Zir0's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Bridal Shopping]

Kinda Frustrating

Hey.

I like job simluations and all, but this one has a few design aspects that make it less than stellar.

- I would like upgrades that help me serve my customers more efficiently, rather than just buying new merchandise.

- It just doesn't seem possible to serve all the customers in time. This is the most frustrating part.

- Trash spontaneously appears around unused service booths.

- I don't know how much of the target (quota) I need to meet. Perhaps you can use the existing Target UI, by edcreasing the amount made after each sale.

- When you have two customers at service booths and each one wants the booth of the other, there seems to be no way to swap them, and you end up losing both.

As for non-gameplay design:
- Add the ability to mute the music while keeping the sounds.

This can otherwise be a very engaging game.

__________________________
- Ziro out.

[PoolMaster]

Nice, just needs aome fine-tuning

Hey.

The game has some loading issues. Sometimes, I'd get a blank screen with partial graphics on it. This happens once, when playing the first game, and once after I completed the first game.

When I scratch, I'd like to be able to sport the ball where I want, in the appropriate range of course.

Should be able to hit the ball a little harder, even on full force.

The music was annoying, and the loop was too short. I do like how you can mute the music and keep the sound effects. I also like the rail sound effects and polish associated with making a shot as well.

Would like to see bonus points provided when a more complex shot or a longer shot is made.

The UI at the top interefer a little when you want to use that space to aim and shoot.

Other than those, very nice. Add some multiplayer (or computer opponent in 8-ball mode) to this, and you could have a much cooler game too.

_______________________
- Ziro out.

[Midtown Beatdown]

Cool Game

Hey.

Gameplay and Design
- Finished all four levels. It gets monotonous quickly. There needs to be multiple enemy types, each with its own set of moves, as well as more moves for the player,
- Game's a bit easy, even on the hardest setting.
- I like all the names you gave the enemies. (:
- Consider adding an option to mute music but keeps the sound effects, in addition to muting both.
- I found that you can press P to pause. Unless I missed it, you should probably indicate that somewhere for the uninitiated.
- It looks weird having the character do a somersault from a non-moving jump.
- Don't make the visual impact effect take so long. It should be a quick flash of some sort.
- As far as I can tell, the player can't get knocked down, no matter how may times he gets hit.
- When the player passes the level, don't suddenly end it, showing a bunch of numbers. Provide some kind of fanfare.

Graphics and Sounds
- Nice old-school bitmap graphics. A few frames in the walking animations are missing from all the characters.
- When characters get up, they should have better looking animation. It looks like you just rotated some stances to get them back upright. (:

Controls
- Your control scheme was fine for me, but you may want to consider a setup for players who are better the other way around (movement keys on the right, and attacks on the left). Key configuration is always a good idea.

Notes
- There is a glitch with jumping. When you land, you are at a lower spot then when you started. If you stand still and just keep jumping, you will eventually get stuck at the bottom of the screen.

- There is a "z-order" issue with objects. For example, take the cones; in some areas, they are drawn in front of your character, even when it is clear that your character is closer to the "camera".

- Characters are still moving, even when it's paused.

- If you are running in one direction, press and release the key for the opposite direction (while holding down your original movement key), your character will "run backwards", haha! I thought I was on to somethin' here, but it looks like it's a little glitch. (:

Hope everything made sense. If not, let me know, and I'll send you a screenshot of what you need.

Otherwise nice game, soldier.

__________________________
- Ziro out.

robscherer123 responds:

Thanks man! Nice review!

[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.

[Hakan Soundboard]

Cool Board

Hey.

When I click on the label "Nothing beats Hakans cooking oll", it plays the "Nothings more comfortable than a kisbet".

When I click, "I think you could use more training", it plays, "I think you have had enough for now, lady".

Probably just some simple mis-mappings there.

____________________________
- Ziro out.

[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!