Final Fharmacy I, my new game, is out! It took about 6 months to make it. By comparison, my first game, Balls to the Brawl, took me around a decade to make. Quite the improvement in productivity! Not quite at game jam levels, but hey, it's a step forward for me and I'm looking to make more and more.

It's a little bit of a departure from the typical kind of game I would think to make: beat-em-ups, shooters, you know, action stuff. But, for my first game in a new engine, I wanted to start with something that would be simple, especially in terms of the control scheme (mouse only). Besides, I do have a fondness for these management sim games like Cook, Serve, Delicious and Trauma Center, and thought I could embrace their fast-paced frenzy fun to still have a good modicum of action and skill-based play. Combine that with my fondness for alchemy and wanting to make turn-based battles more fun and strategic, and you've got Final Fharmacy I!

I gathered a lot of nice feedback from the initial release of the arcade demo on Pixel Day 2020 and I think it helped shaped it. The number one piece of feedback I got was the tutorial, in that it needed one in the first place, haha. Even though I review a bunch of games to ensure their tutorials are great, I do find myself constantly erring on the side of not wanting to baby the player with a bunch of instructions, and end up not having enough instruction at all. For this, I doubled up the tutorial by both having an initial instruction overview, and then pertinent instructions right at the time you need them to reinforce that.

This game is a lot of firsts for me:

First time working in a new engine: Unity. Still coming to terms with it but it's working quite well and I think I have a good flow now. It's not as easy to make artistic changes on the fly like I could with Flash: I miss being able to draw directly into the game.

First time working with another person (besides my family): Vincenti Zghra made some great chiptunes for the game that really captured the RPG battle feel I was going for! It was quite the challenge to get past my anxiety to contact them, but I'm so glad I did as I think the music turned out amazing for the game and I feel like I've now improved myself by getting more comfortable communicating and collaborating!

First time constraining myself effectively: unlike Balls to the Brawl, where I was way over-ambitious and kept adding all sorts of stuff to it constantly, Final Fharmacy had a solid and minimal design concept that worked out well. There were only a few slight deviations during the work process, and it wasn't an issue since the code was written in a way that it was easily modifiable to accommodate for that.

For my next game, I'm planning on stepping up the complexity bit-by-bit. This one was a rather simple mouse game. Next, I might keep it as a mouse-based game, but have the mouse actually control a player moving around and shooting, perhaps like a Space Harrier or Wild Guns type game, so I can get some player animation practice. Then I'd want to make a game where you actually move a character around, perhaps top-down or side-scrolling, like a Contra or Metroid game. After that, I think I would be able to move to my ideal world, which would be something like a beat-em-up or character-action game like Streets of Rage and Devil May Cry. I don't want to make the same mistake I made with Balls to the Brawl which had wayyyy too many moving parts and complexities for a first game, but I do want to make a game like it again eventually by combining experience I get from games I make beforehand.

Every month I see to review all of the games that were nominated as the Best of that month, which you can view in the link above!

As a game developer myself, I know how difficult it can be when you are starting out and how tricky it can be to tell how your game will be received by users. After all, you know how your game is meant to be played, and you can't just wipe that from your memory when you're building and testing it!

Therefore, I record myself playing all of the games for 15 minutes and try to voice how I'm feeling when I'm playing it, so that developers can see how a user might experience their game for the first time, especially for things like tutorials. I also try to provide some advice as well, but it might not always be the best: what I'm really hoping is that developers can draw their own conclusions on what might need work from how I stumble through their game.

Game devs reviewed: @Maprower @DagonDev @Jasonario @Benjamin-soule @im-a-good-boye @DrNeroCF @TeamRobostar @Spider53 @RatThing @itsnotsimon @mmattugh @Dungeonation @MD-Wade @adriendittrick @moorlandgames @kypello @Hiihdev @Rob1221 @amidos2006 @jronn @jamesanimations @Cloud-yo @nullBinary @BenBonkGames @zorantronics @GameDanTeam @AmrGamerX @IFTed @JoelLikesPigs @MrNannings @Krystman @beepyeah @Thoof @bigcheez21

While I do love all of the games (they are the best of the month, after all)...

