Top-of-the-line reviews! (The Crigence Critique)

The reawakening of the reviews category.

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This game has already firmly planted itself as one of my favorites, but it has its share of flaws. First that comes to mind is this games visuals (Not the art style, I love that). There’s a significant lack of detail both in visuals and gameplay, but apart from that, this game has earned its 4/5!

+The music in this game is absolutely exceptional (When it loads)!
+The keyboard controls on the main menu are epic (Even if the mouse input is undercooked because of it)!
+You know a game has banger music when there’s a soundtest on the main menu!
+This games art style is oddly comforting, looks incredibly similar to One Shot
+I love the creative way of displaying health via pumpkins!
+That big, red square around the player is confusing at first. Until you realize you can click anywhere in that radius to attack! VERY well done!
+Ramps are a small touch, but they’re a good one!
+Skeleltons get more aggreesive after the first strike, forcing you to finish them off. Clever
+The abundance of soundeffects gives this game life!
+The level variety is great, no 2 levels feel the same

-I get into the game, and the logo screen immediantly gets covered up by “Game art did not load correctly”. Flowlab as ususal
-The jukeboxes controls are unintuitively displayed. This can be fixed easily by putting “W” and “S” above and below the track number respecively!
-That incredible main menu is immediantly undone by the games opening cutscene. The cutscene itself is good, but there is 0 indication on how to continue to the next slide (It’s “Enter”, by the way)
-The game DOES NOT even come close to how good the cutscenes look. It’s empty, dull, and blocky
-By default, I couldn’t jump high enough to reach certain platforms. You can blame that one on Flowlab buggyiess, though
-For some reason, concrete has 0 friction. Don’t ask
-The chandeliers are well made, but it would be nice if there were more effects surrounding when they reappeared
-You don’t die immediately on spikes, allowing you to casually FLOAT above them
-The birds don’t die, but you wouldn’t of known that if I didn’t tell you!
-This game fails to capitalize on that feeling of “YES!” when you complete a level due to the boring, lazy way they end
-I can think of SO many ways to improve the fire in the secret labs finale!




Scores (Scale of 1/5)

:eye:Visuals - 4 (LOVE this art-style, dislike the games visuals)
:speaker:Sound - 4.5 (Does wonders for the game)
:books:Story - 3 (Mediocre)
:joystick:Controls - 4 (Well-made all around)
:anger:Difficulty - 4 (It’s no cake-walk, which is nice)
:gear:Stability - 3 (This game is quirky in more ways than one!)

Final Score: 4/5
Gameplay is solid and the sound is exceptional, but the game needs more detail everywhere else!

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it not done but here you go no audio or story yet

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Ah yes: https://flowlab.io/game/play/1590822

All of the flowjam games, lol.

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Wait, all of the games submitted today are ALL of the Flowjam 2021 submissions? Huh?

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At least thats what I make of them Except for Wilder’s Creation/

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Thanks for the amazing review! I’ve elaborated on my thoughts regarding the review in the topic for Wilder’s Creation :smiley:

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nope, from what ive seen not close.

Well I meant ShadowGaming’s, edwardi’s and my games are for the flowjam. That’s what I meant earlier. Which were most of the games submitted on this discussion today.

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The Reviewing Renaissance has begun!

And I cannot be more happy about it!

Flowlab reviewing started with me, and currently I seem to have (Somehow) brought it back. As someone who embraces competition, I welcome the new reviewers to the practice!


Here’s a list of the new reviewers who stepped up to the plate (In no particular order):

@MetaNinja


@Benicheen:

@LukeW:

@edwardi:

@wibu_s_game:


“The more opinions, the greater the outcome!” -@rcreger

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@edwardi


Overall: This game is clearly VERY early in development and lacks layers of polish in every direction. The controls are aggravating combined with the hitbox bug, the game feels like it needs a story but doesn’t have one yet and sound? What is that supposed to mean? Honestly, you probably shouldn’t of submitted it until it was later in development

+The style of this game stays consistent throughout, at least I can give it that
+The weird “Shower head” form of attacking is certainly unique. I can’t say iv’e seen anything like it

-Immediately upon booting the game, we get a boring, black menu screen with some horrible color decisions thrown in for good measure. VERY bad first impressions…
-Upon loading into level 1, you’ll realize 2 things: 1. The lack of sound on the main menu was due to laziness and 2. The movement is glitched to hell and back.
-The players hitbox is behind where you actually look like you are, making doing anything far harder than it has to be!

*Apparently, level 1 was MEAN’T to be impossible since level 2 doesn’t even exist yet.
*This game NEEDS a tutorial, otherwise players are going to have no idea how to get past level 1 without cheating




(Credit to @rcreger for lending me a hand in quality checking this section)


Scores (Scale of 1/5)

:eye:Visuals - 3 (Boring)
:speaker:Sound - 1 (What sound?)
:books:Story - 1.5 (This game NEEDS a story, but I couldn’t find one outside the opening line)
:joystick:Controls - 1.5 (Boring, without polish)
:anger:Difficulty - 5 (You’re fighting with the controls constantly, so yeah)
:gear:Stability - 2 (The MASSIVE bug relating to collision is inexcusible)

Final Score: 2.5/5
Iv’e seen worse, but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t seen FAR better…

I didnt get to read it why did you delete it

I’m waiting for Browngr to give it quality assurance first, I’ll revoke the deletion when he’s done

Aye (no enemy sprites yet, kinda laggy on chromebook) https://flowlab.io/game/view/1591271

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Hello! First submission here; my first ever complete game, which feels weird to say after having been on here for 2+ years hahaha

Join your Plague Doctor in Olive Green rags (for some reason, Browngr makes weird aesthetic choices ok) on a journey to find the cure to the plague! Your patient has given you a magic wand that you can use to manipulate plantlife and nature with, like water and the malicious Evil Ivy!

