FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fist of the Neverwake]

Hmm, this certainly shows some promise! Feels like it's going for a Klonoa-type platformer, what with it's 2.5D track-based platformer vibes. It's a bit slow and unexciting at the start, but eventually it gets somewhat interesting and challenging with its level design: felt good to utilize the bells to refresh your jumps, hold the punch to hover, and race through the timed sections. Not too shabby!

However, if I have to be honest, the game feels very rough at the moment, feeling more like an early alpha or prototype, and I encountered a lot of issues.

*I had some serious control issues at the start where my character would randomly freeze up and stop moving forward despite me holding down a direction. It looks like it might've been because I was trying to use the D-Pad, as it seemed to work better when I switched to analog sticks, so I dunno what's going on there.

*There were a lot of times where the game was just very frustrating, ignoring my inputs when I tried to jump off a platform right when it fell or right at the edge, among other things. Would help if certain subtle designs like jump buffering, coyote time, and the like were added to this to make it feel more smooth and forgiving to control.

*Overall the game just had a somewhat rough look and feel, what with its very bland title screen, pretty generic gameplay design with no special mechanic of its own, weird glitches, a lack of juicy special effects, and so on. It's just got that vibe that makes it very much feel like a game jam game, or an unfinished project.

Despite my issues, I do still think the game has potential. It looks like you've got the skeleton of a game here, an engine that you can use to make all of these track-based platformer levels, and that's quite the starting point to work from. From there, with a bit more fleshing out and polish, I'd love to see what this becomes!

SilviaFox responds:

The input issue you experienced is a Godot 3 bug, you can remedy it by flicking the stick once and then switching back to the d-pad!

[Away]

Hmm, not too shabby! The game certainly gives off some chill, stylish vibes with its artistic graphics and sound design, and the gameplay was pretty neat in how you need to trace the shape but more obstacles get in your way as it goes on. The way the poem is slowly revealed as you go through each level served as a neat motivating factor that made me want to get all the way to the end, and I did!

If I have to be honest, though, it did feel somewhat unsatisfying. Yeah, I think it has potential, but once I got to the end, I just had that feeling of "wait, it's already over?" There's just a lack of a satisfying conclusion, and overall a lack of a strong sense of progression, narrative or story being told through the levels. I was also disappointed that the gameplay mechanics weren't more intertwined with the story being told, like using mechanics of weight and wind, changing them as you go to echo the themes.

For a game jam game it's decent, and as said it's got some cool vibes, but there's just something missing for me to make it feel like the elegant poetry I want it to be. I dunno, maybe I'm being unfair holding it up to other artistic games like Journey or Gris and so on.

Heytibo responds:

Yes, I totally understand.
This is the kind of project I'd like to explore further and flesh out.

[Graveyard Shift Online Demo Edition]

Hmm, pretty interesting arcade game! Certainly makes a great first impression with its very authentic retro-arcade presentation: I do love me a classic attract/demo mode to learn about the game, and this delivered!

I do think this has a lot of potential from some fun times, what with its deeper potential strategies involving squashing enemies with tiles or combining them to form the numbers you need...but I will admit that I had a rough time getting into this! My feedback would be thus:

*I found it odd that you need to hold a button to push a tile instead of just naturally walking into it: just felt really awkward and unnecessary, what with the game not making the character sprite look any different when its in pushing mode, and while not holding push mode lets you go over flat tiles, wall tiles still block you, so it can be weirdly inconsistent despite seemingly allowing more freedom.

*Maybe I'm missing something or just being unlucky, but I felt like I was getting screwed over by tiles constantly spawning on the edges of the screen where I can't do anything with them except push them over the edge since, to my knowledge, we don't have a way to pull them in.

*I can't figure out how the math works when you combine tiles: I thought I had it at first, but then I started to get unexpected results that just seemed to make no sense. Maybe the order in which you combine them makes a difference as well? Without being able to rely on that mechanic, I gave up and it again felt like randomness screwed me over since there were times I just couldn't find the number I needed to complete anything.

*I don't understand the time limit as it feels very short and doesn't seem to refresh when I complete matches? Feels like you can barely get anything started, especially due to the aforementioned annoyance regarding so many tiles being spawned in areas where you can't use them, never mind waiting for tiles with good numbers to finally show up.

*Dying is a bit of a bummer in the way it resets the whole board instead of letting you continue where you left off: sucks to be so close to finishing a match and then having to start from scratch while time ticks away.

So yeah, I tried to love this one, but confusion and frustration were unfortunately in high supply here! There's definitely something in here, but I'm just having a tough time understanding it: hopefully this can provide some insight for the final version!

captainfailmore responds:

Thanks for the in-depth feedback! I'll reply to a few things here, since I didn't leave much information on the page and it might have helped if I did.

