Overall Gameplay (5.5 / 13 points)

• Player Experience: 4/10
• Mechanical Polish: 1.5/3

Comments: This game was built on a pretty solid/unique concept... I think? It's tough to gain much insight into mechanics and strategies when the only thing I have to strategize against is myself. The lack of an AI to play against was a disappointment, and it definitely took a lot out of the experience for me since I didn't have anyone available to play against (rip). From what I could tell, the outcome of each round felt fairly predetermined depending on your starting hand. If you started with a lot of evolved fire and ice cards, you were pretty much golden no matter how the round played out. Grass cards having an active effect upon being played was a nice twist and I think this game needed more of those twists - that is, cards that made you think about timing instead of rushing for points. Cards with unique abilities that "activate" after being played, for example, would've made gameplay a little less monotonous and added an extra layer of strategy. There were a couple other signs that this game wasn't fully complete, such as the game-over screen being inescapable.

Theme Inclusion (6 / 6 points)

Comments: Very clear and obvious theme connection here, nothing to comment on.

Overall Presentation (6.5 / 10 points)

• General Presentation: 2/4
• Quality of Graphics: 3/4
• Quality of Audio: 1.5/2

Comments: The game looked nice overall, but the interfaces were pretty unwieldy. The help button on the main menu needed to be held down to keep the help screen present, and the scattering of instructions and pointers everywhere on that screen caused a bit of cognitive overload, which made the game tough to figure out how to play despite it being a relatively simple card game. In general I would've really liked more visual cues as to what was actually happening after a player attempted an action - for example, why isn't this merge working? How many fire/grass points did I just cost my opponent? I think the windows for player point totals needed a bit of reworking too, as I was never sure what exactly a (-2), for example, really meant - or whether that deduction was already factored into the final element total. The drawings and background looked nice, I just want a little bit more. For example, having a unique creature drawing for each card variant to signify such a variance in element values. Sound and music contributed nicely to the overall presentation, but a separate menu track - or just a longer, more varied background track - would've been even better.