Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Maze Shift]

It looks like a nice simple 3D adventure game, and I really wanted to give it a chance, especially considering it seems like a student game. There seem to be enough game mechanics to make it fun, and who wouldn't want to explore the depths of a cool pyramid?
But I had some problems, restarted it several times and ended up stuck at the same point, so for now, I think I have enough.

It'd be great if you added a description here on Newgrounds (with controls or simply just a description of what the game is about, possibly with pictures). That's your opportunity to excite and prepare future players, and if nothing else, it makes your game more professional.

First of all, this game absolutely cannot be played without fullscreen. The UI canvas doesn't scale with the screen (and the elements aren't anchored correctly), so you don't see half of the screen with the default resolution.
And then, accessing the options to toggle fullscreen is bound to 'Esc', but that also cancels fullscreen. So whenever you want to change something in the options, be ready to turn the fullscreen mode back on again.

My first failed playthrough was over when I couldn't read anything on my way to the pyramid (no fullscreen yet), and missed collecting the shovel and a weapon before the pyramid sealed shut. I don't think you should allow people to enter before they have the full loadout. Might be a nice trick for challenge runs (if you can even complete the game without tools and weapons), but a lot of beginners will potentially get burned.

When you fall into the hole, you're stuck (unless I missed a way to clear the rubble there somehow). If it's intended as a trap, then you should either offer a way to get back up (might be preferable this early in the game), or just add spikes to kill people. Never let people stare at a wall, trying to figure out how to escape when it's not possible, making them frustrated/bored until they realize they're meant to manually hit the restart button.

Too many hints and messages also spoil the game a bit. Don't worry, you needn't tell me about the dangers of spiders, I'll figure it out very soon after the first one bites me and I get hurt. You shouldn't tell me the solution to a puzzle in an adventure game before I even began to think about your “darkness” riddle (it's okay to do so after some time when someone seems to struggle).
You absolutely do not need to warn me about a pit as I'm running and preparing to jump over it, nor do I need to know about a door closing before they even start doing that.

The stone doors are *very* loud in comparison to everything else. Also once, the entrance door moved more than it should have, and it left a see-through gap at the top.

Spiders aren't the most exciting enemies to fight, but I imagine it gets better later in the game.
The introductory room is fairly plain and feels more like a blockout rather than a maze or something stunning to captivate new players. Why is there so much empty space at the sides and atop the building with the portal? If you have a large, mostly unused open space, try putting something large and majestic for people to look at. Plenty of games will use the first major room of a dungeon to set up to overall mood (e.g. Zelda has a giant statue in a desert temple).

There seems to be some shadow aura following me. Very distant areas are brightly lit, closer items are affected by darkness.

The trees outside seem to move when you get close. Do they have distinctly different shapes between each LOD?

The footstep sound seems to play slightly longer than it should have when I stop moving forward (possibly due to inertia?). It stops instantly when I jump, but lasts a bit when I stop running. Also I don't think I hear different sounds when walking on different materials (e.g. dirt vs. stone) but of course, I understand different footstep sounds aren't the most important things to fit in your budget or schedule.

And finally, I couldn't find the solution to the portal you encounter soon into the game. I don't recall any “rock from before” – neither outside nor found nearby, and the portal didn't seem in any way interactive, so I got stuck there. And once again when I replayed the entire thing.

There's more to the game, I'm sure, judging by the asset list in the Credits section alone, but even if I just say I'm probably dumb for not figuring out something obvious, there are many other flaws in the game.

I hope it doesn't sound too harsh, I actually think the game is cool even from the part I've seen, just needs a bit more work. Good luck with the project!

[Tabbith The Mouse]

There is nothing interesting about the game.

Virtually no gameplay besides holding a button, visually unappealing, the progress is way too slow (so at the start you don't even know the thing at the bottom is a progress bar), and the victory screen looks bad on purpose.
The only saving grace is being able to keep running if you switch tabs while holding a key, so you don't have to endure the entire ordeal and can do something else in the meantime – and that's a bug.

I don't think the game is trying to be good, but it's not in the “so bad it's good” territory either. Just a chore.

[Infinite Runner Afterlife]

It's mostly a challenge to stay focused on a mundane task.
The game looks nice, definitely; but the gameplay isn't super interesting.

The trick to the game is learning to jump slightly sooner than you think is necessary, because if you jump before the flame hits you, it's already too late.

Then… all there's left is repetition, as long as you are able to. The pace doesn't change, there are no new mechanics, the music doesn't change, the backgrounds don't change, etc.
If you remember to press the spacebar at set intervals, you can keep it up for as long as you wish.

Around 750 points, you realize that's all you're going to see in the game, and around 1500, I mostly decided to give up. If I made it to 5000 to get the final achievement, I would have probably quit immediately after.

Most of all, the game is missing variety, something new thrown in the mix every now and then to keep you on your toes.

