Fangames > Game Design
Aronax's Shortventure Contest 2017
Denferok:
(click to show/hide) (click to show/hide)This was pretty cool! I really liked the atmosphere he created and the time travel gimmick is also pretty neat. I was honestly super disappointed at how criminally short it is because I wanted it to last much longer than it did! As for the content that is actually there, I found a few minor but annoying bugs that should definitely be fixed. First, if you collect the seeds outside more than once your game crashes. Second, if you transition to the factory room on the right while in the past it will automatically take you to the future without you having to press the down key. There was also a point on the upwards screen transition where you can get stuck if you fall down into the gap in the wrong spot, so definitely check that out. Another suggestion I have is to make the time warp animation much shorter so the player doesnt get impatient. Make it a couple seconds at max. There isn't much to say about this game so far because there isn't much gameplay, but I was very impressed with the production value. Hoping to see a full game come out of this at some point.
Theme : 3/5
Level Design: 1/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Overall: 5/10
(click to show/hide)This game has Erik written all over it, and I think it's the best thing he's created to date. The graphics are amazing, and the fact that he hand drew everything is super impressive. The gimmick is also pretty fun and implemented in an interesting way. I didn't find any of the three forms to be faulty, although I seemed to only use the big kid when I had to. Maybe if you made his bullets do a bit more damage it would be a better choice for the bosses? I think that choosing between vulnerability and damage is a really cool concept for a boss fight. (You sort of have that already, but I don't think the damage boost for the big kid is enough to justify playing a boss with him.) Speaking of the boss fights, I really liked all of them. They remind me of the boss fights in cuphead with the multiple and varied phases. The attack patterns are pretty fair and dodgeable and they were overall a blast to fight. There is one tiny change I would make in the first boss, make the apples a bit more visible over the big apple so you can react to them better. Also I have a suggestion for the gimmick controls, if you could swap sizes with the up and down arrows it would be a lot less awkward to control. There isn't really much else I would add to this game. It was all super fun!
Theme: 5/5
Level Design: 4/5
Atmosphere: 3/5
Audio: 4/5
Overall: 8/10
(click to show/hide)Lesser minds may immediately disregard this game when seeing its gameplay, but the truth is that it holds a deep philosophical meaning
that only those with an immensely high IQ can understand. You are immediately put into the game with one simple message:
"Press space to skip". But what is there to skip? You are skipping the opportunity to reflect on your life decisions that led
up to this moment. The beautiful fade out lasts a long time to give you a chance to fully take in the atmosphere of the main area
of the game. The bright pastel sky, the one lone tree, the brown dirt and the flower. This first screen symbolizes the very first thing
a child experiences when it is born. The tree is familiar and safe, the hole inside representing the womb. This outside place is unfamiliar and empty, which is shown by the lack of music. The flower in the distance represents life goals and ambition. As we walk towards the flower, our ambitions never die and we remain focused and moving forward. When we finally reach our goal, the flower dies. This signifies a transition to a supernatural state of being where the kid is enlightened of the meaning of life and finally understands the secrets of the cosmos. Past the flower is a cliff, showing a plunge into a deep depression at the realization that with this knowledge nothing can be accomplished as he is stuck with a mortal body. This screen is truly a masterpiece and shows us that even in a video game we can find deep meaning. I could not play past this part of the game because my eyes were welling with tears because of this beautiful message given to us by Endog.
(By the way, I watch Rick and Morty)
Theme: 2/5
Level Design: 1/5
Atmosphere: 2/5
Audio: 1/5
Overall: 3/10
(click to show/hide)I am so glad that Seph and Zanto decided to team up for this contest because this game is really great! It's a tribute to the classic mega man games through and through. I was already smiling when I saw the intro cutscene (which is really funny and well written), and pleasantly surprised to see it was a mega man game. I always loved the mega man games as a kid so this game really struck a chord with me. There are three main stages for you to beat and two fortress stages. All three of the platforming stages were super fun to play IMO and they had great themes to them. (I especially liked Fireman Man). What is astonishing to me is how well these two managed to recreate the feeling of Capcom's level design with the kid's movement. Trust me, if anyone has seen Mega Maker they would know that it is more difficult to capture the classic design than you would think. I liked the checkpoint system and I think that they were all spaced out fairly while keeping the stages challenging. Zanto told me that Seph designed the sprites for the Robot masters(?) and it's pretty impressive what he managed to do because it's very easy to make pixel art sprites like that look bad. The boss fights themselves are pretty fun and well-designed with the cyclic formula we all know. I didn't really use any of the special powers against the bosses because I ran out too fast... they were fun while they lasted though. It seems that the mega buster does a good enough job of taking them out. The fortress levels are more difficult than the first three stages and that may be a bit off putting for some people but I enjoyed the challenge and only one of the rooms really bothered me. The final boss was pretty tricky as well but it's about as hard as the platforming stage preceding it. They should probably add another phase to this boss before they release the game. Overall though, it's difficult for me to find flaws in this game because it is so well polished and fun to play. Fantastic entry.
