The games were assessed by Joshtek and msg based on their gameplay, creativity and use of the theme and ranked into three tiers.
Gold award:Infinite Romeo by Danni (Joshtek's choice) & Hungry Hedgehogs 2022 by blazewasbored (msg's choice)
Silver award:Lobotector by Tammy Spahn
Bronze award:Space Hedgehogs by LordHannu & Harry the Hedgehog by BigAl0104
COMMENTS FROM THE JUDGES
Infinite Romeo by Danni
Based on Romeo, a platform game bundled with Klik & Play.
msg's comments:
I think it's the original Romeo's game improvement we never knew we need. It's far more playable and elegant and it's bye-bye for the original, horrible platform movement. And it's take slightly more than a dozen pixel on my screen. So thank you for that.
But that's where it ends, it does not extend too far into the high-score agenda, which in here is just a small addition, rather than half of the main event.
Joshtek's gameplay comments:
This was a really fun game to play. It combines pick-up-and-play simplicity with a procedural generation system that both successively escalates the difficulty and introduces additional elements as levels progress while also providing variety in the gameplay experience on future play-throughs. The feel of the movement for the original Romeo was a bit janky, so it was a relief that the movement in Infinite Romeo generally works really well and makes effective use of the Platform Movement object.
The deaths generally felt fair as you get warning in advance of being attacked and can learn to employ strategies to avoid the pies, you don't get punished too much for falls, and so most of the time when you lose you blame yourself rather than the game. While the levels are randomly generated, this is done in a way which produces levels that make sense and I have yet to come across a no-win situation. This encourages you to try again to get a higher score as you think you can make it. A potential exception to this is that whether an attempt to jump on an enemy will succeed or not occasionally feels a bit arbitrary, which when this makes the difference between them dying and you dying is a big deal.
Unlike the original Romeo this game has scrolling which means that not all of the keys are visible. The way the guiding arrow(s) point towards where to go is an elegant way to prevent frustrating searches for where to go, and the sound effect when you try to ascend the ladder without having all the keys makes it clear that more needs to be done to gain access to the end of the level. It's all quite intuitive, and it means that I never felt unfairly disadvantaged for being unfamiliar with a level. As for the end of the level itself, the way that the key unlocks is rewarding and the fact that you then can't die removes annoying last-minute deaths.
The interludes between the levels are a fun way to punctuate the gameplay and successfully injects additional humour and variation into the game. The way the game over element is also handled works well, and encourages you to play again.
Joshtek's comments on creativity and use of the theme:
A game can be creative for its big ideas, but the term can also cover the attention to detail in the little things too - especially elements which seem obvious when I see it but which as a developer I might not have thought of myself. In addition to having a great concept, there are so many elements of the game that I thought were neat, and almost nothing was simply the default option, not even how the text was displayed. This means that the author clearly made a lot of creative decisions when producing this game and this thoughtfulness pays dividends by elevating a familiar concept into a top-notch game.
While Infinite Romeo is a platformer, the addition of the procedural generation element really does provide a different spin on the experience. Indeed, it works fits so well it almost feels like it could have been a demonstration for procedurally generated games made by Clickteam for Fusion 3. It also helps set it apart from older games such as Better Romeo by Mustafa- and Romeo 3 by The MPP which provide an improved engine and more levels but which retained the linear nature of the original (although to be fair Romeo 3 did include RPG elements too).
The hazards in the game are a mix of originals from Romeo with a small number of characters from other Click demo games. This game was the first entry which included names of enemies in the hi-scores to give a local challenge and that inspired me to suggest it as an option for other games (as the original template for the hi-score did not include local scores).
The two remixed music tracks do a good job of making use of the original element but adding a twist to it, and the opening menu is a fun take on the original. As a neat attention to detail, the author noticed that in the original Romeo character animation he alternated between being fat and thin. The author speculated that this was because the character was supposed to get fatter as he ate the pies and lost lives, and so that is how it is implemented in Infinite Romeo.
Other thoughts from Joshtek:
* 'Infinite Romeo: Pie in the Sky' is a title which says it all. I approve!
* Opening menu has fun old-school feel and clearly explains everything before you start
* It might have been more intuitive if there was a guide pointing to the exit rather than the Keys = 0 text flickering
* Some of the sound effects sure bring back memories
Hungry Hedgehogs 2022 by blazewasbored
Based on Hungry Hedgehogs, a mouse-controlled maths edutainment game bundled with Klik & Play.
msg's comments:
That intro was something that would make the original Europress aka Clickteam people proud. The simple story, the gameplay after that, it all ties together nicely. The amount of various mechanics is impressive for a jam execution.
Graphical style is not too much resolution, but it has a bit retro vibe because of that. The theme is implemented very well - not stuffed down player's throat but subtle, elegant. Last, but not least - the music playlist, oh, it brought me back to Unreal Tournament for some reason. Which is nice.
