Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[My first game (Castle)]

If this is your first game, then I'm honestly looking forward to what you create in the future.
You should remove the disclaimer and definitely, *definitely* change the thumbnail image.
From those, I was expecting a crappy quickly cobbled-together game that I'd be done with in thirty seconds – and instead, you created a short but fully featured game with a couple of diverse quests, multiple characters and dialogues – essentially bug-free as well.

Here's a couple of tips, although I'm not aware of what RPG Maker allows you to do:
– I wouldn't force the fullscreen as you start the game. Let players choose whether they want it. Also, on the web, it's not exactly "windowed" mode.
– Does the game need to be letterboxed? Why doesn't it take the whole screen? Even in fullscreen, the actual game doesn't change size, only the black frame around it.
– I'd add some kind of interaction with the cat before you know you have to retrieve it. It's probably the first character most players will talk to, and it doesn't "say" anything. Even "Looks like a stray cat." would be better than no interaction at all.
– Since you never fight, do you need the combat abilities? Does RPG Maker allow you to disable them? You shouldn't include visible features if you're never going to use them.
Similarly, I'd remove the path at the bottom of the map, since you can't go there.
– At the "Outside farm", you can only leave through one of the four squares at the left, although there's nothing indicating why the others cannot be used.
– I'd add more than two conversation options to some people, so it doesn't boil down to "pick the top option to continue the game".
– Does RPG Maker have some sort of quest log? You can somehow keep track of what you're doing now because the game is short; however, if you expanded the game, players might become lost in what they have done and still have to do.

The disclaimer somehow makes it seem like you're embarrassed by this game. Please don't be. Most people's first game is objectively bad – however, this one might be short, but it is *good*.
Good luck with your future projects.

bigboimeeb responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback, I'm already working on improving everything I can from what you said

and, i'll change the thumbnail... :)

[First Slide Experience]

Hm… to be honest, I'm not all too fond of this type of a game. It's pretty fast and it's easy to make a mistake which undoes all your progress; so you essentially repeat the level until you know it inside out and get lucky. Or get frustrated and quit.
You *did* put some effort in as evidenced by the different game mechanics (lava, bouncy platforms) which are a nice addition, although it's dragged down by the fact that it's not very consistent (e.g. many blocks have essentially random size and rotation) and by not including any sound effects (which you seem to be aware of).
I love your description, though! Good luck with your future projects.

PandaUnwise responds:

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback!

[Story Master]

I really like the idea, but I wasn't able to write anything yet ("2 players needed").
Like this, I think people will just pop in, see that there's nothing here and log out – at least I did, after fifteen minutes of waiting for somebody to join.

I think I'd drop the requirement; you should just let people write – but no more than ~50 words and a single consecutive entry. That way, even when nobody is currently logged on, a player can write roughly a paragraph of text as their entry and then check at a later time.

GMcLean responds:

That's a great idea, it looks like people are trickling in one at a time so that would probably work alot better. Something to keep in mind for a future project!

[The Curse of Malnoir]

A very good game, especially since it was made under time pressure.
Unfortunately, it largely depends on luck. The only time I won, I had two pieces of meat every night and used them both to save myself and the guard.

Without them, there's a little to no tactics involved. Once the werewolf starts chasing you, you've lost. He's too smart to be slowed down by buildings, too persistent to change targets. On the other hand, you get exhausted too quickly and even all your stamina can't be used to outrun the werewolf completely, just to prolong the chase. There's also no place to hide during the night (e.g. jumping into a haystack) and the guard is defenceless against the attack (it'd be cool if you could reliably save the guard by pelting the werewolf with a stone and making him chase you) and unlike you, he wanders about randomly, so letting him stumble upon the werewolf is an instant game over (and luring the werewolf away without a piece of meat, too).

All in all, I think the difficulty still needs a little balancing, especially the amount and regeneration of stamina, and your running speed. Basically, any feature which gives you a little edge over the werewolf and depends on your skill, not a randomly appearing consumable item.

And now that you have time, I'd change the ending pop-up. It took some effort to earn the ending! Show them hugging or something, don't just write 'Game Over' as if you lost. :P

punknower responds:

Thank you for taking the time to write me so much. You didn't need to do that honestly but I feel touched by such dedication. Thank you.

You are totally right, it is based on randomised object placement, and each time you get back an item, objects are reloaded and placed randomly. So you could stumble into 3 object in a day or none at all for 2 days. And I'm sorry if it brought you some meh moments during gameplay and I know it is not very efficient in its state.

