FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[cyber_serpent]

Hey, this is a pretty decent arcade shooter! It's not exactly bowling me over with innovation or breaking any new ground which I'd want to see from a game jam, but it nevertheless delivers a simple and fun explosive experience that's just plain fun. I had a couple of times where I wasn't even sure how I died because of all the visual chaos, but I felt like this game was very juicy and had a very good amount of enemy diversity that keeps the gameplay evolving and addictive, so all in all this was very nice.

Speaking of gameplay innovation and such, at the risk of sounding like an armchair developer, I feel like you might've missed a trick here. I noted that you made the design choice that enemies hitting your tail get damaged, and I thought that was very interesting and could've been utilized to create a more exciting gameplay loop where, instead of having generic guns that allow you to shoot from safety, instead you need to dangerously get close to enemies so as to trap them within your tail and make them crash into it. Obviously it doesn't work because you've built enemies specifically for the guns to handle like the laser walls, but I tried it in the early game and found it a very fun and more exciting way to play: perhaps it'd be worthy of experimenting with in the future, or a bonus challenge mode!

As a side note, I found the controls quite odd: you use the d-pad to navigate the menus, yet you can only use the analog stick to move within gameplay. You'd think they would be interchangable where you can use both of them for menu and gameplay movement, instead of them being locked to their own sections. It was a short time, but it was still a source of great confusion when starting out since I thought my controls weren't working!

[Wall Wizard]

Not too shabby! Gameplay concept kind of makes me think of Bomberman but with more steps, or an interesting subversion on the Qix genre.

I admit that I feel like the gameplay feels rather half-baked at the moment as it is easily exploitable with lame strategies and doesn't feel like it evolves at a significant pace or in a way that makes the gameplay change and introduce new tactics. I know it's a game jam game so obviously I'm not expecting much, but I still feel like we haven't fully uncovered the potentially fun core of this wall-bombing gameplay you've introduced here, only having scratched the surface.

Having said that, this game is a great example of what I like to see the most in game jams: instead of sticking with something normal and safe, you experimented with a wild and creative mix of mechanics to see if it worked, and despite my grumbles before, I still had a decently fun time with it in its current state, so I consider that a success.

Even more so, it really gets my imagination going for what the game could evolve into. For example, what if the trigger to explode walls actually came not by player detonation, but when you intersect a vertical and horizontal wall, similar to how you block out sections of the map in Qix? Or, what if there were some sort of combo system where explosions that occur from multiple walls being constructed or intersecting give more points, or do more power which is necessary to defeat foes with large regenerating health? Lot more to experiment with here and if you do so, I'd be happy to play it!

[Beneath]

Hmm, cute little game, but ultimately a bit generic and unexciting, though I suppose that's to be expected considering it might just be an asset pack showcase (but I'd still hope for more).

If I regard the game purely as a vehicle just for selling the related asset pack, then it's quite alright as that is the best part of the game, with the various animations and graphics looking quite decent. For example, I love the way the player character's cloak flaps as they jump. However, if I were to take the game as something to actually be played for fun, I find it quite lackluster with most of the weapons feeling very token and unnecessary and the levels and their obstacles being very easily overcome and exploited.

Take for example that one level where there are some skeletons and a bat atop a crumbling bridge you have to cross: it has the potential to be an exciting scenario, but all you need to do is just snipe the enemies with knifes from across the room and then just cross the bridge with no issue. Practically every level was like this, where there was no sense of design or intention, no need to think what weapons you need to use or act cautiously. Even worse was the fact that, upon death, the room doesn't reset to its original state, meaning that you can brainlessly brute force your way through without having to think by just killing enemies recklessly until the room is empty.

It's still a decent looking and feeling game thanks to the aforementioned asset pack you've made and the juice you've put on top of it, but I was disappointed with the brainless level design. Hopefully, I suppose, someone can take the asset pack and make an even better adventure with it, though, and since that is likely the intention, it's a win!

[Prickle]

Wow, this was a solid little puzzler you got here! For the most part, everything feels well-done: charming graphics/sound and presentation, interesting concept of sticking blocks together which is cleverly elevated with the porcupine theming, good level design that subtly teaches and slowly ramps up the complexity, and some nice juice on top with stuff like having the game show you can't rotate by playing a bumpy animation and that cute little dance and music jingle that plays at the end of a level. Sure, it's not necessarily gonna take the world by storm or revolutionize anything, but its a good bit of puzzle-y fun, so hey, what more can I ask for? Well...actually, if I were to ask for anything, it might be a save/load: some of these puzzles are tough and I would've loved to be able to take a break and come back later without having to redo everything to get back!

