RaIix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Wow Game]

Great idea with all the rule changes and replaying the same levels differently.

thebarfyshow responds:

Thanks!

[Flying Deris]

Basically, I couldn't figure out what you're supposed to be doing.
A graphical interface with *points* would help a lot.

It's not like you're supposed to collect only certain falling objects, because all of them kill you. You're also not supposed to collect them by touching them from the side, since the result is the same. So why do the first couple of hits seem as if you 'collected' the falling items?
If you have several lives, they should be shown on the screen, so that we know something undesirable happened when we lose a life.

If it's about staying alive as long as you can, then again, the time should be shown onscreen (keep a high-score). You can also leave the boundaries of the screen, just sit and wait, so if it's time-based game, this gives us an opportunity to effortlessly wait as long as we need.

If this is a problem with incorrect dimensions, then you need to set the value from "Edit / Project Settings / Player / Resolution and Presentation"; in the Newgrounds Project System.

[Mad Mad Blocks]

It's an interesting original game, I don't recall seeing anything like it before, or at least anytime recently. For a first (Unity) game, I think it's awesome.

There's a lot of useless unused space on the right (since you only move up and down), you could move the red line slightly to the right. The difficulty also stays the same during your entire playthrough; I'd consider starting slow and gradually increasing the speed (to a fixed max limit). Or gradually moving the red line to the left, if it starts e.g. in the middle.
I was about to say sometimes there's no time to dodge the blocks if there's a lot of them coming in a vertical line, but it's perfectly possible if I speed up using Shift (and I love the added detail of not being able to touch the walls).
It's also generally a good idea not to restart the song when you restart a level (keep playing it with an 'audio manager' which doesn't get destroyed):
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Object.DontDestroyOnLoad.html
Although this background music is pretty monotonous so it isn't as apparent.

This game is all about the high score, too, so you could also consider adding a scoreboard (build-in in Newgrounds), so players can compete with each other. More here: https://www.newgrounds.io/
Medals and scoreboards usually attract more players.

Good luck with your future games!

Raeino responds:

Thank you for your feedback!

To increase the difficulty I've made the blocks to spawn more frequently over time (still with a random pattern), but it seems to be just slightly noticeable. Also I was worried that increasing their speed could make the game too hard, surely I had to experiment more.

Also I didn't know about Newground's scoreboard system, I'll definetly consider using it.

[My Ghost and I]

Very well done, it's a great game in many ways, with many cool gameplay mechanics, and I enjoyed playing it.
I feel like it could have a couple more levels, though. Just creatively combining the things you've already learnt. The final level introduced the interesting mechanic of possessing people in a rather simple level, which is great for showing something new but doesn't quite match the expectation you might have for 'final level'.

gmitchell28 responds:

Thanks, yeah I agree that there isn't enough levels especially for this type of game. The first 4 levels are extremely basic and more of a tutorial for mechanics so more levels would be ideal.

I had lots of plans for enemy NPCs and more puzzles but ran out of time before my Uni deadline was due (I spent far too long in Photoshop).

[Snake game]

It's an okay game, but sometimes the controls felt a bit unresponsive, which is particularly tricky when the apple spawns next to the wall because you need to be very precise, or you will crash.
I'd perhaps stop the apples from spawning next to walls, and definitely stop it from spawning inside the snake.
Also, when you crash, the only way to restart the game is by reloading the page, which should never be a requirement in a game. Add a restart button/key.
Finally, I probably wouldn't start the game with a single block, as it doesn't even resemble a snake at that point. The classic games usually already start at a length of 3-5.

Overall – yes, it's the classic snake game, as simple as it can be. I'd think about possible new gameplay elements, gradually increasing difficulty, power-ups, different fruit which gives more points and behaves differently, or anything else which would be unique to your game.

[Milker : The Full Game]

You see… perhaps I'll return to the game later, but for now, I stopped after a while for multiple reasons:
– On the very first screen, the dialogue box is cut off at the right and at the bottom
– plenty of typos signal to me that the story isn't going to be all that great, either
　– spaces before commas, no spaces after periods…
　– too many ellipses (…) and plenty of them consist of only two dots
　– 'I' (as in the protagonist) is often not capitalized
　– randomly capitalized letters in the middle of the sentence
　– 'asnwer' vs 'answer'
– It takes a while until there's some interactivity (a story-driven game is still a game)
　– Having said that, I liked the initial only 'Yes' option to the protagonist's narration
– There are only six people in the room (excluding you). Unless the descriptions are somewhat relevant later on, surely it can't be too hard to name 'Confident/Sweaty' student.

