Hello again. I thought maybe the "he rated a game a 5 that I disagree with so that must be cheating" roller coaster ride was over, but it's not. So my only recourse is to make a mega post summarizing the majority of my interactions within the LD41 rating period. This will be dense, but it will be entirely fact-based and authoritative. Unfortunately, now that the rating period is over, I can no longer see the ratings I gave all the games, nor does there appear to be any easy way to see a list of all games I've rated. I'm also not going to post every single GDU chat message or long discussion about cheating, because it would simply be too much. So think of this as the lore tabs in Destiny 2 after the removal of the Grimoire: incomplete. Below are links to all the games I remember rating, most but not all of which are from GDU members, and my initial feedback comment from each one of them. It is just as ridiculous that I feel the need to do this as it is that anyone would think I was inflating my fellow GDU members' scores with fake undeserved 5's after reading what follows. The last 3 games are the only non-GDU games I remember rating, because again, I don't have a list, whereas for the GDU ones, they were from a spreadsheet. You can see my feedback on those was completely consistent with the feedback from the dozens of other games I rated. It is simply not true that I cheated for anyone else.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/$85014

"Yet another game I’m giving 5 stars all around. That is the 5th one so far. Man, GDU members are kicking butt this jam! I absolutely love both genres you did, and the voice over work was absolutely perfect. Good selection of video game trivia too. A real treat to play. I just wish I could play in full screen."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/ready-set-dress

"I absolutely love this style of game. I used to be addicted to Pole Position as a kid. The only thing is I couldn’t really figure out what I was supposed to be doing as far as changing outfits. Was it like memory? Was I supposed to match what the other girl was wearing? Or just change as quickly as possible? I tried both but ended up dying regardless."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/zenmaku

"Hmm, I wanted to have the great experience that others are reporting, but this game was just flat out impossibly hard for me. I’m not sure why, as I’m generally a pretty competent gamer. I love the graphics, atmosphere, concept, all that. It’s actually a really smart game. But I cannot collect the very first enemy. I tried hundreds of times. Just can’t do it. Is it just me, or do you need to be pixel perfect to actually get to the enemy? Or maybe I am not pressing some button I should be pressing? I really have no idea, but I tried and tried and couldn’t get a single enemy. And also, perhaps a bit more constructive criticism, the shield rings were really ambiguous and difficult to understand at first because they are placed so close to enemies. There should be a substantial gap between enemies and the rings to make it clear that you cannot pass the rings until you collect the enemies within. I kept going for enemies outside the rings, not realizing that the rings were knocking me back."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/bunny-derps

"Mint Arcade, you have proven yourself once again! Great game. I could honestly play this for hours. You really know how to design gameplay that is engaging over a longer period of time without relying on too many assets."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/honest-dans-trout

"Yeah, I just had to keep playing this game until I got on the scoreboard. 5’s all around. Instant winner."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/stone-age-xo-inception

"This game has a ton of potential. I think what you were going for in terms of creating a relaxed puzzle game is really smart, and you did a fantastic job of achieving that goal. I would really enjoy to play this game in my spare time or on my phone. However, there is something majorly wrong with the upgrades. They’re actually downgrades. I don’t know if that’s intentional, or if it’s because of an exploit that needs to be fixed. But basically, the play gains IQ from each click. So it benefits the player to click every single grid cell as many times as possible without triggering it. Upgrading the IQ gain just reduces the granularity of the player’s control. Auto-clicking is a serious waste of resources, because you basically can’t take advantage of that extra IQ gain and still win. You could literally just make all the upgrades their opposites and it’d be more balanced. But realistically, I’m guessing you didn’t actually intend for players to be able to click on other grid cells after committing to one. Other than that, it’s actually a fun game."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/card-kart

"I love the concept. It seems like it could be a lot of fun, and would honestly make a great card or board game as well as a video game. However, I think there’s just too much going on with the cards, and it’s hard to understand how to play. I thought you could only discard at most 1 card per turn, but the game lets you do more? And there’s all this other stuff with turbo, acceleration, oil spills, etc. It’s really hard to get a good grasp of what that means when all we see is each racer’s speed and current position. Also, It’s really not obvious which racer corresponds to the player. I found myself wondering which position I was in."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/peculiar-adventures-of-dorothy-hops

"HAHAHA I love this interesting take on infinite runners. The game feels pretty darn difficult. I think I’d prefer if things didn’t take so much dang health so I could last a bit longer. But it’s a fantastic game."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/pinball-golf

"I LOOOOOOOVE THIS GAME! This is one of those rare games where as soon as I started playing, I immediately thought, “Why hasn’t anybody made this before?”. You combined both genres just perfectly. The scoring system of golf. The physics of pinball. I mean, I guess if I were being super picky, I would say pinball and golf are not actually incompatible, as they are fairly similar games in principle. But you did such a fantastic job of combining them, I’m so happy this game exists."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/$76931

