FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Minimum Mage Effort]

Wow, this one really surprised me! Glad I came across it as I'm surprised it didn't get into Best of the Month - thank god for the Halloween tag!

It definitely had a bit of a rough start for me. While the game definitely does sport some adorable art and charm, the tutorial is an ugly, overly verbose wall of text that takes way too long to explain what is essentially a very simple game: could definitely stand for more pictures or maybe a guided day one. Next, the game is pretty tough! Don't get me wrong, I like a challenge, but some of the difficulty does come from some really unfair-feeling aspects like how you have to get right in a customer's grill to serve them (heaven forbid you try to serve them across the table) and it's so easy to get bogged down on regular tables slowing you down, let alone the ghosts and rats that end up appearing later. It can feel really crushing as well when you make a single mistake: customers are so impatient, you have to get the order in the exact stack order, going to the bin to reset takes so much time that it feels pointless, argh, it all adds up and makes it difficult to recover!

But again, despite that whole screed of negatives up there, once I got going with the game, I ended up getting really addicted to it! The tutorial being an issue didn't last long due in part to the game having intuitive design with clear visual signals/symbols and logical feedback: I practically didn't pay attention to any of the tutorial text and still found everything easy to pick up. While I did have a rough time and those missed customers or occasional dropped orders did hurt, I found that as long as I put the pedal to the metal, I was clearing even the last days without much issue, and it felt oh so satisfying! And again, the game was just so cute and charming with great feedback and goofy sounds.

This game is a real toughie, no doubt, and some of that challenge I think could be more forgiving or elegantly designed, but I was glad I was able to rise to the challenge and get to the end: well done with this one!

Just-a-ng-dummy responds:

Wow didn't expect ya to cover this game haha! I think the reason why this didn't get into Best of the Month was due to it didn't get frontpaged in October

For the tutorial, I overcomplicated it because I was afraid someone was gonna not know a crucial mechanic, fail horrendously, and quit the game with a sulky impression, I will try to make a simplified tutorial soon though

"Order in the exact stack order"
Ack! That's the problem!! You don't! The bottom part of your serving must match at least one of the customer's orders! Hopefully I can explain it clearly in a simplified tutorial!

The bin has been a concern for me, maybe I'll give a positive to outway the difficult recovery time like faster movement speed

Thanks a lot for complimenting the visual feedback for the game! I will try to decrease some of the difficulty sooner or later, thx for playing Futurecop!

[Coca & Their Shotgun]

Don't get me wrong, I love me some bullet hells, I love me some boss-fight centered games, I love shotguns, and I love it when games put you right in the action quickly. But, uh, maybe I should be careful what I wish for, haha!

The game definitely has a lot going for it. I enjoyed that the boss has multiple phases, each with tons of patterns which were very beautiful in their choreography, and the general presentation is charming in its goofiness. However, this game does kinda just throw you in at the deep end, and as much as I like a challenge, I ended up just quitting after a few attempts.

There's just so much stacked against you. The arena is so cramped and claustrophobic, the additional enemies so annoying and spongy, and the patterns so chaotic that it just became difficult to parse anything. The bullet hitboxes were super whack: when you practice dodging at the beginning you can get hit by bullets that don't intersect your shadow at all, meaning that all you can rely on is spamming the dodge which just didn't feel satisfying or elegant. Finally, the nail in the coffin was the fact that the game doesn't allow you to hold down the fire button to keep firing, instead forcing you to click each time: my old man joints just can't handle this type of control scheme no more, argh!

I still kinda like the game in all its wackiness and jankiness, but I need to put some ice on my hand before I give it another go.

Just-a-ng-dummy responds:

Thx for playing Futurecop! This isn't my best game and more of a dumb shitpost so I didn't really expect much of this. You made some good points and I wanna try and use em for reference later on if I make other bullet hell games. Although I should make a small update for this game just in case haha!

Hope you'll have fun reviewing the other games last October!

[Culpa]

Hmm, I think the game shows a lot of potential as it has some cool moments and nice graphics and sound design for the most part, but in the end the game just stumbled so much that it felt rather silly to me than scary, unfortunately.

There were just so many awkward and subtle elements missing that kind of piled on and killed my immersion. There was strange phrasing and dialogue that sounds like it might've been badly translated from another language. There was a lack of sound variety for important events like the footsteps outside not changing to be muddy plops instead of wooden taps and the tentacle event being incredibly muted (and again, lacking watery sounds for sludging through the water). Most events were just very telegraphed like the part where you obviously can't outrun the light monster, or silly like dropping your gun and it just hardcrashing back to the start instead of showing a proper ending sequence. Pacing constantly gets destroyed by moments where you just need to mindlessly rummage around until something finally happens. Finally, the story is just overall too short for it to really build up dread and weight.

