Reviews for Graveyard Dates

[SilverLazuli]

Okay, so here's what the game has to offer:

Pros:
-Fantastic, original concept
-Nice story
-Great writing

Cons:
-Tricky or annoying platforming at times, especially in Scarlet's levels for some reason.
-WAY TOO MUCH KNOCKBACK. Most deaths were due to this, and even more annoyingly, you could be knocked back far enough to skip a text choice on your phone. I had to kill myself more than once simply to redo it.
-Visuals styles can clash at times(especially the zombies, I know you drew those, but you probably could've done better than that ;P)

Notes:
-It was a bit laggy for me personally, but maybe that's only on my end.
-Characters don't face backwards, which is a weird choice considering you need go left at times.
-What is Scarlet's weapon? Claws? Needles? It's hard to tell from the animation, and it looks a little too detached from her.
-Maybe add a checkpoint halfway through the level?
-I could only get a score of 6 on the first date, even with all the right choices, all I could get was 5 at most later on. Am I missing something?
-Not sure if you're planning on fixing this more later considering it was a contest entry, but if you did, addressing some of those issues would be nice.(ESPECIALLY the knockback)

Overall, it could use some work, but a good game is definitely there. Nice job~

adriendittrick responds:

Thanks for the very thougthful review :)
The game was originally for windows only but then I converted it to HTML5.
Scarlet's weapon are giant retractable claws, yes.
I thought about mid-level checkpoints but it would mess up with the phone choices.
Unfortunately, this is a very old project so I won't add anything to it. However, I am considering reusing this phone concept and those characters!

[Dilopho-Mos]

A really good concept. The gameplay feels a bit off but the game has the potential to be a great one.

[Shimahamaru]

Neat premise, but the gameplay is really frustrating. Controls felt awkward, and getting knocked around everywhere just gave the whole game a weightless feeling.

[SteelisHot]

Frustrating

adriendittrick responds:

what happened?

[Sykdoc]

I'm really sorry, I want to give you more stars because you're clearly passionate. But this... this doesn't deserve anything more then a 1. I'm really sorry.

I've got to give credit where credit is due: the music is pretty cool. Very spooky atmosphere. And I'll admit, the gameplay was just fun enough that I finished the whole thing. But it wasn't THAT fun.

As far as platformers goes, movement is very unsatisfying. You slip and slide all over the place, jumping is weird, and then in the last level you control two characters and it's impossible. Also, as other people have said, the knockback is atrocious. The game as a whole feels so floaty, and whenever you hit an enemy you're sent flying back like you just got caught in a hurricane.

But the action platforming isn't even the worst part: it's the "dating sim", if you can even call it that. I'll admit it's a unique concept, and I probably would have liked it more if the two characters weren't the most obnoxious people I've ever read. I tried to get engaged, but come on, why does the demon girl HAVE to type like a middle-schooler? Because anime?

I actually decided to have the guy just stop responding to her altogether, and you know what happened? I actually started getting better scores! Suddenly my affection was at a 6 and I was getting an A for the date every level. By ignoring her! So what we've got here is a dating sim that isn't even functional, and which only serves the purpose of telling the story of the two most annoying characters ever written. Hooray.

I shouldn't rip too hard into you. You're clearly very passionate about making games, and this is better then most people will ever do. But I also think if you want to be a great game designer, you gotta graduate from making competent games to making good games. And while this game is pretty competent, it's far from good. Keep it up.