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OuterPace

162 Game Reviews

18 w/ Responses

Honestly, I love the Vortex Point series, and was really disappointed to find that it didn't work at all... That is, until the fourth or fifth time I checked after a number of weeks, it miraculously worked.

It was great, just like all the others.

Finished in 28:22. A great length of time for something like this.

The last half a star is for making me wait.

Remember, always drink your holy water and make sure it works. :?)

Easiest point in click game I've ever played! Finished in 9;19. Now he gets to have unlimited pancakes and bang the german chick. ;o

Clone of a much more popular game, One Finger Death Punch. Impossible to win because one of the attacks leaves you vulnerable for almost a whole second, otherwise it would be a good survival game.

I also find not knowing how to do anything it wants me to extremely annoying. "Guess until you win, and you also have to click over and over and over and over and over to do it" just sucks. Instructions or die.

I'll begin from the *very* beginning.

The idea for this game is highly overused, and you seem to only have a vague "this is a child's dream and this is scary" idea which is not executed very well by the colorful cartoon kitty cats, strangely out of place pencil-drawn ghosts holding blocks, and tribal-tattooed elephants.

You are thrown into a strange low-polygon environment of wooden beams suspended in a cubical nondescript room. Is the dream that he is small? I would appreciate some introduction.

At first, I didn't know the flashlight in his hand had any purpose. Anyway, if this is a dream, why does he have one? At least have him find one, not that the idea of a flashlight in a horror game is original or anything.

The mouse location controls the direction he looks in. He needs to look in the direction he is moving, not where the mouse is. The mouse isn't actually there in the game world, he is simply pointing his flashlight at it when he uses it. In addition, if you are walking, the camera lags behind so you can't see what's ahead of you, but that's not all - the center of the screen (not where the boy is placed in relation to it) is how the model determines what direction to face, meaning if I am moving to the right, and my mouse is in between the boy and the center of the game screen - meaning behind him - he will still look to the right, and I will be unable to shine the flashlight behind me. I have to consciously move the mouse farther behind him in order to use it in this fashion, which I shouldn't have to do. It breaks any immersion that would've been there if this was anything more than a simple time-waster platformer.

Double-jump is a little ridiculous, and there isn't even any graphic to show you've done it. He just... pops up in the middle of the air. He falls too fast for it to feel fluid and like an actual double jump You can also jump and still double jump after falling off a platform, even if you haven't jumped.

There is no use avoiding enemies at all. It takes eleven seconds of continuously being in contact with a cat enemy and three with the elephant (a stationary enemy) to have ANY ill effect, and if "waking up" is the game over screen, why would I not kill myself on the first enemy to escape the nightmare? Of course, if that is the point of the story - "stuck in a nightmare." You never told me.

The flashlight, activated by left click, therefore has no use - because why scare away an enemy who can't really hurt you? It doesn't even do anything to any enemy except the cat. He also doesn't even look where it's pointing, he just stands there while a light shines out of his cock. At least, upon closer inspection, it actually comes from the front of the flashlight.

The powerups are useless - why do I want to go faster? The batteries have no use because the flashlight, like I just said, has no real point - but what's more, if they DID actually have a use, why would you put multiple ones between spaces with no enemies?

The signs don't work, except the one explaining the power up, and let's face it - it's not scary or even fun in a gaming sense to walk, jump and read signs with messages that sound like they're trying and failing to be cryptic, written by "the guy who writes the signs." At least just leave him unnamed, for chrissakes, do you know how many platforming games have a "guy that writes the signs"?

There is one path to the exit, and the keys are located on the path. That's a little counter-intuitive, you'd imagine if you didn't reach a locked door first you wouldn't need to have a key item. I understand having a key be necessary for a locked door, but if you have to teach me that locked doors need keys, you only need to teach me that in ONE level.

The second level cannot be completed, or else the "activated with 1 key" message is the last part of the coding of the game, which I would understand, being a beta.

