Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Blocksticles]

Ahh, nothing like the start of summer to play a winter-themed game. :)

I think I've seen someone use the same template/tutorial for this game before, since the core gameplay was pretty much the same. I'll repeat what I wrote back then:
– There's no point in having a score if it gets reset in between levels. That way, a player who didn't die once during his entire playthrough AND a player who kept dying constantly during all levels will end the game with the same exact score => score for the last level. Pass the score between levels.
– I like that crashing doesn't send you back to the start immediately, but there's a slight delay. That's important because you have time to acknowledge the cause of your crash.
– It doesn't have to be a long, wide, straight road. How about a branching, winding path? A high-risk narrow detour which results in a score bonus? You could even set up a scoreboard, so players can compete with each other.
https://bitbucket.org/newgrounds/newgrounds.io-for-unity-c/

But I think your version has nicer graphics. Although some background objects don't have colliders, so things can pass through (e.g. the gate and the trees at the very start). I also loved the last level with the jump, I think it was a great way to end the game, but I don't see the point of the floating fence.

The game crashed with an exception a couple of times when I fell from the edge.
https://ctrlv.cz/shots/2019/06/07/yRtD.png
"Failed to execute 'setValueAtTime' on 'AudioParam': The provided float value is non-finite."
See here if it's similar to your problem:
https://github.com/Tonejs/Tone.js/issues/347

The options menu is complete garbage, though. :)
https://ctrlv.cz/shots/2019/06/07/xX4t.png
It's unusable because the layout isn't anchored properly and there's no "Back" button (!!), so you have to reload the game in order to get back to the menu, which resets the options.
https://ctrlv.cz/shots/2019/06/07/wbue.png
Even when you go fullscreen, it doesn't get better; the options are randomly scattered around (instead of being in the same column), there's no padding, the fullscreen button doesn't do anything… and of course, it's still all pointless, because you can't leave the options settings.

P014r1s responds:

Big thanks for your feedback, I'll try to update the game.

[Space Hole]

I think it's a pretty good idea. It was fun to play for a while.

The controls could be slightly more intuitive – like holding the mouse button to keep the spaceship in and moving the "space hole" around and releasing to release the spaceship. Just clicking and instantly teleporting around makes it much easier to make a mistake.
It might also be a good idea to add some sort of sound for warping from one place to another.

Sometimes I teleported in the last second – the brick crashed into me but I survived, and then there was a bug with two space holes simultaneously onscreen.

Draining your life while hiding was a really good choice to prevent the players from spending most of their time in the safety of the space hole. However, since there's no way to replenish lost health, not even slightly, you're basically guaranteed to lose after some time. Losing should depend on your skills and you should be able to delay it indefinitely if you're very good at playing the game. I'd make the bottles replenish a bit of your health.

And since it's a spaceship, you could make the graphics more consistent and instead of "spaceship, bottles, bricks" make something closely related, like "spaceship, stars, asteroids".

PhongDuong responds:

Thank you for your feedback Rallyx. I hope you enjoy it

[Ketch Up and Down]

Wow, it's a well-done game. "Hardcore vertical Flappy Bird?" :)
But honestly, there are so many additional mechanics, like different kinds of food to collect, gradually losing jump power, danger at the top and bottom of the screen, changing orientation.

On PC, if you use the mouse, I'd make right-click change the orientation, so you can play without using the keyboard at all.

Edit: Of course, you have my permission. There's no "copyright" for ideas and all reviewers mostly want to help you make the game better. So, yes, definitely; you're free to use any idea the review might have given/suggested to you.

Max-B responds:

Tnx Rallyx,

Something like that ...

I like the mechanics of Flappy Bird however hate the direct and dumb game cloning.
So I've mushed it up with my own shticks :)
The aim was to have as less controls as possible thus i decided to toggle one button for side movement.
At first I made spiky platforms slide down but found out that game play was a bit linear so i decided to add another item to collect upon reaching the top or the bottom, to make it more challenging :)
I like your input about making the right-click change the orientation, i might even implement it with your permission ;)

[The Square]

I like the style. It would be interesting to see what kind of game would you make if you developed this idea further. So far, there's not much in terms of gameplay – just walking and jumping around on objects forming together a loop. How about turning it into an actual platformer with a proper obstacle course?

The movement and camera aren't that great. "Rotate in place and move forward" isn't well suited for a platformer, and the worst offender is how the camera moves when you jump – making you unable to see the ground below you until the last moment. I'd look up some videos of well-made 3D platformers to see how they handled the movement. For example:
Super Mario 64: https://youtu.be/m44y7Q-QtdE?t=58
Rayman 2: https://youtu.be/NmTuuuxHO-E?t=256

Also, the game should restart when you fall, there are some colliders which don't match the objects below them, especially the stretched toruses (making you look like you float) and right at the start, there are two objects at the exact same height overlapping, which makes it flicker (move either one of them up or down).

Nevertheless, as a first game, it's pretty damn good. Good luck with your future projects!

[The Ball v0.1.7]

Well, I know this game is pretty simple to make in Unity but the gameplay is okay. I didn't get to the end – is there even an end, or does the track simply end after the "U-shaped" ramp?
When the ball falls, I think you just move it back to the starting position instead of restarting the level because you retain your speed. But it doesn't cause a problem; if anything it helps you because you are already fast enough to make the necessary jumps.

Although because of the camera angle, you never know what's coming because you don't see it until the very last moment. A newcomer to your game will, therefore, have a careful approach, until they find out you need to roll really fast to make the jumps.

And also even though the camera can be rotated, the "forward" direction of the ball never changes which means it could just as well be a fixed view. It works in this game because you only ever have to roll forward, but if this was a maze or there were more directions to go, it would be really annoying (i.e. try to move the ball with the camera rotated by 180°).

---

Edit:
The game was updated and most of these aren't a problem anymore (I increased the rating). It's still pretty short and ends abruptly, but at least there's a sign explaining it now.

It could use different kinds of obstacles. Now it mostly focuses on speed and there's just one kind of surface – there could be something like "speed up/slow down" ground, "trampoline" ground which makes you jump up automatically, "lava" which you must avoid, etc. Just something which makes the gameplay a little more varied.

[missed messages.]

Sorry. Uncaught exception whenever I try to start the game, and since you disabled exceptions in build (resp. they're disabled by default), it doesn't say anything more specific.
Does the game work for you? If not, do you want to upload it again?

I can't say anything about the game now, but as for the menu:
– Quit button is pointless in a WebGL game
– The music is pretty loud until you lower the music volume

But judging from the screenshots shown on Steam, the game looks gorgeous.

---

Edit: The game was updated and works now.

zephyo responds:

Yea it works for me across browsers and devices, that's weird! Can you let me know your browser? Also I enabled exceptions now