3p0ch's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mars Underground (full game)]

I finished the main game (I think? IDK if there's more to do after I start playing in black and white) and had some spots in the ending where it looks like I'm forced to reload the page to sort of progress. I'm not sure if that's intentional or something buggy with the HTML5 export of the game. But the game itself did a very good job of creating a world I wanted to explore, even if I was banging my head against the wall at points.

MarsUnderground responds:

Thanks! You should need to refresh the game at that point to progress, that is right at the end. In the desktop version the game exits at that point.

[Stickyfoot]

Very good game, the whole way it "feels" when you play with both the puzzle solving aspect of a slider game and the adrenaline and skill component with fast movement and (optional) times to beat worked well IMO.

The only minor thing is for Gauntlet mode: some levels the text to press a button to start playing blocks your view of some of the level so you can't plan before starting, and it would be nice to have numbers on teleporters to know where you'll end up. Most players probably won't care since it's easy enough to plan after starting the timer and experimenting and then reset to go for a serious run if you want, although I'm surprised that you let people reset the level in Gauntlet mode if they bork it up.

platformalist responds:

Hey 3p0ch! Thanks so much for the in-depth comment and feedback. Really appreciate it. :)

Glad that the puzzle/action hybrid vibes came through - that was what I was really hoping to deliver since I love block-puzzlers but also twitchy action games.

If I recall, resetting your timer in Gauntlet mode only resets the level timer, but doesn't reset your Gauntlet timer - so you can still go back for a better level time, but it negatively affects your overall Gauntlet score. I'll have to peek back in the code and check if this is in fact the case.

The other notes you've left are things I hummed and hawed on during development, and you're definitely not the first player to mention the possibility of numbering the teleporters! I've got a small update to push in the next couple weeks, so I've noted your feedback as possible items to address while I'm at it.

Thanks again for playing and for the feedback! :)

[Block Pieces (Demo) - 3D Jigsaw Puzzle]

You just need to make the game start on level 7 (I think that was the one where it started getting 3D) because otherwise people will get bored and stop playing before then, and say "right click and drag to rotate" at the beginning of the level underneath "observe the piece".

natomarcacini responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I'll add the tip of rotating the camera in full release.

[Windowz XP 2012 Professional]

Now I don't feel so bad for having a username in 1337 and being a "cyan cat" anymore

Kolumbo responds:

CYAN CAT I LOVE IT

[School Escape Room 1: Detention]

It's a nice old-school game. I started a run and ran into a softlock when I tried to open the locker and it wouldn't let me leave -- I think I had even found the clue to solve it and was entering it correctly but it still wouldn't open, but if someone hasn't found that clue they could probably get stuck there.

On a second run through the combination worked fine, finished the game.

On a third run to confirm that you'll get softlocked if you go to the locker and try entering something without knowing the combination yet, yeah, confirmed that softlocks it. You'll probably want to add a way to leave the locker after trying a combination.

awesomeunderscore responds:

Ok thanks for the comment I will see what i can do

[CityBuilder TowerDefense]

I agree with Georgikus, it could use a short tutorial on how the economy works, I tried a couple of times and got game over on day 2 for unclear reasons (maybe losing too much happiness?) Looks like the game could be neat and expanded on if that initial learning spike is handled well though.

AlkalinePineapples responds:

Shit, I forgot to communicate important mechanics again!
I really need to be more careful about this.

[Quest Finder Adventures]

The game won't load, and it's showing a 404 error under the browser's DevTools-Console window. Maybe try reuploading?

QuestFinder responds:

thankyou for that, I just updated!

[Golf Adventures! 2]

That last level set made me forgive you for the brutality of the mechanical zone :3

If you'd like to add NewGrounds medals for the achievements or a NG leaderboard, here's how: https://3p0ch.newgrounds.com/news/post/1211786

Aleksander-Sats responds:

Yeah, Mechanical Mayhem was made to test what you've learned so far, so in return the next one for your effort is more fun and easier! :)

Thanks for mentioning that post though! I will keep it in mind

[ULTRAFUN]

I ran into some serious performance issues - like other users I frequently got "WebGL context lost, please reload the page" messages after the game loaded and before it started. Every once in a while it does start, but when it did there was lag and the music was extremely choppy.

There might be an issue that's being pointed to by some odd errors showing up in the browser's Developer Tools - Console window (if you play the game from NG, press Ctrl+Shift+I or pick it from your browser's menu and go to the Console tab to see them). It makes me think that an autoload script might be acting up, but you might be able to make more sense of it than I can since I don't have the Godot source code. If you want me to take a look at it when I get a chance then msg me.

Other tricks I've found in Godot that might help with performance if you're not already doing it this way are 1) for most of my big scenes (like game levels or main menu or stuff) I'll make an autoload that holds the entire scene as a variable like
levels_autoload.gd:
var level1 = preload("res://levels/level1.tscn")
etc...
and then in other scripts instead of using get_tree().change_scene() you would use get_tree().change_scene_to(LevelsAutoload.level1) and it should noticeably reduce if not eliminate the stuttering and lag when you switch scenes.

2) For audio, maybe try compressing the music files in Audacity. If they're in stereo then mix them down to mono (Ctrl-A to select all, then Tracks -> Mix -> Stereo down to Mono) and then do File -> Export -> as OGG with the Quality slider set to 0.

3) The other thing you could do with audio is significantly more complex, but if you're up for it I described the process in a post at https://3p0ch.newgrounds.com/news/post/1148893

Hopefully it can get running more smoothly because now it's kinda barely playable for me.

Kwongo responds:

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback, it's really helpful :) I am still new to using Godot with HTML5 so this comes in really handy. I'm exploring some more options too, such as converting the game to use GLES2 instead of GLES3, which might improve compatibility (this is the source of most of the WebGL issues), but it comes at the expense of performance and not being able to use my pretty particles the same :(

If anyone truly desires the bonafide ULTRAFUN experience ASAP (and doesn't want to wait for me to fix it) the game is also available for free on Steam (Windows/Linux) :)

[THREAT != CONTAINED]

w00t another 3D Godot dev!
I also ran into audio issues with my HTML5 exports and came up with a workaround to fix it. It was kinda complicated so I posted a description of how I did it: https://3p0ch.newgrounds.com/news/post/1148893
I'm not 100% sure this will also fix it for you but I think it's more likely than not.

Edit: Finished the game. The 2D-in-3D graphics were appealing and had a lot of nice touches, the creepiness of the things in the containment rooms helps make the game memorable. The design of having the player go into a J shaped area when they kill the power and have the monster where it is pretty much guarantees that the player will die the first time through and have to start from the beginning, and if they don't notice that the monster moves through walls right away then they'll probably die at least once more, each time having to start from the beginning. It's a short game so it's not horrible to have to repeat the path to the power room each time, but it's kinda monotonous to have to do each time before the real action starts. After figuring out how to really play the game, it's entertaining enough to make up for it. Looking forward to seeing what you do in the future.

Frosty responds:

Thanks a ton for the review. and i will 100% check out that fix, cheers!