Score: 3

"Problems"

submission: Assault On Scotland

date: March 4, 2008

The place was not called Scotland at the time, since the Scots (Scotti) were Gaelic Irish raiders/settlers that came over later (c. 6th-8th Century) from the west. The place was called, at the time of the Roman invasion, Caledonia. "Scotland" was the land not of Scots, but Picts (Picti) during the classical Roman era.

A banshee (bann sidhe) literally means "woman ghost" and is a Gaelic term. It has nothing to do with the Roman invasion.

Also, you drew the Roman emperor with a crown, when he really should be sporting a laurel wreath instead.

The Picts actually got overrun up to Forth and Clyde during Agricola's campaign 79-83 AD, and later the Antonine Wall was built 142 AD, meaning half of Caledonia was subjugated to the Romans for a time. Yet the Romans withdrew to Hadrian's wall c. 160. Why? Not so much that the Pict had "defeated" the Romans. But moreso that they were rather unruly and the province of Caledonia was unprofitable for the empire to maintain. They maintained a "pale" -- a defensive borderlands, for a few centuries more north of the wall.

http://www.scottishradiance.com/scoth istory/scothistory9807.htm

Score: 9

"Compare to the original!"

submission: - Move Your Feet -

date: January 9, 2008

http://www.veer.com/ideas/move/

Score: 6

"Needs work"

submission: Elliv Island dating Sim

date: January 8, 2008

1. Infinite money: Go to work as a teacher 3x ( = $300, HP are now 10). Then go to the restauraunt (takes the last 10 HP) and order 20 Pop Ice (costs $200, now HP are back to 100). You can do this infinitely, so at the end of each cycle, you will be back at 100 HP and $100 richer. The day will never end, and you can do whatever you wish with the $100 and your 100 HP.

2. The other "work" doesn't. I can't fulfill any of the orders. I just ignored that minigame entirely as a waste of time given the above.

Score: 7

"Problematic but good engine"

submission: Black Sails

date: January 7, 2008

1. Don't need to sail around. Just let the game idle and over time you will have encounters. Moving around means nothing.

2. Boarding actions were unprofitable. Just round shot or bomb the enemy and take the profit. Trying to board doesn't get any more money, and costs a great deal to replace crew and weapons.

3. The game is incredibly hard until it gets incredibly easy. Once I was up to the Sea Wolf or the Black River, suddenly the game was utterly unchallenging. It was just tedious.

4. Moving around in towns was tedious also. Perhaps if there were people to encounter or things to discover in towns that might make them more interesting. As it was, I was yearning simply for a menu to select which store I was going into and to save all the walking around.

5. The AI was idiotic, sailing into 'the wall' at sea and then just sitting there as I pounded it into oblivion.

Game play was smooth. It definitely showed a lot of work and effort.

Score: 7

"Stuck on Level 15"

submission: Strategy Defense 2

date: January 3, 2008

My "ally" moved in front of the arrow to unlock the girl's cage. Which means he won't move, and I can't finish the level. Nice bug.

You should be able to "shoo" your ally or make them move somewhere.

It was incredbly easy. I just got a tank the first chance I could afford it and steamrolled through the first fifteen levels until that issue came up.

Score: 7

"Ugh. Awkward controls"

submission: PALADIN: the Game

date: January 1, 2008

Meh. I thought the controls were confusing. I could never get any of the magic cast. I kept dying at really low levels. This just isn't my type of game I think.

I got to the first boss fight, but using the spells was entirely awkward. Also, the use of the WASD keys along with F to kick and Q and E to drink potions was getting me all messed up. I am sure that people that like these sorts of games like it. I just didn't like it. I would try to kick or jump strike and it would never accept the command, but just keep striking normally. I'd kill the monsters but be left with very little health.

Graphics were very nicely rendered. The music was a little heavy-handed, but adequate. Even for all that, I'll give it 7 of 10 stars because I think others would like it. Just not my cup of tea.

