elsee7's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Space Odyssey]

Graphics
- Very nice parallax effect
- The 'play' button has a distinctive sci-fi style
- Nice work with the main ship bitmap, I would have liked a tilted bitmap when moving left/right, though
- I also would have liked more variety with the enemy ships, at least different shades of color
- Since each enemy takes more than one shot to be killed (unless you launch a missile), some sort of differentiation (different color/differently 'dented' sprites) would have given a good visual feedback

Sound
- Nice eerie title screen track
- Good (even if a little short) game over loop
- As about the in-game music, It feels more like a 'gangsta rap' song than a space one, making the game involuntarily hilarious (unless you were going for that vibe, of course...)
- I was expecting a sound effect when launching the missile

Interface
- When I first started playing, I had a hard time telling what the numbers displayed on screen meant (displaying the missile and 'energy object' bitmap besides the digits should suffice)

Gameplay
- The game has its own playability, I liked the auto-fire and the fact that both damage and fuel revolve around the same unit of measure
- Difficulty progression seems missing, I reached 3000 points without any change of pace
- Using the keys to move the ship is not a viable option due to the inertia of the ship

Crashes/Mishaps
- The game name is 'Space Odissey' while the bitmap says 'Space Odyssey'
- When the game is over, I get 'Pontos' instead of 'Points'
- When I collect 10 missiles, the number disappears, only to reappear when I have 11 missiles

Bottom Line
- A simple but promising game, that has a lot of room for improvement.

GeneralTec responds:

Thanks for your feedback!
Check our latest update, i hope you like it!

And again, thanks again for the well written feedback, this is our first game from a group that started just for fun, so we know that we have so much to learn, and as players we know how important is to listen to the comunity!

-Leonardo "Owl" Felix, member of the GeneralTecnologia Team.

[Redd]

Warning: these notes contain spoilers

Graphics
- The 'square/pixel' concept is interesting and nicely presented
- The eye animation of the main character is very well done
- During the game, having the words of the voice-over shown on the screen adds to the overall 'comic-like' setting
- I would have opted for a darker background color, the sky-blue color feels too 'natural'
- The particle sprite is a little too small
- I could not follow the comic dialogs with ease because of the balloon positioning: it might be worth it to investigate the techniques to better render the flow of the dialog

Sounds
- Nice music throughout
- Maybe a sound effect when picking up items could have been added
- Also a sound effect when you turn the page of the comic would have added to the feeling of reading a 'real' comic

Interface
- It would have been nice to get some feedback once I got the key (open door/key shown in some inventory space or besides the player sprite)
- crossing the left/right boundary of some levels causes the level to restart, I would have liked a visual clue about this

Gameplay
- The game plays well, I had to fight a little with the jumping controls, though
- having infinite 'lives' is a good choice, imho

Glitches/Mishaps
- A few English mistakes ('they aren't not perfect' / 'did you smoked' / 'the only thing you must know about them IT that...')
- Right clicking on a page should automatically reset the page position to its left/topmost corner
- At the beginning Alice says that she loves Redd, at the end she says that she made him believe that she didn't love him

Bottom line
- An enjoyable platform game with an interesting setting, captivating comic-like presentation, great music, and an important final message.

Luminem responds:

^^ Thank syou very much :D I'm sorry for english mistakes, I'm from spain :P I know there are mistakes, and this game needs a GUI. But I have not enough time, just three days left until 'university access exam' and I've to study very much. I saw the announce of the contest yesterday and I wanted to participate so I made this game very fast (one day).
I'm sorry for the balloon positioning, this is the first time I make a comic.
I want to make this game better, so probably I'll fix all and I'll add more levels for a more detailed story, but not before Construct 2 Jam
Thanks you very much for your great review, it's very useful for me :D

[Escape from Jay is Games]

Great job all-around: haunting, fascinating and impressively presented.

[Life Support]

WARNING: these notes contain spoilers

Graphics
- Great job with the pixelated/lo-fi art (the perspective in the corridor seems off, though)
- In the corridor, some of the room names are a little too tiny to be easily read
- The item in the lower right corner of the lab is hard to tell (is it a broken sample vial ?)

