Zir0's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Health Bar Coding Help]

Needs Lots of Work

Hey.

You should consider adding more lessons to this instead of just health bar coding. In fact, try more advanced concepts other than health bar coding, perhaps collision detection.

Consider showing the entire setup for the health bards, not just the code. If you're going to make a tutorial, people need to see all the steps, not just small snippets of code.

Returning to the title is a moot operation.

Also, since health bars can be visually presented in various ways, you should consider lessons for some other common ways bars bar can be represented.

Upgrade to AS3; AS2 is deprecated. Also, get rid of using the MovieClip object for this. I've the MovieClip abused so many times, mostly due to lazy programming or lack of good design principles.

The SylphalBK label changes my mouse in the hand pointer when I move over it, giving me the impression that I can click on it. However, when I do, nothing happens.

_____________________________
- Ziro out/

SyphalBK responds:

Thanks for the advice, the button with my name on it was supposed to open my Newgrounds page.
I would love to do AS3, but I don't know anything about it. Anyways, thanks for the help, Syphal out. :3

[Micro Super Defense Force]

Cool

Hey.

I actually like the graphics from the first game more than the micro graphics. Accessibility is good. I especially like how the button, or in this case, buttons, use to pause the game are the same buttons used to unpause it. I also like how you designed the UI, so that you don't need the mouse at all. However, what's with the localization? (:

The only mismatch with the UI is that parts of it are using (or seem to look like) vector art instead of your usual raster art, text fro teh Instructions and Credits buttons. But, I guess since the game graphics are "low-res" is lower, those might have been difficult to do.

Since you obviously like old-school so much, you should add a sound test, where you can sample every sound effect and song in the game. (:

Was never able to win the first match in duel mode - the guy just spams me to death. As made it as far as Ch3 in story mode also. I have trouble try to get around their attack, then do my own attack, but it's like my attacks takes longer to execute, and they hit me first, neutralizing my attack. I guess I could try going spam crazy like a maniac like the friendly AI does, but I don't have those kind of fingers, especially on a keyboard. (: Still looking forward to some toss moves from the martial artist.

Otherwise, nice game.

________________________
- Ziro out.

AcetheSuperVillain responds:

I downgraded to the micro graphics because it was at least 10x easier to make, and I didn't like the way the previous designs and some of the animations had come out. The translations are for non-NewGrounds portals. Anglophones typically account for very little of my income, so I'm reaching out.

As for the UI signs, yeah, they don't look as well matched as they did in my head. They're made in GIMP, so anti-aliased but not full vector. The text is all de-pixeled because it was impossible to read otherwise.

Sound Test will make it into one of these games someday. I was thinking of making it a separate file.

The trick to beating the first match in Duel is to stay out of the robot's range. If you get hit, move up or down to escape its range, and then counter attack. If you're playing Simple mode, this might be slightly harder, since you can't guard or Guard Burst. Playing like a maniac is kind of the point, but there's always a lot of instant-strategy to take into account.

Thanks for playing and thanks for the report.

[Outpost:Haven]

Cool Game

Hey.

Great top-down, shoot-em-up game.

Not sure if this is how the game was designed, or if it's just my computer, but the gameplay is rather sluggish. The graphics and sound are the best aspects of this game. The only issue I have is that everything is so small, _especially_ the text in areas like the corners of the game screen and the info cards. As a result, I wasn't going to try ans squint to read that, and just skipped it.

There was obviously lots of time invested into polishing this game. It is _very_ shiny. From environment sounds, to UI presentation and light and darkness, and the way the credits were presented, no stone was left unturned in this area. However, the beep that highlights your character on the small-mini-map does get annoying after a while, so I think you went just a little overboard with the polish here. (: Another area I think was a little over the top was the physics. I'm assuming that there's more to it than just pushing and rotating objects around.

When looking at the full map from your device, it would have been a little more helpful to see your current location there also.

On the first level, when I opened the door that has this message associated with it:
"Not all doors require a key card, just press the spacebar to open"

I got this error message repeatedly:
TypeError: Error #1010: A term is undefined and has no properties.
at Classes.PathFinder::PathFinder/isClos ed()[/Users/Squize/Work/Flash/Code/Ou tpost/src/Classes/PathFinder/PathFind er.as:225]
at Classes.PathFinder::PathFinder/findPa th()[/Users/Squize/Work/Flash/Code/Ou tpost/src/Classes/PathFinder/PathFind er.as:131]
at Classes.Player::Player2/mainloop_chec kingDistance()[/Users/Squize/Work/Fla sh/Code/Outpost/src/Classes/Player/Pl ayer2.as:324]
at Classes.Player::Player2/mainloop()[/U sers/Squize/Work/Flash/Code/Outpost/s rc/Classes/Player/Player2.as:241]
at Classes::Master/mainloop()[/Users/Squ ize/Work/Flash/Code/Outpost/src/Class es/Master.as:104]

It actually didn't stop until I moved away from he door.
(Using Flash Player 10.3 debug version.)

