Kwing's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Untitled Cat Interactivity]

Having to click through the dialogue on each repeat gets VERY old. I've tried all of the options, and while it sounds like petting the cat could change some invisible variables that make the other options lead to a better ending, having to click through the entire game every time discourages the player from trying every combination. (I tried petting and then going to sleep because the cat was tired and still got the same ending you get if you sleep immediately.)

The brevity of the game also makes the game feel a bit pointless. On one hand it's nice not having as much to click through, but on the other you don't get enough interactivity or story to become more invested. In practice it plays closer to one of the old "choose your animation" games than a true visual novel.

Beyond the gameplay, the art is cute but simple, and the UI looks decently clean.

Given that you still have time to tweak this, I'd highly recommend adding some kind of skip feature that you unlock by clicking through that same dialogue at least once. I'd be happy to help with that if you'd like.

sonicgilberth00 responds:

it was my first time doing interactive story with endings, whats the point.

thanks

i'm fine, but thanks as well

[Don't Shit Your Pants]

I played this back when it came out and thought it was hilarious and stupid at the time. Coming back 15 years later this thing holds up really well. The different endings/achievements are interesting enough to warrant some exploration, but there's a manageable level of content to the point where you aren't overwhelmed by it. Being able to commit suicide or shit before the game even starts are hilarious options. This game succeeds in everything it tries to do.

[Project Ruffy]

I had no idea you were still working on this, but coming back to it now, it looks pretty good! The score system and presence of an actual objective make this pretty enjoyable. I really like the variety of hazards in the game as well.

Some things of note:
- Explaining the controls in the game would probably work better than clicking through a text explanation of all of it. Explain a mechanic, then force the player to demonstrate understanding of that mechanic to pass an obstacle and move on. I'm pretty sure you're using FeindishDemon's platform engine which is ironic as his tutorial actually begins this way.
- In terms of player experience, the zoomed in camera and slow movement speed make the whole game feel a little sluggish. Being able to run through the level faster would have definitely made for a more enjoyable experience.
- The game doesn't seem to distinguish between pressing a button and holding it. This means you can double jump by holding the jump button instead of tapping it twice, and you have to hold the D button rather than pressing repeatedly to execute an attack combo. From a player feedback perspective, it feels a bit better if you can make each button press correlate with a discrete action rather than holding.
- There's nothing to attack. Enemy AI is hard to code but having some destructible walls would be a nice easy way to utilize the work you've already done in coding and animating the attacks.
- Hazards drain health gradually instead of taking a one-time chunk of health from the player and knocking them back with some invincibility frames. A single instance of damage with a knockback and damage animation/sound gives better player feedback and makes it clearer when they've messed up.
- Hitboxes need fixing. It looks like the actual sprite of the buzzsaws is the hitbox itself, which means that you can hit invisible corners on the buzzsaw (the part between the circle and corners here -> [O]) and take damage from it. Creating invisible hitbox sprites inside your Movie Clip to better represent what needs to collide will help this feel more fair and natural.
- Coins are placed in pretty arbitrary positions; collecting them doesn't add much to the game so much as it just slows you down. I would recommend putting some behind optional hazards so that there's a risk/reward component to your score. Similarly, some kind of timer might raise the skill ceiling of the game and improve replay value.
- Lack of background and texture for the platforms make this look a lot less polished than it is. A simple parallax background and even just some chicken scratches and bevel filter on the platforms would make the game look like a complete project.

If you're open to it, I'd be happy to help you fix most of this stuff. I know I've written a lot here, but with the right guidance it shouldn't take more than a week to fix them.

MebroukTheCat responds:

Well, to be honest... Most of the programming codes were copied from a YouTube video uploaded by jemaster800:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AG_BUSfDc4

It's like I drew the Mona Lisa with a crayon and here's why:

The advantage: It can work.

The disadvantage: It's not perfect.

[Sift Renegade]

It's okay.

The animation looks great, but the gameplay is overall lacking. The shootouts, driving, and side-scrolling action all control well, but each is missing something in terms of balance and difficulty. It's easy to stun lock enemies and to place the cursor exactly where you need it for the cover shooter parts. The motorcycle sequences are the only parts that are difficult, and that's mostly due to lack of checkpoints and spastic controls.

The writing and voice acting are obvious weak points.

[Sift With Shorty]

Different isn't always bad but I think there's definitely something missing here. Virtually every level is the same, with enemies only really having two different heights at which they need to be shot, except for the lats level where hitting the vehicle itself is sufficient and you can just find a rhythm of how fast to fire while holding the up key. Reloading with the space and mouse is extremely awkward but could have been fine if the controls were WASD instead of the arrow keys. An okay concept but it needs serious QoL improvements.

[Vinnie's Shooting Yard]

Good presentation between the graphics, animation, and sound design, but a bit lacking in content. It only took a few tries for me to score perfectly, and a big part of that is the camera panning over to suggest where the targets will spawn. A fixed camera might look a bit less polished but would lead to a better player experience. Some better difficulty settings (such as more target positions, smaller targets, and smaller reaction times) would also be useful, and some moving targets would make this a bit more interesting since it would require timing instead of just reacting as quickly as possible.