Again, I think it was a good attempt, especially for a game jam game, and certainly could've been great with some more time to polish up its execution.

Meiallu responds:

English isn't my main language.
But yeah, I probably would have made a better story if I had the time. Thank you for the review!

[Portaboy+]

Hmmm, a bit mixed on this one, which is unfortunate since I think it shows a great first impression and has a lot of great work put into it!

For the most part, I do think the concept is really cool: multitask juggling between playing these warioware-esque minigames and fending off monsters all while you need to manage your resources and react to various random glitches leads to some rather interesting gameplay. The game is pretty crazy in terms of graphical and audio quality as well, both just in general and with all the ways the game glitches out. Certainly intrigued me and made me want to keep trying to understand the systems and get better to unlock more portions of the gallery mode, which seemed to be providing plot points.

Unfortunately, while it was cool to experience the twist the very first time where the monsters are introduced, it is just a pain to have to deal with it on subsequent tries: it takes so bloody long to get back to the good stuff (ie the twist) and the game is really boring and one-note until then, due in part to the absolutely low difficulty and lackluster variety in minigames (both in the types of minigames possible and the way the minigames vary their obstacles within). It also just seemed really confusing to deal with resources: ammo costs so much that you have to play so many minigames to get them, but you can only play them so fast and is also up to RNG and meanwhile monsters are spawning at incredibly fast rates that it just seems impossible. Maybe I was missing something, but it just frustrated me.

I still think the game is quite impressive in terms of production, but I don't quite agree with its execution. For me, it's a clear case of style over substance, unfortunately.

Enchae responds:

I agree with part about the first phase. It's paced well for a first playthrough but not the 10th. There is a skip arrow you can shoot but no one finds it. That might be something that's still worth changing.

[Last Christmas (Game Jam Version)]

Hey, a pretty nice point-n-click adventure game!

For the most part, I feel like it had all of the right fundamentals: nice, charming art and a big ol' area to explore, chockful of items to pick-up or interact with that provide all sorts of amusing flavor text/dialogue. The game does start a bit slow with both an odd puzzle (why not have the key under the rock to pick up, rather than examining the rock to get the key? does the rock open up? was it taped underneath?) and maybe a bit too many items to pick up, but nevertheless it felt good and I was getting addicted and fired up to solve the list puzzles.

There were some parts that I felt the game were lacking a bit, though:

For one, there were a lot of times where you interact with a container like a cupboard or a bin, and you just have the character tell you that they picked up an item. It felt so unsatisfying and confusing: I would much prefer if you can see the cupboard changed to be opened up and see the actual item within, and then hover over the item and pick it up yourself. You do this for some interactions like getting the soap bottle behind the curtain: dunno why you skimped out for so many others.

Another aspect was a lack of animations and feedback: felt really unsatisfying to, for example, unlock the door but not even see the character put his arm out and use the key or at least play a unlock sound effect. I guess I should be careful what I wish for, though, because while you did animate the character chopping down the tree, the animation was simply dreadful and absolutely nonsensical, haha.

Definitely a pretty decent point-n-click game overall that has a solid foundation: it was just a bit lacking in terms of satisfying touches like animations, sound, and other effects. I suppose I should be forgiving because of the short time frame it was made in, but take it as a compliment that you raised the bar so high that it seemed so lonely without those special flairs!

Polytelygames responds:

Thank you for playing and thank you for your comments, it is very helpful feedback that can help me shape my next game.
Two weeks to create a a game from scratch, isn't a long time, my priority was to have a working game at the end and i succeeded in that goal at the same time being place 3rd in the rankings out of the 97 submitted games.
I would like to revisit this game, with an expanded story(which i have) and new art and animations, but I'm struggling to find anyone who want to work on the project. maybe one day, in the mean time, If i could ask a favour, as Last Christmas has been selected for the "best indie game" and "best game jam game" category in the Game Development World Championship can you please show your support and give us a like on our page and if you would like to share it that would be great to.
https://thegdwc.com/games/last-christmas

Edit - Just wanted to let you know that it is nominated at The Game Development World Championship. If you have a moment to help a new indie game dev out, please follow the link and click the vote button https://thegdwc.com/games/last-christmas

[Leslie & Brianne's Galactic Rampage]

Charming little adventure! Enjoyed the intergalactic romp, platforming through some simple but decent puzzles, punching the heck outta some aliens, and interacting with all manner of stuff. The humor can sometimes get a bit too meme-y and reference-y for me, but most of the time it was delightfully crass. It's not exactly the most difficult game, and it can be a bit janky, but the game did a good job at being creative with its low-fi art and big variety of events and levels to keep me hooked to see what would happen next.

