Now that CC22 is finally over, it is time to vote! To everyone who participated in this contest, thank you. This poll will be open until May 19th. Please do not vote solely based on looks- try the programs before you vote! It is recommended (but not required) that you make a post evaluating the projects and explaining your vote.

Here's the lineup:

Skills Parkour by slimeenergy (thread)

Skills Parkour is a colorful yet simplistic platformer written by slimeenergy. You customize your character's skills, and try to beat the included courses! Be sure to check out the thread for more information.

Space Adventure 85 by RogerWilco (thread)

RogerWilco's text-based RPG for the TI-85 and 86 has you customize a character and fight your way through an abandoned space station. Eeriely written, this fully-customizable game comes packed with engaging gameplay and a great story! Check it out!

Rainbow Shooter by TheMustardCat (thread)

Rainbow Shooter is a two-dimensional shooter made by TheMustardCat. It features shooting, random terrain generation, and fully-featured character editor. Customize your character to fit your play style, and kill all the enemies! Take a look at the thread and the readme for more information.

Dungeon by Pieman7373 (thread)

Authored by Pieman7373, Dungeon is a top-down RPG featuring a shop, multiple interchangeable sets of armor, enemies, breakable crates, and more. It is incredibly speedy and has a nice UI. Take a look for yourself!

Splat by LogicalJoe (thread)

Splat, LogicalJoe's entry, is a game that has you move a customizable circle around the screen. You must avoid paintballs of a selectable color while collecting those of another color. It has some sweet animations and a very cool splash screen, check it out!

Arena84 by Jeffitus (thread)

Arena84 is a game for the 84+ and 83+ series of calculators, authored by Jeffitus. In this game, enemies attack you from both sides, and you have to defend yourself using your trusty sword! It lets you buff your own stats, at the cost of improving the stats of enemies. Take a look at the readme and thread for more info.

DR0VE by epsilon5 (thread)

Cemetech newcomer epsilon5's entry DR0VE is a cool car racing game. You can "tune-up" your car to improve your performance in the game after each course. It comes fully packaged with sweet graphics and awesome gameplay- the thread has more information!

Sketch Maze by BasicTH (thread)

BasicTH's complicated but intuitive puzzle game Sketch Maze features clever gameplay and equally clever graphics. It has a very nice help section to explain the game, and even comes with a level editor. It's worth checking out, look at the readme and the thread.

Tower Defense CE by commandblockguy (thread)

Tower Defense CE is a variant on the classic tower defense game category by commandblockguy! Instead of placing towers around a predefined path, you place the path around predefined towers. It features sweet menus, upgradable towers, technically impressive but engaging gameplay, and some fantastic sprites. Look at the thread for more info!

JPL 4 by TheLastMillennial (thread)

TheLastMillenial wrote a improved variant of his CC20 Space entry in ICE! It sports fancy graphics, a cool-looking UI, and some very cool gameplay mechanics. Check out the readme for more information.

That's all folks- I'm happy to see such a large turnout for this contest. Be sure to vote in the poll before May 19th, when the poll will close. Good luck to all contestants!

Amazing entries I can't wait to try them! One small, correction though my program is supposed to be just "JPL 4"

A few things to note about my program:

-you have to hit [graph] to shift up while your RPM is in the red and you are pressing [enter] (I may implement a clutch or something later on, but I'm not sure)
-on the car configuration screen, you have to spend 10 credits to get another acceleration point due to the fact that ICE doesn't support decimals

I may add some more stuff here if necessary.


P.S. Thanks for changing the screenshot, _iPhoenix_!

The apng for my game seems to not work

Fixed. I named it off of your zip, and your zip was named JPL v1.273. Sorry for the confusion.



Fixed- apparently macos cannot copy and paste images out of chrome and into imgur correctly, my apologies.

Hey there YouTube Cemetech, it's ya boi, commandblockguy, coming back at 'cha with another program review! Today we will be taking a look at the contest entries for CC22, reviewing them based on gameplay, graphics, story, and code quality. But first, make sure to SMASH that karma button!

(7 minutes of ads for Audible or something)

Alright, let's get started!
First up is Skills Parkour by slimeenergy!
Gameplay: 8/10
This game is infuriatingly difficult, which is a really good trait for a platformer to have. I kinda wish it had some jump forgiveness, where the game secretly helps the player by allowing them to jump for a split second after they leave the edge of the platform, though that might just be because I suck at this kind of game. I think the mechanics could also be improved by increasing the acceleration and the friction when the player is on a solid surface. All of the levels that I have been able to reach (which is only a few; don't judge me) have been well designed.
Editor: 9/10
Editor is simple and highly intuitive to use. The editor also has a extremely strong effect on gameplay, and I found myself repeatedly adjusting the settings while playing each level. In this way, Skills Parkour exemplifies the theme of CC22, which is having a player character which must be adjusted to adapt to gameplay.
Graphics: 5/10
The graphics are very minimalistic, which is well suited to the calculator's hardware. My biggest complaint about the style is that there are places where rectangles are directly next to each other, leaving 2px lines rather than 1px ones. I feel like it would look best if there were no lines in between rectangles, though having solid black rectanges or moving the edges 1px closer together so that the lines overlap creating a 1px line would also be an improvement in my opinion. I really like the preview on each level - I always enjoy miniature previews of things in calculator games.
Story: Not Applicable
Code Quality: Not Applicable
Unfortunately no code is provided.

