Ramshackle Reviews [Suspended]

Not dead, I’m working on @CodeAlpaca’s game right now :slight_smile:

Like ManiacPumpkin said, these take a while to make. I have to play your game enough to truly get a feel for it, if it’s a finished story driven game I have to finish the story before I can give an actual grade, and the actual grading process can take a while. I’m not dead, just busy

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@CodeAlpaca Blandus review

Art 5.5/10: Right off the bat I’m just going to say, pokemon yellow, red, and blue mixed with earthbound vibes. If you aren’t familiar here is the main player character of blandus:


Screenshot 2022-02-10 10.29.55 PM
Here is the player character from Pokemon red, yellow, and blue:
pok
And here is the player character (ness) from earthbound:

This is great! And honestly very charming and adds to the game experience. I wish I could give it a higher score because of how much I like it, but to keep it fair I’ll give it a normal score that I think I would give if I didn’t know about those games.

How well the game fits the style 9/10: This is probably blandus’s biggest strength. The sprites match perfectly with the style of game! Certain sprites and animations can use some polishing, but overall this is the highlight of the game and what it does best.

Gameplay 3.5/10: simple top down wasd story based explorer game. Towns that really remind me of the older pokemon games. And some pretty creative side missions. Not much point to it yet from what I can tell, but you can buy from the shop
Screenshot 2022-02-10 9.01.21 PM
Screenshot 2022-02-10 9.01.49 PM
I am extremely poor >.<
This is where the side quest that I found came in, all I had to do was cover up some holes in the backyard and ta-da! 25 smackeroonies
Screenshot 2022-02-10 10.46.12 PM
Little things like these brought up the grade from a 1.5 to a 3.5, and with more content added down the road this score can definitely go up.

Gameplay overview:
Screenshot 2022-02-10 9.03.20 PM
Screenshot 2022-02-10 9.04.37 PM
Screenshot 2022-02-10 9.05.54 PM
Screenshot 2022-02-10 10.49.33 PM
(I love the snarky comments around in the game)
Screenshot 2022-02-10 10.50.54 PM

Enjoyment 4.6/10: I can really tell that world design, and player experience were huge priorities in the making of this game. It’s great and I really appreciate that! The bland (pun intended) controls and overall gameplay do take away from the enjoyment of the game by quite a bit, but the world itself, the dialog and the characters really felt well made. Great job!

Difficulty 0/10: other than me struggling to find where I’m supposed to take lily there isn’t much difficulty at all.

Story 2/10: so far it feels random, like my older brother handed me the controller to a game I’ve never played before but he’s already played the first 5 levels. You start off the game right away and it doesn’t feel like the beginning, it feels like I’m already at the middle of the game.

Sound design 2/10: good choice for music ambiance from the flowlab sounds, but other than that and turning around (nice animation by the way) there isn’t much sound.

Title 4/10: It somewhat fits, but the only real connection it has to the game is the name of the starting town.

Originality 2/10: the reason I’m rating it so low isn’t because of the story, but more of everything else. The music, pixel art (as mentioned earlier), and world that you explore feels like a fanmade pokemon/earthbound rom hack.

Game feel 4/10: it feels good enough, its not too clunky and not too quick. It’s pretty close to being a perfect middleground if you ask me.

Creativity 5.7/10: pretty good, other than the obvious similarities to other well known games it feels pretty new and creative. You took a lot of freedom with designing your own world, and it did work out.

Overall 4.23/10: I was pretty bias on some of the scoring, so it rounded up a liitle higher than I think it should be, but the numbers don’t lie. I’d say if I had to put all of my personal feelings aside and rate it as a game it would be more of a 2.43/10. This is still very very good with how small the game is so far, so please don’t take that as an insult! Keep my suggestions in mind, and I’d love to review your game again once it’s done!

Reward: The ramshackle badge of approval

(credit to huckleberry for the sprite)

6 Likes

I’m tired, and that was a pretty long one for how much I played the game. So I’m going to go to bed, and maybe get 1, 2 or possibly 3 done tomorrow

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@BroBro2 would you like a full game review, or one that’s more friendly towards demos and incomplete games?

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Ty, for the review. I really want to expand on the gameplay, animations, and the other points you touched on when I get a chance. After you got the slingshot did you open the gate by Lilly’s house? You also might get a small laugh out of the Computer Club (Not trying to sway your scoring at all, I agree with it. Just want to make sure you got the full experience)

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One thats for demos and incomplete games cuz my game is incomplete

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@Ramshackle keep in mind that i will probably be adding stuff whilst your reviewing my game and keep in mind this is like a demo in the current state its in

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@BroBro2 Deaths End demo review:

Pixel art 2/5: pretty good work here, not the best ever but it works. Most of the sprites maintain the same quality, so there isn’t really a big drop since it all looks mostly the same. Except maybe the lava

How well the game fits the style 3/5: it fits pretty well, could be better but it isn’t terrible by any means. I’d recommend more visible animations, but other than that there isn’t much else to say.

Gameplay 2/5: pretty basic runner/platformer, nothing special but not the worst I’ve seen either which seems to be a running trend in the game.
Screenshot 2022-02-11 10.30.10 AM
Screenshot 2022-02-11 10.30.25 AM
Screenshot 2022-02-11 10.32.34 AM

Enjoyment 3/5: Similarly to the other scores, it’s just mediocre. I feel a little spark of joy when I get past an area I’ve never been to before/beat my old score, but the gameplay is a bit too basic to be any higher of a score.

