Score: 1
"Lightweight and Flawed"
date: January 15, 2009
Your flash consists of a maze in which you move the mouse around to avoid the walls. It isn't long at all and has very little replay value. It can be completed in less than a minute and is hardly entertaining. It was only thanks to the review by kevind1989 that I found the expert levels which was more of the same - extremely repetitive.
It feels ugly to play and there's just no fluency to it. There are no moving obstacles to avoid and the game is far too easy. Try making animated objects that lead to defeat upon contact with the mouse and offer levels with variety to break up the repetitiveness of the gameplay and add replay value.
The graphics were terrible. There was nothing animated at all. The details were very little {although the blue lines had a nice blue texture to them.} The podiums were also a little colourful and it was nice to see a torch that shone a red light.
But the yellow text is barely readable and the face, although drawn well, looks more worried than happy. The intro screen just reeks of laziness and there is nothing that shows me that you have any skill or determination to make it look, at least, acceptable - your presentation is just dull. Here are some very basic suggestions...
- Make the lines straighter {they don't all have to be straight though.}
- Add more exciting things to avoid such as animated objects {even lines or simple shapes would really boost this game}
- Add more colour. A white background is just amateur.
I cannot comment on sound because there is none. It's a shame because sound is really important for games. Most games that have simplistic designs have one or two sound effects which work really well. Sound makes gamers more alert and stimulates enjoyment in what they are playing; a lack of sound greatly damages the experience. My recommendations are...
- Find some music. There are a lot of good audio suitable for games like this in the audio portal, look on the top yellow bar for a link to it.
- Add sound effects. {Try making your own with a microphone or download "freecoder" and take sounds from whatever comes out of your speakers}
- Include sound effects for "wall collision" and "next stage".
- Make sure your audio choices suit the atmosphere of the game.
I have also found two major flaws.
%u2022 You can easily cheat by right clicking then moving your mouse over on the face and re-clicking.
%u2022 The password system does not seem to work
Overall the game is lacking many {even basic} things. Add depth to the gameplay and also add lots of detail. Remember to create animated objects in your next submission. The aim of any work on newgrounds is to create an experience and entertain us. Don't blame anybody else for failures; instead look to those with experience to help. There are guides and tutorials scattered across newgrounds {try google too}.
I can't feel excited about your work because it needs major improvements. Your genre of game is limited, but it can be many times better than this. I would love to see your efforts in your next submission though {pm for a review on it} so work hard and I wish you luck.
* { 1 - 10 } - "Bleak"
