Zir0's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pothead Zombies]

Cool Game

Hey.

This is a nice shooting / defense game. Graphics and animations were done very nicely. Sound effects are a bit quiet, but with all that's going on, that's probably a good thing. The music was nice too, although I'd still like the option of muting the music while keeping the sounds.

The weapons and upgrades are ok. Being firearms, they're pretty much the same as we've seen in every other shooter game that has guns based off real models. There's not much one can really innovate on here. Damage, fire rate, reload speed - we've seen those many times before. I would like to see some different weapons here. I was able to finish the game and didn't even bother upgrading the Red 9 or Sig Sauer once, nor did I purchase the MP5 or Rifle. (I mean, I played around with in a few games, but was ultimately able to finish the game without them.) The latter two are pretty much useless, and can be swapped out with some other more interesting weapons, maybe some type of explosive for collateral damage, or claymores, or something.

For some other players, a game plan that worked for me was:
- Immediately start saving for the crossbow - don't bother upgrading either of the pistols. Once you get the crossbow, give it to your AI.
- Continue using your pistol, build up the AI's crossbow every occasionally, while saving up for the M4.
- Don't bother with the MP5 or Rifle. You can max out the Crossbow if you want, but you don't have to. However, you should invest some points into it.
- Don't bother with the fans. (You can bu them later if you want, just for kicks.)
- Save up for the Gattling, and max it out. In the end, you will have the Gattling, and your partner will have the M4.
:-)

Maybe it's just me, but the fans didn't really seem to do much. If their intent is to slow the approaching zombies, it isn't all that noticeable.

While playing, I noticed there is no way to restore health, making the game gauntlet-style. However, when you lose, it does give you the option of continuing at the cost of a percentage of your score (I like that - I did that exact same thing with my game, Blast Force :) ).

Having an AI partner is cool, but I wish you could change his behavior a bit. It seems once he has acquired a target, he will continue firing on it until it is destroyed. In most cases, this is fine, but in later levels, he may not be doing too well against a particular zombie (also in part due to his slower firing rate), and another zombie, usually a faster, weaker one, is closing in. I would like him to switch to that target, because he'd have a better chance of killing it.

Question for leonardozimbres: I'm guessing when your AI partner "levels up", it slightly increases all his stats for whatever weapon he's using? (:

Overall, it's a sweet nice game. Nice work, soldiers. As you were.
* salutes *

_______________________
- Ziro out.

leonardozimbres responds:

Sorry for the late answer. When the AI levels up, the coop buddy will shoot and reload faster. I do hope to make this more clearer on a future version.
Thanks for your care in reviewing this game. Im taking notes of observations to keep doing better work.

[Colormixer - Beta]

Interesting

Hey.

Combining RGB colors to try and match the target color is an interesting idea. This seems like it would be better a gimmick for a larger game, rather than a main concept, though.

Needs some sound effects, as it's completely silent.

The only thing I didn't really agree with is the reset game mechanic. Keep the time bonus, but I think it may be better to allow the player to adjust the knobs forward and backward, instead of resetting all of them, incurring a penalty. You could perhaps make it so that the less number of adjustments made, the better.

For some reason HSL/HSB came to mind in addition to having RGB, but maybe that might be too hard? (:

Not too engaging game, but I found this interesting nonetheless. As a game programmer myself, I'm sometimes playing around with both RGB and HSB/L. Now, RGBA would be a pain. (:

_____________________________
- Ziro out.

JernoBill responds:

Thank you for your review!
I like the fact, that you can't backward a color because this is what makes it difficult.
But your idea is good too.

HSL/HSB... mh first I wanted to use subtractive colormixing with CMY instead of additive colormixing. But then the LC-Displays have to be canvases and you have to shoot color. The name of the game would have been ColorCannon! Maybe I just do a second part of the game? :)

Regard, Dennis.

[Cold Boot Plus]

Kinda Frustrating

Hey.

I had a difficult time just getting through the three doors on the second screen. When you are on the platform just to the left of the door (outside the little room), once the door is open, you have to short jump to get through it. Player should just be able to walk through. Furthermore, when you exit the door, your player falls through that platform... I'm guessing the game is remembering that last short jump you did to get by the door in the first place?

