I must ask, how was your experience with ReFlashed?
Still working at it, bit-by-bit.
Lucas Gonzalez-Fernandez
@FutureCopLGF
Age 36, Male
Computer Guy
UMD
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Comments
Unfortunately, it was pretty rough! I loved the original Portal Flash game so I like the idea behind a demake, but the controls were really confusing (and that's coming from someone who is fine with the controls being different to match the more limited controls you'd find on an NES or whatever this is trying to restrict itself to) and worst of all, the physics didn't seem to work properly. Hopefully it can get updated since I like the idea behind it, pretty some sort of demake inception, a demake of a demake, haha!
Getting back into things today - appreciate the review on TT:NGC!
As mentioned elsewhere, we've got some good plans for the series in the future. It's a wishlist item of mine to re-visit this game in the future and add in some of the new features to come in future games, but it may be too big of an undertaking as some additions won't be backwards-compatible if you'd like to call it that.
We'll consider the feedback regarding the questions not getting their answers displayed after an incorrect guess - like you I'm torn on this setup myself. On one hand, the tools to find the correct answers are given in that separate section of the game & I'm not wanting to necessarily 'reward' the player by guessing incorrectly as they'll most likely encounter that question again on a 2nd playthrough, but on the other hand most trivia games will display the correct answer and there is some expectation of having that shown. I'm thinking a first-step towards some decision on this will be to implement 'tips' after a question is answered - something to hint at the correct answer, or a fun fact relating to the question on answering correctly.
The current, unofficial, uncommitted plan for the series is to release a new Trivial Trivia game every 2 months with a new theme featuring 4-8 trivia packs. Newgrounds as a theme was a great place to start, and honestly we're a little stuck on where to go from here.
As you touched on briefly in your video, some questions can seem hyper-focused on something or just not be fun to be quizzed on. Finding a good theme, topic, and good subject for questions and bundling that in a pack is a good amount of effort. So we really do appreciate you complimenting the amount of content in the game.
I'll end this comment with a fun fact: the 'your answer' display on the trivia page is indeed programmed as a button. With the current iteration of the upcoming game it's now just fancy text, but at the time it was the easiest way to highlight your answer and give it a good amount of contrast!
Cheers for the insight! I agree it can be quite tricky to find a solution for things like whether to show the answer or not for a question: I'm sure there's probably some sort of fancy clever third answer that satisfies both parties, but boy can it be hard to find whatever that is! Best of luck in your development!
Hey, thanks for taking the time to play Realise.
It is explicitly intended as an interactive EP, with the game essentially being a music video / representation of the lead single.
If you're wondering why it feels a little rushed in production, it's because I needed to release it before the snap UK general election. This is what the song is about. This game was a passion project whilst I dealt with losing my voice during the pandemic because of a work stress related incident. I couldn't perform, it was lockdown so I couldn't rehearse with the band, and our drummer left the country. So I did what I new - I program for work so I made a game. My goal was to do better than King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's "Infest the Rats Nest". I think I succeeded, at least but that's down to the audience not me.
(For reference you can play the KGLW game here: https://www.marsfortherich.com/)
To spell it out for everyone - the choices represent the options we're presented with in two party democracies. Two shit solutions, neither solving the problem particularly well, and neither being what we want. Democracy is holding us in stasis, not producing results that anyone is particularly happy with. If the game is rigged, how do we win?
I was definitely going for the outsider art approach, like you imply, rather an enjoyable game. There are debates around this topic, you can look at Spec Ops: The Line and Pathologic as other examples of games that are seen as good though arguably not "fun". Obviously my work is no where near that level but I'm one guy with a (new) day job that still leaves me feeling burnout at the end of the day. I made almost all of the assets, wrote most of the shaders, wrote and played the music. There's not a single part of that game I've not touched in some way. What I'm trying to say is that it was a lot of work, so being told I'm lazy isn't received particularly warmly.
However I understand you're reviewing *games*, and I have arguably not created one. It doesn't match your expectations and that's fine.
You do come up with some decent suggestions that I may consider implementing at some point - they will certainly augment the quality of the experience. Some of them were on my task list for launch - but one must prioritise when on a deadline. I had been testing the game mainly on web and mobile, so didn't consider the screen size on newgrounds properly whilst uploading. The tutorial was also something I hadn't really anticipated adding until a close friend suggested it kind of needed it so it was a definite last minute addition. I agree that it needs a little more work.
It's funny really, because your commentary and review is pretty much reflective of the feelings and emotions that I wanted the player to experience. The current political climate is fucked - people are angry. I hope you can feel the same exasperation with that as you did with my little game.