Something that I did a poor job of communicating is that the time limit is something that only exists in the demo, and you aren't the first person to remark that it's a little too short. In the full game, the time limit doesn't exist at all. It's hard to make a good first impression if you can't even figure the game out before it sends you back to the title screen, so I'll probably amend that when I update it next.

Combining numbers works like this: If the number you squash is lower than the number you're pushing, it subtracts. If it's equal or greater, it adds, rolling over past four. The only exception to this is two fours, which gives you a one. It's weird, but you basically have the opportunity to make whatever numbers you need, even if all you have are a bunch of tiles with just one single number.

Tiles replenish once they're below a certain quantity on the field, so shoving tiles you can't use over the edge is the right move. You can use those to get rid of gargoyles, too - that's not hugely relevant early in the game, though. Markers appear on the map's edge frequently enough for edge tiles to not be completely useless, too, but that isn't going to be readily apparent within the demo's short time span.

I've actually considered having the board populate with random tiles after you lose a life, since waiting for them to replenish creates a bit of a lull. On the one hand, I like giving the player a breather, but on the other hand, dying later in the game can be really punishing, since it takes a while for the game to pick up steam again. I'll probably revisit this idea when I can get around to updating again.

Thanks again for your constructive feedback and for giving the game a fair shake, I really do appreciate that.

[Scrap Your Pants]

Pretty fun little hi-score arcade game! It's a little bit short, but the gauntlet you need to fight through is pretty intense with a lot of crazy enemy patterns to keep you on your toes! I'd almost argue the enemies are too much in that collecting scrap becomes something you'll be unable to focus on anymore, but still, I enjoyed the pressure, with the cherry on top being the charmingly goofy presentation and smooth gamefeel.

A few notes:

*I'm probably thinking about it too hard, but I feel like the game is a bit too random for the hi-scores to mean anything. As said before, the enemies just make everything a bit too hectic to collect scrap with any sort of intentionality, and while the inclusion of a card shop adds some spice to the gameplay, it only serves to add another random element that can determine whether you get a big score or not. Just feels like its down to luck, not skill, but maybe that's sour grapes, haha.

*I understand it's an edge case that doesn't happen commonly, but I was bummed out that during my dead-man-walking state (aka i'm a head that is exploding and will die soon) I tried to grab a medikit and it did absolutely nothing and I still died. I'm not saying it should bring my body back, but it would be great if it at least put the flames out and let me keep going as a head!

*The card shop is a bit weird in that when you purchase something, it doesn't deduct from your score immediately: your score only refreshes to represent your purchases once you collect your first scrap afterwards. Also, the text for the price of the repair is so tiny you'd be safe in mistakeningly thinking it's free.

QualityStuff499 responds:

This is a 10/10 review! I love everything about it and i really enjoyed reading it, about the bugs! I am struggling a TON with patching the medkit for a week now! The game just crashes every time he picks one up :( , for the cards i added a re-roll button for the upcoming update! And i nerfed the robots a bit by putting some weaker ones to have a chance to spawn instead so the player can focus on collection a (tiny) bit more, thanks again! My favourite types of reviews are genuine critics of the game cause they keep me busy patching stuff, I don't notice some of the problems

[Everything is Coots]

Hrmm, this one was pretty rough for me! I don't wanna be too harsh on it because I'm getting 'my first game' and 'game jam' vibes from it, but it just had a very janky and unpolished look and feel to it.

Perhaps I'm being unfair comparing it to games like Catlateral Damage, but I was disappointed at the level of sandbox interactivity, in how the objects you can actually play with are severely limited: how you gonna let me swat away wine bottles, but not wine glasses? There are also just a lot of weird glitches like how you can easily push the human or even balance them on top of your head, though I'll admit that the absurdity is quite amusing. What wasn't so funny was that I couldn't even complete the game because a batch of necessary power-ups glitched through the floor and made me unable to pick them up, softlocking me from progressing!

Having said all that, I do think what the game was going for was nice, especially some of the rather unique setpieces like being able to possess and manipulate the human into doing your bidding. It's definitely got a certain charm to it, but as said, the construction didn't let me get immersed. Definitely a case of a good concept but bad execution, which could easily be explained by inexperience or tough time limits, as mentioned before. I'd be interested to see future games from you though which can harness these interesting ideas to their full extent!

dragonslumber responds:

This wasn't my first game, but it was definitely a game jam game and yeah, 48h to make this on my own was pretty quick and often doesn't allow the level of polish I'd generally prefer to be able to provide. It was a while back but I remember adding stuff like flying and that being a pain because of how the system was managed, and I agree that I didn't quite get to set everything relevant as physics objects. Likewise for the "powerups" when breaking stuff, they kept falling through the floor and I never really understood why, Unity isn't great with colliders on Particles.

