Winners of MotK Danmakufu contest #5 The contest has come to an end and I am proud to announce, together with Blargel and our Mystery judge: Kefit, the results and winners for this 5th contest on this forum. I had a lot of people bugging Blargel and me on IRC and on the forum asking who the mystery judge was. Some people speculated it was Drake or Naut but you all got it wrong. I my self did some PMing on people to advise me a potential judge. It became Kefit who is pretty much known to be one of the best Touhou players.
To try to make the contest competitive we have put our selves quite strict this time. I cannot completely speak about Blargel, he can give his own opinion. Though Kefit already told me he would be merciless to the danmaku patterns being made in this contest. Of course with consideration of the normal division. The same stance I took for the harmony of the script. You can read more in depth detail at the report section.
Unfortunate we had to disqualify two contestants from the contest for breaching the rules. Yet, we rated their work to not let it go to a waste. The reason for disqualification is simple: When it comes down to rules we are like Eiki-sama, judging black and white. If you are interested in the
info thread, feel free to look here. Now let us announce the winners.
Normal ★★1st - Dr. Katz
2nd - Furienfify
3rd - Nobu
Lunatic ★★★★1st - Nimble
2nd - Johnny Walker
3rd - Ravenlock
Congratulations to the winners. You will earn the title of 'Idiot Princess' due to this achievement. Thank you to all people participating in this contest and thank you for being a member of this community. We are growing slowly but steady and I am quite proud to see many people joining the contest or this forum. Feel free to feedback on the contest organisation, rules and information. Especially on what you think of the experimental divisions. If you feel like ranting about the judges, that is welcome as well but please do it in a mannered way.
You can download the scripts in this thread:
Normal &
Lunatic
Full scale report, ayayayaya.This section will cover a full scale report on each division with commentary from all three judges. Read warmly and beware of the block of text. This will keep you busy for sure. Ayayayayayaya.
Normal ★★
※Bark - Innocent Lake FairyBlargel > Pretty solid entry if not for the fact that Daiyousei seems pretty darn resistant to bombs. Not only does she barely take damage from them, her bullets are resistant too? Sheesh, that's an overpowered fairy there. Her nonspells seem pretty fitting and the spellcard designs are okay too. However, your first spell is way too biased towards homing types. I had a hell of a time fighting her with Marisa B.
Helepolis >Good thing the author didn't immediately revert to original media and made it's own spriting. Which is to be honest quite good. Sfx was present but presented in a weird way. Waterplay spell card was very fun to play in my opinion but I was somewhat questioning her 2nd spell card: Natural harmony. Reading the spell card comments didn't really help out here. Though from a person who joined the forum, good job.
Kefit > SFX, music, patterned bullets. This has the basics of a good presentation, aside from the horrendous Daiyousei sprite. First card doesn't work properly because it doesn't give the player enough room to dodge everything. Also, I don't think there is a single random bullet in this, which cuts down on the fun quite a bit.
※Blue Spoiler - Messenger of FlowersBlargel > This was an interesting entry. The dialogue was pretty short and kinda funny (Marisa's one was at least) and the attacks were aesthetically pleasing. I like how Lily Black's nonspell was a remix of Lily White's but her version made her teleport around like crazy and it was really hard to hit her with Marisa. Same for Lily White's spellcard where she just went back and forth between the two sides of the screen. I gotta admit Lily Black's spellcard had a really neat effect though.
Helepolis >Even though this is normal division I am kind of merciless for missing sound effects and music. The flowerish danmaku had potential but bit poorly executed. I don't really mind the waffles images, but without sfx, bgm and any harmony it feels poor. Shame because the comments seem to point out some nice information.
Kefit > No music or sfx, but I do appreciate the Walfas cut-ins. Lily Black's stuff was fun, but Lily White's was kind of boring. Also, the final card had black bullets rotating on a blue background. Don't do this.
