FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[A missing shepherd]

Nice little puzzler! I felt like the mechanics were pretty clever and intuitively introduced through some solid tutorial levels and good tips. Didn't take long for me to get rather addicted at going through puzzle after puzzle, especially with the way the game kept ramping up the difficulty and complexity bit-by-bit, such as with stacking sheep into groups or adding water into the mix. All-around very good stuff.

Only complaint I would have is that maybe the game is a bit too chill for its own good: would love if it had a little more pep to it. For example, I'd love if maybe when you beat the level, the sheep lean down and start eating the grass, or bleat with happiness, or some such thing: you know, little touches like that which make me feel a sense of progression and accomplishment. Instead the game is just a constant drone of the same level graphics over and over with this really depressing music with random bleats: as much as I like the game mechanics, the lack of energy really kinda saps me out, haha!

Olivier-Guillaume responds:

Thank you for your detailled feedback!

I'm not 100% satisfied by the music myself, but I didn't find any better.

About the lack of variety and feedback, it's a 2.5 weeks solo project, so yeah it's pretty basic (and I'm not an artist).

[Dynacore]

Wow, really impressive game here! Feels like a lot of effort went into the presentation and construction of this game, as every single thing about the game explodes with life and energy, including elements that usually wouldn't get much attention like the menus. Seriously, without even getting into the gameplay, it's just a delight to click on buttons and watch the cool little animations and transitions as it positively crackles with energy. I felt like the game shined the most with the cool boss fights, especially if you get your hands on a neat gun, but I also loved the little special things you can do in the game, like picking up fired arrows to use as an impromptu weapon, or stealing from shopkeepers by exploiting invisibility potions.

But having said that, and it hurts me to say this...but I didn't find myself actually having that much fun. The game starts you off with a really limp and unsatisfying melee attack that doesn't give great feedback due to the lack of sounds, and that unsatisfaction was further compounded by all of the enemies feeling so spongy. Even once you finally get a gun, you can get screwed over and just get a really odd one that just feels awkward to use, and even if you get a good one, the combat still felt rather limp and lacking depending on RNG. While the game does seem to have a decent enemy variety and traps and other such things, it never felt like they had a chance to shine because all of the rooms just felt like they were slapped together randomly and thus has no cool obstacles or formations: it felt more like just clutter, and they were too cramped to allow for me to stretch and employ some movement. Traps just felt like an annoyance, like I was playing some sort of Indiana Jones game instead of the dopamine crazy experience that was promised. Game was also confusing to keep track of all the items and such you get: I had no idea what were inventory items I'd shoot/use or what were passive boosts and whether they stacked or whatever.

Could just be a bad first impression, perhaps: maybe it really picks up in the later levels, and I'm not saying it's a bad game, just that maybe right now it's a bit style over substance: it's not as fun as it looks like it should be, at least for me. I do plan on revisiting the game and giving it another chance: while I would typically drop a game that doesn't make a good impression, the sheer amount of effort put into the construction makes me want to play and hope for the better!

EDIT: Now that I've gotten further, I feel like I'm getting more in vibe with what the game is going for and am enjoying myself. There are certainly still some annoyances, like how dropping items and reading more detailed descriptions for items is very unintuitive, and generally I'm still not a super fan of some design choices and the RNG causing some runs to be super boring and painful due to lack of interesting items or health or level layouts while other runs give you an overabundance of crap, but still, having a better time overall.

Prox276 responds:

Hey, thanks for the thorough feedback! :)
It does take a long time to grow on a lot of people but most of them do enjoy it more once they overcome the initial difficulty spike. That isn't to say that the game isn't flawed but it does click for a certain audience.

[Casino Roll]

Not too shabby! Fun little game with combat that reminds me of games like Undertale and such, where the outcome of an attack is based off of whether you win these little mini games. Pretty charming presentation and concept all around, and had a pretty good time for awhile.

Having said that, there wasn't many games on offer and they started to get pretty monotonous. It does pep things up by making them more difficult as you go through further loops, but that actually added more frustration as it felt like the games were largely up to luck instead of skill. I know it's part of the casino theming and all, but it is what it is, and it didn't take long for me to quit the game since it just felt like I wasn't in control of anything and would inevitably end up wasting time losing to the luck of the draw. I know you say the war game is pure rng, but to be honest, the rest of them, except maybe the wheel spinners, felt very similar. Adding to the frustration was the fact that your health doesn't recover on a new loop, making you want to almost kill yourself intentionally just so you have enough health to fairly stand a chance at lasting another loop.