But I will not accept being called lazy.
P.S. The US has their own election imminently - this year has the more elections in it than any before it. But satisfaction with democracy is plummeting and authoritarianism is on the rise globally. Good luck over there.
Cheers for the insight into the project and your thoughts! Very interesting stuff to digest here.
As part of the feedback and review process, I do always want to be authentic and honest when delivering my experience and thoughts, and, well, I did have a rough time with the game! It's a bit of a shame because it is quite a unique, emotional and stylish piece in a lot of ways, but many of that was backloaded and I wanted to get across the point that I could easily see myself not even making it far enough to see all that because of the awkward first impression! While all of the insight you provided is great, to paraphrase Jackie Chan: the piece lives forever and needs to speak for itself because the artist cannot personally go to every viewer to deliver context and excuses, and so on and so forth.
Anyway, in spite of all that, I can certainly see that I might've overstepped the line and went from brutally honest feedback into straight-up bullying and insults. I like to sometimes exaggerate my feedback for comedic effect and to generate friendly ribbing, but I do still need to watch my language and word choice to ensure that I maintain a positive atmosphere that inspires artists instead of drags them down. I'll certainly try and work on my oratory skills, and I hope that you all continue to create some interesting art!
Your video made me realise that having the select a random background each time you play might not have been the best idea because if you get the same one multiple times in a row it just makes it look like we only have the one or a very limited number of them.
We are doing a USA version to come out later in the year so thanks for the really good feedback that we can take and add into that one.
By the way since you brought it up in the video, don’t worry about a copyright strike, we own all the music in the game and won’t be doing anything like that. :)
Cheers! Yeah, it was pretty wild how the randomization worked out to keep giving the same background over and over: just one of those insights that the video lucked out into showcasing that plenty of people might never experience! Looking forward to the new version and your other future developments!
No worries about the copyright strike, and sorry again that I keep holding your games up to incredibly lofty expectations: just something about the quality of them, most likely the top-notch graphics, that always gets my hopes up for more and more!
Really appreciate you taking the time to go through all these games. Pretty incredible amount of work, and I know a lot of devs appreciate this :)
As well, thanks for the top 3 ranking! Super glad that you enjoyed Stickyfoot. Made my day watching you play, from the frustrated rage quits to the celebrations when you nailed a run. :)
Cheers! It's definitely a bit of work to review everything, but it's very fun and nothing compared to the work y'all put into making these great games! Stickyfoot was a pleasant surprise and a wonderful, addictive experience: it's so easy to fall into the trap of giving more expansive games like RPGs top-billing, but Stickfoot hides a lot of quality behind its simplistic, bite-size facade and so I had to put it high up. Can't get enough of that vibrating reset animation, haha!
@FutureCopLGF No worries mate, as I said - I think you have valid critiques. And I agree - art should speak for itself. Which I think this does, but there is a line around accessibility, form and function, medium and message that could maybe be adjusted.
Thanks for considering my perspective here. The issue I took was less with a negative reaction (I'm a grown man, I went to art school - I can take critique) and more with the implied tone of 'lazy dev'. I know that may not be how it was intended but, uh, well that Jackie Chan quote rings true here too :P
Honestly there's been a lot of situation around releasing this that has been dominating my life for far too long. I'm going to go relax a bit, refill the inspiration tank, and then see what happens after I go spend some time having fun for a bit.
And, despite everything, thanks for the coverage. As the old saying goes; there's no such thing as bad publicity haha.
@FutureCopLGF Yay, I'm glad you appreciated the vibrating animation! I always like 'self-destruct' mechanics to feel like the player is exploding or disintegrating. :P
You should start archiving your Top 10 with a link to the news post in Playlists here on Newgrounds. I enjoy showcasing your reviews in The Tank Tribune.
applessmillion
Thanks for reviewing Trivial Trivia! Appreciate the feedback & that comment you left a few days ago too. We'll be looking to put some fancy new features in the next title whenever that releases based on your feedback and some other stuff in the works.
To answer some stuff from the video too:
"TeamTrivial" is a team of two, me being one of the two, and we just re-booted the series from some not-so-great games awhile back. If you think parts of this game were bland you'd really love to see earlier iterations of the series too. This is hopefully the first of many TT games! Game is made 100% with HTML/JS and was built pretty much from scratch.
Hope you had an overall positive experience with the game (I see you played it longer than me ol' Pico Rubber game so that's a good sign) and we'll be aiming to knock a game to a daily award hopefully sometime in the future
FutureCopLGF
Cheers! Thanks for the insight into the development, and yeah, it's a pretty neat trivia game you've made and I'm hoping the best for y'all!