Not gonna lie...

When you make a game be sure to have a decent looking menu page, because if it's not aesthetically pleasing to the eye people will take one look and say fuck this, and blam your submission.

And in many ways they have a right to do so, I mean if your running an ad for your game you're expecting an audience to use their free time to play your game.

If the layout is shitty, it leaves the impression you're just trying to profit by making shitty games, and think the player is brain dead enough to let you do so.

The thing is this isn't a good game with a shitty menu either, it terrible all round, the physics are poor, the controls aren't as tight as they should be (especially for such a simple game).

I wouldn't be as offended if you didn't run an ad, or at least tried to make the game look nicer, so a least I could see some effort.

Without those things, I feel I'm being used to garner you money for something that was slapped together in an hour.

Why would I do that when I could play someone else's game that was made with the actual desire and effort required to make something decent?

Sincerely,
- Celx
~Review Request Club~

Poor physics

Well, kudos for making the attempt, as it's your first effort at something like this. The main issue that I have with the game is that the physics of the ball is not dictated by where abouts on the paddle the ball is struck.

Look at various pong or air hockey games out there in the marketplace and you'll see that if the ball hits in the centre of the paddle, it follows the same extrapolated trajectory, as if it has just hit a stationary wall. If it's to the left of centre, it will bounce off at a different angle completely, with either a flatter, or more acute trajectory. What I would suggest is that you get this fixed, as it will really help the game to take shape.

Some games out there have the wacky idea of four paddles, one for each side of the screen. Perhaps this is your next move? What about something like powerups, or a time limit that you have to keep the ball "alive" for These sort of things can give you more of an original and appealing game, though Pong has pretty much been done to death, so you're likely to have to search elsewhere for inspiration.

The graphics weren't exactly inspired, though neither was it so crummy that I hated it instantly. A little more time will give you a better looking interface and exploring things like methods to make your buttons look better will always help you out.

[Review Request Club]

Hmmm

Nothing too interesting in this game. The idea of playing "solo pong" and not letting the ball getting out of bounds is interesting for the first few minuts, but after some time it becomes really boring.

You should also try to make some graphical changes. First of all the score is hardly visible, as it is black text on a dark background, which I woulnd't call "clearly visible".
Then the ball looked kind of odd as well. Maybe a simple white ball would work better here.

One bug that I discovered is that the ball bounces off the score, so you might want to fix that.

{ Review Request Club }

Bleh

To put it as kindly as possible, I'd say it's incredibly boring. I see you've added some music, made some changes here and there, and that's good. It really is. I can only imagine what the game was like when Jolly initially reviewed it, because he's a good guy, and I'm sure that was all true. Based upon reading his review, you've made some serious changes, and it made the game a lot more playable.

Things I've noticed:
1) The ball starts off incredibly slow. I read that before it started off too fast, perhaps there is a middle ground here? It was also at a very strange angle as well.

2) The high score table is pointless, basically. It's not only solo pong, but solo scored. I know a lot of game here use a certain high score table that includes everybody. Now, I can't comment on how to add this, as I am not a flash artist, and this game is probably better than I could do myself, but I would seriously consider figuring that out. At least then, we could all compete for high scores everywhere. Now that's some motivation.

3) I know it's your first flash and your using games factory, but the game isn't very rewarding at all. I don't fully understand the limits of the program, but I can tell you right now that this doesn't keep my attention very long at all. You want a feeling of excitement and accomplishment when you play a game, and this really doesn't fulfill either of those needs.

As far as pong goes, I'm sure you're pretty limited. The best thing you could possibly do with a pong game is to make the other paddle the computer, so you at least feel like you're playing someone. That and the high score table that includes everyone I mentioned before.

Other than those things, it's all you. For a first attempt, I'd say the revised version is playable. It's not overly horrid looking, and the music is pleasant. It needs some work still, but at least it's functional.

Keep it up, you'll get it.

-RRC-

Unique, but incredibly rough.

When I saw how the game is laid out, I thought to myself "How is this going to be any fun?" To my great surprise, this solo pong mechanic is actually a decent spin on one of the oldest video games around. Kind of sad that I'm playing pong by myself, but that's beside the point.

This game is riddled with odd stylistic choices. Why did you choose to have an "Are you ready?" screen. I get it, you might have thought it was funny, but it just comes off as a little unprofessional. Work those kinds of jokes into other parts of the game, like maybe the ball turns into an Angry Faic (from the BBS) if you replay when you lose.

Green text also looked kind of odd on the red background. It clashed too much and was generally unappealing. Consider putting the text in a colored box with a low Alpha value; it'll improve contrast and readability.

You have a very interesting concept. Work on presentation a lot more and have your friends take a look at it before you submit. Then you'll have a winner on your hands.

Review Request Club