Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Seraph - Demo]

It's a great game, even as a concept. The gameplay is very enjoyable, aesthetics are pleasing. Dashing mid-air until you run out of “stamina” is a cool concept. And I loved the tutorial with the ghost clone of yourself showing you around.

I probably missed a couple of optional areas since the road I chose seemed to be the correct one to reach the boss. I was wondering what the flames you're collecting actually do, since I've had a full bar for the latter half of the game. I passed it to the tree (?) which recoloured my animations but I still don't really know what changed (was it a damage boost of some kind?).

I'm glad for the checkpoint system, and it's placed very well so the game never becomes frustrating because later on, it's quite easy to die with all the floating danger and spikes. Even the boss's health is saved. Death traps send you to the last safe platform, too.

The boss himself seemed more like a challenge during the ascent, the actual boss room was very easy. As long as you keep moving, you're invincible, and the boss doesn't change tactics, so it's really about dashing up to him a few times and he's done for.
He's a giant skull; I'd add a few directly damaging attacks aside from the exploding skulls you've already seen.

Yeah, the no sound/music is a shame, and would definitely be my number one complaint if this was supposed to be a finished game.

It is a very good game in all regards, I'm excited to see where you take the concept.

Magiclaw responds:

Thank you so much for the great feedback!
The recoloring animations is actually all the flames do. I tried thinking what I can do with it, but this feature was added on at the very end when all the platforming was already completed. For sure it can feel underwhelming, but it's a feature that I wouldn't be fully happy with unless it wasn't this very short demo..

As for the boss, I'd agree it's a little easy, it could benefit indeed from different attacks, but tbh when I play tested this game on my friends a few had really hard times with it so while it could be harder, I think currently is a good-enough middle ground, at least for the 1st boss.

Thank you so much for the positive comment :)

[Karate Battles]

This is definitely a big improvement over the first version.
Now it feels like an actual fight, and the opponent fights back. And there's a joke if you win.

What could use improvement now is probably input handling, so the controls feel more fluent and responsive. E.g. while holding an attack key, you are blocked from moving until you release it (there isn't a timeout or priorities etc.). I can stop mid-air by jumping and holding K, and wait there until I have an opportunity to kick the enemy who cannot hurt me up there.

But really, what a leap from the first version; well done!

DoubleItch responds:

Thanks!
I did try to fix those but with the method I'm using to code I don't think the way I was doing the coding in order to make that not happen wouldn't work, but I still accept the positive notes.
And I'm glad you enjoyed my game.

Oh there's also a bonus if the timer runs out. it can go 3 ways depending on the health

[I tried remaking Street Fighter 1]

It's a good start; the core mechanics are there, the animations and pixel art are stellar, but unfortunately, there's very little gameplay yet.

If you figure out the controls, you can easily win by repeating any single attack; the enemy makes no effort to engage in combat with you if you stay far, or react to your moves when you come close.
When the opponent collapses (and floats above the ground), he still has a bit of life left (not to mention he uses your name and icon). You can walk behind his body, but your feet still touch the ground in front of him, and you can briefly appear even lower partially beyond the bottom edge by performing certain moves while jumping.
The parallax effect is nice but slightly confusing because even though the perspective of the background *and* foreground changes, your character's doesn't, so it looks a bit weird.

I know you mention you're going to be updating this, and you're probably aware of most of the issues mentioned – but we should still be rating the current version, not the “potential” of the game.
Good luck with further development!

DoubleItch responds:

had to delete my previous reply so I could do it again, but I have sort of updated my game, although it was more like I changed it completely, but I promise it should work a lot better. here's a link. https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/882645

[MAZE-GENERATOR]

It's really not much…

First of all, it's not a “generator” (there's no random maze here that gets procedurally generated), it's more of a drawing tool on a 10×10 grid. Furthermore, you don't see it top-down but in perspective, so any maze would be relatively hard to design, especially since there are zero customization options. And if you manage to create a maze after all, there's no way to “play it”, export it, or share it with someone else. I would probably have a better experience designing a maze by coloring cells in an Excel sheet, and it would be a more flexible and portable solution.

Looking at it as a game doesn't add much more merit to either. It's definitely not a “puzzle platformer” as categorized. To its credit, there's a sound, a way to restart the maze, and what is there works without bugs; but it still feels like a game of Snake in which you have to move manually 1 tile at a time and can't win or lose.

