Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Ranger with the magic bow]

Wow, this was amazing! The levels are well designed, they employ a good balance between puzzles, speed and precise platforming. Not too easy, not overly difficult. The graphics are great. I wondered whether the cheerful music fits the theme of the game (it's a dungeon with monsters, after all), then I noticed all the monsters and the Ranger seem to nod to the rhythm, and now it makes perfect sense.

My only actual complaint is that you can still shoot even after you die. I also got stuck in a bee I froze when it was very close… but that problem solved itself very soon anyway.

[the suicide game]

A good idea, but it's a pity there's only one outcome. I tried exploring all the options, but it eventually leads you back to the inevitable main path. I would consider adding another ending, or a *secret* ending which takes an effort to reach (e.g. by clicking specific non-highlighted words related to your story).

You could also improve the game by adding music (something calm or increasing tension) or sound (e.g. a laugh when you click on "laugh", a phone dialling sound with "911", a gunshot).

[Escape House (Very Easy Game)]

I think it's good for a first try.
It's a finished game at least, with a clear goal. I think especially the "unlocking door animation" is a nice touch – you didn't have to do that, but you did and it improves the quality of the game.

You could improve, well, everything, but you probably already know that. More detailed backgrounds, consistent outline (the ladder has a thick outline, the door almost nonexistent), *more content*, properly drawn attic, roof or whatever it is… and so on.

Don't get discouraged by bad reviews or score. Yes, the game isn't good overall – BUT everybody has to start somewhere but if you stick with it and continue to learn and improve; in a couple of years you'll be amazed how much you've improved since your first submission.

AleGames4008 responds:

in fact the game came ugly, but I hope to improve. Thank you

[my favorite class]

Ahh. I was half-expecting some sort of twist somewhere… but it didn't happen. Even though it's kinda artsy and an interesting idea, it doesn't try to connect and develop all the descriptions into something "more" (unless I missed it).

I'm also not sure whether this qualifies as a game; the outcome/progression is always the same, so it feels more like a "slideshow" and would probably be better off as an interactive movie.

[BeatMagic]

It's simply too fast, making it almost impossible to play unless you're lucky. I never got to the white circle in the middle.
You're also not using much of the screen – most squares are spawned in the upper left corner, thus the majority of the screen, especially bottom right quarter, remains empty.

MrCringeKid responds:

So you just admitted to just being bad at the game. (I also suck at it but look at the world record)

[Alice The Game Demo]

Yeah, sorry, the game doesn't load, at least for me.

Looks like there's a problem with editor versions:
"Invalid serialized file version. File: "globalgamemanagers". Expected version: 2019.1.0f2. Actual version: 2019.1.1f1."
"PlayerInitEngineNoGraphics settings: Failed to load PlayerSettings (internal index #0).
Most likely data file is corrupted, or built with mismatching
editor and platform support versions."

Anyway, the game as shown in the trailer looks fun to play, although the graphics seems somewhat placeholder-ish. The same blocks are repeated too often, too close to each other (e.g. the lava or the cave platforms), so it doesn't feel natural. And do lasers work underwater? Why does the crab boss throw sawblades? The coin animation needs more frames (since everything else is animated fluently).

…but that's just what I can tell from the trailer. Please try to look into the loading issues and update the game if there's a problem. Also, when setting the game's resolution in the Project System here, you need to add 38 if you're using the "Standard" WebGL template (for the footer).

[Red Land]

Come on. This isn't a game… nor a simulation, really. There are no interactive elements (at least as far as I can tell), it's quite literally "Red Land" and there's nothing else to talk about.

You could quite simply turn this into a full-fledged game by doing something like building a maze with a start and a finish, adding items to collect, adding obstacles and platforms to jump on….Or something more difficult like monsters etc.

There's no reason to play this other than to admire the "scenery" – which is basically a red carpet with some parts heightened. Not exactly eye candy.

[Carrotborn]

I like it; I think it's going to be a great game, eventually.
I love how you recreated parts of Super Mario Bros levels. :D

Couple of things I wrote down:
– In the menu, going back from level select to the title screen with 'Esc' doesn't remove the text from the level select, so you see it overlapping
– Your movement, especially jumping, should be faster. It's great that there's different jump power depending on how long you hold the up arrow, but overall it's slow, so it feels like you're on the Moon. If you draw inspiration from Mario, check how fast the movement and his jump arch were in comparison.
– You look left/right when moving, but straight in front of you when jumping. You should also probably look left/right in the jumping animation, otherwise it looks like you're jumping sideways. Also no need to reset the player to the same "facing front" position whenever you stop. Just keep him looking left/right according to the direction you were going. In 3D games, you also wouldn't rotate the character around whenever you stop; no need to do it in 2D.
– The coin count number could be slightly bigger
– Fullscreen option? The game's resolution is pretty big, so being able to play it in fullscreen mode would be an additional benefit.
– Mario also had movement inertia (continue moving a *little* bit until you stop completely) and running. It's up to you whether you think your game could benefit from that.
– I'd pick a different colour for the flying enemy. When I saw him for the first time, I thought he was a collectable item or some sort of bonus, since he's gold and has wings.
– The controls are very reliable and feel alright – thanks! Plenty of platformer games sometimes refuse to jump when you need to but it never happened to me in your game.
– Punching a "?" block sometimes moves it slightly below its original position.
– Mouse clicks move the character to the left. Uh… why?

It's a very good prototype. Good luck with the rest of the game!

[Third Attempt]

Whoa, that's a creative concept. I like it!

I never got too far, though, mostly because it's hard to both build a reliable platform and shoot the increasing number of enemies coming from all directions.
At some point, I either couldn't properly shoot enemies below me (since the shots were blocked by the frozen enemies, or there were too many of them all around and if I managed to get them all in time, I effectively trapped myself.

I guess I would probably get better with practice, but I think it'd be worth a shot to make it a little easier, because the fun lies in jumping, building and shooting, not starting over every fifteen seconds.
As a suggestion; here's a couple of ways which might improve the game's enjoyability:
– make fewer enemies appear at once
– make the bullets slightly larger and pass through enemies (so you can shoot through frozen enemies or freeze multiple enemies which are close to each other)
– add a "special attack" (right-click) which can be activated every once in a while and freezes everything in your close vicinity.

I tried doing a "jump above an enemy and shoot below" a couple of times, but it almost never worked – the enemy froze, but it still killed me because I was too close.

Nevertheless, it's a great game, but my longest ever playthrough was only like thirty seconds, even though I really tried.

Byvsen responds:

Thank you for the feedback!

You do have the ability to change the difficulty in the game. By pressing the button below the start button in the main menu, you can make the game a little easier. But perhaps I have to make it a little more clear.

I do like the idea of having a special attack though! Might try adding this feature to the game. Again, thanks for posting this! :)