Cyberdevil's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cottonball]

This was way more difficult than I thought it'd be! XD The long 'Game Over' transition (though very very cool and atmospheric too - is that your own voice?) takes a bit aggravatingly long time after the first few times you hear it, but otherwise this was pretty fun, smooth, responsive, well-animated... maybe you could add in a shortcut key for quicker restartin'? ;)

Would be cool with medals or a highscore table too, that way there'd be a meaning to actually trying again and again, as it is there's no real incentive to grind on further other than unverifiable braggin' rights in the reviews, with no way to win or otherwise reach an end in the game (I assume, at least). Either of those or both would add meaning to it all. If you need help adding medals or scores just lemme know, I do have some experience with that.

Fun stuff overall; fun to see you making something for this Jam too. :) Keep it up!

-cd-

Nabella responds:

Alright, good news. The "Game Over" transition has been trimmed down from 12 seconds to 6 seconds, so now restarting should be quicker. The "Game Over" voice isn't my own, but a royalty free recording I found and edited to be deeper and have a more dramatic pause. Also, I've added mobile controls! So now you can play Cottonball while playing a YouTube video in windowed mode on your mobile device! Hooray!

̶I̶'̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶c̶o̶r̶e̶b̶o̶a̶r̶d̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶5̶3̶x̶y̶8̶3̶4̶5̶7̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶p̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶N̶G̶ ̶F̶l̶a̶s̶h̶ ̶A̶P̶I̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶b̶b̶o̶r̶n̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶I̶'̶v̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶e̶w̶e̶d̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶e̶n̶d̶.̶ ̶W̶h̶o̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶s̶.̶.̶.̶
Alright the scoreboard is working now.

I do have plans for more small Flash submissions, but whether or not they're finished on time is ultimately going to be up to me and how well I can apply myself.

[Driftmania]

Difficult but fun. :) Reminds me of the good ol' Micro Machine games, with the drift element mixed in; a bit more of a challenge. The 'mania' part maybe in homage to the Trackmania games? Seems like this'd require a similar amount of practice to perfect, getting Silver on all tracks was challenging enough, Gold... I think I'll leave that be for now!

Love the design; gameplay; progression with the level designs too, progressively both all the more difficult and all the more creative. And the garage is a fun little addition for continued play.

Had a blast with this, nicely done! Ghost mode really is a big feature too.

-cd-

[NG BBS Awards 2023]

Glad to see the death of General didn't kill this tradition! Props on both keeping it alive and continually innovating with these, new interfaces always, and I'm glad you're back to Flash no less. :P Oldschool and dope too, appreciatively plentiful medals, an unexpectedly somber but honorable add-in with the obituary book on the left too...

Always a highlight with these, nicely done.

-cd-

[Hex Character Maker (Update)]

My hairstyle doesn't seem properly represented here, nor facial features, nor clothing, nor anything really. :P But lack of realism aside tis a fun gadget. A decent amount of choices; great visuals. Fun to use.

Would be nice with some more accessories for sure, and if possible maybe you could add in an NG API connection to let users save their characters here as 'user creations' on the game page/their profiles? Would give it a whole new layer of community/longevity.

Nice work; keep it up!

-cd-

Snow-Hex responds:

Thank you very much for the feedback! and I'm sorry you can't create a Hex that looks like you, yet hahaha, I plan to include many things depending on the support the Hex project receives both here and on Itch.io, again thank you very much. 🍑

[Chroma Wheel]

This was great. Addicting, challenging - at the highest level especially - easy to get into but hard to master, as any good game should be...

I love the game over swirl transition too, interestingly enough even the most unwanted phase of the game almost becomes rewarding with that.

Good stuff.

-cd-

[R&C: Advent Chickendar]

Working my way through these too, in parallel with the new. The resolution may be smaller, and animations a little simpler, but equally fun. Nice to see all the re-occurring characters too, and how they differ between these.

Hope this becomes a long-lasting tradition in time! ;)

-cd-

[Cannon Block Ball]

Frustrating at times but also appreciatively rewarding. :) The mechanics are intuitive, the obstacles varied, the coordination challenging. Love the music. Groovy, soothing when the frustration lingers, it changes up refreshingly often too...

Suppose grueling sessions of Angry Birds earlier might've prepped me for this, apart from level 18 I didn't get stuck on any one level all too long.

Good fun!

-cd-

[Advent Chickendar 2023]

Heeey, a @Cyberdevil shout-out on the very first day! :D Appreciate it man. Think I'll be tuning into this one daily now, didn't realize you had an alternative Advent calendar going on too...

Idea's silly but fun, interface simple, content extensive, it seems... shall tune in all days always! Hopefully. On the days in question.

Fun little routine morning session.

-cd-

[Flash Stickman Tutorial]

Seems like not all menu items work here yet? It's a good start, but not really complete, IMO version 1.0.0 would typically be a complete version, this seems more so version 0.1.0. ;) The last digit would just denote fixes/minor changes, the first one major releases, the middle's more for progress like this.

Keep it going though! Good start.

-cd-

yoj20500 responds:

Yep :)

[Lava Joe]

Visually this looks great but... the controls feel a little clunky. Maybe hit areas give that impression too. I keep for example walking off platforms into lava, attempting to jump onward too late, or jump into snails above me when I jump on the shells of snails on a level below. That you need to bounce on them multiple times seems counter-intuitive, but maybe it's something you get used to. Sometimes it feels like the main character and enemies are both just too big for the level design; complicate movement and coordination.

At least on a couple occasions it seems you can just fall off the screen and not get back, like for example on the second level, with the two golems guarding a treasure chest, if you just jump over the ledge to the right of them... and restarting at this point restarts the level from the beginning. No way to just get back to the last checkpoint. Also a little annoyed with how music doesn't stay off if you toggle it, but starts again with every new level or restart.

For some reason I don't seem to be getting the medals, is there maybe a tier you need to reach for completion, in regard to points/coins on each? A need to open chests at least?

I like the concept and design, it unfortunately just doesn't feel that fluent or fun initially, looks great, play feels like it could be optimized further...

-cd-

poolfish responds:

Thank you. I have no clue why you can't unlock the medals. As soon as you complete a level and click on the Continue button, a medal gets unlocked, no matter if you got the highest number of points, or opened all chests. So far 21 users unlocked the first medal, 4 users the last medal, including me. But you must click on the link "Click here to save medals and scores!" at the bottom of the title page to grant me permission to unlock medals under your account, and post high scores to your account. If it still doesn't work... sorry, I can't tell you why.

I could reproduce the bug in the second level "with the two golems guarding a treasure chest." Yes, you can fall off the screen on the right edge. I fixed this.

Players always crave for challenges, so why not jump on enemies several times and "dance" on them?

The hitboxes are all OK in my humble opinion. However, if you are on a jump-through platform, you can get your player down by pressing DOWN, and if yout hit the DOWN key accidentally, you may get the impression that the platform's hitbox is not working because the player may fall off the platform directly into the lava beneath.

Timing is everything in jump and run games, so I don't get why seasoned players are overwhelmed with "complex" situations in my game. The enemies' movement patterns are super-simple and predictable, patrolling from left to right and back. There's always a higher position where you can jump down onto a golem's head. Of course, I can jump into snails above me when jumping on snails below me, but in order to avoid this I patiently step aside, wait until the snails above moved away, and then jump on the snail one level below. A picture is worth a thousand words, so therefore I made the walkthrough videos to show how to master each level.

That you can't turn off music permanently is indeed annoying. Maybe I fix this in a future update. At the moment I'm busy with another project.

Anyway, thank you for your review and kind words.