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Cthaere
For: RNG Dungeon
For: RNG Dungeon
Do not expect anything sort of resembling a traditional review; These are just some of my thoughts as a developer that I wanted to put out publicly.
This was meant to be the final game of the I wanna tourney. Luckily, it wasn't.
To put it bluntly, this game is both hard, and was never meant to be a grind. We knew it from the very beginning, and we have decided to make it for ourselves. A game where the mask is half on, half off, where we can be ourselves while also making a show out of it. Furthermore, the final boss took up most of the development cycle since the IWT, and so did many balance changes; Both the game and the tourney would have likely been much worse were it to be its final boss.
This extends further though. The readme states it plainly, I have already made that point, but it still bears repeating: This game was made with a specific audience in mind, and is likely too abrasive for most outside that audience. It was thoroughly tested, balanced and reiterated upon, until the final release was deemed not merely satisfactory, but excellent in delivering the experience we want to the audience we wanted to deliver it to, being released with the maker's full intent behind it. In that, the game fulfills its purpose; If you end up disliking it, it is much more likely it wasn't aimed at you rather than it was aimed at you but fell flat. If you choose to make yourself play it still, after discovering it isn't for you, don't expect much sympathy.
For those of you who I did make this for? I hope you enjoy. I put a lot of work into it, and had some fun (and some rage). It was a journey, and in the end, that is what matters the most. This release has definitely had me do some thinking, though. You'll hopefully see what comes of it.
There's a lot more I could say about this game, however this platform is inadequate for that. To put it simply, this game and the development team have gone through a LOT during the time of making it, and there is simply too much missing information for the outside player to understand where we were coming from sometimes. The stories are nearly as good as the content that was generated by them. This goes a bit beyond, in that the dev team has a general perspective about avoidances that is not shared by many outside it yet allows us to reach the levels of avoidance making we have, and while this specific project was about messing around, having fun, and showing off, it is also clear that for some parts in this as well as many of our other projects (and upcoming ones), people are unable to grasp where our perspectives come from (as evidenced by anyone who thinks milky ways is more than the bare minimum for mediocrity (yes I got razzor's permission and approval to say that)). I will ask that you trust us when we make takes based on these views when it comes to our own games.
[14] Likes
This was meant to be the final game of the I wanna tourney. Luckily, it wasn't.
To put it bluntly, this game is both hard, and was never meant to be a grind. We knew it from the very beginning, and we have decided to make it for ourselves. A game where the mask is half on, half off, where we can be ourselves while also making a show out of it. Furthermore, the final boss took up most of the development cycle since the IWT, and so did many balance changes; Both the game and the tourney would have likely been much worse were it to be its final boss.
This extends further though. The readme states it plainly, I have already made that point, but it still bears repeating: This game was made with a specific audience in mind, and is likely too abrasive for most outside that audience. It was thoroughly tested, balanced and reiterated upon, until the final release was deemed not merely satisfactory, but excellent in delivering the experience we want to the audience we wanted to deliver it to, being released with the maker's full intent behind it. In that, the game fulfills its purpose; If you end up disliking it, it is much more likely it wasn't aimed at you rather than it was aimed at you but fell flat. If you choose to make yourself play it still, after discovering it isn't for you, don't expect much sympathy.
For those of you who I did make this for? I hope you enjoy. I put a lot of work into it, and had some fun (and some rage). It was a journey, and in the end, that is what matters the most. This release has definitely had me do some thinking, though. You'll hopefully see what comes of it.
There's a lot more I could say about this game, however this platform is inadequate for that. To put it simply, this game and the development team have gone through a LOT during the time of making it, and there is simply too much missing information for the outside player to understand where we were coming from sometimes. The stories are nearly as good as the content that was generated by them. This goes a bit beyond, in that the dev team has a general perspective about avoidances that is not shared by many outside it yet allows us to reach the levels of avoidance making we have, and while this specific project was about messing around, having fun, and showing off, it is also clear that for some parts in this as well as many of our other projects (and upcoming ones), people are unable to grasp where our perspectives come from (as evidenced by anyone who thinks milky ways is more than the bare minimum for mediocrity (yes I got razzor's permission and approval to say that)). I will ask that you trust us when we make takes based on these views when it comes to our own games.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Jul 18, 2022
Razzor_iw [Creator]
For: RNG Dungeon
For: RNG Dungeon
The TGCC Team's debut. Good luck!