I gotta say though, the controls did get a bit frustrating at times. There were plenty of times where I tried to jump but ended up interacting with something that I thought was far away enough, or the jump bumped into something I thought I was clear of. Later on it does a gag calling this out literally (the pogo supply room), which is funny, but at the end of the day, in the words of Yahtzee: "if you know its bad, why are you doing it!?" Furthermore, I was disappointed that the game didn't have a save/load feature: it ended up being a lot more lengthier than I expected but I had to take a break, and now unfortunately I dunno if I can make it all the way back there a second time: it's a nice game but it's not that nice as it is, at the end of the day, a bit too guided and linear and without challenge to make replaying it fun, haha.

TmsT responds:

Oh man that's disappointing - I really thought this time I put all the flavour text under low ceilings or far from anything that would give you a reason to jump (except for two places where it was supposed to prevent you from accessing something). I didn't know it was bad, Yahtzee! Honest!

[Furcifer's Fungeon]

Wow, this is some really crazy stuff on display for a demo!

Game is absolutely cram-packed with not only so much visual flair in terms of graphics like the game over glass shatter and explosions and so on, but it's also just very bloody charming with things like the host interjecting a lot of flavor commentary and there being a funny risk-reward system where you can increase the difficulty by angering the host through stealing their items! Really gives you whole thing a very professional and well-crafted feel despite it only still being a demo. Gameplay was also solid as well: while it was a bit cramped and slow, both in terms of movement and attack cooldowns, the enemies seemed to be built around that aspect so it all gelled together. Had a great time going for a burn build on my first run and saw so many abilities that I wanted to try on later runs, along with the wands I unlocked: so much potential replayability!

I did have some slight frustrations here and there though. Sometimes there was just so much going on that it was difficult to tell what to focus on: I couldn't even figure out how to start the game since a) I didn't realize the title logo was interactable and b) the dialogue text box kept covering it! Also, as fancy as the health bars that are part of the characters themselves are, they are difficult to parse compared to more common solutions like health bars being above them, leading to confusing feedback on how much damage you're doing and taking. Finally, I was quite frustrated that it seemed like a wand only recharges when it's in your hand: it made everything so slow and I would've much preferred if the game lets wands recharge no matter what, meaning that effective play could involve a lot of cool weapon swapping to alleviate the boring act of waiting on cooldowns. Also I felt like the combo mechanic was a bit confusing and unsure how it worked: seems like you should just always special attack after a regular attack with no downside, and it doesn't work the other way around? Also, the combat did start to get a little monotonous after a while: maybe it could've used some more enemy variety or special events, or have a better sense of boss or story progression as you go (though I imagine that's just because it's still a demo).

Looking forward to seeing how this shapes up: I feel like it's already got a solid foundation that's ripe for tons more content!

PlayWithFurcifer responds:

Let me use this chance to give some constructive criticism back.
I really feel like you should mention that this Feedback is based on 8h livestream where you only play a few minutes while intensely looking for something to criticize. It would give a much needed perspective on the nature of your feedback. I fully believe you have best intentions, but this approach will lead to very biased and surface level criticism and should be marked as such.

Regarding the combo mechanic:
It seems like you understood it within a minute. If you feel like always using special after attack, go for it and see if it works for you. A player typically tries this and finds that the special locks them in place, making the special situational.

If it would also work the other way, you would have no cooldown at all - i don't think we should allow this.

[GRIDHEART]

Wow, this one really surprised me!

I was a little fearful of it at first: the tutorial was decent as it provided a good mix of images/animations along with text, but it was still a lot to take in and I was worried I wouldn't understand this very unique concept. Luckily, I feel like the game helped greatly by providing a lot of intuitive feedback in the game itself, such as the tiles having a good shorthand to represent their properties, the arrow preview for showing where you can move (which let me learn subtle things like being able to loop around the level) and the way elements pop when you interact with them in a way, like the time bar and tiles popping back up when you nab a heart! Really wonderful design on display here that makes something complicated be very intuitive!