Frankly, looking back at it, I love the concept of it and would want to make something bigger in general, not just locked to the apartment but have some sort of gate to other places and what not. And obviously more polish in all of the systems.

But yeah, 48 hours isn't a lot of time, and while it's not a perfect game by any means, it has a "fuck" button and I think more games could stand to have a "fuck" button :P

[I'm Not a Doll]

Wow, this was quite the experience! Certainly an interesting twist on the classic dress-up game and a very personal and powerful exploration of sexuality, gender roles, societal expectations, the list goes on!

It's technically a rather simple game, and a short one at that, but I was surprised at how much I got sucked into it! Tried my best to think of what clothes might fit best and really got into my own head on whether I'm being too forceful in trying to make them fit my style or societal norms when that might not be their style, and so on. Eventually we settled on something, only to get the inevitable bad ending where we just can't please the public no matter what we do. That "thanks, anyway" at the end was so tragic!

It's there that I made the mistake of experimenting with other outfits, curious as to whether we could change the ending by pleasing at least some of the nay-sayers in the crowd by focusing on attributes they were hinting at. What a fool I was! Didn't I start this off by thinking that I should pick what they themselves like, not what society likes! Why should we pander to those slack-jawed dimwits!? As you might guess, this led to me trying on the sexy outfit, and boy did I regret that! Very much an Undertale moment: just because you can explore every option, doesn't mean you have to!

So yeah, quite the showing for a first game: very experimental, emotional, and surprisingly powerful!

In terms of feedback, there's a weird bug where the font will no longer be stylized on replay for some reason, and the screen is way too big and should be shrunk down to a more manageable size.

Thetageist responds:

Aware of the bugs, I’ll be fixing those asap when I have the time.

Thank you so much for trying out the game and for this thoughtful review! I’m glad the game was effective!

[EGORADISE]

Hey, this is a pretty neat game you got here! The world and characters are very charming and amusing, the story is surprisingly compelling, there's an intriguing vibe where it goes back and forth between silly and serious, there are so many interesting shops with items and ways to power up, the combat is simple yet deep with a big roster of enemies and the unique Gary companion, the boss fights are quite the spectacle, the music is cool and reminds me of Neon White, and so on and so forth! It's shaping up to be quite the interesting roguelike shooter!

That being said, there are some aspects I wanted to provide feedback on:

*I do like the combat and think it has a lot going for it on paper, but in execution, I found myself getting bored at the mob arena fights. Technically there are a lot of things to look out for with so many enemy types, but it just feels like it devolves into muddy chaos with every fight being the same enemies rushing at you, over and over. It looks like you're trying to pep it up with side objectives like collecting gears, but I don't know if that's enough. Maybe you need to change fights to feature only a few enemies instead of the whole roster every time, and make them stronger to be able to flex their unique properties more, that way fights feel more different?

*The items and such are nice, but I don't know if they are unique and interesting enough to make replays varied. Also, while the minigames are nice, they can be a bit long and I can understand if some people would get impatient having to go through them over and over.

*I'm a bit unclear how Gary works: can't tell if he is getting hurt or not and whether that changes when he is in attack mode or passive mode? When you send him out, does he have a limited amount of time left before he gets exhausted, or does he get damaged to get exhausted? What does the HP items do for him, exactly, and is there a way we can see his HP in combat?

*To expound more on Gary: I would like some more strategy when using him as currently it feels like its a no-brainer to just turn him into attack mode at the start of a round and leave him to it, as if he gets hurt you just heal him up at the end of a round for free. Feel like he needs to be something you should have to strategize or meaningfully use with care a bit more, like saving for emergencies, or toggling back-and-forth between passive/attack modes to keep him safe. Maybe he should do more than just damage so that Pepper and Gary have strengths/weaknesses that they help each other out with. He's a very unique and creative element to this game so I think he should have more importance to sell the duo nature!

*The boss fights were really cool with a lot of intricate patterns, but they felt a bit easy, especially if you abuse the special rapid-fire ability: you can melt these guys down before they can barely do a full cycle of their moves!

*Would be nice if there was a save/load system: I understand it might not be necessary now since the game is somewhat short, but if it does grow bigger, it'd be nice to take a break when our characters take a break on the train.

Would definitely like to see this get iterated upon if it still interests you!

Just-a-ng-dummy responds:

Thanks for playing as usual Futurecop!

1. I didn't think much of how I did the enemy waves, for every new enemy added I just made a new wave where they take the spotlight. I think I can adjust the waves so they can have enemies that can make some interesting interactions. I also had a scrapped idea where you have to chase after the train while getting past obstacles and killing enemies so maybe I can implement it.

2. I have lots of other item ideas that can be very influential. I also think of adding curses or extreme power ups per chapters that you need to choose that can change up how the game plays.