Theme: 4/5
Level Design: 5/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Audio: 5/5
Overall: 9/10
(click to show/hide)This was a fun little game. I'm not entirely sure how it fits the theme but i'll look past that because it's still an adventure game. Each area seems to focus on one gimmick and expand on them, such as the goombas coming from pipes in stage 1 and the memory puzzles in stage 2. I liked the effort he put into certain production effects such as when a bullet hits a wall and the little cloud when you double jump. The level design was pretty trolly in the first stage and I liked that aspect of it. The goombas are a bit glitchy in that they kill you if you hit their head while they are going up or if you jump on two at once and this was a bit frustrating for the "Kill all the goombas" room because they frequently pass over each other. I found the rest of the stage to be fine. The boss was interesting and I had fun with it for the most part, except the one bouncy and spinny attack (I think it was the orange one) was a lot more difficult than the others and I found myself dying to it often. I also felt that some of the attacks and the waits in-between attacks last a bit too long and I got a bit impatient when fighting it. I think you could improve this boss by not letting it repeat any attacks and making some of the longer ones shorter. I liked the second stage although it wasn't particularly difficult. I was waiting for some funny platforming gimmick to pop up while navigating the mazes but that never happened :( if you want to keep working on this game after the contest I recommend adding more to this stage. (Also maybe a final boss so it doesn't end so suddenly). I liked the effort put into this though and Neos definitely has talent.
Theme: 2/5
Level Design: 3/5
Atmosphere: 3/5
Audio: 4/5
Overall: 6/10
(click to show/hide)I wasn't actually a huge fan of this game at first but it managed to grow on me (heh.) Its pretty obvious that it's unfinished given the "work in progress" blocks in the forest area. One thing I will say that I really liked was the camera effects on screen transitions. Simple yet effective. I also had a good laugh at the house in the first screen, please don't change that. I was having fun for the most part up until the factory chase sequence which totally killed my mood. It's like... really slow, and the last screen of it is super choke heavy. After dying to this screen 3 times I gave up and used godmode to get out of there. I just couldn't go all the way through that chase sequence just to die on some choke jumps after waiting for the water to rise up. Anyway, after that part I was a bit confused on where to go but I figured out that you actually had to collect the falling seed thing in the forest area. I imagine that in the full game it will be a bit more evident that it's an item. The next area in the clouds was pretty good. I liked the gimmick and it
didn't last too long. What really turned me around on this game though was the final area. It's like a 300% jump in production value and it plays super smooth. This part was really well designed and I had a lot of fun with it, to the point where I was disappointed when it ended... I kinda wish the whole game was like this. (Not to say that the rest was bad, I just really liked this final sequence.) I have a few problems with this game but I still think it's very well made on the production value side and some of the design was pretty cool too. Looking forward to seeing more from Koslyn.
Theme: 4/5
Level Design: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Audio: 5/5
Overall: 7/10
(click to show/hide)The only thing that really grew in this game was my hatred for that ghost house level...
anyway, this game was pretty well made. I managed to complete it 100% which may or may not have been a great idea. There are three levels with 2 hidden items and a timer which ranks you based on how quickly you complete the level. The first level was a super trap heavy stage which is pretty easy when you know where all the traps are. The traps are decent although its a long save with a lot of traps in them so it may get stale near the end. The second level looks really nice with the water effect he has going on. This level was okay but there was one trap I despised with a ring of red fish that fly to the right. It seems way too precise for what it is. Thankfully there are no traps past that point so I didn't die after finally making it through. The third level is a ghost house, which is essentially a maze. I've played a lot of mario maker and yet this level still threw me for a loop. He has doors that lead to other doors that lead to more doors and there are duplicate rooms that lead to different places if you go in the same door as before... it's mind bending. I wandered around going in random doors for about ten minutes trying to find the last key before I found out it was hidden behind a fake wall. There's a completion rank after the ghost house that tells you what percentage of the game you beat. In order to get 100% you need all the hidden items and an S rank in every stage. For the first two levels I found it relatively simple to get an S rank but the ghost house actually gave me nightmares. You have 1:12 to beat it which seems like a lot until you realize how long it takes to transition between all the doors. This time, by the way, is insanely tight. I had to reroute it like 5 times before I found the optimal path in order to save 2 seconds. Even then I managed to miss the S rank time by one second once before getting it on my next try. Looking back on this game, it made me kinda mad when I played it but I think I still liked it. There are just a few rough spots you need to tune out and then it will be a really nice game. (I also wouldn't mind having more stages if you want to keep working on it.)
Theme: 1/5
Level Design: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Overall: 6/10
(click to show/hide)I couldn't believe how much content was in this game for only one month of development! Mattinj really knocked it out of the park with this one. First of all, the production value is of the same quality as Overlord. He managed to make a menu system, multiple power ups and some cool gimmicks. The main gimmick involves shrinking the player to get through tight gaps. I thought this was really cool and it added a great dynamic to the game. You get more powerful as you go through the game, starting with only a single jump and no weapon. Most of the combat is melee which is a cool change from the normal fangame gun. You can also get money and buy stuff at Peach's shop
but I really only got enough money across my playthrough to buy one thing (The 10 damage sword of course). You can probably grind out money to buy more things but I wasn't in the mood to do that. There are also hidden treasure chests with money in them scattered across the game. The game was actually harder than I expected, because some bosses took me a while to beat. The final boss in particular was pretty difficult although after I learned the attacks it was bearable. (The hitbox on the boss is really odd for the first phase though.) The hardest platforming segments were the ones with the small kid. Most of the enemies in this game do a lot of damage to you so you can only afford to get hit once or twice. This was a problem in some small-kid segments because they can be quite long with a lot of tricky stuff in them. One thing I didn't like was the spider webs because you have to tap the up arrow in order to climb on them. I think he should make it that you automatically latch on to them if you go on top of one with the up arrow held. One thing I REALLY liked about this game is the way he made you use different power ups. The bomb is pretty simple but there are some interesting (and annoying) puzzles with it. I think the most fun I had in this game was bouncing on enemies with the pogo sword power up. It's extremely satisfying. The running mechanic is also really cool but I don't think the game tells you how to activate it so I had to hold random keys on my keyboard until I found it. (It's the C key, by the way.) Another really great moment in this game is getting the "Big f***ing sword" in the last area and being able to kill those annoying enemies in one slash. Very satisfying. I could say a lot more about what I loved in this game but anyone reading this review who hasn't played it yet (assuming it has been released to the public) should definitely play it. It's such a well made game and the fact that Mattin put this together in one month is honestly baffling.
