JorisRollfox's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mars Power Industries: Prototype]

The game looks & sounds astonishingly, and has a lot of smalle touches that show a lot of love & care went into it (like the little animation every 10 years that implies there's something greater going on). The only complaint I have is that I solve many levels instantly without being challenged, whereas others take me a frustrating 10 minutes. I would've loved to see more levels in between those two extremes.

Rarykos responds:

Ah, sorry, it gets tougher later on so that everyone can get to the more interesting mechanics!
Thank you for your feedback! Yes, the story is more expanded upon in the deluxe edition ^^ After the ending.

[Ghost 'n Toast]

Pretty enjoyable for 5 minutes, but after that you notice the lack of variety. It also doesn't help that once you get good enough with the controls, there's little skill left to master. Not that I've beaten the game, but it feels as if all you can do to progress a little is by retrying over and over from the start. As such, I would add 2 more lives (or perhaps you can unlock extra live for every 10 waves you cleared). At least don't make the bullets flash in bright colors, as it makes it hard to focus on them.
Btw, sometimes when I get hit the game flashes white & freezes.

LeviRamirez responds:

Thank you for the feedback, this game isn’t that deep and wasn’t made to be such.

Also. With the glitch it might depend on what browser you use, Your highscore is added to the newgrounds upon death so maybe the game didn’t recognize you were logged in or something with the browser. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[You Broke the Game]

While I love the concept of the game, I think it would be funnier if it weren't in the title. Nonetheless, it's a solid platformer. Though there are a lot of things that are just slightly off, namely:
- I frequently mistook "W" as jump, which is a shame as I never needed to look up.
- Furthermore, the difference between a short & long jump is so hard to notice that I only found out about it afterwards via the description.
- Why does the creature that helps me have the same sprite as an enemy? It feels unfair that I died from its attack which I didn't anticipate.
- Why does the timer keep running when I'm outside the game? I was typing feedback.
- Also, I wouldn't reset the timer per level or upon death, since you only count the total time anyways.
- Furthermore, it feels unfair that the timer is running during the first cutscenes.
- It also feels off that there is no "talking" sound effect during cutscenes. Anything would be fine, as long as you imply there's actual sound.
- Rats generally run away from you, but sometimes towards you which feels inconsistent.
- It's unclear where exactly certain enemies like the hedgehogs turn around. I would slow them down before turning, as this also feels more lifelike.
- I love the cloud, but it feels very unsatisfying that you can collide with its side. Just let me bounce up when I touch it, or at least go through it.
- The second-last room has 2 routes that both seem impossible. I glitched my way through it.

Anyways, hope this helps.

suVrik responds:

Thanks for the fair feedback! The game was made in 72 hours, so there are many issues like that that differ this game from a regular game.

[All-in-Gun]

The gameplay is quite nice, though it can sometimes be quite frustrating (I accidentally started multiplayer with no way out). The artstyle overall is quite nice, though some stuff feels out of place amidst the neon colors (such as the pistol). It could also use more dynamics (like the pistol squishing & stretching when it shoots) and something more interesting than cubes (merely putting a face on them would make them much more lively).

I would also like it if the upgrades came a bit sooner, such that you can retry the game with a different one (also because I suck so much at this game that I shot the wrong upgrade).

Also, why only the spacebar, why not any key?

Prox276 responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I made the spacebar the only key because people kept hammering the keyboard to shoot faster. I forgot to remove this limitation after adding a delay between shots. I also stopped working on the game to move on to other projects. I still really apprecialte your comment!

[Moonicorn's Cookie Quest]

The artstyle is cute, though it could use some squish & stretch to feel more lively. More importantly, its few inconsistencies pull you out of the experience (like the 3D floating cookie even though everything else is 2d). It's also hard to tell the shape of each hitbox from the art, especially of your own character. Regardless, I would make it smaller to give a bit more lenience (though only when measuring whether you hit a spike, for landing on platforms it's fine right now). Dying from hitting a single pixel of a spike feels unfair, whereas if your entire feet touches it it is understandable.

Regarding the level design, I like the first few levels the most. Why? Because they rely on platforming-skills instead of timing skills (though I do think you continue to add variety at the right pace). The most interesting ones are the cookie-gravity levels, though it's sometimes hard to tell how exactly it works (sometimes I turn only once I've hit the cookies, but other times already in the air).

Also, why only allow the mouse button? Why not any button?

JohannesGross responds:

Thanks for the detailed feedback! I will consider this in the next update.

This game was first designed to be played on mobile, the touch function was replaced with a click function. Using any button could be implemented easily, never thought of that.

[Unnamed Chick Game]

This may be the most straight-to-the-point platformer I've ever played.
The mechanics are fun & unique yet quickly communicated as you breeze through the levels.
A speedrunner mode would suit it well.

nyunesu responds:

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked. I try to make snappy controls and straight-up games usually. I'll try to add speed-run mode to my next games (:

[nobody]

EDIT:
Now that I tried it again I agree with davidpuralocura that the game is great once you get used to the controls (though the conservation of speed remains awkward and I still believe learning the controls should go much smoother), and I also see you added some of my feedback. So I added an extra star to my rating.

