FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Arcane Maiden]

Pretty neat game! I'm not really a fan of turn-based RPGs that much, and while this game can be a bit slow at times, with some long animations and long waits for bar filling, it actually seemed to have some decent strategy in place that I enjoyed: using delay strikes to buy time, deciding whether to heal or save up for a big lvl 3 strike to end it, neat stuff! I still think it is a bit slow and grindy for my tastes, without enough story to keep me hooked, and with enemies that didn't make me have to change my strategy up enough, but overall a positive experience for me.

In terms of feedback, I do feel like the game lacks a lot of information and could do with a more polished presentation to help with that. For example, the skill tree was very confusing for me at first: I didn't realize that the SP next to learn wasn't how much the ability cost to learn, but how much SP I currently have in total. I wish the skill requirements weren't just a boring list you have to read and figure out: I'd like it if when you try to learn a skill you can't, it would make an error sign and highlight the nodes you need in glowing red or something to help the player see. Just all sorts of stuff like that: helping direct the player with more visuals and sounds. Also, I wish there was more info in general: I'd like it if I could strategize my battles by seeing if I could intentionally plan for a level up to get my health back after a fight, but since I can't see my xp bar during combat, it's a no go. Got some weird bugs here and there as well: for example, I dunno why my player name is "<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=", haha! Also, I wish the story would do more to hook me: felt like it petered out quickly and didn't introduce any new info in the grass levels as I went. Also I felt like the graphics were a bit mish-mashed: different graphics of varying quality (like the difference between the MC and their partner) gave it a bit of an unprofessional feel, like it's just slapped together from a bunch of mixed-up asset packs and such (not that there's anything wrong with asset usage, but it can lead to a non-cohesive style).

Anyway, like I said, despite all those complaints that I'd love to see fixed or polished up to make the game even more beautiful, I did feel it had an interesting take on turn-based strategy that I had fun with, so kudos for that as it ain't easy to make me to play RPGs nowadays!

MidNightMaren responds:

You make some very valid points. The Skill trees could use some more indicators that's true, I'll try to make it happen.
Also the 'Exp Needed' on the battle UI was something I realized was missing when I was almost done with the game. I notice a lot of games do have that feature. I'll look into it also.

The <TEXT FORMAT> bug is something related to Ruffle I'm still trying to figure out. On Flash Player while testing locally it works just fine; but I get it that input text on Ruffle is either something not yet implemented, or I'm just calling it wrong somehow.

The story is something I said before. The structure of the game didn't give much room for one. And also, all and all, this game was a try out of a mechanic I didn't have much clue if it was going to be well received.

You can read in the credits this game uses assets from countless authors. I too felt the difference in quality of the sprites was something bugging me to no end. I even resized characters on stage so that the pixels looked the same size. Cut of some in-between frames to make it seem the same frame rate, etc.
Who knows on a possible sequel I can get a couple of artists to help me design some unique assets. And also go and address all the flaws this game presented.

[Heck House - A Chilluminati Adventure]

I'm not familiar with the crew so the inside jokes are lost on me, but it seemed like a fairly decent adventure! Controls were a bit confusing to figure out at first since there were no instructions: I thought there were two buttons, one to examine (Z) and one to interact (X), but actually it seemed like the examine button was also the interact button, and what I thought was the interact button was just...throwing up the horns? As only the one Hawaiian-shirt wearing character? Anyway, gameplay was pretty neat with a lot of examinable items for flavor text, something I always like in games like this. Puzzles were hit and miss: getting the dog for the bone was alright, but I had no idea the table next to the aliens was for putting a pie down on: maybe you should highlight interactable objects, or give a clue, like making the aliens say "oh, food delivery? put it down right there". Maybe I didn't get far enough in the game, but I felt like the character switching was a bit of a waste: they all share an inventory and didn't seem to have cooperative abilities or anything. I didn't like how the game advanced text and cutscenes without waiting for you to hit a button to confirm you wish to proceed: I'd miss reading some text that way. Also I wish I could view my inventory: got an item from the aliens that I had no idea how to use or even what it was. Anyway, neat little adventure: just felt like it could've had a bit more of a hook/concept to really grab me, as once I got lost I didn't have much incentive to go on.

AxolStudio responds:

Each of the characters has one main ability that is used to get past an obstacle in the game.
You can get a hint about them by pausing the game (P) with each character selected.