Joshtek's comments:
This game has a lot of great ideas in it, it just feels like there wasn't enough time for them to be fully realised. That makes it really difficult to rank, as there is the game as it is and the game as I know it could be with more development time.
On the one hand you have some original graphics, a lengthy and fun opening cut scene, and an interesting visual style, and the game makes creative use of the source material in terms of having basic maths. However, all of this is diminished by unfinished or unpolished elements such as having default buttons and unstyled text boxes, with the game over element always feeling sudden and coming from nowhere. From a theme perspective, while the game made good use of its Hungry Hedgehogs origins it did not include mash-ups with any of the other Click demo games.
While instructions are provided this is probably the only game where I would have appreciated an actual tutorial. The game clearly has a lot of depth and complexity to it in terms of how you advance, score points, and so on. However, in the absence of a tutorial or on-screen hints it is all too easy for the player to feel out of their depth and as if things are just happening randomly. It is fun to see multiple score messages come up at once when you are digging, but it is also not clear why some things score more points than others. It's not also clear what is a bonus or a hazard, when it would be appropriate to use the various tools at your disposal, and so on.
This game would probably be more intuitive for those more familiar with Boulder Dash and logical gravity block games.
I look forward to a future version of this game which is more polished, as this game seems to be a bit of an unpolished gem.
Lobotector by Tammy Spahn
Based on Lobotomy, a Donkey Kong style platform game bundled with The Games Factory.
msg's comments:
Let's start from the obvious one... the physics. They're nicely balanced and actually a main theme of the avoid-to-smash-the-hero mechanic. The graphics are mostly from the original game, but the music is better, more dynamic and better suiting the gameplay.
The theme - the mashing process of Clickteam oldies and high scores gave pretty solid results. For me, the difficulty curve goes a bit too steep, but maybe that's because I had to launch this game on a virtual machine, which gave me significant latency.
Joshtek's gameplay comments:
The game starts out very strongly with pick-up-and-play fun right from the start. Click with your mouse to bounce away enemies trying to kill Lobo - it's all quite intuitive and reminds me of the type of game I used to love playing back on the V-Cade.
The various types of hazards provide variety and their different behaviours make sense and so are easy to remember. The feedback of seeing the scores pile up when you bat away a hazard (and especially when you bounce a barrel around for extra points) is really fun. The way everything slows down when it is game over works well is a nice touch as well.
I like how the difficulty ramps up, and the fact that there is random levels after the main waves mean that there is always a higher score to aim for. However, some of the later enemies feel like they are moving unfairly fast, which can be made harder. This can be especially problematic if you have a high screen resolution which makes the window small as there is no easy way to choose a zoom mode to make things easiest to see. I'm more of a fan of people being overwhelmed by overwhelming enemy numbers rather than overwhelming enemy speed, but that might just be a personal preference.
Joshtek's comments on creativity and use of the theme:
Taking Lobo from his platformer origins and putting him into this type of game is an inspired choice. He's known for being a bit brainless and for having to avoid dangerous hazards, so he fits right in with the core concept of the game despite it being a completely different genre from the original. The hi-score element seems like a natural fit for this type of game, and so it gets full points for making use of that part of the theme.
The way that barrels from Lobotomy have been integrated works especially well, and I like how enemies from multiple Click games are brought in and all behave in different ways that fit their origins.
The game makes good use of the original graphics and graphical style to make something which doesn't feel like it has been genre swapped at all. It's good to see how the lever was made use of in the game, giving people a sort of second life which does somewhat reduce the sting of getting hit by an overly fast enemy.
There isn't a lot of diversity in the level design, but the change of elements does help to separate the levels somewhat. It wins points for simplicity and not being overly distracting, but maybe there were some missed opportunities for including more background elements from other games. While the tunes were not instantly recognisable, the different songs chosen help to show the passage of time as well.
Other thoughts from Joshtek:
* I'm assuming the name Lobotector is short for Lobo protector, but I'm not sure. In any case, I like how it riffs off the Lobo character while also being different from it.
* The fact you can keep stuff in the air does allow for some level of strategising, and I'd probably like to see more of that kind of element to allow people to more readily improve their score in future playthroughs so long as it is done in a way which doesn't compromise the games simplicity. Maybe the score you get for keeping something up in the air could increase the more you do it to give a greater incentive for taking that risk.
* It might have worked better if rather than having so many enemies which basically just tried to collide with you if some were harmless UNLESS you attacked them. That way, you'd have to mix batting some things away with leaving others alone.
Space Hedgehogs by LordHannu
Based on Gracillis V, a space shot-em-up bundled with Klik & Play.
msg's comments:
This one not only mashes up the high-score competition with click oldies, but also combines two games, as an actual mash up would. Space invaders implementation mixed with hedgehogs makes it slightly more interesting, detailed damage model of the enemy starships adds to that even more.
The gameplay gets boring pretty quickly though, I was eager to see some bonuses and firearm upgrades. The music was an not-annoying, but yet pretty non-interesting background
Joshtek's gameplay comments:
This was a fun game to complete. It was pretty much action all the way through with a mix of attacking and defending so it kept my attention throughout. I died a lot at first and then got better, so the victory felt earned. However, after I completed the relatively short game there didn't seem to be too much incentive to play it again.
