RaIix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mork]

I like it! The jump controls are really fluent and reliable, the 'rewind' after death is a nice touch.

It's a pity you didn't create more than six levels, though. The last two were really more about speed (and luck) than about your platforming skills, so my favourite one is probably the fourth one which requires you both to be precise and fast, but a tiny mishap doesn't automatically mean you'll be killed.

I really think the level should only begin when you move, and not sooner. Like this, you have to start moving immediately after the level loads to have the most time possible, which is absolutely crucial (and annoying) in the last two levels. If the shadow only started moving when you do, this inconvenience would go away.
E.g. while writing this review, I'm constantly being killed again and again just because there's no pause and the level commences at once. Also, you have a level select screen, but no way to return to it once you open a level (unless you beat it).

A few nitpicks:
– Your shadow remains even after you blast into a puff of smoke (it should disappear, too)
– When you're about to die (killed with 1 life left), I wouldn't even rewind back, just puff instantly. Otherwise, it makes you watch the rewind and even move for about a half a second until the game finally kills you off.
– Is there really a need for an FPS counter?
– You also picked a monochromatic colour palette for the game (which is a good idea for a light/shadow themed game), but the puff of smoke and the life bar are pink, the level restart text is purple, not to mention the menu. Wouldn't it be better to stay within shades of black and white?

But what this game truly needs are more levels. You could introduce new features as the levels progress, too (for example a key you need to pick along the way to unlock the door, spike traps, moving platforms, etc).

TechieCrow responds:

Thank you so much for this review! It's VERY helpful! :)

I totally agree with some levels being too fast and this is something I am working on as well as adding more levels.

As for the levels starting immediately, I will add a "Press Any Key To Start" feature ASAP!

You can pause the game by pressing the Escape key (you can also press it to unpause) and that gives you a little menu to go back to the level select screen. Sorry I forgot to include the escape key in the description.

Now for your nitpicks:
- The shadow not disappearing on death is a tricky one to fix but is something I am trying to fix.
- You're right, you should just die instead of waiting for the rewind so I will work on fixing that too.
- No need for the FPS counter, just something I forgot to turn off. :)
- The colour themes are something I'm constantly improving on, I'm slightly colourblind so rely on comments like this to help so thank you!

As I said, I'm working on more levels so don't worry about that! But I was thinking about keeping features to a minimum, instead keeping it entertaining by expanding on the levels themselves by adding multiple lights you need to traverse through in order to even find the exit. Hope this sounds as good as in my head haha. :)

[Box Jump]

I really like the box concept.
While there are games which reverse your controls from time to time, this one rotates them and it's an interesting idea to play with. I'd love to try this as a platformer game, for example.

Unfortunately, the execution here isn't as good as I would have hoped. Moving left and right slows down to a halt (friction?) which makes it harder to dodge. The flying blocks increase your score even when you're dead – and since death doesn't penalize you, the fastest way to gain score would be to keep dying to clear the way for the flying blocks. Eventually, they get so fast that the game is no longer about skill but about pure luck.
It would be much better if the blocks had something vaguely resembling a pattern.

By the way, when you "End Session", it reports a missing script 'ScoreVariable' and the Quit button outright freezes the game (you don't need to add a Quit button in a WebGL game).

VicTimbers responds:

Thanks for the review, I do see your points and actually do want to change a lot about this game. Also thanks for that bug, I still have to look into that. Maybe try to better implement within the WebGL format, since the game wasn't made for the platform. Thanks!

[Fling]

This is a really good game and fun to play.
It seems simple, but there are a lot of gameplay mechanics to explore and you gradually add new ones every few levels. Essentially flawless as well; I didn't notice any bugs.

If I were you – since you already have medals in the game – I'd add a couple more to keep the players captivated (e.g. a medal for progress every six levels). If they feel like quitting the game, but it's "just two more levels" till the next medal, they might just as well pull through.

Also, I'd make the hook shooting and reeling yourself in faster. At times, I was awkwardly wiggling myself out of a tough position because I didn't want to risk losing all my progress in a level because it's almost impossible to regrip the same spot you just left. It also makes the swinging harder. But perhaps, that's the part of the game's difficulty and it's up to you, after all.

AlienPlay responds:

Hey Rallyx! Thanks for in-depth review. I really appreciate your thoughts on Fling, I'll consider adding some more medals.

[How? What? Why?]

