet another game that refuses to list a scoresheet. I guess theme-heavy works here.
Theme 32/100
You're alone and isolated, except for whatever is in those other tanks. The thing on the left looks like another thing like you, so that doesn't make you ALL that isolated. As with 36306, if you'd ever made it outside to see just how isolated you are, you might score some more points. As it stands, maybe your guy is just in a dark corner of his basement and his mom hasn't come downstairs to bring him his breakfast poptarts yet. No real framework here.
Gameplay 20/90
A simple adventure game made simpler by being 2 minutes long and mostly non-functional. You start off with a big wound and heavy bleeding. If you wait around too long, you bleed out. If you try to take any medicine for it, it either does nothing (and you bleed out) or it kills you. Even the tylenol. THE STUPID TYLENOL KILLS YOU. About the only option you have is to sit down at the computer and enjoy a brief moment of FakeOS command prompt bliss before death overtakes you.
Graphics 29/70
There are some nice graphics in the 3 boards of game. It's all nifty single-char oldschool MZX stuff, so it wins brownie points there. Still, there's not enough here to justify too many. Would it have killed you to make the drugs look a little more interesting? Oh wait, yes it would have because ALL THE DRUGS KILL YOU ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
Technique 21/60
About the coolest thing in this game is the computer screen where you can type. You can guess at random commands or look in the editor and find out that "reboot" reboots the malfunctioning computer. "unseal" should theoretically unseal the containers, but it doesn't do anything once you leave the computer. It was while I was sitting there waiting for it to reboot that I realized that I could have just as much fun typing commands into my real command prompt! Nice attempt on this stuff, but you need actual gameplay to back it up.
Story 18/50
Some points for setting up a decent premise and making me wonder what was going on, where I was and who my buddy in the next tank over was. $10 says it's just Charleton Heston waiting to wake up and go explore the monkey planet. Anyway, you mostly get points for making me feel intruiged. Actual further dialogue (or monologue) would've been good.
Sound 15/30
You had some GREAT sound effects at the beginning. The smattering of music you had wasn't bad, either. Really though, the sound effects during the opening monologue (especially when you break out) where almost as awesome as the shreaking violin in 36306. All you're missing is the slow, thudding of a heartbeat to make the creepy soundscape complete.
Total 135/400
This is yet another entry that had some cool ideas and a bit of decent groundwork laid but was slain by the old foe of the time limit. This is another one that I wouldn't mind seeing completed now that the DoZ is over. Good start, guys!
Ranking
Rankings, though these don't matter nearly as much as the actual final scores. This is more for the convenience of people who want to yell "you ranked WHICH game better than mine!?!?" at me.
- 14 11617 with 45/400
- 13 72165 with 49/400
- 12 13210 Aliens on an Elevator with 99/400
- 11 18030 Prison Escape with 129/400
- 10 79530 For Liberty with 135/400
- 09 70273 Antares with 157/400
- 08 62239 with 162/400
- 07 36306 Voluntary Solitude with 194/400
- 06 66482 Those Alien Invaders! with 205/400
- 05 49781 Turncoat with 219/400
- 04 34477 Duck Rescue with 267/400
- 03 47527 Abandoned with 288/400
- 02 60441 Forsaken Daylight with 300/400
- 01 30641 Celestial Altair with 375/400
I realize in closing that this isn't the best, most linear distribution ever (R^2 = 0.9689,) but I'm not too unhappy considering that I managed to judge during a full week and weekend of military happenings. If you want to throw some angry bile my way, send me an email at pyro1588@gmail.com and I'll probably apologize profusely. Or maybe not. Anyway, I'm on the ground in Cookeville, TN after a rough landing in strong crosswinds. Go airplanes!