Octoraffe's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dress-up Girls!]

To be fair, after playing around with this for a bit, I can sort of see why he did not wish to pay you. I know that seems like a heavy insult, but it's really not. He should have messaged you, and he definitely SHOULD have paid you for your effort and time. As a commission artist myself, I will always defend an artist's right to get paid for their work.

But... this is a very poorly made game. Despite the Stencyl problems you described, there is almost no variety in clothing whatsoever. Not even multiple colors of the same item. The body bases are all the same (even eye color) with only a different hair style. The skin tone doesn't change at all. Perhaps I missed it, but there is no option to change eye color either. Two dresses, a single pair of pants, two pairs of shoes, one (misaligned) pair of gloves... It does not look like you put any real effort into this at all. When I look at the effort you put into the eyes on the model, and then look at the complete lack of detail in all of the clothing.... It's really quite a disappointing difference.

Your commissioner should have paid you for your work, don't let him get away with that. But this dress up game is very lacking.

MikomiKisomi responds:

Well, the thing was that I told him up front the stipulations that came with using Stencyl and he even saw the other games that were made with it but yet still wanted to commission me and stayed in contact until I sent him the link to the finished work.

I'm sorry you believe this, but I did actually put effort in this and followed the commissioner's request. He just wanted a game with a couple of hairstyles and a random assortment of clothes, something rather simple since it was going to be the first game of many he would pay for.

[Bunker Down 2030]

Survived to Week 30 on my first go, but I only had about ten Morale left. I don't feel good having 'beat' this game, because it felt more like luck than strategy or survival.

The events triggered in this game are far too plentiful. I only had one "uneventful week", and it was not useful for resource management. It seems like you had the beginnings of an idea to increase the number of survivors in the bunker, but then you abandoned it. Unfortunately, you left out that mechanic without adjusting the rest of the game for it. So the game increases sharply in difficulty each turn, but the player's ability to combat this always stays at Level 1. It's fake difficulty. The game penalizes the player very heavily without also giving the player any way to overcome the challenge. Even in notoriously difficult games like Dark Souls, you are given better weaponry and level upgrades in order to prepare against the challenges present.

Not that this game is anything at all like Dark Souls, but it certainly feels like you were going for that kind of steep difficulty curve.

It isn't being weak or "babying" the player of a game to give them more ways to meet the challenges you throw at them. It's basic game making. It's not YOU who decides if the player can beat your game...that's the player's job. If you want to make a strategy survival sim, there has to be strategy in it.

KoberGirl responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I was purposely trying to ramp up difficulty so that the game became less about balancing resources and more about about staving off off the inevitable. I do want to add the ability to recruit new workers and upgrade the bunker in the future. I learned alot creating this game for the jam so now I can build on the basic structure and add more complex gameplay features.

[Apocalypse: Survive it]

I can see that you put quite a bit of work into this, and it's the only binaural game I've ever played on NG. But there were a few problems, some I could overlook and some I could not.

Things I could not overlook:
-Being forced to replay the tutorial every single time. I know you said to someone else you couldn't make a proper save system, but you definitely could have put the tutorial on during the loading screen or something.
-There's breaking the fourth wall, and then there's smashing it into tiny, pebble-sized rubble with a wrecking ball. While screaming at the player that it's supposed to be funny. Breaking the fourth wall should be a cheeky nod, not a series of very hard punches to the teeth.
-No epilepsy warning for the strobe effect during the shooting sequence! Some of us have really severe sensitivity to that kind of thing, and especially when you encourage playing the game with the game screen as the only source of light. You really, REALLY need to warn people.
-Finicky controls. There were times when I died despite pushing the cursor where it should have gone. I guess if you'd had more time, these would be tighter.

As I can overlook many other smaller issues (like the AIM buddy sign-on sound for the door), I'll delve into the positive:
-Really unique gameplay idea. I haven't seen much of this sort of thing before, and it's nice to see game makers taking a unique spin on genres that are tired.
-Pokes a lot of well-deserved fun at the apocalypse genre that has been done to death.
-Good quality sound and exceptional use of the binaural recording method.
-Decent voice-acting, especially from the inner voice.
-The design of the game makes me want to keep trying again (even if the tutorial does not). It is addicting to want to get it right... plays on the old psychology of quick time events without making me break my Q button.

