MLScherbatov's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Omelettes]

edit: seeing the walkthrough i realize i was approaching the level with the wrong method lol. thanks!

stevenjmiller responds:

There is no walkthrough as of now, but I might make solution gifs for all of the levels soon. For now here is the solution to level 16: https://imgur.com/8L4BStE

As for not being to push from platform to platform in level 16, this is because two of the wooden platforms are 2 units tall, the third one is a single unit tall, and the standard platforms are all 3 units tall. You can only push things on the same level as you, and they can't be pushed onto a higher platform than the one they are currently on, so there are very few combinations in the level that allow for things to be transferred. For example (again in level 16), pushing the pan from a standard platform to a wooden one means you can't push it any further, as it is now on a wooden platform of height 1 or 2, whereas you are still on a platform of height 3. Level 17 works because the wooden platforms are of height 3 as well.

I believe the issue is that the height system is visually confusing, especially when wooden blocks are involved. I made it so that pressing space enables a mode that lists the tile heights in hopes of alleviating this, though it is far from a perfect solution.

[The Dark One]

no bugs that i can find aside from one thing which i think might have been intentional - if we are at max potion capacity, the potions in chests shouldnt disappear imo, just the gold
i did notice that it implies we have to beat the pirate in order to get to wintry fields but that we actually gain access just by exploring the forest. imo thats fine but maybe consider adding a couple more side quests because its easy to forget about the pirates when the rest of the game is so linear. also im pretty sure the quest specified that there would be multiple pirates, but there was just the one guy.
it would be cool if we had a little bit more choice in what we buy or what spells we learn, and also more enemies with pronounced vulnerabilities or immunities to different elements.
u should add a back button during the intro, cus i accidentally skipped the 2nd page and couldnt return to it lol.
arena always seemed to start very easy then get much harder very fast. as a side quest, it would be more rewarding imo if there were maybe 10 enemies per cup with more gradually increasing strength, and if the silver + gold cups were a lot more of a challenge, like only to be attempted after beating the main quest.
dialogue during fights could have been smoother. maybe try having the text just appear at the top/middle of the screen during battle without pausing the fight, and gradually fade after a few seconds like an in game chat kind of?
the option to reset skill points wasnt really useful. if there were more depth to our builds, it would make more sense.
i feel like we should be allowed to use spacebar as well as E as the interact button.
other than that this is great, i love ur stuff.
=====================================================================
ideas for the next game:
-add electric, rock, or water spells, drain life ability, or just in general more types of attacks than just fire frost and energy. rock could briefly stun enemies, water could have a chance to silence them, and maybe electric could have a higher chance to crit
-potion system is alright but i feel like we could use an item that increases our max capacity, or preferably a heal spell that the player can use. given that mana is already pretty limited i dont think heals would be OP cus we would be sacrificing a lot of time and an attack. maybe make the heal pretty expensive and have an item which reduces the cost or increases the healing.
-increase strength of higher level enemies, and make the dungeons a little longer with more paths.
-include more dungeon paths that loop back on themselves to save us time walking back and forth. obvs it wouldnt be good to have them all loop back but i think a few of them should.
-if its feasible for you, it'd be cool to add a random loot drop system for certain chests, i.e. maybe every time we finish a dungeon or an arena challenge, we get a special chest with a random item in it, some of which arent available at shops and some of which have very low chance of appearing. certain areas would have a higher chance of finding a specific drop, or some drops could be exclusive to one area.
-maybe at certain points we could have a chance to find a secret/unique shop in part of a dungeon instead of an item chest, but if we couldnt afford its items before leaving the dungeon it would disappear and we'd have to grind for it again.
-give us an infinite grind option in the arena where difficulty +rewards keep going up, and/or in general add a bunch more medium strength enemies.
-maybe have a perk system like elder scrolls, where once you reach the max level of a spell you get to choose a special passive ability. for instance say we level up fireball 100%, and then we can choose between a short stun or additional burn damage over time for the next few seconds. maybe a lightning master perk would be either increased crits or a 10% chance to return all of the mana spent on the spell
-the pirate quest gave me an idea for a boss: a kraken with multiple tentacles, each of which is a separate/disposable enemy and which can each attack once per turn, then once all tentacles are disabled at once its huge eye becomes vulnerable for a few seconds. maybe the eye could have a very strong charge attack which would pause charging each time it was dealt a certain amount of damage, and only give it a limited time with the eye out before the tentacles reappear. this way if you keep hitting it you deal a bunch of damage without taking a hit but otherwise you get wrecked. idk how hard it is to allow multiple concurrent enemies in one fight but it would be nice for some of the bosses to have cycles like this
-also give lesser abilities to normal enemies. if we can fight 2 or more units at once we could have different enemies playing different roles, i.e. a support class that can shield, heal, or power up other units. we could also use abilities which damage multiple enemies this way. idk if the current system would work well for us to control multiple units, but i think as long as the enemies are auto attacking it shouldnt be too hard to get several attacking at once.
-chickens gave me ideas for easter eggs. maybe for instance allow us to choose between a couple of dialogue options for certain NPCs, some of which might give us a free item, more gold, or an additional skill point, but if we pick the wrong option we dont get another chance. maybe the chickens wouldnt do anything until you repeatedly talked to them, say u do it 5x in a row and the chicken gets flustered and lays an egg for you before permanently disappearing, then after you level up 1 or 2 times the egg hatches into some unique item or works as a potion, etc.

