Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[escape !!!]

Nice game.
To make it better, I would definitely adjust the text fields, so the text-edit cursor won't show up. And these games might get boring after a while

cass12 responds:

yeah thx it get bored cause there not much to do yet imworkingto add more helicoters morecities and even night artin it and more

[Bounce game(pl)]

Hi, neat game. I think it could be very good, if you get rid of few bugs and reconsider some things.
What I noticed:

- Mostly the graphics. It would really make your game look more professional if you spent some time with drawing the main character, the tiles, and so on. Now it looks just as Microsoft Paint. I don't say it couldn't work, but you should at least ensure (for example) that a wall is straight (not randomly placed tiles over each other with holes and gaps), black lines on wood are narrow, etc.
I don't know which drawing software you used, but Flash/Photoshop/Gimp/Inkscape/.../ might be better, as every model would definitely seem more fluent (especially in Flash, because it has vector graphics).
There are even drawing tools which can be opened online (http://www.ratemydrawings.com/startdrawing.php).

- Sometimes, the main character floats in air, although the ground is much lower. I don't know how you detect collisions, but if you make whole tiles impassable, you can't have diagonal slopes there, because we will have to go over invisible stairs no matter what. Either change the collision detection, or put 'stairs' everywhere (e.g. the way how it is done in Mario).
This link might help you, but I don't how well you can read in English (http://www.hobbygamedev.com/adv/2d-platformer-advanced-collision-detection/).
Yeah, and it is impossible to move while jumping, if you were standing by a wall before. So you always have to move a little backwards to be able to jump over a wall or so.
Also, I wouldn't recommend 'Shift' as the jumping key, because it pops up the annoying Sticky Keys (Klawisze trwałe (:D)) pop-up after five presses in Windows XP. If you don't like up-arrow key, the Spacebar is the usual pick for jumping. It's also bigger than the shift key, so it helps, because in platformer games like this, it needs to be pressed quite often.

- Please, make the character move faster in water. I liked that there's is an animation of falling in the water (just adjust the timing, because it plays in front of the main character, not above him), even the spikes sparkle, that's all good, but no matter how much I press the arrow keys, I can barely move left and right, that means I will almost always touch a spike.

- Wouldn't it be better if the spike hurt you just if you touch its tip, not its side? A clearer health bar might be better than the green/red cross, because players might get confused until they get its meaning.

- Touching a ceiling makes you stop moving forward. So you are jumping over a spike, touch the ceiling a bit, thus you stop moving forward and fall down on the spike.

To be honest, because of the last two notes, I couldn't complete the second level (I only got to the part with the lever), so I can't judge the content following it, sorry.
You might say it's a matter of difficulty, but there's a difference between hard difficulty, which is generally fine and challenging, and unexpected invisible walls with slow movement speed, which might be challenging too, but more likely it will annoy the players.

To sum it up - I think it will be a great game, I just recommend redrawing few models and adjusting the collision detection.
I hope I didn't make you upset by this review, I just posted some tips which I believe could make your game better.
Good Luck. ;)

[GRAIL]

Interesting idea, really.
The background colours fitted the dungeon atmosphere, I noticed the character animation fluency, which was truly perfect. Maybe the game could have been a little longer, but I know you had a time limit.
Oh, and there's a typo in the end (You died ** "timtes" in the process).

[House in the Hills.ver_0.]

It looks good and could make a great game depending on how you plan to expand it. I don't know if you plan to make it a horror, an adventure, or what, I haven't found any interactive objects, so I guess it's only the environment so far.
I will just sum things I have noticed while playing it.

- Mouse movement rotates the camera even if the cursor is out of the game screen area. It is quite annoying, especially when you need to move the scrollbar, go to another tab, or so.
- It might be better if the cursor was hidden, but of course it depends on how you plan to expand the game (e.g. crosshair, or a cursor for point and click adventure)
- It is possible to fall out of the map on few places
- Some trees are levitating (I noticed two in the starting area)
- Fireplace in the house (and few other objects nearby) has some clipping issues, which causes flickering if you turn around
- Maybe there should be ambient music aside from the rain, but I know it's just a demo so far
- The sound while walking through puddles doesn't sound like walking through puddles at all (it's more like shooting)
- There are strange green horizontal lines in grass
- There is no speed(/life) penalty for being underwater (not important in a demo, but don't forget about it later on)

That's all I could remember after falling off the map. ;)
Also, be prepared that some people will give you zero rating, solely because your game requires them to install another plugin (it happened a few times already), but don't let it discourage you. Good luck with the game, it will be great once it's completed.

[Fade to Blackout (LD27)]

I'm sorry, but this is quite annoying. Interesting idea, really - you need to make quick decisions, find the key points in text quickly, the backgrounds look great, but the blackouts are annoying, especially when you play it for the first time and need to get the basic grasp of the situation. Maybe we could use twenty seconds head start, but I know it's a really short game.

If you wanted to expand the game a little, it'd be good idea to make the blackout intervals slightly longer and add another level of complexity, e.g. finding a key/PIN code/mixing chemicals to make the antidote; because now you can just randomly rush into the right place from the beginning without even knowing what's going on.

[A Corny Platformer]

Three stars for the main idea and level diversity in game without bugs, but you should have spent a little more time on graphics development, at least for the main character model.
And - my personal opinion though - I think it's stupid to give medals for each and every level you complete. Medals should say "TehGuy26 achieved something special", not "TehGuy26 played a game".

StencylTuo responds:

There actually is a reason for those details. This game was made with Stencyl and is going to be fully accessible to anybody to see the root code and details. The purpose of it is to show others how to make an entire game (albeit still a simple game). While I am not really afraid of others stealing my coding (as it all works together, so in order to use it, they will need to understand it first, which is the entire point making it), the graphics are much easier to steal and use without my permission.

As for the medals, I'll try to add some extra ones for bopping x enemies, etc. to add some diversity to them :).

EDIT: Just added 4 secret medals. I hope you enjoy them :) (if you see this message).

[8-puzzle: Hex]

At first it seems like it's quite boring and easy, but then the difficulty rises quickly and it's hard to find the exact way how to complete a level.
Cool game, well done.

DasSG responds:

Thanks. I figured out that the beginning would be too easy and obvious to play, so you can skip levels up to 18th.

[Visit]

It should have been longer. It is nice start, but if you cut a story right after introduction, then it's like you burst a bubble - the atmosphere is gone, the story goes in vain. I wouldn't say anything against an open ending, but the story has at least to start for it to be possible.
I know, you say it's a very short horror game with no obvious ending, but I have just a feeling that it's unfinished if you leave it this way.
On the other hand, graphics are good, worked-through; animations are fluent - although the movement speed could be higher.

stevelovesguitars responds:

thx, very constructive

[GigaBuddy]

Interesting game with very creative levels. Sometimes difficult, but never impossible - just challenging.
But now I have a strange urge to strangle somebody whenever I see a yellow dot.