RaNGE 21 Contest - JDude's Entry

For this contest, I'll be using a scoring system similar to Tricky's:

Danmaku Quality: 20/25 points

The majority of score is determined by the gameplay quality of your script. Patterns being fun to play and creative should be your top priority.
This also includes a pattern's uniqueness and how well it fits into the theme of the contest - the creative use of shapes.

Each pattern can get up to 10 points. After that, I'll take the average and multiply it by 2.

Touch-Up Quality: 5/25 points

Gameplay is important, but so are aesthetics to an extent. Includes things such as sound effects and visual effects. Even bullet colors/types matter!

Your final score will be multiplied by *0.8 as requested by the rest of the judges.

======================================================================================================================

1st Nonspell:
A static pattern making use of falling squares and rings. The pattern drags on a bit too much, especially since dodging it is extremely simple. 
The sides of the squares use lasers that are rendered under the player sprite, which makes dodging confusing at times if you were in unfocused mode.
In my opinion, the use of shapes is rather arbitrary.

3/10



1st Spell: Surprising Rain "Rainbow Prism"
A spell making use of rotating triangles and falling rain.
The glaring problem in this card is the rain - the combination of slow and fast RNG-heavy bullets can easily create tight gaps or even clumps of bullets impossible to dodge.
The rain bullets can also hide under the triangles' laser sides, since the both are add-rendered.
Kogasa being so low on the screen doesn't really do the player any favours, either.
Like the first nonspell, the use of shapes is a bit arbitrary.

2/10



2nd Nonspell:
A pattern that relies on pushing the player away with a set of wide lasers.
It's interesting how you used these arrowhead bullets to create squares, a pretty neat way to take advantage of the bullet's shape itself.
A decent nonspell, but quite repetitive and there's not much in terms of shapes besides the arrowhead formations.

4/10



2nd Spell: Pentagonal Amulet "Rain Cyclone"
Walls of arrowheads combined with aimed pentagons.
The variety of colors is neat, certainly fits Kogasa and gives the bullets some pizzazz. Don't know why you didn't go with an actual rainbow gradient, though.
A neat spell that is also fairly balanced: the arrowhead walls are delayed just enough for the player to dodge both them and the pentagons. However, the nature of the spell makes it repetitive.

6.25/10



3rd Nonspell
The player is surrounded by Evil Knives:tm: that slice stacks of bullets.
A unique concept for sure. Unfortunately, its execution is subpar due to the oversights and some other issues.
If you were to move closer to Kogasa, the knives will force more and more stacks to spawn the ring bullets. Since the rings have a random angle, you can get some nasty micrododging RNG.
Furthermore, you'd naturally be pushed dowards by the stacks, which also means the random rings will spawn closer and closer to you until you have no breathing space at all.
The black bullets don't help much, either - their speed is troublesome considering you have so many slow bullets to weave through.
I love the concept, as it has a lot of potential, but gameplay-wise, it's nigh-unplayable depending on the RNG you get.

1.5/10



3rd Spell: Unlucky Traveler "Epitrochoid Cyclone"
Rotating blue and red rings combined with lines of purple bullets.
The flower shape that the bullets create when they spawn is cute and I like that you're taking advantage of some ObjMove_AddPattern functions.
The spell, however, doesn't give you too much to dodge before you deplete its HP. As you're underneath Kogasa, you're guaranteed to blast her down fairly quickly.
Concept itself is nice, but I'd love to see some more shape usage in it. Perhaps the purple bullets could form shapes instead?

5/10



4th Nonspell
Aimed blue ovals and an interesting arrangement of colorful bullets.
While the bullet spawn points do form a neat shape, the bullets simply turn into careless RNG when it's time to dodge them.
Nothing much to say about the pattern, other that it's not too interesting. Seems decent enough, at least.

4/10



4th Spell: Cylinder Light "Rainy Rainbow" 
Rotating formations of oval bullets and falling rain bullets.
A very creative concept, I must say! I love how you used SetColor for the bullets, gives off the feel of a seamless rainbow coming from some prism.
As much as I like it, it's ruined by, you guessed it, the rain bullets. The onslaught of RNG pellets is simply unappealing, especially when you've got the pretty rotating oval walls.
An aimed pattern would probably work better, maybe large bullets or lasers. If the rain were a different, more coherent pattern, I'd love to give this spell a higher score.

6.5/10



5th Spell: Monstrous Art "Geometric Karakasa" 
A variety of patterns combined into one multiphased attack.
The square pattern of rainbow icicles is so overly flashy and complex (I took a fourth of Kogasa's health when the spell started!). 
Gives the pattern an "in your face" feel, fits Kogasa well. I think that the bullets could be a tad slower.
The lasers are kind of just... there. They don't do much in trying to threaten the player. More shape play could fix that, however!
At the end, Kogasa starts shooting the rings from the first nonspell. They seem a tad unfitting, honestly. 
Overall, a decent final spell, but it needs more work into it.


5/10


Danmaku Score: 8.28/20

======================================================================================================================

Touch-Ups:
Nothing too mind-blowing, but nothing glaringly bad. I'd say that some bullets could benefit from being add-rendered like the laser walls in a few spells. Some colour combos were kind of unappealing, too.
Not sure why she'd steal Nue's spell background, though... 

3.5/5

======================================================================================================================

TOTAL SCORE: 9.42/20