Next up is Space Adventure 85 by RogerWilco!
(I can't get the emulator working at this time, let's skip this one and come back later)

Next up is Rainbow Shooter by TheMustardCat!
Gameplay: 3/10
The game coud use some balancing. The default character is highly unbalanced. If I read the stats correctly, it is incapable of dealing damage, which was confusing to me when I first started the game. It also took me a while to realize you had to hold down 2nd to fire, though that's probably my fault for not reading the readme closely enough. The game does not give much feedback, especially on a win/loss.
Editor: 8/10
The character editor is highly functional, and I found it very intuitive to use. Especially handy is the "flood fill" feature, which allows you to fill large areas with a color. The counter for each color is also extremely useful for balancing a character. The editor also fits in very well with the contest theme, better, I'd say, than the majority of other entries.
Graphics: 5/10
The main menu looks absolutely amazing, as well as the default character. However, the enemy sprites are numbers. Additionally, the attacks do not use transparent sprites, so there are white boxes around them. The main menu and the Cesium icon look spiffy.
Story: Not Applicable
The campaign mode is currently not functional at this time.
Code Quality: Not Applicable
Unfortunately, code is neither included in the download or, AFAICT, on GitHub. It would be cool to see how the character editor works, so it's too bad that no source is available.
Other Comments:
The menu seems somewhat unresponsive, and some menus use only 2nd while others only use Enter.
Overall, the gameplay and menus could use a bit of work but the character editor is absolutely stellar.

Next is Dungeon by Pieman!
Gameplay: 5/10
It's pretty entertaining walking around exploring the map. My one complaint with the exploring aspect is that the character moves far too fast even with the slowest possible boots equipped. This makes it hard to fit into gaps or to attack things. The choppiness of the game also doesn't help much with this. I've walked into spikes more than a few times. If I could actually control where I am aiming, combat would be really fun. The choice of weapons/armor definitely seems to affect the difficulty of combat, which fits in very well with the theme of the contest. I was able to kill a strong enemy without taking much damage with the strongest armor, and nearly got beat to death by a weak one while wearing nothing.
Editor: 6/10
I encountered a strange bug where it wouldn't let me equip anything the first time I opened the editor. Closing and reopening it allowed me to use it properly. The equipment select screen doesn't really convey how changing each piece of armor will affect gameplay. Presumably, higher sets of armor are objectively better. I also encountered a bug where attempting to wear no boots makes the player be completely naked.
Graphics: 7/10
The tileset looks really great, with a ton of detailed sprites. The enemy sprites are also all unique and colorful. However, the graphics are really choppy while moving because the tilemap only moves by tile rather than by pixel. If the choppiness was fixed, I would definitely give this a 9 or 10.
Story: Not Applicable
Code Quality: 6/10
The game is written in C and the source is available on GitHub.
There are a few variables which should actually be constants, and for some reason every varaible assignments is wrapped in parentheses. Spacing is also inconsistent, and for some reason each sprite is much larger than it needs to be. My main complaint is that walking speed is enforced using an empty for loop rather than a timer and a smooth transition. But overall, the code is pretty readable and much easier to manage than the average ICE program.
Other comments:
The map file is very large, taking up more than a full appvar of space. Of this, over half seems to be unused.

Next up is Splat by LogicalJoe!
Gameplay: 6/10
Gameplay is entertaining and a good casual time filler, much like many other popular calc and mobile games.
Editor: 3/10
While the actual editor itself is easy to use, it really only has a cosmetic effect on gameplay. Because all colors appear with equal rarity, your choice of player character is really just the same as a palette swap on a "standard" color set - no selection has any advantage/disadvantage over any other.
Graphics: 4/10
The logo/icon/death thing looks pretty cool, but beyond that, circles are circles; colors are colors. The sliding animation for the help menu is pretty neat, though I wouldn't have seen it at all if I didn't read the readme.
Story: Not Applicable
Code Quality: 8/10
Code is short and sweet, and follows a consistent style.
Comments:
Really funny musical reference in the readme.

Next is Arena84, which I am also having trouble emulating, so check back soon for an update.

