FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Disc Us]

Pretty ambitious and impressive to get all of this setup! Unfortunately it was just a confusing experience for me, both because there was barely any way to learn what the heck to do in the game and because the online experience seemed pretty glitchy (countdown timers getting stuck in an infinite loop that goes into the negatives, people not voting and not knowing what to do and pressing buttons and such randomly, the game keeps putting me into chat mode when I'm trying to move around, etc). But I suppose I'm not the intended audience as I've never played either Disc Room or Among Us, so I was totally lost as the game didn't provide much instruction since it assumed you already knew how the game worked. Still, I think I started to understand how everything works after awhile (maybe) and did have some fun and I think it does have a lot of potential: just maybe needs to slow down a bit!

keybol responds:

Yeah I have presumed players have idea on how to play Among Us and other social deduction games. The instructions aren't clear also for both teams, which items go where and how traitors will actually win. Though with games like these, I feel part of the game is to try the game many times to actually understand it (the same is said by Secret Hitler designer in his GDC talk).

[GUNWYRM]

This was a bit of an odd duck for me! On one hand, I think it looks great and is a really interesting concept! Presentation is great with the wibbly-wobbly letters, the menus, the transitions, the pop-ups and the HUD and so on all looking great! Gameplay is pretty solid as well: it took me a bit too get used to it and to use the dash more often, but once I did, I was making good progress and it was neat to get a gunwyrm going with all sorts of guns and abilities. But on the other hand, I don't feel like I had as much fun as I should? There were a lot of confusing aspects of the game: there aren't any cool effects when you dash like glowing or turning blue or blurry to let you know you're invincible; while there is a 'ding' that lets you know when your dash is ready there's no bar that fills up to let you know dash is on cool down in the first place (nor is there an error sound if you try to dash without it being ready yet) leading me to thinking my dash was malfunctioning; and there was a lack of feedback in general. It just didn't feel satisfying for some reason: enemies die without much fanfare and the guns fire so slow and nothing sounds powerful and the levels and enemies get really samey quickly. I mean, when I die, I get a big, crunchy explosion, but when enemies die, it's practically nothing. I think some juice and variation to make the gameplay not only more satisfying, but more intuitive by giving more information, would help. But still, rather solid for what it is!

THXsprites responds:

Hey! Thanks for the feedback, I totally agree with what you have to say about the game lacking "juice", I would love if there was more user feedback and things felt better to do. Sadly, due to the constraints of the jam we didn't have time to polish the game as much as we would like, thus there isn't a ton of wave varieties nor did we get around to adding things like a bar for the dash as we just didn't have time to think about it.

Thanks for playing! :)

[Deadswitch 3]

Pretty impressive game! Entire thing has a really professional design to it, both in terms of menus and gameplay. Game just has so many little touches to it that make it feel great, like the countdown timer for a match starting and so on. I wasn't able to play the multiplayer unfortunately since it wasn't working possibly from lack of players, but kudos for attempting anyway: thanks brains and guts to make a whole multiplayer component. The single player content was great anyway: enjoyed the survival and operations modes, though I wish maybe they were more apparent in the main menu instead of being shoved into ranked. A few confusing aspects for the gameplay: one, was a bit of a bummer I couldn't switch weapons with mousewheel, two, headshots didn't seem to do any bonus damage despite giving bonus cash, three, it's a bit too easy to get shot from off-screen causing frustration. All in all, a really ambitious shooter that delivers on it!

WilkinGames responds:

Thanks so much! Multiplayer should be getting more players as I release the game on other sites/platforms. New operations will be coming in future updates as well! I recommend you play in fullscreen to avoid getting shot off screen. :-)

[Luminous Edge]

Wow, this game really blew me away! It was a little confusing initially, maybe intentionally, with the whole reset spawning a clone of you (maybe it shouldn't say reset, but clone? or maybe it should say both, like 'hit R to reset and clone'?), but once I got past that everything was awesome! I loved the smooth and fluid way the game played, and the animations and special effects for all the moves were so great and satisfying! Loved the escalation of challenges as well with the introduction of new powers and levels that combine several mechanics. All it needed was for you to have to dock the sword in the stand at the end for it to be epic, but I'll let that go, haha. This game had it all: awesome puzzles, great boss fights, heck yea! Absolutely want to see the continuation of this!

