Ragnarok
By
Jp
Result: Complete
Returning Participant
Jp has drawn from the well of norse mythology in following the Frost and Flame theme. Ragnarok places the players (and AI!) in control of an army of individually controllable elementally themed units. Gameplay is bug free, though the clicking interface (if you're not using macros) is tiresome. The game-starting aspect of the game is impressive, and handles the problem (selecting players to play the game, creating AI, skipping players who are away, etc.) in a very simple and effective manner. This game could actually grow into something popular should it receive some polish. Depth of strategy becomes a problem, though, especially when taking counter attacks into consideration. It may be that (in some situations) there's no advantage to going out and attacking versus just waiting in your camp to be attacked. I have a sneaky suspicion there's an optimal strategy using ranged units. Don't get me wrong, though, the fact that I have this much criticism for the entry speaks to how strong it is!
Frost Fortress
By
CaptFalcon33035
Result: Complete
Beyond the Call of Duty
Frost Fortress is a single player tactical combat game. As one of the last warriors of the Frost nation, you must lead the defense of your nation's capital against multiple waves of Flame worshiping barbarians. Multiple show stopping bugs present a big headache to anyone wanting to enjoy this gem of a game, but that only deters the weak hearted! Gameplay is excellent, though lacking polish in some places. Once the tides have turned and you're on the offensive, you can place your forces behind enemy lines; I imagine this would be prohibited in the polished game. Archers only target other archers, but this can be tweaked in the source. To continue with the game at all, however, you must edit the arrows' hit proc to cancel out (return) if it has hit the client.mob, otherwise you'll get disconnected. Gameplay seems to be decently balenced given the time frame, and you really root for your little Frost warriors as they turn the tide of battle. An excellent game, a strong entry, and I enjoyed battling the Flame Nation and the source code. I really want to see this project finished and expanded (in that order).
Two Towers
By
Acebloke
Result: Complete
Two Towers is a game for two players, where each is given a tower they must defend whilt attacking their opponent's tower. Each tower is made of segments which when destroyed disappear and allow the above segments to fall and take their place. Players are allowed three actions which they can distribute among the various levels of the tower. For each action they can either place a barrier (protecting a weak section) or fire a blast of frost or flame (depending on the player's element). The strategy involves guessing what your opponant will do, and protecting from that attack while launching your own. The custom interface is workable, and I found no runtime errors. The ending was unexpected, and adds a whole level of polish to the game. The only feature I'd like to see added is an option to play a "death match" or some such thing, where the objective is to shoot the little yellow ball each player controls. Nicely done.
First Tube
By
Airjoe
Result: Complete
Returning Participant
In First Tube you play as a fire elemental who must shoot flames at ice arrows to avoid death for as long as possible. A story presented at the begining matches nicely with the graphics, but makes the game's inescapable death at the end kind-of sad :( . The title screen turns out to be the game area; I don't know wether or not this was intended, but I like it. The interface is easy to use, even without the present help file. No bugs were encountered while testing. Your survival time is displayed with a custom on-screen timer (very stylish), and is reported to the highscores list on the ATP development webserver which you can check at anytime. The entry is complete and playable, and this is the most important aspect of the GiaD event; where First Tube suffers is from a lack of ambition in gameplay (though this is normally what kills our other entries). Also: First Tube? What?
Flame Wars
By
Smokey Joe
Result: Complete
Flame Wars is a standard "Paint Ball" like game, with blobs which each team must tag as their own to gain points. Save files are used to allow players to amass weapons and points for use in future games. Several skills are available to each team, and ice and fire traps are available. A complete game in and of itself, but could certainly be built on. The single map would become a disappointment in extended play, so extra maps would be nice, and a random map generator would be perfect... though understandably beyond the scope of the event. Nice understated original Graphics.
Virtual Hobo Simulator 2
By
Bobthehobo
Result: Complete
Returning Participant
The hobo simulator returns. Looking through the code in this entry is just as edifying as playing the game; all methods, object types, and interface elements needed for the game are laid out as simply as possible, just as the language and content of the game manage to be honest (or is that bigoted and steriotyping, I guess it depends on Bob's intent) while remaining lighthearted. (My choice of adjectives suffers from my choice to write this review at 3am). While I attempt to wane poetic, give the hobo simulator (both this year's and last) a spin. Then go out and donate an old jacket to your local charity.