anyways keep up the good work, sry if this is super long lololol.

ZsoltFekete responds:

Hey there,
Thank you very much for this detailed review!
All of them are really good ideas, I will make sure to keep them in my mind for the future updates or for the sequels. You would make an awesome game designer :)

May the wisdom guide you! :)

[Tech Room Escape]

when you tighten the screw, if you click it a second time, it just unscrews but the screwdriver is gone.
this actually doesnt break the game, but i can see why so many people here had a hard time with it. you should still definitely fix it though if multiple people tell you theres a problem lmao

selfdefiant responds:

I fixed it. Thanks for the better explanation.

[SaveOppy]

you should let us move before we click the battery... i was sitting there mashing wasd for like 2 minutes straight while looking directly at the thing, thinking ur game didnt work.
light is broken, half the time the screen is just pitch black whether i have my flashlight on or not
i like the concept but its bugging out and its kind of a chore trying to navigate when my light is just going out for no reason at full battery. i can understand it dimming due to the weather or something but i can barely see a thing. when i walk into a shadowy area, shining a light on it should make it brighter, the shadows here in most places are just completely impervious to light

edit: its better, but it should still never be pitch black while we have the flashlight on

YellowB responds:

Ok, I've made a update and this should improve some of the stuff you've mentioned - you still need to click the battery to be able to move, but you don't have to wait for the text to tell you so it can be really fast; and the dark areas of the storm should hopefully be more readable - hope it helps:)

[E-Elementals]

mute button is kinda strangely placed. i didnt realize there was one for a while. maybe just let us press M to toggle.

i agree that the movement is a problem. we just dont seem to even move at a consistent rate while on the ground and its very slow. sometimes the horizontal movement seems completely unresponsive, yet im able to jump and move in the air just fine. you just need to turn the acceleration up higher while on the ground and lower on ice imo

you should let us press any key to skip through dialogue. i keep trying to click to do it instead of spacebar.

we should be able to just place and remove blocks at will. we arent using any of these keys for different actions when we switch build mode on or off, im not sure what the point of it is other than just something we have to toggle for no reason lol. if you insist on keeping it this way, you should just give us a simple button to toggle it instead of having to click the bar at the top and then press down to cancel it. for instance, boxes could be 1, and later tools would be 2,3,4,5, etc, like switching weapons in a shooter game. as far as i can see, there really is no reason to have a mode where nothing is equipped. for the unequip button though, i think left shift is more comfortable than s or down

the more that i play this the more i like it, but the controls and movement need a lot of work. for instance at the 2nd acid pit, where i have to bounce a block and then jump on it, its really difficult to land properly because i have to account for the time it takes to actually start moving

in its current state, i dont think you should give us a 3 life limit. its just too easy to fall or to mess small things up due to the weirdly paced movement, and the game is not a particularly fast one so i really dont like having to redo a level