Some of the games were also confusing: they didn't always explain the rules properly, and the outcome would happen so fast without time to see how everything turned out and extrapolate from that. For example, for the war game, I was unclear on whether I was drawing my opponent's card or my card at times. For Red Jack, I didn't understand how draws or holds worked since they seemed to both result in you getting an extra card and then adding them for the result, and it wasn't clear whether I facing off against an opponent's total (and the result was weird in that the face cards would be more than 10, I think?). Sometimes I'd win despite going way over the limit? Also wasn't sure how aces were handled, and so on and so forth.

Despite my frustrations, it's certainly a decent idea and a fun little experiment with this mini-game esque combat, so all-around a good example of a game jam game to get inspiration from.

[GreenWood Defense]

Not too shabby! Definitely didn't have the best first impression due to the bland asset-flip looking graphics and menus and the lack of juicy special effects: like c'mon, why when you kill the boss does he just stand there and then pop outta existence? There should be a big explosion and he should fly away and such to give you the satisfaction of completing a level! You already do it for the regular enemies when they die, so why not for the boss too!

Anyway, looking past that, the game was pretty fun and addictive to build up your army and deal with whatever formations the enemy is sending out each level. In particular I liked how the units have different movespeeds to them, which forces you to think of the logistics in depth: you might want to deploy a unit to reinforce your fighters, but you need to factor in whether they will get to the frontline fast enough, and so on. Very interesting stuff!

One big thing that really bothered me is when I upgraded a unit and suddenly the cost of deploying the unit was increased as well: I had no idea it would work like that and it really screwed me together since I had lost a strategically low-cost unit and now had to grind previous levels to try and get enough cash to buy a new unit that could fulfill that now lost role. Felt like this was really uninuitive: would love for the units to be redesigned so upgrades don't influence deploy cost, or to have the ability to undo upgrades.

Wombart responds:

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

I have added the infos about the mana increase when upgrading unit and the boss has the classic death animation now.

[Guncho]

Whoa nelly, this is a wild one! Never seen a control scheme as weird as this one, where all of your actions are tied to a revolver chamber rotating around. The way you can only shoot in a direction that has a bullet in it and how you can revolve the gun by moving in a certain direction and so on and so forth: it's incredibly unique and absolutely mind-bending! It definitely was a rough start figuring out how the game worked, but once I started grasping it (thanks to the way the game tries to assist, like coloring the bullets when there is something you can shoot at in that direction) I enjoyed the challenge trying to rewire my brain to handle all the crazy combat situations!

That being said, while I did eventually like the combat, I wouldn't blame a lot of people for dropping it due to being incredibly unintuitive, and for the game being a bit too random. I'd have some game sessions be incredibly easy where all the enemies are just lined up ready for a bullet buffet, and then I'd have some sessions where the very first level is a practically unescapable hellscape of death. Even when I'd try to fight through things, there'd be yet another weird mechanic that'd crop up, like being pushed back by explosions, that would screw me over since I had no idea it'd work like that. Again, definitely a very interesting and fun game, but it started to get to the point where I felt like it was just too complex and RNG was against me in unfair ways.

[Toodee and Topdee Demo]

Pretty groovy demo! It's a very solid puzzler with a creative concept that all-around looks very well-constructed in all aspects. Thanks very much for providing a demo like this: I know it takes a lot of work to cobble together something like this and a lot of devs say not to bother making demos since their stats say that it actually reduces sales rather than increasing them, but I actually find myself making a lot more purchases when I get to try out a game before buying it, so cheers for being brave in that regard.

I doubt I can offer much feedback since it is already out and already a neato game in most aspects. There were some minor things like the graphics being a little wonky: it was weird that, while the world curves to represent the change in perspective, interactive elements like boxes don't and stay perfectly square despite being at a tilted angle. It also felt a bit disappointing that some levels would have a character do absolutely nothing except serve as a means to change the camera angle for the other character: would prefer they always have to help each other or do something. But that stuff is, as said, very minor.

The only major feedback I can think of is that I was really surprised there was no quick restart button: so many times I went to hit the R button by reflex, thinking it would restart the level, but to no avail. Instead, you need to hit ESC to go the menu and then hit restart: I know it seems short by only being one extra button press, but trust me, it feels incredibly annoying and taxing to have to do all that extra work to restart, especially since it is something that you can end up doing a lot!