[The Behemoth Mural Collab]

Hmm, it's definitely a good cause and nice to see collabs like this, but at the moment, the general display and navigation doesn't leave a good impression to me and kind of hurts the experience. Don't get me wrong, it does seem to have some charming art and presentation here and there, such as the notebook paper tilted credits, but overall, it's a bit out of sorts. The mural itself is decent, but the graphics look really mish-mashed and distorted, like they've been scaled in all the wrong ways, and I don't like the way you can move beyond the edges and see into the darkness. Hovering over an artwork, I can't read the pop-up text for the artist because it's plain black text that doesn't stand out from the background art: would really benefit with a white highlight or maybe a text box surrounding it to make it pop. Navigation is really weird: for example, I'd hit play to go to the mural, hit the next arrow to go to the artists list, and then hit back to go to the mural, but it wouldn't send me back, instead it sends me to the credits for some reason (it seems like the back button on each page has a predetermined page it sends you back to, instead of sending you back to the actual previous page based on what the user has done). Buttons are a bit boring and difficult to tell if they are interactable because they don't get highlighted, and the mural HUD is confusing: why is there a pointless arrow key HUD, but the arrows to go back and next are within the art work instead of on the HUD? Also I wish the controls were a bit more intuitive, like being able to click and drag the mural with the mouse, or using the scroll wheel to zoom in and out. And so on. Again, good cause, but I'd like better presentation: the game needs to be as beautiful of a frame as the artwork it is housing!

Mabelma responds:

Thanks a lot for the feedback. A lot of useful points to take into consideration for the future. Appreciate your comment, and your score 👍🙏

[Alpha_Zero]

Pretty neat game with a cool ability it is centered around! It took a bit, but in the end, I felt like I was a Titanfall 2 pilot, phase shifting in and out of dimensions: popping out at the exact position to throw some enemies around, only to pop right back into dark subspace when they start shooting. Felt great to get used to the fast and frantic play, scrambling as I dimension hop, memorizing the enemy positions for maximum effectiveness when I pop back out.

Definitely had a rough start with this game though. The main menu is really drab, annoying to navigate and is confusing with its language. For the gameplay, movement was a bit sketchy and weird, especially with the jumps where, among other things, jumping up through a platform would have you impact with the platform as you pass through it, even though you hadn't finished your jump. Finally, I don't feel like it introduces the concepts, especially the ability, in an effective manner, as I had no idea what it did at first besides make everything dark. The level the ability is introduced in does nothing to explain it: maybe create a level where you're locked in and shot at with no way around normally, but the ability instruction is there, so you test it out and realize you can go past the bullets. Also found it weird that some objects you throw you can keep throwing forever, but other objects can only be thrown once?

I think this game has a really cool concept to it that I'd love to see polished up and fleshed out into a big game: I feel like it's really got legs. Could add a whole story element to teaching the mechanics: maybe you're an escaped experiment or something like that. Would absolutely love to see a Katana Zero-esque replay when you beat a level, where it edits out all the time you spent in the dark dimension so you see what the enemy sees, where it looks like you're just instantly teleporting around causing chaos!

Frogrammer responds:

Hey thank you so much for your feedback.

- Yes as a big Titanfall fan, ability was inspired by time-shifting level, really glad you liked that)
- I agree the menu isn't near as polished as should, didn't have enough time to work on it
- I noticed one way platforms triggering the ground too early too
- Yes sadly mechanic weren't quite introduced, i thought about the level you mean, but didn't want to make the game unbeatable if someone for some reason, didn't know about the ability at all
- After throwing some objects and striking enemy nor touching ground, they can't be grabbed anymore
- Thanks, I may work on it more one day! And also I absolutely thought about teleporting in replay too, really wish had enough time to realize this as well

Thanks for your feedback again, its really important)

[Pico-Raiders]

Hmm, this is a tough one for me. On one hand, I do think it is very ambitious of a game, being a strategy game, to run on PICO-8, and is pretty cool with the way it captures that old-school DOS/Atari/C64 feel and style quite well. Has some neat little touches like the animation for the sinking boats and such, and I did have some fun skirmishing with the units when I could figure out how it worked. On the other hand, I feel it is too ambitious for the system its running on as, while I was able to figure out some aspects, the game just seemed way too complicated and PICO-8 just isn't able to tutorialize enough aspects to get all of the intricacies and rules across (had no idea how many of the units worked, like boats and such, and wasn't sure whether there was a strategy for army unit attacking an army unit, nor if catapults can kill a castle, etc). Controls were a bit annoying as well: so many times I'd select an army dude with the intention to move him: I'd hit move, but since I wasn't holding a direction before I did that, it'd treat it as me skipping and I'd lose the ability to move that unit (argh!). Also, that cool animation for the sinking boat starts to get real annoying once you've seen it for the hundredth time and it just makes the wait for your turn even longer. Anyway, it's a neat game, but it might be a bit too much for me, not being a big strategy fan. Felt like you, unfortunately, recreated everything about old-school strategy games too faithfully, as that included the outdated design bits, haha!

KJScott responds:

It was originally a 48k spectrum game which I tried to recreate and was right at the edge of how much I could put it before I reached the code limit so I was unable to provide any clear instructions (which I knew was going to be an issue). Yeah, I totally agree with all your comments about the controls, instructions, animations, etc, but as your figured I was trying to recreate all the old design choices. The controls was the biggest obstacle as I needed to port over full keyboard support to effectively a controller scheme which I know needs more work but hit the limit of the code to refine it further. I do have a game on the back burner which utilises a lot of the ideas but reworking it hopefully for the modern era but will see when I get time or motivation to finish that off. Thank you for the comments!

