The Pumpkin Previews (Closes until Further Notice)

Rules are quite simple, you post your game, I will then review it. Although, the grading will be based on a 10 point system which all of the points will be added up and divided by the number of categories and that will be your score.The current grading rubric is;

Game Art:

How well the art style fits the game or theme. I would prefer that you don’t use premade sprites because that’s literally lacking some imagination and might cost a few points alone.

Theme/Style: (Originality)

How well the style fits with the gameplay and how the theme is perfectly identifiable in your game. How easy is it to notice the theme or style in your game

Game Play:

Does your game bring a new age of modern gaming, does it include its one original play style. Even if your game is based off of another game, does it at least show that you made it your own or custom from the original? If you completely copy another game and has no exact new gameplay or ideas, this might lose a few points

Difficulty: (*)

This one is a recommended category, meaning when you post your game, you decide whether or not you want your game to be graded on difficulty. Although this would only apply towards platformers and rage games.

Game Features:

This includes like credits, a menu, extras, just some minor details that can help enhance your game. Although this can include other in game features so don’t worry if you don’t have a menu or anything, you can still get a pretty high score.

Story/Goal:

This includes the storyline, the main goal of the game, and maybe how cool the ending is. Although this one will mainly be based off of story or the main goal, having a cool ending can guarantee a pretty good score.

This is about all I can think of on a grading scale, if there is anything that you would like to see added then let me know.

Now to make this review forum a little different from most others. You may have noticed that there wasn’t a sound category, although sound is a major building block for many games, my device literally doesn’t play sound very well for some reason so I can’t really grade a 0/10 most of the time for there being no sound so i figured that I won’t accuse you of my computers mistake.

(Very Important!) When posting your game, make sure that it’s a more newer based game or something that hasn’t been reviewed much. This also rules out all Flowjam games. I just want to see something new because there were a few times when someone started up a new review, most people post the same exact games everytime and I kinda want to see something new. Now if it’s a game that you’re currently working on and you haven’t updated it for a few years, then I don’t mind. But if you post a game that’s been sitting on the shelf for a few years, I probably will still review it, but I would recommend not doing so. Also, because of my poor device, I can’t be able to play really huge projects (the main reason I can’t review flowjam games) cause my device won’t load anything in and if it does, it’s super laggy.

Sadly, I have to place some of these caps into place because I don’t want to disappoint someone after they submitted their game.

Note: This is my first review topic so I don’t want people to get the wrong idea or get upset when I do give them a low score, but I will include feedback on how you can make your game as good as some of the featured games and then let me know for a rereview.

Features/Earnings: I might have weekly or monthly contests on the best game submitted or just the highest score, but I don’t really have any way of giving out rewards or anything. I might use a badge or something that you can add to your game when you win or get a good score.

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You haven’t play-tested DoM in a while, so you could do that (I can’t share a link rn)

(if it’s too laggy for you go to “plains 1”)

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@ManiacPumpkin - I was going to request Pixel Sports, but since it’s a big game, and you said this:

… you MIGHT get a huge lag attack if you do decide to play the game, especially the beginning.

If you can’t do the review, that’s okay, I understand your situation, and I’ll probably just look for another game for me to request.

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Well, normally I would put my own game up on the chopping block… but it’s a heavy wip…
in case you want to give it a try on reviews, though, here is it: https://flowlab.io/game/play/1489850

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Yeah, do you want me to review it or just to play test it like I would normally do?

Also @MetaNinja I can try to review pixel sports, but there isn’t a big guarantee that I’ll get a full gameplay in.

Also @spencertheball I’ll get right on it soon, might be a few hours since I’m currently in school, but I should get it done by tomorrow.

a review would be nice

Alright @spencertheball here is a review for you:
Sorry @Ramshacklegamestudios, the reason I did spencer’s game first was because I new it was shorter, normally I would do first come first server, but I’m currently in school and figured that I could get it done really quick.

Alright so…
Game art:
The game art looked pretty cool, I like the fact that you are a space ship or UFO that flies around dodge it the bullets the from cannons, I’m glad that i didn’t see any premade sprites in there, but I feel like you could have added like a little bit more detail, mainly just some shading so I give you a nice 7/10 for Game art. I wanted to give a more higher score since I like promoting any art that others do, but I noticed that the menu had different graphics or looked different from the actual game so maybe sticking to one art style will help make the game look very professional.
Theme/Style:
Since it’s a bullet hell game, I can easily identify the theme, although there isn’t much of a style going on, I like the fact that your a space ship and you dodge bullets from cannons seems pretty accurate, I would recommend making the cannons apart of a more larger or four smaller ships that are trying to shoot you down. I will give you a 6/10 for Theme/Style cause there can be a little be more done, but overall I think you did pretty good for most games on flowlab.
Game Play:
I try not to go straight to 10/10 when I review something cause there can always be something more to be added, all I can say is that bullet hells games, such as yours, are very addicting and very enjoyable to play, I could play for hours on just the first demo, but I’m currently in school so I can’t, lol. I will give you an 8/10 for gameplay only because I feel you could maybe add more obstacles or maybe even shielded sprites that delete any bullets that touch it, giving you a safe spot for a few seconds. The other reason I took off a point was because every level is just a demo, and I can easily give you a way better score if you got those done.
Difficulty:
I know difficulty is a decision based categorie, but I automatically added it since your game is dicculty based and I would have to give you a 9/10 for difficulty. The bullets get very hard on each level depending on which demo you chose. The boss level gets super hard for the bullets are randomly spread everywhere and you can get trapped super easily and that makes the game super enjoyable so I’ll stick to a nice 9/10.
Game Features:
This mainly includes like features you can do outside of the actual game. I don’t like giving much of low scores, but some reviewers have different grading scales for themselves and I feel like this category is very important. Although it can be very easy in this category to get higher points like just a simple menu and credits would easily give a 10, but I would have to give you a 4/10 and mainly from being able to choose on of the four current stages that you have. I would love to see an improved menu. Although I can see a single game dev like yourself to not really have credits, but it can include people that you are inspired by or just an explanation of why you chose to make this game.
Story/Goal:
There is no story and the only goal is to just survive two minutes on each round. I’m afraid I might have to give you a 3/10 on this one, but If you added an objective or just a simple explanation of why you are out there surviving cannons, although most games aren’t story based so I won’t be too harsh on this.

