FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Phantom Behind]

Was a bit glitchy and confusing for me, but it seems to be a decent core to work from for making a stealth game as most of the mechanics worked fairly well. Some of the mechanics were a bit confusing:

*Tutorial was pretty lacking: not apparent at all that walking into someone would kill them. Buttons were all over the place as well: why is it two different buttons to enter and leave a grate instead of the same button?

*Some doors seemed like they could only be opened by guards, so you need to follow them in. Cool, but this wasn't immediately apparent, and you can get yourself stuck in an unwinnable situation if you kill all the guards without realizing it. It'd be helpful if guards kept respawning so you don't get stuck, or if the game tells you you're stuck and resets.

*If you walk into a view cone it freezes you as it slowly fills up with red, but the view cone is already so short I don't know why the red part even exists (though I suppose it provides a bit of forgiveness, which is nice, but the view cones are already incredibly tiny).

*The sound circles worked very oddly for me. They weren't stopped by walls (this is ok, but maybe this could be changed), and they deployed way after the guard died or the whistle blew instead of immediately, creating a weird disconnect. Also, sometimes the circle could grow slowly, and other times it would just pop-up: weird graphical glitch.

*Sound is kinda lacking at the moment: gets annoying to constantly hear the negative errnt sound of guards seeing blood or odor or whatever.

*Unlocking abilities with exp I feel is something that shouldn't be in as it makes the design very weird, but if you do keep it in, it'd be helpful to see how much something costs before spending exp.

Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here!

bluemath responds:

Thanks @FuturecopLGF . Your detailed feedback is very helpful. Some of the issues you mentioned are on my bugfix list already. Stay tuned for future improvements.

[Winter Falling: Price of Life]

Very cool game! Once you get into it, the battles can be great strategic fun, and I love the professional design to the UI not only in the way it looks and feels, but the way it imparts information which really helps in coming to grasp all the various mechanics. I still feel like I was only able to make it far in this game because I had experience with playing the previous one: a game like this plays very differently than any other strategy game I've played (which, to be fair, I don't have much experience with, so I could be talking nonsense) and I feel like the tutorial is still a bit lacking and it just dumps you into the deep end. A bit refreshing not to be babied, but still, there are a lot of potentially unintuitive and frustrating elements that could throw players off: why do I need to rehire units, why does the terrain seem to make no difference except for trenches (rivers and such look to be ignored as if they were flat land), why does 'move' kill enemies (maybe it should be called something more intuitive like charge, but there is a move called charge already and sometimes you do just want to move units?) Still, despite all these issues, the game does have such a sense of confidence to it with the great music, art, and UI that you feel compelled to continue, and are glad when you do, since it can be such a blast to fight to the last, scrape together as much as you can with your little resources, and blast em with dragon fire! Would love if maybe there was a bit more of a story element to it: the game just screams for some little chit-chat with your royals/peasant/outlaw generals between missions to learn how you're doing and working towards.

Rarykos responds:

Oh thank you very much! These are very good points! It's hard not to agree. I'm glad you enjoyed the experience. I feel like the problems will be solved in the full version with some restructuring. Really nice to see you here, in reviews, again! I was wondering what you'd think.

[Coordinator]

Pretty neat game! It's a simple game, but it has a lot of nice juicy elements to it that give it a nice sense of excitement and professionalism, like how the music fades in and out between gameplay and the menu, and how everything has great movement to it with slides and bounces and so on. There were some frustrating aspects to it though: I didn't like how enemies can spawn right on top or directly under me, and I didn't like how I couldn't interact with things when I've been hit (I get the idea, but the invincibility is so short anyway, just let me collect this one point and not have to sit on my thumbs waiting). Was also difficult to tell when I was damaged: could do with a bigger signal to register being hit like a screen shake, a red flash, a time freeze, etc. I also felt like the multiplier bar was a bit lacking: I feel like something that important, since it's a scoring game, should be bigger and flashier and more spelled out to the player so you feel compelled to keep it up. Anyway, it was still some good simple arcade fun!

ToadieTechnika responds:

"could do with a bigger signal to register being hit like a screen shake, a red flash, a time freeze, etc". I like that! I feel like I have to improve more on the UX on the next game. Thank you very much for this comment. :D

[Huerage]

Not too shabby. It's a simple game, but simple doesn't necessarily mean bad, as simple can be addictive and fun, which this game could be. I did like dodging around the enemies, weaving through them and slowly seeing my player upgrade in tune with the music. However, right now, I felt like the game is a bit overly plain and lacking which hurts it's presentation and lasting appeal. First, the controls were a bit odd. I have no idea why the player sprite turns in the direction of the mouse: you'd think it would mean you can shoot in that direction, but I couldn't find a fire button, so why does this exist? Bit weird to use a triangle as well for the player since it would usually mean that W would move you forward, not up, like a rocket in an old Asteroids game. Anyway, the music is cool, but I feel like it's doing all the heavy lifting and without it, the game wouldn't have much. I think the game does have a solid theme going with music since you're already have the player upgrade at certain phases of the song. Because of this, I would change more elements as the song goes on: add new enemy types, make enemies more aggressive, and so on. I think you should make all the visual elements of the game pulse to the beat like other music-based games do. Also, I feel like there should be some more special effects not only to add pizazz, but help communicate elements like enemies spawning in or dying. I recommend looking up a video called 'Juice it or Lose it' which shows how simple games can use cool techniques and effects to make it more exciting.