Honestly, for a first game and a cancelled project, I expected much less, but you did fairly well.
Here's a game with a clear gameplay mechanic, a way to die, a way to win, a way to replenish lost health, a few different screens, different enemies and spawn points… if it wasn't a cancelled project, it could become pretty good.

You probably see the problems with the game yourself, but I'll mention them anyway if you decide to make a similar game in the future. This is a Unity game, so I can be more specific.

In order of importance:
– The jumping is unreliable which is a big no-no for a platformer game. Sometimes you jump too high, sometimes too low, sometimes you're not allowed to jump at all until you move left and right a bit.
If you jump by adding upwards rigidbody velocity, it doesn't seem to be very consistent.
Also a common jumping bug in Unity – when you check for collision with the ground using a trigger, you can "double jump" by jumping over the corner of a platform. Thus the upwards velocity gets doubled and (in this case) shoots you to the outer space. You could solve this by having a velocity "cap" (Mathf.Clamp) when jumping.
Although by far the most reliable solution in platformers is to use raycasting (Physics2D.Raycast) to check if there is ground below the character's feet before jumping.
– You spend half of the game off-screen. About 50% of the screen is needlessly filled with the ground which makes you leave the screen when jumping. Look at a screenshot of 'Super Mario Bros.' – the absolute minimum of the screen is taken by the ground.
Not to mention you can leave the screen through both left and right side (you could just add a simple box collider at the edge to prevent it).
– The health isn't deducted reliably. I assume you hurt the player when he enters the collision with the enemy, but you should also hurt him at regular intervals while he continues to collide with the enemy, otherwise, you can stand still after the initial contact and nothing will happen.
By the way, if you don't want them standing on the top of your head when they fall on you, there's a way to make one-sided colliders ("PlatformEffector2D") which only cause collisions if you jump on top of them.
You can check the collision direction for yourself as well (collision2D.GetContact(0) → ContactPoint2D).
– The graphics are a bit blurry (image resolution?), the animations only move the legs, the tiles are too repetitive, you didn't change the default 'Camera blue background' and there's no audio – although this all stems from the fact that it's a cancelled project
– There's no point of a 'Quit' button in a WebGL build, but a 'Restart' button would be much more useful. Also, in the Player Settings in Unity, you can switch from the default template to "Minimal" which will get rid of the "unity WebGL" footer

All in all, I still maintain that it's a very good 'first game attempt' and wish you good luck with your future games!

[Alien shooter]

Well, currently, the game hasn't got much to offer, has it?
But don't worry, you'll get there.

In summary, you shoot aliens to gain score. Aliens are all the same and walk in a straight line towards you. There is always exactly one alien on the screen (a new one spawns as the old one dies and another bullet likely already flies towards him) which means a slow shooter has the exact same chance of survival as a fast shooter.
You can only lose if you forget to press the spacebar once every few seconds – so you'll most likely lose due to boredom.

The main problem I see with your concept is exactly that – instead of the aliens coming at you in waves at a fixed speed, they come at you at *your* speed, so there's no danger of losing at all. If you slow down, the enemies will as well.
The other problem is that the game isn't much fun right now because all the aliens come at you from the exact same spot, so you expect them and don't even need to move, since you already aim at their spawn point.
So the game is basically "press the spacebar repeatedly for as long as you're capable of". A drinking bird toy could do that. No thinking or fast reflexes are needed.

Some tips:
– (!) Have the aliens come at the player in waves (e.g. 3 at once) and keep them coming even if the player doesn't shoot
– (!) Have them come from different directions. The simplest solution might be to put the player in the middle and have the aliens come from either side; or allow the player to aim and send the aliens from different altitudes
– Multiple alien types. Having just a single alien type gets boring, eventually. What about flying or jumping enemy? With the jumping enemy (moving in arches), it would force the player to time his shots, so the bullet hits the alien when it's on the ground.
Or for something simpler, just recolour the base alien to make a "tough" one who takes 3 bullets to kill.
– Ammo. You could force some calculated risk and strategic choice in the game by making the player *reload*, instead of automatically adding ammo. If the player had to press reload after let's say twenty shots (which would block him from shooting for ~1 second), it would make him reload whenever there's a break between the waves and less likely to waste bullets
– [Bug] Lives. An encounter with the enemy takes two lives at once.
– [Bug] A score larger than 100 overlaps with other text. There's plenty of space in the lower bar; you could move the score count to its center and the ammo to the right.
– Also, try to make something new happen at certain score thresholds (e.g. a new enemy type at score 30)
– Power-ups? Different weapons?
– Either make the game winnable (Score 300 = "Victory! All aliens are dead!"), or impossible to play indefinetely (the aliens gradually come at you at a faster speed – e.g. see Tetris). "Keep playing until you get too bored to continue" isn't a great desing.
– [Bug] As I was writing the review, the alien drained all my lives, but I didn't die for some reason.
– The background is a little repetitive and the grey text is blurry, but that's a negligible issue right now

