RaIix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pongfy]

As far as Pong games go, this is fairly simplistic. There's no AI to speak of, the opponent simply moves in a set pattern – so you don't need to be clever to win, just patient.

A new ball being thrown in happens too quick so you might not have time to catch it; also sometimes it bounces fully vertically or horizontally for a while until it shoots elsewhere at a wildly different angle (which is good so you don't get stuck, but bad because the change is so big that it's unexpected).

Finally, the high score isn't that great of a feature because you are only competing with yourself, but have to enter the name every time – which will only be useful if the same computer is used by multiple people.

So there's a lot of space for improvement, but it's not a bad game overall.

[Hook Calibrum]

In my opinion, it is a nice puzzle-platformer concept; but ultimately, it is let down by the complexity.

In most levels, I sort of understand which moves I need to perform to pass, but pressing the correct combination of keys to achieve them is quite difficult. I need to perform arbitrary moves just to trigger the red or blue aura – shouldn't there be a shortcut dedicated to them alone…?
The same goes for most of the other moves, really. The double-tap dash forward looks like it could get you across some spikes, but it shoots a hook right below you (killing you in the process) which isn't exactly something you would intuitively expect. The same goes for shooting the hook both forwards and backwards when 90% of the time, you only really want to go forward.

This makes the game more difficult of course, since you need nigh-perfect timing and smarter movement combos, but I'm not sure it's difficulty in the right places. I'd personally rather have intuitive, simple controls (hook shooting, dash) and more difficult platforming challenges instead.

The art of the game is really good, though. Maybe the only thing I'd change is the death cloud when you collide with a spike; it might be too blurry in contrast with the otherwise crisp and sharp pixel art. The menu also has blurry text, especially the button labels.

[Malachi's Game Demo]

Edit: Errors fixed.

Still, I think the game is too short. It's one short level, and still not quite polished.
Some feedback:
– going left makes you fall endlessly (and reload the page)
– wood blocks have no collision
– there's no need to add the first checkpoint so close – just set the first save point to your initial position
– running out of lives also makes you reload the page
– dying to enemies resets you back instantly; usually, it's good to give at least a brief delay (so the player knows what happened)
– same with completing the level
– the music loop is too short; in a longer level, it would probably get annoying soon

Malachi1289 responds:

fixed

[Altered]

The game is a lot of fun, even though it's really difficult.

I think my main gripe is just that – the enemies are too good. Sometimes you find yourself in such a position that you simply lose, usually when several of them spawn simultaneously and ambush you. And then the slightest touch, and it's over.
I probably wouldn't change the speed or AI of the enemies, but I would consider adding something to help the player evade ambushes. Like:
– dash (skip through enemies, with some cooldown)
– 3 lives, temporary invincibility
– powerups (e.g. "shield" which breaks when you're hit, dual colour…)
Probably the first suggestion is the most in-line with the spirit of the game.

As for other things:
– Sometimes the enemies stopped moving when several of them bumped into each other, even when I was a different colour. But it was temporary since other reinforcements came and made me move.
– When a game is played entirely on keyboard, it would be nice to be able to restart it with keyboard as well. This is a game you replay A LOT, and you have to grab the mouse every ten seconds just to click a button.
– If you use the bottom bar (Unity standard WebGL template), you need to add 38 to the project's resolution in the Newgrounds Project Settings, or the game ends up being slightly cut off.
– Thanks for adding the medals and scoreboards!
– And I certainly like the tactical element of deciding whether you want allies around or not or kill them to gain points.

And by the way, it's really cool that you open-sourced the game, too!
It's interesting to see how others code logic in their games, and I wanted to check what the enemies are told to do. Amazing how something can seem like a pretty clever AI when it's just "go directly to the player and jump randomly". :)

Also about the code, if I may offer advice:
– If you used Input.GetAxis (and Input.GetButtonDown for jumping), you'd instantly have arrow keys, WASD and gameplay support in your game.
Or use the new input system, although it's slightly more difficult to set up.
– I'm not sure why you're dealing with parsing Hex strings, you can have Color variables directly. And initialize them with hexadecimal numbers, too.
Color playerColour = new Color32(0xEA, 0xBA, 0x6B, 0xFF);

Jervaited responds:

Hello, thanks for the review and suggestions to the game.

Specially the Dash mechanic to the game in reference to your suggestion, it does seem to play better with it :)

[A prototype of a typical platformer]

Hi, and good luck with your platformer! Couple of tips:
– Freeze Z Rotation. Your character starts spinning e.g. when you fall or bump into the thin wall. It even makes you unable to jump if you try to balance on the top of it.
– You can dash even in mid-air. Is that intended?
– I like that the jump has different heights depending on how long you press space
– Hold left immediately after reset. The camera fails to catch up (or move "smoothly") which results in some jittering
– You can slow down your fall if you "clutch onto" the wall. Perhaps this is intended. If it's not, add a zero friction Physics2D material to the collider.

Other than than, there's not much to talk about so far, but good luck with the final product nevertheless.

