RaIix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[My first game (Castle)]

If this is your first game, then I'm honestly looking forward to what you create in the future.
You should remove the disclaimer and definitely, *definitely* change the thumbnail image.
From those, I was expecting a crappy quickly cobbled-together game that I'd be done with in thirty seconds – and instead, you created a short but fully featured game with a couple of diverse quests, multiple characters and dialogues – essentially bug-free as well.

Here's a couple of tips, although I'm not aware of what RPG Maker allows you to do:
– I wouldn't force the fullscreen as you start the game. Let players choose whether they want it. Also, on the web, it's not exactly "windowed" mode.
– Does the game need to be letterboxed? Why doesn't it take the whole screen? Even in fullscreen, the actual game doesn't change size, only the black frame around it.
– I'd add some kind of interaction with the cat before you know you have to retrieve it. It's probably the first character most players will talk to, and it doesn't "say" anything. Even "Looks like a stray cat." would be better than no interaction at all.
– Since you never fight, do you need the combat abilities? Does RPG Maker allow you to disable them? You shouldn't include visible features if you're never going to use them.
Similarly, I'd remove the path at the bottom of the map, since you can't go there.
– At the "Outside farm", you can only leave through one of the four squares at the left, although there's nothing indicating why the others cannot be used.
– I'd add more than two conversation options to some people, so it doesn't boil down to "pick the top option to continue the game".
– Does RPG Maker have some sort of quest log? You can somehow keep track of what you're doing now because the game is short; however, if you expanded the game, players might become lost in what they have done and still have to do.

The disclaimer somehow makes it seem like you're embarrassed by this game. Please don't be. Most people's first game is objectively bad – however, this one might be short, but it is *good*.
Good luck with your future projects.

bigboimeeb responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback, I'm already working on improving everything I can from what you said

and, i'll change the thumbnail... :)

[First Slide Experience]

Hm… to be honest, I'm not all too fond of this type of a game. It's pretty fast and it's easy to make a mistake which undoes all your progress; so you essentially repeat the level until you know it inside out and get lucky. Or get frustrated and quit.
You *did* put some effort in as evidenced by the different game mechanics (lava, bouncy platforms) which are a nice addition, although it's dragged down by the fact that it's not very consistent (e.g. many blocks have essentially random size and rotation) and by not including any sound effects (which you seem to be aware of).
I love your description, though! Good luck with your future projects.

PandaUnwise responds:

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback!

[The Question]

A neat little game. The art is gorgeous, and I just love the look-around effect with the parallax backgrounds.
But the story is kinda bland. Unless it is a personal story, it feels like something is missing. If this was a properly told story, the only justification for making the instant leap from "we started dating" to "we married" is when you want to focus on something which happened during the marriage (which is somehow tied to the intro, otherwise it wouldn't be necessary to have the intro at all).
But that's where the story ends. If you tore down the visuals and left nothing but the transcript, it couldn't stand on its own.

So I checked the original The Question and it made some things clear. You didn't exactly make a lot of changes in terms of the plot, right?
For the example project/tutorial, it's perfect, since a) it tells about creating a visual novel; b) it's short and simple in order to showcase just the core mechanics; and c) the story is bland and vague enough to let people expand or rewrite it in any way they want.
For any other reason, it's ‘meh’.

So, as a ‘proof of concept’ – yes, it's a neatly polished example project; but I hope you plan to create your own, more interesting stories in the future, too. Good luck.

[Dino Island Rampage]

It's refreshing to see a 3D game once in a while. But I think you're spawning the dinosaurs *way* too fast and their movement speed is also close to impossible. So you end up surrounded very quickly and then you die as soon as you run out of ammo and start reloading (because you can't outrun them or hide and they kill you in 2-3 bites). And thanks to the blood camera effect which is too large, you can't even properly see what's attacking you.

The terrain is varied, so I thought it'd be cool to be able to use it to your advantage – but while you take a long time to cross a river, the dinosaurs run underwater as if it wasn't even there. And if you get too far from the starting point, you apparently get harmed by the world boundaries, so the game really wants you to stick to the starting location.

As a result, I wasn't able to get a single weapon upgrade and kept dying. You feel more like a "dinosaur dinner" than a "dinosaur hunter". You'd have to experiment and balance a bit, but I think the game could be made more enjoyable by not having all the dinosaurs immediately rush at you the moment they are spawned but instead attack you when you get within a certain range or when they can directly see you.

[Zombie escape]

I couldn't load the game, unfortunately (Chrome, Edge).
From the browser console errors, it looks like virtually all sprite sheets you seem to be using ("spriteXX-sheet0.png", "tiledbackgroundX.png") couldn't be found.
Does the game load fine for you?