MY PERSONAL ARBITRARILY-RANKED TOP 10 OF MARCH

My top 10 was (in no particular order and based on my own criteria which is nonsensical and changes constantly, heck it's even different from what I actually voted for there were so many damn good games):

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 4 part 1

Everything in this game is smooth like butter. When it's fun to just move around in a game by itself, you know you've got a winner. Brings me back to playing Mario 64 where jumping around in the courtyard was a blast.

Kill The Kingpin

Awesome adrenaline rush of a game! A cool fusion of Hotline Miami, Mr. Shifty and Red Faction. A little glitchy at times with walls and such, but that didn't stop me from blasting my way through it.

Robostar

A compelling, mysterious story and satisfying exploration/combat gameplay makes this a metroid-like that you can really sink your teeth into.

There is nothing here.

I could've listed the whole assortment of games from adriendittrick this month, but I decided to go with this one which was my first exposure and a damn good one at that: it may look simple but this game has such good flow and direction to it to create a solid experience, greatly helped by the dynamic use of music.

Lure: The King's Gold

An innovative ammo system, a wacky story, and cool set pieces drive this game to great heights. Reminds me of playing Jackal: it's fun bringing down fortresses and impressive bosses in this game.

Jay's Walkin'

Excellent puzzler with a unique set of mechanics that both teaches them intuitively and escalates the action with great level design, all propelled with a goofy story and art design that tells the story of the greatest man alive!

Vestavia Hills

An excellent WIP game that combines the fast-paced fun of Hotline Miami with the arcade frenzy of a zombie horde mode for excellent fun! It's a little buggy but shows a lot of promise so far: looking forward to the final version of this!

JumFly Charlie

Feels great to get into a flow state with this game where you're dancing through the air, attacking to get your momentum going: almost like a vertical Sonic game (complete with the labyrinth levels for variety)

HP Atk Def

Another solid puzzler from Rob1221 that brings in RPG mechanics to make an interesting fusion which innovates on the usual roguelike formula!

Porklike

I keep getting more and more impressed by the games released in PICO-8 nowadays, and this game is no slouch: impressive design that involves a lot of tactical decisions and a great amount of polish makes this one to look out for (too bad I suck at it though haha).

Every month I see to review all of the games that were nominated as the Best of that month, which you can view in the link above!

As a game developer myself, I know how difficult it can be when you are starting out and how tricky it can be to tell how your game will be received by users. After all, you know how your game is meant to be played, and you can't just wipe that from your memory when you're building and testing it!

Therefore, I record myself playing all of the games for 15 minutes and try to voice how I'm feeling when I'm playing it, so that developers can see how a user might experience their game for the first time, especially for things like tutorials. I also try to provide some advice as well, but it might not always be the best: what I'm really hoping is that developers can draw their own conclusions on what might need work from how I stumble through their game.

When I first started these reviews, I would send an email to each creator to let them know about the review. Now, however, I realized I could just use the tagging system to notify them all in an instant! Yes, this is the level of technological intelligence you're dealing with here, people.

Game devs reviewed: @DrGeraud @Bretterick @porwaltz @GoodL @tozy @PsychoGoldfish @HealliesGames @MoeAnguish @KilledByAPixel @Rob1221 @YellowByte @SominStudios @MostlyMadProductions @LeSam @itsnotsimon @LeviRamirez @MDEV0 @Dezue @NicedenGames @AKTStudios @rmkubik @GuyUngerNL @ChacsGames @kbvpneofit @PatrickOReilly @dlodz @OmiyaGames @Munguia @JinxSpell @nightape @IceDrumGames @StonesOfAnarchy @Airdorf @b-random9

While I do love all of the games (they are the best of the month, after all)...

TOP 10 BEST GAMES OF FEBRUARY

My top 10 was (in no particular order and based on my own criteria which is nonsensical and changes constantly):

Dr. John Black Smith -

Great crafting game with goofy voices that has an excellent multi-ending setup where the choice is made cleverly through the game mechanics!

Blooming -

For hardcore people who love old school games like Out of this World: figuring out the really unique mechanics to get to the end of this game is a treat!

Bogus Roads -

Wish I had more tracks to play through in this fun retro obstacle course!

