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Butzbo

108 Game Reviews

38 w/ Responses

That was a fun exploration!
I liked how you made it possible to change the legs, independent of the arms; I don't easily recall another 2d game doing something like that. I see a lot of potential on this idea, since it makes room for really varied puzzles where you have to figure out the specific combination for each situation.

I finished it, and the biggest issue I had was the commands to swap parts, It was a bit strange to use the same direction buttons to morph while I was making a quick action (specificly on the part where you have to get the tires, then quickly get the legs to jump again while paying attention to the timing of the lasers...) maybe if there was one button to swap between the different legs, and one to swap between the different arms, it could be more inctuitive.

That's what I have for now, still a cool ludum dare game :)

esayitch responds:

Yup, I agree it is a bit weird to use the left right buttons. For a post-compo version I might revise it to only use the up and down keys or something xD

Ouch!; I mean, amazing work guys!
It's been a while since I've played one of these 'boss' oriented platformers; It felt short BUT at the same time I assume that helped to make it pretty polished, and of course a really cool take on the Sack Smash concept. quite a team you have here!

PestoForce responds:

was tons o' fun!

Coolibert take on Pico! I see a lot of potential in this!
Since its a demo, I still have some thoughts and ideas;

The artstyle is looking great so far, specially on the complete illustrations of the characters as they talked; I also have to mention a surprisingly great distortion effect after the first fight with Cassandra.

I like how you took the aim for a boss-rush-oriented sidescroller. which left me wanting to see some more variety in the scenarios, specially considering the good mobility you can get from the Dash; Maybe some fights could include different kinds of platforms and interaction with the scenery and objects.

I found the boss battles to be for the most part pretty diverse and inventive by themselves, but they also left me hoping for a final phase on each boss which could include all of its attacks in a sequence of some sort as a 'final test'.

I also agree with the need for a command to 'aim still' at the enemy, since sometimes you don't want to move out of a safe spot.

Well, that's what I have for now; looking forward to future versions!

(this is completely unrelated; but I may have recognized a few Chrono Trigger sounds at the menu screen...Maybe?)

TwinBlazar responds:

Thank you for your review. :)

That was a cool (and unusual) puzzle game;
At first I thought it would move with Qbert-like controllers, (which can get really confusing if you're using non-diagonal arrows). But the solution you had here worked pretty well for the isometric perspective.

One of the issues I had with it was the 'change blocks' mechanic (to swap between "normal" and "spiked"), which had me killed a few times because of dropping an spiked block and stepping over it by accident, heheh- but after that phase I had fun solving the different block roads.

Some thoughts/ideas: If you're planning other versions: After my confusion with the 'change block' mechanic, I realized it was well explained on the in-level dialogs; but I found it hard to pay attention there when a timing was running out and I also had limited lives; Maybe the timer could appear after the basic mechanics are explained, so the player can start with a little less pressure and pay propper attention.

And a minor detail is that sometimes I wanted to have a button to go faster on the 'box-face' dialogs between the levels, but couldn't because all the buttons I tried skipped right to the next level.

Well that's what I have for now, it may be a cool game to have around for a road trip!

Pizzamakesgames responds:

Hey, thanks a lot for the insightful review!

Accidentally placing a spike block, especially when you run out of regular ones had me killed a lot, too. Couldn't make up my mind on whether or not I wasn't gonna auto-switch the blocks because of that. Starting the timer after the initial 10 levels is a pretty good idea.
Skipping dialogue was intentionally left out to give the dude a bigger sense of individuality, also I like to make the player wait.

Hah, that last sentence! Road trips are the only time I ever really played Game Boy games <3

Well, effectively just fixed everything about the game that you mentioned on a whim! :)

I think it's a great concept to explore; the Salad Fingers world is a pretty intriguing and dangerous one,; So it works nicely with the pacing of the point-and-click genre (may also be a cool way to introduce this series to new generations).