Theme: 5/5
Level Design: 4/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Overall: 9/10
Denferok:
(click to show/hide) (click to show/hide)For Your Future Self is a very short, almost prototype of an eerie laboratory with a plot and mechanics about time travel. The dialog is flavorful, concise, and has good touches of humor. The audio and graphics work together to sell the setting.
I encountered multiple softlocks and errors in my playthrough, which I've DMed you about. In the future for a finished product, as I'm sure you know, easily triggered softlocks or errors aren't acceptable, and ruin the atmosphere especially in a game like this.
Since the game's so short, I feel I need to deduct a lot of points in the scores I'm giving it. But I liked it and I wish there was more. Sincerely, good job with your game, and thanks for participating and helping make this contest a memorable event in our community. :)
Overall: 3/10
Theme: 2/5
Level Design: 1/5
Atmosphere: 3/5
Audio: 3/5
(click to show/hide)I Wanna End My Growth is a cute adventure fangame with tons of spirited sprites in a cute art style, fun platforming, and epic-feeling bosses.
Great job creating a cohesive and rich cartoony atmosphere, with a lot of personality. The music choices were spot-on too. The intro and end cutscenes added some nice flavor too. The bosses are full of interesting attacks and creative characters.
The added mechanic of switching between, small, medium, and big kids was well-made, and kept things fresh while still playing like an IWBTG fangame. The level design did a good job exploring the different kid sizes, and also had situations with multiple options/strategies. Really great job here. I only wish the switching went smoother - I always forget which key does what kid, since they're not in size order, and it was also frustrating having to wait for the long "cooldown."
My biggest complaints are with the balance/pacing of certain segments. I know this section of the review is long, and the timeframe didn't allow for much testing, so don't take this too harshly. The spooky (second) area boss was thematically great, you successfully captured Cuphead's spirit. But the spider phase gave me frequent unreasonable RNG situations with the green orbs exploding closeby while and after I jumped over the spider. The main offender is the last phase though. While I love the frantic feeling and the projectile patterns, it's just too dense, feels too cramped, and the RNG, especially with the extreme curving, is too much. I died multiple times at the very end to unreasonable situations. I'm only complaining because it's the last phase, and it's also of a very long boss, so it wrecked my progression through the game which was very smooth up until there.
I also found most of the segments in the electric area to be too long compared to the rest of the game, and it felt bad to have my progress suddenly slow down a lot.
Okay, phew, that's the end of the negative section, hah. My ratings also incorporate game length, and I've lowered some scores artificially to separate the game scores a little more. Sincerely, good job with your game, and thanks for participating and helping make this contest a memorable event in our community. :)
Overall: 9/10
Theme: 5/5
Level Design: 4/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
Audio: 4/5
(click to show/hide)I Wanna Follow The Story is a whimsical walk through some simple environments. The game has interesting ideas, but could use a bit more love in sanding down the rough edges.
The music really makes the game's atmosphere, setting a mysterious tone. Good pick there. Details like the houses and the cryptic panel with colored circles and rectangles, while crude, add to the game's unique charm for me. The barren level design and non-existent production value add a little to this mysterious tone, but really I think some more populated levels with interesting gameplay and graphics would help this game be a lot better. You say you're inspired by The Stanley Parable, a game I also love. That game has a lot of narration, and a large variety of details to look at while you walk down each hallway. It's also paced quicker than your game, to avoid boring the player. I hope these remarks can nudge you in a good direction in your future games.
It took me a lot of time to locate how to enter the "glitched" ending by pulling the plug of the button. It's a cool idea, but I think it needs to be made more obvious; I couldn't even tell that it was a plug. Maybe if the outlet were visible on the background wall, or there were a sign with a picture warning not to unplug the button. It's better that it be slightly too obvious than to have most people miss it (in my opinion).
The glitched path itself I really liked, with the corrupted verions of graphics we've seen throughout the game. Good job there. I like the fact that there was a boss, and I like its sprite. Thematically it fit well to fight the "narrator" character, and I was excited to. However the boss itself was 1. way too long, 2. too hard compared to the rest of the game, and 3. mashing the spike is tedious.
I hope my critique is helpful to you, and more importantly I hope it doesn't discourage you at all, and I mean that. You will recieve harsh feedback from this community about your games, but just know that most of it comes from a place of helping you get better. I had fun with Follow The Story; it has some neat ideas. Sincerely, good job with your game, and thanks for participating and helping make this contest a memorable event in our community. :)
Overall: 2/10
Theme: 1/5
Level Design: 1/5
Atmosphere: 2/5
Audio: 2/5
(click to show/hide)I Wanna Grow Up mashes up Megaman and IWBTG fangames to give us the best of both worlds.
The level design really shines in places, remixing concepts like the floor-crawling enemies in more intricate and precise ways than possible in Mega Man, to create fun and interesting obstacles. The flames falling from the ceiling having slight RNG, rewarding precise movement control that's not feasible in Mega Man. There's many segments that do things like this and they're all great. The McDonald (Wily) stages then combined elements from the previous stages beautifully, better than I remember seeing in any Mega Man Game.
The bosses were great, again taking ideas from Mega Man and remixing them for IWBTG fangames. Though the butterfly and Ronald McDonald Your Magical Friend were (too) significantly harder for me. Also the game has a good amount of content, especially for the one month time frame.
Lots of nice production touches like the automatic checkpoints, variety of tiles, power-up cutscenes, sound effects (I love the block switch sound; explosions got annoying at times though). Graphics, though obviously many were taken from Mega Man, were very well put together and cohesive throughout the whole game.
