Half-Full-Games's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[SFB]

I love the old-school 8-bit platformer aesthetic you created, both visually and aurally, that works wonderfully for your concept, and it is a good concept to make the main character completely dependent on you, the player being the assistant.

Sadly the player controls have some glaring flaws. Pieguy seems to have no trouble jumping over obstacles once prompted to do so, but Limeguy freezes if he so much as touches an obstacle mid-jump, which especially becomes problematic if Pieguy moves far enough away that Limeguy is off-screen; while it's likely that Pieguy will die anyways if he got that far away, it certainly feels like the player isn't given a chance to recover, a chance players will at least want to feel.

While I used Limeguy's momentum to help get ahead of Pieguy just in time to make him jump, that same momentum makes it hard to precisely jump to stomp on enemies before Pieguy hits them. Limeguy either needs tighter air-controls, or Pieguy may need to be slightly more independent.

Lastly, while yes you included instructions in the description, it's generally good design practice to have instructions accessible in your game, either from the main menu, or via a pause menu if you've room to include one (which the free version doesn't leave a lot of I'll admit).

From a more experienced developer or someone with access to more than what the free version of Construct 3 offers these gameplay errors would be inexcusable. But I am aware of those limitations and would like to reassure you, your concept is great, but if you pursue this project further I strongly encourage you to take a look at anything you can do to improve on this.

Good luck in the Game Jam!

IXthe2nd responds:

Thanks for the support; I did some touching up, it helped me figured out why Limeguy gets stuck like that. Some of it is due to how the engine works and me being still unfamiliar with it.

[_R_G_B_]

Gets a little confusing at times but it's still a neat challenging puzzle platformer that has managed to get its gameplay work with the visuals rather well. You might want to be aware that the music plays over itself at the end once the game is finished however.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[3 Heroes]

The art and music are good and invoke a classic RPG feel, unfortunately what could have been a good concept in the swapping mechanic wound up being a mess due to confusing character angles, something which feels like a shortcut given the possibility of animating downward or upward facing sprites, and that the characters always stay in the same position which really throws off the aim of the attacking character.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[TRI-LZR]

For the vast majority of the levels it seems there is no point to the multiple lasers and it gets repetitive quickly, the difficulty then takes a sudden jump in cramped quarters with little room to maneuver or prevent hits in spite of sustained laser fire. Neither the sound effects or the lack of background music do anything to break the monotony.

I will compliment you on the shadows, that was a nice touch.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

Frostspektrum responds:

In hindsight I should have emphasized the core concept with three lasers much more which I think could alleviate repetitiveness/monotony by also focusing on designing good levels.

Thank you for your constructive criticism, it is much appreciated!

[Invoker Begins]

Not too bad. I like the three different shot options but there is a non-zero chance of the player leaving themselves hung out to dry without even a basic default shot to fall back on, and the archer projectiles are both swift and difficult to see, not helped by the fact that like all other projectile shooting enemies they can continue to fire at the player long after the player has passed them.

Still the voice, music, and art are both well done and you have the foundations for solid gameplay.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Vikings]

First huge props to your menu designer and cutscene artist, both of those were absolutely fantastic and the rest of the artwork did well for itself, as did the music. Aesthetically it holds up quite well. For the most part so does the gameplay, combat's a little stale but the boss fight was nicely done, combining puzzle/platformer elements very well.

However I found the instructions to be given rather quickly instead of being in easy reach for the player to reference which can leave a player stuck for a little while, which can be a major drawback to gameplay. As this was basically a single-level game having the instructions somewhere obvious, whether accessed from the main menu or pause menu or someone posted the player can find easily, is preferable to giving them fast instructions they can't access again.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Clumsy Nordic Thrower]

Pretty good aesthetically, good ponderous but intense music, consistent visuals. However the click and release mechanic doesn't always feel responsive, which is unfortunate since the click and release compared to how far it goes has a bit of a learning curve. Thankfully your "berserk" mechanic helps alleviate the frustration of this, but not completely.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Shard Hunters]

The character art and visual effects are both well done. The background art falls a bit flat in comparison. I also want to compliment you on the implementation of hitboxes, the top-down view and art style made me very nervous about the hitboxes but they were all in all well considered and implemented.

The concept of the overall gameplay is solid, but suffers from questionable pacing, as well as the rooms trying to disguise themselves as puzzles when really they're obstacles courses with the only option to circumvent them is waiting and then going. Still it was playable and the potential is there, if you pursue this project in the future just remember to give more thought to the levels and how you can make even light brain-teasers for obstacles.

I want to wish all fellow game developers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Astrobeans: Great Escape]

The background and foreground art is amazing, though the art of the character, their animations, and the ships strikes me as questionable. While you did very well with the sound effects I can't bring myself to call the music appropriate for someone running through a dangerous obstacle course.

While I see potential with the gameplay it feels as though the spike's hitboxes were off, or at least that the player's animations fooled me into believing there was more room than I had. I got to the ship part once and had to ask... what am I supposed to do when the ship runs out of fuel? Jump out into the spikes? Seems a poor way to end the game for a player who got that far.

I want to wish all fellow game developers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[TriQ]

Minimalistic and while it feels that it could MAYBE do with an few light additions, at the same time it runs the risk of losing the wonderful feel I already get from this game. The triangle's design is simple but conveys enough information to make it clear how to play the game after only a few rounds, the gameplay reminds me of games like jenga and connect 4, simple but fun you vs. your opponent type games. The sound-effect only aspect during play helps emphasize the simple fun this game brings. Bravo, bravo!

I want to wish all fellow game developers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!