Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lightkeeper]

It's definitely a well-made puzzle platformer.
If you created it for a game jam, it's all the more impressive because it actually feels finished. You could add some polish here or there, but there's a beginning, a sense of progression, and a conclusion.

The puzzles are fine. I thought they were harder at the beginning of the game, but it's mostly because it's a similar concept all the way through, so once it all clicks in the underground section, you can repeat the same with multiple colours.
By the end of it, I started feeling like I could use a new puzzle mechanic because the approach stayed the same for the past few rooms – but the game isn't too long for this to be a big deal.

I like how you explain the puzzle mechanics with visual cues, meaning you don't have to show a popup with a wall of text. E.g. when the line crosses a wall, it will play a rejection sound and flash red, when you don't connect the required nodes, they'll let you know with sparks once you reach the finish line.

And separating the lighthouse in an underground and above ground level with the finale at the top is an awesome touch.

[Cut Short]

I would never predict the final sequence. Very interesting; a very cool change of pace.

But I feel like you don't have long enough breaks to return to your primary goal, and mainly you also can't effectively make sure the house stays okay. (And it also could become pretty laggy at times.)
So the best tactic is probably to try to outrun the inevitable and find the right balance between that and mowing.

A cosy game about lawn-mowing, with the most intriguing twist at the end.

AleuxGameDev responds:

Thank you for the feedback!

[Maze Shift]

It's so much better than the last version I played and reviewed a week or so ago.
Many things I found annoying then were fixed, and this time, I managed to get to the subsequent levels, play with different kinds of weapons against new enemies – and complete the game.

So I'm happy, and it was fun.
I also should compliment you on one other aspect – the game is quite performant despite being a 3D Unity web game.

I'm slightly disappointed by the large enemies (demons? minotaurs?) – the way they're placed, you'd expect them to be a scary miniboss type with a smarter attack pattern, but they're no harder to defeat than the zombies. You can easily hide behind walls from them, but there's no need to – just open fire and they're gone. The large spiders breaking into groups of tiny aggressive spiders were scarier.

Graphics-wise, the “poison gas” and “fire” particles seemed out of place a bit (e.g. the gas wasn't translucent, was very bright against the surroundings and looked more like dots made with a brush tool). The spike trap could have been dark between the parts of the iron grill, to make it look like the spikes come out of holes in the ground, not through the ground.

But those are all nitpicks. I didn't encounter any major annoyance any more – on the contrary, it's a fine game. Well done!

[Maze 1]

It's a maze game, it has a start and an end, but it's very barebones.

Everything I see just says “default” me.
Default Unity scene, default skybox, default material, probably default sun placement (why do you need sunlight at the top of the walls, but keep the playable area mostly in shadow?).
As a result, everything blends together, so my biggest challenge wasn't the maze (which can be traversed fairly quickly), but figuring out if I was looking at the left/right wall or the floor when I quickly turned around sometimes.
Please consider using something to make the walls and the floor stand out, something that is not the default grey.

Some walls don't touch at intersections, so you can see outside the maze occassionally.

If you're using planes, make sure players can't see the edges or look from the other side. Your signs turn invisible from the other side, for example.

I mentioned the capsule shadow and some effect when you reach the victory sign under your platforming game, it applies here as well.

If you're preparing a harder version of the maze, consider adding something to do as you traverse to keep people engaged. It could be as simple as collecting coins thrown around the maze to accumulate a high score. Because running around in tight corridors with nothing else until you reach the end will probably fairly soon feel boring.

Good luck!

Edit:
Sorry, by effect I meant to do anything that underlines your victory, like a final “oomph” that concludes the game.

If you simply see a sign saying “You win”, it's fairly boring, because you can see the sign even from further away and nothing happens when you reach it.
If this was a race, it would be akin to winning when you see the finish line, but no response from the crowd or anyone else when you cross it, so the runner then wonders if that's it, or if there was supposed to be something else yet.