"Definitely has that signature Zombie Virals feel I remember from the last game! I really like this game. The idea of combining platforming with education is a great fit for the theme, because not only is it an unexpected combination, but it actually works really well by framing knowledge as the reward for completing a challenge. You could make a pretty good children’s game with this concept (just don’t make a game for kids about, uhmm cough “bear” penis cough). My only gripe is that after Logic Gates of Hell, I was expecting a bigger finale, but instead, this game doesn’t really go any further than the core gameplay. A big boss fight against a teddy bear or something would have been fun."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/light-at-night

"Is the impossible level actually possible? I got to the impossible level and couldn’t jump back up from the yellow crystal. The game is actually really fun. Although to be honest, it just feels like a platformer. I don’t really see how it fits the theme or combines any other genres."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/skatensnipe

"LOL I absolutely love the concept and music. The game is a bit rough around the edges, but it’s a jam game after all. Some of the enemies were bugged, and it wasn’t particularly easy to get past some of the gaps. But it was fun nonetheless."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/typewriter-dungeon

"The idea is actually very interesting and could make a fun game. However, the execution is off in a way that was probably hard to predict until actually trying it. I think you were a little focused on the dungeon aspect of the game, when in reality, the method of control really is incompatible with dungeon exploration. It’s just really tedious and slow to have to retrace your steps through a dungeon by typing the same words over and over again. You also tried to trick players with the words, which added to the frustration. Instead, the game could have been way more interesting if you focused on it being some kind of write your own story book, or like that game people play where they take turns adding a word to form a sentence and make a story. Your intro was a perfect example of this. You could chose “created by” or “made by”. I thought that was very clever. Rather than having players backtrack through a series of words which may or may not have anything to do with the actual dungeon design, you could just have them chose paths through a story and play sound effects or display images based on their choices."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/prototypes-and-dust

"Another hit from Adroit Conceptions! Excellent game. Doesn’t feel as “complete” as your island delivery service game for Jim Jam, but it’s also more unique and fits the theme really well. Some of the puzzles were fairly challenging. I love having to switch views. It’s a really solid and fun game, and I think it could really benefit from more polish. I don’t mind the use of primitives for graphics, especially in an abstract puzzle game, but the fact that this is also a platformer makes the environments feel a little lifeless compared to playing something like a Super Mario game."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/dragon-pet-simulator-virtual-pet-stealth

"It’s a cute little game, but very light on actual gameplay and even story, which is a shame because I was expecting this game to be really story focused. The multiple endings, at least the ones I got, were also not substantial enough to justify playing through over and over again. They seem to just display a slightly different message at the end, but the story ends the exact same way. It’s kind of like those movies on DVD where they advertise deleted scenes and other special features, and half of them are just 10 second bits of dialog that do nothing for the movie. Overall, a fun little jam game, and a good match for the theme, but quite small in scope."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/tennis-z-a-zombie-apocalypse-tennis-game

"This is the first LD41 game I’m giving 5 stars across the board! An absolute perfect game! At first, I thought it was way too hard. It is certainly a challenging game to get used to. I think I lost my first match without winning a single point. But I was able to wrap my head around it and just barely win my second match. I had a ton of fun. I do wish it were easier to kill the zombies, because it seems that in practice, although it’s technically possible to kill them, you’re better off just focusing on the game of tennis and not trying to fight them. I think they could even just take 1 or 2 hits to die, instead of the 5 or so it takes now."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/remote-cuddles

"Texting your dragon is a pretty funny mechanic, and a good fit for the theme. The gameplay is actually quite fun. That being said, there are a lot of frustrating things about the game as well. The 1st issue is that as others have mentioned, the web build isn’t very widely compatible. That may not be your fault, but I tried multiple browsers and had problems. I downloaded the Windows build, and it worked flawlessly. However, summoning the dragon just feels really random, as it may or may not kill the beasts. I definitely think the game would be better if the dragon AI was able to seek out enemies. Finally, after the “thin corridor” where you hide your dragon for the first time, that bullet hallway is really tricky. It seems you can’t completely avoid damage by dashing, which wouldn’t be a big deal if you could just take a few points of damage before reaching the end, but you then spawn beasts from the already cleared room behind the player, which is completely unexpected and makes that hallway really hard. The funny thing is that spawning the dragon there would have killed them, but the game just got finished instructing the player to hide the dragon! Basically, the game is fun, but it definitely could have benefited from more testing and iteration to iron out some of those issues."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/soul-engines

"I have 2 words for you: Burnout Paradise. That was the first game that came to mind when I read your description, and I immediately started thinking how damn cool it would be if there was a survival mod to that game. Obviously that was a massively ambitious AAA title, and this was a game jam game. But man, not only is the idea great, but the execution is quite good. There are certain rough spots. The crash physics are really wonky. There is no way to restart after dying. But there are plenty of bright spots too. The graphics are incredible. The day/night cycle works perfectly. Honestly, although it could use some further development, I’m extremely impressed with this submission."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/arbusts-revenge

