Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[My first game (Castle)]

If this is your first game, then I'm honestly looking forward to what you create in the future.
You should remove the disclaimer and definitely, *definitely* change the thumbnail image.
From those, I was expecting a crappy quickly cobbled-together game that I'd be done with in thirty seconds – and instead, you created a short but fully featured game with a couple of diverse quests, multiple characters and dialogues – essentially bug-free as well.

Here's a couple of tips, although I'm not aware of what RPG Maker allows you to do:
– I wouldn't force the fullscreen as you start the game. Let players choose whether they want it. Also, on the web, it's not exactly "windowed" mode.
– Does the game need to be letterboxed? Why doesn't it take the whole screen? Even in fullscreen, the actual game doesn't change size, only the black frame around it.
– I'd add some kind of interaction with the cat before you know you have to retrieve it. It's probably the first character most players will talk to, and it doesn't "say" anything. Even "Looks like a stray cat." would be better than no interaction at all.
– Since you never fight, do you need the combat abilities? Does RPG Maker allow you to disable them? You shouldn't include visible features if you're never going to use them.
Similarly, I'd remove the path at the bottom of the map, since you can't go there.
– At the "Outside farm", you can only leave through one of the four squares at the left, although there's nothing indicating why the others cannot be used.
– I'd add more than two conversation options to some people, so it doesn't boil down to "pick the top option to continue the game".
– Does RPG Maker have some sort of quest log? You can somehow keep track of what you're doing now because the game is short; however, if you expanded the game, players might become lost in what they have done and still have to do.

The disclaimer somehow makes it seem like you're embarrassed by this game. Please don't be. Most people's first game is objectively bad – however, this one might be short, but it is *good*.
Good luck with your future projects.

bigboimeeb responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback, I'm already working on improving everything I can from what you said

and, i'll change the thumbnail... :)

[First Slide Experience]

Hm… to be honest, I'm not all too fond of this type of a game. It's pretty fast and it's easy to make a mistake which undoes all your progress; so you essentially repeat the level until you know it inside out and get lucky. Or get frustrated and quit.
You *did* put some effort in as evidenced by the different game mechanics (lava, bouncy platforms) which are a nice addition, although it's dragged down by the fact that it's not very consistent (e.g. many blocks have essentially random size and rotation) and by not including any sound effects (which you seem to be aware of).
I love your description, though! Good luck with your future projects.

PandaUnwise responds:

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback!

[The Question]

A neat little game. The art is gorgeous, and I just love the look-around effect with the parallax backgrounds.
But the story is kinda bland. Unless it is a personal story, it feels like something is missing. If this was a properly told story, the only justification for making the instant leap from "we started dating" to "we married" is when you want to focus on something which happened during the marriage (which is somehow tied to the intro, otherwise it wouldn't be necessary to have the intro at all).
But that's where the story ends. If you tore down the visuals and left nothing but the transcript, it couldn't stand on its own.

So I checked the original The Question and it made some things clear. You didn't exactly make a lot of changes in terms of the plot, right?
For the example project/tutorial, it's perfect, since a) it tells about creating a visual novel; b) it's short and simple in order to showcase just the core mechanics; and c) the story is bland and vague enough to let people expand or rewrite it in any way they want.
For any other reason, it's ‘meh’.

So, as a ‘proof of concept’ – yes, it's a neatly polished example project; but I hope you plan to create your own, more interesting stories in the future, too. Good luck.

[Zombie escape]

I couldn't load the game, unfortunately (Chrome, Edge).
From the browser console errors, it looks like virtually all sprite sheets you seem to be using ("spriteXX-sheet0.png", "tiledbackgroundX.png") couldn't be found.
Does the game load fine for you?

[TDS]

Well, there's a lot to unpick here.

It's an okay *base* for a game. There's a player who can shoot, a way to replenish ammunition and health, there are enemies and destroyable barriers… genuinely a lot, but not without some serious flaws.

The largest problem of the game, as I see it, is rotating the player and the enemies. The center of the rotation isn't in the center of mass, but rather at the tip of the gun/arms – which means whenever you rotate, you change position, a lot.
For the player, this results in unpredictable movement and for the enemies, this results in them getting stuck in walls. As a rule of thumb, characters who are able to turn on the spot shouldn't change their position when doing so.

The second problem is the lack of sound effects or music. There's not much to add, it simply throws a good portion of the game's atmosphere out of the window which lessens the overall quality and makes its flaws more visible.

Also when many enemies get stuck inside each other, they all harm you on touch. In other words, when you have three hearts left and run into three inter-locked enemies, you die.
It's a pity there's no way to restart the game if you die, you have to reload the page.

Since ammunition is scarce, you have to be careful not to waste it. It's not a problem that zombies kill you when you're out of ammo, but you can also be blocked by a box – at which point you didn't die, but also there's no way to continue.

The bullet exploding animation seems to have a frame at a different position.

And unless I'm mistaken, there's no victory screen either which makes the game seem unfinished.

It's a good start, but I think it needs a bit more work until it could be an enjoyable experience to play.

[The Annoying Square Rage Labyrinth]

Well, if you wanted to make an 'annoying' game, you've got to try harder to enrage the player.
There are no deliberately annoying game mechanics except for the platforms not allowing you to jump, which I encountered only once and could simply jump from the platform right next to it. And I took a guess and assumed the exit is at the top, as that's the most sensible spot to put it – and yep, there it was. Sure, I don't get to see a victory screen; but reaching it could basically be considered 'finishing the game'. You can also stick to the sides of platforms and walls and do a wall-jump which makes the game a bit easier.
Check out Cat Mario to see an example of a truly annoying game.