One of my main complaints is the level design and enemy HP levels which frequently force/encourage you to quickly mash down flying Metools, orange accelerating "dogs", rabbits, and others. There's mashing in Mega Man, but this game has more, and it's too much for my tastes. I wish those were replaced with situations like the blue following enemies or the bosses, where carefully placed shots are rewarded. This complaint could be partly caused by me hardly ever remembering to use alternate weapons.
While I really enjoyed some segments, there were others that I disliked equally as much. I can't list them all out here, but if you pick the 10 longest segments, those would match up closely with my 10 least favorites. I felt like they were asking too much of me and it got frustrating and tedious.
The intro sequence was excellent and hilarious, and could honestly have a review of its own. The music was a great pick and set the perfect mood, and the story and writing were very charming and memorable. The humor in the end credits was also nice, as well as throughout the game with the stages and bosses.
I Wanna Grow Up made me smile from not only its humor, but its gameplay which give me nostalgia for Mega Man, while keeping things fresh. My ratings also incorporate game length, and I've lowered some scores artificially to separate the game scores a little more. Sincerely, good job with your game, and thanks for participating and helping make this contest a memorable event in our community. :)
Overall: 9/10
Theme: 3/5
Level Design: 4/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
(click to show/hide)I Wanna Solumn is a short walk through two areas which have simple yet effective and interesting ideas, if a bit under-explored.
I like the obstacle of goombas popping out of pipes, it has a lot of potential, and I think you actually used it in a variety of interesting ways, such as the backtracking corridor, the 8 pipes in a row, and the "kill all goombas" section. Great job there. However, I think that the execution on these ideas was consistently lacking; the outdoor area could use a lot more polish, balance, and shorter segments.
The first segment had a long walk up until the only hard part, making it very tedious. It was also very tight timing and tricky maneuvers, which might be tolerable, except they were too precise and also at the end of the segment.
The "kill all goombas" segment had RNG that was frequently unfair or impossible, making it also un-fun. Some ideas to fix this are making the goombas' walk speed slower, make the ones from the left hole always walk right (and vice versa).
The 8 pipes segment suffers from the same "difficulty at the end of a long walk" problem as before. The bug where you die if you stomp on two goombas at once makes this segment un-fun too. A bug this obvious and obnoxious should have been either fixed or designed around. I had to skip this segment.
The boss has cool and balanced attacks, but it had a bit too much HP for my tastes.
I want to reiterate that every segment in the first area has legitimately good ideas, it's just the execution on them that needs some love.
The second area is a whole different story. I like the production (obviously it copies VVVVVV but still, well-copied) and the music choice. The "path hint" mechanic is again, a neat idea, but this time it was executed very well! It starts easy and then slowly ramps up, it doesn't have overly long or hard segments, there are no bugs. My one complaint is using the mouse to scroll the view was awkward; I'd prefer the view to scroll automatically, or use the arrow keys. The segments with the screen turning and flipping were clever and were quite fun to play.
I hope my feedback was helpful to you. Sincerely, good job with your game, and thanks for participating and helping make this contest a memorable event in our community. :)
Overall: 4/10
Theme: 1/5
Level Design: 2/5
Atmosphere: 2/5
Audio: 3/5
(click to show/hide)I wanna spread my wings is a whimsical and charming trek through a random variety of environments. The game is short and sweet, with no filler content; every segment feels purposeful.
Since the areas are fairly self-contained I'll go one by one. The underground factory area had solid fangame platforming with moving spikes and some limited-breath water, good stuff. The long save with 5 levers was tedious though. The escape from the factory was thematically well done. However the segment itself was just way too long and tedious; I spent almost 1/3 of my play time here. Half of the issue is the moving spike jumps at the very end that are just way too precise for the end of a long segment combined with the time pressure and screen shake.
The outdoors area is full of some standard, but quite fun and balanced platforming. The music is pleasant, the clouds are nice, and the brown blocks, though not unique, feel at home. This area is a great example to show that it's possible to do nice things with just brown blocks, spikes, and apples, if you know what you're doing.
The clouds area adds something new in each and every segment, keeping things very fresh while still cohesive thematically. The long cloud ride segment was a bit long for my tastes.
The abstract bordered area was very skillfully made, it caught me off guard, hah. The moving borders and orbs provided interesting obstacles which the level design explored well. The graphics are pretty and have a lot of attention to detail. Everything is well-programmed and smooth. The levels are fun and flow well. This area is one of the coolest things I've seen in a fangame, and I hope it inspires some people.
While the areas feel sort of "random", I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the game. All the little things like placing down the watering can and the seed, the cutscene of the kid falling after getting the wings, the factory escaspe sequence, the cliffside end screen, they're quite charming and I appreciate them.
There aren't a lot of non-engine sounds added, but each one (like the save sound, orb sound, warp sound) were great. The music choices are also nice and fitting.
My ratings also incorporate game length, and I've lowered some scores artificially to separate the game scores a little more. Sincerely, good job with your game, and thanks for participating and helping make this contest a memorable event in our community. :)
Overall: 8/10
Theme: 3/5
Level Design: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Audio: 3/5
(click to show/hide)Kid World successfully captures the spirit of Super Mario World and brings it into an IWBTG fangame, with a few twists, and quite a few traps. Although the game is short, it's polished and there is no "filler" whatsoever.
The "format" of the game, with a world map and multiple objectives in each area, works quite well. I like the freedom of choosing which areas I want to revisit, and the option to take a break from an area I'm tired with. Minor thing: I wish the backspace to quit control was explained in-game.
