3p0ch's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nano War 2]

credit for tweaking up the genre

I liked the fact that the fat and antibody units were added to put a new twist on the game. But in practice it still turned out that the best strategy seemed to be to capture as many of the unit producing cells as possible as quickly as possible, and only worry about the fat or antibody at the very end to take over otherwise unattackable cells.

The other tweaks to the game - offering difficulty levels where you don't get to see numerical values for strength and having fog of war obscure enemy movement - were also a welcome addition. But again, they didn't end up changing the game play mechanics, and didn't affect what seemed like the optimal strategy of capturing unit producing cells as quickly as possible.

[Robinson Crusoe: The Game]

plz ignore retard reviews on this being impossible

Many reviewers seem to have concluded that the game is too hard to be enjoyable. Granted, it's hard enough that no one is liklely to survive on their first playthrough. Or second, or third. But after a couple of playthroughs to really understand the mechanics, and a couple more to note where everything is and develop a strategy, the game is definitely winnable. I just wish there was at least a vicotry screen of you whooping the cannibals afterward.

Thank you for making a game that is actually fairly challenging, and please continue doing so despite the whining of the inept and their tendency to vote games down if they aren't able to finish them on the first or second try. Perhaps it's possible to make games difficult without having them ragequit after losing the first couple of times -- maybe have a help screen that pauses the game while they can look over a list of all the structures and their effects and their building requirements, or offer a new strategic tip after each time they die or something -- but that certainly goes beyond what would be expected of anyone in a gamejam timeframe.

BTW: no way I believe that this game could've been made in just three days :p

[Teleporter man Alpha.01]

run! teleport! ignore! puzzle! go go go!

Since most people think walking speed is too slow, but Tainted-Trixter and me think walking speed is OK, I say to put in a "run" button.

I agree with suggestions for making teleportation quicker. Have the robot turn into a red streak off toward the ball with a super-fast screen scroll towards it.

Ignore suggestions to make the robot jump farther. Tell those reviewers that they just need to suck less. :D

And as coaster1235 pointed out, it'd be nice to have increasing dependence on puzzle solving rather than pure platforming as the game progresses. Maybe multiple different teleportation spheres to manage, wormholes (maybe some that will teleport just the robot or just the sphere), "enemies" that will interact with the sphere (carry it around) in often bad but sometimes beneficial ways. Making doorways that go from one screen to another and whose paths can be altered by flipping switches and requiring teleportation balls to be left in strategic areas to navigate back is one sure way to drive gamers batty.

Goosfraba responds:

You have many great ideas for the game. Especially the idea that the enemy's could interact with the sphere, I might use that

[Ninja's Adventure]

Buggy

Here's a list of bugs to work on that I noticed (welcome to the life of a programmer :P. It gets easier eventually, though.)

1 - your guy starts below the level of the ground sometimes, so he can't move sideways until he jumps. He should start either at the level of the ground (if that can be done easily) or a little bit above the ground so he just falls to the ground at the start of the level (if he can't be made to start right at ground level easily)

2 - you can only jump while you're moving sideways, and can't jump if you're standing still

3 - when you jump high enough to hit the ceiling, you lose sideways momentum, which makes it tough or impossible to jump over stuff. Ideally, you just want him to lose upward momentum when he hits the ceiling, which would require your code to distinguish between ceiling collision and wall collision and handle them differently. Or if you're lazy, just don't let the guy jump high enough to touch the ceiling. Or if you're super lazy, say that the ceiling is covered with superglue and it's your job as a player to not touch it. But then you would still need to make jump height change depending on how long you hold down the jump button.

4 - just make the guy die if he goes outside the play area, or put a wall around the area, instead of saying in the comments to not go outside of it.

Once the mechanics are working nicely, focus on level design and better graphics and some sound if you feel like it

NinjaZeno responds:

Alright. I'll work on that. Thanks for your review ;)

[Bolt FeedBack TEST]

still a work in progress

The very beginning was weird. I wasn't expecting to be injured by just running up to a rock, and could barely see the bullets right after it, let alone the helicopter, so the toughest part of this intro was at the very start! I wouldn't put that at the very beginning, and would add a sound like a "yip!" when he gets injured. It also needs a way to restart after the game over screen without refreshing the browser. Then focus on making the game play feel smooth and the mechanics and collisions and stuff seem natural. I somehow get the feeling that I would like it more if the camera were zoomed out a bit so to speak; if everything were a bit smaller and you could see more of the area. A minor point, but the transition between levels was very fast, which I kind of liked actually, but maybe add just a brief caption at the top of the screen saying "Level 2" or something to make it a little less disconcerting.

[EggHunter]

problem with bonuses

when you finish the game and turn on puke scope or whatever, then go back to the main menu to play through again with the bonus, it forgets that you've gotten the medal and won't do the bonus thingy.

[Burger Cat]

woot, teh scrolling's fixed!

Works very well with scrolling now. A nice little puzzle game with added challenge thrown in by the fact that you have to wait until teh kitteh's moving to build, and often have to build certain things at specific times. Still sort of easy though. I had some stuff left over after most levels, even the high ones.

[Alien Attack 3D]

3d!

It's almost like Unity... except for the fact that it doesn't lag like a total be-yach on my $2.99 P.'o.S. laptop! :D Well done. Fullscreen mode plz?

[Azurefish]

!!!

To some degree, I agree with the others, in that a lack of a "quest" format leaves a little to be desired and makes this feel a little more like a demo than a complete game. That said, if you call this a demo, then it would have to be the best flash demo that I've ever head the pleasure of playing. Graphics, music, and gameplay are all superb.

It was difficult to distinguish what stuff actually acted as walls and what was just confounding decoration that could be swum through, and there was an awful lot of confounding decoration. That made it more challenging and actually a bit more fun to explore, but when it came to racing it started to annoy me. If I were very motivated to optimize my racing, I might go from checkpoint to checkpoint slowly and meticulously on a mapping run to figure out the optimal path and memorize it for an actual race. But that seems like more work than I really want to do because I'm lazy.

The acrobatic subgame had to be my favorite. I'm very much looking forward to another William and Sly, and would like to see such acrobatics play a role in it.

Me no likey the quiz tho.

[Triangle wars: sandbox]

since you asked about setting combos

This looks like it will be fun when it's done. Plz see audio portal for cool loops to play for background music. My proposal for settings:

hero speed = 10 throughout entire game

level 1: # enemies = 10
# swarms = 1
enemy speed = 5
aggression = 0.5

After 25 kills
level 2: add a second swarm (in addition to the first one) where the new enemy has
# enemies = 10
enemy speed = 3
aggression = 1.5
(These enemies can be easily "kited" and sniped from afar, but will keel you if you get close)

After 25 more kills
level 3: add a third swarm with
# enemies = 5
enemy speed = 12
aggression = 0.5
(Introduces enemies that are faster than the player, but that aren't really much of a threat)

After 50 more kills
level 4: add a fourth swarm with
# enemies = 10
enemy speed = 9
aggression = 1
(I find that matching the hero's speed seems to make them tougher)

After 100 more kills
level 5: add a fifth swarm with
# enemies = 5
speed = 6
aggression = 0.5
but... THEY EXPLODE ON YOU IF YOU TOUCH THEM muahahaha

And keep adding more swarms with varying attributes as you progress.

CasparSiebel responds:

Thanks for the review, ideas will be incorporated.