Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fling]

This is a really good game and fun to play.
It seems simple, but there are a lot of gameplay mechanics to explore and you gradually add new ones every few levels. Essentially flawless as well; I didn't notice any bugs.

If I were you – since you already have medals in the game – I'd add a couple more to keep the players captivated (e.g. a medal for progress every six levels). If they feel like quitting the game, but it's "just two more levels" till the next medal, they might just as well pull through.

Also, I'd make the hook shooting and reeling yourself in faster. At times, I was awkwardly wiggling myself out of a tough position because I didn't want to risk losing all my progress in a level because it's almost impossible to regrip the same spot you just left. It also makes the swinging harder. But perhaps, that's the part of the game's difficulty and it's up to you, after all.

AlienPlay responds:

Hey Rallyx! Thanks for in-depth review. I really appreciate your thoughts on Fling, I'll consider adding some more medals.

[How? What? Why?]

Honestly, for a first game and a cancelled project, I expected much less, but you did fairly well.
Here's a game with a clear gameplay mechanic, a way to die, a way to win, a way to replenish lost health, a few different screens, different enemies and spawn points… if it wasn't a cancelled project, it could become pretty good.

You probably see the problems with the game yourself, but I'll mention them anyway if you decide to make a similar game in the future. This is a Unity game, so I can be more specific.

In order of importance:
– The jumping is unreliable which is a big no-no for a platformer game. Sometimes you jump too high, sometimes too low, sometimes you're not allowed to jump at all until you move left and right a bit.
If you jump by adding upwards rigidbody velocity, it doesn't seem to be very consistent.
Also a common jumping bug in Unity – when you check for collision with the ground using a trigger, you can "double jump" by jumping over the corner of a platform. Thus the upwards velocity gets doubled and (in this case) shoots you to the outer space. You could solve this by having a velocity "cap" (Mathf.Clamp) when jumping.
Although by far the most reliable solution in platformers is to use raycasting (Physics2D.Raycast) to check if there is ground below the character's feet before jumping.
– You spend half of the game off-screen. About 50% of the screen is needlessly filled with the ground which makes you leave the screen when jumping. Look at a screenshot of 'Super Mario Bros.' – the absolute minimum of the screen is taken by the ground.
Not to mention you can leave the screen through both left and right side (you could just add a simple box collider at the edge to prevent it).
– The health isn't deducted reliably. I assume you hurt the player when he enters the collision with the enemy, but you should also hurt him at regular intervals while he continues to collide with the enemy, otherwise, you can stand still after the initial contact and nothing will happen.
By the way, if you don't want them standing on the top of your head when they fall on you, there's a way to make one-sided colliders ("PlatformEffector2D") which only cause collisions if you jump on top of them.
You can check the collision direction for yourself as well (collision2D.GetContact(0) → ContactPoint2D).
– The graphics are a bit blurry (image resolution?), the animations only move the legs, the tiles are too repetitive, you didn't change the default 'Camera blue background' and there's no audio – although this all stems from the fact that it's a cancelled project
– There's no point of a 'Quit' button in a WebGL build, but a 'Restart' button would be much more useful. Also, in the Player Settings in Unity, you can switch from the default template to "Minimal" which will get rid of the "unity WebGL" footer

All in all, I still maintain that it's a very good 'first game attempt' and wish you good luck with your future games!

[Escape The Deep]

That magical vault door sure is a time-saver. ;)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzFCKZ7WnoptaEs0c3YtYTZLVkU

selfdefiant responds:

lol, nice find!

[Team Kappas Epic Game]

With the foreword you wrote, I quite expected something awful, but actually it's not half bad.
Well… obviously, it's incomplete, consists just of platforms, water and doors with no other elements (e.g. enemies, collectable items, utilities like ladders, switches, trampolines…).

On the other hand, it seems you made sure that what *is* in the game, works fine. The movement is all right – no lagging or getting stuck (although the gravity maybe should be larger), you can't jump through left/right screen boundaries and when you jump though the upper one, there's even an arrow telling you where you currently are. There's a bunch of levels and the colour pattern changes every few few levels (by the way, water nor lava should hover in the air as it does in some levels). There's an end screen as well, so the game doesn't just end abruptly (although you can't return to menu from the last screen).