Great job with the production value (obviously taken from Mario, but you translated it into a fangame well). The detailed world map added a lot, as well as things like the screen transition effect and the underwater effect. The first 2 levels had interesting and varied obstacles and traps, from the goombas, to the multiple types of fish, and sea urchins.
My main complaints are with the below few obstacles. I know this part is long, but it's not as important as the positive part above.
In the Super Mario Bros. area, I struggled for a long time figuring out how the tree trap at the end worked. Having an obstacle which isn't crystal-clear at the end of a long segment (especially one with traps) is a recipe for tedium. The tree's spinning makes it unclear that it moves down at an angle (which isn't usual for fangames), plus it moves quickly, plus the trigger is in a non-intuitive position. I had the same issue with the moving fish circle 2/3 through the water area; it's not clear how to dodge it, and it's so far into the segment.
The puzzle of the ghost house area is neat, but it wasn't intuitive at all for me, and so it was tedious trial and error. I think telegraphing would have helped, for example, having wooden tiles in a border around the door you just entered through, to show the player that it has some significance. Also, the coin trap at the end was infuriating, but I think I would have found it hilarious if the ghost house had gone quickly for me. That may have been too dangerous of a place for an end-of-segment trap.
Overall I enjoyed Kid World, despite my frustrations at the above parts. There are a lot of little things to find and enjoy. My ratings also incorporate game length, and I've lowered some scores artificially to separate the game scores a little more. Sincerely, good job with your game, and thanks for participating and helping make this contest a memorable event in our community. :)
Overall: 6/10
Theme: 2/5
Level Design: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
(click to show/hide)I wanna be the knight in shining armor is a Mattinvania fangame with a lot of attention to detail.
There are a lot of neat level design moments. The bosses have fun attacks that are unique from the common bosses in IWBTG fangames. The production value, with the tiling details and variety, sounds and music, animations, is really polished, and is a great example of repurposing commercial games' assets.
The shrink and grow mechanic is cute and well-programmed. Though there aren't any puzzles or combat situations involving decision-making with the mechanic, it's used in a way that just makes the world more playful. Climbing spiderwebs, and later once big again looking back on those tiny segments, is a fun feeling, and you provided a lot of those cute moments.
The game fully knows what it's doing as a Metroidvania - player upgrades fit well and are spaced out well, there are hidden rewards scattered throughout, the layout of the world fits together well.
My main complaints, similar to I Wanna Grow Up, are about some segments being frustrating and/or too long.Some examples are the final castle segment with the 3 small thwomps side by side, and the cave segment with 2 fireballs surrounding the big jumping guy, among others.
My ratings also incorporate game length, and I've lowered some scores artificially to separate the game scores a little more. Sincerely, good job with your game, and thanks for participating and helping make this contest a memorable event in our community. :)
Overall: 9/10
Theme: 5/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
Level Design: 4/5
Audio: 5/5
Denferok:
(click to show/hide) (click to show/hide)Out of all the submissions, this was one of my absolute favourites in terms of atmosphere. The introductory cutscenes, the spooky lab aesthetic and the introduction of the growth theme had me really intrigued and excited to find out what's coming up next. The text boxes and story elements also gave it much more of an adventure vibe, and is something I'd like to see more of in adventure fangames.
Unfortunately, the game ends very quickly without a whole lot of gameplay, leaving me wanting more. I think For Your Future Self has one of the best starting points and concepts of the theme here, but doesn't get the chance to do much with it which I felt was a shame. Of course, given the small time-frame I can understand why this happened, and I'd love to see what you'd accomplish with this given a larger time-frame to work with. I also encountered a few strange hiccups, such as backtracking through the window or back through a previous room caused a sort of pseudo-softlock.
Ultimately you really nailed it on the production value front, and I was really impressed by the atmosphere you'd built in such a short package! I just wish it would've been a little longer and more packed in terms of gameplay, as it felt more like a teaser for an adventure game. I'd love to see what you'd create Piranha given the time to expand on your ideas and production value.
Overall - 5/10
Theme - 3/5
Level Design - 1/5
Atmosphere - 4/5
Audio - 3/5
(click to show/hide)End my Growth hit a lot of adventure elements right on the head for me. The story and cutscene elements were amusing and had some charm to them, and they're just something I always appreciate in any adventure game. The platforming initially felt fairly simple and straightforward, but the mix-up of the different enemies and their attacks and patterns kept things interesting until the very end of the game. I have to give special mention to the ghost boss, which was my personal favourite boss in the game (out of 4 whole bosses which I commend you for), where the attacks felt fun to play around and the overall visual design was very nicely done. In terms of the growth theme, I liked what you decided to base this around, and the combination of small, normal and large kid sizes made for a lot of creative design paths in terms of what you could achieve. It also gave an element of risk to the bosses which I liked, where I could risk getting more damage it at the tradeoff of having a larger hitbox. This ended up giving a pseudo-difficulty setting to the game which worked very nicely.
A small complaint I had with the gimmick is that you couldn't save with your kid state, meaning you'd have to change after every reload which got a little tedious on some saves, mainly those where you were more or less forced to change size at the first segment. There also seemed to be a short delay before you were able to change after restarting, which only made those sections more tedious. Despite this, I didn't really have any problems with the actual design you'd done for the small and big kids, and felt that they worked really nicely together. I had some trouble on the first boss with the "rain attack" where I was under the assumption it was a hazard, and I was desperately trying to dodge as the small kid (upon reflection, I think I'd just gotten confused when I'd died to something else so I assumed the rain was a player killer). In reality, I realised you just used the rain for some visual flair throughout multiple bosses. I'd consider limiting it only to one boss to make it feel more atmospheric, as when it appears more frequently it loses the impact that it gives when you first see it in a boss fight.