※Dr. Katz - Koakuma's recovery attemptBlargel > The first thing I noticed was the background which looked like it was MSPainted. Then the elaborately animated Koakuma. It was really funny how different the quality was between the sprite and the background. But enough about that, let's talk about the danmaku. The nonspells were pretty, but I'm not sure if they fit Koakuma. At one point she threw an almost solid wall of kunais at me which was pretty alarming. The spellcards looked very nice, but unfortunately the first one was simply too hard. Perhaps it was because Marisa B's lasers were covering the crystals up, but I just couldn't do it. The second card, however, was terrific. It was fun to dodge and looked great as well.
Helepolis >When I speak of harmony, I speak of danmaku, sounds and gameplay being combined into a script. Dr. Katz exacly shows how to do this. Using fitting music and fitting sound effects quickly impresses me. However looks isn't everything but the two spell cards were just very well thought. The way the diamond shaped danmaku falls reflects the spell card comments. Devil great barrier was both funny and impressive. So Koakuma really is a little devil here. Though the transition between the attacks can be improved. The slight long pause before launching the attacks kind of puts you out of balance.
Kefit > Fitting music and SFX yay. Patterns looked good and seemed to work properly. I really like the second spellcard here, although the second non-spell is kind of weak. Repeating waves of the exact same pattern are boring; give me some randomness please.
※Furienfify - The Brief Recollections of Hieda no AkyuuBlargel > This was an interesting take on Akyu's power. The spellcards you created really felt like a part of of the scarlet mist incident and the spring snow incident. I liked the first spell a lot more than the second, but both were good. Dodging the mist and the miniature Scarlet Meister blasts was fun. Dodging the pink and blue bullets in the other second card just felt like a random bullet spam, though the color theme did fit the fact that it was trying to tell the PCB story... in danmaku format. The only big thing I can nitpick about is that the second nonspell was rather awkward to play. It just felt strange.
Helepolis >Typical like Akyu, the person who is responsible for PMiSS in the first place. The author decided to let her use the historical danmaku attacks from EoSD and PCB. However the spriting was a bit off, think it was from Touhoumon, right?
Kefit > SFX, check, music, check. Bad Akyu sprite though. Health bars were too long. Nice use of randomness on these attacks though, I especially like the final card (first card could stand to be a bit more difficult). Second non-card is boring and dumb though.
※Tyltalis - Mysterious Incantations of a Lesser Scarlet Devil disqualified, survival card longer than 90 secondsBlargel > I felt like I was fighting Ex-Koakuma. To Flandre's theme for some reason. It was certainly an interesting battle. It was funny how during the first nonspell, I was wondering "where are the kunais with those bubbles?" and then they came out. The first card was pretty fun and caught me off guard with the bouncing bubbles. Although you called it Hyper-Directional Laser, the lasers are hardly a danger and serve to just distract you from the bubbles, haha. The second card was evil. I was using Marisa B (like usual) and the darn lasers stopped rotating when I was to the left of Koakuma. What the heck was I supposed to do there? Despite that, it was a very fun entry and very Koakuma-ish.
Helepolis > Unfortunate this entry had to be disqualified. The script started out nice. I really felt hyperactive with those lasers flashing around fast. The noncards felt very uninspired though.
Kefit > Best presentation in Normal category, hands down. Better presentation than most of the Lunatic entries, in fact. Very nice extensions of Koakuma's noncards, particularly the first one. First card is a fun recreation of Red Magic. The final card lacks cohesiveness and doesn't ever amount to anything interesting though. Still great overall.
※DennisLol - Daiyousei's Summer NapBlargel > Oh god. The music. Make it stop. Sorry to say, but the music isn't the problem I have with this script. The attacks are just so... boring. All of it is just randomized bullet spam in varying spawn patterns. To make matters worse, you make a survival card that just lasts way too long and is boring as hell except for the last 5 seconds or so. But by then, watching Daiyousei spinning around me was just boring. You might want to work on making attacks that are more than just randomized bullets.
