Reviews for Candy for Christmas

[kirkdewinter]

Not bad for a second game. Far beyond anything I could produce. That being said, keep working on it while I get to play and critique.

Things I liked.
-Fully realized instructions page.
-Credits that reference the music, and if this is a Newgrounds specific upload, a tip of the hat on the Credits & Info links. I really like when I can jump to another artist on Newgrounds without having to hunt for the song that got me queued into them in the first place.
-Upgrades have a visible effect in game. Upgrades also seem to transfer between modes. I don't know for sure simply because of the order that I played the modes. Who plays survival mode without upgrades though? Either way, upgrades transfer, or you get to see what you can upgrade to. yay.
-The length of the game is good for what it is.
-Bombs disappear when you get hit by one. Great for a limited concept of strategy within the game.

Coal in the stocking.
-Some sort of a story, even something as silly as "Santa was outclassing the Luftwaffe at an airshow when things got a little out of hand. Now the reindeer are evading destruction and all those delicious 'thank yous' are going to waste. NOT ON MY WATCH.". That's the story that leaped into my head from the main menu screen anyway.
-Survival mode doesn't seem to have a lot of survival in it. There seems to be the max rate for bomb spawning and that's all. What if you threw in a dependency on collecting the candy canes? Maybe Santa is diabetic, gets fatter, gets slower, ETC.
-I love my mute button. I often have my speakers muted for the reason that I can't mute certain things. Throwing in this simple button though gives the gamer the choice to listen to the provided music, or something that "they" may like better.
-Grindy medals. Yeah I know I "earned" it, but gaining a quantity of something to get a medal just makes me mad. It's a proverbial no skill cookie. How about a score within free mode? Something that takes a thought to get. For example, it seems that as you increase your cookie spawn your candy cane spawn may decrease. This gives the potential for limited replay value without making a person play the same thing over and over. Or a medal for not letting anything dissolve from the ground? Just food for thought.
-No autosave feature means that if you have a computer issue, you better not be grinding something. Having an autosave also means a desire for a clear save though, short of manually clearing history. I think it's okay the way it is for this game though.

Bugs
-I experienced both of the known bugs that you talk about in the author comments.
-The absolute 0 bomb rate that you talk about also affects survival mode. Sooooooo, go ahead grinders. Get that topscore. Ha.

All in all not bad. Also I am sure that some of the things I listed are planned for your future games. So keep on keeping on, I am excited to see what you do.

Optimos responds:

Thank you for this great review, man!
I thought about adding a little story as an intro of the game, but I discarded that option. I might add one for future games though.
I will add a mute button in future projects too.
And yeah, when I tested the game myself I thought it was a bit repetitive but I got no ideas on how to add replay value. I'll work harder on that next time.
You didn't mention it, but I also planned to add a pause screen too but it had some errors so I removed it. I'll work in the future to be able to add these features (mute button, more replay value, pause screen...) to my next games.
About the bugs, I have no idea how to fix them so they'll stay like this -_- I didn't know the 0 bomb rate one affected Free Mode too, if so then I guess you just need to reload the page because otherwise there's no way you can die (and thus you can't submit your score to the High Scores board or return to the main menu).

[thebestyoshi]

This Game Is Pretty Awesome Optimos :D

Optimos responds:

Thanks :)

[roboritox]

Good music, but the play is poor and simple, it would be nice if the game could offer a bit more.
If this is one of your first games isn't too bad. I know how hard is to make animations and good sprites, but an sprite for santa when jumping could change the visual impression.
Don't worry about those bugs sometimes is a problem from the programming software.
Still thinking that the music is cool, good work .

Optimos responds:

Thanks, and yes it's my 2nd game, that's why it's a bit simple. Hopefully I'll improve with time & practice.

[SterbenVeesus]

Nice game! BTW, The Cookie Lover Medal is Glitched, i got all the 1000 but it doesnt work D:>

Optimos responds:

Thank you :D
And yeah I realized it before and tried to fix the medal but it seems not to work either. Guess I'll have to remove it.