That was the only error encountered.

Other than that, this game should keep someone busy for a while, especially if they want to get all the medals and upgrades for each gun.

____________________________
- Ziro out.

Squize responds:

Wow, extensive review, cheers. Reviews like yours are gold mate.

That error, I've "fixed" the path finding code so many times ( It's only for when Jameson is with you for the 2 minutes at the very start ). With that breaking in the background it will slow things down as it tries and fails to find a path. Time to look at it again. Joy.

Thanks again for taking the time to play the game and the review.

[Gunship!]

Not too Shabby for your First Game

Hey.

Nice game, but a bit rough around the edges.

=======================
Gameplay / Design
=======================
- There is a bit too much reading at the beginning of the game. Also, it probably isn't necessary to present the tutorial text, as, for the most part, the game is conceptually easy to figure out. Maybe present only the button used to access the help screen, and the rules about locking onto targets, and let the player figure the rest out. If you really want to do something more in-depth than that, consider making some kind of interactive tutorial.

- It's too hard to see the objects on the map.

- I'd like to be able to adjust the separately, for example, muting the music while keeping the sounds.

- It's a bit lacking in some sounds. There should be explosions when things blow up. If you have explosions, they're too light.

- The size of the game is 9.2 MB, and the content of this game doesn't seem to warrant that size. Consider optimizing and/or reducing your media (graphics and audio).

=======================
Graphics
=======================
- The environment looks fine, but the characters/entities (player helo, enemies, etc), are too small. Sometimes, enemies will be firing at me, and it takes me a few seconds to even find them on the screen. Same with bullets, they're too light/small. It's too hard to aim, and see what you're getting hit by.

- The graphics for the smoke needs improvement. They are a bit too blocky.

=======================
Controls
=======================
- Consider adding mouse support to player input. For example, use mouse to aim/turn, mouse button to fire cannon, W to move forward, S to move backward, A and D to move sideways, and whatever you want to fire missile. Might want to experiment here and allow multiple configs.

- I've always felt that the input used to enter help/menu UI should be the same input used to exit them. So, pressing H should be able to both enter and exit the help screen.

Other than those, it's a good start, however game & engine design is different than I.T., which I presume that's where your background is.

Good skill on your future games.

_________________________
- Ziro out.

eschoell responds:

I really felt constrained by screen size. I felt having the player/enemies larger would not work on a screen that size. But, clearly, our thought processes are similar on that matter.

I agree totally with you on the explosion sounds -- they simply do not come through well at all. That's something I will fix in subsequent games.

And yes, a game UI is not as "literal" as more traditional UI's are. Doing good game "workflow" and interface actions are probably the hardest part for me.

[Fighting Snowball Fightin]

Interesting Game

Hey.

Nice, simple game.

The graphics are nice, and I really like the fluid animations on the boys. The sound effect when they hit does get monotonous after a while. I do like how you can mute music and sounds effects separately.

Showing the links to your site and other games at the bottom is fine on , say, the intro and outro screens. But showing that through the game play makes it feel more like an advergame.

Just some other ideas that came to mind; hope they don't make the game more complex than you would have liked: (:

- Perhaps consider giving bonus points when you stop multiple opponent snowballs with a single shot.
- Some kind of power-up that allows one of your hit boys to return to the fight (or gives you an extra boy, if none of your boys have been hit).
- Maybe something that temporarily reduces the rate of fire of the opposing team.
- Once you run out of ammo, it pretty much comes down to luck. At this point, I feel like taking a page out of Super Street Fighter II's (SNES) book. When you're doing the tournament, and it's two AIs fighting each other, you can speed this up and quickly get to the outcome. There otherwise needs _some_ way for the player to get back into the game, instead of leaving it up to the AI. Maybe allow the final boy to be controlled manually or something. (:

Regarding the first paragraph of the author's notes: I feel you on that one. Nonetheless, I hope it doesn't deter you from making the games YOU want to make in the future.

