Reviews for Skears DX

[Coop]

Simple and addictive

This game is quite a simple concept, but it is really enthralling. Some of the movement patterns on the blocks is really annoying, as you move the mouse to where they were and by that point, they've moved. sometimes it's infuriating.

A great game, but it could really have done with some sound, as it's the type of game that doesn't look complete without the occasional annoying ping :P

I note that this was submitted back in 2003 - any plans to make a newer version of this game, or will you just try something different?

[Review Request Club]

AcidDimensions responds:

Glad you liked!

Yeah - you need to anticipate movements and move to where they're going!

Skears 2 will be released in March 2009, by which time I'll have made 100 Non-Skears-related Games. (The NSG series). It's been in development for a while, and I reckon I could already get an award with it. But I'm aiming for top 50. ;-)

Mini Skears 3/4 do have sound, though the implementation leaves something to be desired. I'll be using variations of the same theme tune, but.... changed and with more interaction.

Thanks for the review!

[Markface]

Addictive...

First off... MY HAND HURTS!!!

This game was great. The originality was something that appealed to me. Nine times out of Ten you see remakes of classic retro styled games such as Tetris, Pong etc. But you took that unique and addictive style and made it your own, that's the main reason the game appealed to me. You took the generic, cursor controlled creativity, and made it something so much more unique.

The visuals throughout the game were bittersweet to me. The good part being you continued with that retro gaming style I mentioned before. The bad part being there was so much more room to improve on the Skears. It would of been quite easy to visually advance the transparent little red and purple squares to something more compelling. This could of helped with distracting the player, or just made the Skears more distinguishing.

The file size was nice, this insured quick and fluent animation, allowing me to play the game with ease. Which is something you would despretely need for this style of game, the last thing you want is to be getting angry at the uploaders.

Ok, now into the game:

Another main aspect that got me hooked was the uniquness of the levels. At first, obviously, they displayed simplistic and symetrical counterparts to allow the user to get use to the game. They then evolved into more enjoyable and challenging enviorments, that allow you to be enticed by them and at the same time, hate them :)

My favourite level would have to be the last one. While I spent more time on this level than all the other ones COMBINED, the challenge created and sense of rhythm I had to use to destroy the purple Skears was fun. The way you changed each part of the level from Random to Symetrical to Timed, was quite an enjoyable mix.

You clearly have a good knack for making levels, which had me quite dissapointed to find out there were only 10. I'm quite sure you could of made many more to mess with my head.

The obvious room for improvement here would be sound, which I feel is essential to a game of this theme. The use of a hard techno/electronica song in the background would do wonders for this game, perhaps even a mix to from song to song. With this, you could easily create more levels solely on the rhythm aspect of the music, this would be far more interesting and would allow the user to connect to the game more, as they are using more than 1 sense to control the game.

As mentioned before, further level development would of been nice to see. This would allow you time to introduce additional items that could of been added, such as powerups (avoid all red skears etc), a scoring system, perhaps even a high score table. These things would allow the player to have a sense of self gratification, and above all... being able to gloat to other people.

Upon opening the link I was somewhat shocked to find the score at 4.03. After mere minutes of the game the reason for that score was answered. The people of newgrounds have voted well on such an original and addictive game. With the use of music and visual fix-ups I'm sure that this game would score higher.

I'm glad to say this was my 1000th review. GREAT GAME!

AcidDimensions responds:

Thanks a lot! I didn't actually realise at the time how many avoidance-based games there were. It was all originally an attempt to make a fast-paced shooting gamje and I realised asking folk to roll-over rather than click on targets meant I could up the tempo. I like to think that having approached it from a different angle shows in the level design.

At the time, I used Squares (hence 'Skeh-ars') to ensure the collision detection is exactly what you see. Also, it meant that I could concentrate on making levels rather than graphics, which I prefer. Although my visual creativity is a bit better these days, I'll be keeping all objects fairly simple, both because I like abstraction and also to let me have 50+ skears on-screen without slowdown, although I'll certainly be attempting to prettify it a tad.

I think all the levels have a great amount of symmetry other than levels 3,9 and 10. And 8 maybe. So maybe you're using the word to mean different things than I do? I'll have to ask about that.

In any case, I'm really glad you like the level design. The fact that it was a remake of a short game with 1 year of additional hindsight and experience helped me a lot!