I’ve played your game before and it was super enjoyable and your final score is 6.2/10. Some feedback for you is that you should, obviously, add some sort of story and maybe some detail on what the cannons actually are, like what I said up above is that they could be apart of one large space ship that has many rotating cannons on it that try to attack you or just a few smaller ones that attack you and maybe add why are they attacking you. I would also recommend adding some sort of background, maybe space, it can help break up the one solid color that you use which isn’t too pretty to look at and maybe a multicolored background and make it a little harder to add bullets and thus adding more difficulty and making it more fun, although this don’t at all have to be the case, most of what I say can be taken as examples that I think would look quite cool in your game and I can’t wait to see the finished result of you game.

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did you try the first boss fight? It isn’t finished, but the game is going to be a boss rush game because I like those and dont have enough level space lol.
I plan to add more bosses, audio, sprite reworks, a parry system, and more
Edit: I didnt read… you did try the boss, nice. Only two attack patterns, the first boss will be an easy one with 4 basic patterns

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@spencertheball when I played your game, I made sure I tested out everyone level, even though I played the first three many times, but heck yeah, I can’t wait to see what you do to your game in the future.

Also, I just to ask everyone if I’m doing a good enough job at being a reviewer, this is the first I’ve ever opened up one of these and I am mainly basing most of my work off of what others did and just let me know if I ever do something wrong, thanks.

This is wrong he said to me that he won’t play old games becasue he wanted to review new games so people could stop spamming thief games that have been revived a hundred times but this is also a good reason to.

I don’t think that my game is a thief game, so I don’t understand what you mean…

Well, its a game that he’s currently working on so I’m happy to review it, but he said that it was a big project so my device won’t be able to run it. Also I’m terribly sorry @MetaNinja, I apologized to Ramshacklegamestudios for doing spencer’s game before his and I forgot that you posted your game, lol. Well, I can only use the same excuse and that is that I reviewed his game in school and I didn’t have enough time to review a very large game, but I will get to that very soon.

Edit, I think he means *their games, not *thief games.

Ah okay, understandable.
image
I’m okay with waiting for me review, I’ve waited even longer for other things before, and I am quite patient.

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Alright @MetaNinja
So you were right about your game being super laggy, but I figured that I could push out a review of what I currently know.
Game art:
Absolutely beautiful! There were certain objects and stuff I wasn’t quite sure on, but I give you an absolute 8/10! It looked very good.
Theme/Style:
It’s the only game of that style on flowlab. Really well done, I loved the fact that there is a sad story behind it all, but the fact that you have to play sports of your choosing, which just the sports alone makes the game good, but the fact that there is a story is just really well made. 9/10
Game Play:
Although the gameplay is super fun, there are a lot of bugs though and mainly the fact that I couldn’t play much since it was really laggy, but I would have to say 8/10 mainly because of ai bugs, which I can’t really blame you, those are just flowlab mechanics.
Difficulty:
I didn’t decide to add difficulty since your game isn’t difficulty based.
Game Features:
10/10 easily! Starting up the game is so overwhelming cause there is so much to do like so many levels to choose from and everything.
Story/Goal:
I loved the fact that its a simple spots based game, but it also has a STORY! I will have to say 9/10 cause there are some details that can be added, but still very good.

Your final result is 8.8 which getting it to a ten (which it probably is already) will be very easy. The game was very laggy, but I can’t argue for such a really good and large project. Those who are looking for a good game, I highly recommend this one.

Edit, idk what happened but the last paragraph had a very confusing sentence so I fixed it.

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Thank you for the review @ManiacPumpkin! I’m glad that you liked the game.

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Ayyy, nice work @ManiacPumpkin - can’t submit A-Box though - both old and has tons of reviews. But I’ll check in here once and a while, and will definitely submit Sol when it’s out! Good luck, man!!

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Alright, yeah @rcreger I’ve played A-Box already and it was really good. Although, I couldn’t get past a certain part and it felt like repetition after a while (which might have been changed since I haven’t played it since the first time you updated it), and I think it would have gotten maybe a 9 or higher out of 10 for such a great concept for a platformer.

Also @MetaNinja sorry I couldn’t have put out a more planned out review, I typed all of that while I was in chemistry (Just cooking water and stuff, lol) also I couldn’t get a good gameplay in cause it was super laggy, but I can’t really blame you for that. Also I would have written more for your review, but it was so good that I couldn’t really give off any feedback or any features since it already included it all. I wish that I had played your game before cause that was actually the first time playing it, lol. And I have to say it was a really fun experience.

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@Ramshacklegamestudios I will try my best to get working on your review (Since you were the first one here, lol) and I should be able to get it by tomorrow night, the latest suggested so it might even be in a few hours till then. Also if someone else submits their game, I will try my best to get yours done first.

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