Score: 6

"Viewable"

submission: Public Transportation

date: April 12, 2008

Interesting as an animation excercise, though obviously had its lacks, like not really having a plot, being short and didn't hear much music either. Still nice to watch but I wouldn't give it an award :)

Would be a good start to build on and expand though. But overal I appreciate it was pleasing to the eye.

Score: 8

"Why doesn't this have an award?"

submission: Animatic Breakup//

date: April 12, 2008

It's good to see something different and new once in a while. I found it an interesting experience to watch, since the video had its own style. Someone might think its choppy, but I see it as an animating style. Character art and poses were actually very decently drawn.

As for the negatives, you probably know already: bad speech, sometimes hard to understand, atleast for me. Also durring the scene where the two start 'throwing old garbage at each other' the camera should stick to the person currently speaking, rather switch at a seemingly random pace. Though I understand the increase in speed in switching from one face to the other was made to indicate a gradation of emotions, you still should stick to the face of the current speaker (and perhaps make the lines of speech gradually shorter as to indicate an increasing tension?).

Oh and I missed some kind of interactive feature in the movie, like scene selection, or perhaps atleast a pause button.

Overal nicely done, voted 4 and will definitely remember the animation for its uniqueness.

Score: 9

"Epic"

submission: Tainted Kingdom

date: April 11, 2008

This is a game worth playing for a great multitude of reasons.

Firstly the original combination of turn-based strategic map, with the fast-faced real-time individual battles, makes the game enjoyable, wether you prefer action or strategy. I would like to point out the authors ability to balance the speed of battles and lenght of missions, as well as vary missions that require more strategy or more tactics, so the game does not become repetitive over time.

Secondly the well-balanced missions, which are generally not so hard to pass, though in some cases (mission 6 especially) the condition for a swift victory achievement is just too extreme. Nonetheless, the difficulty bar isn't so high (I was refularly getting deadly commander on my first play, at my first playthrough had 7 and I'm not so good at games that require reflexes either), so even if the player doesn't have much skill in this kind of games, it's still playable.

Technically speaking, the graphics weren't really so bad, the sound did not offend me either and the animated cutscenes between missions were nice too, though perhaps I missed in game cutscenes and events that would increase the pace of the missions even more (for instance the enemy deploying their hero in the last battle, the arrival of an additional hero to your ranks when things are becoming grim, sources of gold that get uncovered/exhausted and so on).

On the other hand probably the main lack, was the unoriginal story. While I didn't feel offended, I wasn't thinking I never saw this kind of story before too, but it had some nice twists that kept my attention so it couldn't have been that bad.

There was also a slight balance issue, concerning the stats of ancient and human units. It seemed to me, even though ancients had a better access to ressources, human units, unless having substantially lower upgrades, could fairly easily overpower the ancients. Ancient units, while not really weak, were too specialized, the more versatile human units could often handle unpredictable combat situations much better.

Speaking of units, passing the game did not really even need you to use all kinds of troops, but quite the opposite, specialize on a few powerful ones and deploy them as is seen fit in combat. In my case I just used mostly crusaders, supported by a few royal guards, a tower or two perhaps to slow the advance of enemies and the remaining units were used only as a cheap way of damaging the enemy base. Not sure if this is good or bad, but didn't need much strategy to win most battles.

Also the computer is quite slow at deploying his troops at the start of the fight, you can easily get one to two fast troops to his side before he can even deploy his first, this should be fixed.

Oh and big plus for the bonus mode of play for earning all the deadly commanders, doesn't look like it, but makes the game quite more difficult from what I seen so far.

So overally, great game, not worth a 10 yet, for the above-mentioned problems, but coming dangerously close to it. Thumbs up for the replayable missions and fun tactical battles.

Score: 8

"Something new and enjoyable"

submission: D'sova RPG

date: April 5, 2008

This was much less a game than a work of art. Though I'm surprised to see something similiar on NG, since alot of NG users are known for their dislike of anything that tries to deviate from their expectations. People tend to forget RPGs are quite an open genre and hardly comparable. This is even more difficult given the experimental and original background of the game, which doesn't have to be to everyone's taste at all.

