RaIix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Boats]

Honestly great. A couple of times while writing this review, I went back to play another round, because it's so fun.

The ships and mines appear close to the edge of the screen (luckily never so close to you that you'd have no time to react), perhaps they should appear just beyond for realism, but it's fine.

I also like the ship variety, although I'm not sure if the larger ships are any better than the smaller ones. The galleons look intimidating but they are (seemingly) just as fast as the small ships, which just makes them bigger targets. I like the "ghost ship"/"Black Pearl" kind, too, even though at first I thought it's a bug (it's single-coloured, and there's way too much smoke). Perhaps the larger ships should have a larger health pool (if it doesn't ruin the game's balancing).

The best strategy to deal with enemies is probably to lure them into mines, since with a single health point, confronting a ship directly is very risky, because it's nearly impossibly to dodge a cannonball when you're sailing towards it.
After you collect a bunch of powerups, it gets better.

I feel like you could have fun with the sea itself – it looks too calm. I was going to suggest adding a wave pattern texture, or some fake waves animation, but that would perhaps make it too distracting, since you really need to pay attention to every object onscreen.
But something like an occasional maelstrom pulling nearby things towards it could be interesting.

The cannonballs don't seem to be spawned in the muzzle, rather below it, so perhaps you should adjust it slightly.

Sometimes it felt bad if I had a cheap death after a particularly good round when I had to start all over again and I thought this could work as an 'upgrade game' to prolong the playtime, e.g. the money earned from each round would be used to buy permanent upgrades for the ship.

Anyway, thanks for this, it's a great little game.

PurpleClam responds:

Hey! Thank you so much for your great review it's exacltly the kinf of feedback I'm looking for!

You're right the larger ships are exactly similar to the others for the moment. I might add some health mechanic to both the player and enemies to make rounds last longer in the future.

I love the ideas of making the sea less boring and of permanent upgrades and I'll look into it. I'll see if I post an update in a few days depending on reviews!

[Endless]

Well, it takes 13 seconds before anything happens and after you dodge the initial two pillars, there's another waiting time etc. I almost thought it's going to be like that forever, but around 80th-second mark, the waiting times are gone and the pillars appear constantly which makes the game more intense, but also it's the same alternating pattern over and over again. I went along to 150 to see if anything changes, but it didn't.

I think I could keep going for a long time (because the game doesn't speed up), so it's more about losing out of boredom than because you weren't quick enough.

Also, is there a reason why everything is so blurry (all text and especially the main character)?
You can use 9-slicing if a small sprite stretches incorrectly:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/9SliceSprites.html
And Text Mesh Pro to avoid blurry text:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.textmeshpro@2.1/

The gameplay is too simple. I'd at least make the order in which the pillars appear random.

hoanglong12 responds:

I compress image size in order to minimize the game size !!
Thanks for links !!

[arrow key test]

You don't need to *publish* a game to test things; there's always a preview page before you publish it, which even allows you to share a preview link (you can also invite beta-testers to the project).

Make sure to check the Wiki on preventing the entire page from scrolling when you use arrow keys as well:
https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/developer-resources/unity3d-webgl-support#wiki_toc_3

The movement doesn't look very smooth currently. I don't know how to do it in Wick Editor, but try adding more animation frames, or ease-in/out at the start and stop. Now it looks a bit robotic.

There's obviously no content here and definitely doesn't qualify as a game, but you'll get there.
Good luck!

[trippy coloring book for tweens]

It's a nice idea, but I feel it would look much better if you could draw actual, smooth brush strokes instead of a series of overlapping squares which aren't even connected (unless you draw very slowly) and look very ‘pixelated’.
There's also the problem that you can draw over controls, which shouldn't be possible because then you can read the instruction, or see the colour you're currently using.
The wave filter of various strengths and directions is also really the only kind of animated filter in the game. You could add screw, rotating… whatever. And if you decided to expand it further, an Undo feature would probably be nice (otherwise you have to redo the entire thing after one mistake).

[LADDER LAD]

At first, I thought the lack of jumping and fast falling speed is going to be a massive problem, but there are so many ways to get around (bubbles, ladders of different speed, through the sides of the screen…) and mainly there are two safe ladders, plus a death only restarts your current level, so dying – although it happens often – isn't frustrating and you can retry right away.

