Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[[BTNverse] There is nothing here.]

I did not expect what is going to happen when you collect the final upgrade. I think it's a brilliant idea.

I was originally going to say one-hit death is too harsh, but it's actually perfectly appropriate, especially since the stronger enemies serve as barriers until you collect power-ups.
Also thanks for adding things like the minimap, otherwise hunting for that one forgotten 'enemy' in the last stage could have been frustrating.

Really great, well done.

adriendittrick responds:

Thanks for reaching the end :)

[Learning project #1]

It's fine, but since it's an endless game, it starts feeling repetitive eventually. For me, that mark was around ~35 when I felt I'm seeing similar patterns.
Of course, it's perfectly possible to lose, but I think I could keep going for a good while if I played it safe and stayed near the centre.

From a game design perspective, endless games have to have 1) good replay value (tick), and 2) evolve over time – which I don't think this game does. And without new elements being introduced, it's a matter of time before you lose out of boredom (instead of lack of skills).

A couple of ideas:
– Over time, slowly speed up the red block, or add more of them. This is the simplest way to add increasing difficulty to the game, but it does put some upper cap on the score if you don't stop increasing since there comes a point when it isn't humanely possible to continue anymore.
It also doesn't really add anything new to the game, it just makes more challenging, but shorter.
– Add a "challenging dodge" every, let's say, 20 points; stopping all blocks from spawning for a while and spawning a scripted red block pattern – e.g. waves, or concentric circles with gaps…
Make a couple of those, at least to cover 0–200 points.
– Add a slow-moving "gold block" every once in a while which you have to pick up, otherwise you lose.

And by the way, you can have an actual scoreboard. Newgrounds has a built-in scoreboard system you can use. See API Tools in the Project System, and this:
https://bitbucket.org/newgrounds/newgrounds.io-for-unity-c/src/default/

Its-Kaleb responds:

Thanks for the tips (especially for the score board) , I will work on it more

[Jamboy CANDIE]

It's nice, I like the style and the story sequences in between the levels.
The platforming experience is all right, but mainly it felt quite unresponsive. I can't count how many times I missed a jump because double jump didn't work, and the wall jump was troublesome as well. And fluent movement and good controls mean everything in a platformer game.

But the rest of it was fine. A couple more details:
– It was unclear which key affects which door. I collected a key and pointlessly kept jumping into a door, but it wouldn't open because it needed a different key (and keys unlock doors instantly instead of requiring you to go to the door, so there's probably no need to display the key onscreen).
I'd use a matching colour for the padlock, so that you don't need a lemon-coloured key to unlock a pink lock.
– The pumpkin has an exclamation point next to him. At first, I thought it's a "NPC" and you're supposed to talk to it… well, you're not.
– The number of jams you have can go below zero when you die (and probably shouldn't).
– The arrow keys move the entire page. See here for the fix:
https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/developer-resources/unity3d-webgl-support#wiki_toc_3

I think fixing the double jump's responsivity is the most important change to make, the rest of the game is quite good.

Nesteaboy99 responds:

Thank you for your review! I'll keep your feedback in mind for my next update

[Rena Game]

I thought using pictures as bosses is the weirdest bit… then came the hoverboard bit and pizza… and the ending.

But I did like the boss fights; the first duo boss took me the longest to beat, because instant death after being hit once in a bullet-hell game is quite crazy. But I think they were the most developed of them all, with the multiple phases etc.

During the second boss in Papa John's I think I encountered a bug – the bullet ratio multiplied every time I died, and once after dying I respawned in the middle of the ground and couldn't move. And then I found out the 'Continue' button only works until you refresh the page, so I had to redo the game again.
The cheat code came in handy, but you probably shouldn't give it out in comments, otherwise nobody will play the game normally (instead, show it after completing the game, or if somebody dies too many times).

tobyalden responds:

Thanks for the review! I just fixed the continue bug.

[Boats]

Honestly great. A couple of times while writing this review, I went back to play another round, because it's so fun.

The ships and mines appear close to the edge of the screen (luckily never so close to you that you'd have no time to react), perhaps they should appear just beyond for realism, but it's fine.

I also like the ship variety, although I'm not sure if the larger ships are any better than the smaller ones. The galleons look intimidating but they are (seemingly) just as fast as the small ships, which just makes them bigger targets. I like the "ghost ship"/"Black Pearl" kind, too, even though at first I thought it's a bug (it's single-coloured, and there's way too much smoke). Perhaps the larger ships should have a larger health pool (if it doesn't ruin the game's balancing).

The best strategy to deal with enemies is probably to lure them into mines, since with a single health point, confronting a ship directly is very risky, because it's nearly impossibly to dodge a cannonball when you're sailing towards it.
After you collect a bunch of powerups, it gets better.

I feel like you could have fun with the sea itself – it looks too calm. I was going to suggest adding a wave pattern texture, or some fake waves animation, but that would perhaps make it too distracting, since you really need to pay attention to every object onscreen.
But something like an occasional maelstrom pulling nearby things towards it could be interesting.

The cannonballs don't seem to be spawned in the muzzle, rather below it, so perhaps you should adjust it slightly.

Sometimes it felt bad if I had a cheap death after a particularly good round when I had to start all over again and I thought this could work as an 'upgrade game' to prolong the playtime, e.g. the money earned from each round would be used to buy permanent upgrades for the ship.

Anyway, thanks for this, it's a great little game.

PurpleClam responds:

Hey! Thank you so much for your great review it's exacltly the kinf of feedback I'm looking for!

You're right the larger ships are exactly similar to the others for the moment. I might add some health mechanic to both the player and enemies to make rounds last longer in the future.

I love the ideas of making the sea less boring and of permanent upgrades and I'll look into it. I'll see if I post an update in a few days depending on reviews!