Resizer -

Rob1221 delivering yet another great puzzler: how do they do it every month so well!?

Guitar Munchers -

Starts out really hard, but once you get used to it, you just can't resist this game's retro charm and challenge!

GRIEVOUS -

Cool 'Binding Of Isaac'-ish roguelike shooter with some fun exploration and combat scenarios!

Bubu & Chida -

Charming, cute game that is over too soon! I need more adventures with these characters!

Spell Guardian -

Great dungeon crawler with some cool movement and combat abilities to use in the challenging obstacles and boss battles!

EXTRAORDINARY -

Excellent presentation and variation of gameplay mechanics - a real smooth and professional experience!

Sarah -

That story! WHAT A TWIST! And delivered effectively without sound or music, and without beating you over the head with a long cutscene!

Hope the feedback helps the devs out there!

SIDE NOTES

I did so bad reviewing Dezue's game: I was wondering the whole time whether I'd need to censor it or whatever that I missed so much, haha. Sorry!

I plan to be back soon with the final version of Final Fharmacy!

Got my new game finished just in time for Pixel Day 2020!

It was down to the wire and I'm still planning on making a few updates that I wasn't able to, such as hiscore tables. Technically it's not finished-finished, as it is just a vertical slice of the game that I plan to enhance and polish with a cool story among other things, so feedback is welcome to turn the final version into something great!

It's a small game, but it was a big step for me in a lot of ways:

*First time working in a completely new engine, Unity! So long, Flash, and thanks for all the fish. Can't believe how much easier it is to work in these new things: I kept catching myself doing things the hard way because I didn't expect there to be an easier way.

*First time keeping the design scope constrained to a reasonable level and finishing it quickly! It's no game jam game, but keeping it contained to a few months in a far cry from my decade-long project before. So long, feature creep: creep on me no longer!

*First time working with another person (apart from family)! I worked up the guts and reached out to Vincenti Zghra for some chiptune music and boy howdy did I get some! It was a pleasure to work with them and now I feel like it isn't so scary to work as a team with others!

I look forward to taking this newfound energy and making even greater games and working together with others! It'll be like a wonderful perpetual energy machine of happiness where everyone working together keeps building each other up until we explode like the brightest star in the sky! Ok, I think I'm high off release fumes.

And of course, I look forward to reviewing all these Pixel Day games in an upcoming video!

Hooray I finally finished the game that I started like a decade ago!

Balls to the Brawl, a side-scrolling arcade beat-em-up that aims to give everyone a well-deserved ego-trip, has finally been launched! Enjoy playing as Mike as you stomp across Shonen Island, crushing all manners of wacky enemies and bosses in your way to reach the end and face off against Ryu himself!

As stated before, the main core of the design was built around providing everyone a wonderful feeling ego-trip (aka power trip) to brighten up their days. I wanted it to be challenging, but in a feel-good way. This manifests itself in two different ways:

• For people who love games of old that had cheat codes galore, powerful heroes, and haphazard chaos: we have a bunch of modifiers to let them have fun in their own way. Want 99 lives to be as reckless as you want? Infinite power so you can spam specials? Just want to skip to a certain level? Go to the options and activate these cheats! The normal difficulty is also built to make enemy AI more scared to attack the player.
• For people who love games of old that were incredibly challenging and required fast-thinking and careful planning: we have a special hard difficulty that doesn't turn enemies into damage sponges, but gives them more aggressive AI that you have to stay on your toes for. Not only that, but bosses have all-new moves and patterns that they utilize! And if you're really looking for a challenge, you can even make it so that you can only coolly swagger around, cutting out running completely.
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The game has also been designed in general to have satisfying controls (cancels, subtle movement adjustments during an attack, momentum) and special effects (hit stop, screen shake, explosive gibs) to heighten the satisfaction of pummeling the snot out of enemies. Minimal downtime is also achieved by allowing you to do things like strike enemies when they are down, instead of waiting for them to get up, among other things.

