TomFulp's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[the NEXT jump]

This took a minute to figure out but once I did, I really enjoyed it! People have been exploring different game types where enemies take a turn each time the player takes a turn but I don't recall having seen anyone do it with a shooter yet.

The permadeath is expected with a roguelike but I'll admit I like getting to keep my upgrades and keep building where I left off after dying... That wouldn't make a lot of sense though since it would discourage spending money on healing between rounds.

I hope more fans of these genres take some time to play this!

filsdd responds:

Thank you for the nice review! :D

[Doomsday]

I was confused about the ending as well but after reading your explanation in the reviews it was pretty funny. Enjoyed the whole experience, hope you make more games!

[Walk Home]

I enjoyed the art, especially the unique death animations for each enemy! The use of vocals was also a nice touch. I wasn't sure how to beat the ninja, I can get to him with a lot of health and then he tears me down fast. It's tough to start from the very beginning afterwards and have to get to the ninja again, since your character moves slowly... Maybe some sort of checkpoint there?

Xevozfighter responds:

Thanks for the input. My friends and I are probably going to update it after the judging.

[Princess Protector]

You are showing great potential with your first published game! There are lots of cool gameplay concepts in here and puzzles that feel really fresh. I also like the art and character designs.

On the very first screen I was initially confused where to go - it wasn't immediately clear that I had to go up and exit to the top left. On something like the first screen it's good to hit people over the head with what to do / where to go. I was similarly confused after coming back from the bridge collapse, I pretty much did everything Cyberdevil mentioned in his review. Things seemed more clear from that point on and the little puzzles were great.

My one other preference would be that when you die, you restart on that screen, rather than go back to a save point. It saves players from having to redo things they already succeeded at and also removes the need to have regular save prompts - you can just auto-save on each screen entrance.

Looking forward to playing more of your games!

xcmn responds:

Thank you for the helpful insights. I agree with your save suggestion. My next game will be similar but with better puzzles, gameplay elements, and a better story/dialogue.

[Ice Story ( 氷物語 )]

Been reading the reviews and thinking about the controls... I typically like having a jump button in games but while playing I WAS wondering about using the UP arrow to jump instead. You could add support for both UP arrow AND a jump button so people can choose either.

I also did find myself instinctively pressing down to drop through plafforms, although this doesn't need to be an ability. Maybe it's problematic because people do instinctively try it and end up dashing instead... What if C makes you DASH if you aren't carrying an enemy and THROW if you are carrying an enemy? That would let players focus on tapping C twice to complete the grab / throw process, less likely to get mixed up with different buttons.

Also the intro could have a "Press Z to SKIP" note in the bottom corner to make sure players are aware.

Love the music and art! Only other issue is whether the difficulty is too oldschool - which plenty of people like - but nowadays I prefer something where I get infinite chances to complete a level, vs a limited set of lives to complete all levels.... Or maybe some hybrid where you have limited lives, but every 5 levels reaches a checkpoint you can continue from infinitely.

castpixel responds:

Tom thanks :)
I need players to be able to carry more than one dino. I know, this isn't evident in this version, but carrying three or more would be higher risk and higher reward, with a score bonus for consecutive portal throws.

So one button for DASH and THROW isn't going to work. It used to be that 3 buttons were super-acceptable for an arcade game, what happened since :S I'm racking my brain to find a simpler control scheme. People hated the 2-button controls too, even though it was more well-thought out.

I hear what you're saying about the old-school difficulty. I'm liking those ideas. My original plan to make it more modern was to implement a continue feature, based on your score. Like, buying continues at the expense of your high score. That would theoretically motivate retro fans and convenience more casual players. But as it's an LD game, I didn't have time to even implement score.

Thanks for the kind words.

[Electric War]

This became strangely addictive, trying to find the best place to spawn my next guy and making sure I spawned him AS SOON as it was possible to do so. I feel like this is on to something, if there were a few more deterministic things a player could do between rounds to improve his odds... Travel a world map to battle increasingly powerful hoards...

DBuck-Eye responds:

I'm saving those features for the sequel! I want to release a game each month this year, where each game builds off of the previous game, but for now, I think its therapeutic to just get a game out the door :)

[Slimey's Quest (LD31)]

Such a great approach to the Ludum Dare theme with a perfect little platformer!

[Die Hipster!]

I really hope people take the time to play this all the way through because it's amazing.

[ZEZ Rise]

I really like the overall vibe of this game! Since it was adapted from touch, I have a few suggestions:

1) If user clicks on the enemy at the start, run the game in mouse mode, where you use the mouse to move left and right, and press the mouse button to punch down.

2) If the user presses a key to attack, remain in keyboard mode, but maybe use the arrow keys to toggle between columns, rather than have the player hold it down to slide - toggling columns would allow for quicker player response time AND accuracy.

I love the mix of action melee and puzzle!

[Waking Dracula]

Would be handy if both spacebar and UP worked for jumping. Also an in-game tip telling you the checkpoint replenishes grenades would be helpful, as well as a checkpoint before the rolling cannon that you have to wait for before jumping over. There are a lot of cool things about this game, it deserves more of a chance from people.

CleitonEldorn responds:

Thank you very much. I will update the game with those tips!