[Super Mumtaz Bros.]

Cute little game! I like the way it introduced mechanics subtly, like teaching you jumps and movements on the title screen and introducing the story along with the mechanics in one. While the movement was a little weird to get used to due to the fact that you can't jump, it was fun in a puzzle-like way to figure out how best to traverse the levels considering this limitation, so it's like two puzzles in one, what value! I enjoyed my time, but there was definitely some little confusions here and there but nothing major. For example, I thought the geiger counter circle pulse was actually the game just trying to let me know where my character was all the time: I was getting so annoyed until I realized it was trying to let me know a chicken was near, haha! Also, I was expecting that I'd need to pick up the chickens and deposit them at home as well: a bit strange to just have them continue to run around: makes it feel like I'm not done. Furthermore, I was so confused when, after collecting all of the chickens, which was given so much importance that I thought it was the only goal, to suddenly realize that I needed to fix the leaks as well (and the leaks weren't the places where water is leaking like I thought, but rather the missing patches in pipes). All in all, though, I figured it all out and I had a great time!

Extar responds:

Thanks! I didn't want to just make another platformer that wouldn't stand out so I went with the idea of a platformer with no jumping*. Pico-8 only has limited map space so it encourages you to make the levels more dense and puzzle-like. Again, to try and make the game stand out, I thought adding a little story would give it a bit more personality.
I started with the idea of having the player also collect the chickens in too, but I thought it would be more keeping in with the 'but they're actually plumbers' gimmick and say no, they're plumbers, not pest control. Maybe that can be a sequel XD

[OVERDISK💿]

Very solid game! It's simple with not much to it, unfortunately, but what's there felt very polished and satisfying to play! Just running around and slamming the disks into the portal was quite fun thanks to the fluid animation, and I found myself easily getting addicted to it. Interesting design decision to offset the annoyance of the level up ability pop-up by giving the player invincibility during. It's all well and good, my only real complaint would be that I don't like how fast it respawns you after death: I would prefer that it sit at the death screen with your corpse for a bit more to wait for you to confirm with another button press when you want to restart. Nice job on this, as I love some solid arcade fun!

OVERBOY responds:

Thank you for taking the time to write this detailed and kind review !

[Steps]

I think you definitely accomplished your goal: to me, this felt like a very mini Minit that was a lot of fun! While it was a bit confusing at times due to the simple graphics (I thought the first item I got was the wings already when it was just, uh, scissors? haha) it was very fun and easy to experiment with each new item you got. Had some fun brain teasers, especially stuff like making sure you use the boots properly and don't fling yourself onto spikes. Definitely a great example of a short and sweet adventure!

amidos2006 responds:

Thanks a lot :) glad you enjoyed it and managed to get the vibe of minit from it :)

Sorry about any confusion, I am happy you still were able to enjoy the game :)

[Dice Mice]

Interesting strategic game that was deeper than I expected! It was a bit confusing at the start: couldn't even figure out how to roll the dice and a lot of the elements were confusingly named, such as the attack core not being to attack the enemy (that's the heart core to do that), but credit where credit is due, the game did supply a good help menu to figure everything out. Once I got used to what I was doing, I was surprised to see some deep combat where fights are long because that gives more of an incentive not just to keep mashing their hp down, but go for pairs or triples to debuff their attack and defense and such. Couple that with some neat items to acquire after a fight as well as a nice escalation of challenge and it was a neat little adventure!

Elastiskalinjen responds:

Thank you! I know some parts needs better guidence so thanks for sticking with it!

[Rain Fall]

An odd experience, but certainly a unique experience! I was definitely lost when I started: was confusing why the umbrella was so much higher than where my mouse pointer was to the point where I thought I glitched the game, was confused why I had to hold the umbrella to where I wanted to go instead of above my character (wouldn't they want to hold it above themselves to block the rain?), wasn't able to figure out I could flip the umbrella till my second playthrough, and so on. Also there was a lot of oddities like the snail and player just clipping straight through cars (I understand you don't want to show anybody dying, but cmon, why even have it then?) So there was definitely a lot of confusion. But I mean hey, like I just said: I didn't drop it, rather I felt compelled to do a second playthrough. The game was weird and interesting enough, and the graphics and presentation were so charming and chill, I had to play it a second time just to see what else I could do in it, and it was interesting to figure out how to solve the mini quests like dumping water on the flaming hair and so on. So yeah, the confusion garnered from the minimalist presentation actually did lead to an interesting journey so...good job, uh, I think, haha!

Tarhack responds:

Thank you so much for your time and kindness to our experience, I'm glad you kept playing :) Have a lovely day~