[Paula Poppet]

Huh, quite the interesting little game you got here! The main gameplay loop of picking up stuff up to throw it at enemies reminds me a lot of satisfying telekinesis-based games like Control or Psi-Ops, but the twist of having to throw your own flooring and thus risk reducing or scrambling your movement space adds a whole new interesting dimension to that gameplay. Also the game is surprisingly juicy for a game jam game: picking stuff up, slamming it down with explosive force and watching all the tiles scatter and replant themselves was very satisfying every time.

While I am quite impressed, I do feel like it is still in a somewhat rough state with a lot of systems feeling rather shallow, unbalanced, or confusing. For example, purchasing new bubbles seemed more like a hinderance than a help and I dunno why you'd even want them since it doesn't even increase your refire rate, there were some cases where I could've sworn I killed enemies but they were still fine for some reason, and it does get quite repetitive without some sort of greater goal or purpose to strive for. But hey, in my opinion, game jams should be primarily focused about exploring and experimenting with all sorts of wacky systems to see what has potential, and I felt like this had did just that and found something interesting, so I consider it a success!

[Spooky Season]

Wow, what a cute, cozy little game! Always enjoy a little scavenger hunt adventure and this delivered that, as well as a quaint and goofy world filled with funny characters and wacky dialogue. I was also impressed with some of the more surprisingly elaborate little touches, like a whole minigame just for petting the cat and for sweeping the cobwebs: not necessary, but the effort is appreciated!

If I were to have any complaints, its that I was a bit bummed out at how automated it was at times. As stated before, I liked that it had a little minigame to sweep the cobwebs instead of just fading to black and fading back in with a clean room. So, when it came to events like having to know a magic spell to undo the barrier or knowing the exact characteristics of the headless horseman's pumpkin, it was disappointed that you didn't need to memorize those facts and be quizzed upon them: instead the barrier is automatically undone when you learn it, and the pumpkin can be brute forced by just picking up the only interactable one. It's fine in the grand scheme of things, but still, it's what I felt at the time.

I was also a little bummed that there is no save/load feature. I understand it's not the longest game, but it'd still be nice to have. Nonetheless, I had enough fun that, despite losing my progress, I still replayed it to make it to the end, so take that as a compliment!

arudasics responds:

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you appreciated the details I spent so much time on! I only gave myself 7 days to make the game by myself, otherwise save/load would have been the next feature I added! Thank you for replaying!

As for the spell, Skellington the Magical isn't the smartest perhaps and actually says the words to unlock the Witch's hut himself. I do like the idea of quizzing the player though, I might add some variation of this in the sequel next year. As for the Horseman's head, I actually wanted to add the ability to brute force the pumpkin, because unfortunately some of my play-testers got very frustrated checking each individual pumpkin. The compromise was to make the interaction area as small as functionally possible so that I would decrease the chances of just bumping into it.

[Boo! Bark!]

Cute little game! I found the very physical slingshot pull-and-release mechanics very intuitive, fun and addictive to pull off, and the way you combined this with the theming of a dog pulling on a leash was a stroke of creative genius. Further combine this with great graphics and sound, a nice assortment of enemies to deal with, and other nice touches, and you've got a nice game, and even more so a great game jam result! Impressive stuff overall.

The only thing I felt a bit letdown with was the barking: it feels like it gets overshadowed as its power is very lacking compared to the dashes and I might've liked if there were certain enemies that were weak against it to create even more strategy...but it is still fun to press!

One thing to note is that I had a lot more fun when I switched over to controller: not only do analog sticks allow you to aim more accurately, but the physicality of pulling the stick back and letting go is more in-sync with the slingshot feel of the leash, creating a more satisfying connection of player and game. I wouldn't be surprised if people who play this with the controller would rate it higher: I know I did!

[Commission Hell]

Hmm, felt kinda let-down by this one, unfortunately. Perhaps it's unfair of me to hold it up to expectations I had, but for a game that's seemingly about drawing commissions and does offer you the ability to draw, I was disappointed that so much of the gameplay involved the placement of pre-drawn stamps instead.

Don't get me wrong, I can understand how difficult it might be to create an algorithm that can tell what you've drawn accurately, so I can see why you might've opted to use stamps in their place. But it just felt so creatively stifling, with so many of the puzzles being solved by randomly scribbling some color and sticking some stamps on, instead of actually needing to think about composition. Hell, even with the stamps reducing the algorithm complexity, I still found the requirement detecting terrible nonetheless: for example, I had an instance where it said I had stamps overlapping when they weren't even close to doing so, and I had another instance where it treated the color underneath a stamp as something to account for in percentages when it shouldn't.

The humor felt quite off to me as well, with most of the commissioners being just non-sequitur goofball morons with no common theming. Considering the game is called a commission 'hell', I expected to have a lot more of the commissioners themed around unreasonable demands, or sudden additions to requirements that completely ruin what you've been working on so far, all of which could be used to create some fun improvisational problem-solving gameplay. Heck, you could even make it so that success isn't possible: make it something akin to drawing puzzles in 'The Looker', perhaps, where they are never satisfied.