This has been a long development for me, as the game was originally started a decade or so ago before being left in the dust for several years due to technical difficulties and real-life responsibilities. It was only a year or so ago that I dug it up from my old hard drives and worked to not only fix the game, but elevate its design to new heights to fit modern sensibilities. I'm glad that I've finally been able to release it, less than a year before Flash is dead! I'm also glad that my brother's soundtrack will finally see the light of day after being buried in my computer for so long.

I hope everyone has a good time with the game!

Got my reviews for the Best of May 2019 games from Newgrounds up on my Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhlX68ucZHI!

Once again, I blind-reviewed all of the games nominated for Best of the month on my Twitch and then edited it down for Youtube, and once again, it was a bunch of fun! One of the more difficult things for creators to get feedback on is first impressions, and I hope that my blind runs help with that. I'm also hoping my chit-chat and feedback during gameplay will give some tips to creators on how players move and experience their games, which they can use to move their works onwards and upwards! Just trying to pay my dues by helping out the community since I've certainly been helped by it as well in the past.

In other news, my new game Balls to the Brawl is practically finished now! I'm just gathering some feedback and polishing off the minor things that come up from that, and then i'll slap it on Newgrounds for you all to enjoy/ridicule! Look forward to it!

Got my reviews of the Best of April 2019 games from Newgrounds up on my Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ROc96__6D0!

I dedicated a day to blind-reviewing all the games on my twitch and then I edited it down for Youtube. It was a lot of fun! It can be so difficult to tell how people will interact with your game for the first time, so I hope it provides good feedback for all the creators here so they can move onwards and upwards! I feel like I didn't reach out enough to people back in the past when I used to be on here, so I'm trying to pay my dues and help out nowadays in any way I can. Hoping to keep this up for the months to come (though I might need to limit my playtime of each game to cram 'em all in, haha)

And yes, I'm still working on the game: Balls to the Brawl! The core of it is all pretty much done! The only thing remaining is some cinematics and such, plus a balancing pass after I get some eyes on the beta build. Hoping to get it on here for you all to enjoy soon! And if I rated any of your games badly, you can feel free to get some revenge on me then, mwahaha!

Man, it's been a looooooong time since I've been on here! I'm trying to get better at updates, I swear; moving on from being so anti-social. I've even got a twitter now! (shameless plug @futurecoplgf)

Anyway, I'm working on a game! It's called Balls to the Brawl, and it's modeled after the character Mike from my L337 kr3w animations back in the day! It also stars Ryu as the antagonist, same as before. It's a side-scrolling brawler in the same vein as Streets of Rage and all that. It'll probably be the last entry in this weird series I've had going as it does have a pretty cool and definitive ending, but we'll see.

I actually started work on this game years ago, but it fell into disrepair and I gave up on it. Classic recipe for disaster: I was really new at it, and yet I was overly ambitious. The fla library and such got bloated and corrupted and yadda yadda and I was spending more time trying to get it to publish than I was working on it. Then, as it is for so many other artists, real life and jobs and such came in and I scrapped the game, moving onto other things.

Several years pass, however, and I come across this old game during some hard drive transfers. Using my newfound knowledge and more powerful computer, I've been able to revive the game from it's dead and corrupt state to start working on finishing it in earnest.

Anyway, I hope to have it out soon(tm). It's a 7 level game and I'd say I've got around 6 levels done at the moment. I'll try to post some previews of it on here or twitter.

Just posted a new L337 Kr3w movie! Was a lot of fun to do, though I apologize that it took me a long time to post (thanks for people like robbie and others for checking if I was still alive, haha). I ended up having to split it into two parts due to Flash desyncing the sound as the movie went on. From now on, I'll probably try to make my movies more condensed, perhaps leading to faster releases. Please let me know of any comments or criticisms you have on my art direction; I'm trying to improve it bit by bit and experiment with new things.

New flash called Microcosm is now up! A bit different from the usual stuff I do, but I hope it still has enough of the old action for everyone to be satisfied :)

At the risk of being spoilers, it was a ton of fun to do the "comic book" look for Microcosm. It's been something I've always wanted to do ever since I was a kid, and it was a great experiment with masking and other Flash techniques. A big inspiration came from the FLCL "manga scene," which is a great scene you should check out.

I'm still working on the L337 kR3w series, and I expect the first one, Josh, to be done by...probably January. Look forward to it!