In general, I believe you could turn it into a fun, enjoyable game. You already have a working concept, now you just need to add some goal and challenge.

Good luck!

[Escape The Deep]

That magical vault door sure is a time-saver. ;)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzFCKZ7WnoptaEs0c3YtYTZLVkU

selfdefiant responds:

lol, nice find!

[Team Kappas Epic Game]

With the foreword you wrote, I quite expected something awful, but actually it's not half bad.
Well… obviously, it's incomplete, consists just of platforms, water and doors with no other elements (e.g. enemies, collectable items, utilities like ladders, switches, trampolines…).

On the other hand, it seems you made sure that what *is* in the game, works fine. The movement is all right – no lagging or getting stuck (although the gravity maybe should be larger), you can't jump through left/right screen boundaries and when you jump though the upper one, there's even an arrow telling you where you currently are. There's a bunch of levels and the colour pattern changes every few few levels (by the way, water nor lava should hover in the air as it does in some levels). There's an end screen as well, so the game doesn't just end abruptly (although you can't return to menu from the last screen).

So in short, this could be a good game prototype, but not a finished game. Anyway, it looks like you know what the game is currently missing, so good luck if you decide to complete it one day. You're on the right track.

[Lost Path1.0]

Well... it's helpful to write the game's controls in the description, because rotating camera by holding right mouse button is rather cryptic and user unfriendly. And I couldn't figure out how to swing the sword, which should probably be the the most easily accessible command (if it's implemented already), e.g. left mouse click. Sometimes while going into the gaps between buildings, your movement animations can turn themselves off, so you just float around until you jump. The graphics are of course great, but you should perhaps alter the scale – now the main character is just as tall as a door (should be like ± ¾) or as a castle gate with a portcullis (which should be way bigger). The knight on the street doesn't have a collider, you can pass right through him. Also, since there are no shadows, the main character seems to "float" over the ground instead of walking. And assuming the transparent grid in the corner is supposed to be an inventory, part of it appears off screen (speaking of which, perhaps it'd be good idea to add a fullscreen switch).

If it's your short promo game, it can't just look good. It has to be fun to play, even if for a mere couple of minutes. Now, there's a pretty game, with cryptic camera control and bare minimum of interactivity. Anyway, I assume this isn't the final version, so good luck getting there, and good luck with your application.

[Toon Escape: Playground]

There's a bug which may be encountered right at the start of the game. The POP vending machine can be clicked repeatedly to spawn a lot of keys which fill your inventory space. They're invisible until you click them, and getting a key this way disables the description box. It's the same key you get by cutting the string, so the vending machine probably shouldn't be clickable at all.
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/c599f582834b28d677d2579a06e2dbe2
The bushes in front of the restrooms don't do anything upon being clicked and don't have a description either, but as far as I know, they cause no bugs.
Also, the "Credits" button on the ending screen doesn't work (unlike the one on the first screen).

Aside from that, the game was good, I think the colour puzzle was clever, and I like the fact the playground's fence had its own description explaining why can't you simply climb over. The bike bowl part seemed a bit weird though (it didn't look so deep you couldn't climb back without a bike), but nevermind. The medal works fine.

selfdefiant responds:

Thanks! Fixed the bug. :)

[Sketch Ball Fun Mobile Game]

The problem is, nothing ever changes, there's nothing to break nor collect, the ball doesn't speed up, so all you do is click at regular intervals to gain a single point. And sometimes not even that; from time to time the ball just bounces from left to right without coming down for up to twenty seconds.

*Boing*–click–*boing*, *boing*–click–*boing*, *boing*–click–*boing* isn't really "very addicting"; it's actually rather monotone. If you lose, it's mostly because of losing patience, not because the game gradually became harder.