Next up is DR0VE by epsilon5!
Gameplay: 4/10
The throttle button is somewhat inconsistent - it doesn't always cause an immediate shift after being pressed. And perhaps I'm just really bad at the game, but so far I have been unable to win a race. Additionally, once a game is lost, I generally miss the screen that follows it, perhaps because I am holding enter for the throttle. Perhaps wait for the enter key to be released and then pressed again before exiting that menu.
Editor: 4/10
The editor does not appear to have any effect on the acceleration - is this a graphical glitch or is it showing the real acceleration there which is unaffected?
Graphics: 8/10
All of the menus are incredibly slick - I wish that I could design menus that well. The car sprites are also amazing. The race scene could use shadows under the cars, but overall looks really great.
Story: Not Applicable
Code Quality: Not Applicable
No source available on this one, unfortunately
Comments:
I'm very much looking forward to seeing the full version of this.

Next we have Sketch Maze by BasicTH:
Gameplay: 9/10
A very unique concept, and a quite enjoyable one too. I'm looking forward to the level packs that people create for this so that I can continue to satisfy my desire for puzzles.
Editor: 7/10
The editor is central to gameplay, so this game greatly embodies the theme of CC22. My only complaints are that it's kinda hard to see the cursor when placing red, as it is the same color as the cursor. Also, it's hard to add large swaths of color at once. Other than that, the editor is very easy to use.
Graphics: 7/10
Like many other entries, Sketch Maze has a simplistic design that uses mostly black and white. But whenever you complete a level, you get a flash of color and that is immensely satisfying. The menus are both functional and visually pleasing.
Story: Not Applicable
Code Quality: 6/10
Everything is in one file, and variables could do with more descriptive names. There are also some gotos, though I probably shouldn't complain about those because I have one in my program.

Next up is my very own entry, Tower Defense CE!
Gameplay:
Levels have progressive difficulty, so you can continue playing indefinitely until you lose. Unfortunately there are only 3 tower types, though more are planned for the future.
Editor:
I'd say that the editor is fairly easy to use, and definitely affects gameplay. The path both affects which towers will be able to fire as well as how much XP towers will get.
Graphics:
epsilon5 made some excellent alien sprites for my enemies. I'd say that the rest of the sprites are decent, and that the non-sprite graphics like the backgrounds and the path could use some work. The menus are pretty neat, though.
Story:
There is a good deal of flavor text in the upgrade names.
Code Quality:
The codebase is cleaner than Tanks, but messier than Mahjong. I'm very proud of the tower targeting, which works in O(log(n)) time if my calculations are correct. It does this by storing coordinates of enemies as a distance along the line, and having each tower calculate which points on the line it can hit. This means that even if all towers are firing not all enemies need to have any of their data read for the towers to make decisions about which enemy to hit. The howto and about menus also use a standalone text reader which I wrote during the contest period, so feel free to use that in your own projects if you want.

Last but not least, we have JPL by TheLastMillenial!
Gameplay: 4/10
Flying a spacecraft through hoops honestly isn't that interesting.
Editor: 8/10
Just like KSP, JPL's editor has an almost-infinite number of ways to combine parts together. After watching the tutorial, I was able to easily build my own craft and launch it.
Graphics: 7/10
Explosions and Windows theme are on-point. There is some minor flickering, but it is almost unnoticable. The sprites are well-designed and fit with each other both in terms of color scheme and thematically.
Story: Not Applicable
Code Quality: Not Applicable
Other Comments:
The fade-outs are somewhat annoying because they take so long. Perhaps if they were a bit shorter?

Skills Parkour was accidentally not added in the post, so I deleted the post and added slimeenergy's program as well. Please vote again!

Sketch maze was my favourite, it deserves to win imo.

These are all really amazing! Great work everyone.

These also look like they'd make very interesting and fun computer games

I wanted to judge each game fairly, so I created 5 criteria: completeness, creativity, use of platform, fun, and documentation. Each criterion was evaluated on a scale from 0-5 and each had a weight from 1-3 based on how important I valued each. The weights were 2, 3, 2, 3, and 1, respectively. I tested each game and judged them as fairly as possible accounting for limitations/differences between platforms. My explanations of my scores are as follows:

Space Adventure 85
Completeness: 2 - The game has a decent amount of story and decision making to play through, however chapter 2 suffers from a bug at one of the decisions that causes the program to error and exit. It was a simple bug with 2 mistyped label names, so I was able to edit the program and complete the game but I deducted points for this.
Creativity: 4 - The story was well written and it did not have too many long walls of boring text. I wish there were more branching decisions in each chapter.
Use of platform: 5 - I have never played a game on the TI-85 prior to this one and you can easily tell the slowness of loading up BASIC programs (not at the fault of Roger). The way that the TI-85's menus work happens to be perfect for this type of game because it can display the menu while still leaving the last text output on the screen. This feature is great for the branching decisions and combat; I'm glad he chose to use it.
Fun: 3 - The story was fun but there were 2 main drawbacks in my opinion. The first was the reliance on RNG, I felt like that a couple of my runs were lost to nothing more than random numbers and when you initially choose your arms you can reselect them to keep rerolling them until you get high stats. The second drawback was how linear the decisions were, this made the game a little more boring when replaying from the beginning.
Documentation: 4 - Overall it was well documented with how to play the game and even individual descriptions of the subprograms that make up the game in case you wanted to modify the game. (This was useful for debugging the issue mentioned earlier!) I just wish the README came with more information on how the customization of arms affected gameplay.
Weighted Total: 39/55
Additional Comment: I really liked the modability of the game even though it didn't factor into the criteria that I judged. I also learned from fixing chapter 2 that labels on the TI-85's version of BASIC can be more than 2 characters which was cool.