Tykua responds:

Thanks for the constructive feedback.

[Mayor Outbreak]

I think this is a pretty cool idea, but I felt so confused playing it. There was no tutorial for the controls (I didn't realize there was a throw button for a long time) or easing in to grasp the situation, and it never felt like I was able to have any effect on anything and I was just doomed to die without accomplishing anything. If that was the intention, kudos, but I assume there must be a way to win. It might've been my own fault as when I read the concept, I assumed it was going to be a Sim-City/Starcraft type game where you view the town from above and click on things to manage, but instead you control a little guy in a gigantic city. Because of that, it was chaos and I could never tell if I was having any effect on anything since it took forever to get around and I couldn't see far or wide enough if any of my actions were having a large-scale effect. A lot of times the game would just end with me catching the virus for no reason from what I could tell and I'd die (there was a little bug where you can live with 0HP: you only die if you go into the negatives for some reason). Again, I think this is a neat idea that could definitely work if maybe it was structured a bit more and didn't just chuck you into the deep end.

Fat-Leech responds:

Thanks for the feedback, all valid points with which I agree

[Bounce Back]

Not too shabby! It was a pretty nice experience battling it out with the boomerang through the enemies. I did feel like the difficulty spiked a bit too early with the shield guys as they are very frustrating to fight. Even when I had the great idea to throw the boomerang past the shield guy so that they would get hit when the boomerang returned to me (which I'm assuming was the intended way to combat them), there were just too many shield guys crowding around that just made my boomerang stop dead. Maybe ease the introduction of those guys with just one or two at first, instead of dumping a group of five of em at you when you first see them. I was hoping to be able to maybe buy some items to combat them, but money comes at you so slowly that it became a real grind. With some elements like music and other effects to add some pizazz and a better difficulty curve I think this could be really fun as the boomerang has a lot of potential for interesting combat scenarios!

KilledByAPixel responds:

Thanks! Good feedback, I plan to work on a sequel someday that will add a lot more stuff like you suggest. This was originally for a 13k game jam.

A few gameplay tips about the shield enemies. You can hit them from the side. Try to lure them near sand to slow them down. Use the dash button to escape if you are surrounded.

[Remember To Forget]

Interesting game! I haven't made it fully through yet: I suddenly died(?) for no reason when watching a sunset. I'm assuming it's a metaphor or something, but that was a really weird experience and kinda killed my mood (though it did make it intriguing and make me want to figure out what the heck happened). While the game is cool, it does have a lot of little annoyances to it. There were a lot of elements that wouldn't highlight when I hovered over them despite being interactable. Elements like the back arrow and the menu needed to be scrolled over to, which was odd, considering they should just be placed in a definite, HUD-like position on the screen, like other menu elements were. There were times when the text was someone else like Skye speaking, but the game did not put the name and color to indicate it was the case, leading to confusion. Nevertheless, I do want to get back into this game since the great art builds a nice atmosphere to it.

josieking responds:

Thank you for playing! I agree! I'll be the first to admit that it does have a lot of minor grievances – some in part to my lack of experience and other factors such as time constraints played a big part (not making excuses though, I take full credit for that.) I was learning how to do things as I went and looking back, I'd definitely do things differently if I were to try again. The art was my biggest focus so I'm glad it adds to the atmosphere but regardless, thanks for bearing with me!

[Life Of Alex]

A nice text-adventure! Seems to have an impressive amount of variation/routes to it, along with wonderfully funny dialogue and all sorts of crazy situations to read though. It was a pleasure to curl up, chill out with the jaunty music, and experience the life of an Alex. I gotta come back for more routes!

TheFerridge responds:

Thanks so much for the kind words, I'm happy you enjoyed it! :D Trust me, if you haven't found the time travel scenarios yet, you ain't seen crazy

[Broken Guns]

Not too shabby! I think it's a neat concept to work with, and the presentation is pretty solid with cool visual elements like the objective beaming in as it moves around, a HUD arrow pointing in the right direction, and nice explosions. It's cool to battle through the chaos as you chase after the objective and contend with your backwards firing gun. I had fun, but right now it feels like it is lacking a bit though: maybe I didn't play far enough, but the game kinda gets old quickly. Would love to see this expanded on with more varied elements. For example, I think it would be cool if you kept running out of ammo and had to pick up various types of broken guns to work with: a gun that jams and you need to jump to fix it, a gun that blasts you backwards, and so on and so forth.

JauqGames responds:

Glad you like the game.

The game does lack a good quantity of content, but then again I only had 48 hours to build this game. I definitely like a few of your gun mechanic suggestions and I'll keep them in mind If I ever decide to make a "fuller" version of this game.

[Interstate Drifter 1999]

Love this game! Love the feeling of getting better and better at grasping the drifting controls. At first, I might have to turn 180 degrees to slow myself by starting the drift too late on a turn, but later on you can get better and more efficient at turning only 90 degrees. Feels like it really rewards skillful play and player expression, and it's all put-together with cool graphics and music. I liked how you're given a free infinite space to drive around in a tutorial as well. My only complaint might be that I don't really like the energy system: it feels so bad to lose by running out of gas/energy. I would much prefer a standard lives system instead where you lose a life by damaging yourself or falling off and so on. If you want to keep energy, I would put that in an alternate hard/pro mode or something. Nice work on this!

UltimoGames responds:

yeah I hear it sometimes, that people don't like the energy bar.. Some do.. Thanks for the review FuturecopLGF! Glad you like it !