This edition of Gynvael's Summer GameDev Challenge surpassed my expectations both in the number and in quality of submitted games. After publishing the set of constraints (language, resolution, colors, genre, etc) I thought that I went too far this time and that it will negatively influence the number of participants. But the authors proved me wrong - this edition almost doubled the number of submissions from half a year ago with 22 shooters delivered in total (you can play all of them here, though I still need to upload the source code / fix some formatting).

Actually every game, even the simplest ones, had something cool that caught my attention. Some of them had well designed mechanics, others were really shiny on the visual front with 3D graphics or cool lighting effect. A few had pretty good music or sound effects, or were just fun to play. It was really hard to pick the best ones.

But it the end, there can be only one.

Without further ado, the Winner, Runner-up, Third Place and Honorary Awards of GSGC 2018!

1st Place

Shutter Asylum by Mateusz Tomczyk - award of 200 USD (or equivalent)
I fell in love with the aesthetics of this game from the first sight - the gentle grayscale transitions, the shades of red, the lighting system - just amazing! I also enjoyed 9 levels available, 3 weapons (+1 on the shooting mechanic - it was enjoyable) + hand-to-hand combat, the stealth/sneak mechanism (including the ability to turn off or shoot off the lamps) and the overall dark atmosphere of the game. Marvelous work worthy of the first place.

2nd Place

Pyramummy by Vassildador - award of 150 USD (or equivalent)
This is speed running material right there! My best time? 3m20s so far (pretty sure below 3m is possible). The game has pretty simple yet powerful mechanics (telekinesis, linking bricks), good level design, great music and sound effects, and all in all, is really fun to play (I went back to it several times just to try to best my time). In addition to that it feel quite complete - there are entry/ending splash screens, on-screen instructions are popping up when a new power-up is collected, there's a HUD with a minimap, and it's pretty well balanced. Well done again Vassildador!

3rd Place

Tropical frenzy by Rene Ulmer, @chief_x86, Daniel Vogel - award of 100 USD (or equivalent)
I must admit that I struggled with the Third Place and Honorary Awards the most - it took me hours to decide the final order. In the end I decided to place Tropical frenzy on the podium since in some aspects it was slightly ahead from the other games. The game is pretty hard - you have to be careful how you're playing, or the enemies will punish you really quick. I enjoyed the gameplay mechanics, the music, the particle system and the boss levels. All in all it's a really good submission.

Honorary Awards (in random order)

Captain Coldbeard by Mateusz "Skaipi" Skarupski - award of 50 USD (or equivalent)
I kept coming back to this game to play more - it's pretty complete and pretty well balanced. I had a lot of fun playing!


POWER CORE by Mateusz "Timus" Muzynski - award of 50 USD (or equivalent)
There were several 3D games (cool!) in this edition, but two that I enjoyed the most were POWER CORE and Grave Struggle. Both of them used noise to try to bring an illusion of more color to the scene (this would probably work better in higher resolution btw), but that's where the similarities end. About POWER CORE - it's a pretty complete defense style game that includes a shop with upgrades, tower-defense like lanes of enemies, and a pretty creative use of speech synthesis that's built into the browser. Well done!


Grave Struggle by Antonio Noack - award of 50 USD (or equivalent)
Grave Struggle's level design was amazing and I would love to see more than two levels squeezed in there. I also enjoyed its mechanics and the lighting system (that moving sun & shadows!).

Final note

Again, I would like to thank all the participants for taking part in my competition. I would also like to congratulate all the prize winners (I will contact you shortly).

If you're wondering how I graded the games, it was actually pretty similar to the last competition (GWGC 2017/18). I looked at the art style (aesthetics, art, elegance), gameplay (fun-to-play, mechanics, balance, polish), sound & music, and the overall completeness of the game. Non-trivial solutions and unique ideas were also noted.

So that's about it. See you in December for Gynvael's Winter GameDev Challenge 2018/19!