DarkSword's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lemonade Land]

Classic concept with classic graphics, mini games, flixel, and everything else it could ever need to succeed. However, in the process, you got some stuff wrong. Nothing that can't be fixed tho : ) (hopefully you will! I think it's worth it)

On the recipe page, you tell us 5 cups of lemonade are made out of 3 ingredients, water being free. Thing is, it doesn't make 5 cups, it makes only 1 cup! with 10 sugar cups and 10 lemon cups, with a 3:1:1 receipe, I should be able to make 50 cups, but I can only make 10. Please change the recipe text, at least.

I'm guessing you are using Number variables in AS3? If so, you could try the toFixed() function on your number variables to display a fixed amount of decimal place after the point. Like this for example, x being a number: trace(x.toFixed(2));

Why tell the player the weather AFTER the recipe choice? I think it would help the player make a strategy by knowing before. The only choice we can make with weather is price and number of cups.

Also, make the controls consistents. Just X and up,down,left,right should be enough for everything in this game (like dropping sugar should be "down", or even "X", not "C"). No need for a,s,d,c, whatever. Then implement a control scheme that could be adjusted by the player if you find people needing more options.

The laundry thing, I got confused because nothing worked when I was there in the tutorial, only to find the minimum price was 10$ afterward. At least say something to the player, I dunno, a price list maybe, on the wall?

cheers!

[Luftrauser]

Has potential, but here is why I think it needs work:
-tiny, we don't see shit, doesn't scale up if you try using browser zoom (I tried on chrome). A lot of flash game do zoom in nicely btw.
-when your plane is on fire, you kinda lose where it's pointing, because of smoke (too much, too opaque)
-the flight physic isn't really of a plane, feel more like I'm piloting a missile with no wings, falls like a brick.
-the player plane floats on water, but ennemies crash and dies on impact. OP

[Dark Interval]

I think people should give this game more credit.. for 72 hours it's pretty good! Now only some polish let to make it really shine.. maybe the rating is bad because webgl doesn't work for everyone?

Dunno why you would use webGl for a 2d sprite based game. Maybe would have been better to use openFl, flash/flixel/flashpunk or even unity3d.. dunno.

good job, cheers!

alexandervrs responds:

Thank you! I really wish I had more time, but I plan to polish/expand/remake this game after the competition!
I used GameMaker Studio to develop the game, reason I enabled WebGL is because it is actually faster than regular 2D canvas, and also I was going to add some advanced lighting effects and color blending at some point but did not make it in time. I'll see to making WebGL acceleration optional if possible in order to support more browsers.
(EDIT) Sadly, the game has too much going on not only visually so the 2D Canvas suffers a lot from performance issues. Best to either play with a WebGL-enabled browser or download the native executables instead.

[Vampire Academy]

too easy, need better level design.

[Mission in Space]

More than your average flash

Even tho I'm not a fan of this game type, I enjoyed it very much. The gameplay was well tought, the music is very fitting and good, overall the game is well balanced between gameplay, graphics, music and sound effects. Difficulty is spot on I think, not much to say on the bad side, except ONE annoying thing. On the skill tree screen, the remaining/total skill points is pale green on very light gray, and is a pain to read! (at least for me). That would be the only thing bad I could say about this game. Thanks, keep up the good work!

StormAlligator responds:

Thank you for your review :)

You must be playing an old version of the game, because we corrected the skill points display, so that it's more easy to read. The last version is 1.36v (you can find the version number at the bottom left of the title screen).

[Merry Schmess Frenzy]

I want more!

Awesome game! Simple, but well executed! Get's old very fast tho, but kept playing for high score.. : ) At first, I thought you had to fill the building completly, rofl! I think it would be worth adding more gameplay, but just my 2 cents. Thanks!

[Dr. Bones' Adventure]

student projet, but still could have been better

I understand creating a game as a student does have it's limits, but then if you'r pationate about creating games, it shouldn't be much of an issue. Too many times I see people trying to reinvent the wheel when there is already great tools out there that can save you the hassle of coding all the "low-level" stuff (flash game engines).

In this case that cost you guys a pretty buggy game, with basic gameplay beeing very dull and hard for the wrong reasons. Too much time went to code a whole new engine where you could have simply used flashpunk, pushbutton engine or even flixel.

just my 2 cents, but coming from a fellow game dev I hope it'll help in the long run.. = p

[Mouth]

Animationnnn!

The animation makes it almost an interactive cartoon, so fluid! Very nice! Keep up the good work!

[Pursuit of hat]

Very, very nice!

Clever puzzles (finally, a bit of challenge from a NG flash game!), nice concept, very good animations, everything fits perfectly together, nicely done! Honestly, I don't see why you couldn't sell this game, very polished and fun.. thanks!

[Gyossait]

Refreshing!

The art was pretty good, even tho I wished it was in higher resolution, since it's obviously one of your strength. The atmosphere is great, story is original overall I liked it very much. Then comes the gameplay. Since this was created with stencyl, I kind of understand why it wouldn't be technically flawless.. graphical "programming" isn't really the best way to make games, and I certainly saw many bugs. Like when you die with a key in either water or spikes, you'r either screwed or lucky. The key either pops up back in your inventory randomly or is lost forever.

My 2 cents would be to try collaborating with someone that can code flash and have experience with 2d games. It would allow you to focus on art, audio and story... that would be awsome.. : )