[Endless]

Well, it takes 13 seconds before anything happens and after you dodge the initial two pillars, there's another waiting time etc. I almost thought it's going to be like that forever, but around 80th-second mark, the waiting times are gone and the pillars appear constantly which makes the game more intense, but also it's the same alternating pattern over and over again. I went along to 150 to see if anything changes, but it didn't.

I think I could keep going for a long time (because the game doesn't speed up), so it's more about losing out of boredom than because you weren't quick enough.

Also, is there a reason why everything is so blurry (all text and especially the main character)?
You can use 9-slicing if a small sprite stretches incorrectly:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/9SliceSprites.html
And Text Mesh Pro to avoid blurry text:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.textmeshpro@2.1/

The gameplay is too simple. I'd at least make the order in which the pillars appear random.

hoanglong12 responds:

I compress image size in order to minimize the game size !!
Thanks for links !!

[Coronavirus: A Text Adventure]

It's pretty interesting. Some plotlines and outcomes I expected, some definitely not (like attacking a guard with a sword in hopes of cleansing the humankind with the virus).

I don't think the intro is necessary. There's no denying that it's cool, and judging by my own experience, all those camera angles must have been a pain to animate… but it doesn't affect the story or gameplay in any way.
Of course, unless there's some ultimate ending or secret which takes place in the hospital and happens to *you* after you earn all the endings (e.g. you uncover tidbits of information about your situation and the hospital through the life simulator, and then there's a final cutscene). I only reached a couple of the endings, so I wouldn't know; but it'd be cool.

I also wish you could skip the typewriter animation (e.g. by pressing any key), because you go over the same initial passages over and over again and don't want to wait for them to load. I feel like I'd have to draw a decision tree to earn all endings, but it's probably fine, since things like checkpoints and going back would ruin the concept that you're controlling a new person, a new life after every ending.

So in summary, it's a text adventure in a really nice package, but it's intriguing and there's a lot of variety.

jamesanimations responds:

Thanks so much for the review! You guys have incredible ideas, i'll make sure to implement all of these. A secret ending where something happens in the actual hospital would be sick. Hopefully I can get this done by the end of the day before the game goes public!

[Eggs]

It's quite good. I like the variety with instant death eggs and bonus point eggs.
But the egg spawning needs a little more work because sometimes it's literally impossible to grab all falling eggs (two or three eggs at the same height, eggs at the opposite sides of the screen). When you lose, it's usually not because you messed up, but because you were unlucky with the egg placement.
You could either fix the spawning algorithm (maximal distance between neighbouring eggs), or you could alter the environment (smaller area, looping screen border…) or use mouse for movement (instant bowl placement anywhere on the screen, but it also makes the game a lot easier), or add a way to restore health every once in a while.

Filippo550 responds:

I added mouse control and the option to choose between keyboard and mouse controls. If you want you can check it out

[First Game]

For a first game, it's really good, although there are definitely some ways in which it could be improved. I'll just rattle them off quickly – but it's your game and your decision if the feedback has any merit and can make your game better.

Gameplay:
– It's pretty repetitive. I don't think it's very interesting to have to level up every archer again from scratch and by using a shared experience pool.
Then you're forced to make a decision between many average-levelled archers, or a single overpowered one and – as you said – the balancing isn't the strongest aspect of the game.
– Players probably shouldn't be in charge of advancing the waves by themselves. Leave some breathing space between the waves, but advance the waves automatically. Don't put the player in the position of "nothing dangerous happens, unless you voluntarily choose to" because a known phenomenon is that many players tend to choose the safe, anti-fun ways to stroll through a game without risk – which isn't very enjoyable in the end.
– The Restart button right in front of the castle is pure evil. If you need to shoot the enemies close to your gates, you could accidentally misclick and restart the game. Why don't you hide the restart button until the castle gets destroyed?
– Why are the enemies always spawned in a single giant cluster? Wouldn't it be better if they came in small groups in some order (for example start with 1, then send a group of 3, etc.)
– Are there different types of enemies later on? Not just with larger health, but with different abilities (for example enemy archers, or giants).

Also, if you don't know the game already, I heartily recommend you to take a look and perhaps inspiration from Defend Your Castle: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/102209

Bugs:
– Enemies only harm the castle on the initial impact, then they just stand awkwardly until you shoot them. They should probably attack like every three seconds or so.
– You shoot arrows even when you click on buttons (which shouldn't happen).
– The arrow does crazy things as it passes through the ground.

Graphics & UI:
– It's a bit simplistic, but that's okay.
– The UI is somewhat chaotic and unaligned. The plus buttons don't have the same distance between them, there are different font sizes (and some are too small)
– Consider using icons for damage, speed and accuracy instead of text. Just a thought.
– If you can, avoid using the defaults because they are too recognisable and placeholder-ish. Default Unity buttons, default dropdown, default 2D scene blue background…
– Why doesn't the ground go all the way to the bottom of the screen? The castle and the thin ledge now look like it's floating.

Still, a good game, especially if it's your first one. Good luck if you decide to continue working on this one, or with your next one. And welcome to Newgrounds!

CBernal responds:

Thanks for reviewing my game!
I will be working in some new updates and fixes for this week. (hopefully i can finish this for the weekend)

[Coinbag]

Quite good game, I liked it.
It would be nice to see an indicator of how many keys and coin bags you have (and need to collect) so you can plan better and don't run out of keys.
You can cheat a bit on the ground floor by going around the edge of the screen instead of unlocking the door to save a key, although there's a substantial risk of death if you miss a jump and fall. If this isn't intended, you could simply block us from going behind the edge of the screen.

GalefreeGames2 responds:

Thanks, I just added walls there because I like that the player can fall to their death XD