Good skill in the future, soldier.
* salutes *

_________________________
- Ziro out.

AthleticDesign responds:

Thanks! You make a lot of good points but as you presume I don't want to make the game any more compelex and I don't want to spend more time on it for now. I really should have implemented the bonus for multi hits and as it is very easy to add it, I might very well do it later!

[Velocity Raptor]

Interesting Game

Hey.

As far as the science you are teaching, I can't comment on that. So I'll stick to the technical side of this Flash submission.

When I press the X key to continue, I kept getting this message:

During the instructions, each time I pressed x, I got this error message:
TypeError: Error #2007: Parameter child must be non-null.
at flash.display::DisplayObjectContainer /removeChild()
at Levels/removeNote()
at Anchor/key_down()

During play, I sometimes get that message, or this message:

TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at Anchor/killMe()
at Levels/clearLevel()
at Levels/key_down()

Graphics were a big turoff. There is something to be said about first impressions, and unfortunately, your graphics don't leave a very good one. There;s much better freeware graphics our there, especially since your game has a small set of graphics to use, it should be easy for you to find something. Same goes for fonts.

I like how you can mute music and sounds separately. Great job on accessibility there.

I believe the genre is a bit miscategorized, mainly using "Platformer", as this usually implies a some form of jumping in a side-scrolling game, not an overhead one. Unfortunately, Newgrounds doesn't provide an "overhead" type of genre, nor a "simulation and puzzles", "Puzzles - Other", or "Simulation - Other" may have worked. (I think the current options in the flash game submission genre leave a bit to be desired.)

The solution to level 16 was too difficult (too random), and the following level was too easy.

A note about levels 23 and 24, and other similar levels: don't lead the player on, once it ic clear that the player has failed and cannot complete the level (in other words, must start over), go ahead and do so.

I recommend you to take a look at the "The No Twinkie Database", which explains some good topics on game design.

Good skill on your future games. I think your greatest challenge here will be to educate _and_ entertain, this being a game after all. Otherwise, it may have been better to just make an informative movie.

_______________________
- Ziro out.

TestTubeGames responds:

Thanks for the detailed feedback, Ziro!

[Last Green Triangle v1.2]

Good Improvements over the Last Version

Hey.

You made those changes fairly quickly. Nice work (:
The presentation of the shop is much better now, as the game elements underneath are de-emphasized.

frizzyo made a good point with the menu buttons. They're a bit difficult to press. I can click them when I move my mouse over to the far left edge most of the time to highlight them.

I know you mentioned sounds are coming soon, so I'd like to add some preemptive tips:

- Try not to be (too) monotonous with the sounds, especially the explosions. Assign at least two different explosion sound effects, or you can really mix it up and give a different sound effect to each type of obstacle. For all shooting elements, give them a different sound. The differences need not be drastic. Shooters can easily get caught up with having just one sound effect for sounds events that occur often.

- Don't forget the mute/volume for sound effects and if you decide to add music, allow it to be adjusted separately from the sounds. Since your game is keyboard based, you can keep it simple and do it all with a single key. By default, game starts with both music and sounds. Press the key, and it mutes both music and sounds. Press it again, and you get sounds only. One more press and you get the start setting (music and sounds), so it's a three-phase setup.

I like the concept (I'm a sucker for old-school shooters), but I think you should have more enemy types. It took a while for the red magnet looking ship (stays at the top and shoots at you) to come out, but I like those guys. However, I didn't see any other enemies for the yellow (other than boxes), cyan (other than chaser ships), and blue (other than the mid-sized ship that comes from the bottom).

For blue, maybe you could make a ship that goes horizontally, and shoots at you when it's aligned. Perhaps as time goes on, the blue ships could shoot each time they align with the player instead of just once (just put a delay in there, so they don't spam, lol).

For yellow, I was thinking of adding a larger pentagon/hecagon/whaateverm that takes maybe 2 or 3 hits to kill. When you kill it, it breaks up into a few of the current yellow squares. However, that might be too easy to stop, as you might easily be able to kill the smaller squares as soon as they disperse. You can experiment, though.

So, another idea was to make a yellow ship that doesn't attack the player directly, but instead tries to steal the money floating around. It flies around on the screen, looking for money when it appears. If you kill it, it drops all the money it collected, plus what ever it starts with (like the other enemies). Make it move a little faster than the pother enemies, and small like the cyan ships, so it's a bit tougher to kill.