Also kudos to you for adding medals and high scores, and crediting everyone whose assets you used.

KobatoGames responds:

I get what you mean. I had made it to be a casual runner where you could relax and enjoy the environment. Maybe I should make that a separate mode and try adding a regular mode as well where the speed increases and it's more challenging. This is also my first time adding medals, so it's possible I set them too high.

[cube hell]

The core gameplay is to keep dodging everything until you have 170 points.

But the patterns are mostly uninteresting, or badly paced.

The initial bullet waves from the left can be avoided by picking a safe spot and then staying still for a loooong while. It seems you need to move up by a pixel or two throughout, but I'm not sure if it's deliberate or a rounding error or something, because the visual difference is absolutely negligible.

Then there's the orange bar moving around, and in my experience, it either stays out of your way so you're in no danger of colliding with it, or it moves across the screen in such way that you simply cannot avoid it. But you have enough health to eat the occasional hits.

Then there are the flames coming from the top, but they stay for a second before I achieve 170 points and the game ends.

It's weird. I would expect to be able to accumulate points endlessly and avoid randomized pattern sequences, and the patterns themselves to be both more challenging and fairer.

[Pop Dot Endless]

It's a quite simple game concept, but executed well. Fun for a while, but after a few minutes, you've seen all there is to this game, so all there is is beating your high score.

A couple of tips for improvements:

– Art consistency. The main gameplay area is a smooth circle, with a smooth yellow disc and a red bar. But, all text resembles a large digital clock or a billboard display, not smooth at all. Then, the hearts are pixel art, and the speedometer is “smaller” pixel art.
You should ideally pick a certain art style, and stick with it throughout.

– Gameplay-wise, I think there should be a way to gradually recover hearts if you play well. Or other bonus (score) or reward if you hit the bar first-try before passing through because I think you want to encourage fast-paced gameplay and should reward players who take risks instead of waiting several cycles before popping. You could also subtract a point for passing, but a bonus reward feels nicer.

– The speedometer seems unnecessary; I can see how fast it is going. The only useful information is that I “maxed out” the speed, but that's also something you can tell rather quickly.

– Hard mode will forcibly reset your current game without confirmation. I feel you should only allow switching whilst your score is zero.

– Padding. “Pause”, “Hard mode”, “Pop dot” and “Change direction” are all differently-aligned

– You could probably shorten “Change direction” to “Reverse” so it doesn't have to be two lines.

– Shouldn't the loss of life reset the speed?

– As with any Newgrounds game with a high score, consider using Newground's built-in system for scoreboards.
https://github.com/PsychoGoldfishNG/NewgroundsIO-Unity/wiki
It's one thing to try to beat your own high score, it's far more motivational to try to beat a “global” high score.

Overall it's a nice little game; thanks.

Edit:
Thanks for your response!

That's a fair point about resetting the speed; you're right, it could encourage making a strategic mistake (or overall triple the baseline for a “good” score without bringing much new to the table).

About the leaderboards, I think I forgot there were any, because I started playing for a while, and then they only show up when you pause. I didn't pause. And since I saw no NG scoreboard/achievement tab under the game, I simply wanted to make you aware of that option in case you'd be interested in it.

Eazymode responds:

TYVM for the feedback, I appreciate all of this, truly. I'm trying to learn a lot and I will definetly keep all of the things you mentioned in mind.

- I love your idea of hitting the bar first try actually super cool.

- Yeah the speedometer feels a bit incomplete I do agree haha, I was mostly trying to learn how to add animations and effects, I originally wanted the speedometer to be a bar for when you get a streak of 20 without losing life you can press a button to get life back, but decided not to.

- I'm really struggling with alignment, I need to look into how to fix that more 100%

- I tried loss of life reseting speed, it ended with making me feel whenever I make a mistake I want to reset + It almost felt encouraged to lose life at higher scores to make it easier, so I decided not to.

- I didn't use the newgrounds leaderboard, but my leaderboard is definetly global, the server might've been down when you were playing?

Thank you so much for your input man, it's my first game and im learning so much

[Pitfall 2024! Ver 1.1 Fan Made Homebrew]

Well, it's definitely a more forgiving and pleasant experience than the original Pitfall as I remember it.

The movement is fluent, it's so much easier to swing on a rope. It's also good that the rolling logs don't outright kill you but you only trip because you stumble into them all the time, jumping over pits.

The jump distance is quite short, but that's probably a good thing because it's exactly right for the spacing of obstacles, and since you can't change direction or anything else mid-air, a longer jump distance might not be that big of a benefit.

I like how you can buy more lives with a sufficient score.

I think the shrinking pools of boiling tar or quicksand expand a bit too quickly, so you have barely any time to react and your timing has to be quite precise. Or perhaps what bothers me is not knowing the exact boundary where it begins/ends (one time I ran right into a pool of quicksand which was gone when the level started).

