Johnnybdesign's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[LARRY: Gnomergeddon]

This game is amazing!

Hi Jazza,

I love so much this mini-game, I can't resist to write a review. Since the publication of this game, I can't stop playing. It shortens my night!

I like that every level is different and that every enemy has a weakness. When you've played the game so many times (than I did) you pretty much end up knowing what (and how many) enemies will be coming in each wave. Then you can plan accordingly and stack up on energy, rage and weapons.

In fact, I love this game so much that the full-scale game Larry and the Gnomes pales in comparison. I know how much time and efforts you must have spent on levels/story development for the full-scale game, but I find that this mini-game is more efficient. You could have the bosses from the full-scale game coming every 10 levels or so and Gnomergeddon would have been as exciting as Larry and the Gnomes. It would have done the same job in a way that appeals to both hardcore and casual gamers (that's my opinion and I know it may not gonna be shared by all...)

You can build on this prototype by adding different enemies, backgrounds, bosses, cutscenes... Thus, this game is a gem!!!!

I can't praise you enough for the quality of the artwork, the flawless animations, the immersive audio etc. You've done a heck of a job as a designer.

A FEW HINTS TO HELP MY FELLOW NG'ERS:

- Play the game often and try to remember what/when/how many enemies are coming in each levels. Take notes if it helps and read them before each levels.

- It is sometimes preferable to get hit on purpose in order to accumulate rage. I do that against weaker enemies (lesser gnomes, bouncing blobs,...) since there is no chance that they will kill you. For instance, I use that trick to kill the big gnome at the end of level 3. Otherwise, you don't have enough time to kill him before he runs away. Fill up the rage bar and use it on him. If you kill him, he will drop a gem (the most difficult one to obtain IMO).

- Rage is a good way to prevent those "biting-running thing" to hit you. It will cause them to bounce off you. Use it if you get stuck in a lethal loop with those annoying monsters.

- Do not underestimate the power of the slingshot. One single stone kills these "biting-running things". So start "slinging" by pressing "a" and wait for the running monster to appear in the screen then rapidly fire by releasing the "a" key.

- Those "biting-running things" are one good reason to never stay in the middle of the stage. You don't want them coming at both sides at the same time. Keep yourself at 1/3 of the stage. That way you have plenty of time to deal with one before turning around and facing the other.

- Mages can be deadly when they are in gangs (last few levels)... but luckily, stones are highly effective against them. It only takes a few shots. So advance slowly in order to get closer but to keep the mages off the screen. You should be a stonethrow away from them, yet they won't fire at you since they are off screen. Then use your slingshot to kill them one by one. Larry will automatically fire at them if they are within range. After a few successful shot (you hear the distinctive sounds of blood splatters!), Larry will fire the stone on the ground, that means that they are all dead. Turn around and run on the other side to deal with the remaining mages using the same trick.

Good luck!

[LARRY: Doug-Out]

Now I'm thirsty!!

Great game Jazza!

It is well animated, the graphics are exquisite, the sound effects are so realistic that I just want to get a cold one. :D The comments are hilarious and add atmosphere! The drunk guy is a nice twist to an already interesting game. I really enjoyed it.

That's game is a perfect time waster!

[Season of War]

Flawless

This game is awesome!! From the controls, to the graphics, & sounds.... everything is perfect. What amazes me the most is the incredible job at coding + game design behind such a masterpiece. That's an heroic achievement and you are my idol.

Xplored responds:

Thank you so much!
A Masterpiece? ...well, maybe it's too much.
But thank you for saying it!

[Frontier]

Game ending Bug :(

Unfortunately, I encountered a game-ending bug: I was traveling to the city of Yorn and got "NaN" as remaining time (which is the Flash was of saying "not a number" for the non-coders). So I ended up on an endless travel to Yorn and had to stop the game :(

[Madness Accelerant]

I am flabbergasted!

That was awesome!!!
The difficulty level was just perfect. It was fun trying to find the strategy to beat the boss at each level. A lot of originality in the various appearances of the boss.

But that game is truely amazing because of the style, the flawless animation and the magnificent Artwork. Good job MindChamber. I am flabbergasted!

[Dead Frontier: Outbreak]

Good text-based game!