This was a very enjoyable adventure game for me, and overall I really liked how you interpreted the theme of the contest into your main game mechanic, which ended up flowing really nicely. The ending credits were also a nice touch. Nice job Erik!
Overall - 9/10
Theme - 5/5
Level Design - 4/5
Atmosphere - 4/5
Audio - 4/5
(click to show/hide)First of all, I like that you tried to make a fangame with branching paths and different endings. It's something that isn't really done very often (if at all) in fangames, and I think you could accomplish a lot of cool things with this concept. The visuals also had a simple yet charming feel to them, with the paint-drawn(?) houses and the interactable flowers, which helped give it that adventure feel. Also whilst I'm not sure you did it for comedic effect, the switch that lowered the stretched thin spike incredibly slowly made me laugh, reminding me of some of the classic platforming cycles or timings you'd find in older adventure games.
Unfortunately, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the 3rd ending. Upon going where I assumed it would be, the game softlocked by saving me in a dead-state in a connected room, and despite my best efforts I couldn't find a way to bypass this. Also perhaps the other two endings could've been enhanced by some sort of text to conclude the story, as I was left a bit confused by them. Also there were multiple occasions where I'd try and go back through a screen I'd just came from, only to die and be sent back multiple screens. Perhaps ensure that the screens connect back to each other so that the world feels cleaner and more connected. Some hazards or gimmicks might've also made the adventure more interesting, even just something simple like moving cherries to mix things up a bit.
Overall, I liked the concept that you went with, although I was unsure of how it connected to the theme of 'Growth'. I would suggest experimenting with ways to make the level design more interesting, and ironing out bugs and errors such as certain screen borders killing you but others not, and the seemingly unreachable ending. I hope you keep at it and continue trying to improve, because I think you have some cool ideas and can definitely learn with more experience. Keep at it!
Overall - 3/10
Theme - 1/5
Level Design - 1/5
Atmosphere - 3/5
Audio - 1/5
(click to show/hide)This one was really impressive all-round. I can say with some confidence this is one of the closest fangames in the community to a Megaman game, and you guys pulled it off really well. From the charming and gripping introductory cutscene, I was hooked to see how the Kid would grow and the conclusion to his epic tale, and the ending left me emotionally exhausted and invested in the tearful and melancholic epilogue that I think we can all learn a lesson from. I found the gameplay to be a lot of fun, and the mix-up of the different gimmicks and enemies always kept things fresh to the point where no stage felt like it was becoming a drag. Even the final stage where you brought back all the previous gimmicks had some new ones too! The boss fights were also a ton of fun, for the most part. I did have some difficulties with one which I'll get to in a moment. I was also really happy you'd implemented the Megaman weapon system in the game, and using the correct weapon on the boss for more effect damage. I also particularly liked that you did away with save points entirely, and just implemented a checkpoint system.
In terms of negatives, there were really just a couple of segments that felt a little too long or tricky for my liking, given the overall difficulty of the rest of the game. The Fireman Man level for example felt just right in terms of difficulty, but the other two main levels each had a save or two that felt overly long and fiddly, which caused me a bit of frustration. One example is the last save of the gravity-changing stage with the two rabbits near the end, where I had a lot more difficulty with than the majority of the level. The final boss of the game wasn't my cup of tea either unfortunately. Whilst I got a little better at reading the attacks by the end, I found it a little overwhelming for a while when the 3 attacks came at you in quick succession, and I was kind of hoping the attacks would stop at half HP and it would transition into some sort of final phase. It was still a fun boss, but ended up being my least favourite of the 5 in the game. Also I would've liked it if the blue enemies that shoot in 8 directions (such as in the final climb) gave you a bit more time to react to, perhaps if they shot a bit slower or turned themselves on a bit sooner. Ultimately there's just a few small things I think would've been more enjoyable if the difficulty was toned down a slight notch.
Regardless of my gripes, the game on a whole was really well made and a great entry for the contest, being one of my personal favourites. The production value was top-notch, and whilst I would've liked the gameplay itself to connect to the theme in some way, the immersive story was more than enough to invest me. Great job guys!
Overall - 9/10
Theme - 4/5
Level Design - 4/5
Atmosphere - 5/5
Audio - 5/5
(click to show/hide)Solumn had a couple of things that I really enjoyed, and a couple of things that I think didn't work quite so well. Overall it was an enjoyable little adventure, but one that I think could benefit from further polish and refinement. In terms of the production value and visuals, the game looked appealing and fit that adventure vibe that I was looking for. The puzzley-memorization stage in particular was pretty interesting, although I think it could've been expanded on more by mixing that gimmick in with screens packed with hazards and different paths to keep things fresh, as after a couple of screens I was left hoping there'd be more development. The screen flipping was a nice touch, but as soon as you had a system to memorize the path, the actual process of doing so was very trivial. Still, I enjoyed the concept and think you could do some neat stuff with it. Also the cherry trap after the goomba-stomping segment was something I really should've seen coming but...well, I didn't. Nice.
The boss was also fun for the most part, although a couple of attacks felt...off, at least in terms of length. The orange bouncing attack felt noticeably trickier than the rest, and the pull-in at the end of that attack could be particularly brutal on numerous attempts which left me hoping for some of the easier attacks such as the cyan cherry one or just the goomba one, which I felt could've been made more interesting if it'd used a mixture of walking and jumping/bouncing goombas to make reading it a little more interesting and dynamic. I was also unsure of how the theme of growth tied into the game.
Despite some hiccups, it was a short and pleasant adventure. You have some pretty interesting ideas and I think working on making those ideas play more interestingly will benefit you a lot in the long run. Also keep in mind balance of attacks when creating a random-attack-order boss, as you don't want the player to be left feeling like they only want to see a couple of the attacks, whether this be down to difficulty or duration. I'd like to see more adventurey stuff from you Neos, so I hope you keep experimenting and make more in the future!
