Score: 10

"Unconventional math made into a fun game?!?"

submission: Rings and Sticks

date: February 28, 2007

Wow. I never would have even considered tapping into binary trees for anything other than searches for word games. Here I am looking at all other aspects of game design to try to come up with some compelling and unique idea (compared to the usual "take this format and tweak it slightly" most web game devs are taking nowadays, that even I kinda got sucked into), and here you are and find something in math that hasn't already been used in tons of video games out there (physics, particle motion, magnetism, orbits, etc) and turn it into a unique and challenging puzzle game. Huh.

Seriously, I haven't seen a game so different on this site since... well, I guess since your Blockhead game, but those have been the only two in a good year or two, at least. Even triachnid was just "ragdoll physics with drag and drop sticky legs"

Score: 6

"Needless drag and drop got really annoying."

submission: 3rd World Farmer

date: February 28, 2007

I don't understand why I needed to drag and drop each item onto a square on the board when it didn't make any difference where it was on the board. I should just have to click on the icons and they pop up on the nearest available spot on the board. And if they accidentally misclick once in awhile, offer an 'undo' button. That way over the long term, you're saving people a loooot of extra strain on their mouse hand while playing your game, strain that isn't necessary in the first place. It also saves time and the ocassional annoying stopDrag() that's off by a couple pixels thus counting as a cancelled action.

Personally, that really interfered with my enjoyment of the game.

Everything else, though, looked pretty good, and the concept was interesting, although it didn't look like there was any real way you would ever be completely wiped out if you diversified, but maybe I just didn't get that far yet.

Score: 4

"Proof that game developers shouldn't rush sequels."

submission: Pandemic: EoM

date: February 25, 2007

I've had the sequel to my Proximity game in the works for over a year now, after yet another year of sitting on the idea and letting it percolate in my mind on what could make the game a better experience. I have actually waited too long, as people are starting to forget the original game.

However, making (and releasing!) a sequel only a month after the original obviously is too short of a time to wait. This game suffered from fuzzy graphics, making things more complicated for the sake of being more complication than actually adding a better game experience, making things even more reliant on chance, and a modified GUI that obstructs part of the playing field. Letting this game sit for a little while and taking a look at it every day without actually doing anything to it before releasing it would have revealed that these are obvious problems interfering with people's enjoyment of the game.

I highly suggest to the game author to have more than one series in the works, so that he can alternate between them (and ocassionally add a new series) before working on the sequels to one of his earlier games, that way his mind can work subconsciously on the problem of what needs to be done to improve the game instead of just immediately latching on to whatever suggestion sounded appealling in the reviews left on the previous game.

The demand for the game will still be there after the wait, and you'll still get a good amount of sponsorship money (if that's what you're worried about) once you actually get around to making the game. In fact, you might even get more money for the game, and you don't risk ruining the reputation the series has made in the process.

Two years can be too long in the web game world (although not necessarily). Nine months is probably a good time to wait, though, and get it out after a year. Just imagine, if you put out a sequel to this game year after year, every year, the game would end up having about 20 more sequels than even the most prolific commercial game series get. You don't need to rush yourself that much.

Score: 6

"Interesting Idea."

submission: De-Monstration

date: November 4, 2006

The concept is interesting, very interesting, but I can't figure out exactly what the rules are or how to determine which path the tile will follow for the life of me (it also seems like no matter how many I capture I'm doomed to retaliation anyway, and the retaliation tends to be larger than what I manage to take). If you could make that perfectly clear, you might have something worthwhile here.

Score: 9

"GAH!"

submission: Wadeangry: Devprev 0.3

date: October 24, 2006

Somehow you have managed to con me into playing this demo 4 times over the past year, and each time I think you might have added a little more to it, at least another room, but each time it's still the same damn demo! Uni must really be taking up ALL of your time, ain't it?

It's really good, and I want to see more. Probably the only web game I've been anticipating in quite some time (besides my own, but that's my own lazy fault :P). I hate that I have to keep waiting to play more.

Anyway, best of luck to you on getting this done. Hopefully by releasing this demo some of these guys will give you some suggestions that will help you make it even more awesome.

Score: 7

"Really hard to associate movement with the mouse."

submission: Trick-O-Treat-O-Tron

date: October 24, 2006

It took a lot of mental effort to make sure that I was dodging with my mouse and aiming with the keyboard, especially with the movement reticle that makes you think it's an aiming reticle. I think it would have made a lot more sense to do it the other way around, personally, and that way you could aim in 360 degress also, or at least get rid of the movement reticle and have the movement almost directly pertain to your mouse movements.

I kinda got used to it, but it screwed with my brain and made it too uncomfortable to play for very long.

Other than that, it seems very well made. I hope it does well.

Score: 10

"Very clever."

submission: Bee Commando

date: September 27, 2006

The style and concept are both very interesting. Kinda makes me want to make less abstract games and more cutesy character based games. The Risk aspect of the game was a bit confusing at first, though (I figured I could move troops and fight battles at will, not only be able to fight once every few turns, but I figured it out soon enough). Of course, I could have checked the help button, but who does that? :P.

I especially like how the gameplay encourages patience and looking for an opening, since if you play super aggressively the computer will take advantage of it and take you out before you get to take it out. A refreshing change of pace from most games.

Score: 10

"Really Interesting..."

submission: Newgrounds Hold'em

date: September 5, 2006

...a really interesting take on a game that's still popular but has a million versions of it out there. Makes it pretty interesting to be able to bet on ANY of the hands and try to maximize your return, giving it a healthy sense of strategy.

Score: 10

"Pretty addictive..."

submission: Ragdoll Avalanche II

date: August 29, 2006

I really like how the ragdoll flung around the place kinda like he was breakdancing, made it fun to just make him look all cool while doging the stalactites.

And because the guy is fun to control, it made the game fun to keep replaying and try to do better with also. Also had a good difficulty curve, it doesn't stay too easy for too long like a lot of other games on this site.

Overall good job. Very simple, but it works.

Score: 8

"Really long, not enough variety."

submission: Aqua Slug

date: August 24, 2006

Pretty good remake with a different theme, very pretty, good controls (although the guy moves too sluggish ...hah, sluggish, GET IT?!?!... for my liking), and I can definitely see a marked improvement in you AS skills, but the levels are waaaaay too long (longer than the original Slug) and simply don't have enough variety to them. You kill a bunch of kids with a few different weapons, or hot air balloons, over and over and over again. It'd be one thing if they had challenging A.I., but they don't.

Metal Slug never felt boring because they mixed it up with new things several times each level, and they knew when to end a level to boot. I musta gone through 40 screens before I hit the end boss in this one. Crazy.