Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[Simple Brick Breaker]

This reminds me of particular tutorial. :D
If I remember correctly, this is the state you get after completing it, and you uploaded it just as it is. That's really not a very good idea. Although you have a playable game of reasonable quality, a tutorial is supposed to teach you the basics and now comes the funny thing about game development: your own ideas. Why don't you draw your own paddle, your own bricks (and more kinds of bricks - e.g. stone ones which breaks after 3 hits or so, "lava" ones which cannot be hit (...)), boosts (duplicated ball, faster ball, longer paddle (...)), scoreboard or better win/lose notices, music (or just sound when a brick breaks).
If you follow a recipe 'How to cook steak', you won't find "put it on a clean plate", "add potatoes", "add ketchup", "grab beer", "use cutlery", but you do it anyway - why not here?

To sum up, the game is good, but also an exact result of a tutorial, whose source code can be as well copied. Add something new, something different, something yours. Then you will even be able to write (a lot!) more in Author Comments. Good Luck. ;)