Overall - 5/10
Theme - 1/5
Level Design - 3/5
Atmosphere - 3/5
Audio - 4/5
(click to show/hide)This felt very reminiscent of older-style adventure games to me. Whilst being more needle orientated as opposed to gimmick, it gave me vibes of the more needly parts of See the Moon or Dedicate to TNS, albeit with a little less traps. I liked the idea of collecting different items to grow your beanstalk to the skies, and the connection with the title of the fangame. I was also very impressed by the growing and shrinking screen gimmick towards the end of the game, which looked very aesthetically pleasing and was a joy to play through. I was also a big fan of the overworld music, which had a very adventurey-vibe to it, and of course the Kid's House was magnificently drawn to standards I never expected.
At times, it felt like it might be leaning more towards the needle side than the adventure side, with a side-plate of needle gimmicks like switches and moving hazards, and whilst I didn't really mind this playing through it, perhaps a more puzzly segment or a mini-boss might've spiced things up to fully differentiate it from the needle genre. I kept expecting a boss before the game ended, but was a little sad to find there wasn't one, which I felt might've wrapped up the shortventure quite nicely. I also felt that the final save when escaping the underground area felt a bit long and potentially chokey, which might've caused some frustration upon some players. This is something I think would benefit greatly from a save, being cut down in length or perhaps just ensuring the ending parts aren't very demanding for the player to reduce chokes.
Overall this was a really enjoyable adventure which perfectly fit the length of the contest for me, and was just a pleasant experience all round. I'd really like to see you do another game like this Koslyn, perhaps bigger and experiment with different gimmicks and maybe even a boss or two, because I think the end result would be something pretty great!
Overall - 8/10
Theme - 4/5
Level Design - 3/5
Atmosphere - 4/5
Audio - 4/5
(click to show/hide)Kid World was a fun little adventure, most notably for the variety each stage offered. I liked that despite it only lasting 3 short sections, each one had something a little different, and the inclusion of collectable secrets and bonuses made exploring around for them actually enjoyable. I found the traps to be pretty entertaining too, especially the one in the second stage which provided quite the explosive experience. A couple of the traps towards the end of the first stage got a little tedious for me mainly due to the time it took to get back to the end, and I was thinking a save somewhere in the middle would've helped alleviate any frustration. However, I can see why this might've broken the flow given each stage being a single save. You also did a really nice job with the whole Mario-style overworld, which felt quite charming and well executed.
I should probably mention how much difficulty the ghost house section gave me because of my inability to notice the two hub-sort-of rooms were slightly different, giving a clue as to how to get around. I was just spamming myself through random doors and not knowing how to get where. Oh, and that coin trap at the end? Very funny. You're a scumbag for putting it there, but I couldn't help but smile when it happened. I actually really liked the secret locations in this stage, as they felt well hidden but fair enough to find once you dig around a bit.
Despite the enjoyable platforming, I do wish there was a boss to round it all off as it felt like it was leading up to one. I know you mentioned you were working on a 4th stage but couldn't finish it on time, so I'm interested to know what it would've been. Also I noticed that as I was playing the game in a larger window, upon entering the water stage the game only filled up a small portion of the game window. Whether this is down to the room size being different or something else entirely, I don't know. Also I wasn't sure how well you'd tied in the theme of Growth to the game, as I could't really find a good connection which was a shame.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this game for the variety that it offered. I would've liked to see a gimmick or two to make the platforming a little more interesting and a couple more stages to lengthen it out a bit more, but for a short trap-based adventure it was good fun. Nice job!
Overall - 6/10
Theme - 1/5
Level Design - 3/5
Atmosphere - 4/5
Audio - 4/5
(click to show/hide)Phew, where to begin. Knight in Shining Armour had pretty much everything I would expect in a good adventure game. Charming visuals, interesting gimmicks and fun boss fights with some extra stuff on the side. What impressed me is just how long this game ended up being for the time-frame you had to make it. So much production value and polish was prevalent throughout the game, and despite a couple of minor bugs/hiccups such as the Mechanical Lars fight having the gem inside of him mid-fight, and the water surface blocks behind shown behind the player, I really couldn't manage to break the game or find any glaring faults. The gimmicks were introduced very nicely and designed cleverly to guide the player down the correct path (as well as a nice inclusion of the growth theme in one of the main gimmicks), and the platforming segments and bosses never felt unfair on unreasonable, although there were a couple of segments that felt a bit off-difficulty. I also loved the addition of secrets and the general UI you'd built, as the inclusion of items, a shop and a health system made it feel more like an actual adventure. I also have to give a thumbs up for the Dark Cloud and Wild ARMs music, you have solid taste.
In terms of negatives, my only real discomfort with the game is the occasional tricky platforming segment, usually involving spikes. Because spikes are insta-kill whereas everything else is just a HP setback, it felt a little frustrating when I'd make my way through a long save getting past a horde of enemies and hazards, only to trip up on the edge of a spike and instantly die. Granted, it is a fangame and I don't think spikes doing anything other than instakill would really work, but it did cause a little frustration at times.
Overall, this game was an incredible work of effort, and I'm genuinely impressed by what you've managed to make here. Even things like ensuring fast cycles for platforming were in-place and the little comedic elements in the visual environment which enhanced the up-beat adventure vibe made the experience that much more enjoyable. A special mention goes to the final boss too, which despite my inability to realise you can actually gain height to hit her (I was just using the Castlevania Axe for a long few attempts), was an amazing ending boss to the game. The ending credit animation was very charming too, and a nice touch. Fantastic job Mattin, and overall my favourite game of the contest!
