FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dave the Game]

Ehh, this was a really weird one for me, as it's a bit of a beautiful mess, in a way!

I actually found it pretty novel that it seemed to lean heavily into some unorthodox controls and physics to create some absolutely bizarre jumping puzzles: in a way, it was rather unique and mindbending to wildly walljump and rocket around! However, the more I played, the more it felt like the game was not properly coded and was just an absolute mess, and any intentionally I assumed previously was either a mistake or an excuse: bad either way.

It's just so bloody unintuitive, janky, and lacking so much quality-of-life or refinement that I gave up. It didn't help either that the game is so tiny and doesn't explain anything effectively, along with having a very boring and grey world. It's a shame since I thought the boss fight was promising at the end, along with some of the level design and little charming bits here and there, but yeah, overall I felt like this needed way more time in the oven. I understand it's a game jam game so you were limited and did what you could, but it is what it is: it's at least neat enough that I'd like to see another attempt from you in future!

TheLoFiBoi responds:

This review was so honest and constructive all i can say is thank you for the insight and for playing the game, and you already know our next projects shall be even better!

[MODE GAL]

Huh, interesting little game you got here! While the sharp physics were a little weird to get used to at first, the game had some decent platforming action, along with a novel amount of weird transformations like umbrella, blockbreaking, frog, and gravity that created some nice changes of pace to keep my interest. The general presentation was also pretty cool and served to intrigue me. It was an alright adventure overall!

The game was a little weird at times, though. Unlike the first level, which had a clearly visible collectible, it seemed like the rest of the levels also had collectibles, but they were totally invisible? At least I think they are collectibles: wasn't quite sure why I'd get those random explosions here and there. Not sure if this is intentional or not: if I am supposed to find and collect these, it'd be nice if there was some sort of score tally at the end. There were also a few invisible blocks in places as well, which seemed like it had to be a mistake.

Also, as much as it was an alright adventure, I couldn't help but feel a bit unsatisfied: not only was there no ending, it just felt rather half-baked in its execution since so many of the interesting transformations only happened once before being abandoned and returning to basic platforming. I would've loved to see how the transformation levels evolve over time to become more interesting challenges, but alas, no such luck here. I suppose take it as a compliment that I really wanted more from this!

[Race Against a Duck]

Hmm, this was a rough one for me! I want to like it since it has such a goofy premise and charming presentation, but the gameplay as a big miss for me, as it is not the racing game I want, but more an idler/clicker in disguise.

It's a pet peeve of mine when roguelites go too ham on the metaprogression to the point where it is not a helping hand anymore, but more so a required time-commitment grind to make it even slightly feasible to win in the first place, and that was exactly what this was. I want something more like RC Pro Am or Death Rally where racing is a fun combination of upgrades and player skill, whereas this is only upgrades, no skill.

In addition to all that, the game also felt rather clunky in terms of hitboxes, graphics, physics, and so on, so yeah, its a miss for me. I can imagine plenty of other people enjoying this, embracing the grindy nature and the funny premise, so don't mind me too much!

[Primo Richards: Case 1]

Hmm, not too shabby of a detective game! Feels like it's doing a decent job recreating that 'ace attorney' visual novel style, and its got some fancy and appealing presentation to it: pretty promising stuff!

In terms of feedback:

I know it's a demo so it's still under development, but the game was pretty rough in some aspects, especially the audio department which had tons of overused sound effects (like the droplet sound) and the music cutting in and out haphazardly. It looks pretty good in most respects, though, so I'm hoping it all gets polished in future!

It can get a bit overly verbose at times. I don't know why, for example, the chief was giving me this whole history lesson and opinion piece on the victim's backstory: not only is it too much front-loaded exposition, it feels like that should be stuff I should be picking up during the case if it is relevant, while the chief, as the hard-ass he is, should just be giving me the bare minimum starting details and let me hit the street pronto!

Maybe it's just me, but I found the rhythm of the character emotes to be a bit strange? The way they emote was just a bit awkward at times, like maybe they return to neutral too quickly instead of staying with their pose, or the explosive effects are a bit too fast and confusing, or how some side characters are frozen and lacking any sort of unique poses compared to main characters, etc.

