BrightestCrayons by Poizen

Time Played: about 7 minutes

Overall Gameplay (8 / 13 points)

Comments: I loved the concept! Getting to draw your own character and cat, and having them persist throughout each level, was a really cool idea. There wasn't any serious challenge to completing each level, but it seems like that was kinda the idea. Rather than being pressured to draw something that works perfectly, I was encouraged to be a little creative and draw something that looks cute to "solve" the level. This dynamic set a very relaxed and uplifting mood, which I appreciated. With all that being said, I still couldn't help but hope for some more dramatic challenges mixed in - having the player solve a more engaging puzzle, or quickly draw something that required an extra degree of precision (thinking the fireball level, but a higher degree of difficulty), would've been a lot more entertaining for me. It seemed like the physics and collisions and everything were all there, so it was a bit of a disappointment to not see them get utilized to their fullest potential. No matter what I did, I couldn't get past the fireplace level without skipping. I could draw over the entire screen and nothing would trigger the game to recognize the fireplace as "lit". Eventually the game would just crash on this level.

Theme Inclusion (3 / 6 points)

Comments: I guess I was "protecting the characters from the elements", but that feels like a stretch to me in terms of a theme connection. "Elements" seemed like a bit of an afterthought, with the core gameplay idea coming first.

Overall Presentation (7.5 / 10 points)

Comments: Interfaces, UX, storytelling, etc. were masterfully done. It was clear to me every step of the way what was happening and what I needed to do. Only suggestion I have here is to find some way to show the user the available keyboard controls - I completely forgot that I could restart or skip levels since that info was only in the readme! I had a really tough time assigning a graphics score, since most of the graphics were things that the player drew! I liked the visual style of the crayon marks. I hoped to see a little more detail to the drawings of each level, as well as to the background (perhaps a light wrinkled-paper texture to more strongly suggest the drawing surface?). Sound effects were great but an easygoing background track would've been sweet!

Final comments: Really nice game and a brilliantly executed concept, from both the creative and the programmatic standpoints. With some more levels, this entry has incredible potential.

Total Score: 18.5 / 30