deletedTAMyStudios's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Survive!]

You need to start using source control! How are you going to go around losing game files??? Anyways, this was a really fun little thing :) I like the art style, the atmosphere... something you have been really good at so far. It's a shame there aren't more small games like this. I could imagine a lot of the short 2D story-driven adventure games could translate well to "simple 3D" games like this pretty well.

Was funny that I could keep shooting wolves even after I died :) There's actually a game currently on the front page of NG where some very powerful on-screen items are hidden after their first use (because you are only supposed to be able to use one per round in the game), but you can still click them as many times as you want. It's funny the things developers forget... :)

FSt-Germain responds:

Thanks for the review and nice to hear from you :)

[The Sky House]

This game deserves a lot more views! I loved the controls. They are fast, but malleable and very workable. The puzzles were fun. I'm always amazed when game developers can produce little things like this and release them for free. The puzzles were fun, and the game was just the right length, because to be honest, I was starting to get a little lost. I really appreciated the extra additional details of hidden walls and little secrets to find :)

As far as criticism goes, I would say that I think the ending was the worst part, only because I had to guess where to go! Not sure I saw a lot of value in having the whole world shake until I found my way out. I really liked the extra touch of animation and the outdoors, though.

amidos2006 responds:

Thanks a lot for playing the game :) I am happy you enjoyed it :) I know it's not very clear but I was aiming that people will see the big door on the roof and it's keyhole so based on that, they will go for it :) but It seems it need more hints :)

[Dungeon Kriper 2]

I've spent the past few days playing this non-stop as a warrior. Then switched over to magician and was glad to see that represented as well (although item-wise, less so and stat-wise, less obviously so than playing as a warrior).

The unconventional art style was really interesting. Ascension was actually unexpected for me. As with more roguelikes, I always with there was "more", but the type of gratifying ending I get from other RPGs doesn't seem to be quite as in-style with roguelikes. Also, only 5k views? This game needs more attention :)

Jaszczomp responds:

Glad you liked it!

There are two possibilities why didn't the game make it to the front page.
#1 There are no highscores, no badges - API isn't implemented! Sorry for that, but I wasn't able to open .fla files in which the API comes.
#2 The game had low rating after leaving the Under Judgement section - below ***°°.

But hey! You are free to share it with your friends!

[Dead Horizon]

I can't believe you played The Journeyman Project. I can't seem to find anyone who knows it. I installed DOSBox and Win 95 in my Windows VM just to play and beat that game again. To me, nothing has really come close.

So you are Matthew Ritter? You seem kind of private, and that's fine. I think people would be curious to hear more of your thoughts on things, considering the tendency of your games to star strong female characters, and the pseudonym Emptygoddess on NG. Sorry if I'm prying too deep. You could very well be an uncredited member of these teams, or Matthew could be a made up identity, but you do type like a female persona as well...

I'm curious why Youtube seems to think Dead Horizon is Horizon Dawn in the walkthrough... Someone (aWalkThroughLife) is definitely a fan of your work!

Anyways, this game was great. Definitely worth the playthrough. It added plenty of value to my life. Just like GRAND ADVENTURE! the biggest addition is the inspiration. I can tell a lot of personal heart goes into the art and the HOW of content and how it's expressed, not just the WHAT. Your games answer questions for me, like, what kind of game could I make if I could spend a lot of time on making them just the way I want, even if that might limit how much I can do?

Someone needs to give you a dedicated team and a bigger budget :)

Emptygoddess responds:

What does a female persona type like?

['DUCKS!']

Completed a few puzzles by abusing boundaries and water-shotting some enemies. However, I mostly still had to complete the logic required for each puzzle, so that's nice.

VERY difficult puzzle game. But I love it. It was genuinely challenging. This is the perfect level of difficulty for a serious puzzle game, in my opinion. Anything harder than this would be a little crazy (and why I avoid some puzzle games). Anything easier is just a way to pass time.

Butzbo responds:

Thanks for the comments!, especially the difficulty aspects, I've found it to be a pretty subjective thing, but in general I'm glad it's been well recieved on that aspect :)

['DinoMelt']

Really an amazing game. Better knowing it was made in Construct 2 (which I'm not very familiar with). I love the art style and the world's minimal lore. Love the Metroid-style feel to it. Sad I only got 90% discovery. Really wondering what I missed!!!

Butzbo responds:

Thanks for playing! I found Construct2 to be pretty handy for a platformer; This game takes a lot from the Metroid formula, and (for better or worse), some of the hidden objects (especially orbs) may require some unusual attempts at checking 'suspicious' walls and such, still, 90% is a pretty good mark!

[Super Chibi Knight]

I liked this game so much I bought it on Steam.

BoMToons responds:

Thanks, you rock!

[The Company of Copperhill]

I know you only had four days to make this, but it is absolutely intolerable to play for someone like me. I get this feeling you are in love with the characters you have created, but your ability to narrate and convince me to love them as well is just not there.

The font is horrid to try and read. Are you color blind by any chance? That's the only reason I can imagine someone thinking that was a good idea, if they already have trouble seeing.

The UI and interface to the game play is completely counter to what a game with a lot of narrative would suggest. You have a limited amount of time to select an action, but a ton to read. I can't even comprehend the stats menu and options, let alone rush through my menu options just so I can attack a rat.