And since after 10 minutes I still couldn't tell where it is headed (is it even an RPG?), and thanks to all the typos and little mistakes my hopes were exactly up, I took a break for now.

fouzi94 responds:

Thanks for letting me know about the screen issue..
Haha , you shouldn't judge a game entirely because of typos..
Typos are mostly because English is my third language , and they will be fixed as i go through the game again ..

I did put real effort and time to the story though , it's probably the game's strongest point

[Chilazer]

Not bad for a first game.
However, it's a bit too fast and gives you no chance to recover when you make the slightest mistake. I would at least make the purple enemies take like 1 out of 3 hearts, so that you have a chance to complete the level and don't have to choose between crashing into a pillar and being shot.
In countless of tries, I only got past the three pillars once (they're too close to each other), only to be immediately shot by other enemies.
Also, a pro tip – if your first-person character is a plain old capsule with a floating gun, disable the shadows on the mesh renderer, otherwise, everybody will be able to tell.

RywarGames responds:

Thank you for all the tips!

[Swingin' Reswung]

Whoa, easy with all those post-processing effects. Bloom is kinda cool, especially with so many things glowing, but the motion-blur makes it harder to see what you're doing, especially in a game like this which needs you to be laser-focused.

I've had a lot of problems with the rope not appearing when I clicked sometimes (evidenced by a plethora of NullReferenceExceptions in the console), even when I started spamming the mouse button.

I'd say 'holding' Z and X to change the rope gradually instead of repeatedly pressing and changing the rope in large steps would result in more fluent gameplay, but of course, I can't be sure.

You also don't see too far ahead (and there's no a priori warning), so until you memorize the sequence, the majority of revolving saws will probably hit you.

(Also you need to add 38 to vertical resolution in Project Settings if you use the Unity footer.)

Nicely done; I see the improvements from your previous versions, but the sometimes unresponsive controls make it more frustrating than it needs to be.

nulledwine responds:

Thanks for your feedback!

Yep I probably added too much motion blur, I'll tone it down soon.
For the rope not appearing when clicking, I'm gonna look into that. Thanks for telling me.

Dunno why I didn't think about holding Z and X.

Thanks again, I'll be working towards fixing these things.

[Naked Lee Panic]

It's an interesting concept; when is the Full HD 3D version coming? :)

Although it bothers me that there are no checkpoints (or at least not for quite some time), so I didn't want to repeat the initial sequence every time I enter a new location and make a small mistake; which is why I didn't finish the game.
But the game over screen messages are hilarious!

[Convergence]

There are so many things I like about the game… the tutorial is great (brief, and to the point), shooting enemies is fun, the white/green colour contrast, the final battle with all your comrades.

However, I'm not sure about the story… it feels like I'm missing something. The dialogue at the beginning made it seem like there's a mystery to uncover – but in the end, it's just ‘kill the big bad guy’. The reason might as well be running out of time because of the game jam… but I wouldn't exactly call the ending ‘a satisfactory conclusion’. But the gameplay is pretty good nevertheless.

Edit:
Thank you for clarifying the story. I got that pandemic analogy and the importance of team effort in the end, but as for the rest… I think the main thing which undermines the "alone, hopeless" feel is the radio communication throughout the game. You're constantly talking to an authority figure who is comforting you – so you're feeling neither completely alone nor hopeless.

Imagine this: the main character doesn't have anyone to talk to, the radio is silent (in truth, you're too deep underground to get any signal). He fears he might be the last person on Earth. In hopes of leaving at least some legacy, he records his thoughts on tape (so you can basically keep saying the same things which he already says in the game).
He goes further, but there's no improvement, the enemies only get stronger. Then he runs into "the main boss" and thinks he's done for, but suddenly, reinforcements appear and you defeat it together.
At least that's how I'd go about it if I wanted to make the player feel lonely or depressed until the very end.

VascoF responds:

Thanks for the review, glad you liked it.

I guess my idea for the story didn't really end up being very clear. The idea was that you were supposed to feel alone and hopeless throughout most of the game (which originally was supposed to be longer to increase this feeling), and then at the end the player discovers that there were many teammates in the same situation, and you all came together in the end, and this would be an exciting, happy end. This was all supposed to be analogous to the pandemic situation we're facing now, it's kind of how I feel about it.

Edit: Thank you for the clarification, it's very helpful. I see what you mean; the feeling of loneliness/despair could be stronger. I wanted the radio to tell some parts of the story (and it's also a better analogy to what's happening now), but didn't have time to make a long enough game to space out the radio transmissions more, and have the player play through various days.