[Desynced Katana (Jam+)]

Hmm, I really like the concept, and when the game works it feels great, but it did feel quite rough in some aspects that I wish were fixed up.

As said, for the most part, the game is pretty neat. The graphics and presentation is quite bland and simple, but the act of slashing through multiple enemy attackers in slow-mo and watching your shadow replay is very exciting and slick when you pull it off. Some aspects like the fact that your shadow is your actual hitbox is strange at first, but it works to the game's benefit because it forces you to tackle every single enemy that is attacking you in a combo, which is the ideal scenario that should be pushed. Indeed, some of my favorite levels were the ones where you just face a bunch of opponents and have to deal with them in an almost puzzle-like manner, slashing all of them without hitting one a second time since it would force you out of the combo.

The big issue for me was dealing with enemies that have a lot of health on them, like elites or bosses, as when it came to them, it put the breaks on the gameplay way too harshly and it became so boring. Whenever you hit an enemy with multiple hitpoints, it makes it so that they block your second attack no matter what. Because of this, it's best that you just strike them once and then wait, since if you attack again, they block and you are punished and need to wait to recover stamina. But it's just so annoying, since the game, by activating slow-mo and everything after the first strike, is practically screaming at you to take another swing! But no, the best thing to do is wait, waiting for the slow-mo to end and then waiting for the enemy to attack again: so much waiting! Would love it if there was some risky way to keep the offense going through skillful play: for example, maybe when you hit them, you can choose to wait it out if you want to play it safe, or you can look at what direction they are getting ready to block in and try to attack from the opposing direction: if you do it fast enough you can keep the combo going and it will keep looping like that, whereas if you don't they will block and you need to scramble to get your stamina back. If there was something like this, you could also have some kind of cool Sekiro-esque combat going!

[The Saloon]

Not too shabby! It definitely throws you in the deep end right from the start with no direction which can be a little frustrating, but eventually I came to grips with the system and had a good time! Overall the game seems well put-together and solid for a jam game: the gameplay is fun, hectic and juicy and there's an interesting strategy in both where your space bar serves as a weapon change and a dodge mechanic at the same time and where you must manage your weapons and perks to handle whatever comes up.

The only complaints I have is that, while it is fun, it's quite short and doesn't take long for it to feel rather shallow, unbalanced and unfinished (which is quite understandable for a jam, of course). I found it odd that the game doesn't slowly introduce more elite enemies into the spawns as waves go on, but rather just puts them in randomly, which makes it so sometimes you get elite enemies right at the start before you find your footing, or you get boring melee waves later on that are too easy with your now advanced arsenal. Gameplay could feel unbalanced where sometimes you just get stuck plinking away with incredibly weak feeling guns at spongy enemies. And of course, I wasn't sure if there was any sort of goal, story, or high score to strive for.

Definitely a pretty short and sweet game, and could be an effective prototype if this is built upon!

[Dice Catcher]

Wow, had a ton of fun with this one! Loved the concept/design and found it very intuitive and satisfying to play, loved the bosses and the variety of different strategies that they make you need to employ, loved the cute little story, this game had it all in a nice short and sweet package! Only real complaints I have is 1) my initial impression of the stun zone was quite negative, probably because I felt like it should only affect you if the center of your reticle is within, not if any part of it is, but eventually I got used to it and 2) disappointed that there was no save/load since I got to the last zone and was hoping to continue later on after a break. Most likely going to go back and finish it proper nonetheless, however!

[Webble and Stoney]

This game was really rough for me: part of me had a good time, but it was only after I gave the game so much forgiveness for its jank and such that would usually make me quit before I got anywhere.

While it certainly has a charming first impression with the story cutscene and the chill vibes it exudes, the gameplay got stale rather quickly as it was very generic and wonky. The worst part was when I got to a level that seemed to require jumping over some bushes, but I could only get it to work occasionally: most of the time the bushes would kill me and I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. Eventually I came to the realization that I needed to jump around the bushes in an awkward fashion by abusing coyote time: would've loved if I realized that sooner, but the fact that the game was jank enough to sometimes let me jump over the bushes really screwed me over and gave me false hope.

From there, while I did encounter some other oddities and glitches, I overall had a bit of a better time and liked some of the other obstacles like ducks, which were fun to hop between. Heck, despite my gripes, I even tried the game again to see how fast I could speedrun it in hopes to get a better ending, so you did hook me somewhat. However, I left the game frustrated when I got another bad ending with no clue how to prevent it since I felt like I ran through it incredibly fast (2 minutes or so). Oh well!