I am not really fond of text-based game but I must admit that this one was captivating, thanks to the great storywriting.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy the voice acting because I had to skip most of the narration.
The reason being that animations lagged big time on my computer. The voice had finished and the text was not halfway trough. There is a way to synch animations with sounds so that it adjusts framerate to keep pace. Check it out next time.

Once, it didn't give me the option selected. I think I asked for a vehicle but it gave me the motorbikes anyway (the second time we have to choose).

Typos : I may never she (see) her again.

[Magic Words]

Solid game

That was a pretty good game. It was fun and the graphics were nice.
However, I didn't like the song.
Also, there are some design flaws: why limit the game area to a tiny square at the bottom? As a result, the letters were tiny and I felt that most of the game screen was not used efficiently. I felt that I was confined in a little square while most of the screen was only used to show a nice picture. The text (in between levels) could also be bigger and use the whole screen.

[Gta IV Painting steps]

uh?

The artwork is nice. It's well done.

However, I wonder why you rated this M for mature.
Also, shouldn't this be an "interactie movie" (and therefore classified as "game" rather than "movie")?

It's nice to see the progression of the drawing frame by frame. Frame 1 is already advanced though. I would be curious to see how it started out and then how you applied color.

Cheers,
JB

Neilss1234 responds:

Basically thats the first jpeg i had of it before i decided to like document it, I put mature because there hauling a dead guy with blood on the wall.

I think ill change the category cheers!!

[Exmortis 3]

Amazing!

Hi Ben,

The quality of your games never ceases to improve. This third installment of the EM series makes no exception. It feels very professional. The sounds are amazing and they match the exceptional artwork. I can't emphasize enough how I am amazed by the quality of the game.

The interface is polished and intuitive. There is a lot of attention to details so that every element blends in. One particular example is the button to close the 3rd sense video: it is a "x" in a circle, all animated and it feels like fire. It is reminiscent of an occult symbol. Nice one.

The only small negative point is the navigation, which could have been a bit clearer. Sometimes there is a red arrow indicating that we can progress in that direction... sometimes, there is nothing to indicate that we can move forward or examine closer an object of interest. I think the furnace is one example of a location that is not highlighted by any sort of visual hint. So I personally feared that I had missed something. As I said, no big deal though...

As a "point-and-click adventure game" developer myself, I just can't imagine the amount of work and sleepless nights devoted to the making of this game. It is quite an achievement. I am impressed and respect you a lot for your work, not just this episode, but this whole journey that started what? 5 or 6 years ago...

In view of the quality of the game and all the efforts involved, I understand that you try to go commercial and I wish you the best of luck. This whole monetary problem prevented me from making more games and forced me to publish games of lower quality than what I was aiming for. I see that you didn't make that compromise and always delivered high-quality games.

I also juggled with the idea of demo vs full games, freeware vs donationware vs commercial. etc. without being able to make my mind about these issues. I've rapidly read the comments from the previous reviewers and I think that there is a lot of truth in some of them. Newgrounds and your previous fanbase were instrumental in the previous ExMortis's success. They brought exposure to a dedicated community that freely advertised your games via word of mouth. But do you really owe your fans something? Do you owe them more free games because the first two were successful? I don't think so. You provided them with two free games that you develop yourself at the expense of your personal life/leisure time. If you choose another path and to explore the pay-to-play avenue it is ok and you are entitled to. ExMortis is your creation. It doesn't belong to the fans who should be grateful for the first two episodes, that's it.

Be that as it may, a demo might not have been the best choice. It is indeed a good way to alienate some players. It might have been more judicious to develop a mini-chapter that could be played as a stand-alone and/or served as an introduction in the full-scale game. I don't know. I am not throwing you the first rock here (you didn't do anything bad). I'm just brainstorming out loud.

Anyway, congrats again dude.

JB

[Robot Reaction]

Simple, elegant and addictive

Hi HybridMind,

Thanks for the great game. It is highly addictive and a perfect time waster. The music is great, the animation as well... It is fun to figure out the perfect spot to start the reaction depending on each little robot's position. It takes patience and luck sometimes. I just can't stop playing.

JB

HybridMind responds:

Thank you for playing and leaving your review. I am glad you enjoyed the game so much!