I wish you the best of luck in your ventures, but I really do think you need to reach out to other people more. It's obvious you have a lot to say about the world you have created in your mind, but you would likely benefit from sharing your thoughts and ideas with others, collaborating, pushing yourself even harder, and gaining more connections and taking in what others have to offer.

I think you're a talented artist and narrator, but you need a bit of an extra push to go prime time.

Hyptosis responds:

Sorry you didn't like it.

[Barriers]

I had to play this game by myself because I have no friends and any girl would probably find it as an obvious and awkward hint if I tried to convince them to play this with me. However, this game did ease my lonely soul.

If the background music to this game was what I woke up to every morning, my life might be pretty easy. So first off, good job picking a song that matched the game's theme and length perfectly. Also, as cheap as the physics and movement might seem to some, it plays perfectly. It's not overly thought or glitchy. In fact, it's just humorous enough to have two people bumping into each other (I like to complete a level during a jump) that it also matches the upbeat, carefree vibe of the theme song.

You have a knack for level design. The last level was the only one I had to restart, but my mind felt active and engaged during every level. No solution was entirely obvious because you don't denote exactly what any triggers will perform. I know some people prefer to eyeball levels and solve the entire level before starting play, but so long as the evolution of a level relatively pain-free, I don't mind either way.

I'll give an example of another game - Pixelo - which you can find here on Newgrounds. Mathematically, every level could be solved if you could think enough moves ahead... It's really a game about truthy or falsy matrices. However, in practice it's difficult to see that many moves ahead. The more you play the game, the better you get at proving single moves are correct, rather than trying to solve the entire board at once. (Unless you're just that good. I don't know.)

Anyways, a gripe I actually had about Pixelo is that it punishes you for making bad moves. I don't believe in punishing players too harshly.

Thankfully, your levels are small, challenging, and at the same time very fluent. If you make a mistake, you can generally go back and fix it. I suppose you have to assume your partner is somewhat competent and isn't just going to stay in the same place and get locked inside of a wall... but I didn't find it to be a major issue.

So...

I would say go for more intricate levels. Increasing game length is a difficult thing to do. And if you have too many levels with basic play, it gets very frustrating to players. Examples I'll cite are Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES and Kid Chameleon for the Sega Genesis. Kid Chameleon especially had many levels as the game went on that felt like procedurally generated variations of previous levels. It got annoying. After playing so many levels, you felt as though you should have already been rewarded for mastering the "level type".

That's an issue I foresee if you had spent time creating more levels. I'd ask myself, why am I still being presented with challenges, even though I've proven myself capable of completing them?

Obviously, you could have added things like teleporters, lasers, enemies, etc. I'm going to be honest, the fundamental idea behind these type of flip-the-switch puzzle games is too simple to justify additional obstacles like that. Your fire wall obstacles were perfect because they made me think about my movements without having to worry about timing them too carefully. That fits in with the "relaxing" type concentration that this game offers.

So what I would suggest for this game and its theme is something like collectible items. Ideally, non-required bonus items to start just so people like me who have OCD about winning games at 100% completion will have something to look forward to at the end. It'd be funny, albeit a little sexist, for example, if you didn't collect these items and a green guy came by at the end and took your girl... unless you had all the medallions, of course, in which case he wouldn't.

In other words, a relaxed theme game needs optional puzzles. When you start adding additional, mandatory mechanics, you break the theme and you break the user's love of the game.

I will say that I had a lot of love and enjoyment for this game and that trust was never violated. That's important. Keep it up! You're bound to go far :)

FSt-Germain responds:

Thanks for this awesome review! I'm glad you really understood the theme, and relaxed puzzling that I was going for. I understand what you're saying with the intricate levels. The first four a slow, and I like the idea of condensing those basic mechanics into one level, so i might post an update with more intricate levels :) I get what you're saying with the collectibles, It was something that consciously avoided at first, because I wanted it to be a clean experience. But now that you have given me a better idea than just putting coins everywhere, I think it would be a fun way to engage more experienced players. I would have to redesign all the levels of course, so we'll see if I put it in an update, but it's going to bother me every update I don't put it in now because It's such a good idea. Thanks for the response, I have so many great ideas on how I can improve this game!

[Electric Cock Rocket]

I love the game, so I'll leave a good rating, but a few things:

1) I see no reason this game should ever lag, but it does. I get stuck moving in one direction or another and die due to unresponsiveness. Not sure what you built this with and how much control you have over performance.

2) I can't scroll the story on desktop? It goes off the page... I actually think the sliding is implemented in a really clunky way, even on the pages where it works (achievements and scores).

Other than that, I don't think I have any major problems with the experience. Some shortcut keys within menu contexts would be nice (hitting r to replay) for desktop users...

More than anything, I love that the game feels very expressive in a sort of elegant, although South Park-ish kind of way.

DBuck-Eye responds:

I'm really glad that you liked it! What were you playing it on? I'm using a 2010 MacBook Pro with Firefox 41 and it seems to run fine, but this could definitely lag, especially if you have a lot of tabs open, unfortunately. HTML5 and javascript are getting better in terms of performance, but honestly, I think Flash is still faster.

I think I'll add some more control options and a replay key tonight. Thanks for the review!