hey if you’re getting to the front page games, I think A Stitch In Time could use a few upgrades before you review it. I’ll try to do a bit of work on it while you’re reviewing other games.
my biggest thing is that buying those upgrades don’t really effect the game negatively at all as long as you shoot the barrels in the caves. I’m thinking of turning it more into a “max time” instead of a “starting time”
+Despite the main menu being a screenshot, it’s a DAMN good screenshot! Even if it could use some particle effects to make it look more interesting
+The music is pretty banger, but that’s too be expected from a JR-01 game
+Not only is there a tutorial, but this game has one of the best tutorials on Flowlab
+The HUD is both stylish and out of the way, allowing you to focus on the game
+Special effort clearly went into making the game feel as fluid as possible, and it shows!
+The effort that went into making the terrain look good is clear as day! (Even if i wish they would use the Flip tile or random skins to make it look even more varied)
+The in-game timer and score system gives competitive players an excellent reason to come back to the game!
+The reset mechanic gives the player an amazing reason to press on!
-Surprisingly lifeless main menu… Huh, that’s honestly shocking coming from JR-01…
-The first impressions don’t get better after hitting “Play”, with 2 modes that you’d think would be done considering this was made in SUMMER
-The buttons are too-small for my liking. I feels like you gotta squint to click them properly!
-Wall jumping is bugged for me, that can’t be good…
-I can’t jump high enough to hit the anchor stations, either… I think Flowlab did it again
*In-case you need more of a reason to play this besides the fact there’s a god of programming behind it: @Baron_Wasteland did all of this games art!
Scores (Scale of 1/5)
Visuals - 4 (What IS there is great!)
Sound - 4.5 (Great music, good sound-effects)
Controls - 4 (Complex enough to require practice)
Difficulty - 3.5 (The momentum can provide a challenge)
Stability - 3 (The physics are COMPELTELY off from what they’re supposed to be for me, and you know what i blame)
Final Score: 3.5/5
Add this onto the list of games i can’t play because Flowlab can’t main consistency for 1 second
And it’s all made within a 2 week span lol, but glad you liked it @Crigence!
So a lot of the adjustments can be sprucing up the Title Menu, which was also pretty last minute in the FlowJam, as with the Tutorial. I can definitely spruce up the main menu though. I was actually planning to take out the game mode option for after you review it and start getting ready for a Demo release. But in long terms, I would like to add a Arcade mode and a level creator to the game but definitely no game modes will be added for a while.
Random Flip doesn’t sound bad, I could make areas look more distinct.
All the Art was actually made only by @Baron_Wasteland,
@PixelPizza was more of my beta tester and helped with the wall jump mechanic.
I actually just re-adjusted all the levels to work with Flowlab engine again (in which I also had to adjust jump, gravity and the level design). Some anchors are hard to get, and needs skillfully made jumps and ton of speed, which Anchor are you struggling with?
Wall Jumping is bugged?
The wall jump is actually designed to not stick on walls when close to the ground.
And there’s a glitch that goes to the green sprite just for a sec, but its pretty rare and harmless.
Could you explain more on this?
So a lot of the adjustments can be sprucing up the Title Menu, which was also pretty last minute in the FlowJam, as with the Tutorial.
The tutorial was last minute? I thought it was one of the better tutorials on Flowlab honestly!
All the Art was actually made only by Baron_Wasteland,
PixelPizza was more of my beta tester and helped with the wall jump mechanic.
I fixed the mistake in the review: It now says Baron Wasteland did that artwork instead of PixelPizza (I thought PixelPizza did the art because it just seemed like his style)
Some anchors are hard to get, and needs skillfully made jumps and ton of speed, which Anchor are you struggling with?
I can’t even get CLOSE to the tutorial anchor and speed does not change that. For reference on how low i was jumping: I couldn’t even climb up a simple 1 tile block!
Wall Jumping is bugged?
The wall jump is actually designed to not stick on walls when close to the ground.
