Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[zigzag-t]

It's alright, but I've seen this template used here before and the problems are similar.
Mainly, in endless games, you want to add something to keep players engaged, even though the gameplay is repetitive. That usually means introducing new elements and altering the gameplay whenever you reach a certain (score) threshold.
This game so far has only a single gameplay mechanic which can be fun for two, three minutes… but personally, it doesn't matter to me that much whether my score is 20 or 200 – there's nothing new to see behind the next corner, no NG medals to be won, no scoreboard to compete with other players etc. The speed increases, so eventually, the game ends.
The best improvement would be adding new gameplay elements, i.e. obstacles to jump over, going up/down (not just left/right), gaps, different kinds of surfaces etc.

Restarting the game is broken, though. The high score doesn't carry over and the block random generator doesn't start, so when you fall off, you have to reload the page to be able to try again.
Also, the character starts floating when you're close to the edge.

[Sarah]

Really incredible.
It's quite short – completely understandable for a game jam – but not without a proper (and pretty interesting) conclusion. I like the art style, too.

Figuring out the phone combination was the hardest part. I knew it had to do something with Sam, I just didn't know what exactly. Their dinner date (time/month/day), West Side fair date, birthdays, team shirt number…
I like the subtle clues leading you to the right direction of the solution though. The lock screen picture was a heart – great. You also know the date format should be MM/DD (and not DD/MM) because that's how it was written in the diary (and the newspapers), and the phone also didn't have a zero digit button (nor visible letters) which did eventually help to narrow the selection down. Kudos, if these were intentional.

It's a pity there are no sounds or music. It'd make the game instantly better and help set up the mood. Especially the sounds (taking items, phone digits, lights on/off, the rustling of paper…); you're not as immersed into the game as you would be otherwise.

Some way to determine which part of the background is interactive would be nice too – for example by showing the object's name as you hover over it, or gentle outer glow, or changing the mouse cursor. Now you have to click on every single cupboard and drawer in the kitchen just to determine they're, in fact, not interactable. I also didn't notice the electricity plug for a long time because it's simply not very noticeable.

A neat little piece for a game jam – and the ending is great.

JinxSpell responds:

Hey Rallyx! The consistent date format and lack of zero was intentional, thanks for noticing!! Yeah I agree that it's unfortunate we didn't have time for music or sound effects. We barely got it in time for the jam. Changing the mouse on hover is a great idea. Originally, everything was going to be clickable, and did some useless action, but we ran out of time completely. Agreed on the electricity plug point as well. Thanks for your thorough review!

[Race_Game]

I like it; it's quite fun, although there's a couple of problems.

First, and mainly – the game does not restart when you lose (making 'highscore' pointless). Whether you crash the car or run out of fuel, the game does not restart. Now, I later found out you can restart the game with 'R', but it's not written anywhere. You shouldn't rely on people's ability to 'guess' the controls. What about a restart button on the screen when it's Game Over?
When you crash, you can also potentially get hit twice immediately afterwards (e.g. when hitting a wall). There should be some temporary invincibility.
I also did not see a single powerup until the 20k checkpoint (or weirdly, after I died). If you stand still and wait, some do appear,

I was quite thrilled to see a "boss battle", but I can't get past it. The car becomes invincible, drives in random directions (no matter which keys I press), bounces and you're also no longer colliding with items like spikes or powerups. I'm not sure what you're supposed to be doing (high score: 20,003).
And AGAIN, I later figured it out – the boss which looks exactly the same as your car (!) spawned and killed me before I noticed. I thought I was healed before the boss battle, instead, it spawned while I was close to the centre and "replaced" me.
But I think the checkpoint and especially the zoom out is a good idea. I'd at least make the enemy car blue to make a distinction.

As for other things:
– I'm not sure if 'Boost' is useful. It just makes you more likely to crash.
– Not sure what the "crowned bean" powerup does.
– The boss probably should get hit by spikes. Also, I feel your fuel runs out too quickly during this phase. You have to evade his attacks, but doing so makes you lose when you run out of fuel.
– Why do we need the compass? Surely we can tell which way the car is headed even without it…
– The whole page scrolls when pressing arrow keys, especially when you have the compass powerup. Try the workaround as described here:
https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/developer-resources/unity3d-webgl-support#wiki_toc_4

DerpGio responds:

I will try to fix many of these. First, I actually can't believe I forgot to mention the restart button, I know about the double crash and I think your idea is very good and I might implement it. The powerups are very random as they have a chance to spawn after a certain amount pf seconds, and I had to nerf them from spawning to much. The compass was implemented because one of my friends/playtesters found it hard to tell which direction they were going in and I will try to fix the page scrolling thing too.
(Spoiler alert)
The bean stops the car from acting for 3 seconds.