One thing I was very impressed with was the whole multiplayer aspect where you can see other people's drawings: as it is now, it unfortunately showcases exactly what I'm talking about where the drawings are just generally scribbles with stamps with no actual design since that's what the game accepts. However, if I had my way, I think I'd lean into that as the primary focus: throw out the stamps and throw out the game grading your paintings, and instead make it so that other people judge your commissions instead, similar to a game of Gartic Phone. This way you don't have to create an algorithm for judging since people will be doing it, and this way you don't need to have dumb stamps, instead allowing people to creatively draw and also being able to create more wild and creative requirements since you aren't limited to percentages and such.

Basically, I think this is a case of a really good concept just executed very poorly: if you were to just rearrange what you have and shift focus, though, I think there is something really promising buried in here.

[Featherless-Cake Delivery!]

Hmmm, this was a rough one for me! I really want to like it: the game makes a solid first impression with wonderful graphics and a cute world filled with amusing characters, and the idea of making these deliveries while also exploring to acquire upgrades to handle all the obstacles that get in the way of said deliveries was quaint.

So much got in the way of the adventure though!

First and foremost, the game just feels really stiff and laggy. General movement and actions just felt really awkward with strange delays and ignored inputs: felt like I needed to be overly slow and delicate with the game, like it wouldn't be able to keep up and break if I was to play naturally. There were tons of weird events such as, if you break a pot with a heart in it, the space where the pot is will still awkwardly block your movement until the shattering animation and heart has disappeared.

The game was also rather confusing and unintuitive. Why is a furball projectile, something that's technically very soft, necessary to destroy crates, when you'd think that would be handled with stronger melee attacks? If anything, I feel projectiles are best used to hit out-of-reach buttons or something akin to that. Also couldn't there have been some sort of hint that a sponge could be given to the frog, like maybe having the frog say something like 'oh i can't help you right now, i have a massive spill to clean up': I only gave them the sponge out of random desperation. And why is there no interaction prompt above the bunny cop when there is over everyone else, especially considering how important it is to talk to them?

As if that wasn't enough, the game also descends into outright being buggy and glitchy. I had plenty of times where an enemy would be invincible against my attacks for no reason. I found it incredibly awkward how when you pause or look at the map, when you go back to the game, the level will have reset to have everything back in their starting positions instead of preserving where they were. Speaking of pausing, my game eventually crashed when I tried to switch from the map to the pause menu too quickly, and when I reset, suddenly I was locked in a state where I had already finished my deliveries yet still hadn't delivered to anyone...and my jump was suddenly really powerful?

I think it could be a nice game with some more time in the oven: right now it is simply too janky. Not sure how much of it is limitations of the GB Studio engine, but as much as I can sympathize if that's the case, what feels bad is bad, no matter what the excuse.

Elv13s responds:

in my testing the game i havent encountered any lag or slowdown, unless theres more enemies and projectiles on screen. i dont know if the lag is an issue with the game itself, as ive checked with other browsers/emulators.

yeah the pot/heart sprites share collisions so im at fault for not fixing that part. but i feel like the movement and inputs are fine in my part, will tweak them in the future when this game is gonna be a full game eventually.

the furball is a projectile that so happens to be overpowered, in the future, i will reverse the tail and furball's function so its a bit "realistic".

the hint on the sponge was the frog's animation is he's scrubbing the fish tanks, it was supposed to be a "so this is where i needed it" moment, and the game doesnt really lock you in progression if yuou dont notice it at first, the game is open enough that you can just do the frog mission last, but yeah ill have the rog say lines that he needs it in the future.

the level resets every time you switch scenes because its the enemies arent really killed ion the game, just stunned.

oh there was a bug like that? thanks for pointing that out,

thanks for playing the game and giving feedback, i promise ill strive to e a better dev

[Blockade Burst 95]

A solid puzzle game! Overall the game feels very intuitive and well-constructed with all of the fundamentals for a good puzzler: for example, I was glad to see that combos and matches felt satisfying to pull off, what with the great freeze/explosion on match, pitched-up sounds as your combo rises, and so on. While my brain isn't capable of understanding the 'closest-wall-magnetism' mechanic enough to use it to its fullest, I still found it very memorable to try and grasp the mechanic as best as I can while going for a high score. Loved the extra touches you put in that add a little bit of juice, like the button-check/tutorial sequence at the start, and the animated title screen. While it is overall a bit generic and not necessarily something that's gonna rock the world, I found it quite impressive to have put this all together for a game jam, and overall an interesting puzzle mechanic that could be iterated upon!