Skills Parkour
Completeness: 5 - With 23 levels to play this game will last you quite a while. It took me ~10 minutes to complete the first two levels and the level design did a great job of playing around the main mechanic of the game to make it a challenging platformer. The interface, while simple, seems finished and the progress saving adds to the completeness.
Creativity: 2 - The main mechanic of the game, adjusting the 3 properties of your box to change how it moves in the level, seems very generic.
Use of platform: 3 - On a color calculator I would have liked to see a little more color. The white, black-outlined rectangles on a white background making up the entire stage got pretty old pretty quick. I was impressed by how well the physics in the game worked given the customizability of the movement and the short contest time frame.
Fun: 5 - Despite the boring graphics, the game was just raw platforming fun. I thought the stages were too difficult at first, however I came to realize that the challenge is what makes this game fun and the difficulty actually seemed perfect.
Documentation: 0 - The game did not come with a README or any additional information. The game did make up for it a little with the in-game tutorial, but I chose to dock all 5 points because the contest rules explicitly stated to include a README with specific information with the program.
Weighted Total: 37/55

Rainbow Shooter
Completeness: 2 - The menu interface and character design seemed complete, however the fighting gameplay was lacking and unfinished. The campaign would have been a big help, even if it was short.
Creativity: 4 - The number of properties about the character that can be modified in the character drawing screen was satisfying. I liked the fact that the drawing could be both functional and aesthetic.
Use of platform: 3 - I thought that some of the controls in the game were unintuitive. One example would be having to hold a number and a direction at the same time to draw a line. Another would be switching between using 2nd and Enter for selection. Otherwise, I think the calculator was used to its full potential.
Fun: 1 - The fighting aspect of the game really ruined the fun for me. I spent a lot of the time immediately restarting because an enemy would spawn on top of me. Even with armor I felt that my player died too quickly and I didn't get a chance to really play the game for a long time. The random terrain was often just annoying to climb and if the enemy wasn't at the same height as me I didn't stand a chance fighting them. This is where a campaign with set terrain and enemy spawns would have made the game much more fun.
Documentation: 5 - The game was well documented with the controls for the character creation and for the combat. I didn't take off a point, but a description of what the optional ShtCharD.8xv AppVar does would be nice.
Weighted Total: 30/55

Dungeon
Completeness: 3 - The game has many features that are complete on their own such as character customization, shopping, combat, etc. The game just needs an objective to tie all of those features together. The game also has quite a few noticeable bugs.
Creativity: 4 - I think more could be done with character customization, but otherwise the game is creative. The tiles and sprites are colorful and the map has some neat structures placed about.
Use of platform: 3 - I like the tilemap style of the game, however I do not think that the game is at its full potential with movement being locked to the grid.
Fun: 3 - Running around and killing the enemies, collecting rupees, and exploring the map are sort of fun on their own, but an objective would give them purpose and keep the game interesting.
Documentation: 3 - The controls in the README were straightforward and the how-to-play information was useful. I had to deduct points for not including the author, platform, or language it was written in.
Weighted Total: 38/55
Additional Comment: I am glad that you will continue to develop the game after the end of the contest, it will be lots of fun with a story/objective.

Splat
Completeness: 5 - The game had 4 finished game modes, high-score saving, a menu animation, and was bug-free as far as I could tell.
Creativity: 5 - The game reminded me of "Fishy" but with the added difficulty of having to remember how every color would affect the player when they touch it. Having 3 different ways to play (not including the screensaver) what is essentially the same game was a clever way to add more content to the game.
Use of platform: 5 - The game was fast and used color to its advantage.
Fun: 5 - The fast pace combined with having to remember the effects of the colors made for simple, but exciting gameplay (especially if you switch up the colors frequently).
Documentation: 5 - I am stealing your README format.
Weighted Total: 55/55
Additional Comment: I didn't expect to give anyone a perfect score, but I couldn't find anywhere to deduct a point.