[Knight and Prison of Ice]

This is a really fun concept. I really enjoyed manipulating the sword and setting up attacks, and getting a good combo on a series of enemies in a line was also really satisfying. The hitboxes took some getting used to; I kept expecting the game to have some kind of perspective with hitboxes being around where the sword's shadow was, but realizing any part of the sword could collide made a huge difference since I didn't have to be as careful about aiming. Similarly the lack of explanation in the game in general was a bit of a hindrance; the in-game tutorial says to use O to use powerups, whereas on a keyboard it's Z. In addition, it's not explained what a "blessing" is until you buy one, and I noticed some powerups advertised as permanent (like the movement buff) went away after dying. An actual tutorial level would work wonders here.

Sadly, this game suffers from major lack of features. There are really only two enemy types (the towers and bubbles) and while each has their own variants (aimed shots, 4-directional shots, difference in health) they play largely the same to each other. The fact that the levels just rehash the same enemy types (and upgrades) repeatedly makes seriously discourages the player from getting deeper into the game.

I would like to see this concept expanded on, and I think some more enemy types (as well as more complex behavior) is the way to go here, as well as allowing the player to fight multiple types in the same room, and bigger rooms so the player has enough space to maneuver. Some ideas off the top of my head:
- Enemies that strafe perpendicular to the player so you have to time your attack.
- Enemies that deliberately try to get out from between the player and sword, perhaps you have to find some way to trap or block them to line up your shot, or you have to chase after them.
- More area denial, such as enemies that leave traps on the ground.
- Enemies that have shields or specific weak points that force you to attack from a specific angle instead of just calling the sword to you from any direction.
- A "twin" enemy that has two independent parts but can only be damaged if you hit them both at the same time.
- Some kind of bonus for hitting multiple enemies with a single sword swipe. Gold as a reward feels like really delayed gratification, what if you could charge up your special abilities through combos?
- I notice the sword has a hitbox that the player can't run through. I think using the sword as a shield to hide behind could make for some interesting gameplay and I'd like harder enemies designed around this idea.

voidgazerBon responds:

Thank you for detailed and valuable feedback. I really appreciate it!

[Tracie's Pursuit]

It looks like the game has a glitch, I was able to "fill up the affection meter" with one heart and IM Pico, he said his backpack and locker were open when they weren't. I assume the two endings are getting blocked and getting friend zoned?

For two weeks this isn't bad (especially seeing as you did everything yourself) but it's obviously quite short. It's really lacking things to do - even the quest items just help you fill up the affection meter which triggers the next scene, so there's no real problem solving or item usage to speak of, just collecting. It's also bizarre having what imitates a dating simulator but only getting one choice at the start of like three conversations you can have with Pico.

None of the components (art, gameplay, music) are bad, but nothing stands out, either. Many Game Jam games flop because they overscope and a half-finished game is released, it feels like this had the opposite problem with a fully functional end product but not a lot going on in it.

[Homecoming]

The animation here is really fantastic and I'm really rooting for this to win best animation with interactive elements because it really does look stunning. For the length of the Jam it's also a really impressive quantity of animation to produce at this quality.

Story-wise I found the choreography and dialogue good, but I didn't really understand why it started and ended when it did. From a narrative perspective we begin with the status quo of "protagonist alienated from family," then a conflict where she's forced to engage, and that arc is resolved by the character removing herself. The funeral and eulogy don't tie into this original arc, and we don't even get to hear the eulogy. The story also starts a little slow, it's not until the argument with the mother that the conflict came to the surface and I felt really engaged.

I suspected this was nonfiction so perhaps there are privacy reasons for the actual eulogy being omitted. If this is true, it also makes sense that there's no catharsis or conclusion because real life doesn't get wrapped up like that and as Bojack's writers would say, you can't have a happy ending because there's always more show. But Coming Out Simulator is a great example of how you can take creative liberties or even just break the fourth wall to make a story feel like it actually has an ending.

Bleak-Creep responds:

It’s not quite non-fiction. While the characters themselves are based in truth, the story itself is entirely fictional.

The funeral and trying to navigate all these complicated feelings surrounding her father are really at the core of what I wanted to do with the project. The conflict is meant to mostly be an internal one; what is she supposed to say? It’s all about balancing the expectations of others with her own experience. In my eyes, the speech is in the events preceding, having one at the end would only feel redundant.

Thank you for playing and all the kind words! :)

[Los Tostadores]

The wild west aesthetic is cute and charming and has some real silliness with the main character being a piece of toast.

The bullet time in this game is REALLY satisfying. It's simple and the gameplay is generally pretty easy (minus the boss) but it's so smooth it feels good anyway. Speaking of the boss, the fact that it changes windows faster the lower its health gets makes sense, but it's almost too hard at the end. It's not hard to beat but I wish there were some different behavior (more of a phase 2) rather than just increasing the difficulty of that one mechanic more and more.

I notice that you have to get all the targets in a single jump but you don't have to for the bandits. There's an opportunity here for optional objectives where the player DOES rack up a huge combo in one jump.