newgroundsHatesMe's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Shanghaied]

i always have a soft spot for stencyl games because that's what i use for the most part when i do want to make games.

i liked the intro a lot, but it didn't feel like it tied in, like it was anticlimactic.
the visual aesthetic is interesting and it's good that you added the particles for the impact
the movement is very floaty and you can get stuck on walls, if you wanted to change the getting stuck on walls, change the character's friction to 0, or set the material to ice, which does the same thing, and also change the player's velocity to 0 when no keys are pressed.

one of my favorite things so far is how the platformer robot dies after getting pushed into the wall, splitting up into different things

if you want to have the player be able to push enemies around, it would make sense to allow players to jump off of them as well

one element in the level design that i particularly liked was when one of the horizontal platforms was moving under some tiles and you had to wait for it, i dunno why i liked it but it feels nice for some reason. i think because it goes into a hole at the side of the level it makes the level feel less constrictive somehow, even though if you removed the hole it would be the same space for the player to move around in.

the sound effects are a bit loud and long for comfort, and the sound that the player bullet firing makes is inconsistent with the rate of fire, if you watch this video you'll maybe get some more ideas for how to put sound stuff together, he says it better than me

also, it's nicer for the enemies to flash white or something when you hit them, more visual feedback is always good, jan willem nijman from vlambeer talks about that and other stuff in this video, some of it you already utilized, but it would be nicer if you covered more bases. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U

i also liked that you could break coins from a far distance

in parts where there are a lot of enemies the sound effects are honestly painful to listen to all clashing together so i had to turn the sound effects off after a part where there were a lot of enemies. i think there was something about that in the earlier sound video i linked

also, the resolution is a bit high to comfortably play in my browser because it's automatically enlarged for some reason :P I'm doing a thing with a similar size (640x640) but it's only because it was a direct sequel of sorts to my first game, which was at 640x640 and i wanted to keep it consistent to wrap it up.

overall, some elements are flawed but it's an interesting thing and both makes me interested to see what you'll do in the future, and motivates me to do my own somewhat large and awkward stencyl game that most people probably won't finish.

sorry if i seemed condescending or annoying, i've mostly only made really dumb strange games, i just wanted to try to help steer you in the right direction

JeffreyDriver responds:

Thanks a lot for your comment. I didn't find you condescending or annoying! In fact, I greatly appreciate useful feedback. If someone tells me something that lets me improve my games, then I'm all for it. I'm still very much in the early stages of playing around with Stencyl, but eventually I'll produce something awesome! Thanks again.

[The dull room]

fun game, i like it
one big problem is that in the first level, you let the player move while the dialog box is up, but you don't let them shoot the rope, so i first thought it was completely broken,

Grevicor responds:

Thank you for pointing this problem out. I'll fix it as soon as possible.

[Blue the dino]

there's an improvement over your previous games
sound effect for being hurt and hurting enemies should be different
i'm fine with weird things being added in games, but there has to be more justification than "this thing suddenly changed its behavior"
it's still repetitive, though because it feels better to play it doesn't matter that much until i lost
starting all the way at the beginning doesn't make me want to replay what i already completed because i won't get anything new out of it, if you really want to

GSquadron responds:

Ok, thanks for letting me know!

[A Game For Zombie Stoners]

20/10 would seizure again

Eric-McTrainshit responds:

I'm glad you enjoyed the seizure simulator, Platypus. Maybe in the future I'll make a sequel with more content if I come up with any other pointless game mechanics that I can practice coding out.

[Find the pairs!]

the 2nd level doesn't unlock no matter how many times i complete the first one
GG
is it that when you tested it, you unintentionally created a boolean that locked progress after failing once, but you never failed the levels on the first try so you didn't notice it? that's the only thing i can think of

GSquadron responds:

While I was making the game, I had all the levels unlocked. Only now I just noticed it and fixed it.
Try again and let me know.

[Another Life 2]

there are some good puzzle ideas and all the art is very nice, but the death noise is really annoying, and it would be much better to restart levels automatically.
also, it would be slightly better in the second level if something stopped the player from pushing the box into the red pool, because that happens too easily and distracts from the actual puzzle stuff.

Frozennnn responds:

Thanks for the feedback hope you like the game

[Oswald - The Angry Dwarf]

the UI stuff and background and character and the little dialogues from the dwarf are nice, but it just doesn't feel like there's really a compelling system that feels good. Also, it would be very good to actually show the remaining amount of money when you're buying stuff from the story, and show its changed value after you buy stuff, as it's just in the background, so you don't know when you're out of money. Also, you should maybe change the "watch an ad for game money" for browser builds because people don't do that for browser games, though i dunno, maybe it's a good idea for earning stuff.

simonza8 responds:

Thanks for review. I will do something about "out of money" issue in next version.

[Quantum Quest 3]

well, i completed it with pinky. i immediately like any stencyl games at least a little because they're made with stencyl, and i liked this for what it was, i guess.
a few things:
the bullets of the floating things in the cloud section don't read well at all because the clouds are bluish white, and the bullets are bluish white, so i didn't realize they were shooting at all.
the part i liked the most was the section where you had to race to the top was my favorite part, but one thing i really didn't like there was how hard the low gravity made it to jump onto the moving platforms
also, i'm sure you know the moving platforms didn't work how they usually do, but i think you can go to stencylforge and download a behavior to make moving platforms work the way they're supposed to. i sort of figured it out recently without looking at that, the general idea is setting the actor's x speed to that of the platform while the player is colliding with the platform.

you also could've added some really simple running and jumping animations by having the player's legs spread in and out while running, and having the player put their arms against their side while jumping, and that would've felt way better.

the screenshake was a really good way to communicate to players that they killed an enemy if it was offscreen.

Mickennxtre68 responds:

I'm really happy you enjoyed it. I'm definitely gonna have to try that behavior on Stencyl Forge. Hopefully it will make future games better. I'm really happy you liked the game. I hope it gets accepted soon!

[Fleeing the Complex]

really good everything stuff

PuffballsUnited responds:

hah thanks!