Arena84
Completeness: 4 - The game seems like it was finished to the point it was intended, however it the gameplay needs a little something to make it less like a simulator and more like a game.
Creativity: 3 - The way the contest theme was interpreted for this game was pretty basic. I did like that the difficulty scaled with the stats of the player - something that the other games lacked.
Use of platform: 4 - I liked that the game took advantage of the DCS7 hybrid BASIC libraries, but I think since they were used more could have been done.
Fun: 2 - The game felt more like a simulator than a game. After choosing the stats for my character I no longer had much control over the outcome of the game. I turn toward the enemy and hold 2nd until it dies while it damages me in return and there isn't anything else I can do to prevent taking damage.
Documentation: 5 - The README contained all of the information that it needed and it noted that DCS7 was a dependency and listed where to get it. I also liked that there was information built into the game to complement the README.
Weighted Total: 36/55

DR0VE
Completeness: 5 - The game's menu was very detailed and easy to navigate. The game overall felt very polished from mechanics to graphics.
Creativity: 4 - I wish that I could adjust more than top speed and acceleration of my car, otherwise creatively the game was great. The graphics really stand out.
Use of platform: 3 - My only complaint here is controls. Having to hold enter to accelerate and then pressing graph to shift is akward. Also, if you lose while pressing graph to shift, the game will immediately exit because the score screen uses graph to quit the game.
Fun: 5 - Racing the randomly-generated cars turned out to be incredibly fun. I especially loved the stats screen after each race to see how my car performed.
Documentation: 4 - The game was documented comprehensively both in the README and in the game itself. I just wish the controls were listed in the README.
Weighted Total: 47/55
Additional Comment: Seeing how much I enjoyed DR0VE, I would definitely play DR1VE, especially if it has a career mode.

Sketch Maze
Completeness: 5 - The game was more than complete with a tutorial, default level pack, and a level editor.
Creativity: 5 - I haven't played a game quite like this one before and it was an interesting concept.
Use of platform: 5 - The game ran well and the controls were fairly intuitive.
Fun: 4 - The puzzles were fun to figure out but editing the colors of the square after every reset or at every plus was kind of annoying and tedious.
Documentation: 4 - The README was complete and I liked that I could press mode at any point to read the rules. That being said, I thought the rules were a bit confusing and they took a while to fully understand them.
Weighted Total: 51/55

Tower Defense CE
Completeness: 2 - The tower upgrade trees and menu seemed like completed features, however the rest of the game was plagued by bugs such as towers not shooting at enemies in range, shooting at enemies out of range, and enemies dying without showing lazers coming from towers.
Creativity: 5 - I thought the concept of this game was very unique. The flavor texts on each of the upgrades were funny and a great way to add a little personality to the game.
Use of platform: 5 - The controls were intuitive and the game ran quickly. I usually find cursor controls annoying but it worked well for this game, especially paired with the option of using the top row of buttons as a sustitute for some clicking.
Fun: 2 - The aforementioned bugs ruined most of the fun of the game.
Documentation: 3 - The README didn't contain much information about the game itself or its controls. The in-game help was useful though.
Weighted Total: 38/55

JPL4
Completeness: 4 - The game's core features were all complete, but the craft saving feature was a bit buggy. After saving my craft I couldn't always reload it to relaunch quickly.
Creativity: 3 - The Windows 95 theme was a cool idea and the ship modules were detailed and tiled fairly well. I took off points because the game was not an entirely new idea and thus not completely creative.
Use of platform: 5 - The controls all made sense, the game ran at a reasonable speed, and the graphics were done quite well.
Fun: 3 - I didn't find the actual gameplay to be particularly interesting, but at the same time not completely boring. Having to rebuild my entire ship because it didn't save was not fun though.
Documentation: 5 - The game was well documented in the README and the video of how to plat was certainly helpful.
Weighted Total: 41/55

Wow, amazing posts guys, I'm still testing all of them out!

GregAStar, we're you using CEmu or a physical calculator to test these programs? I've been having a lot of issues with my program's save/ load features on CEmu. If you were using a physical calculator could you please share what you did that made it not work?

I was using CEmu to test the games, I'm not sure if that should make a difference though. I won't have access to a physical CE until Wednesday to test it that way. I will say that when it failed for me on the CE was when I used the manual save feature right before launching. It worked for me when I just launched without doing the manual save and letting it just do the automatic save.

Just for fun I'm going to go backwards

JPL4: I really enjoyed making this, it made me learn more about ICE and I think it was a decent game overall. Going into the details though I see where my flaws are, I spent way too much effort on the graphics and the aesthetics of the game and not enough on the actual game itself. I suppose I interpreted 'Sprite Delight' as 'Have the best graphics you can'. Nevertheless I like some features I added that I didn't notice on any other entry such as my screen fades (even if they are a quite long if your screen is initially bright) game crash detection (which I'm glad no one noticed since that means my game didn't crash on anyone), and my video tutorial. Although my program isn't the only one to do this, I like that you only ever need to use keys above the [clear] button. I think the only features I need to add are more mechanics to the game play, a high score logger, and a Cesium icon! [7/10]