In conclusion, this should be called a "proof of concept." Not beta, not alpha, barely more than a simple and unfinished in many ways clone of better platformers.

I realize this is a work in progress, and I know it can be improved. That's why I said all that was wrong with it. That said, newgrounds isn't meant to be your beta-testing playground for free reviews and tips, it's for fun finished games, or a least if it's a beta make it fun to play the beta. This is walk right, jump jump jump, walk left, jump jump jump.

marckzero responds:

Thank you For the feedback , we will try to improve for future builds.

Simply: Very fun and awesome, great potential. Very few flaws for a WIP game. Your "fair bit more planned" includes most of what I thought could be added while playing.

Expanded_
Controls: Smooth and play like Star Wars Battlefront 2 would if it was a flying snake, meaning *perfectly*. The mouse control needs a sensitivity slider and smoother movement. The boost doubles the speed, however, and while for most of the game this works fine, I got the the point where every piece of fruit in the distance was filled with sprawling matrices of my body, and the boost simply got to be too much to be used. I think "+1000m/s" would be better than "double m/s."

Graphics: Already, the graphics are great for a game of this style; just like minecraft and its stylized pixel environment, the ballsnake is a throwback to how snake games have always been; however, in a 3D environment, I believe one long tube (a la eastern dragons) would look better (not sure if that's a planned feature), and a way to determine top of the body from the bottom would make the disorientation easier to handle.
In that same vein, instead of a blue cube as the environment, I would suggest maybe having grass for the ground, trees for the sides and a sunny sky for the ceiling, making the ability to look for the shadow of the fruit to determine its location easier and less of a scavenger hunt.
That said, the radar, once you get used to it, is flawlessly incorporated and easy to read and makes finding the goals easier.
As for the fruit, I think some more realistic looking (at least, as realistic and floating fruit collectibles get), dangly, slightly randomized fruit models would be great. The kiwi for example is often just a big brown ball while facing away from me even while it's cut in half, and seeing the fleshy hairy skin would let me know what kind it is.

Extras: I can't wait to see how a menu would turn out if this turns into an awesome flying snake fruit collection game. Would love to see a dragon skin or something, complete with arms on the first segment and procedurally farther back legs dangling on one of the anterior segments, and a tapering tail, or customizability - a bird head, rattle tail, demon wings, crab claws beast would be fun to fly around. With enough options, I could see you making some money after you have a nice satisfactory bunch for free.

Very very good idea, and already a good time waster! Could see putting as much time to this as "goin up" or "toss the turtle" with enough extra features and unlockables!

JimGiant responds:

I really like some of your customisation ideas. A graphic overhaul is planned once I've got all the features I want in the game. Tubular snakes would be awesome but it would require rewriting about a third of the code, maybe once everything else is done.

Mouse sensitivity slider will be in the next update but I haven't started on smoothing yet.

Gems stop you from moving, WAY too much sliding around, retry doesn't work, stock shit music, stretched, irrelevant background, shitty object. Delete this now, please.

REDF00Q responds:

check the second demo of this game!
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/624477

Unfinished games are not for newgrounds, they're for your Dumping Grounds. Third icon from the left next to your account on the top of the page.

I don't understand anything about this game... All I know is I can't see anything except flashy bubbles. I don't know how to shoot. I press the right mouse button and the default box pops up for Windows. I press the LEFT one, and two bubbles from the sides of the screen hit whatever the hell it is I'm controlling. I keep getting hit by the green disc fuckers who seem to be what I'm trying to kill, but I haven't died yet. It's still on as I type this. REALLY needs a LOT of fixing.

Wasn't the thing thing arena that I know and love, but it's still a great game.

I only make a certain type of music. If it's ever changed, then I'm not in a good mood.

Ryan @OuterPace

Age 31, Male

Therapist

Strayer University

Alabama

Joined on 4/30/10

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