Here's hoping that it won't require pixel-shader support.

Otherwise, I might be forced to buy a new computer soon.

Well, I tried it a couple of times, and found it rather hard initially.  I thought that the dwarves should be able to see the tiles (cards) that they were next to, so when I played, I'd flip over any cards that the dwarves could see.  Also, it's a bit hard.  Only once did I head down to the second level, where I was promptly killed by goblins.     My dwarves starved a bunch of times too.   

Still, the concept is interesting enough.  The game reminds me a bit of the Lone Wolf gamebooks.

Nice work.

I'd like to suggest:

• best atmosphere
• most interesting/innovative game mechanics
• greatest depth of gameplay
• most polished

What categories do you have in mind so far?

Wow, I love that last one. 

If it helps, I played the game without crashes for a good while, but after the game crashed the first time, the game has crashed almost every single game since.

Here's another screenshot if that helps.  Nothing special seemed to be happening.

[Scoring]

Although recently I've been furiously playing your game trying to get a handle on Tim W, I finally managed to pull myself away the game for long enough to post about it instead. 

Scoring

• I think the scoring is awesome as it stands.  To me, the game is fun largely due to the challenge of beating your own and other players high scores.  The current system encourages the creation of big loops as the main way of obtaining a high-score, which felt right to me when I played it.  The creation of really big loops with lots of enclosed cells is pretty difficult and requires very precise timing, so it only makes sense that you are rewarded well for them.
  
  
• I'm torn about whether or not you should increase the points scored for making loops later in the game.  On the one hand, making big loops towards the end is much more difficult and thus should be rewarded more.  On the other hand, having loops score the same throughout the game encourages more accurate play in the early game, which keeps things interesting even when the pieces are moving relatively slowly.  On balance, I like the way things stand now.
  
  
• Similarly, I've thought that it might be better to link the speed of the pieces with the current number of points.  It feels time based at the moment, but correct me if I'm wrong.  This would make it easier to judge how you were doing across games.  e.g. 10,000 on an empty board would be equivalent to 10,000 on another empty board.  Yet the current system rewards accuracy at every stage of the game.  You need to score extremely well at the start because as the speed increases, it becomes harder and harder to score well.
  
  
• This makes the placement of every single piece played throughout the  duration of the entire game very important.  While at times this can make the game feel very unforgiving, it also provides a tension, a need for perfection and dare I say adrenaline buzz that lasts throughout the game.  ZICZAC is one of the most technically demanding puzzlers I've played in a long time and one of the things that makes it so fun is that the real action starts from the the very first second of play.
  
  

In other words, the current scoring is awesomesauce.  Please don't change? 

Manual/Instructions

• The instructions you posted above are great.  The screenshots pretty self-explanatory really, and the scoring implications of everything are explained well in the text.  An animation in the manual would be better, and best would be an arcade-style demo.
  
  
• Speaking of demos, the ability to record replays of a game that then could be shared with other players would be very awesome.  If you decide to take the game further after the competition, then this is one way you could go.
  
  

This game definitely gets my vote.  It's my absolute favorite.   

AirTime: Civil Procedure    299 m 45 s
Distance: Civil Procedure   268.6 miles

Improving personal-bests in this game is PAINFUL.

No health is superior! 

I love this game.

I missed my stop and got lost. 

Feels like public transport to me.  :D

Interesting, yet infuriating.

The graphics and sounds seem to match the game well.

I found letters to be impossible the first few times around, and there were a few matches that I kept trying to do.  For example, I'd almost invariably try matching tomatoes with fruits, and wrapped candies with other C things, but eventually I got used to it.

I like that you provide tooltips on mouse-over to show what each icon represents, but at the moment the initial learning curve seems kind of steep.  Still, once I learned what each of the icons was, I had quite a bit of fun.

This game is addictive.

The scoring works great now.  The whole thing is just so balanced and polished. 

I like how there's a need to plan ahead, but that you need to change your plans on the fly depending on the size of the pieces and/or any misplacements that occur.

Err... Wow, just wow.

Another internet random.  Not a game developer though.
Still, I love the links, love the forums, love the games.

Eternal Daughter.

I can still remember how relieved I was every time I saw a save point.