Tower Defense: Wow. Cool icon, neat how-to screen and amazing game mechanics! There are quite a few bugs though like Greg mentioned and the game doesn't seem to get harder at all. I basically had a single fully upgraded tower doing all the work for 10 waves before I got bored and quite manually. The graphics are decent (I like the little aliens and your title screen) but a too there are too few effects to be immersive on the game play screen. (ie the burst tower has no animation). The path editing was much better than I expected, and I actually didn't mind the cursor that much. I like the amusing upgrade descriptions, that was a nice touch (I loved your 65% more bullet per bullet reference!) [7/10]

Sketch maze: Unfortunately I just could not figure out this game's controls. The color editing was intuitive and easy but whenever I started the game with [alpha] I couldn't move the block around. I've read your in-game help menu and your readme.txt (which both look fantastic) multiple times but I couldn't get it to work. As for the graphics, they're quite basic but I dunno, I kind of like the way you've implemented the style. I also like you included an on-calc level editor and the Cesium icons! [4/10]

DR0VE: This was a simple, but neat game. I like your icon and description, the color change when you select a button is nice. The cars looked really cool and I think you could make them look even better with a custom palette! The adjustment system was fairly limited, though the game play was cool to see the background gradually speed up and I like your countdown timer. [7/10]

Splat: Neat icon. I quite like your smooth animations and your screensaver feature. Your game play is simple and difficult but quite fun I very much enjoyed all the game modes. Unfortunately, I only counted one unique sprite in the entire program which is just the splat sprite. The whole game just looks bland and empty to me. Especially for this type of contest, the game needs something to make it visually appealing such as different backgrounds and more unique sprites. I'm sure you can do this, the one sprite you added does look fantastic, however it just needs more. Also, could you slow down the cursor in the menu? It moves a bit too quick to accurately select an option. [6/10]

Dungeon: Cool Cesium icon. Your title screen sprite is by far my favorite sprite of any contest entry, it looks beautiful! Even your other sprites look pretty cool. Your instructions for editing your character are a bit confusing but it's not hard to figure it out. The game play is a bit dull, there are only a few places to go, and the monster AI looks like it's just random motion. However, all the game mechanics are there to make this game amazing! You just need to add more variety of monsters in different places, perhaps add a story line, and more stuff in your store (ie armor). [7/10]

Rainbow shooter: Great job with the character creator, it functions very nice even if it did freeze on me when I tried to y= one pixel. I like your Cesium icon, your animated title screen, and the FPS counter is pretty cool. One small annoyance is the inconsistent use of either [2nd] or [enter]. I really wish the enemies were something other than numbers, and I wish they were a bit more random with their action, but overall I liked the game. Another thing that could be improved is your ReadMe, I think you could organize it better but I wont count off points for that. [6/10]

Skill parkour: Whyyy is there no readme? The in-game tutorial is nice and informative but it's impossible for new users to figure out how to even launch the game especially if they don't have the C libraries already installed. As for the game itself, it's hard; I feel like it's constantly on ice but the character customizer really saves it, I love how changing the character effects the game itself so much. The levels are well designed too. Sadly the sprites are very basic and the character's looks aren't very customizable. If it had Rainbow Shooter's style of customization that would really improve it. Also, add a readme! [5/10]

Unable to play: Sadly since I can't play these for myself, I can't properly rate them. I'll do my best by going off of their screenshots, but I shouldn't vote for something I can't play.
Arena84: Your game looks simple but I love your sprites! Sadly there only seem to be two sprites, the character himself and the monster, I wish you had added more types. Also there wasn't anything graphically changed when you edited the specs of the character. You just need to add more... of everything to your game.

Space Adventure: Your game doesn't look like it has any sprites at all, I don't know anything about the TI-85 BASIC but I'm sure you could've added some sort of graphics. The customization part looks fairly detailed and I really wish I could play the game to experience the story line, but unfortunately your TI 85 has become like Windows XP, an amazing product, but no longer used by the masses.

As you can see, I didn't give any program a perfect score, I'm not even sure what I'm going to vote for yet. I'll wait for other reviews to come in and give my vote accordingly. Looks like I'm going to be deciding among JPL4, Tower Defense, DR0VE, and Dungeon. Good job everyone, I'm quite impressed with what we've been able to come up with in only a months time, given a month more I'm sure all our games could become solid [10/10]s. I can't wait for CC23!

Ok, so I have downloaded all of the programs. I will edit in my reviews of each once I play them.

I already know I can't play Jeffitus' entry due to my lack of a monochrome 84+ (sorry! )

EDIT: Here are my reviews:

I'm judging these games on how easy they are to pick up and play and how long they hold my interest. This is because this is how I judge any programs I use.

DR0VE: Great concept. I couldn't quite figure out the control scheme (I did check the About page) and sometimes when I tried to switch gears the program would quit. Overall fun game though.

Dungeon: I really liked this game! It is fun, the controls are intuitive, and I spent a good ten minutes playing it. My only question is what the point is. Is there a larger goal or is it strictly a dungeon crawl?

