Half-Full-Games's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Underwater Salad]

You have the aesthetics down to a T, the artwork is cute for the veggies, home-esque for the bowl and spices, and the cutlery is consistent with each other. The music is nice and chill as well, making it pleasing purely from a sensory standpoint. However as a game is comes across as rather weak.

The controls are simple but sluggish, and the beyond guiding the veggies into a bowl there's not a lot of feedback for achievement since even once it becomes obvious the water is draining it's rarely pressing to get them into the bowl in-time so there's little incentive. It satisfies the basic conditions you need for a competitive game, you vs. the time-limit, a winning-and-losing condition. But the aesthetics from the artwork to the music make this feel more like a game for relaxation when it's not, especially if the game doesn't like the salad you made.

I want to wish all fellow game developers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Three Hungry Slimes]

Well done gameplay! The slime controls were simple yet functional and managed to capture each slime's individual strengths incredibly well. The level design was clearly thought out and enabled players to work around weaknesses in each slime that would've otherwise rendered a puzzle unsolvable, a job well done on the gameplay.

My only complaint is that the cannon sound-effects were rather overwhelming and repetitive when compared to the music. So you might consider turning those down a few notches. Overall an excellently made game.

I want to wish all fellow game developers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Tri Family]

The dialogue is fun and quirky, though uncomfortably stereotyped at times, and some of it paints an interesting story. Artwork, SFX, and music are all spot on.

The gameplay seems repetitive at first but introduced higher health enemies and new enemy types while gradually increasing the intensity of the waves does manage to keep things very fresh and enjoyable. One thing that strikes me as off for game-balance purposes is that Jr. is in a far more disadvantageous position compared to the other two characters, having to fend off two sides that are shorter distance at once while his parents only have to fend off a single long-distance path to them. It's rather telling that Jr. was the one I had to panic the most about, and how it was ultimately Jr. getting hit three times that ended the game while the parents I didn't have to stress about. You have a fun game but there's a stand-out weak link in keeping a fair balance in difficulty for the player.

I want to wish all fellow game developers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Trimage]

Aesthetically pleasing and absolutely playable. Currently the combat gets a little "one-note" with enemy mobs that don't really have variety and can reliably be defeated with the same combination of spells. While a "water-only" switch introduces us the possibility for puzzle elements it never really moves further than that. Should you expand this project in the future I think the best question to ask yourself would be along the lines of "I've got the mechanics I want, now what can I add to the levels to mix things up?" All-in-all you have a solid submission.

I want to wish all fellow game developers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Dust Bunnies In Space]

At first the single-mouse controls were tolerable but not desirable, but then when I noticed you had alternate control schemes in the menu my opinion of the game shot way up. Having some control over your gameplay experience is always a plus and speaks well of a designer who thinks to include them.

Music is pretty good and there's some good art, however the graphical glitches (the flashing black boxes) with the running dust bunnies and the lady in the tutorial is very jarring compared to the rest of what is otherwise quality artwork. I'm not sure if it's an animation problem or if it's something to do with masking, but it's worth looking into; while I've always been a "gameplay first, aesthetics second" kind of guy, obvious graphical problems like that can take you out of the game.

I'd like to wish all game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

Piggybank12 responds:

Thanks for the review! I'm glad I went through the trouble of adding some different control options to the game, even though I kinda wish I had done that in the first place instead of rushing to do it in an update, haha. I know I appreciate having those kinds of options in a game, so it made sense to put them in here too.

There is a noise effect applied on purpose to the lady in the tutorial (I thought it helped sell the idea of her being a hologram, heh) but I did notice the noise effect affect things it shouldn't on some machines. The effect is a WebGL effect, which this game also has quite a few of. I'd have to play around with the effects and see if I can either get rid of some of them, or even make an on/off switch for the effects to help the game run on slower machines.

This is all stuff I wish I had known or done in the first place, but since this is my first published original game, I guess I could only know so much before jumping in for the first time! Again, thank you for taking the time to let me know about this stuff!

[TEthreeS]

Interesting twist on a puzzle classic. My only complaint is that, as someone who almost never plays puzzle games, it took me a tick figure out how to spin the blocks. In design it's usually best to assume that not everyone will catch what you think is obvious. Still solid entry that succeeds what it sets out to do.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck on the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Colour Knights - C3Jam]

Has a very classic RPG feel that I appreciate aesthetically. I'll admit I've never been very good at bullet hell games and while I like the color-change for immunity mechanic it still gets ridiculous with enemies that frequently change their color, finally lining up a shot to hit them when they've already changed color. Not to mention no apparent gain for the random encounters. Still you have a playable game that's decent and could be fun.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

Primajin responds:

Thanks for the comment :) -
The random encounters were intended more as practice for the bosses than as a means to gaining exp or something similar.

[Three Days Before]

I love the background art and the music. And the minimalist character art works well for this game. Sadly I feel this game has fallen short on its potential both for story and gameplay. For the most part the quotes feel like they're just... there rather than being a part of the story, with really only the final quote that hangs over the finale really fully resonating with the story. By the time the quotes on the other sign posts catch up to the characters their impact has largely been reduced. I'd strongly encourage you to reinforce the quotes as we encounter them, be that in the gameplay or the characters around them.

Aesthetically I love the background art and the music, but the animation could use a little more smoothing out and a few sound-effects could help certain levels come alive. I like the theme of regret for the things you didn't do, that resonates with me a lot, I hope if you pursue projects like this in the future that you can polish this.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Feed Me and Get Out]

Aesthetically it's probably one of the better games I've played from the art, to the music, to the animations. But as a game it's gameplay is immensely frustrating as the random debris and giblets from enemies tends to completely block shots, sometimes even from point-blank leaving you at the mercy of enemies who by all rights should have been shot rather than saved by the pieces of their defeated buddies. Plus the cramped levels and lack of ability to aim even a little bit up and down further complicates the matter of the enemies.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!

[Get Creamed!]

Funny concept and simple gameplay... for the most part. I have to admit, compared to the two ice cream demons in the foreground the vanilla one didn't have terribly obvious tells which tripped me up more than once. Still the simple dodge and counter system for a short game was pretty fun, short, and sweet. Pun not intended.

I want to wish all fellow game designers and artists good luck in the Construct 3 Game Jam!