This is essentially a remake of rolovir2 - the original 'skears' - and in trying to keep the filesize as low as I could, avoiding any music was an obvious choice. I did actually put music into 'Mini Skears' 3 and 4, but the general consensus was that it got irritating if you were playing badly. At this time, I still had no idea how to 'properly' use music with stop buttons and streaming-enforced timing.

Scoring was also something I introduced in the Mini Skears series but abandoned here as it is a remake.

Although I don't think powerups are necessary, Skears 2 will contain everything else you've asked for, as well as many things you haven't. Scoring and sound will return.

Thanks a lot for the review. It's great to have an occasional fresh perspective of how the last installment holds up today.

You covered pretty much everything and apart from the categorisation of levels a 'random', 'symmetrical' and 'timed', which I wasn't entirely clear on, I was never in doubt of your meaning.

An awesome review and I give you're review 9/10.

Congratulations on reaching the 4-digit milestone and greater congrats for writing reviews of such a quality.

Stay funky.

[Commando80]

First off.. That game was very good.

Graphics-purple and red squares.. ok backround..ok ill give that a 6-7

Style-I love it! 10 (sorry that was short)

sound-N/A (0)

Violence-N/A (0)

Interactivity-All my 10 are belong to that!

Humor-7 because i laughed about how i kept messing up in the easiest spots

Overall 9 This game was very enjoyable and for those who cant beat the last level.. take your time.. took me almost 30 tries but I got it :)

Ok so here is the real review those were just the scores...

Well I really enjoyed this, man... I am definitley going to save this into my favorites for when I need something to do (or let my friends try it and get mad cause they wont be able to beat it for a long ass time haha)
I like the fact that you used a dark backround because you can see what is coming a little easier.. If you had used something like.. a pink.. that would have been much harder ( but I doubt you would use pink in the first place)

This has nothing to do with my review for your game but I want to say it.. I notice you "review" other peoples' reviews and give them an overall score.. this is very funny! Some of the reviews I have seen for your games are very smart, well thought out, and just plain long! Other reviews.. I have seen stuff like WOOOOW THAT WAS SOOOOO STUPID!! IM GOING KRAZYYY!!! Ok.. those people need psychiatric help or just need to be put in a nut house... enough said.
Well sometime get to some of the reviews that I have posted for some of your games! Back to my review.

like I said, I really enjoyed it. Please for the love of God make a Skears DX 2. If you have the time that would be really cool.
I like Level 7 the most.. that was very challenging but I beat it on the first try! yay me ! :D Well i think i will play this again later on but I want to wrap up this review with a quick sum-up.

Great game, Make another, Stay funky :D

AcidDimensions responds:

Cheers for that lengthy review.

The 'DX' refers to this being a 'Deluxe' version of Skears'. So 'Skears DX 2' would be another remake of this... which I probably won't do.

I'm totally gonna finish Skears 2 though. Since submitting the last Skears game I submitted here, I've made well over 100 levels, many of them diverse and fun to play.

I made a vow to make other games though, when I realised that some people seemed to think I only had that one idea. I vowed to make 100 Non-skears games that play markedly differently from each other before releasing Skears 2. I'll hopefully have finished learning Flash 5 by then. Then, I'll finish off and release Skears 2. So expect it in a couple of years mebbe.

I reviewed folks reviews for a while, but this is gonna be the last one I review, unless folks specifically ask me to.

I wanted to kinda show that I appreciate the good reviews, but I ended up typing the same things repeatedly. It took too long and I think that sometimes giving people a score is just pretty pointless and maybe isn't a good thing to do if it's not asked for.

Your review was pretty cool. It's fun to read, though some of the stuff you bothered typing (like regarding the scores) was kinda pointless.

I actually made a wee template for reviewing reviews. I'll take it out for one last whirl...

constructive criticism/suggestions: 0. Though you gave it a 9, there must have been some imperfections. It'd have been nice to know what they were.

exposition of experience: 7. Interesting to know the trouble you had. Appreciated knowing your fave level.

praise/encouragement: 10
Well... it's obvious you liked it. You're asking me to make another. In a way I feel slightly bad making you wait to play something I could release now, but hopefully you'll enjoy my other games as well. Just check out 'other submissions by Bezman' from time to time.

clarity of expression: 10

elaboration & being specific: 8
Great. Though you could mention stuff like how the bg could be better or why exactly level 7 is your favourite... is it because of it's difficulty pitch? Or because it contained surprises? Or something else?

coverage (how much): 9
Well, you could've mentioned other things like... typography... or how you felt about the other levels, I suppose.
But really, you covered as much as I can expect.

overall: 9

Could've gotten more in-depth, but it's a great review. Great to know folk are enjoying it and your review gave me a bit of understanding into why, in your case.