Sounds
- The in-game lo-fi sounds feel coherent with the graphics
- The lo-lo-fi sound heard before starting a game is a little too hard on the ear

Interface
- The text boxes at the beginning are displayed too fast: keep in mind that not everybody can be fluent in your language ! A click-to-continue prompt would have been nice
- I would have liked a visual/verbal feedback when I picked up the security gear
- Clicking on the life support doors does not produce any feedback until you can enter the room
- 'what the f*ck'/'sh*t'... I didn't find the cursing appropriate with the sober/suspenseful setting of the game
- the sample machinery in the lab room can be clicked but no verbal/visual feedback is given unless a vial is dragged onto it
- the hint given when I tried to click on the sample room was a little weak/generic: instead of 'I should check the other rooms first', which is not something a real person would say, maybe something like 'Why should I go collecting samples ?' could better connect the player to the game objectives
- "I've been in the lab all day, I'm close." To 'be close' feels a little abrupt/incomplete... what is the author of the note close to ?
- when the credits appear at the end of the game, I would have liked to return to the main screen

Gameplay
- The game felt a little on the short side, but the overall experience was great.
- I was a little disappointed by the lack of a puzzle with the different vials, though (the notes about the colors seemed to hint at some form of interaction between them)
- When the game ended, I wanted to restart it and try different things/see different endings: I think this is the most important thing for an adventure game, and you nailed it

Crashes/Mishaps
- I don't know if this is by design, but I could not exit the lab without turning the lights on
- If I click more than once on the light switch in the lab, the 'sh*t...' text appears again
- If I enter/leave/enter again the lab, I cannot longer leave the room
- Moving the sample out of the inventory area leaves it floating on the screen while I move across the rooms
- I can leave a note open, and leave a room: the note will stay open in the middle of the screen

Bottom Line
- An interesting story, nicely told through a captivating presentation. A little too short, though.
Keep up the good work.

MustDeath responds:

Thanks heaps, exactly what I was looking for! Had trouble with coding as I have little experience with it so some of the bugs I just didn't know how to fix it. Some new ones though that I didn't catch myself. Shall try get onto fixing these when I can.

Thank you again.

[BAN-X]

Graphics
- The only thing I'd like to point out are the score/timer font (too small) and the life bar (that light green color stands out too much)

Sound
- Everything fits the action of the game aptly

Interface
- The exit button does not seem to do anything
- The game clock shows hours and tenths of seconds: is this necessary ?
- During the game, it would be nice to have an option to return to the main screen
- I collected two 'shurikens' (shown below the life bar) but I did not know how to use them
- I had no idea I had to collide with the 'hurry up' message... I stood on an empty road for a loong time before trying to reach the top of the screen (you could automatically move the player towards the top of the screen when the level is over)

Gameplay
- Auto-attacking the enemies felt a little awkward at first, but then I got used to it
- At times I wish I had a 'cinematic' bullet-time option to slow things down and better sort through the enemies and their shurikens, as it is the game feels very frantic and hard to master

Crashes/Mishaps
- Setting the music off and on again does not resume the title music
- The music of the first level does not loop
- Pausing the game should pause the music, too
- The second level suffers from severe slow down during left/right movements of the player, making the game basically unplayable
- After I ended a game with an hi-score and I returnet to the main menu, pressing the scores button asked me for my name again, and filled the scoreboard with another entry with my previous score
- Pressing 'cancel' at the name dialog temporarily removed the names from the scoreboard
- Sometimes I just had to move the arrow over the buttons to activate them (without clicking)

Bottom Line
- A lot of work went into this, and the game shows much potential, keep it up!

[511: Bourgeois Edition]

Graphics
- Everything fits the theme well, and the use of coins makes the numbers pleasantly easy to read

Sound
- Just one (unobtrusive) effect that can be disabled at any time

Interface
- What the 'average score with best play' hint means is beyond me
- When a game ends, I would not repeat the score (it is already shown on top of the screen)
- I would make the game over message more prominent (maybe at the center of the grid ?)
- After I ask for a hint, the 'get hint' button disappears during the next turn: is this by design ?
- The 'get hint' button does not provide a proper hint: it should assist the player with making the best decision, but all it does is show the possible directions (something that could be always visible instead of being shown by request)

Gameplay
- Smooth as silk

Crashes/Mishaps
- Nothing to report after many playthroughs

Bottom Line
- A nice and challenging game (my hi-score is 71)

randomstrangers responds:

Thank you for that feedback.

> What the 'average score with best play' hint means is beyond me

I should explain it within the application.
"Average score with best play" tells the score of the position when playing optimally ("best play"). It is "average score", because after each move a new coin appears in a random position - the score is averaged over all possible draws.
The purpose of that message is to tell the player exactly when he is losing the game, and when he still has a chance.
The game was completely solved, and 35% of all positions are won - meaning that, when playing optimally, the score 511 will always be reached independently of how the random coins are drawn.

> After I ask for a hint, the 'get hint' button disappears during the next turn: is this by design ?

Yes. I want to give hints no more often than every two moves. Perhaps, instead of removing the button, I should just disable it, end enable after the next move.

>The 'get hint' button does not provide a proper hint: it should assist the player with making the best decision, but all it does is show the possible directions (something that could be always visible instead of being shown by request)

"Get hint" works correctly, just at the beginning of the game almost all moves are optimal - they do not lose the game. The hint button becomes very useful later in the game.

Thanks.