ScarfPin responds:

most of them are intended but thank you for pointing out the bugs

[Hole In One : Rage Fest]

I think the best rage games are games with perfect controls, with perhaps slightly unfair challenge (e.g. ‘Cat Mario’), or just overall very difficult (e.g. ‘Celeste’ or Hollow Knight's ‘Path of Pain’). You might get some inspiration from an old free game ‘A Little Eggy That Could’ (https://youtu.be/zqGCIvG67rg) in which you're an egg, with very precise controls, but it's easy to fall and break, and the platforming challenges get quite hard and eventually, you're flying all over the place.

I had to retry this game more than I could count, but its difficulty stems from the very simple fact that it's very easy to overshoot or undershoot a platform because you can't in any way change your direction or speed mid-air. Otherwise, the game is quite fun. If you take it slowly and carefully, the obstacle course isn't even that difficult – you're just gradually more and more frustrated by the controls.
Perhaps that's the effect you were going for; I'd personally prefer better manoeuvrability which would come with a more difficult platforming challenge (narrow ledges, falling platforms, spikes, fans, invisible platforms…).

MuziksPH responds:

Thats a great idea but i have to make a seperate game for that mechanics

[Space Cat: The Search For Food]

I think the game is quite slow in the beginning, i.e. it's very simple to avoid the rocks and collect all fish, but then it rapidly gets faster and more difficult, and I'd say eventually you get to a point when it might not be possible to *both* avoid all rocks and collect all food onscreen. I died after letting too much food pass by in the span of ~2 seconds, because the food was also being somewhat blocked by rocks.
I don't know the solution to this, but from my point of view, the slow build-up is the more important problem (it's common in arcades to get to the 'humanely impossible' bit, but the game should be fun and engaging from the beginning). You could try adding a little more variety, perhaps powerups; just to give the player something more to do. For example temporarily slowed-down time, a shield (which you can use to crash through rocks), a magnet for nearby collectibles, etc.
All in all, getting and maintaining a high multiplier is more important for your score than being able to last for a long time – but that's perhaps a good thing.

popcar1 responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Your review was very valuable! I'll try making it faster at the start and accommodate for it by slowing down the rate of change. I realize the game eventually becomes impossible but I can't think of a better alternative that isn't a timer. If a round isn't 1-2 minutes long people would just get bored fairly quickly.

[3d cube platformer wow]

It's nice to see a new kind of content from you.
(Does it mean 3D Kim Possible games are coming? I'm scared.)

The cube is very manoeuvrable which makes it possible to skip parts of the obstacle course – which is good, because the last section is difficult and you're going to be repeating the beginning a lot.
I think it really should be possible to rotate the camera (or do it manually in 90° steps) so that you always go *forward*. Especially jumping back when you have no idea what's there is a recipe for failure.
Other than that, shadows would be very useful, too, because in platformers they tell you where you'll eventually land.

ZabuJard responds:

3D KIM! ITS GOTTA COME thanks for review in seriousness <3 i will add shadows to next one soon! and maybe fix camrea as well X_X

[EigenVis]

It's a great game.
I've been meaning to ask about the technical aspects of this game, but then I saw the answer is provided in the comments (and in fact, on the screen the entire time). From the standpoint of a CG student, that's impressive, and a pretty original puzzle game.
I'd reorder some of the later levels based on their difficulty – I think both symmetric and singular levels are easier than those who came right before (diagonal and rotational, I believe).

When writing this review immediately after finishing the game, I caught myself confused as to why pressing right arrow doesn't move the I-cursor to the left, so thanks for that. In fact, you should probably load an FPS game right after the finale, just so the player can see how dizzy they really are.

Thank you for leaving the grey guides in the game, they were very helpful especially in the "rotational" levels when I started paying attention and noticed how the cursor moves.
I'm glad there was nothing like a timer or blocks which you can only touch once, although if you wanted to add extra-challenging levels one day, those would certainly be ideas to consider.

I thought I'd have a hard time deciding between 4 and 5 stars, but then again, I don't see a way how you could improve this further (perhaps consider adding Newgrounds medals, if you can) – and the very end of the finale was just perfect.

[Dark Maze]

Overall, it's a nice game. And I like the gamepad and fullscreen support.

– Starting a level is quite underwhelming. Most of the screen is black, and you see only very little. Especially for people starting the game for the first time, it might be off-putting. If you get hit, you'll see essentially nothing.
(Perhaps add a mid-layer of 50% grey, or a transition, so there's bad visibility, but at least some visibility? Perhaps the walls could be seen in the grey circular area, but not enemies.)
– I'd play the "wind" noise only when the player is actually pretty close (that way, it could also warn you about enemies)
– Being hit teleports you back to a safe zone. Sometimes this can be confusing (especially if you can't see well). I'd honestly prefer temporary invincibility instead.
– Using items to help you is a great idea. E.g. the gas canister in one of the levels. The first time, I thought it's only meant to illuminate the level (and waited too long, until it extinguished itself), but it actually protects you. It probably should have some sort of timer onscreen when you activate it.

I understand limited visibility is an important part of this game, but I feel the game was sometimes tedious – e.g. in every level until you find the first two or so matches. And being reduced to almost-death means you have almost no time to react to incoming enemies, so you'll probably die anyway.
Anyway, those are my two cents. I definitely liked it, though, for the most part.