Frost and Flame 2007
By
Basik
Result: Playable
Returning Participant
F&F 2007 is labeled by its author as "unfinished", and it's not hard to see why. You can see where the game was headed, and parts of what would have been the finished game are present. Your ship's transition from Frost to Flame modes is visually impressive (though it does nothing), and the notification that you are now on "LEVEL ONE" shows that other levels were planned. The title screen and interface are custom and pleasing. The main aspects of gameplay are present, including: player ship capable of moving and attacking; a scrolling background with varying terrain; various ships which move down and attack. This entry is a prime candidate for polishing, and would make a great addition to BYOND's library of games. Some areas which could easily be polished up to great effect include: modifying the pixel_step_size attribute of all moving ships and projects, such that they'd sync. with the atomic movement delays; place the player at the bottom of the view area, instead of the center (with the player at the center, half the play area is useless); change the firing rate of the player ship to allow more than one projectile on screen (even just two would be a marked improvement); allow projectiles to pass through all scenery tiles. Playable, but not complete; definitly worth polishing.
BUFEK : Blow Up the Frost Elf Kingdom
By
Gughunter
Result: Playable
Returning Participant
BUFEK follows one of the best traditions of the GiaD: Killing gads of stuff for no reason. You are Santa, or someone dressed as Santa, and it's your job to place explosives in the frost elf kingdom until you die by exploding, or being crushed in an avalanche. The frost elves, though armed and menacing, will do nothing to protext themselves. In fact, just bumping into them will cause their death as verily as an exploding stick of dynamite. No introductory sequence is present, and there are no ending conditions. There is one feature worth noting, though; once a section of dense tiles, no matter how large, becomes separated from the ground it will cascade downward in an impressive avalanche, killing anything in it's path. Did I mention it does this consistantly, without triggering infinit loops or runtime errors? An entertaining proof of concept, with pleasing amounts of death.
Glacial Ember
By
Mecha
Result: Playable
Glacial Ember is a simple program designed to do only one thing. You boot up the program, click the button to start, and away you go on a killing spree until you've died. The frost and flame theme are present as special elemental powerups with which you kill your wildly flailing enemies. Special maxed-out abilities unleash impressive waves of death. Lack of end-game handling and complexity place this entry just short of a complete game. Certainly a fun and appreciated diversion, though.
Flaming Escape
By
Fint
Result: Exply Genocide
EPA Order of Meyhem
Flaming Escape is something like a cross between an RPG, a survival/resource management game, and a rocket simulation. Take some objects, give them verbs, place them on the map, and populate the world with rolling things which use walk_rand (these are called "Exply"), and now you have the basis for interaction. Find some stuff, use a verb to collect it, take it somewhere else to turn it into a rocket, chase and catch an Exply (these are used for fuel; more on that later), and then launch your rocket and watch it's progress in the custom interface. Bonus points for the present help file. Now, on to the focus on the game. Your robot has various stats which determine wether or not it can successfully complete any of the above tasks. The stats seem pretty useless at first, though, as mining and shaping a rocket don't seem to need very high stats at all (I got both on the first try). Catching an Exply proved more difficult, though, so I eventually cornered one where I could just continue to attempt a capture and watch my stat go up... until I got bored and decided to look through the source code. Turns out I need a minimum of TEN minutes non-stop catching attempts before I can capture even the weakest of Exply (30.0 level in catching, if anyone wants to attempt it). I eventually did catch one, and then another, and then another, and squeezed some of them into my rocket for fuel. Cruel, I know, but random death is a GiaD staple. I then launched my rocket, only to be left behind on the surface as it climbed to #1.inf (the detail in the rocket simulation code file is impressive and ambitious). I did discover something to keep my robot occupied with, though: for some reason unknown, a "Kill" verb was included for disposing of the Exply; the method of death is quite gruesome. After TEN minutes grasping at the blasted things, I decided they must share the Tribbles' fate.
Heat Wars
By
D4RK3 54B3R
Result: Impressively Unplayable
Returning Participant
If D4RK3 54B3R has one fault, it's that he can't think of anything that's not really cool. Looking through the graphics and programming for Heat Wars, I really wish it were a finished game I could play with friends. Just look at Frost Command.dmi! Try watching the world load all sorts of autojoining elevations makes me wish I could do that in my projects. The notes supplied by D4 give hints of what problems killed development on Heat Wars, and threaten all game makers who don't plan concretely for their project's alloted timeframe. Take heed all you with gads of skill and imagination, to plan your use of time concretely, or a game you shall not have!
Puzzle Game +1
By
Tiberath
Result: Disqualified
Puzzle Game is a complete and playable game which many of you would recognize. The purpose of the game is to navigate blocks labeld "Ice" into positions labeled "Fire". Once all blocks are in position, gameplay progresses to the next puzzle. The entry had to be disqualified because it didn't make sufficient use of the event's theme; those boxes could just have easily been labeled "Pasta" and "Antipasta". As such, this game could have been made before hand and simply modified as soon as the theme was unvieled... now, I don't think that's what happened by any means, but to throw out the theme or rules isn't really in the spirit of the event. Nice interface, by the way.