Usually, you want to trigger something to tell the player the game recognizes the victory, a small celebration – for example, a fanfare/applause sound, particle effects (fireworks etc.), or write the “You win” text across the screen.

WindowsTechNerd responds:

I have started making games and also I wanted to make this game in one day but it was almost bedtime so even though I knew how to apply a skybox I didn't have time and also I forgot to change the lighting because I was rushing. And also please tell me what's the effect at the winning sign. I would like to know for an update. I can upload a update of this but I can't edit the project ever since I deleted It on my disk and from my projects list. By the way I used to be Roblox dev. Thanks for telling!

[Garden Parkor (Level 1)]

It's fine! Definitely a very cool project for a beginner.

A quick little platforming level, with differently-shaped platforms with different materials, some of them fall-through to trick players. Also with slight changes of elevation (not much, but it's there), different environments with trees and flowers to jazz it up a bit.

Quite nice and a brief bit of fun, although obviously not very long and with some flaws.

I suppose my major annoyance is the lack of a possibility to restart (either automatic or manual) – a player should never have to refresh the page and reload the game to continue playing.
Falling off a platform should be expected in a platforming game, especially when you add platforms without collisions.

The level design could be slightly better – you provide various kinds of curved platforms, but you can complete the entire game by going in a fully straight line, except for moving just once to the right (while you keep jumping).
You could put some obstacles in mid-air to force you to move to the sides.

The victory sign is nice, but it would feel better if it interacted with the player somehow; some effect to let you know the game recognized your victory. E.g. a victory popup on the screen, a small firework, etc.

I'm now realizing the game doesn't have sounds. You can do without music, but sounds can significantly support the feel of the game, and some funky jumping sounds would make the game a lot better.

To rattle off some other suggestions you might even be aware of yourself:

– The angled platforms consist of overlapping blocks, which don't align well at corners and also result in Z-fighting (texture flickering because it's the same height and it doesn't know which object to draw in the front).
Ideally, make one of the blocks slightly taller (they'll still overlap, but it won't Z-fight), make the blocks only touch but not overlap, or recreate the model in some tool which allows extruding faces, like Blender, or even ProBuilder inside Unity.

– The materials seem to only have the albedo (colour) texture and the same material settings, making everything look shiny and reflect light like it's a uniform piece of metal. Most visible with the grass material.

– The grass texture is somewhat stretched on large blocks.

– The capsule of the player casts a shadow. It's fine to be a capsule, but I'd disable the shadow (players don't need to know)

– It'd be nice if there was some way to tell which blocks are fake and which aren't before you take the leap of faith

But overall, good job.

[Maze Shift]

It looks like a nice simple 3D adventure game, and I really wanted to give it a chance, especially considering it seems like a student game. There seem to be enough game mechanics to make it fun, and who wouldn't want to explore the depths of a cool pyramid?
But I had some problems, restarted it several times and ended up stuck at the same point, so for now, I think I have enough.

It'd be great if you added a description here on Newgrounds (with controls or simply just a description of what the game is about, possibly with pictures). That's your opportunity to excite and prepare future players, and if nothing else, it makes your game more professional.

First of all, this game absolutely cannot be played without fullscreen. The UI canvas doesn't scale with the screen (and the elements aren't anchored correctly), so you don't see half of the screen with the default resolution.
And then, accessing the options to toggle fullscreen is bound to 'Esc', but that also cancels fullscreen. So whenever you want to change something in the options, be ready to turn the fullscreen mode back on again.

My first failed playthrough was over when I couldn't read anything on my way to the pyramid (no fullscreen yet), and missed collecting the shovel and a weapon before the pyramid sealed shut. I don't think you should allow people to enter before they have the full loadout. Might be a nice trick for challenge runs (if you can even complete the game without tools and weapons), but a lot of beginners will potentially get burned.