Score: 6

"A bit quirky and buggy"

submission: Fellowship of Kings RPG

date: November 16, 2007

I got stuck in a battle with the green wizards in the first level of the dungeon. It would not let me out of the combat. When I was done, it would just re-enter the combat over and over again. Loading my saved game had me stuck in the spot, unable to move.

Score: 8

"Interesting to master at first."

submission: SuperManager

date: November 16, 2007

Thoughts:

1. Price per unit goes down from 1 to 35. After that, it gradually rises. Buying in lots of 50 or 100 is increasingly (though slightly) more expensive; buying in lots of 35 is the optimal price.

2. Once you "beat" the system, there's nothing much to do other than keep track of inventory turns and reorder when you can, plus incremental upgrades to the size of your storage and quality of food.

3. It might be nice if there were events to make things challenging. Some "chance" cards where you might be given a choice on what to do. Cleanup on aisle 4. An armed robbery. A crying spoiled brat that knocks over some fruit. An employee might need to be fired or kept on, depending on the manager's choice. Perhaps someone gets sick from bad meat?

4. It might be nice if the manager themselves had some skills that could be upgraded. Management skill might keep employee morale high. Marketing savvy attracting more spontaneous purchases.

5. Perhaps also add axioms of employee quality/grade as well as customer satisfaction.

The game is a good basis for a simple microeconomic simulation, yet still it leaves out the additional challenges that might make for a fun game.

Score: 8

"Good, but needs more features..."

submission: Villa Village

date: November 15, 2007

1. Add "Save" feature so you can come back to check-points. Rather annoying to click once too often and have to start the game entirely over because you went bankrupt.

2. Add a "Quit" feature so you can go back to the main menu if you want.

3. Change the right-click. What's wrong with just left mouse-clicking on a lot?

4. Allow scrolling to be controlled by arrow keys rather than dragging off the edge of the page. I had to do a lot of work in other windows, and moving my mouse off of the window meant that it started "drifting" towards where I moved my mouse.Just. Stay. Right. There... Please!

5. Add a music-off/on toggle.

6. Allow a "zoom out" to see the whole neighborhood at a glance, then allow you to double-click to "zoom" to a lot. Scrolling is annoying.

It took me a while to realize the reason my houses were not being occupied was because their luxury rate, which you show as "Fee" was less than 100%. It seems like you might want to settle on terms. To have a "stable" income requires you to upgrade the luxuries in a place to get that fee rate to 100%+. I found it was a lot less annoying to just get a house, slowly pump its luxuries up until it was 113%-130%, and then upgrade to the next higher building type, then decrease the service costs. That way, the building pops in to the next level at over 100%, and you never have a vacant lot.

It's a nice game! I just wish it had a save feature.

Score: 8

"Not a bad game, but laggy past a few hundred level"

submission: RPG Tower Defense 1.5

date: November 14, 2007

I got to level 2106 when a bug hit the game.

It had already been severely lagged got 1,000 levels. When I got to level 2106, the 18 boss monsters that were left after a Judgment Day lost their hit point bars. They just left them behind. They proceeded to walk on across the board, though they took damage and were getting knocked off one-by-one. When they did die, the hit point bar disappeared, though it would blip from full to gone.

The "Next Level" counter got stuck at 10, and the level never rose above 2106.

Prayer Points got stuck at 6, and the counter on the building got stuck at 18. Then again, no more levels were coming out, and the Wraths of God seem ineffective against bosses.

The game just sort of ended there at level 2016. Score: 480681. Gold: 10226556.

There was no "You defeated the last level." It just sort of ended.

My defensive pattern was a simple zig-zag line of cannon towers and arcane towers, interspersed with ice towers to slow down the enemy. I had 7 rows set up, and none of the enemies ever got as far as the back row, and none exited.

It did get entirely repetitive and laggy as the game went on. I just left it running as I went through a pile of mail.

I do like how the game automatically shuts down the firing animation when you have too many units on the screen. That helped. But oi! It was soooo slow.

Nice game, but it could use probably a few more turret types and a few more variations in the threat.