deadvelvet's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fire]

This is very beautiful. I feel conflicted because it achieves what it aims to do in every way, and succeeds in making a nearly flawless demonstration of fire contained within a web browser; however fails to engage in any way as a game or "simulator" — when I think of a fire simulator I think of Little Inferno. That achieved wonderful beauty, but obviously it's kind of hard to review something as a game when it's ultimately not one.

I'm settling for half way.
Absolutely horrible game, one of the best simulations of fire that I've seen on a browser.

[TINY BUD ADVENTURES]

This game has a good presentation. There is a decent level of polish and simplicity off the bat which is automatically engaging for the player.

The mechanics are slightly off putting. There is a very small window for the player to jump over obstacles. They are immediately greeted with a notification, and paused screen telling them to press "A" to continue.
For a game where dying is going to be an integral part of it, pressing "A" becomes a chore after a while. I constantly dreaded dying for that unnecessary screen. Tiny Bud should automatically wind back up at the start of the level when he dies so players are encouraged to increase their skill.
This feature has single handedly increased the chance that players will be more likely to leave the game when they die, as the control is taken out of their hands and they are given the opportunity to contemplate whether it's worth continuing. If this screen popped up when you ran out of lives, and took you to the beginning of that stage, this would be more understandable.

For a game that is solely focused on the keyboard, it is annoying that the menu screen suddenly needs to have mouse movement. It becomes a chore to get focused on one controller system, and have to move your mouse again to select your stage. Everything should be done with the keyboard, unless there is an integral feature that will require the player's hand to be on the mouse during all stages of gameplay.

The music is quite nice, and it doesn't feel overwhelming. For something simple, this complements the game. Good work.

Overall this is a good little time killer with nice simplicity but is ultimately overshadowed by its poor implementation of a difficulty spike that fails to keep the player motivated to continue.

PRGAMES responds:

Hi

Thanks for your review

* i will try and make controls a lot more comfortable
* Game is just a 24 Level platformer divided in 6 parts
and hence being a small game have made it a bit difficult with player having to be a bit precise at jumps
(i think maybe a better refined controls shud do the job)

* will have an improved version shortly

Thanks

[ARES]

I feel that this game tries to achieve a certain kind of simplicity that is overshadowed by the unfortunate amount of energy that is required to persevere past the first level.

I have not played a game similar to this before. You get a point on the house for not using a pre defined context.

Your setting contradicts the style you're going for. Is this the apocalypse of the doom bullets or a simple game trying to challenge player's reflexes? The description conflicts with the setting.
The music sounds like it belongs inside of a strong and thick boss battle within a very difficult and climatic point of the game, not in a simple flash game like this.

The gameplay is unrewarding, as different as it is. Each time feels like the last with nothing to set each experience apart or teach the player how to approach the situation better the next time.

Using two keys is also extremely tedious and perhaps the option to use a mouse would have been preferable. I understand the challenge is timing the interpolation of each apoasis from the action point so I don't believe it deserves to have a rating detracted from that.

It's a nice little concept, but you have, in my opinion, mixed up a lot of your priorities when deciding what the purpose of this game is.

Perhaps with a little more polish, and a quick trip to the drawing board to decide what /is/ fun about this game, what can be improved and what needs to change in order to provide a consistent experience; the end product may be something entirely more fascinating and engaging.

Who knows, but ARES in its current state seems to be confused, and it is reflected on the player's perspective.

SittGames responds:

Thank you so much for the in depth response!

This is actually my first ever game and this is exactly the sort of review I was hoping for. I definitely see your point on the music not fitting with the tone of the gameplay. This is something that I'm most definitely going to be polishing up, and thanks to your feedback I can work on it a lot more to make a much more polished game.

[Ultimate Treasure Dive]

This game held some potential to be interesting but let me down in a few areas.

I'll milk the good before I go on to say where this game failed to draw me in.

First of all, the difficulty is reminiscent of Flappy Bird. I enjoy that the velocity is not overwritten by a fixed amount upon clicking the dive button but instead "added" to the existing force that is being applied to the character object. This creates tension for the player as they are being drawn to the top and must fight against the velocity to bring them to a stable and consistent alternation between two values; very similar to Flappy Bird.

