3p0ch's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Post Mortem]

The mechanic of being able to switch characters that you control is something you don't see very often, if ever, in point-n-click games. It was nice to see it incorporated, but I got the feeling that it didn't end up adding very much depth to the game because the puzzles were still fairly straightforward without much brain-busting over how to keep multiple characters coordinating to achieve a goal. If you decide to make a sequel, I would definitely recommend putting a good deal of work into designing puzzles that exploit that mechanic well -- and if you can really get people to have to think outside of the box to use character switching and cooperation effectively without it becoming tedious to manage then you'll have a real gem on your hands.

A less important point but one worth mentioning is that the controls seemed a little clunkier than with most point-n-click games. I'm not sure how your game engine is set up and whether it would be easy to change, but maybe it would be easier on the players if the arrow by default becomes either a walking symbol if the mouse is over a walkable area and you move there if you click, or a magnifying glass if it's over an interactable object and you look at an object if you click, and there are buttons at the bottom for interaction and talking etc that would override the walking or looking actions if you select it. And for the inventory: pick stuff up by using the interact button on the object to pick it up without having to use a separate inventory button, always have the inventory slots up so you can click on any object in your inventory to try to use it, and get rid of the current backpack-shaped inventory button entirely. Or just find a point-n-click game you like a lot and see how they handle user interface stuff and do something similar.

KnoseDoge responds:

yes, this is something that i myself feel. i don't go deep at all into the switch/combie character mechanics, mostly because i originally had a pretty hard time constraint when i made this game (and some because i am not very good at making puzzles hahaha).

thank you nonetheless for your feedback. if i do start working on the sequel, i will probably have to redo most of the ""engine"" (it is made in gamemaker, but with some HEAVY scripts handling all the point&click stuff). it isn't too hard to add content to it, but i would like to make it even more simple (just text-handling is a nightmare. dialouge trees? oh mama)

[Phone That]

Maybe I'm just not smart enough to figure out what the clues are to realize what numbers you need to use. I could find the level select just by trying a bunch. Then eventually found that there are active numbers scattered all over the place. I googled to find that 112 is actually a cell phone number that's used in Europe, but I would never have guessed that and am not sure if there would have been any straightforward way for me to look it up anywhere. Tried googling a few other numbers that I found worked, and came up with nothing. Then decided that I'm not going to just brute force 1000 numbers to find out what they do.

Other games that you've uploaded have been good, so I'm giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming that I just haven't figured out how I'm supposed to approach it.

Edit: All right, much better now that there's a directory in the comments :)
It seemed more like a matter of just trying everything than really figuring out puzzles, but it was still enjoyable.

joqlepecheur responds:

Hi there, sorry about that I attached a file in the project and thought it was accessible. You are not supposed to brute force on the contrary. I edited the content (I hope you can give it another go !)

[Life is Snot]

I like the way the world design worked out for a game based on exploration with a short lifespan. You've got to explore the world and come up with a plan before trying to pull off a victory run. That means you'll need to do a bunch of restarting while you're just exploring and figuring things out, which lengthens the gameplay for the size of this world. And the restarts don't get very annoying since the starting point is in the middle of the world and you can go in any direction to explore -- if it were more linear or required taking the same path over and over again on restarts to explore more nooks and crannies at the ends of branches then that would've gotten irritating.

The level design itself was great for a casual game that takes a little bit of planning without going to the degree of turning it into a logic puzzle. The element of age with changing abilities adds a new dimension that I don't remember seeing before in a game like this and it was pulled off well. Graphics are adorable and the dynamic music correlating with age is a great touch. Game mechanics are smooth, and the intangible fun factor is high. I'm really surprised the game doesn't have a higher rating; the only downside I can think of is needing to restart from the beginning a lot, which I didn't think was really all that annoying with this level design.

[everything else]

This game's as hard as good ol' Floppy Joe gets when Scarlett Johansson's on screen but it doesn't seem completely unfair. Enemies act deterministically and will always respond the same way if you keep doing the same thing on each reset, so it's tough but possible to work out reasonably reliable and quick approaches to kill each enemy. There are definitely some strategies that tend to work better than others, and if you make it through a level smoothly but run out of time then you're probably using a bad strategy and need to try another approach. So having to reset a bunch doesn't seem so bad since it feels like you're still making progress in refining a tactic for the level.