3. Gary gets hurt in whatever state he is in. He gets exhausted from taking damage (Cause if he died he wouldn't be back okay in the train. Although I could just say he died but he got revived because the train abilities or whatever magic BS I can pull out of my a**. The HP items increase his overall HP. Currently there is no way to tell but I think a simple hp bar should do the trick in the future.

4. I think to make Gary more strategic is that every time he gets exhausted he comes back with half hp so you have to be careful if he gets hurt. Then if he doesn't get exhausted he gets full health, or I'll just add a regenerative factor to him. I am planning on making combos or pair actions with Pepper and Gary so that he has a better role during fights.

5. Hrm.. I see your point, perhaps I can make them do a move whenever Pepper unleashes her special so that you have to find a way to hurt them properly. Perhaps even make it so bosses will not increase the eye to open as much as the enemies. Those options.. or I go the easy way out with more HP

6. I honestly never heard of a rougelike with a save/load feature so that's new! I think I can try add one, maybe replace the ticket dispenser and make it a save and loader machine. I could also just make it so you can play different chapters from the start but you immediately get a handicap or more curses (from what I suggested earlier). I think it ultimately depends if the game is interesting enough to be played with long-runs

All in all, I'm not the best at sticking with my games, although hopefully I can take your words into consideration and update the game more!

[Thicket]

Nice short and sweet puzzle game! It's a bit easy and doesn't last too long, but the concept was very unique and was expanded upon in very interesting and creative ways, and it was overall quite memorable and fun!

While it is short, it does have those bonus levels at the end as a nice, well, bonus! Unfortunately I took a break before playing them and was disappointed to find that when I came back my progress was lost: I had fun playing this but I dunno if I wanna go through everything again just to access them, especially level 10 where even if you know the trick it still takes a lot of steps to solve it!

retrowillgames responds:

Type “cheat” while in the game and it should unlock the bonus levels if you want to play them :)

[Seconds to Scan]

Cute little game! Reminds me a lot of games like The Impossible Quiz, you know, a bunch of questions and minigames that are quite tricksy and require lateral thinking to solve, with the extra addition here being a time pressure mechanic. The presentation and story surrounding the game was very impressive and charming, and I had a decent time making my way through to the end.

If I had to be rough on this, I'd say I was a little disappointed at the end because of how short it was: it left me feeling rather unsatisfied and wanting more. In particular, I was bummed out how the questions were the same each time instead of having some sort of randomization to them, both to the questions asked and the contents within, like a Warioware game, so it would really challenge me to think fast instead of just memorize the exact sequence to win. In short, I kinda feel like the impressive visuals built my expectations up too high, and the gameplay just didn't live up to that: kind of a style over substance issue. Still, it was decent enough, so no harm no foul.

I did have something weird happen to me: a glitch where suddenly the timer was gone and I was able to solve the last 3 questions with no time pressure. I think what happened is that I solved a question right when time ran out, so the transition glitched out and took me to the next question instead of the game over screen, but the timer was already erased so there was nothing to stop me? I really don't know!

sysl responds:

You're 100% right, the timer should not have disappeared like that. I've tried to reproduce it but without luck. I think it may be a tween issue between the puzzle it vanished on (from your video) and the one you moved on to.

Part of your disappoint I think was the timer disappearing. You would have had to do another loop of gameplay. The idea was to make something that everyone could get to the end after a few tries.

A lot of how I design games is that I want to get across an idea, entertain the player for the whole time and if they are left wanting more that's fine. I know growing older I have less time, so if someone can show me something and leave me with an experience in a reasonable time, I like it. Not to say I would never make a longer game, but I want it to be worthwhile instead of just taking an idea directly. ("impossible quiz redux".)

[Recital]

Ooo, I love me a good boss-fight, and this delivered a pretty cool one! Love all of the different phases, attack patterns, and sense of escalation, especially the fun middle part where you're falling down. The use of reflection as your only means of attack was pretty cool, too: always a classic since it forces you to put yourself in harms way. Overall this was a great short and sweet experience, all wrapped together nicely with some cool music, neat visuals and style!

The downside for me was that the game was in a rather rough state. Some of the roughness are just nitpicks, like how the text boxes aren't layered on top properly, meaning their text can be occluded by foreground elements like trees, or how the world is so flat and the character is just kind of on top of everything instead of being in front or back of elements. An explanation of the controls would've been nice too, but I figured it out without much issue. But there were some more annoying aspects like how you can get caught on the wall instead of naturally sliding across it, or how some hitboxes and transitions would just glitch up or work improperly. It wasn't enough to stop me from enjoying it, though!

CMulholland responds:

Thanks for playing Future! Always nice to see you're still playing small games and making videos