So let's look at the specific aspects of this submission: technically there's some obvious lacks compared to other games compared to other games: character developement is quite limited and makes me wonder if the game would be better off without it, instead given more space to developing the background and story, which I believe would please one group of gamers that play RPGs. The other group would probably enjoy more combat orientation, more dynamic combat system and more stat developement, quite like battle-oriented flash RPGs like Sonny or Sinjid.

The problem is the way the game is set now it won't satisfy neither the adventure-loving gamers, since there needs to be more dialogue and a stronger story, as well as more interesting enviroment to explore, to keep the attention of these. For battle-gamers, you'd need to add more character developement, as well as more options how to improve combat skills. If the game tries to appeal to both groups it might not succeed appealing to either, thats why I think this piece is slightly underrated.

But the game had something great to it: the allien athmosphere was quite unique. Huge empty corridors, magnified with the small size of the main character, gave the game a feeling of being lost in unknown allien terrain, the music only adding to the athmosphere. The story I believe had more of a part in building the athmosphere, when the player doesn't know who he is, where is he or even exactly whats going to happen in the near future. Of course obviously not something everyone could like and appreciate.

The originality is the game's strongest point. Found it the most original flash piece I got to experience in a long time and its a great relief compared to all the zombie-slaying, dragon-slaying or allien-slaying that has been finding its way even to RPGs.

Again I'd like to remind, RPGs come in a large variety and there's nowhere written, you can't have an RPG without equipment or stat allocation, just oriented on the enviroment and athmosphere. It's an experiment after all, so I hope when the author creates a sequel the athmosphere will stay the same, as well as the unique charm this game does have in my eyes. It will probably not please the massess but I liked it and thats what matters to me.

Score: 8

"Cute"

submission: nymph in love with tree

date: April 1, 2008

Nice animation, you successfully gave the drawings that little bit of extra touch that divides something drawn and something alive, though I get the feeling it could be improved, perhaps by making the animations more fluid?

Generally the graphics were nice, music was a good choice and lacking sound was no big deal, perhaps even improved the quality of the work. Also there seems to be a message in it, which is another plus. All in all, 8/10.

Score: 8

"Nicely expressed message"

submission: The Fur Fighters

date: March 28, 2008

This game is hard to rate without actually taking in fact the message in it. The graphics were very nice and you get plus for the simple idea and controls, though on the other hand the game might be overly simple and basically you always do the same thing, avoid people and press space on specific spots. Also there are bugs in the second part of the game where you can get stuck in place or one of the models doesn't come out forcing you to restart.

But I see effort put into it as well and it was quite a positive experience, so recommended for anyone who's for the anti-fur message. This gets 7/10 for gameplay, but since I find the message quite positive as well (protecting animals never hurts anything except some peoples' pride) I'd give 8/10.

Score: 8

"Not bad at all"

submission: The Mastermind Game

date: March 6, 2008

Very enjoyable, you combined a simple game, with a cool theme, great graphics and sound and who else to play the Mastermind Game, except with the Mastermind himself? Loved Mastermind's comments.

On the downside, it is quite short though and there's only the hard mode to increase replayability, so perhaps some more modes, or perhaps small bonuses for a fast win would make the game last longer?

Overally, great job, considering adding it to favorites.

Score: 7

"Enjoyable"

submission: The Face Collab

date: February 7, 2008

Was interesting to watch, though of course with collabs you have varying quality of authors so its hard to judge the piece as a whole. As a demonstration of animation quite good, also good choice of varying music.

Score: 9

"Another nice piece"

submission: A Boy & His Vision Quest

date: January 22, 2008

You ought to be a directot, seems you might have a thing for knowing how to pick the right scenes, adding the correct music and still getting the movie to convey it's message.

Not sure what to criticize, except the technical stuff like the occasional chopiness of the flash, or the graphics that wasnt bad but at some parts could be improved. Lack of sound might not really be a problem.

A huge plus of this flash is that it conveys a message for the viewer. Well done.

Score: 9

"Touching"

submission: The Good and The Evil

date: January 22, 2008

Somehow I am amazed you managed to put the message so well, using just music and images. You had a great choice of music and liked the style of graphics, just think it could have been made in such a way so that it speaks even to those that do not favor religion. But overal very nice, I'd love to see more videos like this.