The fast pace is fun as hell, and there's enough content and will need to be enough resetting that despite the fast pace the game doesn't seem short. Having a few different types of enemies and a switch from having a gun to a knife helps keep it from feeling like it gets repetitive. If you ever wanted to make a sequel then I imagine even more enemy and weapon types would keep things fresh. The only aspect I didn't like was the levels with no enemies and just stuff to progress the story; it got a little boring wandering around them to find stuff and I didn't really get into the story. But cahocachi liked the ending so maybe that's just me.

The bad ending's last levels might have scrambled my brain a bit with how fast those resets happen.

And nothing makes you appreciate murder more than having to live without it.

[Sloc]

Not bad. I haven't finished all of the levels yet, but so far it doesn't seem very challenging. I would recommend at least adding a bonus for finishing levels in the minimum number of moves (or at least a small number of moves) to give it some more challenge while still letting people progress if they finish the level regardless of how many moves they take (since some players suck and will downrate you if they can't win).

I have left and come back, and I would like a way to resume at the last level I was on when I left. Either with it auto-continuing wherever I left off, or with a level select screen that shows which levels I've finished so I can pick the next one I haven't done yet.

The only other thing is that sometimes when I click on a square to move it, I'll want to move it up/down or left/right, but the program will start moving it the other way and I have to abort the move and retry. I'd prefer if it didn't do that.

Lakshaymavia responds:

Thank you so much for this detailed review. I really appreciate it and I love it. Yes All these level are not that hard but I as these are the starting level I don't want this to be hard. I was too thinking about the no. of moves or the star rating system. I will add that. And also when you start play it will take you to the last played level.
And I want to about the last point. I have the same issue sometimes that's why I make the functionality that if the block move to some other position then only It will count move. As you are also a dev ,If I increase the drag force I think it will not look responsive. Thank you again for your suggestion. I will work on it.

[Winter Falling: Prototype One]

Really nice game. I'm not sure if there was a patch to nerf the difficulty or anything, but the first few times I played it (yesterday) I got trounced and today I made it through all three levels. Maybe I didn't do as bad as I thought the first few times because I got overrun and didn't realize that even if you win you'll still get overrun but will beat the clock before the bird gets killed and have the enemy leader end up dead. That lack of realizing that getting overrun is expected might be making people think it's impossible even when they're close to winning.

I agree and disagree with previous reviews: there's a lot to understand about how the game works that doesn't get explained so the player sort of gets thrown into it and has to figure things out, but I think it's perfectly fine to make a game that way and toss people in to die for a while until they figure it out.

My only critique is the UI could have been nicer if the player could rearrange all the troops and trenches in the battle simultaneously instead of only being able to adjust one type of unit at a time and having to move back and forth to switch what you're adjusting (it was sort of a pain to rearrange troops to put heroes in the center of crowds that way).

Also are those percentiles based on actual performance of players? If so, maybe I'll play a few games with the bird thrown on the front lines to make everyone else feel better.

Rarykos responds:

Haha oh awesome review!
Thank you very much, I'm really happy you liked it and got the idea!
Yes, I try to explain that it's just about surviving to the last second with the Crow, but people feel bad when any units die :(
And I will make an improved UI for the next version, it is a pain.

Thank you again!

[Lockdown]

This is actually a good point-n-click game. Normally I don't like this genre, but in this case things actually made pretty logical sense and the player doesn't need to pixel-hunt and just needs to pay attention to everything to finish it. I think the "Eggs" clue was completely fair FWIW and I didn't use the walkthrough link at all. Bonus points for having beta testers in your list of credits. If you'd ever like another beta tester for sequels just PM me.

Afferz responds:

Thank you so much, it means a lot!

[Space Probes]

It's functional but it looks like it's just one level (or the first 20% or so of one level that repeats) with basic mechanics. It would need a lot more content, and ideally some fun mechanics that set it apart from a typical vertical flight shooter.