If you’re following the IGF you may have noticed ASCIIpOrtal mentioned there on the student showcase page, right under all the nominated entries. Not to shabby. Here’s what I had to say about it:

And here’s the full text of the judges responses:

ASCIIpOrtal scored best in:  Overall

And scored worst in:  Audio

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I find the premise of this game to be completely charming. And the designers have done an excellent job with the translated mechanics. That said, sometimes it can be frustrating due to a lack of sense of space (which is an interesting problem in light of this game).

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DESIGN
+Translates the basic components of Portal to 2D Ascii form very well
+Fun and tricky levels
-Tutorial level is odd.  Why give the player the portal gun if they can’t use it until level 2?  I spent most of level 1 trying to figure out why my damn portal gun was busted!  Why not award it at the beginning of level 2 instead, that way the player isn’t so focused on trying to interact with the titular mechanic?
-Odd choices in UI. For instance in the menu I want to press the buttons for the corresponding option.  Why not have the “1″ button actually start the game?  If not, I’d suggest removing the numbers since they create needless confusion, and don’t appear to add to the game’s style.

VISUALS
+Loves that you went ASCII all the way, everything conforms to the aesthetic perfectly.

AUDIO
+Minimal sounds work perfectly
+The “voice” sample works really well

TECHNICAL
+Impressive portal tech

OVERALL
ASCCIpOrtal is a fun game with an interesting slant.  Of all of the games I’ve played for IGF this year, the name is the most indicative of the experience. While it doesn’t break any grounds on the gameplay side (after all, it is a heavy homage to a pre-existing title) it’s 2d gameplay and low-rez charm make for a very entertaining experience.

Bravo!

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Brilliant. The use of colored text made me wonder if it should be ANSII pOrtal, but that was a minor quibble! Original puzzles based on classic premise. Implemeting the game in text is extremely cool and adds to the appeal of the concept. It feels old school and awesome.

I want an ACIIpOrtal T-Shirt, I’ll be honest!

What I said in the judges forum: “Awesome. In an age where it seems a lot of IGF entries are auditioning for commercial exploitation, something like this that is uncompromisingly independent is a real breath of fresh air. The fact that the concept is not 100% original doesn’t bother me too much, as many IGF games seem to borrow from classic gameplay styles. If we think of the portal concept as a genre, like side-scrolling, I think the collection of portal puzzles here, along with the text-based implementation, creates a really strong project.”

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A real breath of fresh air. I love how bold it is, and I think it shows a lot of courage from Cymon’s Games to take the approach that they did with the game on the visual side. “Portal” style games are emerging more and more, but I admire how Larson chose to interpret the genre.

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You’ve managed to port the basic premise of Portal to the hardest form possible (excepted, perhaps, a text adventure). You’ve somehow managed to take the already quite refined gameplay of Valve’s piece and refine it further, producing a gem of hardcore puzzle goodness. Well done!

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Clever and challenging in all the right ways.  It was a bit difficult to rate, since it isn’t anything special superficially, but at the same time it’s hard to go wrong with ASCII graphics.  (They’re certainly better than the crummy attempts at modern graphics I’ve seen!)

Super cool overall.