JPL4: This is a really well done and really complicated game. The video tutorial was a good idea. I would say that the editor could be a little more intuitive, but overall this is a really well-done game. Good job.

Rainbow Shooter: The game was extremely hard to control, I love the concept but the implementation leaves something to be desired. I had serious issues with speed and key repetition (undesired keys being repeated).

Skills Parkour: I really liked this game as well! The character editor was simple enough to figure out and the gameplay was simple but fun. This is a great example of where a game with simple gameplay can really flourish. If I may have one suggestion, it is the ability to fine tune the character a bit more and allow you to go up in increments of 1% instead of 5%.

Sketch Maze: I had a hard time figuring out how to control the game. I got stuck on the second level of the tutorial. I wish I could have figured out how to play it better because it looks like an awesome game.

Splat!: This is another game that has a simple concept that is executed wonderfully! The character creator is again very simple but intuitive. My only gripe is that your character can't move as fast as the other paint balls can, which makes it hard when you first start playing.

Tower Defense CE: I love tower defense games and this is no exception. This is a wonderfully executed game and I love it!

I would like to keep my vote secret, but I just wanted to say that I loved playing everyone's entries and I wish everyone the best of luck!

Wow. All of these programs look very fun. I tried out JPL4 so far, and there were a decent amount of bugs. I will reply with a more detailed post within the next few days. Good luck to the contestants!

I'd prefer if you'd post them now, nobody but Greg has reported any bugs so I'd like to know what issues you've been experiencing. Any crashing? Have you tried watching the video tutorial? Thanks!

I will post a more detailed description within a day or so of all the programs.

Alright, so my voting style was a bit different. There are 5 categories:

Gameplay: Self explanatory, my overall experience playing the game. Scored out of 10 points.
Creativity: Also self explanatory, this is a combination of graphics and story if applicable, original ideas, and creative use of platform and/or game idea. Scored out of 5 points.
Application of Contest Concepts: I wasn't exactly sure what to call this one; all it means is how well the game demonstrates the ideas and guidelines set forth in the contest rules. Scored out of 10 points.
Documentation: Clarity and helpfulness of the readme. In-game documentation was only partially taken into account. While that is nice, the readme should also have that information (I was looking for general info about the program, basic installation info, and controls). Scored out of 5.
Bonus: This is the category I put points in for extra things that didn't necessarily fit into the other categories. I put above average graphics under this category for some of the entries, as it only partially falls under creativity. Technically just extra points, but scored out of 5.

I also judged the entries in a random order, in an attempt to avoid bias. Overall I really enjoyed playing these games, great job to

JPL4 by TheLastMillennial
Gameplay: 7/10 - I felt like this game was mostly based around the customization aspect, and when I got to the actual flying part I was slightly underwhelmed. That said, it was still fun to play. (Side note: I would have appreciated the editor more if there was some indicator of where your cursor was).
Creativity: 4/5 - While it is not the first version of this game, it certainly adds a fun new element in the form of graphics (more on that later).
Application of Contest Concepts: 9/10 - This type of game is almost designed exactly for this contest, I only took off a point because with all the elements you could change about your ship, only height and width affected gameplay.
Documentation: 5/5 - Nothing really to say here, the readme documented the game well and I didn't have any trouble using the program based on its instructions.
Bonus: I gave this game 4 bonus points for its great style of graphics and intuitive controls. I loved the Windows theme, and none of the graphics were out of place.
Total: 29/35

DR0VE by epsilon5
Gameplay: 7/10 - I personally like racing games, and this is no exception. However, I would have enjoyed it more if there were obstacles or something to avoid or pick up during the race itself. It was fun, but I just felt like it needed something more.
Creativity: 3/5 - I really like the idea of the game, and I liked the graphics but only up until the actual racing part. The graphics for the track were just rectangles, and I felt like they could have been better, especially with the speed at which the game was running.
Application of Contest Ideas: 8/10 - Very good, my only complaint is that there are only two stats to adjust.
Documentation: 4/5 - The readme includes no information about controls, which in my opinion is one of the most essential parts, which is why I initially docked 2 points. However, the in-game documentation was so good I decided to give one point back.
Bonus: I gave this game 3 bonus points, again for uniformity of graphics, however, this only applied to the menus, so only 3 rather than 4 or 5.
Total: 25/35

Dungeon by Pieman7373
Gameplay: 8/10 - Playing this game was fun, except it was plagued by the fact that it had no objective and the fast movement.
Creativity: 4/5 - A top-down RPG is nothing new, but in this case it was implemented fairly well. I also liked the simple graphics style.
Application of Contest Ideas: 7/10 - I was kind of split on this one, because as intuitive and easy-to-use the editor is, the higher powered items are a little too over powered. Other than this, I quite enjoyed the different sets of clothing you could equip.
Documentation: 4/5 - The readme was short, but it had all the necessary parts. I took off one point for not including what calculator it is for or what language it is in.
Bonus: I gave it 4 bonus points for its potential to have a great story and objective, as well as the shop in-game, which was a nice touch.
Total: 27/35

