Plasmarift's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hacked Halloween]

Well, I've found a few problems with the game.
- The score doesn't reset or go down after being killed in a level so you can effectively just keep collecting things, get killed, and repeat to get an extremely high score. Kind of takes away the value from the score mechanic.
- What are green, orange, and yellow things that you can collect? Candies, right? Can you do anything with them? If not, what's the point in collecting them?
- You should put the controls in the description as well.
- Why do you need to use the mouse to activate the next level? Why not use the spacebar or enter key?
- No pause or mute button.

I did like the fact that you have to use your respawn pumpkins in order to advance in some parts of the game. I don't believe I've seen anything like that before (though this does bring up the problem of "Should I use it now to save my progress or am I going to need it later in the level to progress?"). I also like the artwork, especially for the main character. Good luck in your future of game development!

Newdam responds:

Thanks for your comments. Just some answers. Because the game is developed by a single person, and I wanted to publish it on Halloween, the game came out in beta with some details to adjust in future updates. Candy collect will make you able to use some power.
Thanks again!

[The Chains That Bound Me]

I enjoyed the game very much (I played the downloaded game). However, I experienced a number of problems with it:
- On the mac port you made, it won't let me save.
- In the mines, whenever I mine copper, it sometimes doesn't go into my inventory. I found 3 copper and only one registered in my inventory (and this wasn't a one time incident. One or two other times, I only got 2 copper out of the 3 that I mined).
- This next problem might have to do with the fact thatI was using an emulator to play the windows version (this allowed me to save the game) so take it with a grain of salt. After the battle with Richard and the beast, the game would sometimes keep bringing up directional keys to press in the quick time events after the event had already ended and it would keep doing this until I reloaded the game.
- I understand that cutscenes and dialogue are a big part of the game, but after having to replay the game multiple times (I played the browser version that kept bugging out on me, forcing me to restart, add to that the multiple plays I did on the mac port), I really wish you would include a skip button for these cutscenes. Making them go faster by holding down the spacebar is good, but not good enough in my opinion.
- I'm guessing the character and story arcs that were unfulfilled in the demo are going to be finished in the complete game (the green potion, the tax inspector's wife, the abusive husband, the woman who has a crush on the main character, especially the green potion one), correct?
- There are a few things in the game that I feel like should be interact-able, but aren't, like the hole in the floor of the house on the far left of the lower district?
- I threw a miner's body into the pit just before going into the mine and fighting the monster, but I didn't receive any experience points.
- The music you chose for the game is great, but try and mix it up with a few more tracks (because the one that plays near the beginning starts getting repetitive and annoying after a while after listening to it for so long).

I really, really hope you'll continue and finish this game. I wish the best of luck!

yo13ob responds:

Thank you so much for your feedback! Omg, there's quiet a bit of bugs you spotted.

Yeah, those quests will be completed if the game gets finished. To be honest, this is such a huge game and I actually have a kickstarter up but I have a good feeling that the kickstarter might not get funded. I'm not too sure if this game can be completed since it's such a huge game, I'm kinda regretting doing a rpg lol There's a lot of work. I might create a new small game or maybe continue with this game and put TCTBM on hold.

You should definitely join my discord though. It's easier for me to talk to and receive feedback from my fans. Communication is a lot faster

[Just one chance]

Luck and permanent death are not a good mixture for a game. Many parts of the game rely on platforming skills and figuring out how to progress (you can get through a lot more than one might expect without using dead bodies), but the parts that require there to be bodies for you to progress is not only blatantly unfair (your game basically already points this out), it is also undermined by the fact that those sacrificed bodies will disappear at some point or only some dead player bodies are generated for each run. I managed to play the game multiple times and have yet to beat it partly because of that last room that requires multiple sacrifices to spawn in a path like formation for anyone to win. While I'm sure I could beat the game at some point, it just isn't worth it. If I fail, I'd like it to be from my own shortcomings as a gamer, not because 10 other gamers didn't get to the same part and have to die unfairly.

This is definitely an interesting experiment to say the least. It probably won't garner mass appeal as it incorporates aspects of life that people play video games to get away from, not to experience them in a 2D format. Regardless, I enjoyed the platforming challenges and the smooth feel of the controls and the graphics were pretty good as well. I wish you luck in your future creations.

[Purpy]

The game would be good if it weren't for a few fatal problems:
- Trying to jump up and into a space the same size as the character is extremely difficult for some reason; the character just won't go into the space sometimes. While this would be annoying in a normal platformer, it makes the game even more difficult since when you fail to make the jump, the other mirror image of the character has moved out of place, forcing the player to either realign the other character to the proper spot it needs to be in or to restart the level because the level is now unwinnable.
- The wall jumping also doesn't always work for some reason.
- The controls should be explained in the game or in the description (having the controls explained in both would be preferable). While the controls and mechanic might seem intuitive to you, every game has different rules.
- I'd suggest making the R button the restart button for the level. In a game like this, restarting might be done multiple times for some players so having to go to a menu to do it is both annoying and a waste of time.

I like the aesthetics of the game as well as the gameplay, but the problems make the undesirable to play unless they get fixed.