"press the s key or the down key to pick up blocks"
when i saw that sign, it was not at all clear to me that i was supposed to throw the block through the purple barrier. perhaps give us a little bit clearer of a tutorial here, because i was ready to go back through the whole level to see if i missed a switch. this is especially a problem because you never taught us to heat up our blocks prior to this, but every other puzzle has pretty much been fed to us. maybe this spot could benefit from the protagonist saying something, like they did with the lifts.

when we freeze water using ice, that block is impossible to get back

wall climbing is a bit wonky. we shouldnt automatically jump upwards when we let go, and theres no button to just drop off, so when we need to descend it becomes quite a chore

we need to have more control while on top of ice blocks. i immediately died 3x within seconds during the laser + ice puzzle because the slightest tap sends me flying but i have to move to add new blocks. i am able to get past it by now but its an incredibly unforgiving puzzle even when i know what to do

EDIT:

ive tried placing ice blocks underneath him, he just crushes them. occasionally id see his foot turn a lighter shade for a second but it didnt seem to have any effect. ill try it again.
also i deleted a few erroneous things i wrote originally lolol (i was just writing this as i played along).
yeah, placing the ice then attacking worked just fine. :)

i think i missed the x key because it only works while build mode is closed.

novusGem responds:

I greatly appreciate the detailed review!!!

I'm aware that the movement is a common issue, so I'll definitely change it in a future update.

Your feedback about the spawning system makes a lot of sense. I really like your idea about using hotkeys for the toolbar. The reason for the toggle on/off for spawn mode is because I didn't want the spawn image to stay on the screen all the time. The spawning radius was a design choice, and is used for future puzzles in later chapters. If I changed the radius, I would have to redesign many puzzles. Anyways, I'll look to see what I can do to make that system better.

There is already a button to recall/restore any blocks you've spawned. If you press the 'X' key, you will destroy all of the blocks you've created, and gain energy back. When it comes to freezing water using ice and not being able to get the block back, that was intentional. The ice blocks energy is used for freezing the water. Even so, I understand why it might be annoying. Maybe I'll just have the ice revert back to water when attempting to restore that block.

The laser/ice puzzle is definitely difficult if you attempt to pass it using only one or two ice blocks. But, if you spawn a large number of ice blocks as a small bridge, it becomes very easy.

As for Magnus, I described how to defeat him in another comment. Basically, you just need to place ice blocks under his arms as he attacks.

[Gods' Fall - Ascension of High Kings]

there appears to be no sound.
i suggest that you just let us click to attack with our guardian. pressing shift is weird, especially when we are already aiming with the mouse
i should not have to upgrade my gold just to be able to afford the first worker unit. it takes my guardian like 10 minutes to kill an enemy castle but it appears that i will not be able to build any other units? this is seriously imbalanced

GabrielBalas responds:

Well, as was said in the description, there's no sound yet. About the guardian, you just need to hit CTRL to toggle the auto-shoot function of the guardian (you can see this in the description and tutorial). And about the troops, i really didn't understand what are you talking about. But to build units that you have unlocked you just need to click it during the battle. If you don't have it unlocked yet you just need to unlock it in the 'Troops Level' page. Hope I have cleared all your doubts, thank you for the feedback.

