when I played this on PC, I thought it was pretty good, but I didn’t get to upgrading the castle at all because I had to try all the other games. Now that I’ve downloaded it and upgraded the castle fully, I’ve realized how great of a game this is on so many levels
Art 8/10
The art is perfect for the game, it looks good but it’s simple enough to not be too distracting for the gameplay. Only part of the game that felt lacking in this department is the castle, which I felt could have done with some more detail, and more noticeable improvements when upgraded.
Sound 6/10
Similarly to the art, The sound gets the job done, and the sound effects and music were chosen well. the music is catchy, but the sound in general doesn’t have as much style as the artwork.
Gameplay 10/10
The best part of the game by far was the gameplay loop, reminding me a lot of one of my favourite games, SteamWorld Dig. going into the mines for resources before inevitably running out of time, then coming back up to upgrade never gets old, along with the explosion chain reactions (Having those in your game automatically gives you an extra cool point from me) that make me think quickly, and the randomized nature of every run makes One Minute Miner super rngaging and replayable.
Something else cool that I noticed near the end of my playthrough is that I can upgrade everything that needs rubies, for example. Then when I go into the mines again, I can optimize my time by only grabbing the sapphire and gold.
I only had 1 bug throughout the entire game to my knowledge.
Great Job on This part Greggo!
Game Feel 7/10
above average, but nothing crazy. basically everything had a sound effect and reacted to being clicked. best game feel in the game was definitely that of breaking ore in the mines.
Story 8/10
for story, there is really just enough here to explain why you’re going into a mine and upgrading a castle, and normally this would be closer to a 5/10 (average) if that was all it was. but the kings writing really puts the story element WAY higher. I love this guy’s personality, and everything he says makes me laugh. He takes an OK setup for a game and makes it into one of the most memorable games that’s come out of a flowjam for me.
Bugs/Things I think can be improved
sometimes when I upgrade a part of the castle, it seems like I don’t lose any recourses
I think completing the game would be a lot more satisfying if there was an ending of some kind. Felt a little bit anticlimactic when I had finished upgrading the king’s castle and nothing happened.
Maybe the king could give a little “good job!” And a little more awesome dialogue before maybe showing of the castle off to his friends? I want to know if they ended up liking it or not
something I thought about was that It would be nice if there was a timer somewhere telling me how many seconds I have left, at least once the number goes under 10, but I’m really not sure if that would help or hinder the experience. It really depends on what sort of feeling you want to evoke from the game, and I timer would make it a bit more stressful. your call for sure.
Final Score 7.8/10
Overall, Probably one of my favourite mobile games of all time you’ve made here. I’m definitely going to play this again, but I’m worried I might get some weird looks tapping so frantically on my screen in public lol
basically:
drag blocks to make a game (that you can’t save yet) or maybe a layout or whatever
it’s supposed to be a game creator inside a game creator but it just ended up as “block dragging game (FT. RANDOM SAD CUBEEEEEE YEAHHHHH)”
Art: 5/10
most of this game’s art is default sprites (or modified versions of them) along with some original sprites and sprites from the internet/ other games (e.g. mortal kombat sprites, a drawing of a creeper as an anime girl, etc.) the original sprites are the best ones in my opinion, and I would usually recommend changing the art to be in a consistant style, but all the conflicting art styles add a strange chaotic charm to it all.
Sound: 4/10
pretty average. mostly flowlab sounds(respectable, and chosen pretty well), and some music that (I think?) you didn’t make, but was pretty good nonetheless. it just seems like there isn’t enough sounds for each thing you do. the more sounds, the better!
Gameplay 4/10
mostly basic platformer gameplay, guns as well.
normally this would be a bit higher, but none of the mechanics are taught to the player (from what I know, navigating through the game was a bit confusing) meaning someone could go through the entire game without knowing they can shoot. but the worst part of gameplay is the cheap 1-hit-kill deaths. I’m often being killed by things below me I can’t see, enemies that I don’t understand, and near impossible jumps. and every time I die, I’m sent right back to the beginning of the level. levels are quite long as well, meaning that I’m often forced to repeat large chunks of content, which is very rarely a good thing. to be able to make this review I mostly has to jump around to different game levels to get a general idea of the game as a whole, because the levels were just so frustrating. another thing I would like to point out is that at one point in the first level, there was a jump that I couldn’t possibly make, and from going into the editor I learned that there was a secret platform below the camera boundaries that I had to land on to be able to proceed. this would be fine if it was a secret, but the main path forward should never be completely obscured from the player’s view.