Nothing major, but there were a few typos and grammar mistakes here and there: nothing enough to hurt comprehension so it's ok, but definitively give it a once-over when you have some time.

I do also wish that there was some more quality-of-life designs, like an easy way to fast-forward text on replays: right now, it always forces you to wait for each line to load and for the characters to do their emotes, and it's a bit awkward to have to hit the arrow on the right instead of just being able to click the text box, or the whole screen, as other visual novels typically do. I also don't know why you made it that interactables like the body in the apartment don't react on mouse-over: I feel like they should act just like the other buttons do where they get highlighted.

arrogancy responds:

Excellent feedback and constructive criticism, thank you!

[Loch Crystallo]

Nice, chill game! It's pretty much 'shower thoughts' or 'thoughts that creep up when you're trying to sleep' the game, interspersed with little funny riddles here and there. It wasn't necessarily much of a 'game' per se, and I was a bit worried that it was gonna be too preachy or navel-gazey, but the great presentation quality and cool atmospheric vibes chilled me out and let me enjoy the experience, think about a bunch of stuff, and have a few chuckles. In particular, I found the aspect of censored answers a clever way to have multiple-choice answers but not let you easily guess the right answer: you still need to think of it on your own as if it were a free-text answer, in a way! I also appreciated that you could fast-forward text by clicking (though speaking of, it might be nice to have a prompt appear when you're supposed to click to proceed to the next line). If I were to have any feedback, it'd be cool if the game had a big databank of thoughts and riddles that it could randomize for each run so that it were more replayable.

[Impossible Angles and Tough Topics]

Huh, interesting little game! Certainly got some very cool visuals, and the aspect of trying to remain calm and talk in such a way that you fit in with this horrific situation you've found yourself in was rather amusing, especially when there are so many answers to pick and choose. Short and sweet, and while I wish it had a bit more meat on its bones, I liked it enough that I found myself going back to check out the other answers and endings you could get!

In terms of feedback, I do feel like the game is way too tiny, in particular the text: I needed to slam my face right into the monitor so I could read comfortably, haha! I also felt like some of the endings were a bit weird. I got one ending where he ends up getting booed (and maybe killed) and another where he seems pleased with the experience, and those were fine, but then I got this other ending where I feel like the author shoved himself into the story to endlessly preach about how horror works because of hope and blah blah blah: insightful stuff but it just felt so unnatural and out-of-character, and not in a funny non-sequitur way. I know the game is about horror in a few different ways, but it was the most "sir, this is a wendy's" moment I've had in a while. Maybe I'm thinking about it too much.

[Questern]

Huh, quite the interesting little game! Reminds me a lot of those goofy web comics, forum collab works or CYOA stories like Homestuck, or games like the Loathing series. It's a bit of a bummer that I'm not making any choices and am just reading a story, so I somewhat struggle to call it a game, per se, but nevertheless it is a rather charming story with very goofy and amusing art and prose.

I am a bit torn though: as much as I do like the experimental process of audience participation and all that jazz, it's only the lucky ones that come in when it is still being written and not only suggest options, but have their suggestions integrated into the book, that have the most fun. For everyone else, they're just reading a book that isn't finished yet and so have to wait unsatisfied, or feeling bad that their suggestion didn't get selected, or, someday eventually, just reading a completed book, which as funny as it is, has no interactivity to it. Not saying you shouldn't keep what doing what you're doing: shine on you crazy diamond! It's just that I am one of those unlucky ones that is feeling a bit unsatisfied, as much as I do think it is a charming story.

NickJam responds:

Not the creator but I helped with the UI. The story is still ongoing! The description has the link to Laken's suggestions thread. I'd recommend reading up to the latest page before posting there, but the story is still fairly early on and there's plenty of opportunity to jump in and give suggestions on where it goes next :)

[worDefense]

Cute little game! I like the combination of tower defense with word/typing mechanics: that alone is already nice enough to keep my interest, but when you combine it with special abilities and diverse enemy variety and so on, it gets really complex in an interesting way! It's like, the game could've just been about always typing the biggest words, but when you factor in innocent chickens that you want to avoid, or maybe enemies that split, there's actually a lot of strategy involved in what is truly optimal beyond just the biggest words (but then you also need to factor in the bonus for using all letters: maybe its worth sacrificing a chicken for that!) Game is also just very juicy and charming with its general presentation too: well done!