Is it possible to just mute the music and keep the sounds?

On the level where you get the wall jump: If you go back section on the lower left, where there is a one-block opening, and jump on the wall above it, and try to simply "slide through", you'll find it quite challenging. The robot gets hung up on the upper right corner of the tile below the opening, switching between upright and wall-jumping positions. (if you need a screen shot or video, let me know - I'll be happy to send you one.)

There are various spots where the robot gets hung up on a top corner of a tile.

I'm guessing you had some trouble or didn't care for categorizing the game, and just decided to put "Game"? This should be under Action - Platformer - Puzzle, although I didn't encounter much action, but that's the closest description. (:

In the Storage Lobby Lobby screen, the text underneath that was too small to read. The "Storage Division Lobby" label itself, could be a little bigger, too. The size of the fonts in the upper left were fine.

Bit of a difficulty curve in the game. I gave up on the level that starts you on the right of a diamond-shaped tile structure with water inside it.

_______________________
- Ziro out.

GreyKnightGames responds:

Thanks a lot for kind of stopping and actually making a good (in an objective way) review.

I agree with the problems this game has, but i'm afraid there's not much i can do, it's the engine. You see, i'm not using flash itself to make it.

About the category, i was sure i selected just that, A/P/P... must have slipped through my mind.

And i apologize about the storage loby screen, I am on a 1080p 27" screen so i thought if i could see it anyone could, heh. I'll take this into account for future projects.

[The Average Stick Guy Bet]

Get fundamentals solid 1st before adding extras

Hey.

Considering that was written in the author comments, I feel you on getting constructive feedback - it's like pulling teeth - you won't get it often. Regarding the beta aspect: people generally prefer finished submissions on Newgrounds, and dueto the blam/protect nature of things, if may have been better to submit to the alpha section of the site (I don't even know if that section is working - it always gives me an error when I try to go there), or to simply upload it somewhere else altogether, like FlashKit.

On to the game, sounds like you have some ambitious ideas, but based on what I've seen so far, here are some suggestions. Since there isn't much gameplay here, most of these are related to user friendliness and user accessibility, both of which I often find overlooked in Flash games.

- Since you are using mouse and keyboard to control the player's actions, and this being a platform game, add the WASD keys for movement. Your current config of arrow keys is nice for left-handed people, and right-handed people will want to move the player's character with WASD keys while moving the mouse.

- Currently, the mouse is only being used to interact with the black box. Unless the mouse will become a crucial part of controlling your character, I'd place that function as a key on the keyboard.

- You should also consider adding the ability for the player to remap the default keys as they like.

- Adding specialized animations for ascending and descending during a jump are nice polish, and I like how you took it a step further by adding more poses for moving jumps to differentiate them from a non-moving jump. However, the character jerks back a little on the moving jumps when it witches from ascending to descending.

- After battling the opponent the first time and dying, each time thereafter, it doesn't refill my health, and the opponent instantly attacks, killing me.

- Clean up the terrain movement, so the player moves smoothly along the hills. When moving down hills, you can see him leaving the ground for a split second at times.

- Once you get to adding audio to your game, please consider adding the ability to mute sounds and music separately.

- Throw a pause function in as well.

- I didn't see the game measuring distance from the ground anywhere. Was this meant to be visible? There is a green text that always reads 250.

- It look like your doing a quick "sweep" to keep the screen scroll focused on the player. Personally, I never liked these "sweep/tween" scrolling methods in platform games. They're fine when resetting your player after a fall (although I'd slow it down a bit), but I don't like it when it sweeps while I'm moving, even if the duration of the sweep is small.

- No ActionScript run-time exceptions were encountered.

- Clean up the engine, get everything solid, then focus on improving your graphics, gameplay, and all the other things you plan on adding.