[Zombie`s Attack]

It's honestly more effective to let the tank shoot the zombies instead of you because you can't aim properly. It might be better to make both you and the zombies slightly faster and zoom out a bit.
Other than that, there's not much else to discuss, it's literally "shoot three zombies to win" game.

[TDS]

Well, there's a lot to unpick here.

It's an okay *base* for a game. There's a player who can shoot, a way to replenish ammunition and health, there are enemies and destroyable barriers… genuinely a lot, but not without some serious flaws.

The largest problem of the game, as I see it, is rotating the player and the enemies. The center of the rotation isn't in the center of mass, but rather at the tip of the gun/arms – which means whenever you rotate, you change position, a lot.
For the player, this results in unpredictable movement and for the enemies, this results in them getting stuck in walls. As a rule of thumb, characters who are able to turn on the spot shouldn't change their position when doing so.

The second problem is the lack of sound effects or music. There's not much to add, it simply throws a good portion of the game's atmosphere out of the window which lessens the overall quality and makes its flaws more visible.

Also when many enemies get stuck inside each other, they all harm you on touch. In other words, when you have three hearts left and run into three inter-locked enemies, you die.
It's a pity there's no way to restart the game if you die, you have to reload the page.

Since ammunition is scarce, you have to be careful not to waste it. It's not a problem that zombies kill you when you're out of ammo, but you can also be blocked by a box – at which point you didn't die, but also there's no way to continue.

The bullet exploding animation seems to have a frame at a different position.

And unless I'm mistaken, there's no victory screen either which makes the game seem unfinished.

It's a good start, but I think it needs a bit more work until it could be an enjoyable experience to play.

[Genocide Golf]

Looks like a well-made game, although I think the wait for the head to come to a complete stop, so you can stroke it again, is too long. I think you should just stop it programmatically as soon as its speed decreases under a certain value at which it basically doesn't move anymore.

But more importantly, the game currently freezes when I finish the first level. Judging by the browser console errors, it seems you're not unlocking the medals correctly. Please take a look if you can reproduce the issue.
EDIT – All right, so after coming back to the game sometime later, this appears to be fixed or at least I can no longer experience the issue.

[The Annoying Square Rage Labyrinth]

Well, if you wanted to make an 'annoying' game, you've got to try harder to enrage the player.
There are no deliberately annoying game mechanics except for the platforms not allowing you to jump, which I encountered only once and could simply jump from the platform right next to it. And I took a guess and assumed the exit is at the top, as that's the most sensible spot to put it – and yep, there it was. Sure, I don't get to see a victory screen; but reaching it could basically be considered 'finishing the game'. You can also stick to the sides of platforms and walls and do a wall-jump which makes the game a bit easier.
Check out Cat Mario to see an example of a truly annoying game.

[DONT PLAY THANKS LOL]

This is honestly the first flappy bird clone I've seen with a health bar – and the shooting is a nice idea, too. Points for creativity!

Too bad the execution is a bit sloppy. I know there's barely enough time to make a game, let alone polish it over a span of a college course, but this game seriously needs it and some changes wouldn't hopefully be too time-consuming.

Firstly, there are no sound effects. This is important – sounds greatly contribute to the atmosphere you're trying to create and add another layer of fun/enjoyability. People often underestimate the effect, but try to play Mario or a horror game without sounds and you'll see what I mean.
If you don't know where to look, try 'Freesound.org' for sounds and the Newgrounds Audio portal for music (don't forget to check the licences).

Secondly, I think you shouldn't award a point if you crash into a pole, only if you successfully get through the gap.

And finally, even though I like the idea of shooting; there's no point to it.
It's risky because you mess up your movements and waste time, the creatures don't endanger you in any way – so why even shoot them when there's no reward for doing so? Not to mention you need to be pretty fast and double click/tap is time-consuming, which makes it pretty hard as well.
I'd add some reward for shooting them (e.g. a point, or better yet, replenishing hitpoints) to be worth the risk, perhaps place the poles further from each other to allow you to make irregular movements (like dropping down to the monster, even though normally you tend to stay at the center) and consider using something else than double click/tap (e.g. a right-click on PC, but if you need this to be working on mobile, you could e.g. make a 'shoot' button, or the entire lower third of the screen).
Or consider shooting the monster directly (not just below you) by tapping on it. That would make you pay attention and the game could become more interesting because you could also shoot things ahead of you (e.g. an obstacle, or a box with a reward you later collect).

Phantom-Fear responds:

Thanks for the very detailed review Rallyx, looks like you really went outta your way to analyse the game! All your points are very valid, and I really appreciate the feedback. If I get round to making a future build of this game I will most certainly take your feedback into account. And thank you for the sound resource as well!
It's nice to see genuine feedback and constructive criticism, I really envy your commitment!