Helepolis > Ok the music was somewhat cute and after a while it gets pretty nerve breaking. But that kind of breaks the harmony you see. And the spell card comments were more like based on the card it self without any additional inspiring information. Rainbow Conjuring can be exploited which made me capture it without even worrying.
Kefit > No sfx, incredibly annoying music, and no attempt to make pretty looking danmaku. Health bars are too long and the time out lasts too long. Time out can be broken by keeping Daiyou off the screen as much as possible. The time out is an interesting idea though, but it needs some reworking to make it better.
※Pozeal - Tokiko's supposed vengeanceBlargel > Hey, custom music, sprites, cut-ins, and bullets. That's interesting. Unfortunately there were only 2 attacks I liked in this script. The Green Light attack was just boring and annoying. I don't quite understand why the faster rings disappeared after a while. The second nonspell was also kind of stupid. The homing rings tended to force me to one side where one of the streams that locked me in would kill me. Truthfully, although you took the trouble to make your own bullets, I think I'm just too used to the normal Touhou bullets. The dialogue was pretty funny though.
Helepolis >8bit music, strange sfx. From a joke factor I can understand it. It kind of actually all fit together. Especially the portrait during the dialogue made me smile. Endless Chase Green Light made me rage a little because of the bullets. Same goes for Hiding fear as well. Bullets blending into the back ground. I would stay inside if little Tokiko like that started jumping around throwing familiars and danmaku. Dangerous stuff.
Kefit > SFX, music, patterned bullets. Bad bullet sprites though, and the colors get lost against the background. Music isn't a very good choice. You seemed to have some interesting ideas with this danmaku, but in the end it feels like it didn't really go anywhere; it lacked cohesiveness and dodgyness. Dialogue got a chuckle out of me, so did the art.
※Nobu - Exhibition outside KourindouBlargel > Holy hell this is hard. Seriously. Those flaming books are an interesting idea, but it's hard as hell! The second spell is also friggin hard towards the end when the lasers start coming out two at a time. That said, the ideas in here are quite unique. Besides the nonspell, I don't believe I've seen any other attack that makes use of the gimmicks your flaming books use. I haven't seen the strange kind of crisscrossing that your final attack uses either, though the lasers are quite obviously lifted from a certain bookworm. All in all, not too bad of an entry, but damn, work on the difficulty balancing.
Helepolis >You don't see much Rinnosuke appearing in scripts. He is actually quite an interesting character and many creative things can be thought. Nobu seems to attempt this here. Burning aura, spell circle, spell charge animation. The looks are there all right. The spell card comments were very enjoyable to read. It felt like Marisa's grimoire. Analysing not only the card but also having those comments on other gensokyo citizens. I actually liked the music, maybe because I am more like judging music on the actual feeling and appearance instead of the community. Calm and wise is what I receive from listening and watching the danmaku. Though Nobu your 2nd spell card made me have some hard time. I think the syncing of the cycle of books (is what I thought they were) is a little off. Making it hard to beat.
Kefit > Don't use music from the Touhou game with the universally agreed upon worst OST. Attacks looked very nice, complete with SFX and decent Rinnosuke sprite. First card has a great concept, but is plagued by bullet spawning and despawning issues that make it nearly unplayable. Last card is too difficult and doesn't have enough randomness.
Lunatic ★★★★
※Stuffman - Calamitous Exodus of Strange and Bright Nature Deity disqualified, having more than 2 spell cards.Blargel > First of all, I'm sorry to say that you have to be disqualified for not following the rules (hey you disqualified Drake for being two seconds late). If I had noticed your post earlier, I would've PMed you but I didn't even look at the submission threads till I had to judge. Anyways, this is quite possibly the most ridiculous dialogue I've ever read but it was a fun read. However, that's about it for the good parts. Although the graphics and sound were shiny and awesome, the actual "game" had pretty bland danmaku in it. You only tried to display the three fairies's powers once, with Sunny's power making the bullets invisible. Although the other attacks had gimmicks, sometimes they weren't very pretty to look at. The final attack just felt like a disorganized spam of a million attacks at once when I was hoping for a synchronized bit of awesome. Perhaps you should've spent your 24 hours on making fun danmaku instead of a funny story. (PS, why is there RBO music?)