Oh, and come up with an interesting name for your engine, too. (:

Good luck/skill on your project, soldier.
* salutes *

________________________
- Ziro out.

alexkolozsy responds:

Thanks for an excellent review! I just took into account everything you said, added a pause button, changed it from being so 'twitchy' which I think was VERY true, and also smoothed up movement over the ground. I am working now on changing the movement of the camera, so that it tweens over (relatively) slowly after death, and before game start, and afterwards stays completely focused on the character. Late tonight or early tomorrow I will add acceleration, a 'slide' animation, a duck button, and a crawling, where you duck and move. I smoothed the animations (slightly) but I don't think they look better, and I kind of want the cartoony look. I adjusted the health etc. so that it restarts and you can re-battle. I'm in the process of adding another enemy. Music, I will ask someone about giving me full rights to some good music, maybe for a tip. Removed the green debugging text. Thanks again for the helpful review. Going to get a better name. No storyline yet, but I'll make one. <-- That's the easiest part. Thanks man. Once again. UPDATE: *** Okay I just attempted to display the distance from the ground. It freezes flash player. I also tested it in GC and MF and IE, and it worked on none of those. It overloads the system I guess. I'm troubleshooting it but I think I might just have to not display distance from ground. It DOES allow me, although, to check it every second or so allowing me to tell whether he is about falling distance or jumping distance and return an animation based on that. ***

[Ice Cream Bar]

Nice Game

Hey.

- Customers should be served on a first-come-first-serve basis when more than one customer wants the same type of ice cream. This way, the customers on the right will get there ice cream first, even if a newer customer arrives to the left, asking for the same ice cream. Since the game doesn't allow the player to directly control which ice cream goes to which customer (for example, dragging and drpooing an ice cream to a designated customer), consider going that route.

- I like how you can mute music only, while keeping the sounds.

- Since the game doesn't pause when you're looking at the recipes (hint, hint), at least consider allowing the player to look at the recipes at some point when the game is not in play. Some places include an option on the title screen, or in between levels. Most of the recipes can be figured out simply by looking at the ice cream; however, since you allow the player to look at the recipe (which is good, by the way), give them the option to view it when the clock's not ticking.

One thing I noticed is that you can tab through the various ingredients, showing the focus rect. When you select an incredient using Space bar, it places an order to receive more of that item. not sure if this was by design or not.

Another thing with tabbing; sometimes, I like to try and find ways to break the Flash (: . At the start of the level, when the game's telling you your target profit, you can still tab through the buttons in the background, and select things. Also, on this same dialog, after playing through the game sometimes, a focus rect will show on the seats, where the coins appear. Hitting space presents this error:

TypeError: Error #2007: Parameter child must be non-null.
at flash.display::DisplayObjectContainer /removeChild()
at Game/GotoCheck()

Graphics and sound effects are nice.

________________________
- Ziro out.

In-Finity responds:

Thanks for good detailed answer.

[The hardest platformer]

More Like an Skill - Avoider game...

... since it's one-hit kill, and you can't fight back. If you can fight back at some point, then I haven't made it that far.

- The music is a short, annoying loop, and there's no way to turn it while keeping just the sound effects. Graphics could use much improvement, too.

Add some kind of scoring system to the game.

If there's not one already, I'd highly recommend uploading a video or series of videos of you yourself playing and finishing the entire game. This can give players tips on how to pass certain areas, and hopefully trial-and-error and luck are not part of what makes the game hard. Furthermore, this will also let players know that, yes, the game can actually, be finished, and yes, the person who made the game can actually beat it himself.

__________________________
- Ziro out.

paala responds:

Thank you for the review.
I updated with a sort of walkthrough. If you want easier version search for Just Another Platformer.

[UDE]

Cool Game

Hey.

The graphics, and audio are great, and I like the fact that I can directly control my own unit in addition to the RTS elements. The reload on my own unit was annoying, though.

When my own unit was destroyed, at first, I thought the game was over... apparently, not (:
I was much relieved when I could build myself another one, which was cool.

Gameplay is a bit slow in the beginning, but I guess that's because of the grind involved with building up your levels.

