RaIix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Isometric World Alpha 0.41]

It looks pretty cool. There aren't that many blocks, but the pixel art of those present is very charming. But I'm missing several quality-of-life tweaks.

– Select a block or slope by clicking. Cycling through all of them with a space bar is too slow and inconvenient.

– Some sort of mild snapping on blocks or working with curves between the current and last known position. I wanted to remove a big chunk of the world, but if you move the cursor too fast for the framerate to catch up, you'll skip blocks. Same with drawing too quickly.

– Moving the camera is clunky. I'd expect it to work like the Hand tool in graphic programs, this feels like you're using the screen as a gamepad stick with max speed around the edges and zero in the center, no matter if you're moving the cursor or not.

– Just two layers are somewhat limiting. And I can't always tell what the result will look like after I place a block. Especially with the tall building.

– Undo/Redo. At least remember one step so you can take back bad mistakes (a long line of blocks with a single stroke should still count as one step).

– Some sort of export option. Ideally not just a screenshot, but a serialized text version that can be used further (let's say you design a world here that you want to use as a base in a game engine) and re-imported in this world creator to make edits.

– The background clouds don't move fluently at all.

Overall it's a good idea and quite visually appealing, but I don't think it's truly usable at this stage yet.

Kehmicle responds:

Some of these things ive heard from folks and some I havent, very in-depth review I thank you greatly for it.

When I return to this project ill start by addressing these changes first!

[R-Cube 1.3]

I don't have much to say about the actual puzzle; it's a Rubik's cube, it's well-known and you made it work and visualize it pretty nicely.
Just a few notes since you plan to work on the project further and publish it on other platforms.

– It would be better if the “Solve” button had shown you the steps towards completion, so you can learn
– Equally, it'd be nice if you could (optionally) skip the mixing steps
– You can glitch the cube when you rotate while mixing is in process.
– I wasn't able to rotate the bottom (and middle) row horizontally; it always does a different move. If it's too tricky, consider adding an option to rotate the entire cube if you drag outside of it (you would also then not have to look at the same three starting colours all the time, and could inspect the finished cube).
– Players will love it if you included a switch between different backgrounds
– "Guide" menu is coming soon, but for now, there's no Back button, so once you go there, you're stuck

RCPython responds:

Thank you for response!! Thank you for writing large a comment!! Yes I am currently working on anthor project so when I am done with that I am straight coming to R-Cube 1.2! Bye and have a nice day!

[Seraph - Demo]

It's a great game, even as a concept. The gameplay is very enjoyable, aesthetics are pleasing. Dashing mid-air until you run out of “stamina” is a cool concept. And I loved the tutorial with the ghost clone of yourself showing you around.

I probably missed a couple of optional areas since the road I chose seemed to be the correct one to reach the boss. I was wondering what the flames you're collecting actually do, since I've had a full bar for the latter half of the game. I passed it to the tree (?) which recoloured my animations but I still don't really know what changed (was it a damage boost of some kind?).

I'm glad for the checkpoint system, and it's placed very well so the game never becomes frustrating because later on, it's quite easy to die with all the floating danger and spikes. Even the boss's health is saved. Death traps send you to the last safe platform, too.

The boss himself seemed more like a challenge during the ascent, the actual boss room was very easy. As long as you keep moving, you're invincible, and the boss doesn't change tactics, so it's really about dashing up to him a few times and he's done for.
He's a giant skull; I'd add a few directly damaging attacks aside from the exploding skulls you've already seen.

Yeah, the no sound/music is a shame, and would definitely be my number one complaint if this was supposed to be a finished game.

It is a very good game in all regards, I'm excited to see where you take the concept.

Magiclaw responds:

Thank you so much for the great feedback!
The recoloring animations is actually all the flames do. I tried thinking what I can do with it, but this feature was added on at the very end when all the platforming was already completed. For sure it can feel underwhelming, but it's a feature that I wouldn't be fully happy with unless it wasn't this very short demo..

As for the boss, I'd agree it's a little easy, it could benefit indeed from different attacks, but tbh when I play tested this game on my friends a few had really hard times with it so while it could be harder, I think currently is a good-enough middle ground, at least for the 1st boss.

Thank you so much for the positive comment :)

[Karate Battles]

This is definitely a big improvement over the first version.
Now it feels like an actual fight, and the opponent fights back. And there's a joke if you win.

What could use improvement now is probably input handling, so the controls feel more fluent and responsive. E.g. while holding an attack key, you are blocked from moving until you release it (there isn't a timeout or priorities etc.). I can stop mid-air by jumping and holding K, and wait there until I have an opportunity to kick the enemy who cannot hurt me up there.

But really, what a leap from the first version; well done!

DoubleItch responds:

Thanks!
I did try to fix those but with the method I'm using to code I don't think the way I was doing the coding in order to make that not happen wouldn't work, but I still accept the positive notes.
And I'm glad you enjoyed my game.

Oh there's also a bonus if the timer runs out. it can go 3 ways depending on the health

[I tried remaking Street Fighter 1]

It's a good start; the core mechanics are there, the animations and pixel art are stellar, but unfortunately, there's very little gameplay yet.