[Engineer Millionaire]

i was really surprised that you asked for crash info, thats pretty cool of you and something i have not often seen in a browser game before

the balloon machine is pretty much useless because of how little money it produces, and the coal mining isnt very profitable because the sonar just doesnt work fast enough. all the money we have to invest in either of these would be better put into the money machine.

we should be able to delete or move machines if we want to. its very unclear how things work at the beginning of the game and if more space is going to cost money then we should have some basic guidelines laid out before we place permanent structures. my factory is doing ok but its about 50% wasted space because i cant get rid of the crappy design i made while trying to figure out how the game works.

the initial money machine is in a visually appealing position but a very inefficient one. two money machines can be fit in one room if i place them properly

money stompers dont really turn any kind of a profit, they just waste space where another money machine could be placed

trapdoors wont let you click on them if there are coins blocking the floor. there appears to be no reason to click on the coins, so idk why they would cause this problem, or why the trapdoors even close in the first place.

it would be helpful if we could zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, and if we could hold the zoom buttons instead of having to click them repeatedly

imo we should be able to link cogwheels together using a chain/rope/etc. you have this for the engine's cog, so it shouldnt be too hard to add it for stand alone gears right?

its unclear what effect upgrading the bank has

after placing a second coal harvester, i found that i was only allowed to build a drill on the original mine. this renders additional mines completely redundant.

we should have a lot more horizontal space imo, which would also help resolve a lot of mining issues

****came back next day****
i placed a money machine facing a wall and the coins just fall out of the building and through the ground. i cant turn the machine around or move it, so im losing more than a million dollars on that and the purchase of the room.

placed a balloon machine with its cog clearly in contact with two other already spinning gears, but the cog wont spin without me touching it.

GeneralVimes responds:

Thank you very much for such detailed info. I keep working on the game and definitely expanded my TODO list.
As for the balloons: at first they bring little money, but their income stacks up.

Maybe the game wikia will be useful: https://steampunk-idle-spinner.fandom.com/wiki/Assembly_line

[Nymphiad]

looks great. the controls are a bit unwieldy though. maybe make the E button to grab crates a toggle instead of having to hold it down? also respawning after dying takes a bit long for my tastes.

-pushing a crate sometimes protects me from the falling slabs on chains, but sometimes does not. this doesnt seem to have a lot to do with positioning either

- id much prefer that when i move the bottom of two stacked crates, the other crates moved with it. in the first level with those fireball launcher things this seems unnecessarily tedious

-it would be really helpful to add checkpoints to some of these levels. once i've already solved a portion of the puzzle it gets to be a chore doing it over and over just because i accidentally fall on some spikes or something, especially if it involves moving lots of boxes. this might cause problems in the more complex levels where you can put boxes in the wrong places, but u could just add a respawn button or kill key for that.

theres a lot of points where moving the crates seems inefficient er like when placing them on top of the stone slabs i often have to do more waiting than i think should be necessary/ let the stone drop down like 3 times just to put one crate on and successfully get it to the other side/upstairs etc. ill have to come back to this later i think.

Wolod responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Checkpoint might be a good idea. I'll probably add them.

There is a hint about restart key on the second level but it can be missed. Well, my bad. There are 2 ways to restart level. You can do it through pause menu (press Esc or P to pause game) or you you can use R key on keyboard or Y on gamepad.

[ElementalBoy TD]

there needs to be some indication of how each tower works prior to building them, or at least a sell function. i built an air tower which literally just shoots away from the path every time and i cant remove it. the game is alright but if im going to be honest i lost interest because there are so many other TDs out there that dont have these issues. there are definitely aspects of the game i think were well done too, we just need some better tool tips and a sell function

LakeshoreGames responds:

When you have a tower selected to build the info panel at the top right does have information but i agree its not clear enough. you can select and rotate the tower. thanks for the feedback i plan to make a lot of improvements for a sequel

[Neuronia]

this is my second time trying to play in two days, because i wanted to make sure i wasnt missing something. concept, graphics, gameplay, music, etc all seem great, but every time i get past the locked door and the girl asks me to hit the switch, im unable to move. id really like to play the rest of this. a previous review mentioned that this only happens if i click the phone, but it happens every time regardless. ill come back again soon to see if its been fixed, and will possibly change my score then.

GameDevSlug responds:

We might try to fix the bugs later on if we have time. Thank you for the honest review.