FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Barvest: The Iconic Bug Harvest of 2005]

Hmm, not too shabby, but it did let me down a little unfortunately!

For the most part, the game is pretty cute: while some of the controls were a bit janky (I felt it was a bit too difficult to build up momentum to turn a hang into a swing, and I was able to web some bugs without even spinning around them), I did in general find the movement mechanics and world fun to explore. It was a bit intimidating to explore at first due to the large scale and small draw distance, but it seemed to be cleverly constructed to have notable landmarks and a looping structure so I didn't get lost. The spinning mechanic was kinda neat in a Battle of Hoth way, and all-around I found the game quite impressive for a game jam game.

That being said, I did feel like the game took way too long to use its notable features in any interesting or challenging way: for example, it isn't until the very last boss that you need to use any brainpower in spinning a web around the bug, and it isn't until the very last area do you get some complex platforming that utilizes the grappling web to pull off challenging maneuvers. Because of that, I feel like I was left wanting more: not necessarily a bad thing, but I wouldn't blame some people for losing patience before getting to what little good stuff this game has.

[Gutcorp]

This one was a real oddball for me: it looks like it should be cool, what with its flashy graphics and presentation, crazy shooting action with neat enemy telegraphs and effects, interesting body part management system, and so on, but I found it to be very bad to actually play.

The combat of the game just felt very limp and unsatisfying: despite there being some visual feedback for attacks like screenshake and the enemies flashing and sparking, it just felt incredibly lackluster, especially due to the lack of sound. Speaking of sound, the lack of music or some sort of background track was a real bummer as well: why do you have music for the equipment room but not actual combat? In general the audio was a huge let down with so many elements being completely silent, such as the aforementioned lack of a 'enemy hit' sound.

The game was also just very confusing with me having no idea what was going on and what the objective was. I know I had to fight, and eventually I figured out I had to stand in these circles for body parts to spawn, but so many elements were unclear. How does it determine what body part gets hurt, and can they get hurt from usage like durability wear-down? What is the energy bar, and why is it not filling up when I'm picking up energy? Why do I lose a body part I've swapped out in a previous round instead of putting in my inventory for later use?

There are also just so many little nitpicks that drag the game down, such as the fact you still make footprints when you jump, the screen wonks out every time there is a transition, and certain guns don't work as you would explain (like the knife not reflecting projectiles like it says).

It's very promising, and it's understandable from a game jam game, but it's definitely in a very rough state: feels like maybe the visuals of the game were put first and foremost without a smooth, core gameplay. At the very least, I'd love to see a finalized version of this game that is polished up and builds on the interesting body concept: there definitely are a lot of good things in there that I'd hate to see go to waste, but right now it's like a writhing mass of muscle and skin with no skeleton.

Frogrammer responds:

hey! thank you so much for the feedback i have now watched the video and can answer. i agree with literally everything you said, it's fairly a bad game with big potential and great work from the art team and the composer, unfortunately we couldn't fix the bug in the web but there is a main track for the game that has a chance of not playing, and it sucks cuz its a banger track. anw yeah the visuals were pretty much of a focus at first (the body getting procedurally animated), and then i had to recode a lot of stuff as we were changing the design of the game throughout the jam and with scope this big, that obviously affected the quality of everything so it turned out to be a very messy wrap. no tutorial, no clear telegraphing simply cuz we had no time. thank you so much for being this straightforward, i appreciate your honesty and time :)

[Space Harvest 9000!]

Hmm, I think it could be nice, but I found myself frustrated and confused with a lot of aspects.

In theory, the concept of handling farming through a series of actions that have randomized areas is novel, and could create some interesting strategic play and improvisations where you have to make the most out of each action. But for the most part I should found myself utterly confused and irritated since it was completely random and without any ability to plan beyond dumb luck: perhaps if you were given a preview of the next area similar to Tetris, or if you were given a set of action cards and a set of area cards each round that you can combine, then I'd feel more in control and less annoyed.

There were also other slight annoyances, such as the full area of effect not being visible if you have part of it going off-screen (would prefer if the full area is always visible, but highlight the part outside in a different color), the rules being unclear for how to plant and harvest (is overwatering bad, can you still grow an in-progress crop in ground that has faded from tilled, where will the seed be planted if I have a triple area but only 1 seed on me, etc) and due to the lack of a separate hand action or perhaps the cursor changing to a hand icon when over a fully-grown crop, I was unsure how to harvest things as I was fearful of destroying them with a click from one of the tools (perhaps harvesting should be automatic at round end).

It's a game jam game, so it's perfectly fine to experiment like this, and it's understandable the game is not as juicy and polished as I'd like, but in the end, this felt pretty bleh for me. Not a bad idea though.

[Frozen Helm]

Huh, interesting little game you got here! Kinda like a fast-paced small-scale Metroid game where you get all the abilities at once and just blaze through to find all of the pots and hidden upgrades like the necklace and ring (but no dad's helmet, boo). Was a bit intimidated at first due to me thinking I'd get lost and backtrack loads on the map, and I was bummed out that there was no ranking at the end for time or collecting all the items, but all-in-all I had a good time making my way through this game: everything just seemed to flow and go fast and make a real smooth, short and sweet experience!

There were some slight annoyances like how the 'jump-through' tiles look exactly the same as non-jump-throughable tiles when you flash freeze them, leading to confusion on routes until everything melts and you can tell the difference once again. Also, in general, I felt like the main character moved almost annoyingly fast, and I didn't like how there was a constant ticking clock of my mana running out, intensified by the fact that using abilities makes it run out even faster which made me not want to use them which sucks because they are cool to use: just a subtle feeling of stress over my whole playthrough due to these factors, which was a bummer. Don't get me wrong, I like playing fast and furious, but I wanted to do it on my own terms, haha!

