with no further ado... the scores. congrats to the Top 5, and everyone else for making an entry to begin with! 1st Place: WiL/John D. Moore - AdversiTurtle 5, 8.9, 10, 7.5... 7.85 "I don't know what to make of this. I like the idea and the splash graphics (in fact all the graphics), but the individual missions leave me completely cold and the menu system startles me. Also what's with the symbolic archive? This didn't catch me, but it looks nice and has some good, eerie scenes (walking into the old folks' home with the horrible stars ejecting from dying people.)" "MEGAMAN." "HAHAHA... HAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my... oh my God... hahahaha. ... Okay! That game was HILARIOUS... the inside jokes were awesome (especially the Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder ones and the bit about Run-On), and the story was simply BRILLIANT. Some of the other games were fantastic, but they had too little to do... this one expertly balances watching and playing. Not perfect, but I wanted to give the best game a 10. A masterpiece." "the best one this time around, not that that means much. good job anyway." 2nd Place: Athena - Bitten 9, 8, 8.5, 5.5... 7.75 "Very nice windowed graphics; good use of the windowing to give a nicer color palette. Very good puzzles, though there are a few bugs in the passage connections. I was sad when I saw a MAZE but it impressed me when the slime came out and started chasing me around, as well as the timed orb hunt. Really this is excellent work; fix the bugs and tweak some of the gameplay in the final race, but this is my top pick." "FANGILICIOUS" "... Wow. Simply stunning. Some of the most well thought-out ZZT puzzles I've ever seen, and quite a... stimulating storyline. It didn't lose quality as it progressed, and that's a key; from start to finish, it's quite a worthy play. Maybe the blinking graphics were a slight bit irritating, but, hey... can't ask for everything. A quality work." "not really sure of the adversity, but well done anyway." 3rd Place: ZZBlue - Guitar Picks and Onion Dip 6, 8.8, 9, 6.5... 7.575 "This had very nice graphics and a neat slice-of-life premise. But then the dialogue began. PAGES AND PAGES OF IT FOREVER, most of it going nowhere or just revolving around the old "Dylan hangs out with his mom" jokes. There is a plot that moves and some minor conflicts, but they just develop so slowly that I get bored. Also this is filled with grim indie-rock smugness, some kind of rags-to-riches story which is sort of neat but doesn't have too many twists; you can guess the ending right from the beginning (actually I think it tells you the ending in the beginning.) This has a few neat programming charms (the listening booth, the SONGS) but is not really a game, and it's hard to make that interesting. The game is dull, but sprawling and ambitious enough that I must respect it." "SHOW-OFF." "Other than Burger Joint, I think this is the first ZZT game I've seen where it KEEPS SHOWING THE SAME BOARD (you can't fool me, blue) but actually is GOOD. Part of me is like "Dude! He mentioned Indie! And Weezer... even if it's in a bad way!", and wants to give you a 10/10. ... But I can't, because your game had next to no play to it. So I'm gonna score it like it's the best cinema game I've ever come across. Great job." "mom as adversity... tee-hee. nice gfx as always." 4th Place: Clecky - Frozen 8, 6.4, 7.5, 6... 6.975 "Excellent graphics and neat fights, monsters. The game is too linear though and too hard; I had to use the health cheat constantly when dragons just rushed up at me and chewed me to pieces. Also the ending is pretty abrupt. The journal is kind of unnecessary. Really I am just being hard on you; this is very, very good and again the graphics are beautiful, mushrooms and frozen trees, etc, and though it was hard I did keep restoring and playing because I wanted to see more." "GRAPHICYSHORT." "First of all, I LOVE your graphics style. Secondly, you must LOVE Anthony Testa's Dungeon Master's Gallery (great choice, my friend). Thirdly, your method of story-telling is excellent. I really wanted to give you more, but it was simply way too short. If it was longer... it definitely could've competed for first." "topic? dragons and spiders aren't adversity. maybe the dangers of the wilderness?" 5th Place: Dr. Dos - Planet of the Owls 4, 6.5, 8, 6.5... 6.25 "I liked the idea of the owls and I like the skippability of all the cut scenes. But this just got bad quickly; the fights are all dull bashing over and over and over forever and there are bugs, a strange in-jokey plotline and generally diminishing fun. Owls vs. humans is a neat idea but needs work in order to go anywhere. But it did feature my name and a Rhygar reference." "OK'v'" "It's pretty obvious that your favorite ZZT game is Wartorn... the narration is obvious, but the brilliant story is even better (even if it makes me look eeeeeevil!). A unique and original plot mixed in with quite a few community references. Maybe not great graphically, but who cares? It's fun to play and read. Congrats." "asskissing knightt, eh? it was on topic, though. and funny. goob job. :)" 6th Place: JustKirby - excuse me while i kill myself 2, 8.5, 8.75, 4... 