Sorry about all this negative feedback, on a positive note, I really enjoyed switching costumes with different keys on the keyboard this was something I did in a few of my early games as well, a nice touch.
Game feel 5/10
game feel is a tiny bit inconsistant in parts, but is pretty ok, not much else to say.
Story 4/10
doesn’t seem to have much of a story, but maybe has some lore? not really sure. for the type of game it seems like it it is could probably go with little to no story/ a really silly story (I’ve got the idea that the game isn’t meant to be taken seriously)
Final score: 4.4/10
this might not seem like that great of a score, but I assure you I see promise in this series. I have a good amount of fun with every entry, and I think that with some more work something like this could be pretty cool. try not to take this negative feedback to heart! keep going!
I changed it back, but now that I think about it. It was @John_Shrekinson game that you reviewed last, so if they aren’t comfortable with their game in the title you (or John) can change it to just say HuckleBerry’s Reviews
I changed the title of the topic because the Gamougg review was done and at the time it seemed like this was an intermission period between the last review and the next review.
Art 6/10
unlike gamougg 3, most of HFE is made with hand drawn sprites (pretty decent ones btw) with the exception of some of the backgrounds. I especially like the banshee and ghost sprites the background objects are a nice touch as well, although I would suggest making the visible part of the ring stretch straight up into the sky, as opposed to the awkward bending it doing right now. one issue i have - the grey blocks you can fall through look way too similar to the solid blocks, I suggest making them 50% alpha and/or darkening the colour.
sound 5/10
sounds are pretty well chosen and I respect your commitment to getting all the halo sounds and music, (even though I’m not sure it’s entirely legal)
Gameplay 3/10
the idea for a 2d halo-type of game is a great one. but most of halo’s fun comes from the fairness and simplicity of the gameplay, and this game is just way too complicated with things that could be simple. the controls are in the description as a HUGE list and every control just doesn’t feel natural. moving up and down in the banshee is = and ;
and each weapon is a different button. a lot of these issues could be fixed with a weapon swap system where you use a key to cycle between your arsenal. this goes for grenades as well. vehicles would be a ton more fun if they stayed stationary until the player touched them, then had a key to get out. (ex. when player touches the ghost , the player would destroy, and the ghost’s controls would switch on. then when you press E, the controls would switch off, and the ghost would emit the player object.)
vehicles in general need a lot of additions IMO, like rotation, momentum, boost, turning, etc. I have ideas for the banshee in particular: instead of controlling up and down, have the left and right arrow keys move the banshee forwards and backwards, with up and down keys rotating the banshee either direction. as for the enemies, they need to be independent of the player. controlling the enemies movement makes them super frustrating to fight, and i would rather if they didn’t move at all. ON THE PLUS SIDE, i really enjoyed the inclusion of all the halo modes, (firefight, campaign, multiplayer, and forge.) and the ability to play as different versions of chief (i mostly played as infinite chief) and the arbiter.
game feel 6/10
pretty nice. the different coloured blood and shield visuals along with the death animations make it fun to kill enemies.
story 5/10
I don’t think the story is directly ripped from any halo game? so points for making an original story!
Final score 5/10
overall, good game. but it has a lot of issues that need to be addressed to make it
as great as I’m sure it can be. sorry for the late review, and have a great day!
I haven’t got my regular status back yet, so if someone would be kind enough to change the title to “HuckleBerry’s Reviews - Halo: Flowlab Evolved” it would be amazingly cool.
the background objects are a nice touch as well, although I would suggest making the visible part of the ring stretch straight up into the sky, as opposed to the awkward bending it doing right now. one issue i have - the grey blocks you can fall through look way too similar to the solid blocks, I suggest making them 50% alpha and/or darkening the colour.
