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5 Game Reviews w/ Response

All 16 Reviews

Very good if you are just starting out! It does have a bit of charm, and quite a lot of content to it. I managed to beat all of the standard with most badges, and a decent bit of the bonus levels with all badges before writing this.

This game has a few things that could use improvement or polish. The biggest issue I noticed is the movement system; it didn't seem quite so 'spot on' to me, it seemed instead rather sloppy. For example, it employs both acceleration and momentum, which isn't necessarily a bad combo for a precision platformer, but when combined with low deceleration values, and the air decel value being so close to the ground friction, the controls feel really slippery.

Long jumps with a full running start seem to require just as much time to stop as they did to build speed, which tends to obviate precision placement, as the player needs 'runway' to slow down after they land on their platform. Since there are many levels with small platforms, these quickly become tedious, feeling more like work than play.

Additionally, there are other movement oddities that make movement difficult to predict (in addition to being slippery). For example, landing on a platform with no key pressed instantly cancels momentum, but if a key is pressed, the character must first decelerate his momentum before moving. This is the same when running - if you run forwards, then press backwards, you will continue to slide forward for a bit. If you release the key, you will simply stop. Up and Down instantly cancel momentum, unless you are in the air. Or, if you walk off of a platform then 'water jump', you will jump to full height, whereas if you jump first, the 'water jump' is only half height.

The final thing I would like to mention is that the enemies hitbox is bigger than their visual representation (either that, or the player hurtbox is bigger than his ground collision box). Normally, this would be fine and a good player in a game with good controls may never notice, but this just frustrates this game all that much more.

Fortunately, the content (AKA all of the hard work) of this game is very good! I enjoyed it enough to complete the main campaign with most badges. Fixing the controls would be an excellent step towards putting the bow on this, methinks. That, and another song or two, as the same tune gets old 40 or so minutes in (not to mention listening to it the whole time I wrote this review). ;)

Other ancillary suggestions/thoughts:
-Though you made excellent use of the enemies currently present, I was disappointed that the most challenging enemy is the one who moves towards you ;( Maybe consider more challenging enemies in lieu of loads of ultra-easy enemies in the later levels?
-This is very minor, but the water's size does not line up with the gun/player's collision box when in a wall. For example, though you can press against a wall and shoot water up with no problem, shooting water downwards will cause it to disappear into the wall. Obviously this is not an issue until the later challenge levels (when you are water-jumping because you want to shoot water downwards).
-It looks like you collision check for enemies before checking the wall. This is also minor, but it allows savvy players like myself to shoot certain enemies through the floors and walls if they are close to the edges ;)

Hopefully these tips will be useful to you sir! The game content is good, but the controls are really bad, even though the concepts you were shooting for are good (momentum, with shooting water modifying momentum). I hope you will make an update with tighter controls, I would love to play it!

-DN

VinceB responds:

I appreciate you going through the trouble of giving me some detailed feedback. What I wouldn't give to have you give me this feedback before I released it.

Your attention to detail shows that you understand the systems I created to their fullest. I will go back and at least attempt to fix the controls. I am scared to touch them in case I break the ability to complete some of the levels, but it is worth it to try and work towards a better product now that I have gotten feedback from someone in my target audience.

I will dedicate a couple days next week to fixing up these issues so I hope you look forward to what I come up with! (There! I just made myself accountable with releasing an update in a timely manner.)

Again, thank you for the feedback. It is appreciated.

A wonderful little game, bugs and all! I had a blast playing it, and have played through 3 times now (wanted to play through twice, but a bug stuffed my second run). On one of the levels, (I can't remember which, maybe 6th?), I got a blaster to fire a shot only once and never again, which was a tad gamebreaking. To make matters worse, without an autosave feature, refreshing (which is the standard way of dealing with a buggy playthrough) causes a total restart :/

I just replayed to try to verify the bug for you: on field 8, if the trigger behind the gun is activated by the gun's bullet, the gun will never shoot another bullet. BioVass mentioned this, and it is a bug; you can't complete the level if this happens. To replicate this bug, you simply start level 8, and instead of activating the trigger first or changing the angle of the shot deflector, simply click the blaster (the one in the top left of the screen, above the red info placard). This bug forces a game restart, because you need the blaster to activate a platform that would allow you to enter the level exit (so that you might restart the level). I further agree that escape should allow a level restart, or at least confirm restarting the game (so that you have the option to back out of a total restart).

This bug got me too on my second playthrough.

The only other thing I would recommend is alternate controls (introduced to the player in the first level) for those of us who don't have right-clicks (e.g. so that left click is light, and right click OR space is move command). I would have used alt keys anyway since right clicks feel like a slippery movement for me anyway.

All of this aside, this game ROCKS! This is legitimately one of the best puzzle platformers I have played on NG. The effects are spot on and not overdone, the presentation is wonderful, there is little to fault other than bugs. Consider throwing in bonus levels with the bugfixes, and maybe more puzzle mechanics as well!

Other tips:
-The pong level can be beat by simply moving the paddle in the path of the initial blaster shot, shooting the blaster, then allowing the shot to rebound off of the paddle and wall piece until random deflections angle the ball upwards into the field generator. If it randomly deflects downward, allow the ball to leave the playfield and try again.
-The platforms seem to use a simple sine based movement with a default height. Consider setting the platforms to using changeable heights at least, and use accel and decel values to control move speed at most. Currently, some platforms can not be boarded even though they are only knee height to the man, which forces some silly situations sometimes (where you need to board platforms by letting them come down on top of you, then 'popping' on top of the platform). The platforms feel somewhat crude, so more refinement there would seriously polish a game like this up. An example of this is in the 7th level (I think) where there are three switches for 3 platforms on the right of the screen. Depending on how you activate these platforms, you can actually make the two right-most platforms intersect each other before you can actually get off the first platform, making you either unable to move (at worst), or instantly pops you onto the highest platform (at best).

