Descent of the Mochi Hammer - by Sparen AJS's Supercool Judging System! * My focus is on fun factor, fairness, and challenge of the danmaku. Aesthetics will be a MINOR component to reward going the extra mile or punish bad design choices. * I will score your entry based on the difficulty that is most "playable" for me (typically somewhere around Normal/Hard) while still being fun and fair ** I will not factor in how well your difficulty settings are balanced, however. That'd just kinda complicate things. ** It would still be to your benefit to make balanced difficulties though--or at least more than one--so I can find a difficulty most suited to me for scoring My scoring system will be as such: >0 -- Unplayable (i.e. broken, extremely buggy, etc.) >1 -- Terrible/No effort >2 -- Bad >3 -- Needs work >4 -- Has potential >5 -- Average >6 -- Okay >7 -- Decent >8 -- Good >9 -- VERY good >10 -- One of the best things I've seen -Stage portion (if you have one): X/10 -Each nonspell (midboss included): X/10 -Each spell card (midboss included): X/10 *All scores will then be averaged, then multiplied by 2 to give a final score of XX.XX/20.00 *Aesthetic bonus (May be applied to individual pattern scores for making especially pretty/eye-sore attacks, or to overall score for general script aesthetics): *You will receive neither a penalty nor bonus for making a decent to look at script that doesn't stand out. I don't want to tip things in the favor of advanced scripters too much. -Score bonus for going above and beyond to make something beautiful: +4% if applied to individual attack score; +2% if applied to overall script score -Score penalty for making poor aesthetic choices that make certain things hard to see or look at: -4% if applied to individual attack score; -2% if applied to overall script score I will also do my best to provide commentary on every aspect of your script throughout my judging, pointing out things you did right and things you could improve on. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but these comments will just be my honest opinions and advice on what you could do for future scripts, or if you wanted to improve your contest entry script after the contest. ***DISCLAIMER: Please don't get hurt if I give your script bad/mediocre scores. I try to be as strict and objective as possible when scoring, so even scripts that I personally liked or thought were pretty decent may still get "meh" scores from me. I try not to sugarcoat things in the hopes that you can improve, and so long as you're willing to listen to advice, I have nothing but respect for you. Also, I'm just really really picky... So please bear with me ^^; ** ================================================================================================================================================================= ================================================================================================================================================================= ================================================================================================================================================================= Difficulty judged: Normal Nonspell 1: 4/10 *Very simple opening attack. Not terribly uninteresting to dodge, but leaves quite a lot to be desired Spell 1 (Gun Sign "Raging Eagle Dive"): 8/10 *Not too much a fan of the total randomness of the bullets that collide with the screen edges *However I LOVE how much it forces the player to move and make quick movements and decisions *Though I feel this is quite a bit of a difficulty jump considering the nature of your opening nonspell Nonspell 2: 6/10 *I feel this could've been more fun if Seiran fired the dark blue pellets a bit more frequently, and perhaps if the "triangles" were fired in a pattern rather than seemingly at random Spell 2 (Moonview "Scintillating Lunatic Ray"): 8/10 *A fun attack that has quite a variety of things to look out for, from large bouncing bullets, to arrowhead bullets, to lasers *It's variety like this that helps keep a pattern from getting stale too quickly Nonspell 3: 6/10 *Pretty much just a standard streaming pattern, though it keeps things varied enough that it's not entirely straightforward streaming at least Spell 3 (Hawk Sign "Five-Pronged Target"): 7/10 *A very interesting pattern to dodge, though I feel it could be a bit better *Perhaps if the supplementing red bullets were a bit denser, or if the white bullet pattern was a bit more intricate and varied so dodging it isn't exactly the same each time Nonspell 4: 5/10 *Not too challenging, but not too easy, though fairly repetitive Spell 4 (Evil Bullet "Blazing Strike of the Moon Rabbit"): 7/10 *An interesting and varied attack, though RNG can make the purple bullet phase vary from super easy to very difficult, it seems Spell 5 (Bullet Sign "Rapid Cleanwater of the Lunar Peach"): 9/10 *VERY fun and varied pattern with several challenging (yet fair) elements to dodge simultaneously Spell 6 (Mochi Pounding "Ceremonial Mallet of Moonview"): 7.28/10 *The mochi "hammers" are hilarious, and a creative use of imagery for this spell [+4% AESTHETIC BONUS] *However, I'm not a very big fan of the completely random bullets that the hammers shoot out *Also, given how close the player may get to Seiran to avoid said random bullets, you should probably have a warning for when Seiran's about to start shooting her own bullets *Nonetheless, despite the randomness, it's decently fun to dodge Average Score: 67.28/100 = 67.28% + [2% AESTHETIC BONUS] = 69.28% FINAL SCORE: 13.86/20 Final Comments: -Your patterns were pretty good for the most part, but I felt the nonspells were a bit on the boring side -I'm also not too fond of the total randomness for bullet patterns used in certain parts of the script, particularly the final spell -Other than that, I quite liked your script!