Overall, fairly nice job. I would be interested to see where you take this.
Review rating: 3 out of 5
submission rating: 3 out of 5
Overall: 6/10

Kolumbo responds:

Thanks for this great review. I'll fix those things in the next thing for sure. <3

[Full of Holes]

Unplayable. Left clicking does nothing.

Glebaster responds:

Strange. Never seen such a problem.

[Dr Vile- The Greater Good]

What great fun!

Often in Ludum Dare games I feel... disappointed. Left wanting. The nature of these games is that they are somewhat unfinished. But here, I got everything I wanted.

Let's start with the characters. You managed to take a brief intro of just a few lines of dialogue and establish a clear and amusing relationship between Dr. Vile and Lexe. Their names are important, memorable, and used in such frequency that they become a natural part of the game instead of stiff insertions because a character often needs a title. I enjoyed playing the part of the failing and affable mad scientist, and loved the devotion and cutesy innocence of his computer sidekick. Her attachment made me feel attached to this character I was playing, because he was important. You do very well at grounding your characters in a setting in which they are significant, (even if minorly in Vile's case). This is not only good game making, but good writing too.

Onto the gameplay. Despite being brief (as it to be expected from a Ludum Dare game), I found this game very enjoyable with just the right amount of challenge. It gave me a straightforward goal while giving me plenty of time to reach it and the freedom to create my own fun. I had a grand time seeing how close I could wreck something to a person before they'd come rushing after me in rage! The numbers of items needed was not tediously unobtainable nor too close in reach... it made the game last a perfect amount of time. One issue I did have was the ray gun. I found it's aiming (slightly to the right) to be a waste of time, and I did not find a use for it. I played around with it some, but found myself dying at the hands of the townspeople while trying to use it properly. After a few tries at it, this weapon went completely unused and I successfully completed the game. If you revise this game, you should consider giving the ray gun a specific purpose.

Next, the art. The sprites were very well done, and despite being simple they were cute and effectively translated the game in an appropriate way. I can't think of a more appropriate art style than 8-bitish pixel art for this, and I thought the colors, animations, and overall feel were very good.

Finally, the music. I found it a bit repetitive and boring, but it is not as important as maybe the gameplay or other factors. That being said, it could have been better and perhaps a bit catchier for the cutesy and energetic graphics and playstyle.

Overall, this was a great game and it much deserved the second place spot it was awarded. I can't wait for the extended version!

Review Rating: 4/5
NG Rating: 5/5

GreenPixel responds:

Thank you for such an in-depth review! :D We're taking your feedback - as well as everyone else's - to make the extended version as awesome as we can make it!

[Saciedy]

As I write this review, I am in the process of playing and have reached a dead-end. Unable to progress, I will write about what I have seen thus far.

As a point-and-click, the game leaves me wanting. Part of the success of these kinds of games is the story that the player is given to motivate them to keep working to solve the puzzles and find what needs to be found to move on. I do understand that this is a dream of yours, or of someone you know, however presenting the dream as is to players who did not experience it as you have does not make for a compelling game. The effect would have been stronger with a bit of story or something... substance to sink our teeth into. The idea not to label anything is one I understand... where is the mystery in that? However, being thrown into this game with nothing at all, no information except for the description you wrote for it, is jarring in a bad way. The further I got, the less I felt drawn into a mystery and the more frustrated I became pixel-hunting on every screen. A game made entirely of pixel-hunting is a little tiresome after a while, especially when I can only interact with things necessary to drag the game forward on its slow march to completion.

That being said, I like the music and the simple art style of the game. It feels like a construction of the brain, creating things half-way in some places, and other times rendering a lot of detail. I like that mostly everything in the Pre-School is a sticker on the wall.

As for navigation, I think arrows would have been good. There are certain things you must give up when turning something into a game; the feeling of not knowing where you are going is often one of them. As I sit here stuck, I can't help but think I am missing a location or something, and without a mini-map or arrow navigation, I have no way of knowing.

In conclusion, this game tries to capture a big idea in a form that is far too minimalistic. I don't think I will finish it, because I have looked everywhere for a way forward and can find nothing. I think if you refined this game into something polished and truly complete, it would be wildly successful.

Review rating: 3/5
NG Rating: 3/5

Y2k4ever responds:

Thank you for that well thought out review, maybe arrows would had been a good idea, as for the part you became stuck, did you turn on the TV yet?
I will take your review seriously, and either refine this game, or make one with your advice very in mind, because honestly I felt the same way when I was finished with it, ow and yes this was my own dream.