I can see it as a base of something cool if you decided to build upon the idea, but as of now, I think most people will click around a couple of times, close the game and forget about it soon.

lucasoliveira1992 responds:

Arigato

[All the King's Men]

This is honestly a brilliant concept for a game. I was hoping the king himself would join the fray in the final level for absolute mayhem, but still, what a fun idea.

I think making the scoreboard “Level reached” is a strange choice because it puts everyone who completes the game on the same score. Perhaps “Fewest defeats on game completion” would be more varied?

Good luck in the game jam!

3p0ch responds:

Thanks, and good call about the scoreboard -- I've updated the NewGrounds version with a death counter.

[Bit Gunner]

Pretty well-made minigame, a pity it doesn't go any further.

– I like the little things that make playing the game feel good. The stretch on the gun when shooting, the sound effects, the clear contrasting colours. Love the sweating sprites when you lose health.
– There's no increase in difficulty, no new enemies, and hearts are plentiful, so you pretty much lose when you get bored
– How about a counter for enemies killed connected to a global scoreboard (https://www.newgrounds.io/​)? It could prolong the lifetime of the game.
– After you die, you have to click on the “Start” button twice to restart. It first begins to play music, and then the second click loads the game.
– You can't shoot from a corner.
– Occasionally, dying enemies have a weird animation.
– The enemies may spawn right under you which depletes your health bar rather quickly before you move out

A fun little game, no doubt, but there's currently no reason to play it longer than a few minutes.

TrIckyJack788 responds:

The new update is out, and almost all of these cons are now patched. I didn't put a global leaderboard system, but I did add something else ;)

[Froler Run]

I think the gap between the final points tier and the rest is so extreme that you have no reason to ever “play it safe and slow”.
Also, I wouldn't make the box fall immediately after the start, but rather after your first click (so that new players don't instantly lose until they figure out what's going on). And maybe consider awarding the points on “bounce”, not on touch – because currently, you will always get the minimum of 5006 points, even if you do absolutely nothing.

This kind of game makes you bored really fast unless there's some competitive element. I would at least keep track of the player's best score, so you at least compete with yourself – or much better, connect it to Newgrounds scoreboard so that people may compare scores with everyone else.
https://www.newgrounds.io/

NassimSoftware responds:

Thanks for the feedback. Didn't know about the API. Yeah my game definitely needs a lot of improvements.

UPDATE : I have integrated the newgrounds API to keep track of scores.

[mini knight game]

I think it's a quite fun game, well done.
I like the art, the movement feels fluent, the jump distance and gravity feel just about right.

Yet overall, the game isn't terribly long – if you didn't always have to start from the very beginning, you could breeze through in two minutes. There aren't many game mechanics in play either, the danger consists solely of pits and spikes – although that is “sufficient” when the game is as long as it is.
I like the fluent transition when you walk between rooms; it looks great.

As for possible improvements:
– Sounds or music. If a game has neither, it usually feels a bit incomplete. Don't underestimate the effect a few chiptunes played when jumping or dying can have on the game's enjoyability.
– If you make the game any longer in the future, I'd seriously consider adding checkpoints. Repeating the same intro room for the 100th time just because you died to something seven rooms ahead will soon start to test your patience.
– You start the game by jumping into a pit which is an odd choice considering you spend the entire game avoiding falling into pits.
– I'm not a fan of the screen wipe after death; especially since it's top to bottom, so it takes an entire second until you're able to see where you're going after you respawn. I died way too many times by walking into the first pit while the screen wipe was still halfway through the screen.
– There are some tricks to make platformers more enjoyable, here I'd look specifically into the so-called “coyote-jumping”, i.e. be able to jump even a tiny bit after you leave the solid ground: https://youtu.be/vFsJIrm2btU?t=70
Here you have the opposite, and when I stand firmly on the very edge of a platform, I can no longer jump, which makes the controls seem unresponsive sometimes.
– You should probably prevent the player from walking back beyond the left screen edge. It can (and will) kill you off-screen.
– “You won” screen message is fine, but might seem a bit lazy. You completed the game; it's an achievement, so show the player something nice. Like the knight walking up the stairs out of the dungeon to broad daylight, finding a treasure, saving a princess… anything, really.
Here, you can still die even after you win because there is a spike on the side of the screen.

Don't get me wrong, I still think it's a pretty good game, but there are definitely a few ways to bring the quality up a notch without having to make major adjustments to the gameplay.

ReallyDumbNut responds:

thankyou so much, it is one of my first games. but still I am for sure going to use these tips. thankyou so much for taking the time to type this out.