b-random9's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Oily]

I'm all for adding a lot of polish to a game, but the stretching of the player combined with the tile movement feels really really sluggish. Adding polish to help emphasize a feeling is good, but it can be done without regard for what kind of feeling it creates which I think happened here.

The fact you cant hover over the hole with parts of your body feels unnatural. I'd rather have the character just die than not be able to move over the holes at all, it just feels off given how little contextual sense it makes.

Runes could also be better explained, it's really not clear exactly how they work besides "stuff turns", the exact rules are confused.

Other than that, seems good.

[Planet Life]

Ok first off the planets face is really disturbing.

That aside, this game is really charming. There are a few moments where it could do with more dialogue choices like in the intro, even if they don't amount to much. That said, I really like how you have to click "Derek?" to see if he's ok after battle.

[Fleeting Light]

This was pretty good.
It feels really polished in some areas and not others. The stary background looks great, but the lack of soundeffects, the sudden start and the lack of conveyance in some areas (im still not sure if those big lights are checkpoints of just more light) feels a bit lackluster.
Overall though, quite an atmospheric experience.

[Bunnie's Carrot]

First a few nitpicks:
-The box falling feels a bit slow an awkward, the fact that it and enemies can move whilst in air also sometimes gives the feeling that things end up where you don't want them.
-Buttons really could have done with some kind of connector to show what triggers what, a colour or a symbol or a wire.
-Level 13 feels like I cheated (or so it says in my notes, sry I can't give me detail but I've forgotten honestly)

Those aside, this is quite a strong puzzle platformer. I really like how the mechanics evolve with the story. Nice art, nice music.

I don't really have any big complaints as such, just suggestions on how it could be taken further. The ability to rewind time would be super helpful, for when you've done part of a puzzle but mess up later and need to restart. I recognize how difficult that is so a savestate feature would also suffice.

Overall, as well made as the game is, there was a slight sense that it began to drag after a while. Perhaps puzzle games need an extra intensive, I think the gameplay can feel like work, which sounds bad but with reason to push forward this might be alright for the game. In something like portal this would be the story. Minecraft is one of the most work like games and yet it's fun because your working towards building something. I know this is vague, I just think that some extra drive might help the game from becoming dull.

Another way to help this might be to have more of a world. Making every level separated, boxed in with no real sense of a world around you probably isn't the best way to draw people in.

Again though, nothing I really have is a major complaint, more nitpicks. As a whole this is a really well made puzzle platformer.

jronn responds:

I appreciate the constructive feedback!

[Headless]

Well it's certainly flappy bird. Nice aesthetics I suppose.

Could certainly do with some more polish IE button prompts, a more flashy hud than the text in the bottom left. The arc of the flappy bird I also find is quite vital to the feeling, it gives you a much better idea of that momentum, the arc feels more natural.

I'm curious, exactly what kind of university project is this? What type of course is it? Is this some beginner project or more of a large scale thing? Would this project be considered highly rated or low? Because you've just made low budget flappy bird, which in itself is already one of the most low budget games with a reputation out there. If this is some beginner tech demo I get it, but anything more and I find this highly concerning.

11011010111 responds:

Its a 2D interactive course. Since I'm studying graphic design and not animation or game development, this course isn't given that much attention.

So far, we're learning the basics, drag and drop, galleries and this flappy bird type game. They're giving us the codes, so we don't really have much input there, our job is to link the code to the animate file, and design the look of it.

[FLAP]

I'm all for teaching through level design, but you could really do with a prompt on the holding space to glide when it becomes required.

That's just a nitpick mind. Otherwise great, feels good to move and fly, nice feather effects.

I think the next step would be something outside of the primary gameplay, be it story or just....something to give you a sense of progression reason to push forward. As fun and juicy as it is, just having a primary gameplay loop gets dull quite quickly, hower fun that core gameplay is. Could also give an excuse to change up the music once in a while. As is the whole thing just starts just to drag on after a while.

[Horizon 6]

Could do with some more clarity, I have no idea what's going on, what the challenge is, ect. Am I trying to stop enemies getting past or just dodging.

That said I really like the truly retro vibe.

PatrickOReilly responds:

Thanks for the feedback, and I agree it could use some more definition. It's funny though cause a lot of games back then were more style over substance; the medium was the message and getting the high score and a long play was always the objective.

[Bogus Roads]

Hard boiled could really do with more in the way of new threats, it felt samey by that point which was a same because I was enjoying the game.

Could also strongly benefit with a quicker restart that uses the mouse. It's a one handed game, so having to reach out to press r each time I die feels more tedious than just clicking through the menu to restart.

Other than that, this game is really addictive.

[Code Breaker (original)]

Despite how unpolished it is, I really like this game. Some of the puzzles make great use of the mechanic, and being thrown into one and needing to quickly figure out what to do felt great.

All that said I do have criticisms, the lack of polish being the obvious one. The art looks pretty rushed all around.

More specific to the mechanic though, I wasn't a fan of the gravity switching level. The sudden change in vertical velocity felt jarring and I swear, tiny amounts of gravity felt the massive regardless. Perhaps if the changes to properties were better contextualized in the world, either by visual representation (eg showing an outline for how high you jump) or by changing it to tiles per second or something, instead of just some arbitrary number we have no context of.

Overall though, I like how well the mechanic is used.