The fact you can lose and regain lives added an element of strategy, with focus changing to attacking spinnies if you are running low. I liked how the enemies visually got damaged as you shot them, which created a tangible impact from the weaponry. I also liked how the boss at the end felt more epic than the main enemies you were fighting.
Joshtek's comments on creativity and use of the theme:
Centering the game around hedgehogs in space is an interesting choice because the hedgehogs in Gracillis V are one of the only prominent re-uses of a character between unrelated Click demo games.
The menu was an homage to the original Gracillis V, with the title text animated. The ship from that game was used (with its orientation changed) and they are both space shooters, but gameplay wise it is no simple Grac V clone. Unfortunately, other than the hedgehog and the use of classic Click sound effects there didn't seem to be any further real mash-ups such as enemies or power-ups based on Click games.
This lack of homages reflects the fact that the game seemed to have only slightly over the minimum number of elements to work as a space shooter. It'd be nice to see a sequel which expanded the fun core gameplay which has more content to provide additional flavour and variety.
You get more score by shooting away at ships as much as possible before destroying them. This does allow you to rack up points throughout the game which is good, but it might have worked better if the game either got more difficult until you died with points increasing along the way, or if you had additional objectives to get more points (such as the fast-moving flying saucer to catch in Space Invaders), or if there was a time-related bonus which rewarded completing the game the fastest.
The hi-score is in the corner out of sight, and doesn't get much focus until the very end of the game. This means that you didn' get as much feedback for getting points as in some games and made it harder to figure out what does and does not get your points. As a game with hi-score as a key element, more could have been done to bring it to the fore.
Harry the Hedgehog by BigAl0104
Based on Hungry Hedgehogs, a mouse-controlled maths edutainment game bundled with Klik & Play.
msg's comments:
The jam theme is there, but the high score part is kinda forced. I mean it's just a platformer. For what I played I didn't find any collectibles that would bump up my score.
The graphics are clean, simple and the background is nice too, but they slightly clash together. The music got on my nerves after a bit, unfotunately, which, together with some annoyances in the level design made me quit before my 50 lives limit ended.
Joshtek's gameplay comments:
The game seems pretty basic at first but we do gradually get more and more elements as it goes on and it gets harder and harder. The game seems to consciously spaces out the new elements which means you never go too long before you get a variation on the theme. There are even some puzzle elements to mix things up, and the endgame has its own special feel.
The game has a warm feel to it, and the way the level score counts down as it is added to your main score really adds to the experience (especially when you get a perfect score!) and helps break up the levels without slowing things down too much. My favourite level was probably level 19 as it was the most satisfying to complete.
I usually knew how to complete a level, but doing so increased in difficulty as the game went on. This was often due to needing to be good at precise timing or jumping, but felt most unfair when it was due to falling through moving platforms that seemed to have poor collision detection. It is full screen which is great for people with large monitors, and the easy mode makes it more accessible for everyone to be able to play it to completion.
Joshtek's comments on creativity and use of the theme:
Moving the Hedgehog into a platform setting is certainly a genre mash-up, and the game successfully fits in the hedgehog, the worm, the mushroom and the woodland theme. Plenty of enemies are taken from other Click games and used in interesting ways across the various levels and there at least one easter egg featuring a familiar face. For added creativity, we even get an intro and a bit of a storyline!
Elements which were not incorporated from Hungry Hedgehogs include the 'maths test' element, the ability of the hedgehog to curl up into a ball, and the race element. These seem like they could have been integrated into the platformer somehow to make more creative use of the source material.
With a game with this many levels it feels like a missed opportunity to not make the most of opportunities to incorporate music from the Click demo games or more as cameos in background graphics. However, the elements which were used made sense.
The author might have had a different view of the concept of the 'mash-up' to me. I was intending it to be focused entirely on mashing up elements from Clickteam's demo games, but this game incorporates music and elements from a wider array of sources. This means it perhaps gets bonus points for creativity in expanding on the concept at the expense of points it would have made for maximising how much it feels like a Click mash-up.
Other thoughts from Joshtek:
* The easter egg on the first menu screen was a nice touch.
* While I'm a fan of the intro, I'm not a fan of unskippable cut scenes, but I'm not sure if the latter element was an oversight or an homage.
* It is unclear why a convoluted scoring system was used rather than simply giving people infinite retries but making it a race against time with a quicker completion giving a higher score. This would avoid the issue of there being a clear 'perfect score', although maybe that goal to aim at was intended as a feature.
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Gold award: Infinite Romeo by Danni (Joshtek's choice) & Hungry Hedgehogs 2022 by blazewasbored (msg's choice)
Silver award: Lobotector by Tammy Spahn
Bronze award: Space Hedgehogs by LordHannu & Harry the Hedgehog by BigAl0104