Helepolis >Stuffman actually disappointed me this time. Not because he got disqualified. (Well that as well) but where are the sounds? Is this really the work of a person who is like one of the few who is about to complete a full game? Also the music didn't change between the dialogue and the actual fight. While the dialogue was extremely enjoyable and made my hopes go high up. Also what happened to the Sparkling black ocean spell card. I see some bullet delays on the walls but no bullets came out so I didn't had to move at all.
Kefit > I have to disaqualify this? Come on, this obviously deserves to win the contest. Yes, that's a 25/20 on presentation, consider it extra credit, for obvious reasons. Last card was awesome, dialogue made me laugh (and thus I had more fun!), minus a point to functionality because the first card's invisibullets may not have been the greatest idea.
※Furu - Breeze of an Ancient RuinBlargel > I don't quite get why you made Tokiko a wind youkai of some sort, but okay. The attacks seem to fit the image of Tokiko you created in any case. The nonspells were pretty simple in design, though I guess that's fine for a nonspell. The actually spellcards had interesting gimmicks too, but is somehow a bit boring. The final spellcard, I at first thought was a rotation card, but that was proven wrong when the propellers overtook me because I was hesitating too much. You obviously know what you're doing scripting-wise but you may need to work on danmaku design ideas a bit.
Helepolis >Sprites are used from Touhoumon, which isn't really joyful. Might as well sprited something in paint. Also I am extremely merciless against no music. Pinwheel Gale was a nice potential card, but it suddenly ended. Horizontal cyclone was a nice gag and got me instantly. But yea, for a lunatic entry this is not harmonic at all.
Kefit > Lost points on presentation due to lack of music and the bad Tokiko sprite. Would have been lower, but the danmaku itself was sensible and attractive looking. First spellcard is decent fun, everything else not so much.
※Johnny Walker - Akyu's Daily PrayBlargel > Amazing as always. The visuals are top-notch and danmaku has nice extras that give it an extra touch of quality. I'm not a big fan of rotation attacks, but your first spellcard is only making me rotate half the time so I guess that's fine. There was kind of an awkward pause when Akyu shoots out those green lines though where nothing happens for what feels like a long time. The final attack starts off slow so I was taken aback, but the ending is quite crazy, especially when the yellow bullets arc really low and close to you. This is a very good entry.
Helepolis >Walker is known for his excellent work and high class scripting. Custom effects tuned to the animation. Spell card spawning was a nice effect. The way "Recording History" card went felt like scrolls unfolding and attacking. This gave a very nice feeling to the actual gameplay. And the scroll feeling is being confirmed in Walker's spell card description.
Kefit > Second noncard has an interesting concept, I like it. Final card had a great build up and made me move around a fair bit. The first card was nonsense though. Don't go between random rotation and pure dodging like that, it doesn't make any thematic sense. Also the rotation didn't work that well (albeit not completely broken), hence the hit to functionality.
※Karanum - The Grimoire and the Devil LibrarianBlargel > Oh hey Koakuma has black hair. Wait no, the cutin has her with red hair! I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but this entry isn't very polished, and feels like it should belong in the normal division. Unfortunately, you're in the lunatic division so I'm going to have to judge more harshly than I would want to. You're using the default bullet graphics and have no sound effects whatsoever. The bullet patterns, although not too bad, are fairly basic. And lastly, this is just a matter of preference, it'd be great if you could select the single attacks from the menu so I could look them over again easily without playing through the rest of the script.
Helepolis >No sounds is one thing but no back ground is really a pain in my heart. Heavy point deduction, especially in lunatic division. I played Hard mode and it felt way too easy. I played Easy mode, it felt way too hard. Lunatic was just impossible. Also the cards felt very uninspired and the music didn't really fit as the tune is from peaceful to fast paced agressive locked girl. Hmmm.