[Gemini]

This game appears to be broken for me. The first time I encountered a shadow and it shook my character awake, when I clicked "Back To Sleep", instead of a new level I was greeted with entries of some kind of diary, which I assume are the note pages I am meant to pick up throughout my adventure in the game along with the candles. I wasn't sure why it was popping up without me having found any (I had only just begun the game) but I read through the first page anyway. I clicked 'Back', and was greeted with the first dreamscape again. I clicked around at the empty pixel places, when suddenly the journal popped up on screen again! This time I had NINE pages of it. I read them, and then exited the screen. The dreamscape was now different, and I got a message saying "The dreamscape changes as I go further into unreality" or something close to that. Before I could click on anything, the journal popped up once again, still with the same 13 pages. Upon exiting, I got the same "changes" message, and then a dreamscape in which there were no candles or notes anywhere. I could not progress, even when I deliberately used a shadow to wake my character and try to re-enter the dream.

I have to give you a lower rating, because the game was not playable. Sorry.

Kwing responds:

That's weird because you are literally the only person experiencing this glitch. Maybe your Flash player is out of date or something? But I made this in Flash 8 so I honestly have n idea what the deal is. Probably some browse issue on your end.

[Subcon Introspection]

While I can see where you tried to touch on some pretty deep and complex themes here, I find the game in general to be lacking both on a thoughtful level and on an interest level. I think the themes you tried to convey are simply too untouchable for the setting you put them in. This game, I feel, does not explore what your description claims it is made to explore. Instead, it merely glosses over them, almost just kissing them as it passes by, unscathed. There could have been more here.. something more than a commentary on the banality of some "art" games, on the metaphysical exploration that many indie games slog through these days. You cite inspiration such as Sartre and Kafka, but I cannot see that inspiration here. Your quest to simplify the ideas of the writing you mention has diluted them to the point where they are neither effective themes or useful game elements.

I wanted to like this game, but it seems more like a parody or a spoof than anything else. I'll give you 2.5 stars. The programming and art style are good, but not great. The overall theme is tired and simplistic, saying everything while saying nothing at all. The three-act style is effective and strong, and does well to keep the player's interest, despite disappointing gameplay.

Thanks for making the game! I know my opinion of it isn't terribly positive, but I appreciate the work you put into it.

squidly responds:

Alright, first off, thank you for this.

As for the idea of this being a parody - simply put, it is not a parody. I was just anticipating that people would consider this "another stupid indie art game." And lo' and behold, it happened. Truth is, I'm sick of parodies, 2 of my last 4 games could be considered a parody, parodies are simply unoriginal.

Now, this game definitely did have the ideas of the aforementioned authors. In a lot of cases, it was subtle, and you would have had to have the conversations done in a proper English class to understand the allusions in some cases, but it's there.

As for the theme, perhaps it is tired, perhaps it is not. I'm not saying nothing, that's the issue. It's certainly not nothing. I made this game with a something, I always do. The thing is, I can't control what that something is, I learned that from Second Wind. I tried to make something so specific, that every detail had attention paid to it.

There are choices in this game, they are there. You can always choose to do something, the game is always saying and showing something different. I wrote an entire paper to go along with this that I think you might have an interest in. I would certainly like you to PM me so we can continue this conversation.

[GRINDSTAR]

This game seems broken in Firefox, as no matter what I click nothing happens.

failnaut responds:

I'm sorry to hear that! I tested it thoroughly in Chrome, but I'll take a look at the Firefox issues.

[Slender 2D]

The graphics are bad... a very lazy port of a wildly popular and scary game into a 2D version that disappoints on every front. I'm certain the music is some sort of copyright infringement, as well. The fact that one track has a man whispering the word "Esther" (an obvious hint of the game you stole it from) sort of throws you off and cheapens the game. I understand that you didn't spend much time on this game, but that seems like you just wanted to cash in on the popularity of Slender rather than bring anything new or fun to the concept. Overall, I'm pretty disappointed with this. I'm even more disappointed that it made the front page of Newgrounds.

Lenke responds:

I put "Dear Esther" in the credits...
I'm Always looking for Original games(check my other games...) But this time I just thought This could it be a good Idea (it was in some point)...
So I just made this ONLY for fun(I like create video Games is my hobby), so in some point I agree with you...(?