And there’s a glitch that goes to the green sprite just for a sec, but its pretty rare and harmless.
Could you explain more on this?
I just slid off walls, i never “Stuck” to them at all! The only way i could tell wall jump was SUPPOSED to be a thing in this game is because of the placement of the coins in the tutorial
wall jump works fine for me
Welcome to the first of many Crigence QnA’s – Today i will be interviewing @MetaNinja about his game: Pixel Sports
[GENERAL QUESTIONS]
Crigence:
Firstly: -Any future plans after Pixel Sports? What do you plan on doing after the game is finished?
GalaxianGames:
After the game is finished, I plan on exporting it to Itch.io for about $5. You would still be able to play the Flowlab version for free.
After the game is exported, i will continue to update it with new gamemodes, more levels in the Campaign Map, and (perhaps) a new storyline that takes place after the one currently in the game. If I am satisfied with the success (maybe like 200 players or something like that), it may appear on GameJolt as well. Oh yeah, and with Steam, while it is unlikely that I will put the game there, it is not impossible.
-What style is the game going for? What is the theme here?
I’ve tried to replicate a similar art style to another Flowlab game: Color Quest. It was also what led me into game development in Flowlab. Of course, I have tried to incorporate my own art.
I also tried to make the game feel close to some games that appeared on systems such as the NES (although it evolved into it’s own kind of thing). The theme of the game art was to paint a colorful world.
-So you played some games on the NES and such? How did you play those games, original hardware or emulation and what games did you play?
I have a Nintendo Switch, and there you can play some emulations of games from the NES and SNES (if you have a Nintendo Online Membership). I often played the Mario Bros. games and a bit of Legend of Zelda. I did play other games, one of them being a baseball game (probably just called “baseball”).
-How would you rate your Flowlab “skills”? How good of a developer would you say you are?
I would say my skills are “decent”. Most of the time i figure things out on my own though. As far as I remember, I’ve only asked for help twice. There is some stuff that I am still learning, but that is a normal part of game development: learning. And since my games, especially Pixel Sports, have gotten positive reviews, including constructive criticism, I think that would make me a good game developer.
-How finished would you say Pixel Sports is?
I would say about 76% finished. I still need to add a few features, such as fulfilling a community-voted feature, and revamping some of the bosses. A local multiplayer mode is also on the list of things needed to be added.
-How long do you believe the game will take to finish? Any specific date?
At first, I assumed that Pixel Sports would be finished by the end of this year, but other projects, such as the upcoming Monster Maze, halted development. Now, the earliest that I can say would be December 2020. If not, either January or February 2021 would be deadline.
-What was your process on coming up with the games current story?
At first, the game wasn’t going to have a story. It was originally going to have one level, one sport, and one objective. I didn’t have much confidence in the game considering how poorly my past games did. But when my friends pushed me into continuing development with Pixel Sports, I decided to bring the game to where it is today.
If you follow up on my Pixel Sports Devlogs, you will see that the current story of Pixel Sports is a symbolic portrayal of my journey through development of the game.
-How complex is this game going to be on a technical level?
Big, but not too big. I realized that Pixel Sports has the potential to attract a young audience, with the cute looks of the characters and very little violence, so I want the game to be big, but not so-big that people are going to get lost on the menu.
As for on the technical level, I don’t want things to get too complicated with the behaviors. I want to keep things simple yet make it look like it was made by a developer who took their project seriously.
[PIXEL SPORTS SPECIFIC]
-Do you enjoy sports in real-life? Why do you want to make a sports collection?
I used to play Soccer, Basketball, and a little bit of American Football. Volleyball, which I will add to the game after it’s complete, is the sport that I currently play. Volleyball was the one sport that I got attached to, and to this day is my favorite sport.
I wanted to make a sports collection because I thought that sports games here on Flowlab were a little underrated, so I decided to show their true potential. I also knew that, since there were lots of people out there who liked sports, the game would also receive attention for this topic. My family especially loves sports, which also motivated me to make a sports collection.
