FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sally's House]

Pretty neat horror adventure! Certainly throws a lot at the player to keep things interesting, what with all sorts of strange changes to the house popping up that you swear weren't there before, various minigames like leading the candles or dodging the spiders, and so on. The presentation felt polished as well, and I liked the inclusion of multiple endings. I wish the game didn't lay it on quite as thick with hints since I'd like if there were a bit more of a challenge to the puzzles, but it was still fine for a straightforward trip. Definitely impressive stuff for a game jam entry!

If I were to be critical, I'd say that I don't feel like the game has a cohesive vision or story. Once I got to the end, I felt rather unsatisfied and unsure of what even happened, with the preceding events being just a random, disconnected assortment of minigames and cliche horror setpieces that were neat and fast-paced enough to keep my attention but didn't lead anywhere. Since this is a game jam game, perhaps the idea was just to experiment with a lot of concepts for funsies, and that's fine, but it is what it is. This could be on me too: mayhaps I missed some critical info somewhere by getting the good ending first?

[Mouse Mouse]

Pretty cute speedrun game! I wasn't aware of what the goal was at first, and the controls took a bit of getting used to, but it didn't take long for me to get really into trying to master the controls and replaying for higher ranks! I consider this a great game jam result, as while it doesn't have much content at the moment, it was still charming enough with its presentation and unique controls that it left me hungry for more: it's short but stacked with potential, much like the mouse character is!

[G-News]

Hah, quite the interesting game! I certainly enjoy the incredibly high-energy vibes it gives off with its presentation, especially with its music which stylishly and seamlessly changes dynamically based on game states, and the goofy concept of trying to keep a stream going while swatting away gnomes and repairing damages is simple but fun, giving me shades of Warioware meets Not For Broadcast!

I know this is going to sound like nitpicks, but while I did find it rather charming, I couldn't help but feel the experience was lessened by certain aspects, making it feel rather style-over-substance:

*For one, it was a real letdown on the sound effect front: actions like punching gnomes felt rather hollow and unsatisfying due to the muted/missing audio not providing feedback.

*I also wish there were more hand animations beyond just punching, like having the hands fiddle around for repairing the wires. Punching being used for everything makes it confusing as to what you're even doing: for example, you'd think that the hand would remain over the button when you're holding down the speed-up instead of retracting since it doesn't make sense to do so.

*I didn't like how the tutorial doesn't wait for you as it made me completely unable to read the popup explaining the speed-up mechanic as it disappeared too fast.

*The score system was confusing in that it seems to reward you for punching gnomes, but you'd think that the aspect it should be rewarding you for is whenever you're holding down the speed-up button, because that's the most difficult and risky thing to do.

*The game can easily get repetitive very quickly due to the limited amount of interactions you can do: would be great if the game had more days which introduce more mechanics to deal with to keep things interesting and up the challenge progressively.

*Finally, there were technical aspects like how the screen size is just way too bloody large, with no option to full-screen or resize to make it fit!

Now obviously a lot of the feedback I raised can be easily explained away due to the limitations of the game jam time limit, and that's fair. I still think it's a good game jam result in spite of its issues because I think the core on display here is very fun, charming, and has loads of potential for expansion!

[Zombies Ate My Fruits]

Hmm, this one was a bit weird to me! There's definitely some interesting elements at play here: the presentation is pretty nice with good pixel art, sounds, and animations, there's a bit of a strategic element with limited ammo usage, and it does seem rather charming in some way. However, the gameplay never seems to coalesce into a unified vision or loop, with me getting confused at certain elements like how ammo doesn't reset on death. And then before I know it, the game was already over with me feeling rather unsatisfied and unsure of what the game was trying to go for!

Obviously you have my sympathy because it must be very difficult to make a game in such a short time limit. If it helps, I did feel like the game showed some potential to be something like a roguelike survival horror game. The tomato and corn weapons reminded me of a handgun and shotgun: one being good for taking out single targets, while the other being good for taking out crowds, but being much more rare. Perhaps if the game was randomized and punished you with a full restart on death, it'd force the player to be more improvisational to make it through the gauntlet: they'd have to decide quickly whether to save ammo and avoid the zombies by jumping, or whether to spend their precious ammo to completely wipe them out or at least thin the herd to make avoidance easier. The player could then be given a score at the end for how fast they make it through and how much ammo they saved and so on. There's definitely something in here if it made me think about it that hard!