5.8125 "I sort of get what is going on with the increasing discrepancies, and the shading job on the house is cool, but the graphics are mostly too muddy or smeary and the text is impossible to follow and it feels like it is trying to bash my head in over and over. I recognize that there is some kind of sincere feeling behind this but learn to discipline it, make it comprehensible. Also the knife is bugged on the third time and I can't go on with the game (another issue: there is no gameplay, just reading page after page of repeating self-destructive text.)" "WTF." "It's one of those games that demands a strong patience and a lot of time... because there's oooone heck of a lot of text to be found here. But that text is so well-crafted that I couldn't give it any lower than this. This is one of those 'love it or hate it' style games... it's a great read, but suffers a bit from not having nearly enough play. Definitely a pleasant surprise." "topic? yeah, no. interesting, but... ridiculous." 7th Place: Raiden - Mr. UnLucky 4, 5.8, 6, 4... 4.95 "OVERBLENDING. Graphics do not automatically look good if you just throw little blotches of color everywhere; it looks muddy, the boards are too big, lots of boards are useless and hard to "read". I disliked having to touch every slot machine. Cool monster engine, though. Nice programming but needs more work on graphics, story, etc." "TEDIOUS." "I reeaally like the graphics, as well as the silly humor. You have a lot of ability, or so it seems... it's very pleasant to play a good game by a newbie. Has somewhat of a Draco feel, but much less dirty. ... Also has somewhat of a Master Raze feel, but not with the action movie style. Keep on ZZTing; you're gonna give us some great games, I bet." "topic! i didn't see the topic!" 8th Place: IJAK - Attrition 2, 3.8, 5.5, 2... 3.325 "I liked the graphics at the start; what happen? They just get worse and worse and the story gets forgotten about. There are some weird obstruction bugs early on. This just doesn't go anywhere; the opening two or three boards show promise but then it tanks." "ABRUPT." "I found the text quite atmospheric and absorbing... unfortunately, though, there wasn't much to actually play. A lot of empty space... quite short, and the ending felt pretty empty. At the same time, what was there was very pleasant. Filling the empty space on a ZZT board with worthwhile objects or graphics is something very critical to making a great game. Still quite a debut!" "...was that a game?" 9th Place: Appliance - The Big Bang! 3, 3, 5.5, 1.5... 3.25 "No STK and needs more graphical power and better writing. The gameplay is mixed; some levels are really cool (level 5 I liked) but most are just firing at lots of preprogrammed. Very well balanced though and an actual complete game rather than a movie or something. Needs a lot of work but you have talent at balancing." "GRAND-THEFT-COOKIE." "It feels so weird to give this high a score to a non-STK (or KevEdit or ZZTAE) game, but I found the old-school (remember the original, four game ZZT series, which Town was a part of? Gotta love those ones), puzzle/shooter gameplay quite enjoyable. Okay, it's less puzzle and much more shooter... but, man, the keys, enemies, and health goodies are spaced out so, so well. I even laughed at some of the jokes. A job well-done!" "i hate you so much. stk... please." 10th Place: Develin - Hell's Disaster 0, 3.5, 3, 3... 2.375 "This has a funny line about being in hell but having a gun, but this is just not good and needs lots of writing and general design work. Play some more games, figure out what works." "AVERAGE." "Hmmm... seems like you put a good deal of effort into it, but it didn't quite work out. I'd say to study other people's games more, but keep on being yourself... learn from what's been made, and from there, decide what new things you can bring to the ZZT world. Also, massive amounts of empty space should be filled by objects, graphics, and the like." "what the hell was that?" 11th Place: Zaphod` - The Grand Wizard 1, 0.8, 3, 3... 1.95 "Throws me onto the title screen after a little bit. I was not a fan of this; mostly stupid bosses who scream things at you and a board called "stoner city". Okay slave chain though." "ARGHFNPASSAGES." "Way. Too. Many. Passage. Errors. I edited your file so that it starts on the right screen, but I'm not gonna fix 'em all. The game feels way too empty, and though the plot is a little bit interesting, that, too, is empty... shading would also be a good idea. For a first ZZT release, it isn't bad... but I get the feeling that you can do better." "i don't think any of the passages were right. and please, no more owls." 12th Place: Moonpie - Opo Adventure 1, 2.2, 1, 1... 1.3 "This has one good point: the music as you run to get the rope. Otherwise why is shit like this even submitted?" "TWo-POINT-TWo." "LOL. ... You are one sick, twisted kid. For some reason, though, I'm glad you submitted this. Why, I don't know." "...no." 13th Place: Stampede76 - School 2 ZZT 1, 0.1, 1.5, 1... 0.9 "I give you the same advice as dev: play games, figure out what works. This has some rudimentary gameplay but there are way too many problems here." "BAKA." "First of all... what does this have to do with adversity? ... Secondly, I get the feeling that this wasn't made within the 24 hour period; that he already made this and submitted it for the heck of it. ... I'm sure the people who actually have put effort into their games will appreciate this for taking last place. *Applause*." "i hate you." that's it for this spring's 2003; what happens next in 24HoZZT history, who knows (hopefully WiL and/or John will decide to host the next)? it's been an honor to run this one; thanks to all the people who submitted entries, as well as the judges. see yah again soon!