[ejemplo_rpg]

Well, I don't speak Spanish, although it was possible to guess the questions/answers. But you'd have more players if you translated the game in English.

It's a quiz, not really an RPG, and it consists of only three questions. The main problem is that even if you guess wrong, there are no penalties and you can immediately try again. And with only two possible options, it's really not hard to complete the game.

[Zapper]

Great idea, although it's not very much right now.
At first, I didn't know how to zap because it doesn't work very well long-distance, but once the robots get closer, it looks cool.
There's little point of giving you constructive criticism right now, since everything is probably going to change, but well…
– I'd pick better ambient music than a six-second loop – it works initially, but gets annoying quite quickly.
– The game window is quite small; consider adding a fullscreen mode without the IndexedDB part at the bottom.
– I'm not sure if the zap ability works on multiple robots at once; perhaps it should.
– What about jumping? There's a lot of obstacles which would help you slow down the enemies if you could jump over them
– You can fall off the world boundaries, but who cares at this point of development…

I think this would make a really great horror game, especially if the environment was darker and you didn't get the zap ability until later. At one point, I was cornered by the robots and even though they didn't harm me, I was completely unable to move until I blasted my way to freedom. Imagining that, in the dark, with creepier robots; running through a maze of dimly lit corridors, until you reach a large room where you're completely surrounded, panic and learn to zap through – I'd personally consider it far more interesting (and with a story-telling potential) than if it was a simple shooter about zapping hostile robots until they get close and kill you.

Good luck!

Trell13 responds:

Thanks for the ideas. That does sound cool. I'll probably do just that.

[The First Anomaly]

Is there any content so far besides the initial corridor? I tried to run in all directions but the "mist" is faster (presumably because sprinting doesn't work). If you're supposed to do something once you reach a dead end, I didn't figure it out (or didn't have the time). Your walking speed is a bit slow either way.
I didn't encounter any interactable objects. For a first time player, having ~3 seconds to *guess* what you're supposed to be doing, after which you get killed and have to replay the game is quite difficult.

A fullscreen mode would be nice and as JeffreyDriver said, 1.5GB is quite a lot, especially since a single corridor is all I can see. Heck, the demo you linked on the forums last week had a third of that; 522 MB.

Trell13 responds:

There's a couple rooms you can enter but without the sprint system the game is broken. I dont know how to lower the file size any lower but I can try. There are switches that you have to hit in different areas to unlock an exit. I'll have to test it more.

[Bat Outa Dot Dot]

Good game. I don't mind the difficulty, because if it was a lot harder, returning all the way to the beginning if you get killed would annoy me. (But I suppose if it came to that, there will be a couple of checkpoints along the way).
It's a pity the only hazard in the entire game are the flames. It gets repetitive over time. I thought there will be a new enemy introduced later, or Satan will make a reappearance as the final boss.

[Magic Blocks]

I like it.
A simple game, but full of features and every single level was different. There's not really a difficulty curve or increasing challenge, though, and once introduced, most unusual block types / moving objects never make an appearance again. So it could use a couple more levels, making sure the final one is the most challenging.
As for minor things, the left/right moving platform was a bit hard to get onto, and you probably should use transparent background for the "WASD" picture on the title screen.

[TypeandJump]

It's fine, but I think the choice of words is sometimes quite odd ("dialoguesystem", "teamexplorer", "monobehavious") and they have a good chance of repeating themselves.
I also don't think it should be case sensitive (at first I thought the game is broken).

But I like the idea of jumping; it's more clever than just typing with a timer alone. Perhaps if you type your word really fast, you could jump higher/further. I'd also show how many steps remain to the top, otherwise, you don't know until the last moment.

hoanglong12 responds:

Thanks!!! I'm really appreciate!! :D !!! You really give me some feedbacks for my game