Thanks so much.

Stay funky,
- Bez

P.S. The reason I took so long responding is mainly because it's another account. But in future, I'll probably respond a fair bit sooner.

[johnfn]

More enjoyable then it seemed.

Alright, you told me to review this a while back, but I feel like doing it right now (because I am lazy). So lets begin!

Play Experience:

Right away I see a gigantic screen. Does it really need to be that big? After that, the first thing I notice is that the background looks a lot like a rather bad looking wallpapered BMP. While it isn't wallpapered at least (as I noticed when I tried to pretend it was one of those 3D image stereo grams), you could have done your background more justice with a subtle gradient. The font on the other hand looks good.

I get to the first level and am kind of dissatisfied to see that the skears are still generic purple boxes. The color is rather nice but they look plain and uninteresting. Subtle gradients would probably look more interesting, or you could have an artist do some cooler drawings for you. However, I'll put my graphics remarks aside for now.

The learning curve seems to be pretty well done. I would think that people who aren't as proficient with the mouse as I (I beta tested my mouse game hundreds of times) might have a little trouble trying to adapt, and this could put off a few beginners. I can't really speak from experience here, however.

I also notice that I can right click and see the full menu of items... although really I remember you can't fix that so you're okay.

With the red skears, the color difference between red and purple is such that you might be able to confuse the two if you took a really quick glance. I think that maybe the colors should be opposites (yellow and blue or black and white) to save people a little bit of frustration.

Also, sound could help this game out a lot. Just something minimal to set an atmosphere would be great.

Okay, started dying on level 3 - or was it 4? A level counter would be helpful. The death messages on the other hand were a nice touch.

Level 5 was innovative. I was also glad that it wasn't so long, since I kept dying.

Level 6 seemed like it was easier then level 5- but that could have been my own fault. It was a little annoying, but thankfully you didn't keep up the purple skears coming at all directions for too long.

Level 7's design was pretty ingenious as well. I think with proper eye candy effects and better looking visuals this one could be a lot of fun. Still, it was captivating and made me focus on the game a little harder and appreciate it a bit more.

Level 8: Beat it in one try. The back and forth motion of the mouse gets a little annoying after a bit.

9: Good use of the word penultimate! ;) Still, I beat this one in 2 tries.. . It seemed a little out of place as what should be the second to hardest level.

10: Oh man. That one was just plain annoying. I decided to grit it out and beat it, since I'm guessing you went through about the same with 3:3 on my game ;) At first those random spiraling purples made me really hate it, because they seemed so random. But then I realized that they weren't random at all and there was a certain pattern that I could do every time to get them all... I'm not sure if you did that intentionally, but it was very clever. All in all a well designed level here, but it was a little too long for me to properly enjoy it; however it was a fitting end.

All in all, great job here. Your game made me feel a full range of emotions from satisfaction to pure rage (at one point) It was certainly satisfying to complete, although I don't think it merits a replay to get a perfect score - although I usually wouldn't do that any ways. Once is enough... ;)

I have to also compliment you on keeping each of your levels interesting throughout the 30 or so seconds that it takes to complete. Not once did I get bored halfway through a level: the complexity kept me interested, even through multiple replays (point in case: level 10)

As a closing comment, this game was excellent, much better then it's outward appearance betrays it to be. With a few graphical and musical changes - because NGers are like that - it could easily be 4.1-4.2 material.

AcidDimensions responds:

Firstly, thanks so much for bothering to write this awesome review. It made for really interesting reading and

You know, as with when reviewing film sequels or flash as part of a series, a decision must be made - do I review this, taking prior installments into consideration?

With reviews, the answer is obvious. You made your points. You know I read them. The brilliant ideas regarding particle effects and whatnot still apply (though I still have no real clue if or how I'd do such things...).

This time, I'll break up your review into categories.

constructive criticism/suggestions
=============
You make a few complaints regarding presentation (graphics, sound, screen size, right-clicking...).