Hopefully this information is helpful to you sir. Excellent game, overall.
-DN

Kouboooo responds:

Thanks a lot for your detailed review!
I'll try to take into account the more of your excellent suggestions.
At first, I fixed some bugs that you reported me (blasters, etc.). I am grateful for your help and thank you for playing!

It plays very smoothly, however it feels slow when you play in it (the aliens stay down/invincible for a while, controls don't feel as sharp as they could be). As far as precision, I don't particularly like deceleration in movement, I prefer a character to completely stop when I remove all fingers from the keys (if on the ground). It likely won't be an issue if this game doesn't require precision jumps etc, but I figured I would leave the feedback anyway.

I like the mario-esque platforms that are destroyable by jumping, which quickly led to me trying other mario-esque things like jumping on enemies (and taking damage for it). I also like the idea of a stock-up room, though none of the things stayed properly suspended in the air. This could be cool though, so I hope you finish fleshing this out into a game.

-DN

busypixels responds:

thanks for your response!

actually I wanted the aliens (wich were meant to be zombies^^) to not be able to get hit by bullets for a time... maybe this idea wasn't that good^^

haha, yeah... at first the player could kill zombies by jumping on their head... but that made the enemy seem ridiculously weak^^

Whoa, after playing the Lost Levels, this game seems ultra easy (even on hard). The levels are nowhere near as busy, and, in nearly every case, you can just walk right up to an enemy and rapidly tap Z for the kill.

The game is fun, don't get me wrong, but it is super easy. To beat the first boss, you don't even have to move off the middle platform. I got all the way to last boss only losing 7 or so lives? The first 4 levels I didn't even die once. The last boss is moderately difficult, but once you figure out the pattern, you can avoid all damage.

Still a good game though. Lost Levels seems more of a high-level platformer, whilst this one seems more casual. I can do casual though.

Comacolors responds:

I can totally see how this game would come as a shock to anyone who started with the lost levels.

Ghost Light started out as a tough as nails, challenge platformer, but I ended up toning down the difficulty for the sake of the story I wanted to tell. I didn't want all the really hard levels to go to waste though, so I came up with the idea of lost levels. My thinking was that the main games could tell the story and introduce the player to the game's mechanics, and the lost levels could exist separately for all the people who wanted a serious challenge.

Unfortunately I didn't do nearly enough to communicate my intentions to players and as a result I've created a tonne of confusion. I'm glad the lapse in communications on my part didn't ruin your experience, I'll do my best not to let this happen again.

Thank you for all the feedback, I really appreciate it.

This game is fantastic, and the difficulty level is right up my alley.

Regarding the difficulty level, since others seem to be complaining, the levels do ramp in difficulty properly. The first level IS NOT the hardest level, the last one is (requires exceptionally precise timing).

Games with difficult levels like this don't play like normal platformers - you must be patient, and plan your moves much in advance of doing them. All of the levels have 'safe zones', where nothing can hit you; all you need to do is plan your movement to these 'safe zones' (the first level has plenty, the last level only 3).

The only true flaws this game has regard the orbiting spike blocks: they are supposed to bounce off of you but sometimes (the fast moving ones on the last level) can get stuck inside you. Not a huge problem, since the easy solution is don't get hit. haha. A second possible flaw (unless it was intentional) was the moving platforms don't carry you with them and move slower than your walk, so you have to rapidly tap the arrow keys to position yourself on top.

I spent about 2 hours playing this awesome game, and I can play through the whole thing with <5 lives. (I can get all the way past the first boss without even losing a single health). If you want, message me and I will create a video walkthrough.

I would, however, put somewhere in the description that all of the enemies need to be killed to unlock the finish door. You might also consider putting a warning in future games of this difficulty, since the general NG audience may not be apt to these kinds of games. Make it like the entrance to porno sites (you didn't click 'exit', you knew what you were getting into).

Overall, very solid mechanics, great gameplay, I loved it! ^^ In games like this, the mechanics of the platformer engine itself REALLY matters (a properly difficult game shouldn't have the controls fucking you too), and this game play beautifully. Haha looks pretty too.

Great work, especially if you are new to this. Going to play the first Ghost Light.

Comacolors responds:

I'm really stoked to hear that you enjoyed my game, and I'm seriously impressed that you were able to master it that quickly.

It's really encouraging to hear that you felt the difficulty curve was alright. I think the biggest issue with the first level might be that it's just a totally unfair barrier to entry for a player I failed to adequately prepare. Anyone who didn't play part one really had to hit the ground running and that's a pretty serious blunder on my part, I'm glad it didn't ruin your experience.

The spike balls occasionally getting suck in the player's hitbox is definitely a problem, and while there was a way to address it it made them put even more of a strain on the game's performance than they already do so this was the best I could manage at the time. As for the platforms, they were intended to work that way, or rather, I built the game around them working that way before I knew enough about programming to do them properly. Both of these issues were a direct result of my limited programming knowledge, but I'm doing everything I can to improve and I'm hoping part two and it's lost levels will reflect that.

I'll definitely do more to warn players about the difficulty in future games like this, and just to better communicate to players in general. I'm truly grateful for all your feedback. Thank you.

Camron Mercer @DeseNutz

Age 31, Male

*Still getting one*

South Granville High

North Carolina, USA

Joined on 1/27/08

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