3p0ch's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Submachine 10: the Exit]

The artwork is definitely good, but I don't think I could call it outstanding. The music is background ambiance, again good but hard to call exceptional. The puzzles don't rely too much on pixel hunting which is a plus, but they mostly are the usual sort of point-and-click find objects and figure out where they go, with some parts requiring more in the way of puzzle solving to get through. The storyline is a mish-mash of stuff having to do with dimension jumping in a universe whose mechanics are only semi-explained, with the explanations coming mostly from notes of text. Considering each of those things individually, I'd give the game a rating of "reasonably good".

And yet I just played through all 10 episodes including this one, and all I can say is holy shit this series in general and this finale in particular is simply amazing.

You've somehow managed to create something that's far greater than the sum of its parts, and I'm just as baffled at how you did it as I am about the workings of the submachine in the story.

[Lectrovolt]

It looks like a very good beta right now. The only sizeable bug I ran into at one point was after I used C to charge-jump, the guy kept charge-jumping after that even when I used a regular jump. It was after I had been trying to charge jump a few times but the charge-jumps weren't working because I was right next to a wall, so I was sorta mashing C for a little bit. And it went back to normal after I used the X charge. A minor bug is that charge-jumps didn't work when I was up against a wall.

Aside from those little things, the controls seemed very responsive and the puzzling was fair. Puzzle difficulty could probably be expanded upon in future levels even without adding new mechanics like enemies or timers on the switches or portals or anything, but if you'd like to add any of those it'd be rad. This is just a personal preference, but I'd recommend making a Metroidvania type giant world rather than individual discrete levels in the full game (which you might have been planning all along anyway); that somehow makes games stand out as more memorable to me. Also I might recommend going easy on using / abusing boundaries of the rooms' camera views to add difficulty (some of the buttons were deliberately obscured from view because of where the boundaries lie or came immediately after a room transition); I felt like it was fair game to do, but I imagine some players would consider it to be a cheap way of making the game difficult. Other minor things would be to make a restart key and save/respawn points in case the guy gets stuck somehow like Zylofan mentioned, and WASD-JK controls for people who use their hands backwards from us (or customizable keys for those crazy European AZERTY keyboards).

Anyway, 4/5 only because it's a short beta and I'll probably have a 5/5 for ya when the full game's posted.

VFHolloway responds:

3p0ch, thanks for the help, I'm really happy you left such a constructive review! Some of the contact points are a little out of line (Honestly, I'm more of a game designer than a coder, I love figuring out how to create the best experience for a gamer than coding the game itself) and the bug report is appreciated. I've written a review for DamonandSky's review above, and it really goes into what I'm aiming for.

Thanks for the review, and please follow me! I love how in-depth you've gone with helping me improve the game; I am a firm believer in games being something someone should enjoy, not an ego-fest by someone who wants to be seen, and I think the game should be ALL about what the gamer enjoys. I would love if you followed me and gave such a fantastic review to the next attempt, with a new level map :) thanks for all the help!

[Seppuku Jisei]

He's doing hari kari even though (if you can make it that far) he could just single-handedly wipe out the enemy army and go home victorious instead? O.o

[Garry's Getaway]

This is a nice little puzzle platformer that has the fundamentals down of designing levels that take a little thought to get through. I do agree that the limited view (not being able to see what's below you before you jump at key points in the game) gets annoying, especially when it's done on the very first key you come by, but by the end of the game I was getting used to just assuming that I would be skewered by spikes if I took any blind jumps. My biggest gripe is that at times it felt like I was moving too slow, especially when having to backtrack or loop around through a level, but I realize that considering how fast the purple guy moves it would get ridiculous if you were to speed it up any more. Maybe the Shift key could accelerate time? At any rate, I didn't have any issues with unresponsive keys or anything. The jumping sound didn't annoy me, but the sound of the boxes breaking when you punch them seemed pretty weak to me. But those are minor points in a game that's overall worth a play for any puzzle platformer fan.

[RednGreen]

My overall impression about the game is that, while there's nothing really wrong with it, it's just not that fun to play. The biggest factor that makes puzzle platformers fun (at least for me) is the puzzle element to them, and in this game there wasn't much puzzling to be solved. The second biggest factor that can make a platformer stand out to me is if it's a metroidvania style game with a big world to open up and explore. This game wasn't either of those so it wasn't really up my alley, but I can still appreciate a good platformer that's just a test of platforming skill without being a puzzler or a metroidvania. In this game the only challenge was pulling off jumps where you need to change blocks once or twice in mid-air, and it felt like there were only a few points that were even close to challenging. The slow pace of the game took away from the allure of a skill-based challenge -- I agree with the other reviewers that the guy ought to move faster or have a "run" button if this is meant to be more of a skill game than a puzzler.

So if I were to try to make general suggestions for your next games: 1) spend some time coming up with clever puzzling level designs if you'd like to make a puzzle platformer, 2) build a huge interconnected world for the player to open up and explore if you'd like to make a metroidvania experience, 3) make the game pace faster and have some more intense challenges if you'd like to go for a skill game. Or all of the above if you think you can swing it.

[Cartesian]

I agree with others that it could use a suicide button so you can restart a level if you get stuck, and I ran into issues with level 67 falling down through the blue door at the very beginning half the time so I'm stuck in the little pit underneath with no way out aside from Esc - Quit - Level Select. But it's a minor complaint that shouldn't overshadow the game's awesome puzzle design and (afaik) novel mechanics; it was challenging enough to make you feel somewhat clever to have been able to make it through.

[Through (#gbjam 4 version)]

It seems like this is a very good engine for a game that could be very challenging. I admit, I couldn't really envision a complete path through most (any?) levels until I really embarked and thought "meh, let's just see if this works", which is a good sign of how challenging of a puzzler this could be. But like a couple of the previous reviews said, the level designs so far have been straightforward enough that there hasn't been a whole lot of puzzle-solving necessary and I've been able to just run through and eventually find the way out. Future levels could definitely use some branching paths with a lot of dead ends for players who don't know what they're doing.

And since I'm a "musician" after all, it would be nice to use a longer and better loop for the background muzak.

[Get In The Hole]

Dafuq?

Such a profound five-letter word. It could mean mind = blown. It could mean that this journey took me not forward, nor backward, but maybe sideways. It could mean that the point of everything is pointlessness itself. It usually means that I cannot grasp what's going on because I have a mental acuity slightly duller than Homer Simpson's.

What does it mean in this case?
The answer is simple: Yes.

(As far as dafuq games go, this one dafuqs rather well.)

[ICS]

Are people really not seeing the big letters on the title screen saying you can jump with K or Z as well as W or UP? That makes it a lot easier to navigate the ladders, folks.

This is a nice and difficult game; I like it so far. The only gripe I agree with is that horizontal movement seems a bit slow. Also, I noticed the settings screen doesn't bring up any settings to change if I access it from the title screen (flash player 18.0.0.160 in Chrome on Windows 8.1).