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FutureCopLGF
Still working at it, bit-by-bit.

Lucas Gonzalez-Fernandez @FutureCopLGF

Age 36, Male

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Best Games of March Review! (with video feedback)

Posted by FutureCopLGF - April 5th, 2024



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 the first time 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: @freds72 @ImmanentDeath @Diotoons @ShortCakeCafe @BLACKPINT @saltandpixel @aplovestudio @Chris @amidos2006 @EmsDeLaRoZ @yokoboko @nulledwine @ThatWormStudios @mateusboga @Night-Kolo @smartalloc @Octopus9000 @Veinom @CubePunks @tonyfinale @brokellusion @Murgn @rmcco @UnitedFailures


While all of these games were the best of the month...


MY PERSONAL ARBITRARILY-RANKED TOP 10 GAMES OF THE MONTH


My Top 10 was (in sort-of ranked order and based on my own criteria which is some weird sense of 'memorability' for me personally and totally subject to genres I like and I don't feature an author twice even if they had two good entries so as to spread the love etc etc):












And here are some Honorable Mentions (games that were close contenders for the top, additional games from an already highlighted dev this month, games that are still demos but promising, games that are clones of existing games but still good, etc):






Thanks to all the portal warriors that sifted through all the games to find the best in the bunch for me to check out in the first place! And as always, even if your game wasn't listed by me personally, hold your head high as I enjoyed playing all of them nonetheless as they are, after all, the best of the month!


OTHER COOL STUFF:


These games weren't submitted this month, so they weren't eligible, but they were still pretty neat!



24

Comments

Thank you so much for featuring my game! I loved to see you play it ^^

Cheers! I loved playing it as well: definitely really captured that classic Newgrounds Flash feel, was very amusing, and it was just as fun to lose as it was to win!

I’ve not had chance to watch the whole video yet (I usually watch the whole one when I'm at my desk) but I skipped forward and watched the bit on Mazza. I’m happy it still made your honourable mentions list despite it not really clicking with you haha.

You may be disappointed to hear I’m currently making one more of them but I’ll be getting back to making some different kinds of games again following it. I totally get that the humour of the game wasn’t going to be for everyone and you had some very valid points about the gameplay that I’ll try to address. For example I’ve already fixed the camera so that Mazza is always central on screen and have included a few different mini-games and types of gameplay to try to keep things fresh. As for physics I’ve been tweaking as I go based on feedback. Hopefully I’ll have it feeling really slick by time its done.

Cheers! Yeah, in retrospect, while I do stand by some of the criticism (especially about the camera work) I was probably a bit overly harsh on it and wanted to give it an honorable mention or maybe even 9th/10th spot since I think most people would enjoy it and it was memorable!

The harshness was probably both because you've raised the bar so high from your previous works (so take that as a compliment) and, perhaps in a weird way, maybe I was on high alert for 'style-over-substance' since some of your previous work has also been like that, where the facade falls apart on closer examination (brought it up a bit for Robot Factory and MAERE). I dunno, I'm rambling again!

Definitely looking forward to seeing the next episode of Mazza! I'll be sure to grab a pint to celebrate when I see it pop up!

Oh and don't worry about skipping to just your bit in the vid: that's totally what I expect given how long it is, and is exactly why I make sure to ensure the timestamps work!

I'm impressed about all this, thanks a lot for reviewing my game-art visualizer. I hope u didn't get lots of nauseas from my "gross" looking game

Cheers! Haha, no need to worry about my weak stomach. Your art collab definitely deserves praise for its creative presentation: always appreciate it when these things go the extra mile!

It was enjoyable watching your gameplay in Feathered Escape. Thank you for the kind review!

Cheers! Absolutely love me some precision platformers and Featured Escape had top-notch quality in that regard. It's always a good sign when, despite a game being challenging and having me die so many times, I can't help but smile and laugh the whole way through: only solid controls, fluid movement and great design make that possible!

Thanks for reviewing Oblivion Eve! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and think you raised some very fair criticism about the game which I'm taking into account.

I've improved the angles on some attacks which you noted to actively fight against the player. They should feel much more natural and evident to use now. Thanks for helping to make my game even better!

Cheers! To be fair, in retrospect I didn't mind the exotic moveset of the Sword so much, it was more the fact that it was the default beginner weapon: if I had started on Axe first, I would've complained a lot less since that would've been a better first impression, haha! Just one of those weird game dev problems where there are a lot of potential ways to solve the issue.

But yes, I've gone back and played with the Sword and found it to be much more intuitive while still retaining a lot of its unique qualities. Even better, I just got my first win with it, so you know it must be good!

Once again, goddamn was Oblivion Eve an incredible surprise and an absolute delight, and I'd love to see more from you in future! I'm already slapping myself for not giving it definitive first place based on how much I've been playing it over and over while having so much fun, so hopefully this makes up for it!

@FutureCopLGF yeah I think MAERE specifically is a game that has a lot of untapped potential. I agree that it’s a shame that game kind of falls apart once you figure out that it’s a bit of a “ghost train ride” so to speak. I’m planning to make a proper sequel to this game also which I’ll probably be putting out around Halloween. The reason that game is so limited in what it does is because it was made for a game jam and I only had a week’s window to make it haha. I also burned myself out that week getting it all done so I wasn’t in a huge rush to jump back in afterwards. I figure if I use what I learned from that and make something where the events are unpredictable and it is possible to actually lose I’ll have something really special on my hands.

The biggest thing I think I need to work on is making my games more replayable.

@FutureCopLGF

Haha glad to hear it! And congrats on your win.
Lol I'll trust you to keep that in mind if you end up making a 'Best of 2024' Review ;)

thanks for taking some time playing my game - I reckon the game is difficult and certainly some more hints could make it feel less ‘random’.

and btw, do use the ‘shotgun’ fire (slow click ?)

FYI - posted an update on Demi Daggers fixing some of the (valid) complains:
- jump on press
- slightly faster move
- mini radar

Enjoy!