Go through exciting adventures through Willow Woods, Cold Caverns and Peaceful Plains, all out on your lonesome and surrounded by the animals of Westria!

Enjoy your adventure! Now go get that cure, Doc! You’re running out of time…

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@ShadowGaming


What can I say that hasn’t already been said in the notes? It’s a fun, charming game with an already varied series of minigames - But it needs more; More visuals, more variety in-minigame, more minigames themselves! Apart from that, I’d say this rivals Pixel Sports for best minigame collection on Flowlab!

+OK main menu, but the middle of the wheel not being the center of rotation makes me feel like we’re watching a run-away Ferriswheel (In slow motion)

-No mouse controls on the main-menu? Was is this, DOS?
-Immediantly upon pressing that succulent (2) key, you’ll realize the developer was too-lazy to make a new menu so it’s just a copy of the last, admittedly good, menu.

*I’d say “Good music!” if i didn’t already know it was just remixes of Mario Party songs. At least TRY to be original, man!


+Snowman Arena is an all-around fine minigame, with fun and choatic gameplay. But some random map elements would go a LONG way towards making it funner, along with different types of snowflakes!

-Garbage-ass name, no variety


+Balloon bash is a button masher, which makes it devisive for one, and identical to the billions of other button mashers for two.

-If this minigame was removed, would anyone miss it? (PS: Ballon has no cord, fix it)


+Rhythm Road certainly does a good job at getting the player hooked, but NEEDS more going on visually!

-Varying scores? What are those!? Our brains work in binary here!


+All-in-all, i love where this game is going and its aestetic, it just needs far more of it!
+Charming as

-These games and their win screens NEED instruction menus badly, I shouldn’t have to glare down at the description to see what to do beforehand!
-Lacks options, both in character and in difficulty. At least allow for harder CPU’s!

*"(1) Coming soon" Ah yes, the perks of reviewing a Flowjam game…




Scores (Scale of 1/5)

:eye:Visuals - 3.5 (I like where it’s going)
:speaker:Sound - 3.5 (Needs originality)
:books:Story - 3 (It’s a party game, stories’ not needed here)
:joystick:Controls - 2.5 (Meh, needs work)
:anger:Difficulty - 2 (The default CPU’s succ)
:gear:Stability - 4.5 (How can you have bugs with basic code?)

Final Score: 3.5/5
Good so far, just needs more of everything!

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Since I have announced the “Reviewing Renaissance”, 2 more reviewers have joined in. I’d like to give a shoutout to:

@BitWit:


@yogergitate

Welcome to the family, son.

Well, today, we finally hit the 1k view milestone (A quarter of what I had BEFORE Discourse but whateva).

This TRUELY is the Reviewing Renaissance

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@ManiacPumpkin


Let me give you some backstory as to why this game is so special to me: Upon my return to Flowlab a while back, one of the first games submitted to me was “The Facility”, a horror game I thought “Had GREAT potential from what I could see, but it needed more before I deem it a “Horror” game”. And this game finally has EARNED its genre as a horror game! Well done, ManiacPumpkin!

+Amazing first impressions, with a simple, yet effective menu featuring a blood stained cage, busted out from the inside and 1 word: “FLEE”
+The main menu isn’t done being bad-ass yet: For not only is the Start button interactive, but there’s even an amazing zoom-in and fade effect as well! Simple, but does wonders for immersion!
+The game is still on a roll - As the opening cutscene is concise, establishing what’s going on without even saying a word (Then it ruins the moment by doing so)
+The game never explains what you are, in-fact no-one would blame you for being incredibly confused when it turns out the little slime… Thing is the player. But both of these are great decisions in my opinion!
+The effect of kicking-in vents is a nice touch

-This game assaults you with 1 too-many dialogue boxes, especially when the game itself does a good job at explaining that for you. You don’t think the “E” above my head does a good enough job at explaining what VENTS do?
-Annnnnd immediately after your first vent, you see your first example of clunkiness. This part is fine if you head right first, but if you head LEFT first and get big enough beforehand it tells you you’re too small anyway!
-What even IS wrong with the boxes collision?
-The camera getting higher as you get bigger gives me a headache

–In the end: I couldn’t complete the game since, for whatever reason: One object had collision that shouldn’t. Ugh




Scores (Scale of 1/5)

:eye:Visuals - 4 (Superb atmosphere)
:speaker:Sound - 3 (Woo-ooo-woooo)
:books:Story - 3.5 (It’s mysterious in all the right ways)
:joystick:Controls - 3.5 (Does what it needs and not much more)
:anger:Difficulty - 2.5 (Sliding simulator)
:gear:Stability - 3.5 (And it was going so well…)

Final Score: 4/5
From what I COULD see before the box incident: This is a fantastic game, there’s VERY little I’d change about it apart from the occasional bit of clunkiness! Well done

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