It was also accurate to have the player floating to the top of the screen rather than the bottom, as oxygen rises under water, and so a human would also.

Unfortunately, some of the mechanics are the only good things that I have to say about it. The player should not die upon reaching the top without cause; and the same with the bottom.
Obviously this would detract from your game design, so let's say we can overlook that— it is still poorly implemented as there's no direct line for the player to know /where/ their game will end. It kind of just... happens if you get kinda close. There should be a distinct way of telling the player.

The music loop is bad. I understand there's meant to be an echo effect, and props to you for creating that to fit the game as best you can, but it is irritating. Thank you for the "mute" feature. In the future, I would spend more time creating a more easy going tune with more variation.

The player should know how to play! Tell us to click the "DIVE" button. We don't know, it just looks like text that could be equivalent to "GAME START!" — That was my first impression. A feature to use the spacebar instead of clicking would be nice.

Bringing the scene to life would also improve the quality. This world felt very stagnant; the sharks didn't move, the player didn't swim, there were no fish and no life. Just the same scrolling background with the same...

Sharks and collectables! Every single game the sharks and collectables were in the same spot at the same point in time. Create new objects at a random pace, at a random Y value on the screen, such that it gets harder over time if you're worried about difficulty. Give the player some replay value. It's ridiculously easy with this genre.

With all that in mind, the difficulty is pleasant (and I challenge anyone else to beat my pathetic high score of 18) and hopefully my advice in regards to your room for improvement will help you on your next project.

[Shadow Wolf Combat]

Unique approach to the graphics. It would have been a very interesting code behind the constant angle that the ship has towards what is seemingly a black hole.

The game has nine stages, all of which introduce new things which add a sense of progression combined with the funds you receive from destroying enemy ships which can then be used to purchase upgrades.

There is a well thought design behind this approach, and perhaps with a bit of a more compelling back story and assets could draw people in with something as simple as a flash game.

There are some inconsistencies between art assets, and the overtly humorous approach, while fitting; does feel a bit senseless at times, such as in the shop for your ship.

I was pleased to have a sense of challenge against my skill and I look forward to seeing what you can produce next.

Splyth responds:

thank you for your kind words. Yeah looking over those descriptions they needed
some rework. I wrote them at 2am and to be honest I forgot to change them to something
less dumb.

[PvP Mage Duel (24 hour made)]

Great little game with complex RPG-esque elements.

Art style is quirky and consistent. This is a major plus to the setting.

A game breaking bug is the inability to reset the match after you die. This detracts from the playability.

There is little information on how to play the game, and the player is thrown into a scenario where their HP is dramatically being reduced. I constantly felt like I was mashing buttons based on icons, with no real understanding of what the attacks do or how they would strategically affect the enemy.

The game also gave me little to no incentive to learn this system through either punishment OR reward. I was ultimately left me feeling dissatisfied by this lacking element.

[The Last Act]

Good for your first game.

The music isn't "in your face" and suits the technological theme that the game creates for itself.

There is little sense of progression, if you were to remake this game, here is what I would suggest doing as feedback:
- Make enemies get harder over time.
- Give some kind of ammunition system so that players can't spam fire for instant invincibility.
- Increase the variety in enemies.

Those three things could make a world of difference.

Otherwise, good job.

[Just Jump]

This has been the best 60 seconds of 2016 for me.

The music immediately captivated me and I felt as if I were in for a bit of a treat.

"Oh god, lol." I thought to myself, as I started to read some of the inspirational messages. "It's another one of THOSE games." I still continued forward, as it was better than most little projects I'd seen up until this point in Under Judgement.

Then it hit me. "Self improvement is harder than masturbation." Said the talking naked wise man.

Some undertale like reminiscence occurred as I was unexpectedly flying through the air. I was smirking at this rubbish. I never smirk at rubbish.

For those who haven't played the game through, I'll let them discover the blissful ending for themselves.

11/10 would RIP again.