For cyan, maybe a combo of red and cyan: something that chases and shoots at you. But don't put too many of those - game ight get hard, unless the player is playing "hard' of course. (:

The multi-shot (I forgot to talk about this one last time, sorry), is cool. I got it to level 3, and for the most part, it's pretty good, but maybe multi shot could discharge projectiles at an angle or something.

The magnet is really cool, but sometimes, the money just flies right by me.

I hope my suggestions aren't imposing, but just some ideas to experiment with. Coming along nicely, though. (:

__________________________
- Ziro out.

imagirom responds:

thank you very much for all the suggestions. i will implement quite a few of them in the next version, which is coming soon!

[Last Green Triangle v1.1]

Needs some Improvements

Hey.

Nice shooter game, but a bit rough around the edges:

* Audio: Needs sound effects. If you decide to add it, also include the option to mute and/or adjust the volume. Adding music is not necessary; however, should you decide to add that in a future revision, then include volume adhjustments for it as well, separate from the sound effects.

* Graphics: The particle effects on the explosions do look nice, but you need more eye candy to make up for only having primitive shapes and lines.

* Gameplay:
- Add some sort of functionality where, when I die, I don't have top start over with nothing.
- Showing a high score is nice, but unless you actually have this tied into some back-end database somewhere, where I can see my scores with other players, it's useless. If not, might I suggest PlayerIO. It's a nice Library. If interested, you can learn more at http://playerio.com/ (:

* Usability:
- The game play entities should not interfere with the HUD.
- When you open the shop, consider: (1) dimming the gameplay elements, or; (2) removing the gameplay elements altogether. Showing the shop over the game play looks tacky.
- The text in the help looks cumbersome, and should be presented a little better.
- Include a UI on the HUD that shows which weapon you are currently using.
- Consider allowing the player input using mouse as well as keyboard and mouse, and allow the player to remap the keys.

Keep at it, and good skill.

___________________________
- Ziro out.

imagirom responds:

thanks for your feedback. i included as much as i could in the new version. sound effects are coming soon

[First Dress up flash ^^]

Good start; keep working

Hey.

Seeing as this is your first Flash, it looks like you got the basics of handling the mouse down alright. You will mostly want to make the game more accessible and user friendly, so here are some tips.

- Since all the components are designed go to specific areas, make it so the user can just click on the item (hairstyle, etc.), and it will automatically affix itself to where it needs to be. This pretty much eliminates the need to drag and drop, as more dress-up games are going that route, and it's not dependent on the user to line things up accurately.

- That being said, you may want to organize all your components into menu, and have the user select the item(s) from each menu with which they want to equip the character. For example, you'd have a menu for eyes, hairstyles, eyebrows, tops, and all the other groups. You won't be able to show everything at once, but you don't have to; it won't be necessary.

- There is a lot of unused whitespace along the top, left, and bottom sides of the Flash, which appears to be centered vertically, but aligned to the right edge. You could use that extra room for menus and UI.

- Consider giving an option for the character's skin color to be changed.

- The music sounds appropriate, however, add the ability for the player to mute and un-mute the music. You can probably add one or two more songs, as long as your SWF file size doesn't get out of control.

- You can even add the ability to change the background image, if you're feeling up to it. Not a direct change to the character, but having different backgrounds can work wonders for the over look and feel.

Keep practicing your Flash skills, and hopefully, you are using ActionScript 3.0. If not, I highly recommend making the jump to some point; it's a heck of a lot better than 2.0, and light years ahead of 1.0. (:

Good skill / luck, soldier.

________________________
- Ziro out.

egaoxxxlotje responds:

thankzss alot!!

this will surely help me ^^

[Invasion of the UST]

Nice Lesson

Hey.

Some good data is here. I got all of them correct except for the first one. While it wasn't anything particularly new to me, this could be very useful for people who have trouble being specific (or too specific). I also like the font used.

A few things to consider:
- More questions. However, don't choose all the questions during each game. Could be taken a step further by choosing them in random order (choose the groups at random, then mix up the order of questions in each group).
- Add some media: A few sound effects like button clicking, correct & incorrect, and time warning could easily be plugged in. Replace the bland, white background. Nothing that distracts from the purpose, but even simple sounds and frame UI graphics make it a little more attractive.

One issue encountered:
- During play, if you navigate through the Flash with tab key and press spacebar when no apparent button has the focus, the Flash behaves strangely. It tends to go the the next question for example, without having answered the current question.

Overall, I like the concept.

___________________________
- Ziro out.

MikeJSingleton responds:

Thanks for the feedback! It's all very helpful :)