Oh, another weird thing is that I never learned how to do the ice lance, so my playthrough was actually a bit more stressful since there was never a way to permanently kill the enemies: I didn't mind it so much and think it could actually work better like that, but I suppose it added even more stress to mana usage since it required more use of it over and over.

[Anne & the Carrot Islands]

Hey, not bad at all! For the most part, it's a well-done and solid puzzler with a cute presentation and theme. It's not necessarily gonna set the world on fire or anything, but it was paced well and addictive with the way it escalated the challenge and introduced new mechanics, and it just felt good to play due to the chill music and nice animations and subtle sound effects. I also appreciate the inclusion of a save/load system.

If I had any complaints, it'd be that the jump animation can be a bit wonky and that the lack of input buffering makes you have to stall your successive inputs until the animation is done to move multiple times instead of being able to queue 'em up, but it's all good: the real complaint is that I'd like even more levels and an cute ending to top it off!

[Harvestigator: An IRS Tax Auditing Game]

Hah, quite a charming little game! Loved my time with this Papers Please style gameplay and am definitely going to go back and shoot for a 3 star and great endless mode score. All-around it felt very well-constructed, and I absolutely love some of the more interesting and subtle design choices like having a fancy menu where you bring a paper into the tray to designate a choice instead of just pressing a button, and how you need to investigate the file while the farmers gripe and grouse at you in an amusing way (Papers Please had it easy where most of the people you deal with stay silent, this is way more realistic!)

I'd say the only real downside to this is that I wish it was even longer with more story acts and more complexity to the forms, like maybe even rules that loop back to other rules with all sorts of double-checking and so on. I understand its a game jam game so it's impressive that all this was done in the time limit and I should be grateful, but still, I want more, so take it as a compliment that you made me hungry for more!

[Troll-Mart]

Huh, not a bad little adventure here!

Quite the fun concept and its no slouch when it comes to presentation with lots of charming graphics, a goofy story, and impressive attention to detail, like the gross sounds when you uproot something with your grappling hook, yuck!

It definitely is a bit janky with awkward platforming collisions and physics, frustrating due to the busy work of being forced to make multiple trips, and it was a bit disappointing that I couldn't use the hook for fun movement and there was no scoring system as well, but I felt like the game kept me addicted all the way to the end with a good sense of progression by changing the layout and increasing the challenge, so well done on this short and sweet adventure!

[Harvest Heist]

Wow, was quite impressed at this game! Definitely gives a solid first impression with its amazing title screen, and continues to amaze with its charming graphics, unique and interesting concept and just all-around solid craft to it. It's no slouch when it comes to the little things as well, such as having the tutorials no longer appear on repeat playthroughs, different patterns and abilities for each character, cool game over screen, and the satisfying sounds that play when picking crops: amazing that you were able to do all of this, let alone in a game jam time limit!

I did find the game deceptively difficult though, and in a rather frustrating way. There were just so many times that I got caught by the farmer in a way where I had absolutely no way to anticipate or avoid due to the incredibly limited view and lack of being able to cancel a pick and so on. I like a challenge, but it just felt unfair at times: would've loved if there was something like a good directional sound system in place where you could listen to the farmer's footsteps or something like that to help expand your view through audio.

As hard as it was though, I just have to keep playing due to how well-crafted and unique the game was, and I did eventually win (though sorry pepper guy, we'll see you when you get out!)

[Space Harvester]

Not bad, but definitely in a rough draft state at the moment where it doesn't have a significant gameplay loop yet.

Flying around and collecting crops is pretty fun due to the nice classic Asteroids-esque physics, and there are some interesting subtle touches like how the crops grow up and even sway when you pass by them, as well as how you can get caught in a planets orbit if you stray too close, leading to a bit of risk if you just go full speed all the time which makes you think more about movement.

But at the end of the day, it just didn't feel like the game had much to it and gets repetitive and pointless rather quickly, as it is lacking any sort of goal, scoring system or time limit to give incentives to planning out a route efficiently or racking up combos with big hauls, lacking significant and varied opposition beyond the dumb chasers that can be easily avoided by always gunning the engine, and lacking any cool risk/reward mechanics to spice things up (like maybe hauling a lot of crops weighs you down, but gets you a better cash-out if you take the risk to do so).

It also didn't help that the game was very lackluster on the graphics and audio front, so there's no juice or satisfying punch to the game yet either.

Certainly could be good if it had some more work done to it, and I do understand how tough it is to make a game in those incredibly short game jam time limits, but I gotta grade it for what it is currently, which is unfinished, I feel.

[Bloodsoil]

Cute and fun little game! The presentation is overall very charming and the chaotic nature of juggling zombie killing with crop-growing was very amusing and creative. I liked the little extra strategy of saving enough blood to grow the bullet plants to get ammo for the shotgun in a pinch: would've loved to see more strategy elements like that pop-up as the game went on.

While it was nice, there were definitely some annoyances that got in the way of me enjoying the game. For one, getting used to aiming the water bucket and the auto-aiming system was very difficult at first, and in fact I still have some awkward interactions with it even now after practice. Two, I come from Harvest Moon sensibilities where sickle-ing your plants means destroying them, not harvesting them, so I was a bit confused at how to progress and why my character kept trying to auto-target the plants since I thought they were destroying them friendly-fire style at first. Finally, it was annoying how you could wastefully pick up more blood than you need to, and also pour more than needed as well.

All in all, I had a pretty good time with the game despite some minor gripes, though I'll admit it got monotonous rather quickly: with no major gameplay innovation to spice things up as the days went on, the story intermissions were not enough to keep my interest alone. Still, good while it lasted.