Kwing's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[O.S.W3 DARTS]

I suspect this would be a bit more fun if I actually knew the rules to darts. Regardless, this is functional and the controls feel pretty good, but it's missing a bit in the presentation. Either creating your own dartboard instead of pasting an image file into the background, or pasting a wood texture behind the dartboard would give this a more consistent feel (whether you wanted a cartoon or realistic aesthetic.) Music, sound, and some kind of UI bar (or chalkboard) to hold all the numbers (preferably in a more interesting font) would also bring this together a lot more.

Right now this is functional but nothing more.

[LOLympics 100m Flash]

It's good for what it's trying to be but DAMN is it frustrating (though as you say easier than QWOP.) I'm sure there's a certain shape to the mouse should be moving in but with no practice mode or any hints all I can really get is that an orbit that's higher on the left side and and lower on the right side makes me move slowly and consistently an every once in a while when experimenting I can make a huge leap forward (but not replicate it.)

The graphics and presentation are there but this feels actively difficult not just to play but even to enjoy.

AthleticDesign responds:

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, my intention was to include elaborate instructions of animated mice & corresponding running strides for basically every input parameter. But in the end, the hastily put together instructions on display had to do. If the complicated input stays, those elaborate instructions will eventually join :)

Actually, intricate shape parameters were removed from the final uploaded version. What matters is the average deviation from the straight line between two turns. A high movement during a forward swipe will lift the heel, which generally improves performance, and a low movement during a backward swipe will straighten the leg before ground contact (also generally advantageous). So an oval movement, like the one shown, works well. But easier said than done, especially after a while of spastic action.

But yeah, instructions are severely lacking.

[Decapitaticide]

Good but missing some QoL improvements. I was only able to beat Vibe & Vannio and Alfredo, since those are the only fights where it's clear you can block attacks. The others I just clicked mindlessly until I lost because it wasn't clear how to counter attacks.

The graphics look great and I like the variety of levels and attacks you have to deal with.

[ZenFish]

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand the controls (both keyboard and phone) are simple and intuitive. On the other hand the difficulty is frustrating and the lack of scoring mechanics makes the game unrewarding.

- Have bigger fish lose interest after some time.
- Make it so smaller fish don't dodge so well. You could perhaps add some variation where different fish can turn faster than others, making it easier to catch some than others. Or make it so that a fish can dodge for some amount of time but then becomes tired and easier to catch.
- Make it so the player's fish grows over time and perhaps display some kind of score counter so the player knows how well they're doing.
- Give the player a larger field of view.
- Some sound effects and music would be nice.
- Different graphics and colors for different fish would be nice. Perhaps different shapes could indicate how quickly a fish can turn or how fast it can move.

Currently it's advantageous to make slight turns and to be an opportunist, only catching fish you're already lined up with instead of making sharp turns to catch a fish that's about to get away. This is partly because sharp turns can put you in harm's way of larger fish and partly because by the time a smaller fish has made a sharp turn it's basically impossible to turn perfectly enough to lock onto them and chase them down.

This creates an interesting risk/reward opportunity if you could chase a really hard to catch fish to exhaustion; you would put yourself at risk by making sharp turns while being chased by other fish, but if you can keep the chase up long enough you could get rewarded with big points.

andai responds:

Thanks, appreciate the in-depth response.
Especially like the "tiredness" mechanic, that is brilliant!
Should the player get tired too? There should probably be UI for that, but I'm trying to avoid screen elements. (Maybe time remaining in fast/slow mode could be shown in some "organic" way?)

Re: Growing over time
Original prototype had this, but then player became enormous and game became boring. I think to achieve this effect, I'd have to keep the fish roughly the same size, but shrink the world instead? And add bigger and bigger enemies to keep it interesting (sharks.. whales.. submarines? ;) Or add some kind of physical changes / evolution to the fish instead... maybe Flow figured this out.

The chasing mechanics ideas are interesting too. I've made a few different versions with different controls. I'm using a simple physics system (acceleration, velocity, friction) right now but I think unfortunately it doesn't model neither actual fish behavior nor good game feel. I'll have to experiment with more interesting controls and more rewarding AI.

>Give the player a larger field of view.
Wasn't sure how to accommodate both desktop (landscape) and mobile (portrait). So I picked the worst of both worlds (I hoped a circle would be "artsy" lmao)
Not sure if Flash can handle switching orientation. Though I guess I could make a HTML wrapper that hacks it in. That's probably doable!

Thanks again for the feedback!

[Tiro escapes hell]

The concept for a point and click adventure is solid, but I wish you hadn't chosen to use a custom cursor as it's really nice to be able to see when the cursor turns into a hand over a clickable item. Otherwise it's a real pain searching around for things to click. It's also rather annoying to trigger several lines of dialogue (sometimes on accident,) especially when you have to click on the speech bubble to advance them. If items were highlighted when rolled over it would prevent the player from accidentally clicking on the same thing twice (for instance, the chairs and tables in the empty classroom all trigger the same dialogue even though a player might consider them to be different objects.)

What you have now is a decent start but could use some QoL improvements as well as actually having more than just a couple different rooms to explore.

Tlegendprox0x2 responds:

Thank you! I will take all these comments into consideration!

[Ruffy the Shelline - Prototype version]

It's surprising this is where you chose to stop, because most of the game (collision and physics) are already there. Even the menu has some nice polish to it and the graphics are really cute. This game could still be solid even without coding in enemies or new mechanics, a simple timer and actual level design could have made this a fun game to speedrun. I look forward to seeing the final product.

MebroukTheCat responds:

I'm working on the full game, with my friends on Discord.
Hopefully, You're gonna like it more than the prototype version

[Paint(Flex 2/3 WORK!)]

This is a pretty cool drawing tool. Most of the important options are there but it would be nice if there was some kind of transparent ghost or outline of your brush so you could see just how wide it actually is before you start drawing. Modifiable background color would be nice as well. While more complicated, it might be cool to save the user's last action as a vector so that it can be undone, and only baking it into Bitmap data after they draw something else.

Neat idea but missing several key features.

[Lip-Sync Microphone]

Even with Newgrounds Player this thing seems to be bugged; you can't make it past the screen requesting microphone permissions. I downloaded this locally and ran it, and all it really does is echo what you say back to it; the sound level never actually influences the mouth animations. It's a cool idea, it's just too bad this was never finished.

You should work with the guys in the Ruffle Discord to make sure support for this kind of stuff is working by next year.

[Blocky's Funny Doings Interactive]

The animations are okay but rely too heavily on tweens and easing. The buttons have seriously messed up hitboxes. More animations or even just a higher quality of the ones already present would be appreciated.

SuperGibaLogan responds:

the reason why the animations are a little wonky is because i wanted to finish the game as fast as possible
also the hitboxes are messed up because i used masks to make the symbols