If you figure out the controls, you can easily win by repeating any single attack; the enemy makes no effort to engage in combat with you if you stay far, or react to your moves when you come close.
When the opponent collapses (and floats above the ground), he still has a bit of life left (not to mention he uses your name and icon). You can walk behind his body, but your feet still touch the ground in front of him, and you can briefly appear even lower partially beyond the bottom edge by performing certain moves while jumping.
The parallax effect is nice but slightly confusing because even though the perspective of the background *and* foreground changes, your character's doesn't, so it looks a bit weird.

I know you mention you're going to be updating this, and you're probably aware of most of the issues mentioned – but we should still be rating the current version, not the “potential” of the game.
Good luck with further development!

DoubleItch responds:

had to delete my previous reply so I could do it again, but I have sort of updated my game, although it was more like I changed it completely, but I promise it should work a lot better. here's a link. https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/882645

[Lupa Remastered]

This is a solid start, especially if you're a beginner. An arcade game with increasing difficulty – fairly simple, but could be pretty nice with some improvements.

Things for consideration:

– Definitely incorporate a current score / high score in this kind of game. It will add a lot to replayability (“I want to beat my high score and be slightly better than the last time”).

– You're moving quite slowly, and there's not much on the board at the beginning. I would make the board smaller (or the box & bullets larger), so the very start of the game before it gets fast doesn't feel like a slog and it gets dangerous (= exciting) faster

– I don't think the perspective view adds much here, I'd rather watch it top-down and have the board fill the entire screen, instead of having 1/3 of the screen occupied by a blue void.

– You can fall off the edge, and then you have to restart manually. You could add a collider all round, or force a restart when the box's Y position is far below the board's Y position.

– You are completely safe in the corner. Nothing will hit you. I've been nesting in the corner for the entire time I was writing this review, and nothing hit me.

– The number of bullets after some elapsed time is significant, but they still seem to come in bursts with fixed intervals in between (I'd instead try to vary both the time and speed of the individual bullets, so it's less predictable).

– Ultimately, give the player a reason to move. E.g. collectibles you have to grab within a certain time limit. Otherwise, nothing stops you from being extremely passive and only moving when a bullet heads towards you.

Elooke responds:

Hi I came back just to say fuck you and im remastering the game right now so expect a new game in 2 weeks asshole

[MAZE-GENERATOR]

It's really not much…

First of all, it's not a “generator” (there's no random maze here that gets procedurally generated), it's more of a drawing tool on a 10×10 grid. Furthermore, you don't see it top-down but in perspective, so any maze would be relatively hard to design, especially since there are zero customization options. And if you manage to create a maze after all, there's no way to “play it”, export it, or share it with someone else. I would probably have a better experience designing a maze by coloring cells in an Excel sheet, and it would be a more flexible and portable solution.

Looking at it as a game doesn't add much more merit to either. It's definitely not a “puzzle platformer” as categorized. To its credit, there's a sound, a way to restart the maze, and what is there works without bugs; but it still feels like a game of Snake in which you have to move manually 1 tile at a time and can't win or lose.

I can see it as a base of something cool if you decided to build upon the idea, but as of now, I think most people will click around a couple of times, close the game and forget about it soon.

lucasoliveira1992 responds:

Arigato

[All the King's Men]

This is honestly a brilliant concept for a game. I was hoping the king himself would join the fray in the final level for absolute mayhem, but still, what a fun idea.

I think making the scoreboard “Level reached” is a strange choice because it puts everyone who completes the game on the same score. Perhaps “Fewest defeats on game completion” would be more varied?

Good luck in the game jam!

3p0ch responds:

Thanks, and good call about the scoreboard -- I've updated the NewGrounds version with a death counter.

[Bit Gunner]

Pretty well-made minigame, a pity it doesn't go any further.

– I like the little things that make playing the game feel good. The stretch on the gun when shooting, the sound effects, the clear contrasting colours. Love the sweating sprites when you lose health.
– There's no increase in difficulty, no new enemies, and hearts are plentiful, so you pretty much lose when you get bored
– How about a counter for enemies killed connected to a global scoreboard (https://www.newgrounds.io/​)? It could prolong the lifetime of the game.
– After you die, you have to click on the “Start” button twice to restart. It first begins to play music, and then the second click loads the game.
– You can't shoot from a corner.
– Occasionally, dying enemies have a weird animation.
– The enemies may spawn right under you which depletes your health bar rather quickly before you move out

A fun little game, no doubt, but there's currently no reason to play it longer than a few minutes.

TrIckyJack788 responds:

The new update is out, and almost all of these cons are now patched. I didn't put a global leaderboard system, but I did add something else ;)

[Froler Run]

I think the gap between the final points tier and the rest is so extreme that you have no reason to ever “play it safe and slow”.
Also, I wouldn't make the box fall immediately after the start, but rather after your first click (so that new players don't instantly lose until they figure out what's going on). And maybe consider awarding the points on “bounce”, not on touch – because currently, you will always get the minimum of 5006 points, even if you do absolutely nothing.

This kind of game makes you bored really fast unless there's some competitive element. I would at least keep track of the player's best score, so you at least compete with yourself – or much better, connect it to Newgrounds scoreboard so that people may compare scores with everyone else.
https://www.newgrounds.io/

NassimSoftware responds:

Thanks for the feedback. Didn't know about the API. Yeah my game definitely needs a lot of improvements.

UPDATE : I have integrated the newgrounds API to keep track of scores.