-What gave you the idea to try to create a game that keeps players coming back daily… On Flowlab?
Some games that I played, from Drive Ahead! to Bloons Tower Defense 6, had daily loot bonuses, and I thought that they were pretty neat. I figured that adding a similar thing to Pixel Sports would encourage people to come back every now and then. It was also a sort of “thank you” gift for playing the game.
-The tagline of the game is “Where sports and cubes meet”, why are the characters cubes exactly?
There are three reasons why the characters were cubes
–
*Some of @Latif’s games had cubes as protagonists. Latif was a sort of role model for me, and that partly inspired my character design.
*Pixel Sports was inspired by Drive Ahead! (specifically it’s spin-off Drive Ahead! Sports) and Geometry Dash, with the latter having cubes as characters.
*To me, making cubes was easier than making human sprites. Every time I make human sprite, they always turn out weird, with too much hair or being too tall. Cubes aren’t going to be my only characters for my future games, however.
-Why are there bosses in a sports collection?
The Daily Boss was meant to be a tougher type of Daily Loot Bonus. But it kind of turned into a luck based gamemode, The Campaign Boss was a way to grant people extra rewards, but that too is luck based. This time, though, you need to be REALLY lucky in order to beat them. The Final Boss, which you get through the campaign, is the only one where you really need skill… and hours upon hours of grinding. Beating the Final Boss grants you TONS of rewards, including a free level-up and a secret outfit. A fourth boss is planned in the future, with a similar goal for the Final Boss.
-Are you REALLY going to attempt to somehow wove in a complex story into a sports collection and why?
Yes, I am going to attempt that, and I wanted to do that to expand upon the world of Pixel Sports, as well as tell the story that I mentioned before. I wanted to keep people interested in the game, and show them that there is a bigger world in this game.
-Can you explain to me what the “Vault” is?
It’s a secret.It is connected to the story, though, and is the only way to progress through the story. Find the vault, and you are a few steps closer to reaching the Final Boss, and the rest of the story.
I’ll give you a hint: try right-clicking things everywhere. There may be a hidden entrance.
-What the hell is the deal with Pixel Sports Dungeons?
It was meant to be a multiplayer spin-off of Pixel Sports, with a different level each day. Unlike Pixel Sports, though, this one is not going to be exported with the whole thing about multiplayer being limited to the website. It is still set in the Pixel Sports Universe, but it has a separate story that has not yet been established or brainstormed yet. Pixel Sports itself cannot include anything like this, i’ve tried making it this way, but it just ended up breaking the game. Players couldn’t move, the sports balls would not be summoned, and the Red Cubes would just be running in the opposite direction of the ball. At the time of these game-breaking incidents, I had to remove all multiplayer features in exchange for a separate game. Pixel Sports will have local multiplayer, so friends can still play with each other face-to-face instead of from different devices.
[WRAPPING UP]
-Has anyone on Flowlab been an inspiration?
As previously mentioned, Latif was a big inspiration for me, especially with the character design. @Pokemario, the user who made Color Quest, also inspired my overall art style for the game.
-And on that note, why use Flowlab and not some other game engine?
Flowlab was the simplest game engine for me to use, and was the first one I came across. It was also easy for me to access, straight from my browser. I plan on using Unreal Engine in the future, when I learn Java, but Flowlab is currently going to be the game engine that I use for many years to come, possibly even after I start using Unreal.
That was all the questions i had for our boy GalaxianGames. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for taking the time to participate in this interview and to thank YOU for reading this!
“1,722 words 10,502 characters”
That’s with me paraphrasing in parts and cutting out a question. JESUS @MetaNinja!
The interview took 2 hours as well, lol! 
I guess I had lots to say…
If you cant slow fall on walls, then that would be the whole problem you would have.
That is a main mechanic of the game, and is needed to make some of these jumps, including that anchor point.
I’ll show a video of how the Tutorial is suppose to be played:
https://youtu.be/SDPtd3zBcYc
Well i can’t slow fall on walls, and i also can’t jump high enough to get over a LEGO.
