BlazingDragon's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Moonkid]

Despite rough edges, this interactive story is enjoyable and worth replaying. I love the emotional contrast between the ending outside the boy's house and the, err, other one. ;)

The music you chose is interesting from my perspective as composer. I composed Ambient Evening when I was about 13 years old and The Haunting when I was 21. Although the older tracks aren't as complex or well-mixed, the context of the game breathed life into them. I got a fresh perspective on my own music!

Did you write out the story and then choose the music at the end, or did you have tracks in mind at the beginning of the process? At what point did you decide to go with my music?

Beautiful Betrayal and Impromptu - Spring melded so organically with the two endings that I got chills. However, I think that the final note on Beautiful Betrayal should have rung out and then faded to silence, leaving only ambient noises such as wind or rain. Repeating the track causes those last notes to lose their eerie drama. The repeat of Impromptu - Spring also sounds awkward in the current context. Lastly in regard to music, the transition between tracks when entering a different area is slightly jarring. I slower cross-fade might help.

My complaint about level design is that there appears to be a few useless rooms that NPCs never even enter (correct me if I'm wrong). I wasted time my first playthrough exploring these areas despite the fact that they don't contribute to my understanding or appreciation for the story. This is a bit annoying when time in the game is limited.

Finally, there are small design details that I appreciate. I like how all the animal heads and decorations in Granny's House gives insight into what kind of man her son was. I especially appreciate how you incorporated the music and timed it to fit the emotional contour of the endings. There are many other things about the game I could comment on and ask questions about, but I'll stop before this turns into a rambling wall of text.

Thank you for the wonderful game and for using my music. I'd love to work with you in the future if you're ever interested. ;)

MikeSalyh responds:

Thank you for the review; I'm honored! I started listening to your music very early on in development. I had a few concept sketches and a general premise in mind. I listened to "The Haunting Loop" and "Time Forever Gone" about a thousand times while I was writing the script. (They have a perfect 'air of memory')

Funny story: I had written and animated a different ending before I finalized the song choices. But once I heard "Beautiful Betrayal", I re-wrote the *SPOILER* ending so it would live up to the track. Then, that ending was so dark that I re-wrote the parent's ending to match "Impromptu - Spring". So really, I'd say your music was key to developing this game. I hope I did it some justice (despite the rough edges) ;-)

Cheers,
-Mike

[Last Dance (Part 1)]

This reminds me of the old Goosebumps books where you got to choose the scenarios. The bottom of pages would say something like, "Go to page 66 to turn left into the dark ally..." Good memories. :)

That said, this game was fun. The descriptions were vivid and the humor was a nice touch. The ability to go back to the nearest set of choices was a wonderful addition.

There was a spelling mistake (switching "if" and "is" accidentally) and that slightly distracted me. The artwork was basic, but you'll improve over time. The gameplay was slightly repetitive, but maybe that comes with the genre. When you get a bit more experience under your belt, and perhaps some collaborators, it would be awesome to have at least some of the various scenarios as short animated clips. Adding basic sound effects such as doors opening, etc could also help bring the text to life.

I give this a 6.5/10. Solid ideas and a great start, but some fleshing out could easily take this to a further level. Improved art, added sounds, and a little more material could make your sequel polished and immersive. Perhaps even some voice acting.

Fantastic first attempt. Congratulations on the daily 4th place and thank you for using my music. I'd love to collaborate with you and look forward to watching you grow as a game maker.

Shroom-Cushion responds:

That's nice, thank you!

I will try to do the sound effects in the sequel, I got discouraged of doing so in this one, because making the song you composed loop and play without starting a thousand times over over kinda took me a bit to figure out, so by then I was a little over any kind of sounds. But now that I know how stuff works in the sound department, this part should be a breeze in the sequel

I tried to animated a couple of things in this part too, of course not many... like... 2 or so - didn't work out too great, but I will try and see can I pull the animation off when I get to it.

So thank you for the review and for making great music!

[Simple Mouse Game Tut]

I liked the music!

Wow, I was looking at my audio page today and was shocked to find out that it was in a submission. I've waited months for this! :O

Anyway, I do not have flash, and therefore was not able to apply the tutorial. The fact that a layman such as myself was able to understand it means you must have done something right, though. :P A little more color would have been nice, but that's no big.

Thanks again for the publicity/using my song. :)

Flashsubmit responds:

Cool, glad you could understand. And I was glad to use your song. And I shall work on colors.