Splat by LogicalJoe
Gameplay: 10/10 - I really enjoyed playing this game, this is probably the one game I would play over and over, try to beat my friends' high scores, etc.
Creativity: 4/5 - While the style isn't particularly a new idea, the different sizes, shapes, and colors of the "paintballs" were nice and made the game fun to watch as well as play.
Application of Contest Concepts: 4/10 - While you do change the attributes of your character, there is really no difference as each color is just as likely to appear.
Documentation: 5/5 - Exactly what I'm looking for, it had everything required in a readme and more.
Bonus: I gave it 5 bonus points for the extra game modes, the screensaver, and dark mode. Even though these elements may not be hard to add, they really make it seem like a completed game.
Total: 28

Rainbow Shooter by TheMustardCat
Gameplay: 6/10 - There is sooo much going on. I can't tell when I hit someone, when someone hits me, etc. I like this style of game, it was just very confusing.
Creativity: 4/5 - Really good, I liked the background as well as the cool menus.
Application of Contest Concepts: 10/10 - This game really exemplifies what the contest is about, there are so many stats of your character to adjust. Nice job on this part.
Documentation: 3/5 - It included the basic information, but it was just a wall of text that wasn't very appealing or easy to read.
Bonus: I gave this game 3 bonus points for the really cool menu and potential for a future campaign mode.
Total: 26/35

Sketch Maze by BasicTH
Gameplay: 9/10 - I love puzzle games, and this one was no exception. The controls, though they took some getting used to, made sense and I would definitely play this game a lot and even make more levels. My one complaint is that the cursor in editing mode was hard to see against the red color.
Creativity: 5/5 - The concept was fresh yet fun, the graphics were minimalistic yet appealing.
Application of Contest Concepts: 10/10 - This entry took a different approach from most of the other entries, but it still does a great job. I especially love that you get to edit your character while viewing the level, so you can make decisions based on what you see.
Documentation: 3/5 - The readme was very nice, unfortunately it included no information about the controls or different tiles. This would have been especially useful for playing the game and having something to refer to instead of having to go to a separate screen to view information.
Bonus: This game comes with a feature-rich, full-blown level pack editor. While this was not required, it makes the game seem much more complete. 5 points.
Total: 32/35

Skills Parkour by slimeenergy
Gameplay: 10/10 - Really fun, challenging platforming game, the flow of the gameplay is great, and it was just the right difficulty.
Creativity: 3/4 - The graphics were a bit lacking, even filled rectangles would have been better in my opinion.
Application of Contest Concepts: 10/10 - The editor was intuitive, easy-to-use, and unique. Finding the right balance after each failure was something many of the other applications failed to do.
Documentation: 0/5 - In-game documentation was okay, but I can't give it any score without a readme.
Bonus: I gave it 4 bonus points for good level design that required a new combination of colors each time.
Total: 27/35

Tower Defense CE by commandblockguy
Gameplay: 8/10 - It was really fun to edit the path and make upgrades, but I found the maxed-out towers to be slightly overpowered, once I had two of them I had CEmu at 500% throttle for about 10 minutes just sitting there pressing f5. I did also encounter some of the graphical bugs already mentioned, but they didn't affect gameplay.
Creativity: 4/5 - I love the concept of drawing the path instead of placing the towers, I just found the sprites a bit bland.
Application of Contest Concepts: 10/10 - This game took a different angle, which I liked. It allowed for virtually infinite possibilities, and you could also choose which upgrades to give your towers.
Documentation: 2/5 - The readme was a markdown filetype, which could be confusing for users who are unfamiliar with it. The readme also contained very little information about the game.
Bonus: I gave this game 5 bonus points for a really intuitive control setup and interface. I had no problems with the mouse cursor being too slow or fast, and the f1-f5 keys also made sense for this game.
Total: 29/35

Space Adventure 85 by RogerWilco
Gameplay: 6/10 - Playing this game was fun, except the story was very linear and the customization was based on random numbers, which allowed you to keep trying until you get stats you are happy with. There were also multiple bugs in the game that I had to manually fix.
Creativity: 4/5 - The story was very good and original, however it suffered from Yes or No options only, which leads to less possibilities.
Application of Contest Concepts: 7/10 - The customization does affect your stats, but there is still a large dependance on RNG in the game.
Documentation: 5/5 - The readme was informative yet concise; it included all the necessary information.
Bonus: I gave it three bonus points for very easy-to-use and flexible modability. I probably would have given it more points if more chapters were included in the game, but it still has potential.
Total: 25/35

As Sketch Maze had the highest score, I voted for that game. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have about my rating for your program. Overall I had a fun time testing these, great job guys!