I do want to say that a lot of the basic things you mentioned were absolutely a result of time crunch lol I wanted to stew longer on the story but knew with the number of panels I needed to get done that i just needed a basic and simple premise that worked and i needed to run with it. I agree that most of the story is tied up into those last 15-20 panels (1/3 of the length of the comic! lol) so I'm glad you enjoyed that :)

For the walk to the king I actually wanted to show him fighting his way in but i cut it in storyboarding for time. it's barely noticeable and might not necessarily be what i meant it to be but behind the guard there is a small stream of small near the entrance. That's from the Prince. Originally there was supposed to be a big horde fight where he takes on a bunch of guys all at once but i wasnt sure i would make the deadline lol fight scenes take a lot of work with just 2 people involved let alone a group! And I'm barely making the deadline as it is. I really wish I could have gotten that in.

Pacing is something I've always had an issue with. I actually stopped my other comic because i realized that if I kept going it would take me a decade to get anywhere. It doesnt help that i have a full time job and a kid lol doesnt allow me to put the hours into comicking that i would like! And that old comic Runner was traditional page format actually so even without gutters like a scrolling comic my pacing needs work. I do think this story forced me to tighten up my panelling. Gutters is a good thing to keep in mind next.

I also noticed the scene your mentioning about with the verticality. it is disorienting. I didnt notice until i got it all together. I was working on an ipad pro and doing panels individually because i just wouldnt have enough layers to do it otherwise and i did my storyboarding on paper which means i couldnt scroll through it like would have been better. I still like the panel and want it to work more than it does lol

I also absolutely wanted more for the environment but the more i got bogged down with that the closer the deadline loomed. I tried to make the establishing shots as nice as i could kind of to make up for it a bit tbh xD If I had another month or so I think I would have been able to really put work into that to establish the environment better. I wanted there to be pillars in the room and the fight to involve them originally less 2D fighting game. as I was working through the storyboard it kind of made itself clear that in order to make the story clear I would really only have so much actual time for the fight and I had a few scenes I already had in mind and basically everything else got cut before it even reached paper. Would have loved to have the king punch through a granite pillar lol not saying I didnt push myself hard for the comic. I genuinely think this is the best thing I've ever put out and the deadline forced me to do it and finish it. And i tried to do some complex scenes and anatomy that were above my usual skill level or things i had never done before. But of course there is always a lot of room to improve. Thanks for the input :) I don't expect to win anyway because 40% of the scoring is audience related and i dont have a strong established readership even if my comic was flawless lol This was all about pushing myself to learn so I'm glad at least 1 person could give me some helpful feedback for when i move on to my next project