OLD:
I really want to love this game. Controls are unique & engaging, and art & music are juicy & atmospheric. But there are two things that just break the experience for me.

Firstly, the controls require way too much trial & error. In just the first few screens I had many times where I nearly quit because I though I had to do some pixel-perfect and/or frame-perfect jumps. Literally every single movement-mechanic took me a lot of time & frustration to learn, so I would advice the following:
Show the controls in the first screen, then I don't have to read the description out of confusion.
Also put 8 pixels around the player to indicate the possible shot-directions, and make them green when they are touching a wall to indicate that you can shoot & grey otherwise (do the same for the green bubble you currently use for aiming). Finally, increase the size of the bubble when you're holding the jump button to imply that you can hold it. I would also add an arrow showing your speed & its direction to make it easier to notice that you can conserve momentum. Also, I have no idea what the yellow diagonal jump does.

Unfortunately, I still ended up quitting after screen 7 or so because of the second problem: Conservation of momentum is bugged. If I have some conserved speed to the right I can reduce it by pressing left, but once I stop pressing left it goes back to its original speed to the right. This leads to a lot of awkward and confusing fighting against momentum.
If you ever fix this in particular, please message me. I would love to give this game another try.

Final note: when you touch the red blocks with a diagonal jump, you sometimes die & sometimes don't. That's just inconsistent.

mmattugh responds:

Thank you for your constructive feedback I really appreciate it!

I'm not up to much today so I'll make some adjustments that you've recommended and see how they do!

[seedrawer]

Decent proof-of-concept, but I don't see the value in trying this. If you would've shared the code, then it could've been interesting for others.

leandrodreamer responds:

yea, that was a dumb experiment, the first procedural test of what at the end become the level generator in my other game named Proom https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leandrodreamer.proom

[Unprepared Adventurer]

I love the concept, but I think the game is lacking in two core aspects: information and game juice.

Regarding information, I feel there is a lot going on that isn't intuitive. I kept asking questions such as: Why does a fireball fly through my shield? Does my sword damage the golem? Why can't I hit the mage with a shield?
I eventually understood you were going for a weapon-triangle, but these things don't make sense intuitively. For clarity, the shield could be smaller and the fireball bigger such that it makes more sense (the sword could also have magic runes engraved to explain why it can hit the fireball). The golem should use the same shield as you, and the mage could look more etherreal to explain why a shield wouldn't do much.

Secondly game juice: the game doesn't feel sattisfying to play. The easiest way to fix this is adding feedback to the player's actions. Currently, I harldy notice it when I hit an enemy or the enemy hits me. Whenever someone is hit, let the blow push him back and splatter his blood across the room, use imagery and sounds that emphasize the weight of the punch and how seriously it hurts. If the blow kills him, show the amount of damage the player has done by exploding him into bones and blood. If the player gets hit, do the same and shatter a heart in the top-left and let it rain down blood across the screen.

These are all just suggestions of course, but I hope I gave you some inspiration :)

PeterMX responds:

Whoa, thanks for the feedback!
There's a lot of stuff in your comment that I didn't think about, I'm especially interested in the shield and fireball combination. I also agree on the game juice aspect so I'll definitely add that to my updates list.
Comments like this are my favorites because it shows how much thought you put into my game even if it wasn't that great, once again thank you!

[100 Bullet Dungeon]

Firing a massive amount of bullets and the sound it makes feels very rewarding.
Though I think the game would be more interesting with far less than 100 bullets, as I never ran out.

Unfortunately, having to replay the entire game because I died once discouraged me, especially since I lost a lot of my health to two spikeballs that kept pushing me back & forth. I understand that there is knockback, but at least allow me to keep moving my character.

Having a lot of health also means it takes a lot of mistakes untill you die, unless you get cornered after which it's over before you know it. I would reduce the amount of health, and push back all nearby enemies when you take damage.

Speaking of enemies, while they are quite interesting, they do not form much of a challenge.
To make the blue slimes an actual danger I would also let them eat bullets that lie on the ground. Besides, I would color the bullets they shoot at you in a different color, as I was confused at first.
I also think that the armadillo's should be invincible and reflect bullets back when they are in their ball-form, because currently you can kill them before they can reach you.
Furthermore, I think enemies shouldn't attack you only when you come within a certain distance, because now you can just shoot at them from a distance.

Finally, I understand that the boxes in the room add more things to shoot at, but having to pick up hearts is obnoxious and doesn't add anything to the experience (especially since they block bullets, preventing them from hitting boxes behind them). I would just let them fly to you once you've destroyed the box.

It was a fun game, but it also has a lot of untapped potential.
So I hope this helps :)

Thoof responds:

Hey, appreciate the feedback. Considering doing an expanded release of this game at some point, so it really helps.
The "too much health" thing was mostly because I didn't have time to implement some sort of checkpoint system, so I added in lots of hearts to try and ensure that players could make it through (Unfortunately I didn't know that the spike balls could stunlock you to death).
I agree that 100 bullets is too much -- that was mostly due to the theme of the game jam being "100."
The hearts being annoying to pick up is a solid point, I should probably make them at least get pulled towards the player in the same way the bullets are.