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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Topic: Aronax's Shortventure Contest 2017 (Read 7364 times)