Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[Scary Maze]

It could have been better. In comparison with the original Scary Maze game, this one falls a bit short, because:
– You use arrow keys instead of mouse. Therefore it's not hard to follow a straight line, you don't need to be careful.
– There's no penalty for bumping into a wall, so you don't even need to be precise.
– In the original game, there was only one jumpscare at the very end when you needed to be really focused and probably close to the screen as well. Here the jumpscares are triggered at specific intervals, thus the first one will scare you, the second one might scare you, but the others are just annoying because you already expect them.

Also, the movement speed ought to be a little faster and the graphics is quite plain. But at least you were pretty creative with the jumpscares; there's a big variety of them, so it doesn't feel like you are being shown the same picture over and over. One problem here, I think the collision detection gets turned off while they're being shown, and you are able to pass through walls if you keep holding an arrow key.

Creativity2005Team responds:

I used Scratch to make it so it's not really possible to fix the collision bug when a jump scare pops up. I can improve the game I know it's long and a little boring. I will add more jump scares just because. This is my version of the scary maze game. Hopefully I will get to that.

[HÄŌS]

I agree wholeheartedly with TakuaDE. The sounds used really do sound like someone's moaning and it's a great idea to wait for you to move until a level starts – it's annoying to be killed right after a level loads.

My complaint would be that I nearly quit the game because I couldn't figure out what to do – it took me a while to learn you have to hold & release a key. I've been trying to change colour to cyan and collect matching balls or hold a combination of buttons to create an opposite colour instead.
It's okay to not tell us everything – but the fun is in learning what to do in the game, not what the controls are. So as for instructions, I'd just update the instructions to something like "Arrow keys for movement / hold & release WASD to emit sound waves".

In the full game, boss battles sound cool, multiplayer might be fun, but if you aim to create hundreds of levels, make sure you add new kinds of enemies. That doesn't just mean new colours and new button to hold; you could invent more creative (and difficult) ways to dispatch an enemy. E.g. a red ball you can't kill by yourself, but you can lead the comet to kill it. Half-coloured ball which has to be turned white by holding a combination of buttons. Or you can make a level where you can't touch the walls, the walls have a different shape. Or obstacles, powerups etc. Whatever you think would fit in the game while adding something new every couple of levels.

Good luck. It was a pretty interesting and original game, albeit sometimes a bit frustrating.

[Kitty Cat Adventure: Block Breaker Edition]

Looking at your games, I think I recognise where they come from. :)
It's great to learn with a tutorial – but try to make the end result different. That's the point actually. You want to learn to create your own games, not to make something hundreds of others have done before. This is the result of a course section, but you made very few alterations (in all of your games actually). Ideally, after completing a course, you should look at the game and say: "I have the basic gameplay now, what could I add/change to make it a better game? To make it my own game? A *complete* game?".
There's plenty of things you could do. New kinds of bricks, more lives (!), powerups, score, different art etc. Be creative.

Tutorials are designed to teach you stuff a broad audience can put to use, so the end result is always kind of bland, short, core gameplay with little to no original elements. Even if other people don't recognise it's from a tutorial, they'll see your game is "good enough"; in other words "average", thus "3 stars".
If you want to be a game developer, especially indie, you need to sprinkle the game with something fresh, new, intriguing to captivate the players – which really just comes down to "your own ideas".

Just some advice. The games can be a good base… you simply need to incorporate more aspects you could call your own in them. Good luck in further learning.

EthanBusse responds:

I totally get and agree with you! I've been off the development path with school and work, but I've started making games without using tutorials / Udemy. :) So once I have some time off school, I'll finish the small original stuff!

Totally appreciate the support! Thanks!