Reviews for Witching Hour

[Destinii-chan]

Mmm...

No offence, but this game is sorta so-so. The graphics and music are pretty phenomenal, and I have to say that for a split second as the music started, I thought it was by Nobuo Uematsu- yeah, I am seriously weird- but the gameplay itself could definitely do with a revamp. There's good old-school and bad old-school, and this gameplay is bad old-school. With the incredible sound and graphics, that could have been bearable if not for the fact that the enemies seem to just disappear in a puff of smoke as you shoot them. I'm not an advocate of mindless gore, but can't they fade away/shoot up/down off the screen?

WarpZone responds:

No offense taken. I was trying to squeeze it in under a deadline for a contest, while at the same time wrestling with a bunch of little gotchas caused by me being unfamiliar with AS3. I developed the graphics, downloaded the music from the audio portal, got all my ducks in a row stylistically, then... ported the whole thing from AS2 to AS3. Then I rewrote the graphics portion to include animation. Then I realized I couldn't make a preloader for it, and spent the last frantic days leading up to the deadline trying to find a way. In the end, I had to meet ArmorGames halfway on fullfilling the logo part of the agreement.

The puff of smoke was actually my favorite part, so I'm sorry you didn't like it. The whole point was that you're kinda dispersing the ghosts, not killing them. I actually wanted to do more with that special effect, but there were speed issues. I spent a couple of days just reducing it to the bare minimum so it would work on more than one computer.

My biggest regrets are the lack of enemy diversity and powerups. And it seems like everyone agrees with me. So don't worry. I've learned my lesson. Next game will be better. And I might rip the graphics from this and re-implement this game with my new AS3 engine, next halloween. We'll see.

[Malkontent]

The start of something interesting...

Obviously the graphics are the best part of this game. Oddly enough, a few of your enemys have better animation than your main character. I would have spent more time on her, expecting to get additional points for witch-cuteness. But I digress, the biggest problem with this game is a lack of challenge, and a lack of variety. Shooters extend their interest by becomming increasingly chaotic and populated with swarms of ever more dangerous enemys. Conversely the "lone attacker" becomes more powerful as she picks up additional power-ups, this ads an additional challenge in that the farther one progresses, the more hopelessly outclassed they are should they be killed. This game on the other hand gets boring very quickly, and all the hand-clenching animations aren't going to change that.

A typical rebuttal to this sort of criticism goes something along the lines of "But this is a lot of work! I don't see YOU making flash games." This is irrelevant quibbling. The vast majority of all gamers are not game designers. This doesn't change the simple fact that your entire goal is to entertain them.

WarpZone responds:

No, you're right. I really dropped the ball with the gameplay, and I don';t fault you for pointing that out.

The problem is I was learning a new version of Flash while developing it, and there were several conflicting design goals. Eventually, my goal stopped being to win the Halloween contest, and became simply to get the game finished in time for the contest deadline.

I consider this game successful only as a learning experience. As a game, you're right. It fails completely. Maybe someday I'll have time to revisit this project and perfect the gameplay.

[scotty117]

O.K.

the game was pretty easy. I won without dieing. preety easy. oh ya, those of you that are planning to play this game read this:

silver skulls: up and down

silver masks: straght

silver goblins: slow but straght

Giant silver goblins: slow straght and shoots

green masks: up and down that shoots

red goblins: circles that shoots

Siver scellitons: Bosses. soot two different ways: spread and straght. Depending on wich level you are on, is how manny times he will shoot.

Have fun(:=

WarpZone responds:

Protip: Collision with enemy shots will harm you.

[Dirpman]

Fantastic and beautiful

Graphics were grand and music was sweet almost like a soft Castlevanian touch.
A bit to easy and not much variation but very fun!

WarpZone responds:

Glad you had fun, despite the lack of depth. Castlevania wasn't really as much of an influence in this as you might think. It's just that MaestroRage's excellent symphonic stylings reminding you of just about the only other game out there that combines ghosts and classical music. Castlevania was a lot darker and more gothic. This is more like a modern-day caricature of a witch.

Thanks for your kind words. Someday I'll make a good game with these graphics, I promise. :)

[sk8ting]

wel....

it's ok but you need to add more stuff to it

WarpZone responds:

So... just stuff in general? Or did you have any specific kind of stuff in mind?

Thanks for talking. But your talking should mean things.