Team: pi-r-squared
judged by McGrue

Overall Score: 90


   Team: Pi-r-Squared
Members: Toen, Zeromus, Tatsumi,
 Engine: VERGE 3

judged by McGrue
Overall Score: 90


  • ELEGANCE 23/25
    • It's got a simple and oldschool feel to it, bright primary colors, and a silly voice-over by Tatsumi. Add in some particle effects for a contrail of your... 'blob thing', and an intresting death-explosion in-theme. Also be on the look out from an acknowldeged and appropriate H*R reference.
      As a whole, this had a pretty clean feel, but for all it's merits still looked like it belonged more in the 2001 4 Colors of VERGE compo. I grant 92% marks for the slight datedness (a backbround starfield and/or a nicer Pulser sprite would've 'sealed the deal'.)


  • FOUNDATION 22/25
    • The codebase, though not released to the public, was released to the judges. It's fairly amazing that this was accomplished in a day and a half. There's an entire documented API for sending messages between the dreaming window and the gamefield. And the simple particle system is all 'softcode' as well. The game handles well, and is of an inherantly unwinable nature. However, there is a crash due to the vc, but fortunatly for their grade it was only on close/ESC. The random timer may also be faulty, but doesn't render this game unplayable like Quiddler. -2 points for both of these minor errors in an otherwise very well done codebase. Another -1 for the lack of any sort of gameplay yardstick like a score or a 'time survived' or even a 'lines savagely passed-through'-count. In an open-ended game, some sort of yardstick of gameplay is essential. 88% marks.


  • NOVELTY 22.5/25
    • When I first saw the words Zara chose combined with the 'original' theme, I pictured getting a bunch of weird-ass games like Wizball and Harmony. Of all the entries, this one came closest to that goal. It is exceedingly original, but amazingly I find myself giving it 2nd place on my sliding scale of originality... for I never thought I'd see a tunnel game/shooter/rhythm game hybrid in my life. But credit where credit is due: 90% on the Grue's Compo Sliding Scale of Love for taking the silver-medal slot.


  • EXECUTION 22/25

    1. Dream: 5pts. This game actually made an effort to work the random words in, and (I think) is the only one I actually gave points for Dream. The second window for the Prognostification-dreams of Pulser is unique in of itself!
    2. Space: 4 points. A starfield would've really hit this point home.
    3. Color: 4 points: Vibrant, but limited. Be sure to switch between the menu choices to see the title morph between colors, tho.
    4. Chaos: 5pts. Chaos in spades. Goddamn those seemingly randomly-placed colored squiggles.
    5. Emotion: Amusing backstory, with a definite emotionally-charged intro. However, if there was only some kind of payoff to allow our blobby hero to satisfy his liney bloodlust. 4 points, -1 for having a driving impetus in an open-ended game. What a cocktease.


Closing comments:

This game is hard, but not impossible for that. I consider it a game-well-played if you can last through one iteration of the music... but apparently there are quite a few people who can play longer than I can. It's noteworthy of this ancient style of game that if you focus, you can watch yourself get better.

This seems like a game that should have tons of powerups, and a multitude of simple little special effects to keep it visually stimulating. Zeromus says a later version will be pending that will feature color/size changes in beat with the soundtrack (!). He's optomistic, and if everything actually gets put in, this should prove to be an intresting addition to the games being prepared for the v3 launch.

As it stands, it's solid but goalless. At the least there should be a score that increases with time so you can gauge how far you've gone compared to last time.

This really has been a good competition, with four close competitors to me, and one solid but irellevant entry. Overall in my eyes, this game is second place by a nose for being pretty darn original, being very well coded, and fulfilling the 5-word requirement very well.

Again, as this compo system doesn't allow half-points, I award an arbitrary .5 points for having Tatsumi do awesome, but not terribly intimidating, voice-overs. His reputation as a bone-crushing avatar of evil is at stake... could this be the start of a kinder, gentler Tat? We can only hope.