[Color Critters]

Hey, this was a nice little puzzle game! For the most part it hits all the right notes to deliver a fun experience: neat concept, intuitive design, simple but cute presentation, good escalation, and so on!

Most of the feedback I would have is just nitpicks and obviously due to the limitations of the game jam time limits: you know, stuff like I wish the sound design was a bit more varied with different sounds when you're crossing water/lava/electricity, a better death/reset transition, and, of course, just wishing there were even more levels because I was really getting into it!

I'd consider this a good game jam result because, despite its simplicity and shortness, it still hooked me and left me hungry for more!

F1Krazy responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I've begun development on a full-sized version which should address most of these issues, in particular the short length (I'm aiming for 60 levels but that's subject to change depending on how many more mechanics and level ideas I can think of). Glad you enjoyed it!

[MÆRE II: Hypnagogia]

Very cool horror game! I was a fan of the first Maere, and I'm a fan of this one as well: the concept of trying to sleep while strategically scanning the area for safety while risking your sanity by doing so is very clever and nostalgic. My favorite part was definitely the sound design, not just in how it creates a creepy atmosphere, but in how it intuitively gives feedback and teaches how to play the game: hearing your heartbeat pound from seeing a ghost, turning away, eventually looking back, and having your heartbeat return to normal upon seeing it's gone is so cool and communicates how the game works incredibly well. I also liked the inclusion of a scoring system as it naturally incentivizes replays and makes the short length less of a problem. Cool stuff all-around!

While I do like it, I did still find myself a bit letdown by how easy and short it is. I was able to get an S rank without any sort of problem on my second try, and I couldn't help but wish the game had more meat to it. Would love if it was more like Five Nights at Freddys, where it slowly builds up the difficulty over the days, both in how punishing it can be and in new mechanics and obstacles to contend with. Right now I can't even see how a player could ever fail, but maybe if you introduced more ghost types that need to be handled in different ways, like having to look at them instead of away, that'd be neat. Couldn't help but want more, and I hope you can take that as a compliment, because it means you've got me hooked!

Chris responds:

Thanks! I think there will be a third game next year so there will be more. I like that idea about having certain ghosts that you have to look at, it would be an interesting twist to keep it interesting. It might make it into the third and final entry next year if I can figure out a way to make it immediately obvious which ghosts you need to look at and which you need to avoid.

[Pokettohiro!]

Pretty nice classic adventure game you got here! Reminds me a lot of games like Zelda II, Faxanadu, Castlevania II, and so on. It's got some great old-school retro appeal, not just in its cute and charming presentation aspects, but with its game design as well, like in how it doesn't hold your hand and allows you a lot of freedom to get lost in exploring, grinding up gear, and so on. I was a bit disappointed it wasn't exactly the Zelda/Pokemon fusion I expected it to be from the thumbnail, but still, nice stuff!

If I were to have any feedback, it would be thus:

*There's a lot of technical annoyances with the game, such as how your slash attacks won't connect with anything right after you get hit for some reason, how there is no coyote time which makes jumping from edges quite frustrating, and I couldn't get over the confusing decision to have jump, not slash, serve as the interact button, as it seems to go against common sense.

*There's certain effects that feel a bit awkward with the way they are implemented, such as how slash effects don't inherit the players momentum so you can kind of out-run them if you're moving forward while slashing, and how when you die you just freeze in place as if you're still alive for a few seconds before the game fades out, instead of doing a death animation that flops you to the ground.

*I feel like the game takes too long to finally unlock a character for you to engage in character swapping, as before then the game is rather generic. It'd be nice if perhaps you get a partner immediately when you transport to the new world, just to hook the player in with something interesting.

*Speaking of character swapping, I wish you could just quickswap between them without having to open up a menu which takes so long and subtly dissuades the player from swapping because of that annoying pause.

*While I do enjoy that the game doesn't hold your hand and allows you to explore as you like, I do wish there were a few more hints or guidance to start out with: I ran into a couple of dead ends when starting out and got close to quitting since I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere.