Kefit > No sfx and one of the worst sprites I have ever seen. Come on man, you can do better here. Interesting and fun danmaku, hampered by functionality issues on both noncards. On the first noncard, the Lunatic version doesn?t give enough room to ever change lanes (also realize that overlapping bubbles look like shit in danmakufu). On the second noncard, there are weird random bubbles overlapping eachother and too many red bubbles in a row heading towards the bottom of the screen is basically doom.
※Kylesky - Koakuma Defends the Library!Blargel > This script had a lot of potential, but didn't quite live up to it. I have no complaints about the nonspells as they are very Koa-ish. The spellcards are obviously homages to Patchouli's attack in that the different elements behave similarly to how Patchouli's elemental attacks behave. However, some difficulty balancing might have been a good idea. The first spellcard was always extremely hard whenever fire and water appeared at the same time. Water itself was difficult to dodge when I was being distracted by everything else as well. The second attack felt rather spammy and wasn't very pretty either. I did notice that you made a 3D background and had Koakuma animated. However, the lack of music in a lunatic division entry surprised me and definitely didn't set the mood very well.
Helepolis >Ok we seem to be having 3D library BG here. But where is the music? Also some people to have a similar idea about the non cards. It all looks the same, such a shame. Tri elements was "three" all right but it kind of felt dull. Maybe because there was no music. Yea, that must be it.
Kefit > I want to give full score for presentation. I really do. But I can't because, after going through the trouble of making pretty danmaku and using a good sprite, you don't provide any music. Lunatic is essentially unplayable; I docked points to functionality for it. Fun attacks though, especially the final card.
※Patrick Alexander - It's time to celebrate spring!Blargel > Wow, there's only one attack? And why does it look like Lily has been training under Meiling? No sound, no spellcard background, no sound... I don't know what to say. You probably should've spent more time on this entry or just not submitted at all if it was incomplete.
Helepolis >This is going to be probably very short judgement. No sound, no music, poor sprite. I would like to celebrate spring. But not like this. No, not like this. Also I wonder what was so hypnotising about her attack.
Kefit > I'm sorry, but I can't rate one attaack on the same scale as everything else I am rating. No music, no sfx, but pretty and Lily-esque danmaku. Problem is that it isn't very fun =/
※Naut - Tokiko (Nake! Wameke!! Tokiko!!)Blargel > First off, Windowed FPS: 57.33. Full screen FPS: 60.88. I will be awaiting your arrival in China with a knife so you may cut me. Second off, I find it kind of funny that the judge of the survival contest made a survival attack. It wasn't a very good survival either since it suffered from the same flaws that you pointed out previously. Some parts are just boring and last way too long. It felt more drawn out than it should have been for the ideas that were in it. As for judgement related to this contest, I'm not sure what part of additively blended bullets of gayness is related to Tokiko. It looked pretty of course, but only some parts. Other parts were weird.
Helepolis >This is the strangest script I played from the lunatic entries. The music is typical Naut style, but isn't adding up to the meaning of the script. The danmaku is perhaps beyond my skills but what I could tell was pretty much complicated. The effects on the honey-grade (engrish?) lasers were neet and pretty much what you expect from a lunatic entry. Though what is the difference between the two modes? Both were wtf-hard for me.
Kefit > Song doesn't fit Touhou + no sfx, but the sync of the song and the first non-card was spiffy. Lunatic isn't playable. Those glowing blue bullets make me want to murder you. First attack was fun at times, but everything else was kind of boring.
※Nimble - Koa's QuestBlargel > Holy crap it's possible to survive! I can actually survive the attacks! I actually captured the final attack! Not only that, it's still possible on Lunatic mode! This is a pretty good entry. You seem to be using the default graphics, which kinda takes away from the feel of polish, but the attacks are quite fun. The nonspells suit Koakuma and the spellcards as well. Control over books seems to be a suitable description of your Koakuma. The first attack is actually pretty bland since it's just intercrossing bullet lines, but the final attack is awesome. It is one of the funnest attacks I've played in this contest.