All your recommendations are really good ideas and some of them were thought, like hiding during the night. We couldn't implement it because we wouldn't have time to balance the meat, the rock and the hiding to give each one a unique ability. For example, how long would you be able to hide? Can you hide only one time a night? Does the wolf lost himself when you hide? If he sees you and you hide in front of him, will he find you or go wandering like he lost you? Etc,
hese questions needed balance and balancing a gameplay is one of the most dificult tasks. So we decided against our will to simplify it in order to not give the player a too easy task. (I'm not explaining all that to look like a smartbutt, but I just wanted to share our vision)

And you are totally right, it needs balancing, especially what you outlined about stamina and that you could win a night without the use of critical items to give you a feeling of survival.
But let's say this idea born in this gamejam could be a base-prototype-idea for more polished and furnished little game. Still looking at this possibility if it gets some attention here and there. In its state as a game jam game, it's enough to have decent, constructive and pleasant feedback as you gave to me.
And yes the game over is a bit harsh and out of place. It's really not rewarding and well I wished I could have made that a bit better but I will remember your advice and will work on that on future project.

Thank you.

[RUN PIXEL RUN!!!]

The graphics are not the problem. Great games can be made with simplistic graphics (e.g. Pong, Snake, Pac-Man); they just need to be fun to play.

The core concept is fairly good but it needs improvements. I think it's great that the squares come from all four corners and not a single fixed spot, so you need to be constantly on the move. The best strategy I found is to circle around and through the gaps in order to bundle all the red squares together. And frankly, it's the 'only' strategy because the squares are too fast, new ones appear too often and don't disappear as quickly, so you need to get the red squares close together, otherwise, the screen gets too crowded.

Having to click to show the time (which doesn't update nor does it reset when you die, by the way) is just a bad decision. It's a distraction at a time when you need to concentrate, and it also blocks a small part of the area around you.
Because of this, I don't know the time of my best attempts (I'd say roughly five seconds) because during those I concentrated and didn't distract myself with the timer.
I think you should just either show the timer at the corner of the screen or your final time when you die (with a 'Retry' button).

There's also a significant problem with lag. If you click to show the time, the game slows down and then speeds once the bubble disappears again.
The same happens even during a regular playthrough, as soon as there are too many red squares onscreen at the same time.
This spike in speed can easily kill you. You rely on the blue square to follow your cursor at a certain speed. When that speed decreases, you move the cursor further away to balance it, but then the speed increases again, your square shoots towards your cursor to catch up – and you most likely die.
Delete the squares more often, or just merge them once they overlap.

Here are a few ideas for taking the concept further; use any them or none as you like. They're all geared towards giving players more breathing room, in order to allow other strategies than making circular motions in the center.
– Make the red squares slower. This allows the player to move around a bit more. Best time wins.
– Slow down the squares and add collectable dots which appear at a random place on the screen and award points. This should force players out of their comfortable position in the center and make them take risks. Most points win.
– Keep the speed but add collectable dots. Collecting a dot purges all the squares onscreen. Best time wins.

I'll repeat that I quite like the concept. It just needs some more polishing.

Edit – Bumped up the rating a bit after the game improved.

FoolProofGaming1 responds:

Thanks for the great ideas i'll fix the problems with lag and add in the dots - Max ps i'll see about making the game more balanced

[Hit the Bag]

Well, it's a test, but it looks promising. The attack sequence if you just stay on the ground and keep pressing 'C' looks especially great.

The 'X' special doesn't seem to do anything yet and there's no roof, so perhaps the particular version 0.04 isn't uploaded yet.
Anyway, I think instead of adding a roof, it might be better to add a cap on the upwards force you apply to the punching bag since you'll likely run into a similar problem once this becomes a full-fledged game. And then, even if the enemy is blocked by a roof, it doesn't look good if you can propel him across the whole screen.

A couple of times I ran into a jumping bug in which you would fall to the ground more slowly than usual after a jump – this is hard to reliably replicate because it doesn't happen every time, but I think it has something to do with with the jump attacks. The gravity or whatnot is lowered during the air kick but it isn't always reset to default correctly and all following regular jumps use the lower gravity until you perform another uppercut or air kick.

I'd add an attack to do while walking since now it's either standing still or the two jump attacks; nothing if you move around on the ground.

Good luck.

SparkliMotion responds:

I don't know what to say :000
But I'll try to keep this in mind
Thank you!!!! ^3^

[Sacrifice]

Well, this is a difficult game.
Overall, I quite like the concept – a story-driven platformer sounds amazing, the controls are also pretty fluent and there's a lot of different sources of dangers, so you know it won't be boring.

Unfortunately, it can sometimes be pretty frustrating, which mostly boils down to two things:
As the levels progress, there are more and more sections which require very precise jumping and every tiny mistake makes you repeat the whole level. Sometimes you need to stop at the very edge of a platform to make a jump.

The second problem is the crazy circles; those which bounce in whatever direction they want and never stop. The first one I loved – I thought it's a nice addition since there the circle is in a small, clearly enclosed area and you have to jump up while avoiding it. The level in which you drop a lot of them behind the player was also pretty fun.
However, they are downright irritating when mixed with the previous concept – precision and calm doesn't mix well with panic and randomness. It does ramp up the difficulty quite a bit – however there's a point in which the satisfaction of overcoming a tough challenge just isn't quite worth the exhaustion you get from repeating a level twenty or thirty times before you somehow get through.
At least the tough spot was usually at the start, not at the end of a level, so you could give it another go right away.