Yword responds:

Thank you so much for playing! I'm very glad you liked this game. Thanks!!!

[Little Maddie Dear]

I found this pretty dang impressive! I'm not one for these RPG Maker games typically, but this one seemed so custom-built that you could barely tell it was built from it initially, so kudos on that! Really cool and intriguing presentation and theme: I got really hooked into it and wanted to see where it went! Love the weird little dialogues with the characters as well that had a real Darkwood feeling to them. Some aspects of the game were a little confusing, like how despite every other item, like the drawing, having a descriptive label, the candies don't. Would help also to be able to see/know what items were interactable or not: some items like the meal were shining, but I was surprised to see I could interact with the inconvenient tree and pushing boxes. Also, I felt like the inclusion of some meme stuff, like the yaranaika pumpkin, for me, wasn't good since it took me out of the spooky experience: I can understand wanting to get some jokes in to lighten the mood or what-have-you, but I thought you did a good job building up the horror so it kinda shot itself in the foot with that. Also, I wasn't sure if keeping the lantern on was a good or bad thing? You can turn it on or off, but I wasn't sure if there was a reason, like if it helps not let enemies detect you or something.

Marckel responds:

Hi Futurecop! Thanks for the review! I'm so glad the Darkwood inspiration shows through, I really love that game. Sorry for the memes all over the place, that was partially stress relief due to all the rushing we had to do to finish the game in a month. The lantern is incredibly vital in stages 4 and 5! The mechanics for the two new monsters in those areas are heavily reliant on it.

[Phase Shift: Lab Escape]

Hmm, it's an interesting take on the classic infinite runner, but I don't know if it went in the best direction. Most infinite runners have the player run automatically: this turns the game into an exciting test of reactions and quick planning as you try to keep your eyes ahead and pick the best path and have your fingers ready to deal with any obstacles that come. This runner, however, doesn't run at all: the player can move back and forward at their own pace. I suppose it's a unique and different take on the system, but it just doesn't feel as satisfying because of it. I know the game does have the bot chasing you, so technically you do need to keep running, but it just didn't feel the same (especially since the robot cannot be outrun if you do not get upgrades, making it seem like you're not in control of your own success since you can't beat it with your own skills). Also in general the levels seemed very depopulated with not enough obstacles, and the color switching mechanics just felt very odd with there not being an intuitive way to memorize which button does which color.

Pastruvium responds:

The running system was based off of Dino Run and was implemented in response to my designs for future obstacles (particularly later ones). However, I do get your point about it feeling a bit slow, and I probably could have/should have designed the obstacles to function a bit better while moving quickly. I think the movement system works particularly well during the boss battle and later in the game when things get a bit more hectic, but I can see that the feel and especially the early stages feel off. On that note about the speed upgrade, it's a good point and something that Dino Run specifically did well. Maybe if I were to re-do the game, I would remove the speed upgrade and put something in the game to increase the player's acceleration/speed, or even add acceleration and add an upgrade that decreases the time it takes to get to max speed.

On the depopulation of obstacles and such, the early stages are meant to ease the player into the admittedly complicated control scheme, and the game becomes much more dense as the player progresses.

On the note about early game, a lot of decisions were made for late game (hard obstacles), the boss, and endless mode (unlocked after completing story mode). I think they work a bit better in those cases, however as a result, the early game feels neglected and off-putting. I should have gone back and touched up the early game after getting the flow of late game down (at least I think I did!).