Some things that could be improved:
- I'm relatively familiar with this genre, so I had no problem with the "crafting" system; but it may help to offer a little basic help at the beginning on the matter (or just highlightning the buttons on the right moment on the first segments).
- Most puzzles were intuitive enough with enough experimentation, although the one about hanging the doll seemed too cryptic (I discovered it when I was running out of options, but didn't felt too 'logical').
- I think the sound work could have a really important role setting the atmosphere of the game; most sounds were in convenient places, but there could be some more/varied atmospheric sounds (and of course, would be amazing to have it voiced!).
That's what I have for now, looking forward to future versions ;)!

GEG responds:

Thanks, those are some great suggestions. We intend to put in a guide system to guide beginners.

Superb!, really cool proposal, art and animation were really well polished, specially the first 'action' segment.

In terms of gameplay; I may not be too used to games of this sort, but I found the last 2 screens to be a bit cryptic, at first I tried the 'logical' approaches I could think of (like luring one of the dinosaurs to the honey or guts, or trying to use the stone or even the guts to hit the bee hive. I couldn't understand what was the spiky object the small dinosaur was eating, so it made it hard to properly plan what to do). But since I was still motivated on seeing what came next, I eventually got to the point of trying a lot of things until something worked which led me to see the quite inventive plan this girl had with all these objects.

A pretty entertaining little game, would be cool to see evolving (also; kicking things was pretty satisfying!)

I think it's a cool concept; we are so used to 'normal' platformer controls, that I'd say this is a fresh idea. Reminds me a bit of Cave Story where you can use a machinegun to actually fly. Only this time the speed makes it insanely though to control; Level 3 got brutally hard early on (I thought I could at least destroy those turrets) and at level 4 I just gave up at the most narrow spike segments.

The music has some sort of odd "peaceful classical/christmas vibe" (atleast that's what I got) that didn't seem really fitting or encouraging for the game.

Of course this is a Ludum Dare proyect; and the priority here is experimentation, which after all led to an interesting result!

An awesome "byte-sized metroidvania"!, could beat it (on normal) in ~30 minutes. The presentation was great, and it managed to be long enough while keeping its small scale, at least longer than what I expected at first.
Some of the platforming bits were a bit tricky, but nothing ridiculously hard to make it seem cheap, and it was fun to end with a boss fight AND an escape sequence. It really seems like you took the most essential elements of the "metroid-vania" genre and made as much as possible within the Ludum Dare limitations.
Makes me wonder If you could keep making more "mini-worlds" like this in a sequence, just a thought.
Good work!

Nice adventure game, while I can't say I understood the story completely. it was certainly great in terms of experience and atmosphere.
My favourite part of the game (If I understood well) was the moment when the "player" character is gone, and the game makes it look like "you" were an illusion of a skull; it kind of breaks your 'protagonist' condition for a moment, I think it's a nice example of the narrative posibilities that can only be explored within the particular nature of a videogame.

In terms of gameplay it's pretty straightforward; for the most part it's "GO/TALK somewhere", which in this case serves the game's narrative properly, but I think it could eventually include some "puzzle" elements, to make it feel less linear and make the player interact a bit more with the environment, making the user interaction a bit more relevant (and maybe helping to reinforce the atmosphere), just an idea.

Good work, I'll be looking forward for more!

Pizzamakesgames responds:

Thank you for the kind words and analysis, it goes a long way helping me understand the various do's and don'ts of video game design. Very much appreciated!

I like the fact that you go around in circles and the game keeps evolving on each sub-screen as you make progress, it could work as an interesting way to tell a story through the game.
For a Ludum Dare game I'd say it's a great result with an original mechanic proposal around the theme.
Good job!

Helloe! I'm a 2D Animator from Chile, and sometimes Game Developer (actually, Newgrounds got me into animation!) I post some personal cartoons and drawings every once in a while! Cheese and lizards are cool too. Bzzzztt!!

Antonio @Butzbo

Age 33

2d Animator

Santiago, Chile

Joined on 9/13/06

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