I will admit, though, that parts of the game had me really confused. For example, there were plenty of times where the game allowed me to fire when the word I typed was seemingly gibberish. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that they were technically real words that I was typing, just unbeknownst to me, but still, weird stuff.

There's also the fact that I found it quite weird that there is no time limit: instead of the enemies coming down over time, they freeze in place until you make your move. Call me an armchair developer if you like, but I feel like this compromises the scoring system, since without any pressure, it just becomes a game of patience where anyone could take all the time in the world to make the most optimal choices, instead of being a game about skill, reactivity and improvisation. Maybe it was an intentional choice to make a more relaxed game, I guess (though if that were the case, you'd think that hurting chickens would only deprive you of an opporunity to get health, not immediately hurt you as well).

amidos2006 responds:

Thanks a lot, there is two modes, normal and hardcore. In hardcore, there is time limit, I wanted to also give people relaxed experience.

[Looping Larceny]

Neat little game! It's like a cute combination between a Metroid game and something like Minit's speedrunning time loop structure. Overall I felt like this was a nice short and sweet experience, where I kept delving down different routes, collecting power-ups, opening up shortcuts, and eventually finding the diamond, whereupon I had to plot out a route to get in and out quick enough like some sort of heist, haha!

While it was all good, I did find the design a bit confusing. It just felt a bit odd that, due to the way the world is constructed, you only find the diamond when you've pretty much collected all of the upgrades necessary to get it out: before then, you don't even know what the goal is and why you're collecting all this stuff in the first place, so it's somewhat aimless. And why does the time loop structure happen before you've even collected the diamond? You'd think it only needs to happen then, like some sort of alarm. Basically, I almost feel like the diamond should be introduced in some manner earlier to setup the premise: like maybe you have easy access to the diamond, but getting it out is impossible without upgrades, so you make the decision to leave it for now and instead go into another part of the cave and get upgrades and set stuff up first. Eh, it worked out in the end, I suppose, but still, food for thought!

Oh yeah, as a side note, the jump physics felt really wonky and difficult to control: eventually got used to them, but yeah, wish they were a bit more intuitive.

bluswimmer responds:

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

[Disconnect]

Hmm, this was a tough one for me! I'm a big fan of console hacking games like Uplink, Quadrilateral Cowboy, TIS-100, and the like, so this game should've been a slam dunk for me. And in theory, this game's whole eavesdropping over connections to try and find clues in text logs and files to suss out evildoers is pretty cool!

Well, it was pretty cool in theory, at least. Unfortunately what I found was an incredibly repetitive and boring game that I just couldn't stand playing any more. Compared to games like Uplink where you're multitasking, handling all sorts of different apps at once, improvising and diverting power to systems, and so on, this was incredibly restrictive and limited in player powers.

In this it was just: wait for connections lines to show up. Click on one. Decrypt the line. Play a simple minigame of matching keys. Read the single line of new info, maybe download a file. Click another line. Decrypt. Key Minigame. Read/Download. Click. Decrypt. Minigame. Read. Click. Decrypt. It's just so monotonous!

Every single mission was the same basic setup and the same goddamn process over and over and over: why can't we just get the full comm log at once, or keep the monitoring ongoing like a proper tap? Why can't we handle multiple connections at once? I want to get to the good part of combing through logs and finding out clues, but the game wastes so much time in collecting it in tiny bits-by-bit.

Basically, I think it's a cool idea, but the execution left much to be granted.

Also, as a small quibble, I really disliked the whole blurry monitor filter you've got for the game: it's not the worst but it felt a bit much and made it difficult to read words at times due to how blurry they get. Eh, but that's just my old man eyes, I guess.