On the control scheme itself, I implemented the keys in a way for ease of use and speed in switching. I often think about them as most used to least used from left to right, or forward, up, and down. This was originally set as, from left to right, yellow (air), orange (solid), blue (liquid) for up, forward, down. This was changed as I felt that orange (solid) state would be used most frequently. In addition, through your video, I could see that my tutorial was maybe a bit too sparse, though I like tutorials to let the player figure things out by themselves more and mostly explain controls. In the future, I might include more text or optional explanations to help things along. Also on this note, it seems I failed in explaining the plasma dashes (w, s, and shift) properly. They, especially when upgraded, help the player moved from platform to platform, and to outrun the chaser bot when it gets too close, especially on endless. This is tied to the meter on the left side of the screen and is refilled when defeating enemies that can damage you. Money (Genetic Material) is gained through defeating the running enemies (scientists).

Thanks for your detailed feedback, and I really appreciate the video you put out! It really helped me see how someone else directly interacts with the game and tutorial without me around to explain things when they become a problem. It also really helps to see when mechanics and gameplay becomes frustrating or boring the moment it happens. I particularly liked the moment you figured out how the colored floors (gas and water funnels respectively) worked, though I definitely could have done a better job of explaining everything in the tutorial.

[Sludge and Sorcery]

Pretty goofy game that has a great start, but kinda loses steam as it goes on (though I do still want to go back and beat this eventually!) I really love the quirkiness of the game's story: very charming to pull the rug out from under the player and do a whole character switch, which was great because I really love the slime team. I figured that, because of that, the game wasn't actually an rpg but just playing around with rpg themes and it would be just a nice adventure game. I wish that were the case, but no, unfortunately it does actually remain an rpg and that was my biggest problem with the game: the combat was just so weak for me since it just drags on and on. The dialogue was already becoming an issue because I couldn't advance text with a button press like how most games handle text (not saying I wanted to skip it, I love the dialogue, I just read fast) but the combat is so slow with its slow transitions and slow dice rolls and way too much health for all the enemies and due to the randomness the fights can just drag on. Honestly, I wish the combat was just taken out of the game altogether so the game can focus on the best part: the funny story and quests. Or, at the very least, I wish the combat was replaced with something quicker and more funny to fit the overall unserious themes.

migmoog responds:

Thanks for playing our game and providing feedback! Just a disclaimer I didn't weigh in on the design of the game much, that was Polyducks' field, I was just an artist and the only one of our team with an NG account. The whole point of the game's main characters becoming the slimes was for mainly writing purposes, and it says this game is an RPG in both the genre and description, so we didn't intend on changing that. The speed of the dialogue was a limitation of the engine we were using (GBstudio). However, I do believe that the heavy RNG in the battle system is a bit of a bore, especially in a game like this with so many fights. We're very glad that you took the time to play our game!

['Llama vs. Llamas']

Pretty cute and charming game! Love the concept and I love the charming graphics and animations for all the characters. Game is nice and sweet and simple for the most part and doesn't overstay its welcome. I definitely had a lot of fun with this but its not without its problems as it does have a overall feeling of jankiness, particularly with the hitboxes. Most likely due to the 2.5D perspective, there were tons of times where I swear I shot water at fire but it just whizzes right over it without hitting it, or it ends up hitting another fire I wasn't aiming at. Maybe the hitboxes need to be more generous or something about the graphics needs to change to serve to pointing you towards where the ideal point to aim is at. The aiming/firing is odd too: most games have the crosshair serve as a general direction for the projectile to go, but the projectile continues past the point of aiming, whereas this game has the projectile stop and explode at the point you clicked at. This isn't necessarily bad, but I think if you want the aiming to work like this, the crosshair should be not a flat circle, but tilted as if it was painted on the ground, indicating that it will hit the ground at that point, making it more intuitive. I think I still had an overall good time, but definitely a little clunky in its implementation: luckily it kinda adds to the whole goofy charm, haha!

Butzbo responds:

Glad you liked it!

Yeah the hitboxes ended up being more troublesome than anticipated, in terms of perspective, and also at the time it was hard to find the proper size for them, big enough so that fire would get hit by the water, but not so big so that the llama would get hit if it passed behind it (probably having hitboxes for different purposes would have been a better choice). Also, I didn't put much thought about that crosshair detail, considering the 2.5d perspective I liked making it so that the bullet went right where you aimed, but I get how it can be confusing as its pretty unconventional, having it tilted to match the floor is a pretty good idea!