"I reread the instructions and tried everything I could, but couldn’t seem to attack. I’m not sure if I just missed something. The gameplay is actually an interesting blend of genres, and seems pretty fun. But I just had no idea how to kill things."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/runetowers

"This game is sooooo good! I absolutely love this game. Fell in love with it immediately. It’s a massive success when it comes to fitting the theme, because the genres really are incompatible in the sense that playing one diverts your attention from the other, yet you’ve made it so it enhances the challenge, rather than breaking it. This game could’ve easily been terrible if you had spawned enemies right away, but giving players the chance to build up resources before the waves of enemies arrived was a smart decision. My only complaint would be that the enemy movement is too fast. The reason I say this is that you could essentially keep the balance of the game the same by adjust enemy health proportionally to their speed. For example, if you reduce their speed by half, they’ll take twice as much damage, so they need double the health. Normally in a TD game, the exact timing doesn’t matter so much as the proportions. But because you’re asking players to divert focus to the match-3 portion of the game, it’s extremely brutal when they’re paying attention to the grid, and they suddenly look up to find hordes of gargoyles half way to the base. There’s already a lot going on with the 2 halves of the game. It doesn’t need to be so quick that the player can barely react. At least not at first. That could be an additional challenge in later stages. Over all, I’m extremely impressed by the quality of this submission."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/gnome-mans-land

"Great job, Tim! The game is fantastic. It feels way more intense actually playing the game in full screen with the screen shake than it does watching the development stream. I only really had 2 issues with it; 1st is that I don’t think the game really fits the theme all that well, or did anything that original. I know you voiced your opinion about the theme being self-contradictory, but at the same time, many developers were going for really unexpected combinations, and reverse tower defense has been mainstream since the very successful Anomaly series back in 2010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomaly:WarzoneEarth). Had this game come out 10 years ago, absolutely, this would match the theme. But again, this isn’t much different from playing Anomaly, and that’s not some obscure game reference nobody would have heard of. 2nd is that reaching the end of the level just feels really unsatisfying and under-developed. I got my gnomes to the end, then a bunch of waves just kept spawning, and occasionally I’d kill an enemy that would appear. Then I randomly died at one point without seeing anything that would have caused damage. At that point, it looked just like I had lost, even though I had been delivering several waves of gnomes uninterrupted. And when I restarted the game, the music wasn’t playing anymore, so it felt really quiet. Normally, I wouldn’t make such a big deal of this, but for having a single challenging level that isn’t very long in scope, rewarding players who persevere and get through is super important. That being said, this gets high marks for just pure fun."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/$75021

"This concept definitely has potential. It’s certainly a great fit for the theme. I was really looking forward to trying it when I saw the screenshots because my dad’s a big golfer and he likes to mess around too and play lawn golf and do trick shots while drinking beer. So this game is right up my alley. But the execution falls short in a few ways. Not having audio really hurts the immersion. And the controls are quite difficult. It’d be one thing if the game was challenging due to obstacles, like mini golf. But there were several times when I was lined up perfectly and missed the hole by a mile at point blank range. Not a bad entry overall, but could use some work."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/check-please

"The game is absolutely hilarious and fun! The menus and credits were also a really nice touch. The only downside is that the game was extremely short, and I would’ve loved more. To be fair, it’s a jam game, and it looks like a lot of time was spent on creating the environment, which looks fantastic."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/stealth-trucking

"What a great game! I absolutely love this concept and think it could make for a great twist on the stealth and survival genres. Having to be a trucker in a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with bandits? Can anybody say Mad Max? Really well done."

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/cant-remember-you

"Okay, let’s get the good out of the way first. The artwork is incredible. The mood setting is fantastic. It’s immediately obvious a lot of passion went behind this game. So it gets good scores on those fronts. I also got lucky and didn’t encounter any of the bugs other people mentioned, so for me, it worked flawlessly. That being said, when it comes to the theme, I think the objective wasn’t necessarily to keep things incompatible, but just to try to make unexpected combinations. This game kind of breaks the visual novel side of things with the point and click portions, and doesn’t do anything to really improve their compatibility. I ended up finishing the game in about 2 minutes accidentally, because I got tired of clicking through messages that didn’t really continue the story, and I didn’t expect the game to let me get to the final location so quickly. Basically, in order for players to truly get the full experience of this game, you’re asking them to ignore the clues and read through side story for 30 minutes. For an example of how to do this kind of gameplay right, check out Life is Strange, LA Noire, Heavy Rain, etc. Notice how they have tons of optional side content to allow the player freedom of choice and different endings, but you can’t just magically skip to the end. The overall story is still structured. So this game is very impressive for a jam game, but lacks that kind of structure that ensures players have a consistently good experience."