[MIDNIGHT Remastered]

I thought the gameplay was good, the sound effects were fitting, and the music is good. I think the gameplay is a bit easy though that could be because I played the first version of this game. The amount of places to explore is kind of small when you think about it so when you know where the letters and matches are, there isn't really much challenge. Also, I'm a little confused about the story as well as some other things (SPOILERS AHEAD):
- So the brown haired girl is not part of the family, but was basically living in a crawl space with a bed? Whenever the player interacts with the passage way that leads to it, it says it's too vertically steep to climb up it; how did she get up there in the first place then? How did she survive in there with no food (it was blocked off. If she had already been in there, she would have been trapped).
- So the fact that the brown haired girl wishes to "cleanse her sins" means she feels sorry for what she did, correct (I'm guessing she killed the family members)? If that is the case then why does she attempt to murder the survivor when she sees her? I'd understand if the Survivor storyline all took place before the Midnight storyline, but based on the environment and other things, it's clear it doesn't. Also, what in the world happened to the house in the Survivor storyline? It sounds like it is falling apart.
- Why are so many rooms locked when it is clear the brown haired girl must have had access to them to kill and leave the bodies?
- When you play as the cop, you can access every room in the house except for one; the one to the right of the stairs near the front door. Is there any way to open it?
I look forward to your next project. Good job and good luck!

[Lifeline Warriors]

I've enjoyed the game, but is there an ending to it? Because I've reached level 10, ran out of upgrades to get, and there are no new enemies. I have a few pieces of feedback:
- I don't have a middle mouse button so a button used to switch the weapons would be helpful.
- Often times, I end up taking damage because I will be moving in a direction and I'll end up running into an enemy who hits me, giving me no time to react. The only way to avoid this would be to move in slow bursts which is annoying, especially when some of the maps are so large. You could try zooming the game out just a little bit.
- There is no indication as to how much damage each weapon deals (you can surmise that some of the weapons are better based on which new enemies are using them and how much damage you take, but no one was using the purple sword so I had no idea if it was better). Plus, the legendary warrior from the north starts out using an ax which does more damage than the purple sword.
- You should explain more things in the game or the description concerning the game mechanics and items. For my first playthrough, I had no idea what the boxes with the crown shapes on them were for. I only discovered by chance that they were ammo. Also, you should allow the player to pick up the ammo boxes if one of their two weapons is a ranged weapon (right now, the game is set so you can only collect ammo if you are holding a ranged weapon).
- I've come across a glitch though it is a helpful one; when using the purple sword, I'll sometimes be able to just ram enemies with it and it will kill them. I think this happen if you click twice with the left mouse button though this doesn't always work. This glitch becomes undone if you swing your sword once.
- You may want to tone down the screen shaking after using the gun in the game (the one that the little blue guys use). A little shaking is fine, but, for the gun, it can be quite distracting and disorienting while in combat.
- You might want to work on your spelling and word use both in the game and in the description; any misspellings may make you appear unprofessional or incompetent to people who are playing your game (for example, the game is called Lifeline warriors yet this never comes up in the description; you do say lifetime a lot though. Is this the word that you meant for the title?)
- Also, when listing the controls in the description, have each control have their own line. Right now, you have them written out like they were all part of the same sentence.
- You may want to add a pause button, a volume control/mute button, and a game restart button.
- For upgrades, you can add a few more, especially for ranged weapons since I don’t believe there are any upgrades for them (such as faster reload time).
- Give a warning that the first aid kit in the upgrade menu can only be used once.
- Perhaps look for some music in the audio portal to add to your game.

I believe this game has potential to be awesome. My last suggestion would be to make the upgrades more expensive. I wish you luck in your development.

[GAME#3 - Area 457 -]

I wanted to make a walkthrough of the game, but I was unable to due to a glitch; sometimes, the top parts of the 9 piece puzzle just won't move (whenever I get two out of the three top pieces correct, the last one will stop moving just before getting to the right one). I hope you will address these following issues in your future games:
- You are forcing the player to read through dialogue in order to advance through the game. What's worse, you can't advance through the dialogue by clicking; you have to wait for every letter to be spelled out. While this might not be too annoying playing the game for the first time, it becomes extremely annoying when you are replaying the game (or if the game experiences a glitch, forcing you to reset the game and go through the dialogue again). You should allow the player to choose to read the dialogue; don't require it of them to advance.
- You either need to improve your English and have someone go through your dialogue before posting your game (if you need help with it, I'd be glad to help).

The story was definitely unique. I look forward to your next game.

[Grab it]

I'm using the game in the Chrome browser and the controls don't work. If it can only be played in one browser, you should have written that in the description (you also should have written the instructions in the description as I'm guessing there are going to be more controls than just "a" and "b". You mention that the game can be played with an xbox controller though you don't say it's absolutely necessary to play the game. Not every person owns a controller; this is a web game). I usually write private messages to creator when the game isn't working, but it seems like you aren't doing much to help the only two commenters since you just assumed they were using the wrong browser and that there wasn't something wrong with the game.

[A Happy Home]

The game suffers from a few different things:
- One major flaw; it takes too long to go through the text. Yes, I know, it is only a few seconds, but this is a big deal since you only give the player a short amount of time to complete the game. Plus, in order to find the correct actions to complete the game, you need to experiment, meaning you have to play through the game multiple times; this means waiting through the text. After multiple tries, the wasted time adds up. There should be a skip button (I've beaten the game, only interacting with everything I had to and yet I had one hour left before bedtime. You really didn't leave any wiggle room, did you?)
- I don't know what the point of the pinata is. If it is a joke, then it's really not funny, especially with the text you have to wait through to find it and the time you wasted spending on it.
- The game also has glitches:
-- I got stuck in the chimney in the room where you have to pick up toys. After disabling the room, I pressed space over the chimney and I got stuck there.
-- In the bathroom, if you move over specific objects in the room, copies of the boy will appear (also, you can leave the room without getting dressed).

Still, I liked the game and I hope to see more from you in the future. Good luck!

BrandyBuizel responds:

Ding ding ding you've found the point of the game! It's supposed to be a chore to get anything done(the theme was "what does home mean to you") and the textbox does in fact get slower each time you see it.

Sad to say we do know about those couple of bugs, can't quite do anything about it since the software was only free for the duration of the jam, but the duplicates are pretty funny.