Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[Sneaky Rooftop Escape]

It's so great to see you try new things – and the game turned out more than fine!
I hope you liked working with Unity and we'll see more of your games made with it in the future (especially since Flash ends in 2020 :) ).

I dig the little details like items moving to your inventory when you collect them, the interactive rotating cube, or the animated menu. You could also make the "orange levers" animated, too, so they would move gradually, instead of just shifting to position.

One thing I'd suggest about 3D adventure games, though – add a way to highlight interactive items. There's a lot of detail in the background and literally anything could be interactive (doors, windows, posters, mailboxes, plants, cocktails…). Add an outline ("outline diffuse shader") on mouse hover, show its name in the text box, change the mouse cursor to "hand" (Cursor.SetCursor)… anything.
But it's not fun to have to click on everything in a scene. I've said it about your "asylum" games before and there, the objects usually seem out of place somehow (different perspective, size, lighting)… here everything looks like it fits in the scene and the collectable/interactive items just don't stand out.

The text is a bit blurry. Perhaps it's because it's resized, perhaps there's a wrong filter used. Would this help?
https://youtu.be/ccYJOT7bUUY
Or try TextMesh Pro which renders the text in a better way and allows you to use more complex text effects:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/beta-projects/textmesh-pro-84126

Also, I'd try antialiasing to see if it improves graphics. For example, the policeman has jagged edges which don't look too good when he's moving. Post-processing effects can also help you improve the overall feel – if you wanted more vibrant colours, for example.
https://youtu.be/IkRMMcPBFsc
https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/PostProcessing/wiki

I'd fiddle with the shadows settings in Graphics and on your lights, because now some objects look like they're floating – see the postbox. The shadows should start where the objects touch the ground.
https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/83596/why-are-shadows-not-snapping-to-the-objects
Ambient Occlusion effect might also give the scene a more "natural" feel.

And finally, it's absolutely possible to add medals and scoreboard to Unity games… I've done it a couple of times before. You need to enable the new API in Project System and then continue from here:
https://bitbucket.org/newgrounds/newgrounds.io-for-unity-c/
There's a working example for unlocking medals on the page. There's no scoreboard example, but it's very similar to that.

I wrote more than I thought I would, I hope it was helpful. :)
Good luck with your future games! I'd love to see a low-poly asylum game at some point. :)

selfdefiant responds:

Wow, thanks for all of that! I will definitely be following your advice. Many, many thanks!

[Does My Computer Work?]

I fully understand it's a joke. Is it a good joke, though?
It takes *ages* to see the final result and until then, all you can really watch is the animation of two ducks and a black text partly on black background. And if you really wait to see the result, it just says "YES", nothing special. Just because something is a joke or a parody, doesn't mean it's automatically excused from all criticism.
See Pico's School 2 or Riddle School 4 as examples of short, obvious joke games which are well-made nevertheless.

[Danger Joe Micro]

Actually pretty good!
The ‘action flow’ is enjoyable – a lot of enemies which are easy but satisfying to kill – but they also jump and drop from the top of the screen, so you have to be somewhat wary of your surroundings as well. The slow-mo death sequence is pretty neat, too.
The pixel art is fine, although the black outline is inconsistent – sometimes it's used, sometimes it isn't. The texts also look a bit blurry.
But checkpoints should preferably be in a safe zone, not "0.5s after a respawn to react"-zone.