Fall of Sarenta and Reviews

Posted by Castypher on Jan. 11, 2012, 11:04 p.m.

But first….

Like I said, I wasn't entering the contest, but I made something for it anyway. I put a lot of work into this little guy and now it stands as one of my "finished" games (though it could use a little touching up). As would any person who takes a little pride in his creation, I'd like feedback here and there. For those of you who haven't played it, give it a try. It's a platformer bullet hell, but it's winnable for even those who aren't accustomed to the genre. At the same time it's difficult.

I succumbed to the rush and threw a few of the attack patterns together. I feel bad about it, but I'm pleased with how some of the mechanics turned out. So if you can take a few minutes out of your day (30 at most, really), I'd like to hear some opinions. Story, art, music (with the exception of the last two tracks), gameplay, etc.

The download includes a quick bugfix of something that caused the game to crash. I think everything works now, after another overall game test.

Download

Much appreciated.

And now for the reviews.

Deep Freeze

It’s been a while since I’ve played a good puzzle game. While simple, it has some potential if expanded upon.

Pros

- Good idea, has potential

- Graphics were nice

- Music was nice

- Easy to learn

Cons

- Difficulty was too sporadic and leaned too far to the easy side in later levels

- Some later puzzles were so simple that a single click was enough

- No explanation that you could place tiles while the ball was moving

- Not enough elements to make it a truly unique puzzle

- Placing tiles during action was underused, and would have raised the difficulty

Epic Christmas

Quite a tough game, and it took me some time to get the controls down. Overall though, it was really a pleasant experience.

Pros

- Graphics were great

- Music was catchy, though repetitive

- Gameplay was nice and solid

Cons

- Some of the rabbits were a little bugged and climbed walls

- Sometimes you could stick to the corners of ledges

- Though they were hard at first, boss fights felt a little short and repetitive

- Controls take some getting used to

- Error at the end of the game (though it didn’t keep me from winning)

Eternal Winter: The Spirit Breaker

Despite its simplicity, it was pretty fun and different. It took me a while to figure out exactly what it was I was doing, but it turned out better than expected.

Pros

- The music combined with the concept was very entertaining

- Different than any minigame I’ve seen

Cons

- Particles are a little unfriendly to older computers, as they don’t seem to have a limit

- Level transition felt a little long and I wasn’t sure if the game had ended

Frozen

I couldn’t even get past the black demon thing. But aside from that it was nice and creepy.

Pros

- Unique graphical style

- Very eerie feel

Cons

- Movement is clunky, can’t climb ramps without jumping

- Character is stupid slow

- When the demon slows time, it’s almost impossible to pull out your gun

- Inability to run away during the time slow kept getting me killed by the demon

Jared the Friendly Pumpkin – Christmas Edition

As expected from Steven. Another epic addition to the well-known Jared franchise. Truly a must-play.

Pros

- Everything

Cons

- There are no cons

Kizuna: The Girl Who Saved Christmas

Purianite went all out here, and devoted a lot of time to it. Excelled in several areas, and has a lot of content.

Pros

- Level design was beautiful, and I almost wish this wasn’t an action game so I could explore with no interruptions

- Very friendly to people who aren’t used to the genre, as there is no game over

- SHOTFUN (I bolted for it even when under heavy fire)

- This is one of the better-looking GM3D games I’ve seen so far

- Music was very catchy

Cons

- You couldn’t detach the cursor even when alt-tabbed (silly GM)

- A little unfriendly to older computers

- Transitions could have used just a bit of work

- Final boss is a bit long and has little variety in the shots

Ogres and Elves

As a late entry, the game was made in about a week, and took a bit of a different approach. I found myself thoroughly impressed with some of the mechanics, though it could be rendered unwinnable.

Pros

- Very unique, I didn’t expect anything like this to be submitted

- Quite functional for the amount of time spent

- Upgrading music and graphics was an excellent twist, and made saving worth something

Cons

- Clicking to place an elf is a little annoying

- Switching behaviors is very tedious

- Ability to place whatever whenever makes the game very easy

- If you wait too long, the ogres pack up too fast and it’s too difficult to break through

- HUD placement forced you to scroll up, meaning you couldn’t watch fights

Persistence

I’m glad I didn’t make a survival game, because this was better that whatever I’d have made.

Pros

- The intro sequence made me laugh

- The idea was cool

- The day/night system was a nice way to make it feel eerie

Cons

- I’m not sure if you can even light fires

- Catching animals is goddamn hard unless they bug into a tree

- I couldn’t figure out what to do with my (the character’s) life

- Stamina depleted a little fast

Snowball Commander

This felt quite unique, despite being a missile command. I’m not sure how far the game went since I sucked at it so badly.

Pros

- The text effects on death were great

- Had some nice graphical effects to compliment the simple graphics

Cons

- None that really stood out

Super Snowball Fighters

Much more interesting than I thought it’d be. Had several great areas and very few quirks.

Pros

- The music had a great NES feel. If only the graphics matched

- Gameplay was pretty solid

Cons

- Terrain could have used a lot more variety

- Why do characters wrap around the screen?

- At the middle of the field, the view is jumpy

Surrounded With White

Had trouble installing =<

Transition

I would've loved to see a little more happen with this. I actually don't mind these sorts of games.

Pros

- Runs on Android!

Cons

- No effects made it a little confusing as to what happens

- Far too short

And if you haven't already, please vote, because the second round begins tomorrow.

Comments

colseed 12 years, 10 months ago

Well I guess it's nice to know I did something right in drawing stuff

but anyways

Quote:
- SHOTFUN (I bolted for it even when under heavy fire)
^this

JID 12 years, 10 months ago

Yeah.. the game was so last minute, we barely made the deadline, less than a few minutes after I submitted the game, you had posted the blog showing all of the games, lol.

Just barely made the deadline.

Also, if it wasn't for colseed, I doubt the game would have looked as good as it did. I am not satisfied with how the game turned out on my end, though. I never rushed to make something as much as I rushed to make that game before in my life.

Castypher 12 years, 10 months ago

No worries, it was your first entry. Now you know what to expect from future competitions so you'll budget your time better. I know I will.

JID 12 years, 10 months ago

I'm going to try to continue working on this game in the future though, I don't want to leave it in the messy state that it's in now.

Kunedon 12 years, 10 months ago

Quote:
- Why do characters wrap around the screen?
I personally thought it'd be an amusing idea to have it so that if a character is hit hard enough, they wrap around to the other side of the screen.

Unaligned 12 years, 10 months ago

Because they got hit so hard they went around the world.

Nice reviews. I still gotta try out your game though.

Iasper 12 years, 10 months ago

Actually, I added in shortcuts so you don't have to scroll up to click the buttons. Either enter or the spacebar (can't remember which one) has the same effect as clicking the turn button.

Acid 12 years, 10 months ago

Kilin, I voted your game as my #1. It is SO GOSHDARNED, HOOTIN', TOOTIN', GOOD.