With that, I found myself getting absolutely addicted to the game: the concept was really clever and the game's presentation was incredibly charming with such cute graphics and juicy feedback. Loved trying to react to situations and plan ahead with the tiles to keep the combo going: I don't know if I'm good enough yet to get great combo multipliers going using the colors, but I still love just trying to keep a rally going and not lose to time. Really nice stuff overall!

tonyfinale responds:

Thank you for your thoughts!!!!!!!!!! Yeah I'm always worried I never explain things well enough in the tutorials, so I'm REALLY into obsessively trying to jus make all the gameplay interactions and elements and stuffs all elegant and legible on their own like that. Good to know that worked out well enough for this one :)

Thanks for playin~~~

[Just Passing - Chapter 2]

Pretty cool game! I haven't played the first one, unfortunately, but I really love the professional design of this so much that I'm seriously considering it before I proceed with playing this some more! From what I've seen, this seems like a nice little adventure game: walk around the big world, talk with all manners of wacky characters, get to know them from collecting items to solve their problems with, all the while learning bits and pieces of the larger intrigue behind your existence. Tons of crazy little touches in this game, such as the animated text, speech bubble shadows, great graphics and animations: nice stuff!

That being said, there was something about how well-constructed the game was overall that made a lot of little odd things stand-out to me. It's kind of silly: I wouldn't complain about these for other games, but you've raised the bar so high here that I found it wild that you missed them, so sorry for punishing you for being good, haha. For example:

*Was puzzled at how hidden the save/load feature was all the way in the Settings menu: feel like it would be better served to be more accessible on the home screen given its importance. I actually didn't think it was even possible to save/load at first: even though I saw 'Data' in Settings, I easily thought it was just to access a reset/wipe, not save/load.

*Some dialogue was confusing: felt like sometimes it was implying that someone was thinking the lines instead of saying them despite using the same speech balloons no matter what. Would help if maybe the balloons could change shape: spiky ones for yelling, cloudy ones for thinking, etc.

*Was surprised that the footsteps didn't change depending on what surface you're walking on.

*Found it annoying that whenever you go into a phone option, like Settings, and then go back, it puts the cursor back on the default Messages instead of staying on the option you just selected previously.

*Found the transitions into houses and zones kind of annoying. I would prefer if they activate like anything else by popping up an exclamation point and confirming, instead of just walking into them, as sometimes I would walk past a door, not towards a door, and trigger going in despite not wanting to go in. Furthermore, was disappointed at the transition: would've loved a player animation of them going in, or at least a sound effect like a door being opened or fading footsteps.

*There were some odd graphical errors like misplaced tiles, as well as wind effects that look like they are supposed to be in front of a building yet are layered behind it.

*Would prefer if quest notifications only pop-up once the character has fully told you what the quest was: awkward that the notifications come so ahead of the game that it tells the future, haha.

*There's an awkward period after a zone transition where you're frozen solid for a bit too long: just feels really stiff, especially since it looks like everything is already loaded in and it's just waiting for the transition overlay animation to finish.

*Some minor typos, like "a quick peak won't hurt" instead of "a quick peek won't hurt". Those homophones will getcha like that!

I'm sure I could think up a bunch of other little nitpicks, but that's just me going overboard to provide feedback: these and any other aspects I can think up doesn't really hurt the game or anything like that as I still think what you have here is really cool!

JoelLikesPigs responds:

Wow

Lots to think about here - thanks for the feedback, I'll see about adding these as some improvements later down the line

Thanks again- and if you do have anything else feel free to message me directly always happy to get feedback

[Impact-Effect]

Decent little arcade game! The whole aspect of switching between defensive and offensive modes like Pacman was a fun pattern, and the game did a pretty good job at keeping things interesting with upgrades, new enemy types, and a general escalation of difficulty as it went on. Graphics and effects were pretty minimal, but delivered in a kind of sleek, brutalist way. Had a decent time getting to around level 10 where it kind of lost steam for me, but had a good time getting there.

If I were to have any complaints, it'd probably be that, like I said, the game does start to get rather repetitive. Once I got to around level 7 or so, the upgrades and enemy types started to constantly repeat the same over and over without providing anything new anymore. Couple that with the larger and larger XP gap meaning less rewards, along with the special effects of the game being quite bland (seriously, the sound effect for destroying missiles is so unsatisfying, I want a bunch of slow-mo booms for each missile destroyed followed by a big boom for them all once attack mode slow-mo stops) and it led to me getting bored and not really wanting to replay. But I mean, it's an arcade game, it doesn't need to last forever.

Also, and this is just me thinking instead of complaining, but I wonder if using a more classic Asteroids-esque control where you have momentum and drifting and such to contend might be more fun and have more room to learn skilled play rather than the mouse pointer controllers the game has: the mouse controls are nice in their own right, but it did seem to have a limit and got a bit repetitive after awhile, and could get confusing with hit detection if you try to make heavy swipes.

IdeasPerSecond responds:

Thank you for the highly detailed response, FuturecopLGF! I appreciate all of the points you put forward here. You make quite a few excellent observations that will help me to improve as a developer! Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review!