SHRIMP JUDGING

	A	B	C
1	Mapper	Map	Comments
2	ABuffZucchini	srimp's curse	I've always wanted to see a map play around with invisible motion, and this weird beginner gameplay hits the spot really well. It's not the most brainmelting & grandiose usage of the gimmick, but you'll have to come up with more than a few silly little setups to get around, and it's overall pretty smooth. The deco looks really nice (especially the ending), and it complements the weird psychological thriller story pretty perfectly. I really enjoyed the use of transition rooms, and the overall difficulty curve throughout the map felt disorienting in a really fascinating way. Both berries are properly funny. The dialogue in this map is honestly some of the most engaging dialogue I have ever read in mods without leaning into comedy too much. It's zucchini, so the choice of music is perfect. (He literally gaslit me into thinking there was music progression embedded into the map when there's not.) Highly shrimpy.
3	Aurora Aquir	The day Chaos took over	This map is quite hectic, as indicated by the title. The lore is pretty confusing, kind of inconsistent, and definitely shrimpy, so it's easily one of the more interesting space-themed stories I've seen executed in mods. Each inventive & surprising gameplay segment ties into the story as well. Speaking of the gameplay, each screen has an awesomely involved mechanic where you have to juggle multiple trains of thoughts & emotions. Despite the minimal deco, the dramatic moments are well-punctuated, and puzzles are clarified quite efficiently through the decals and structure of the gameplay elements. The music is fierce and fiery, selling the atmosphere pretty dang well. Overall, this was the map where I had to think outside of the box the most, so the shrimpiness is undisputed.
4	crutch32	elderly location	Inspired by Old Site by EXOK Games, this map has quite the unusual structure. The main gimmick is a super fun puzzle idea with a ton of potential, but the genius of the map shines in smaller design choices that reinvent routing. The gimmick feels a little oversimplified in its implementation; the puzzles could have been a lot more complex and involved, yet the screens are short and minimalistic. Failing such shrimple puzzles, however, can have some silly drastic consequences. The deco is also shrimple but effective as a much more calming and still alternate version of Chapter 2, combined with the subdued vanilla music. The berry is probably my favorite single room in the map, with some slightly harsh design that sticks out from the rest of the screens.
5	dogmode_activated	into the blue	I don't know how, but Dogmode_activated really weaved together a cacophonous yet relaxing atmosphere in a cassette block map. The colors are muted, but the decals/tiling is bold and dense. The music is simultaneously casual and spirited (literally, there are multiple songs going on at once). The gameplay is fast, then slow, then fast again. The result is a very disorienting anti-rhythm map, but it still feels comfy & peaceful to play! I'm sorry, I'm just repeating myself here; basically, the dichotomy is cool, you get it. The gameplay uses a couple silly tech and rhythm shifts to craft otherwise inconceivable routing. Each 'respite' of seemingly open areas has multiple deceiving nooks and crannys. Probably my favorite title in the contest, partially because this map feels brief + unhinged, yet a perfectly complete + cohesive experience.
6	jessica.geller	Flower Bumper Mountain	70% of what you need to know about this map is in the title, but the map is comfy & complete for it. The silly yet intelligible bumper cycles in each medium-length screen strike the perfect balance between a fresh challenge and a comfortable stroll. This map's deco is cutesy but refined, and the colors are just a pleasure to look at throughout the entirety of the map. The music was equally sweet and fluffy. The horizontal parallax lends an efficient mystique to an otherwise conventional forest. The design intuition & courage to just discard freezeframes in 1 screen in order to bring out the gameplay's highest potential is pretty smart. I really loved the little heart challenge at the end, which emphasizes how this map shines the brightest: in its open-ended "choose your own adventures" of bumper puzzles. While this map has enjoyable gameplay and some clever micropuzzles (heh), it does not take many risks or confront the boundaries of what a celeste mod can be, so while each screen had some shrimpy gameplay, overall it wasn't quite sopping wet with shrimp juice.
7	lxlx	The Green Temple	This lengthy journey is a rollercoaster of emotions. The gameplay is at times very forgiving, and at times very unwelcoming, but it is always ingenious and intriguing. Each area explores its respective gimmick brilliantly and folds in previous, seemingly incompatible mechanics as if they were born to be meshed together. A fairly difficult & puzzly screen will lead into a piss easy screen, and an ultra-wacky berry will precursor a gracefully simple berry; however, the map flows perfectly. The title is as much exposition as you can ever hope for. The areas' themes are super distinct, but they also have an inexplicable link to each other, partially bolstered by repeated deco motifs. The song choices are some very tasty ear candy that pair with the areas' syrupy atmospheres perfectly (I can't stop using that word with this map). Human words cannot be used to describe this map, which is why I felt such a strong shrimp force from it.