It feels like the rainbow trail behind you should make you run faster or something; I don't feel any real effect.

As for ideas, I think the underground is a bit underutilized – or at least was in the portion of the game I experienced; it could make for a welcome change if you had to traverse several screens through the caves and some unique obstacles there.

Buckar00 responds:

Thanks for the review. I've tried to keep to the original layout of the game so all 255 screens are the same layout. You're right, it meant the jump had to be short to feel like the original.

Have you tried going back and playing the 2600 version? You should be able to find one online.

The logs are a pain there's one that's static when you run left that I hit every time. There's some definite tweaks still to be implemented.

[Gliding Over Clouds]

Really well done in most aspects.

The presentation is awesome (the consistent and pleasing colour palette, the eye-catching icon capturing the essence of the game).

I love the way you quickly and naturally explain the controls and the perils during your first playthrough.
I attempted to avoid wind boosts as much as I could to stay safe in caves, and I was pleased to find out the game doesn't let you, you have to maintain a certain speed threshold, otherwise you stop moving the next time you ascend.

I'm not actually sure what is and isn't procedurally generated (if anything); at least the caves seem manually placed.
It's cool how the caves gradually introduce new challenges with every iteration (I made it to 3000m and I'm sure I haven't seen it all yet). But speaking of challenges, the caves are the only real danger, the open areas provide a welcome breather, but are a bit boring eventually, as there's not much to do. You are mostly mentally preparing for the next game and enjoying the unrestricted gliding until you get used to it.
I attempted to do a full loop; the glider moves a bit unnaturally at the top and I think it isn't possible to do so – not that you're meant to do a stunt like that, anyway.

If you'd like to help your game's replayability, you might consider adding medals and especially scoreboards, so Newgrounds players can compete with each other.
https://www.newgrounds.io/get-started/

Thanks for this, for a game jam game, it's a nice, well-polished treat.

[First Break - Demo]

The game has excellent art direction; dark, yet strangely comforting (but that's partially due to the music, too). The initial sequence in the intro got me hooked, and the gameplay which followed isn't half bad.

I was getting somewhat tired of the sentry stones (not sure how to call them) around B-01, it started feeling like I was doing the same thing over and over again in different map layouts, and didn't get to experience new gameplay elements for a while.

B-04 introduces the four-way bomb, and it was my first encounter with a hidden secret, so that feeling soon came to pass. It's also nice how you introduce the different kinds of bombs in B-04 and B-05 before you encounter them in a challenging environment.

I ultimately left the game in C-04 (for now), because the previous level took a lot of attempts, and here it felt like I was trying to beat the same challenge I already did there (even though the hidden candle room was pretty cool).
This might be an issue with the game… if there is a fairly challenging room, the next one should ideally test a different skill or approach.

Come to think of it, if you're not logging some sort of analytics, having something like that in the demo could be a great way to see which levels people struggle with (total death count per level) or what was the level people reached when they lost interest and make some informed changes based on that.
Newgrounds has “Events” functionality you could use. Or the same can be accomplished with medals or scoreboards. See in the API Tools section of your project, and there is a plugin for Construct available.

I was sold and wishlisted when I met the NPC trapped in the maze you can talk to, and he was carrying a guitar. Obviously, the puzzle rooms are the core of the game, but the promise of an underlying narrative and side content makes me all the more interested in the game.

Other feedback:

– At the start, it took a moment to realize you need to hold 'E' to start the game (it doesn't mention this), so the game looked stuck as the usual keys like Enter or Space do nothing

– The level should ideally not start moving until you move, so you can take a moment to observe your surroundings before something kills you.

– I love the choice of showing a zero-padded death count with four digits. As if the game implies you will probably die more than 999 times.

– Talking to people for the second time shouldn't trigger their initial dialogue again.

– Fullscreen state doesn't update in the settings if you cancel fullscreen with 'Esc'

– It should mention in the settings you can press 'Esc' to resume (it only mentions it goes to 'menu'). Doing so though will of course cancel the fullscreen mode, so I need to go to the Main Menu and Load anyway.

– I started a new game in another tab to recall a few things for the review, and the death counter reset for my main window as well. Easy deathless run, yaay.

– What is the purpose of the bottom bar on the screen every time the level loads?

***

And a side note; your Steam page will definitely need some love to attract people's attention. Try looking up tips how to make game trailers engaging and how to improve the page, and compare yours with the page of other similar successful indie games.

– The trailer starts with a pretty long fall sequence and shows the game's logo. You don't need the logo, or at least not until the end of the video. I would consider starting with the “You know you'll never leave” quote to give context and goal for the game, then showing the gameplay.
– You show gameplay, but don't play the sound from the gameplay, which needlessly makes it less exciting like it's not the focus of the video.
– The long description of your project has no pictures/gifs showcasing the game.

***

All in all, it is a very cool game you have here, and I wish you success with it.