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.

[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!

[Dust Bunnies In Space]

At first the single-mouse controls were tolerable but not desirable, but then when I noticed you had alternate control schemes in the menu my opinion of the game shot way up. Having some control over your gameplay experience is always a plus and speaks well of a designer who thinks to include them.

Music is pretty good and there's some good art, however the graphical glitches (the flashing black boxes) with the running dust bunnies and the lady in the tutorial is very jarring compared to the rest of what is otherwise quality artwork. I'm not sure if it's an animation problem or if it's something to do with masking, but it's worth looking into; while I've always been a "gameplay first, aesthetics second" kind of guy, obvious graphical problems like that can take you out of the game.

I'd like to wish all game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

Piggybank12 responds:

Thanks for the review! I'm glad I went through the trouble of adding some different control options to the game, even though I kinda wish I had done that in the first place instead of rushing to do it in an update, haha. I know I appreciate having those kinds of options in a game, so it made sense to put them in here too.

There is a noise effect applied on purpose to the lady in the tutorial (I thought it helped sell the idea of her being a hologram, heh) but I did notice the noise effect affect things it shouldn't on some machines. The effect is a WebGL effect, which this game also has quite a few of. I'd have to play around with the effects and see if I can either get rid of some of them, or even make an on/off switch for the effects to help the game run on slower machines.

This is all stuff I wish I had known or done in the first place, but since this is my first published original game, I guess I could only know so much before jumping in for the first time! Again, thank you for taking the time to let me know about this stuff!

[Colour Knights - C3Jam]

Has a very classic RPG feel that I appreciate aesthetically. I'll admit I've never been very good at bullet hell games and while I like the color-change for immunity mechanic it still gets ridiculous with enemies that frequently change their color, finally lining up a shot to hit them when they've already changed color. Not to mention no apparent gain for the random encounters. Still you have a playable game that's decent and could be fun.

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

Primajin responds:

Thanks for the comment :) -
The random encounters were intended more as practice for the bosses than as a means to gaining exp or something similar.

[Royal Cats]

Fun concept and a decent challenge. The music and art are both very well done but I have to admit I take some umbrage with the control set up. I would have much preferred a horizontal control scheme as it's more comfortable to orient my fingers that way. This is still one of the better put together games with no major technical problems, but it's held back by an uncomfortable choice in control scheme.

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

AvixGames responds:

Thanks Wyatt!
There's 5 different schemes to control our game
ZAQ / ZXC / 258
Tap/click on the left screen area (best for mobile)
Tap/click on each Cat (extremely hard.)

But you're not the only one complaining about that so we surely (for desktop) will add an option to choose freely what key to use for each cat.

Thank you for your valuable feedback!

['DUCKS!']

Not bad at all. Artwork I have mixed feelings on but the game is still fun and catchy. You may consider mixing things up with your music more but it's not bad.

Now I did notice a few hitbox problems with some parts, nothing that kept me from completing a level but they were there, and I'm not sure if Splash Duck being able to shoot through boxes was intentional or not, but it is weird given how it blocks everything else. Solid entry though.

Butzbo responds:

That's an interesting point, I originally planned the water-shot to be blocked by the box (just like walls and Brick-Duck do), but I guess I forgot doing it, which is interesting because right now the box works as a good cover to shoot through, which may be one alternative to solve a few parts, still, I find it more consistent if it stops them, so I'll check that out.
Thanks for your comments! :)