I'd like to have known your reasoning for disliking the 'gigantic screen' though. Also, I don't really understand WHAT it is about the background you don't like. It's good to know you disapprove though. (It's bad that you disapprove, but good to know.)
Your level-by-level review let me know that you found 6 and 8 rather annoying (though I have to make my own assumptions as to why they annoyed).
9/10

exposition of experience:
You let me know how you got on with each level. (I don't know how many lives you lost with the last level and a few others... but here we come to the question - is giving a breakdown such as this and interrupting the playing to review helping you get a false impression of the game, broken into segments as it would be?)
You also let me know how you responded emotionally to the various parts of the game.
10/10

praise/encouragement:
You know, simply by virtue of recieving a review with this amount of detail and thought put in, I get encouraged.
You do make a real point of ending on a high note, with a few paragraphs full of compliments, which seem to be straight from the heart.
Also, I liked hearing that you favoured level 7.
10/10

clarity of expression:
No big problems.
However, I'm not sure what you meant by 'wallpapered'. It took me a while to realise you were referring to the fact that it repeats. (It is actually tiled, despite what you 'noticed'.)
9/10

elaboration & being specific:
Well, you give some suggestions, like when you point out colour confusion.
I'd kinda like to know some of your reasoning though. Like with the tiled graphics - what exactly don't you like about them? Again - what's the problem with a big screen? And why were thos levels annoying? Was it just because you died regularly? Was it the somewhat repetitive nature of those parts?
It's the level design I'm actually proud of, so I always hope for as much feedback in that area as possible.
Still, far more detail in some places than I have any right to expect.
8/10

coverage (how much):
Every level (bar the first 3) are commented upon. Every aspect I can think of, and some I wouldn't have (right-click menu).
10/10

overall: 9/10

Quite possibly the best review I've ever gotten for a game.
I'd have liked some more feedback with regards to the level design though - your comments leave me unsure as to what I could improve upon. (I have my own ideas of course, but I'm disregarding that for the moment.)

I'm guessing that the linearity you mentioned for Skears 2(v0.36) maybe still irked you, but I'm unsure.

Really though, this review, coupled with the other one, helps me realise how much the graphics matter. It makes me kinda want to theme my levels, Breakquest style.

It makes me wanna submit more. Give me food for thought.

Practically flawless review.

Thank you so much.

[M-A-R-C-U-S]

Great improvement.

Well, good to see you took the skears games out with a bang, this sure was enjoyable to play. Finally, FINALLY you changed the designs and presentation around - it looks so much better! A lot more professional if you ask me. The increased game size (and screen size) was very nice to play with, and I must ask - how many people have attained the 'grand master' rank of Skears DX? I thought that after a while I'd get the hang of it and it'd become pretty easy... but after just completing the game for the first time, I'm not even going to attempt to do it all without making a mistake, haha.
Overall, a definate improvement in presentation, gameplay and length. I really enjoyed playing this one. Good work.

AcidDimensions responds:

Great improvement.

+: comparative praise
++: summarises opinion

Well, good to see you took the skears games out with a bang, this sure was enjoyable to play.

++++: very encouraging

Finally, FINALLY you changed the designs and presentation around - it looks so much better! A lot more professional if you ask me.

+++: somewhat specific comparative praise, elaborated upon

The increased game size (and screen size) was very nice to play with, and I must ask - how many people have attained the 'grand master' rank of Skears DX?

++++: specific praise
-: run-on sentence.

Hundreds of people have apparantly gotten the title. They're nearly all in the credits (there's so many that the textboxes mess up). Or check my site to see them.

http://aciddimensions.com/play/skearsdx.html

-: Does this mean that you didn't see the credits?
--: I don't know.

I thought that after a while I'd get the hang of it and it'd become pretty easy... but after just completing the game for the first time, I'm not even going to attempt to do it all without making a mistake, haha.

++: humour
+++: opinion given on difficulty

Overall, a definate improvement in presentation, gameplay and length.

+++: Comparative summary, covering many areas
+: implicitly says audio isn't better
---: but is it needed? I don't know your opinion.

I really enjoyed playing this one. Good work.

+++: encouraging
+++++: clear summary of overall opinion

constructive criticism: 0
telling your experience: 4
praise/encouragement: 9

clarity of expression: 8
elaboration & being specific: 7
coverage (how much): 7

overall: 6
You really needed to put in some constructive criticism. As this is the last Skears game (and it answered a lot of your previous criticism), I really need to know what you think prevented this from getting a 10. Tell me what wasn't so good so I can sort it out.

However, it is a really nice and encouraging review.