Difficulty 2-3/5: pretty easy for the most part, gets a little harder as you go on, but never too bad.

Story 1/5: There’s a little bit of a story at the beginning thats revealed to you through some dialog, but it isn’t very deep or thought out. Mostly just an excuse to give you some gameplay
Screenshot 2022-02-11 10.26.43 AM

Sound design 0/5: You put an always on the sound block…
Screenshot 2022-02-11 10.29.25 AM
I had my volume up really high with headphones and it honestly hurt, but other than that I don’t hear any other sounds.

Title 3/5: I mean it’s kinda cool, but doesn’t really mean anything in the game. It’s just there to sound cool.

Originality 3/5: pretty basic runner-platformer, it’s something I don’t see on flowlab all the time but still not really new.

Game feel 2/5: the controls take away from the experience here quite a bit, you feel jolted into the air with each jump and it can make what seems to be a really easy jump precise

Creativity 3/5: the concept is pretty cool, and the story dialog was nicely animated. Nothing amazing, but it is quite enjoyable

Overall 2.1/10: this game has a lot of potential and can become something awesome, but it’s just not quite there yet. I understand that it’s unfinished, so as long as you keep working on it you should be totally fine. Good luck!

Reward: The ramshackle badge of approval


(credit to huckleberry for the sprite)

6 Likes

Sorry that it took so long to post that one. I had it ready like 5 hours ago, but something came up so I had to wait.

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Sorry @hihilogic I was planning on getting your review done today but it’s looking like I won’t be able to do that. I’m almost 99% sure I can’t get it done tomorrow either, so sorry and it’ll probably be posted on Monday

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Thank you lol i acidently put an always on that and you must of played it whence i did because i was still editing when you said that the game is a bit more updated now then before i just need to add more level

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Ik this is a late response but that makes my heart warm

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I prefer microwaves to warm up my cardiac muscle

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First off, I have many questions…

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Don’t ask any of them, just b leave it be

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yo Ramshackle, Im about to make a ripoff of this forum!

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If I were you i’d also introduce a new style of reviewing so people have a reason to ask you as well. Also, it wouldn’t be a rip-off, many people have already done a reviewing forum already.

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oh welll peeple probaly want another perspective anyways right? :thinking:

The long overdue: Rotatio by @hihilogic

Art 6.7/10: Smooth animations, cool textures. This game has some great graphics! There isn’t one single object that I can say looks bad. It all looks pretty good, just not good enough to be higher than I gave you. Overall this is a very good score, and there isn’t a lot I can critique.

How well the game fits the style 7/10: It fits very well! The gameplay clashes directly with the art and it doesn’t feel overdone. Pretty basic, but in the context of this game it fits very well. The background can be a little too flashy and draw your attention away from the game, but it’s not bad enough that you have to change it.

Gameplay 5.5/10: pretty basic, the different type of asteroids and space debris help liven it up a little bit, but it’s nothing game changing or new. Just a basic game with a basic structure, which I’ll add isn’t a bad thing.

Game overview:






(I know it’s a really low high score, this screenshot was taken on my 4th try alright >.<)

Enjoyment 7/10: I didn’t find my self gawking at the intense gameplay or anything, but it does what it set out to do and it does it very well. I had a ton of fun playing this game, and it does feel like something I would be willing to play to pass time.

Difficulty Varies: I couldn’t give it an exact point since it seems to vary every time I restart, but it’s not crazy hard. Definitely not easy, but not the worst

Story 0/10: N/A

Sound Design 6/10: Pretty good, from what I can tell none of these are flowlab tracks, and they work very well! It looks like you had indie at the time of creation because of the full screen and custom background. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if you made these tracks yourself, I’ve seen your thread of music going around and I must say it is pretty impressive. The other sounds are also pretty good, nothing mind blowing but it’s good.

Title 7/10: I thought a 7 was fair, it does mean something and isn’t just to sound cool. A mixture of the words rotate, and ratio. Which both have a meaning in the gameplay itself.

Originality 7/10: I think I’ve seen one other game like this on flowlab, but I can’t remember the name, but everything is pretty new. You didn’t make up your own style of game or anything, but you sure did make it your own.

Game feel 5/10: Not something I thought about much while playing, but it does feel relatively smooth. Not a whole lot that I can expand on here, but I think it’s pretty self explanatory.

Creativity 8/10: Not something the game lacks. The clever transition to the game itself, the unique sprites, the…oh wait DWG said something…

Yeah alright, cool :laughing:

Anyways, this game is packed full of cool ideas and fun designs. I especially love the player, they look great from the side!

Overall 5.92/10: Great fun game, I had a good time playing it. You stuck with a simple premise and made a pretty cool game, and now I’ll have the name “rotatio” permanently stuck in my mind…wait Galactian said something

I can agree with that…aaaaand he replied again

yeah, totally!

How come this thread dies until I start typing :laughing:

Anyways, @hihilogic amazing job and I can’t wait to see what’s next

Reward: A cookie


That’s for my name in the credits :sweat_smile:

(Yeah, I had to brag about it)

4 Likes

@John_Shrekinson I thought I’d give you the choice since it’s your game. I can either review The Game: 420 right now and it be a little shorter with not as much play time, or I can give you a full review tomorrow. Which would you prefer?

3 Likes