The bouncy circles can also sometimes get out of their intended zone and make the level impossible to be beaten (e.g. they get into a narrow passage or push other circles around). Interestingly enough, you can also bounce the circles away yourself if you get close enough but not too close.

Unfortunately, I didn't finish the game for the above reasons. I wouldn't say it's impossible, just too difficult to keep interested in trying over and over and over again (I quit in the "split screen" level with the square right below you, but was already considering it before).

I noticed similar mentions of difficulty in the reviews of your other game, at which point I'd consider removing an obstacle here and there.
If it wasn't too much hassle for you, I'd try adding the "Newgrounds.io for Construct":
http://www.newgrounds.io/downloads/
and add some medal (achievements) to see how many people finish the *first* level and how large percentage of that gets to finish the *last* level.
If all the players, not just the reviewers, appear lackluster (or just lose interest halfway through), then perhaps the overall difficulty is worth reconsidering.

As for other things:
– the 'safe' dark grey is sometimes really hard to distinguish from the 'deadly' black, especially if you're moving fast and see the level for the first time
– reading a text box which bounces up and down is inconvenient, in the intro, it's actually done much better, with the text hovering at some fixed point while the character jumps under it
– the short text ("Hey") stays onscreen a bit too long, on the other hand, you might not have enough time to read longer texts (even more so since its size is smaller)

Since I quit halfway through, I really wouldn't want to be unfair in judging the story – perhaps it's really interesting – but at least the initial few conversations could use some improvements.
For example, the very first exchange doesn't really say much, it's just "Hey" - "Hey" - "I want to tell you something." - "I'm a little busy" - "Okay bye".
That doesn't actually say much – if it was a screenplay, it would've been cut. You played through the whole level to 'earn' this conversation, so the characters should say something meaningful to give information about themselves or to advance the plot (if it's meant to be story-driven).
It's also a pity that the conversations between levels stop pretty soon.

So in summary, it's a fine game and I believe it could be pretty good, but in my opinion, it's too difficult for most people to stay interested in finishing it.

BlackRavenGames responds:

Thank you for your advice

[Mork]

I like it! The jump controls are really fluent and reliable, the 'rewind' after death is a nice touch.

It's a pity you didn't create more than six levels, though. The last two were really more about speed (and luck) than about your platforming skills, so my favourite one is probably the fourth one which requires you both to be precise and fast, but a tiny mishap doesn't automatically mean you'll be killed.

I really think the level should only begin when you move, and not sooner. Like this, you have to start moving immediately after the level loads to have the most time possible, which is absolutely crucial (and annoying) in the last two levels. If the shadow only started moving when you do, this inconvenience would go away.
E.g. while writing this review, I'm constantly being killed again and again just because there's no pause and the level commences at once. Also, you have a level select screen, but no way to return to it once you open a level (unless you beat it).

A few nitpicks:
– Your shadow remains even after you blast into a puff of smoke (it should disappear, too)
– When you're about to die (killed with 1 life left), I wouldn't even rewind back, just puff instantly. Otherwise, it makes you watch the rewind and even move for about a half a second until the game finally kills you off.
– Is there really a need for an FPS counter?
– You also picked a monochromatic colour palette for the game (which is a good idea for a light/shadow themed game), but the puff of smoke and the life bar are pink, the level restart text is purple, not to mention the menu. Wouldn't it be better to stay within shades of black and white?

But what this game truly needs are more levels. You could introduce new features as the levels progress, too (for example a key you need to pick along the way to unlock the door, spike traps, moving platforms, etc).

TechieCrow responds:

Thank you so much for this review! It's VERY helpful! :)

I totally agree with some levels being too fast and this is something I am working on as well as adding more levels.

As for the levels starting immediately, I will add a "Press Any Key To Start" feature ASAP!

You can pause the game by pressing the Escape key (you can also press it to unpause) and that gives you a little menu to go back to the level select screen. Sorry I forgot to include the escape key in the description.

Now for your nitpicks:
- The shadow not disappearing on death is a tricky one to fix but is something I am trying to fix.
- You're right, you should just die instead of waiting for the rewind so I will work on fixing that too.
- No need for the FPS counter, just something I forgot to turn off. :)
- The colour themes are something I'm constantly improving on, I'm slightly colourblind so rely on comments like this to help so thank you!

As I said, I'm working on more levels so don't worry about that! But I was thinking about keeping features to a minimum, instead keeping it entertaining by expanding on the levels themselves by adding multiple lights you need to traverse through in order to even find the exit. Hope this sounds as good as in my head haha. :)