When you fall into the hole, you're stuck (unless I missed a way to clear the rubble there somehow). If it's intended as a trap, then you should either offer a way to get back up (might be preferable this early in the game), or just add spikes to kill people. Never let people stare at a wall, trying to figure out how to escape when it's not possible, making them frustrated/bored until they realize they're meant to manually hit the restart button.

Too many hints and messages also spoil the game a bit. Don't worry, you needn't tell me about the dangers of spiders, I'll figure it out very soon after the first one bites me and I get hurt. You shouldn't tell me the solution to a puzzle in an adventure game before I even began to think about your “darkness” riddle (it's okay to do so after some time when someone seems to struggle).
You absolutely do not need to warn me about a pit as I'm running and preparing to jump over it, nor do I need to know about a door closing before they even start doing that.

The stone doors are *very* loud in comparison to everything else. Also once, the entrance door moved more than it should have, and it left a see-through gap at the top.

Spiders aren't the most exciting enemies to fight, but I imagine it gets better later in the game.
The introductory room is fairly plain and feels more like a blockout rather than a maze or something stunning to captivate new players. Why is there so much empty space at the sides and atop the building with the portal? If you have a large, mostly unused open space, try putting something large and majestic for people to look at. Plenty of games will use the first major room of a dungeon to set up to overall mood (e.g. Zelda has a giant statue in a desert temple).

There seems to be some shadow aura following me. Very distant areas are brightly lit, closer items are affected by darkness.

The trees outside seem to move when you get close. Do they have distinctly different shapes between each LOD?

The footstep sound seems to play slightly longer than it should have when I stop moving forward (possibly due to inertia?). It stops instantly when I jump, but lasts a bit when I stop running. Also I don't think I hear different sounds when walking on different materials (e.g. dirt vs. stone) but of course, I understand different footstep sounds aren't the most important things to fit in your budget or schedule.

And finally, I couldn't find the solution to the portal you encounter soon into the game. I don't recall any “rock from before” – neither outside nor found nearby, and the portal didn't seem in any way interactive, so I got stuck there. And once again when I replayed the entire thing.

There's more to the game, I'm sure, judging by the asset list in the Credits section alone, but even if I just say I'm probably dumb for not figuring out something obvious, there are many other flaws in the game.

I hope it doesn't sound too harsh, I actually think the game is cool even from the part I've seen, just needs a bit more work. Good luck with the project!

[Tabbith The Mouse]

There is nothing interesting about the game.

Virtually no gameplay besides holding a button, visually unappealing, the progress is way too slow (so at the start you don't even know the thing at the bottom is a progress bar), and the victory screen looks bad on purpose.
The only saving grace is being able to keep running if you switch tabs while holding a key, so you don't have to endure the entire ordeal and can do something else in the meantime – and that's a bug.

I don't think the game is trying to be good, but it's not in the “so bad it's good” territory either. Just a chore.

[Infinite Runner Afterlife]

It's mostly a challenge to stay focused on a mundane task.
The game looks nice, definitely; but the gameplay isn't super interesting.

The trick to the game is learning to jump slightly sooner than you think is necessary, because if you jump before the flame hits you, it's already too late.

Then… all there's left is repetition, as long as you are able to. The pace doesn't change, there are no new mechanics, the music doesn't change, the backgrounds don't change, etc.
If you remember to press the spacebar at set intervals, you can keep it up for as long as you wish.

Around 750 points, you realize that's all you're going to see in the game, and around 1500, I mostly decided to give up. If I made it to 5000 to get the final achievement, I would have probably quit immediately after.

Most of all, the game is missing variety, something new thrown in the mix every now and then to keep you on your toes.

Also kudos to you for adding medals and high scores, and crediting everyone whose assets you used.

KobatoGames responds:

I get what you mean. I had made it to be a casual runner where you could relax and enjoy the environment. Maybe I should make that a separate mode and try adding a regular mode as well where the speed increases and it's more challenging. This is also my first time adding medals, so it's possible I set them too high.