Overall - 10/10
Theme - 5/5
Level Design - 4/5
Atmosphere - 5/5
Audio - 5/5
Denferok:
(click to show/hide) (click to show/hide)Theme – 4/5
Level Design – 2/5
Atmosphere – 5/5
Audio – 4/5
Overall – N/A /10
While I love the atmosphere the game presents, and the way it uses its audio, it feels more like a concept of a game rather than a game itself. The way growth could be used with time travel seems like it could be very interesting, however with what currently exists this is yet to be seen and any score I give this game may more be based on what I think could happen than what has.
(click to show/hide)Theme – 5/5
Level Design – 4/5
Atmosphere – 5/5
Audio – 4/5
Overall – 8/10
As is standard for Erik games, a lot of the style is homegrown with his own art looking as great as ever. I felt the cuphead music in the first stage was especially appropriate in relation to this.
While the saves could be a bit long, they were always reasonable, and the hidden secrets were very fun to find. I especially liked that you were given multiple ways to do things due to having 3 different forms to choose from, although it was slightly annoying having to stop moving before I could change instead of being able to do it while walking along the ground.
While the bosses could be a little tedious after some deaths, it was cool that they have longer/shorter iframes depending on what form (and therefore how much damage) you have.
Overall, it’s a very fun game that lasts about as long as it needs to.
(click to show/hide)Theme – 0/5
Level Design – 2/5
Atmosphere – 2/5
Audio – 1/5
Overall – 3/10
While I can see the inspiration from The Stanley Parable in this game, there are a few too many problems to be able to compare the two.
The most important one is not knowing where you are able to go, walls or ground that you can pass through look the same as the ones that you die to.
There was one song playing through the whole game, which could be fine but there is a second area which could have used a separate track.
The lack of saves could be alright, but with trying to figure out where to go I feel like more could have been used, as this is meant to be more of an exploration game than “re-doing what you’ve done”.
Finally, I found 2 of the 3 endings, while I think I know where the third ending could be, heading in that direction autosaved me in an instant kill, so I had to restart the game.
Overall, while I can see the work that has gone into this game, there are a lot of things that need fixing to make it more enjoyable.
(click to show/hide)Theme – 3/5
Level Design – 4/5
Atmosphere – 5/5
Audio – 5/5
Overall – 8/10
This game is incredibly well produced. It has great graphics, the songs match their areas, and there are sound effects for pretty much everything you can think of.
I enjoyed the majority of this game, however there were two issues I had while playing. The minor one is I could never figure out when I was supposed to use the extra weapons, after figuring out you can select it with enter instead of z (which also fires the weapon and gave my impression of not using them).
The less minor one is this game has a similar issue to End My Growth with long saves, however the saves here felt more spread out to me, and if you die on each of them a few times it can get very exhausting by the time you reach the end. It doesn’t help that you feel you need to spam shoot the enemies to kill them asap so they have less chance to kill you, then you die a little later, rinse repeat.
Overall these two aren’t big complaints, they’re the difference between a perfect score and a slightly lower score and the game overall is incredible.
(click to show/hide)Theme – 0/5
Level Design – 4/5
Atmosphere – 4/5
Audio – 3/5
Overall – 8/10
As someone that doesn’t know much about Neos I wasn’t sure what to expect going in. I was pleasantly surprised to see the game looked pretty good starting off. There are nice little touches like a bonk sound when a goomba hits a ceiling, and there is actually some graphics changes on the title screen. This continued onto stage 2, where I wasn’t sure how much variation you could really get on “memorise the pattern” but I feel like a good job was done.
The flaws I could find were the goombas at the end of stage 1 could give you some nasty RNG making it impossible to reach in time, the boss may have a little too much hp, although the attacks aren’t too difficult regardless, and I wasn’t sure where the Growth theme was used in the game.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this, I actually wish it had been a little longer because of that. I may have even given this a 9, but I felt I should knock off at least 1 for not being able to see the Theme use. Good job Neos.
(click to show/hide)Theme – 4/5
Level Design – 5/5
Atmosphere – 5/5
Audio – 5/5
Overall – 10/10
A small note before the review. I love the house. That is all.
You know the feeling when you play a game that makes you reconsider how good you considered other games? I liked this game a lot.
The sections weren’t too long, but still maintained some difficulty. The growth theme was implemented in a way that was used as a reason of constant progress. There were multiple areas with different themes and respective music. The only faults I can find is one save may be slightly too long with a bit of an annoying jump at the end, maybe the Growth theme could have been used more throughout the game, and the game could have ended a little less suddenly.
The fact that these are only when I’m actively trying to find problems should speak volumes.
(click to show/hide)Theme: 2/5
Level Design – 4/5
Atmosphere – 5/5
Audio – 5/5
Overall – 9/10
I enjoyed the style of the game greatly. KingSlendy knows how to make a cohesive world, even if most of the sprites are taken from the same place. I liked the extra little challenges like finding the shines too, although I wasn’t a fan of the hidden one in level 1 having no tell for where it was. A similar case for the time trials, mostly fun, but the S rank for ghost house was far too tight. However, these problems are not required for a regular clear as far as I can tell.
As far as the actual platforming goes, I had fun. A bit of a struggle finding my way through the ghost house (as is expected), and the red fish trap in level 2, but overall it was good.
(click to show/hide)Theme – 5/5
Level Design – 5/5
Atmosphere – 5/5
Audio – 5/5
Overall – 10/10
How. How do you make this in only a month. I call bull because most of this had to have been made before this contest started.
Mattin’s game lives up to a standard that probably should not be there. The humour was great, the atmosphere/production value/whatever term was far above whatever was required, and everything fit together perfectly.
There are not enough words to describe everything well enough past “Play it yourself”.
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