TomFulp's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Super Gonad Smasher]

Runs fine for me and this computer is pretty old! All the boss phases were awesome, it's amazing how quickly you pulled this all together and have it be so polished. All the art and animation is great.

PestoForce responds:

Twas fun! Thanks for graciously lending your voice!

[Hyper Halloween]

The shooting / enemy impact has a good feel. Frankenstein is tough, still trying to get past him! If you expand on this, weapon and player upgrades would be a ton of fun.

svaerth responds:

Fulp Sempai! *eyes tear up*. thanks man! Maybe next Halloween I'll take it further.

[Roundabout]

Totally hypnotic! I asked PsychoGoldfish to get in touch with you about our new API version, would be great to get this hooked up with scores.

BryceSummer responds:

Awesome! I look forward to hearing from them :).

[Minotaur]

I like the theme of being the Minotaur in the maze and I also like the Minotaur art. If you keep making updates, it could be interesting to make use of stereo sound for the humans running around, so you can listen for which direction the nearest human is. Maybe humans could turn and run if they get near the remains of a dead human, so you could use that to sort of control their movements in the maze (not sure if that would work out).

Maybe humans could see you if you are in the open but not if you are behind a wall, so you could see where they are on the screen but they would react to you as soon as you come out. Then maybe you could set traps for humans to lure them into places they can't easily escape - such as trying to get some treasure from a dead end, where you then block their exit.

Did you try a WebGL export?

FSt-Germain responds:

Your ideas are really awesome. This was my first attempt with AI, and the time limit didn't help with that too much, but I like your ideas and also the footsteps the humans could make. I will consider an update, but no promises. Also I had tried a webgl export with my last game, however I ran into many issues while trying to upload to newgrounds.

Also, I just realised your the guy who made newgrounds! Thanks man! I never would've been able to publish my games without this site.

[RUSH]

Great visual style and runs well on my PC. Was really confused on the first play through but got the hang of it on the second, although I played a long time without ever making it to the end goal. Would have felt more satisfying to have an obtainable initial goal, although not sure what happens after that goal at the moment.

Since you can't jump while carrying a crate, it might be cool if pressing jump also throws the crate. Sometimes when you're in the thick of it, you just accidentally mash the wrong button and while that's proper punishment on one hand, it would also feel great to blast your way out of trouble despite the mix-up.

I like that there are two sets of controls based on which side you want to use, however I think some confusion comes from the controller references to A and B button being more prominent in size... As a newcomer your eyes just sorta glaze over ALL THOSE KEYS and the A and B are the two biggest. It also doesn't mention what to press to start the game; I initially was looking for a place to click (was clicking CONTINUE even though I didn't have any save data) and then was trying SPACE and ENTER before I mentally focused and tried K.

Once I got in the zone, I had a nice groove going on! Could definitely see a whole grand adventure in this style.

Zielak responds:

Hey, thanks for the review, Tom. Means a lot to me!

The game is short, so it's just a nice ending and game over after you reach the girl.

I've made a quick update with both throwing crate on jump and more "start" keys in the menu (space and enter now works). The "A" and "B" keys were in fact unfortunate choice, I tried to get with the GameBoy theme.

Hope to make a bigger game out of it someday :)

[Decepticide]

I really like the theme and ambiance but wanted to reiterate what some other reviews have noted. The first place you can possibly die is on the first plant, so if you die there it would be great to start in the room before the plant vs going back to the title screen and watching the tutorial text again. Every elevator could be a checkpoint from then on.

Also to help new players who might not have picked up everything in the tutorial, when you first grab ammo, it could prompt you to "Press A to Reload" - my first time through I didn't think to load my gun and was killed while trying to shoot the plant. When you do reach the first plant, it could also prompt you to "Hold X to AIM, Press C to Shoot", so in the moment people can be reminded. This would make a big difference in getting people into the game and ongoing checkpoints would make progress less frustrating.

Joben7 responds:

Thanks, great tips! I've put in a checkpoint system already and I'll add the improved prompts a bit later, I appreciate the help.

[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

[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.