RaIix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[Deal or no Deal]

Yes, it's all right – it's a simple game, after all. I probably wouldn't use bluish underlined links (yes/no and play again options), as they look like plain hyperlinks (which they are) and don't fit with the colour theme of the game, but that's just nitpicking.
However, I think the medals don't work (at least the first one doesn't).

Mocha2007 responds:

I changed the buttons to look like gold bars like the rest of the interface - do you think this looks better?

Thanks for playing :3

[Barghest]

I like it! A nice simple game which gets more challenging over time. Just when I thought the gameplay is getting a bit stale, the enemies started exploding.

Just a little complaint – you can see the ghosts briefly flashing on the screen frequently. I don't know if you're reusing the same objects and snapping them to position, however, whatever is the case, I'd turn their visibility off when you're moving them across the screen. It can be confusing.
Also, once you die, the score number isn't centered on the screen unlike everything else (which is quite noticeable if the score is a single digit).

And there's a bug – if you pause the game with your sword unsheathed, the sword stays where it was even after you unpause the game. Although that's almost a feature – because you can leave your sword at a strategic position, and only focus on dodging while your sword destroys enemies far away from you.

WondO responds:

Yeah the weird flashing when they spawn was a bug i could not fix when i was making the game like 2 years ago, i didn't know the pause one tho, thats like melee's advanced tech.

i wanted some more varied ways for enemies to come up but i really could not figure out how to do that kind of stuff, my abilities were limited then and sadly even more now atm.

also if you didn't notice, the trail gets longer the more points you get, thats probably my favorite detail in the game

[Corona Dodge v2]

It's well made, with nice UI and effects – and I certainly appreciate the viruses don't move along straight lines which makes it less predictable. But all in all, it's also very repetitive; i.e. the gameplay when you start the game is exactly the same as the gameplay after one minute.

The trajectory of the viruses also doesn't even initially incline towards your position, so there can be long periods of time in which you sit in the middle and do nothing. I usually lost because I became complacent after twenty seconds of doing nothing, and then I got one-shotted by a fast-moving virus.
I'm not saying they should all be aimed at you (as that would make the game impossible), but consider slightly (or by a random percentage) tilting their initial trajectory towards your position.

It's a good game to play for a couple of minutes, but there's not a lot of reasons to keep playing for a higher score. Perhaps consider introducing new things later on, or add medals/scoreboard to attract more players and make them compete with each other: https://www.newgrounds.io/

QuanDiep responds:

Thanks for the feed back!!!
Good news!! I just fixed it! Try it out!

[LLamas Proto]

Well, okay…?
Four short minigames, but what happens after you complete them? The game is missing some sort of conclusion… be it going to other cities with new minigames, or simply a final challenge.

Also, your character is maybe going too fast, the bushes make you spin (freeze rotation on the rigidbody if this is unwanted), and you can get stuck at the borders of the screen. I checked the browser console, too, and you're constantly outputting debug numbers every frame which might be unwanted.

Drag0n1x responds:

Hey Tank you for the feedback. I recently upload a more complete version( still not the final)

[My First Game]

This is absolutely incredible. Speaking as someone who browses the Under Judgement games section a lot, you managed to represent so many of the common types of ‘first games’ which appear here. All that's missing are bare-bones Construct 3 platformers, but those probably don't even qualify as games yet.
Nonetheless, I agree with you. Everybody has to start somewhere, and doing simple clones of well-known games is probably a good starting point – but I do enjoy creators who finish the templates and put a creative spin or their own touch on them before hitting ‘Publish’.

I also like the shaders you used, and the fact that the games gradually get harder and harder as new elements are introduced.

Great idea; perfectly executed.

HealliesGames responds:

I'm glad the game reflects your vision.
Thanks for the review and for playing, Rallyx!

[[BTNverse] There is nothing here.]

I did not expect what is going to happen when you collect the final upgrade. I think it's a brilliant idea.

I was originally going to say one-hit death is too harsh, but it's actually perfectly appropriate, especially since the stronger enemies serve as barriers until you collect power-ups.
Also thanks for adding things like the minimap, otherwise hunting for that one forgotten 'enemy' in the last stage could have been frustrating.

Really great, well done.

adriendittrick responds:

Thanks for reaching the end :)

[Learning project #1]

It's fine, but since it's an endless game, it starts feeling repetitive eventually. For me, that mark was around ~35 when I felt I'm seeing similar patterns.
Of course, it's perfectly possible to lose, but I think I could keep going for a good while if I played it safe and stayed near the centre.

From a game design perspective, endless games have to have 1) good replay value (tick), and 2) evolve over time – which I don't think this game does. And without new elements being introduced, it's a matter of time before you lose out of boredom (instead of lack of skills).

A couple of ideas:
– Over time, slowly speed up the red block, or add more of them. This is the simplest way to add increasing difficulty to the game, but it does put some upper cap on the score if you don't stop increasing since there comes a point when it isn't humanely possible to continue anymore.
It also doesn't really add anything new to the game, it just makes more challenging, but shorter.
– Add a "challenging dodge" every, let's say, 20 points; stopping all blocks from spawning for a while and spawning a scripted red block pattern – e.g. waves, or concentric circles with gaps…
Make a couple of those, at least to cover 0–200 points.
– Add a slow-moving "gold block" every once in a while which you have to pick up, otherwise you lose.

And by the way, you can have an actual scoreboard. Newgrounds has a built-in scoreboard system you can use. See API Tools in the Project System, and this:
https://bitbucket.org/newgrounds/newgrounds.io-for-unity-c/src/default/

Its-Kaleb responds:

Thanks for the tips (especially for the score board) , I will work on it more

[Jamboy CANDIE]

It's nice, I like the style and the story sequences in between the levels.
The platforming experience is all right, but mainly it felt quite unresponsive. I can't count how many times I missed a jump because double jump didn't work, and the wall jump was troublesome as well. And fluent movement and good controls mean everything in a platformer game.

But the rest of it was fine. A couple more details:
– It was unclear which key affects which door. I collected a key and pointlessly kept jumping into a door, but it wouldn't open because it needed a different key (and keys unlock doors instantly instead of requiring you to go to the door, so there's probably no need to display the key onscreen).
I'd use a matching colour for the padlock, so that you don't need a lemon-coloured key to unlock a pink lock.
– The pumpkin has an exclamation point next to him. At first, I thought it's a "NPC" and you're supposed to talk to it… well, you're not.
– The number of jams you have can go below zero when you die (and probably shouldn't).
– The arrow keys move the entire page. See here for the fix:
https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/developer-resources/unity3d-webgl-support#wiki_toc_3

I think fixing the double jump's responsivity is the most important change to make, the rest of the game is quite good.

Nesteaboy99 responds:

Thank you for your review! I'll keep your feedback in mind for my next update

[Rena Game]

I thought using pictures as bosses is the weirdest bit… then came the hoverboard bit and pizza… and the ending.

But I did like the boss fights; the first duo boss took me the longest to beat, because instant death after being hit once in a bullet-hell game is quite crazy. But I think they were the most developed of them all, with the multiple phases etc.

During the second boss in Papa John's I think I encountered a bug – the bullet ratio multiplied every time I died, and once after dying I respawned in the middle of the ground and couldn't move. And then I found out the 'Continue' button only works until you refresh the page, so I had to redo the game again.
The cheat code came in handy, but you probably shouldn't give it out in comments, otherwise nobody will play the game normally (instead, show it after completing the game, or if somebody dies too many times).

tobyalden responds:

Thanks for the review! I just fixed the continue bug.