Helepolis >The sound effects in this script were very well tuned to the actual patterns. Yet the non-cards were again uninspired most of the time which made me frown a few times while playing it. Mainly because it felt nothing special. The book of four gold (?) had strange movement and danmaku. However "the devil who posesses books" was different and a better use of familiars. I actually failed to find the reference Nimble made for the second spell card. Maybe you can help me.
Kefit > Last card made me go "huh" for a moment, but then I realized its thematic sense and was quite impressed. These noncards are the best extension of Koakuma's EoSD attack that has been entered into this contest. Decent sprite, music, attacks are pretty, but would have really like to have seen some sfx.
※RavenLock - The Lily Fairies' Secret GardenBlargel > Hahaha, I hear Banjo Kazooie music. Somehow that particular song does sort of fit the Lilys too. That's a pretty nice 3D background you have there, too. Why does it flash weirdly though? Or is it only doing that on my computer? Anyways the danmaku certainly has interesting concepts in it. It seems like your take on their attacks is that they not only announce spring, but can also cause plants to grow with the power of spring. Or something. Whatever it is, it makes for interesting danmaku, but it does get unfair sometimes. Some of your attacks make it incredibly hard for straight shooters like Marisa to hit the bosses. Also, on the final attack, it's very hard to see those tiny green bullets because of the way the petals are constantly fluttering on the green backdrop. It sort of just makes it look like a petal or backdrop thingy at the same time.
Helepolis >3D surrounding with a nice funny music. But like Naut's entry, it isn't really adding much to it. And also way too many people are abusing the typical Lily white / black PoFV pattern. Why? Also the two spell cards were too similar in style but the climbing vine was a lovely form of how spell cards fit the actual theme of the game.
Kefit > The best looking entry that I don't have to disqualify in this contest. The danmaku screamed flowers and Lily, very nice. Music choice is questionable, BK doesn't mesh well with Touhou. Danmaku itself wasn't terribly fun dodging though (the points you do get are influenced by the fact that a good presentation enhances my fun), and the final attack just walled me off no matter what I did.
※DgBarca - Stolen books, spell booksBlargel > First of all, toooooooo many curvy lasers. My FPS went down to 33. Second of all, stationary curvy lasers... interesting. And last of all, did Koakuma just go super saiyan at the end after tossing a spirit bomb? That was really random (and hard to dodge). I don't really like how my FPS dropped so much on all of your attacks, but the ideas you had are good. I also don't like the how the first spellcard is introduced. It looks damn impossible at first glance because the blue bullets bounce back up, though I did eventually figure it out. The difficulty of all your attacks is pretty high too and it was difficulty for me to even get through the script without continuing. The effects were pretty awesome though. I'm not sure what you used for the giant flare effect, but it was very nice.
Helepolis >Normally DgBarca puts effort in his work, but this seems extremely out of his usual self. The background, isn't that from Satori? The music felt more like a stage music instead of a boss music. Which is extremely a shame because the Golden God Flare would be pretty badass with the right background and music. Extremely shameful. But that is from a look and feel perspective, the actual gameplay was poor. So the Golden God Flare could have been more dynamic and the first spell card was not charming at all. Better quickly clean up the mess you caused before Patchouli-sama gets angry. She won't be happy when she hears about this.
Kefit > First spellcard had a good concept, but needed a bit more leeway between the walls of doom. Everything else though was kind of boring, not much actual dodging involved. The timeout card was weird and CURVING LASERS KILL YOURSELF.
※Suikama - Advent of AkyuBlargel > What the fuck. 10/10 on randomness.
Helepolis >Ok, Suikama is known for his randomness and he proven this often with stand alone cards. Yet it seems he didn't take any effort at all in the actual "fun factor". This entry was more like a bad troll/joke. Not what we are used of you, Suikama. Also I managed to defeat the script without getting stuck into the loop of dialogue. MarisaB ze! ★
Kefit > Learn how to be funny.