The time luckily isn't an issue, at least in the beginning. You have enough time to make strategic choices without needing to be suicidal. Not that the game is easy, and being lucky is certainly helpful, but you never have to retry a level simply because you made a mistake and let an apple disappear.

I'm not sure if there's an ending, I stopped just before completing two rows of apples. If there is, I'd hope the final level changes the formula slightly (like having to climb a tall tower while the bottom of the screen moves up), otherwise, I already felt it was getting repetitive (+1 apple, -time without new gameplay elements).

Despite that, even though it's a simple game, it's definitely quite entertaining.

[Coronavirus: A Text Adventure]

It's pretty interesting. Some plotlines and outcomes I expected, some definitely not (like attacking a guard with a sword in hopes of cleansing the humankind with the virus).

I don't think the intro is necessary. There's no denying that it's cool, and judging by my own experience, all those camera angles must have been a pain to animate… but it doesn't affect the story or gameplay in any way.
Of course, unless there's some ultimate ending or secret which takes place in the hospital and happens to *you* after you earn all the endings (e.g. you uncover tidbits of information about your situation and the hospital through the life simulator, and then there's a final cutscene). I only reached a couple of the endings, so I wouldn't know; but it'd be cool.

I also wish you could skip the typewriter animation (e.g. by pressing any key), because you go over the same initial passages over and over again and don't want to wait for them to load. I feel like I'd have to draw a decision tree to earn all endings, but it's probably fine, since things like checkpoints and going back would ruin the concept that you're controlling a new person, a new life after every ending.

So in summary, it's a text adventure in a really nice package, but it's intriguing and there's a lot of variety.

jamesanimations responds:

Thanks so much for the review! You guys have incredible ideas, i'll make sure to implement all of these. A secret ending where something happens in the actual hospital would be sick. Hopefully I can get this done by the end of the day before the game goes public!

[MyGame]

It's not a finished game.
No content, the same problems as with every game which uses this template/tutorial (visible tile borders, falling off screen borders, nonexistent "level design", enemies, nonlooping background…). At least the game is restarted when you touch the spikes, but not when you fall, so…

You have all the mechanics prepared if you wanted to make a game, but this isn't even a single complete level, so there's nothing to "play".

[Eggs]

It's quite good. I like the variety with instant death eggs and bonus point eggs.
But the egg spawning needs a little more work because sometimes it's literally impossible to grab all falling eggs (two or three eggs at the same height, eggs at the opposite sides of the screen). When you lose, it's usually not because you messed up, but because you were unlucky with the egg placement.
You could either fix the spawning algorithm (maximal distance between neighbouring eggs), or you could alter the environment (smaller area, looping screen border…) or use mouse for movement (instant bowl placement anywhere on the screen, but it also makes the game a lot easier), or add a way to restore health every once in a while.

Filippo550 responds:

I added mouse control and the option to choose between keyboard and mouse controls. If you want you can check it out

[SUPER XP CHALLENGE 2!]

First of all, I like the player character and his animations. And the movement is flawless.

As for the rest… the thing is, the gameplay is extremely repetitive. There's no level design to be spoken of – it's technically just a long corridor, and the layout doesn't change between levels.

The combat, which is the only thing you do in the game, is very unremarkable. Just one kind of an enemy, one repetitive pattern. The best approach I've found is to come close, bait them with your first hit (which always damages you because the ghosts are a lot faster than you), then stand as close to them as you can without being hit constantly and time your hits right. And drink a healing potion once in a while. Repeat ad nauseam.
And when you level up, the ghosts level up too, so the game probably doesn't get any easier as you progress.

I think, all in all, it's more of a test of your patience than your combat skills.

[TicTacToe Noughts & Crosses HTML Edition v1]

Well, I understand if you're just testing OpenFL, but there's little need to publish it at this stage (when there's Preview available), let alone each version separately.

It doesn't really qualify as a game; it's just alternating "O / X" in 3×3 grid which you for some reason felt it needs to be in 1920×1080 resolution.
All user interface is blurry because of the size, the game doesn't tell you whose turn it currently is, it also doesn't tell you if there's a winner, you can continue even after winning/losing, and you have to restart the game manually. Also, there's no computer AI and not many people want to play TicTacToe as a two-player hot-seat game…

Good if you needed a test, very insufficient as a game.