I’ll show a video of how Level 1 looks to me:
https://youtu.be/CRCG85NUdNQ.
That’s super weird, there’s several things wrong in the video. It’s like as if flowlab doesn’t work for you…
What kind of computer are you using and on what browser?
Not really. Iv’e been sounding the horn for a while that Flowlab is pretty bad at maintaining consistency across computers and iv’e been getting REALLY good at detecting when it happens
I’m using a gaming tower, as for the browser i use a modified version of Chormium but that shouldn’t really change anything
Huh, Flowlab has always worked fine for all the different computers and devices I’ve used
(including over 10 different PC’s, Android, and MacOS), I’ve never ran into this problem.
Do exports do this as well?
^^^ I too wonder about exports if this is an existing issue, since I’m planning to have Sol release on more PC store fronts.
This “ding dong darn virus” meme is underrated, i can’t believe it went under everyone’s radar
Hello, if you have the chance, could you review my game?
It has four complete levels and a full set of features:
Awesome! I forgot to mention one thing, some of the settings don’t work/aren’t set up yet. The fullscreen option doesn’t do anything because I have a free account as of right now. The death music and sound effects options don’t work because there is no death music or sound effects yet. Also, the “versus mode” doesn’t let you select it because it is a future feature, not available yet.
+The main-menu animation is pretty nice, not gonna lie
+Despite how i feel about the games mechanics, i will admit they ARE pretty in-depth and unique for a platformer game
+The cosmetics are cool, i guess, but i don’t see why they’re nessacary in a game like this
+The enemies reset with you when you die, which is a pretty nice touch
-I REALLY don’t like this trend of all games having max resolution
-Lazy main-menu. No sound-effects, doesn’t even tell you to press “Enter” to continue!
CORRECTION: Turns out the lack of anything but the logo was a bug… Huh
-The game as a whole seems a little cropped, everything is clipped off the edge of the screen a little!
CORRECTION: Turns out this is just what happens when you try to load Flowlab in F11 mode… Huh
–I was unable to jump for whatever reason, and so i couldn’t even get past level 1… I guess the games name is true after all?
–I cracked open the game to look at the coding, and it is sloppy as HELL! (And that’s coming from the guy who made Old Super Mario Bros!)
*All of this games platformer mechanics seem more-or-less like excuses to have lazy coding… But i can’t prove that so that’s why this isn’t a negative note
Scores (Scale of 1/5)
Visuals - 3.5 (Serviceable)
Sound - 3.5 (Not bad, not bad)
Controls - 4 (Surprisingly in-depth)
Difficulty - 5 (Level 1 is impossible to beat lol)
Stability - 2.5 (Bugs galore and no excuse for them being there!)
Final Score: 3/5
Man oh man, do i wish i could figure out what the hell is wrong with my Flowlab…
I have a couple of questions and notes.
About not getting past level 1. I don’t know if you missed it because of the cropping issue you had or just didn’t mention it, but you can click the “LEVELS” option and select levels at will.
Also about not getting past level 1. What exactly happened? Not being able to jump is not an issue I’ve ever encountered.
About the “lazy coding” platformer mechanics. Could you expand on that more? I know you said you can’t prove it so it didn’t count against me, but I would like to know what you didn’t like. And the “sloppy coding” as well, could you tell me some examples? Personally I think I did a decent job of keeping things organized, but I guess you feel otherwise.
About the main menu glitches. The problem with labels not appearing is one I have encountered before. As far as I can tell, when flowlab loads the game it sometimes “skips over” certain frames and triggers, and doesn’t correctly place all the labels. I have made fixes to the loading triggers, but it seems I will have to do more with that.
About the rating you gave for Stability, were there any bugs besides the title screen label loading issue and not being able to jump?
The cosmetics is just something I wanted to do as an extra reward for passing levels in different modes. Some people like to “unlock” things when they play games.
All in all, thank you for the review! I appreciate all the feedback and do wish you had had a better initial experience with my game.