8	Robust_crayfish	Scallop Sanctorium	As one of the more pure celeste experiences in the contest, this mapper seemed to have poured the most time commitment to exploring the wacky gameplay concept in a fairly serious and polished manner. As a result, the ingenious routing puzzles skillfully & quickly teach you all about this incredibly multifaceted extended variant. I do not want to spoil the mechanic, but it's a wonder how Robust_crayfish was able to fit such an assorted array of movements in each minimum-size screen (some of which only use half the surface area!). As a result of the overdeveloped gameplay, the theme ends up being slightly lacking overall. However, the beginning & the end are beautiful capstones to the map, both the inventive tutorial with godly dialogue & the cryptic ending that sends the player to scallop hell. The deco is overall pretty solid; it's using a nano-like colorgrade that I don't necessarily love in difficult maps, but the lighting shines exquisitely & highlights the gameplay admist the stringy decals pretty well. The use of multiple songs without changing deco is a nice artistic touch. Overall, the gameplay carries the shrimpness somewhat but does so with stride.
9	Ru	Heart of the Shrimp	This one may seem unpolished and crude, but the short screens are actually playtested really well. There's a couple quirks to each segment that aren't clarified the best, but they are fun to discern when contained within such lenient setups. Despite labeling itself as yet another HOTS clone, it doesn't lean too far into the input density, and the rooms aren't exhausting at all. The styleground is very nice to look at, even if it may not be chaotic or complex :). There's some slightly cringy dialogue but also some laugh-out-loud moments. The way the design of the tutorial pokes fun at itself is quite shrimpy. Overall, the map is quite a nice pallette cleanser for speedtech in general.
10	Shrimpfest	Shrimpfest 2023	Wow. Holy fucking shit. Everything in here is legendary. (For contest judging purposes, this entry may seem kinda unfair, so you can ignore it if it helps you sleep better at night. Like if you got 4th place, you basically got 3rd place.)
11	smi_LINGUAteD27	Blackgrounds	Kind of huge spoilers, but I literally said while playing the map: "I am only one screen in, yet the map feels perfectly complete." And then, the map ended up being (essentially) one screen. I don't even really understand it, but each small portion of the screen feels like a full gameplay room, and the backtracking feels as if it is the second of two fully developed checkpoints. And yet, the screen is 20 seconds long at most. The deco is uninviting and harsh, but it suits the haphazard gameplay well. And the song is fucking incredible. Pardon my language, but even if I spent thousands of hours scouring Spotify, I would not find a more fitting musical nightmare to perform expert gameplay to. The little message at the end is scarily tempting, and paired with the title, it adds another layer of shrimp to this map in a super whimsical way.
12	SSRPcharade_	The Registry	This map modifies the player's movement with an inventive and unsettling limitation. The choice of swap blocks to pair with the main mechanic is perhaps the smartest choice, and the map does some interesting stuff with them, but it leaves you wanting more at the end. However, given that this map was submitted early, I can't help but assume it was an intentional design choice, and it does feel somewhat incomprehensible in a shrimpy manner. With one of the strongest & boldest titles in the contest, this map's deco & atmosphere also produces a disquieting impression of sharpness. The uneven floors and walls are made entirely out of, not tiles, but a hodgepodge selection of decals. Floating curiously and sternly in a black void, the decals form a single thread of coherence that leads the player along surprisingly well. Overall, this map strikes a rad chord I haven't heard before, but it does not quite thread together a song. As I touched on before, however, the way the ending confronts the incomplete nature of the map blatantly through text and more subtly through the invisible floor is a really shrimpy choice.
13	stella ♥	As Shrimple (Shrimp Temple) As That	A claustrophobic but expansive vista where you are being pulled along by the map's design. This map pulls off the rare Mild (like beginner minus 1) difficulty creatively by using perplexing transitions that re-define the structure of a celeste map. You are torn between the comfortable gameplay and the uncomfortable progression of the map, so the brief trip feels like a satisfying voyage by the end. Just as you are getting used to the design & predicting the unpredictable halts in momentum, the map swiftly but quietly ends at the spot that's just right. The deco, while it must have been a huge pain to set up, looks just as wholesome and welcoming as the gameplay. I especially liked the use of water in the environment to create depth in such small surface area, and the shrimpy animation towards the end is just plain awesome. Not 200% sure if the song fits the map, but I will be jamming to it for weeks to come regardless. This is definitely a shrimpy map, and it even achieves a distinct atmosphere from the lobby while using the same shrimp tileset.
14	The Philosopher	Krillosophical conshrimperations	The Socratic trials in this map instantly re-question how you've valued and perceived momentum since you first played Chapter 1. The dialogue matches its pace, with metaphysical queries that will also force you to reconsider how you thought you've lived your life since you were first born. The medative berry combined with the lack of a conclusive ending pulls you out of Celeste and into reality, where you must face & come to terms with your own biases & ego. To be honest, this map could have done a bit more with the gimmick, but the setups that are featured are quite mindblowing. The deco is super minimalistic, but it creates space for some clever misdirection in a couple spots and gives you more space to reflect in general. This map may make you a worse and more evil person, but maybe that is not the worst outcome.
15	Dogleashed	The Rat's Home	The use of violence, movies, and sex on TV to portray the darkly nauseating side of shrimp's existence is incredibly bold, and it earns my respect, but would most definitely get the entire contest removed from gamebanana. If you're 18+, I encourage asking the mapper for the .zip though, it is definitely an experience.
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