Thanks for the review! These detailed comments are great to get me thinking more in depth about design and mechanics.

[(Old) Newgrounds Arcade]

I really want to like this as I think the intention is cool and there's some real elbow grease in there, but overall I had a bad time with this. The presentation is all over the place: I knew I was gonna have a bad time from the very start when the title screen, the thing that's supposed to sell you on the game, didn't have any effort put into it: basic system fonts, terrible formatting, haphazard layout, inconsistent design (why on earth are the config buttons highlightable and not the main play button?) and badly scaled images (why is the title graphic so small?) which have all this pixelization on them. Just an overall lack of presentation which I'd like to overlook, but it just reminded me of old Geocities sites that people make fun of, it hurt my eyes, and more than that, it was difficult to tell what did what and how to get around. I was hoping that, even if the graphics were bad that the gameplay would win me over, but same issues were had in all the games as well with bad, lazy HUDs, graphics and gameplay: it was cool to see the variety, but I would prefer one great game instead of a bunch of shallow games which get old in seconds, if they even work. Again, its a great concept and a good effort given the amount of content (even though it is overall not so great content), and I think it's a really neat collab opportunity, but I think it needed way more time in the oven: I'd like to think some patches can help but it would have to be a pretty significant overhaul for me.

larrynachos responds:

You're absolutely right on every account! I just can't seem to force myself to tidy up lol. I'm working with artists to slowly rebuild the visual aspects of the game, including the main menu! I'll definitely be revamping the minigame HUDS as well, I just don't have a lot of assets at my disposal :\

I hate to disappoint you, but I just plain suck at art direction lol. Like most of my games, the graphics are a combination of pngs from the internet and assets downloaded from opengameart (this time with the exception of the art contributed by icy64 and others!) just cobbled together. I could spend a whole day just fiddling with the graphical aspects and end up with an equally sloppy product, cause I can't really close my eyes and envision what I want, and when I try it usually evolves out of my capabilities and limited art assets.

I appreciate that you again took the time to do a more in depth review via youtube video! Can I ask what your computer specs are? It appeared to be running quite sluggishly (which is why the recoil in Madness Arena was so severe, and the physics games were running at a snail's pace). It's usually a matter of cpu. I'm using an i7-9700k (throttled at 50% cause I've been having overheating issues), and it runs fine for me (late game madness arena can always get a little laggy though, if there's too many enemies shooting you at once).

In terms of gameplay, I plan on adding more engaging minigames and refining the old ones with better features (for example, I want to replace madness zombie survival with a sort of animated on rails experience like time crisis, but that's something that requires an animator). The upcoming 1.4 release will include a new Line Rider minigame/level editor so you can make, play, and share levels :D

[Ranata the Frog and the Broken Forest]

Oh man, I really wanted to like this game, and some part of me still thinks its quite charming, but I had such a bad time with this, haha. Like I said, I think the overall concept and graphics are very charming and cute, and the game does have some nice touches like the tutorial which allows you to experiment with the controls before actually playing. But the game itself is just so frustrating for me. I really want to jump on flies but it's practically impossible to do so because you can only jump down on them, not up, and branches are constantly in the way to stop you. I really want to move around efficiently and save time, but the frog drifts more than a fast and furious muscle car on NOS. I really want to get this fruits down, but these two fruits are right next to each other and I keep cancelling the first shake by shaking something else, like what sense does that make? I want to deliver this fruit, but whenever I pick up the fruit, my previously carried fruit falls up and right back on top of me and makes me pick it up, and also the witch takes an hour to say I delivered the wrong fruit when I already corrected myself and am trying to deliver the right one! It was quite the adventure, and I did laugh at my mistakes, and maybe I just suck, but I still gotta say that I think the game wasn't designed in the best way possible: good attempt however.

Omael responds:

Thanks for playing. Next one will be better :)