So in short, this could be a good game prototype, but not a finished game. Anyway, it looks like you know what the game is currently missing, so good luck if you decide to complete it one day. You're on the right track.

[Lost Path1.0]

Well... it's helpful to write the game's controls in the description, because rotating camera by holding right mouse button is rather cryptic and user unfriendly. And I couldn't figure out how to swing the sword, which should probably be the the most easily accessible command (if it's implemented already), e.g. left mouse click. Sometimes while going into the gaps between buildings, your movement animations can turn themselves off, so you just float around until you jump. The graphics are of course great, but you should perhaps alter the scale – now the main character is just as tall as a door (should be like ± ¾) or as a castle gate with a portcullis (which should be way bigger). The knight on the street doesn't have a collider, you can pass right through him. Also, since there are no shadows, the main character seems to "float" over the ground instead of walking. And assuming the transparent grid in the corner is supposed to be an inventory, part of it appears off screen (speaking of which, perhaps it'd be good idea to add a fullscreen switch).

If it's your short promo game, it can't just look good. It has to be fun to play, even if for a mere couple of minutes. Now, there's a pretty game, with cryptic camera control and bare minimum of interactivity. Anyway, I assume this isn't the final version, so good luck getting there, and good luck with your application.

[Toon Escape: Playground]

There's a bug which may be encountered right at the start of the game. The POP vending machine can be clicked repeatedly to spawn a lot of keys which fill your inventory space. They're invisible until you click them, and getting a key this way disables the description box. It's the same key you get by cutting the string, so the vending machine probably shouldn't be clickable at all.
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/c599f582834b28d677d2579a06e2dbe2
The bushes in front of the restrooms don't do anything upon being clicked and don't have a description either, but as far as I know, they cause no bugs.
Also, the "Credits" button on the ending screen doesn't work (unlike the one on the first screen).

Aside from that, the game was good, I think the colour puzzle was clever, and I like the fact the playground's fence had its own description explaining why can't you simply climb over. The bike bowl part seemed a bit weird though (it didn't look so deep you couldn't climb back without a bike), but nevermind. The medal works fine.

selfdefiant responds:

Thanks! Fixed the bug. :)

[Sketch Ball Fun Mobile Game]

The problem is, nothing ever changes, there's nothing to break nor collect, the ball doesn't speed up, so all you do is click at regular intervals to gain a single point. And sometimes not even that; from time to time the ball just bounces from left to right without coming down for up to twenty seconds.

*Boing*–click–*boing*, *boing*–click–*boing*, *boing*–click–*boing* isn't really "very addicting"; it's actually rather monotone. If you lose, it's mostly because of losing patience, not because the game gradually became harder.

[Lost Escape Castle]

I faced the same problems as the other two reviewers. Couldn't find the box with the letter lock (and ended up with scanning each screen waiting for the cursor to change) and I had to watch the walkthrough to figure out Gilroy – if it's meant to represent the WW2 drawing as Stefanielouise says, then I believe it's spelt "Kilroy". No medal here either – the "medal unlocked" popup shows up, but the medal doesn't get unlocked.

I often wonder how certain tasks in your games can somehow produce a key out of a nowhere. Tasks like watering a plant. Feeding a squirrel. Or putting three pearls on a bracelet. That's the kind of thing which drags down the quality of your games towards the generic escape games the portal is filled with. Your games aren't just few screens cluttered with out-of-place clues and puzzles; they're better! At the very least, you are consistent and loyal to your setting. So why always not to logic?

This is one of your shorter games, no need to nitpick further, but what I appreciate here though, is the explanation in the beginning (exploring & twisted ankle & no cellphone sounds definitely better than "you woke up in an abandoned house and the door is locked.") Also, thanks for getting rid of the redirect in the end.

selfdefiant responds:

Thanks! I don't know about the logic. I try to stay as real as possible. I guess you are right about a necklace giving a key. I will come up with some more realistic ideas. It was just a word I came up with, no intention other than that was meant. Thanks again.