When I click on buildings that are maxed out, r don't have enough crystals, I get messages like these:

SecurityError: Error #2121: Security sandbox violation: getChildAt: http://uploads.ungrounded.net/572000/
572433_UDE_secure.swf cannot access http://server.cpmstar.com/adviewas3.s wf?contentspotid=4802QB713DE58. This may be worked around by calling Security.allowDomain.
at flash.display::DisplayObjectContainer /getChildAt()
at map.ui.utils::FadingTextTip()
at map. ::BuildingPlayer/ ()

and this:

ArgumentError: Error #2025: The supplied DisplayObject must be a child of the caller.
at flash.display::DisplayObjectContainer /removeChild()
at com.moonmana.map.utils::DyingStageMov ieClip/die()
at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatc hEventFunction()
at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatc hEvent()
at com.moonmana.map.utils::DyingMovieCli p/ ()

Other than those, this game is nice.

______________________
- Ziro out.

episodeent responds:

Thank you very-very much! Ill fix it asap. Almost done, compiling!

[Hexery - CCG]

Getting some errors...

Hey.

When the game first loads, I get this message:

Error #2044: Unhandled securityError:. text=Error #2048: Security sandbox violation: http://uploads.ungrounded.net/572000/
572395_hexlite.swf cannot load data from http://www.hexeryonline.com/thecards.
xml.
at hexery/GetCardData()
at hexery/frame1()

Once I click begin, unless I dismiss it, I continuously get this message:

TypeError: Error #1010: A term is undefined and has no properties.
at hexery/CardInfo_getCardElementNumber(
)
at hexery/CreateCards()
at hexery/MainGameLoop()

Once I'm into the game, if I click Quit, the game over dialog appears, and there seems to be an OK button, but it doesn't seem to function. Furthermore, the TextField objects shouldn't be selectable.

________________
- Ziro out.

havanuf responds:

The initial file required an external XML file for data. The data has been hard coded into the game now and works as planned.

[Lovely Revy [00 RX]]

Nice Game

Hey.

This game has some potential.

I noticed when you land from a jump, the player's feet go below the landing point. Also, when using Revy's jump attack, it doesn't auto fire while in mid-air as it does when you're standing. Not sure if that is by design or not, but the two (standing and jumping) should probably be consistent. Walking while shooting should probably use the walking animation and shooting combined. Instead, it looks like it's the standing animation, skipping forward.

Explosion graphics could be a little better.

I did encounter a glitch. I was playing as Rosalina, and was battling Evil Rosalina. Sometimes, I get stuck, and can't move or switch characters. Also, when all my health is gone, the game won't end. The glitch seems to happen sometimes when I get hit.

As I said, nice game. Keep working on it.

* salutes *

_________________________
- Ziro out.

omegafinal responds:

The mid-air attack didn't work the way I intend, since for some reason, you're literally stuck in that frame of animation. I would have loved Revy auto-firing her gun. Also notice that Rosalina dealt continuous damage in her mid-air attack, so that's something I want to fix. The standing only when attack is by design in my part, because I was basing it more on Castlevania actually (but I HATE the extreme knockbacks, so I intentionally left those out). Maybe certain characters will and won't have the ability to walk and hit in the future.

The jumping "bounce" as I'd call most likely has to do with Rystic's code, it's real easy to use and functional, but it does have its limits, so I'm looking to replace it. I originally did try and script my own before finding Rystic's, but there were various problems that made me gave it up (imagine if there was just one thing I could've change and it worked. That would've ticked me off.)

That sounds like a very specific glitch, because I couldn't recreate it (or I just suck at testing my own game), the glitch I usually get is somehow the bosses does double damage. It sounds like the "death" variable has been triggered in your case for the other one, so the game thinks that you're already dead. You can PM me the specifics or post it in my news post. Thankfully, I'm thinking about overhauling the game with some new code, so hopefully it'll be better the next time.

Oh yeah, thanks for the review.

[P++]

Interesting Concept

Hey.

- Consider including some kind of indicator that shows the currently executed command.
- Add some sound effects also when moving around, and touching the green orbs.
- Consider adding some "end-of-game" phase if you touch a red orb or win the level.
- Change the textfield object(s) on the instructions, so that you ca't select them, and the I-bear cursor doesn't appear (set it up the same way you set up the text in the level editor)
- There seems to be some weird behavior in the text editor. If you click Create to go to a new map, and simply click the New grid button, the grid seems to "jump" a little to the left.
- An option to change the game speed when running commands may be useful.

__________________
- Ziro out.

pedmacedo responds:

Thanks for the constructive critic :D