[Clickery Hexagon]

Clicker games aren't really my thing, especially since my old hands just aren't up to the task nowadays, but I'll give this game credit that it did a lot to try to win me over with its stylish cold-open, tons of unlocks with satisfying blips and bloops, slick presentation, combo meter, addictive sense of progression as you keep quickly catching up to wherever you left off after buying an upgrade, and so on. Clickers live and die on how stylish and juicy they are since that's where the sense of addiction can be grown, and this is one of the first ones I've played in a long time that does good work in that regard, so kudos!

In terms of feedback: as a person with old hands, it was a bit rough that the game locks the auto-clicks behind a long initial commitment. Also, the music player didn't seem to work for me and it was a gamble whether a song that I switched over to would play or not: sometimes a song that was playing before wouldn't work when I went back to it, even!

amyspark-ng responds:

im glad you liked the game! i tried to make it as juicy as possible since it's one of my favorite aspects in games :3

it's kinda weird the music player doesn't work for you, if you can please PM me with more details about your browser maybe?

[Necrowave]

Oof, this was a rough one for me!

Credit where its due, this game does have a lot going for it: the graphics, particularly the animations, are absolutely gorgeous, and the game experiments with a lot of different mechanics, be it old-school Prince of Persia ledge-grab platforming, pogo jumping off enemies, and some puzzle elements like the invisible mime block and the fire extinguishing. A lot of potential on display here!

Unfortunately, it felt like a very style-over-substance experience to me. The world is so repetitive and bland, almost like a grey-box prototype, in the way it is constructed out of these blocks, and it takes so long for the game to introduce any sort of interesting mechanic or challenge, and when it finally does, it almost immediately discards it to introduce something else, meaning that nothing gets time to breathe and evolve into something complex and interesting. I really wanted to see some sort of final exam platforming challenge that combines the mime blocks, ledge climbing, pogoing and all of that, but it never came and I was left with a bunch of discordant one-offs!

Bit nitpicky here, but the world's also filled with a bunch of these goofy out-of-character backer statues that remind me of those weirdo self-inserts in Pillars of Eternity: I understand it's part of the Patreon grind, but it's just not my thing as it detracts from the world and immersion for me.

Clearly there are some great artistic chops on display here, but not so for everything else quite yet. For me, I would say find a designer and programmer to team up with here on Newgrounds to delegate those tasks to while you stick with just handling the art: I'm sure you could make something great that way! If you wanna stick with it solo that's fine too, because as harsh as I am on this, I would like to see it evolve into something great!

Arfhis responds:

You some really fine and valid points honestly. I'm gonna listen to this closely and apply it as best as I can. Thank you <3

[Olivia The Demon Slayer]

Not too shabby! It's a bit simple and generic, particularly in terms of mechanics, but the fundamentals of enemy variety, wave structure, boss patterns, effects/feedback and so on are solid and make for a decently entertaining experience! The inclusion of badges and hard mode add a nice bit of extra incentive to encourage replays and dipping your toes into a more difficult challenge that some people might unfortunately pass up otherwise. Solid work!

For feedback, I'd say:

*I feel like the backgrounds are a bit too detailed and defined to the point of hurting visual clarity, as the foreground elements of enemies/bullets/player don't pop as much as they should. If I were to suggest a quick fix, I'd do something like remove the black contours/outlines from the background, or maybe just darken/brighten it to make it fade somewhat.

*The challenge and scoring of the game is a bit weird in how you get checkpoints for bosses, meaning that it doesn't matter how well you played in the stage to conserve your bombs for the boss or rack up points because you can get a full stock back with no penalty. Just feels a bit pointless to try and play skillfully if the game is not going to recognize or record it in any meaningful way.

*My biggest gripe with the game is how repetitive it can feel, what with how long levels can be, repeating the same waves over and over in different levels, recycling the same background and enemies, and so on. Seriously, I was about to quit thinking that I had already seen everything the game had to offer until I got to level 4 and suddenly encountered all-new backgrounds and enemies: why the hell did you hold that stuff back for so long! It feels like you have about 2-3 levels worth of content and you tried to streeetch it out as much as possible to artificially extend the games length. I much prefer a short and sweet experience that can leave you hungry for more than something so padded you get sick of it before you've even finished.

*For me, it felt like the game didn't really engage me until I switched over to hard mode, so if I had my way, that would actually be the default to ensure that no one gets too bored, but I can understand that everyone has their own skill level, so maybe your approach of making hard mode enticing because it offers badges might be the best compromise.