This marks both one year since I started this review process to both help game developers and to repay my personal debt to Newgrounds for being so great and for me never interacting and helping the community as much as I should've back in the day. In quite a karmic coincidence, this also marked the biggest amount of games reviewed with 55 submissions! Usually I only need to review around 30 or so: I guess you game developers had nothing better to do during this month, 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 10-15 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: @Prox276 @BookerBlueJay @HeadbanGames @DrNeroCF @b-random9 @NoodleSushi @BenedictFogwell @Benjamin-soule @Vertuga32 @StuffedWombat @fattail @voter96 @adriendittrick @Tanooki81 @Prox276 @Crede @FutureCopLGF @bontegames @filipp8 @juanfilix @Mnemusyne @GenericToast @austineast @nullBinary @SuraimuStudios @kypello @EduardoAlonso @Scorchle @HartfordGames @AllySheng @jacklehamster @JelleVermandere @NastyOldWizard @OVERBOY @bozfloat @GabeMalk @HealliesGames @GuyUngerNL @keybol @humofish @ninjamuffin99 @VascoF @BWalter @mmattugh @Sonucais @esayitch @beepyeah @Miltage @MonoFlauta @catproX
While I do love all of the games (they are the best of the month, after all)...
MY PERSONAL ARBITRARILY-RANKED TOP 10 OF APRIL
My top 10 was (in no particular order and based on my own criteria which is nonsensical and changes constantly, heck sometimes it's even different from what I actually voted for there were so many damn good games):
What's that? That's more than 10? Well, when you have to review 50+ games, I figure I should spread the love a bit more, and all of these games were stuck in my mind. Cheers all!
BenedictFogwell
Holy crap man, that video is an insane amount of effort, even if you were having fun!
Thanks a bunch for playing my game (A heart apart), watching someone else play it like this is so helpful in understanding what is working & what is not. Additionally seeing people play a game I made really feels amazing; happy to see how far you made it!
FutureCopLGF
Cheers! I went back and played it all the way to the end since I was able to get in a more trance-like state when I didn't have to talk, haha. Gameplay is really fun and mind-bending like that, and while it is tough, I like how you are given the chance to recover as long as you don't lose both of your hearts (something I don't think I comprehended initially). Loved how the ending is constructed so you actually clash the hearts into themselves to make them one again: very stylish!