Read Cthaere's review as a continuation of this review.
[2] Likes
Read Cthaere's review as a continuation of this review.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 82 82
Jul 18, 2022
fangameXPmaster
For: I wanna be the Grave
For: I wanna be the Grave
First, the range of random numbers is wide, and unreasonable amounts of things can fly.
On top of that, many of the patterns were first-time kills, and the visual effects in the second half were the worst
On top of that, many of the patterns were first-time kills, and the visual effects in the second half were the worst
Tagged as: Avoidance
[0] Likes
Rating: 5.5 55
Difficulty: 75 75
Jul 18, 2022
Bob
For: I Wanna Defeat The Sinistar
For: I Wanna Defeat The Sinistar
This is a weird game made with an incredibly uncomfortable engine. It's sort of fun for some parts but it also has extremely questionable design overall and a strange mishmash of okay and low quality visuals. The bosses are also all very mash heavy and have pretty short attack loops. I had to quit on the final boss because it has a second phase with no checkpoint and the first one is too tedious to play over again to figure out the attacks.
My advice to the creator: Try to use a more standard gamemaker engine and focus on making more fun and visually pleasing level design.
My advice to the creator: Try to use a more standard gamemaker engine and focus on making more fun and visually pleasing level design.
Tagged as: Adventure
[1] Like
Rating: 5.2 52
Difficulty: 60 60
Jul 18, 2022
ElCochran90
For: I wanna Arcana of the Tarot
For: I wanna Arcana of the Tarot
Beaten on June 16th, 2022, live.
Review written while listening to the song "Universum" by Laur, from the album "The Angel's Message", which is, objectively, the most proper song to use to write about Arcana of the Tarot.
trap
/trap/
noun
noun: trap; plural noun: traps
1.
a device or enclosure designed to catch and retain animals, typically by allowing entry but not exit or by catching hold of a part of the body.
2.
a situation in which people lie in wait to make a surprise attack.
3.
a container or device used to collect a specified thing.
verb
a) prevent (someone) from escaping from a place.
b) have (something, typically a part of the body) held tightly by something so that it cannot move or be freed.
c) induce (someone), by means of trickery or deception, to do something they would not otherwise want to do
When Kayin envisioned I Wanna Be the Guy, the game evolved into an adventure comedy, one that was tough as nails. Upon closer inspection, it really was an exercise of frustration, one that experimented freely with the patience of the player, unrestrained, balls-to-the-wall deception while giving surprises save after save. The response of the player pretty much determined how much he/she was understanding the purpose of the game. Those that smashed their keyboards or screamed in anger are used to quick progress; those that laughed or gasped were open-mindedly accepting a new branch of adventure experimentation.
The reason why I bring the original to the table is because the adventure feeling made it more alive, and remains a favorite of mine after thousands of fangame renditions and derivatives. After 15 years, things have evolved to specific genres and can be pretty much classified, unless something new comes along and is tagged as "Special". The exploration was made in the style of a Metroidvania, and the endless references to original retro masterpieces, with some mixes of modernity, made it a classic.
This is an adventure trap game that works as a comedy. If you take it as such, this will prove to be an insanely creative experience. After Outbreak and Cloudburst, this is the perfect closure for the thematic gems that lilly created, and with marimario aboard, a maker with tons of year of experience, this wonder comes out. The difficulty curve is perfect, culminating in the most satisfying challenges, and the traps literally, I dare to say, reinvented the genre for fangames.
Now go back to the definitions of "trap" because I'm pretty sure you skimmed them. When used as a noun:
-In definition 1, the animal is The Kid
-In definition 2, the attacker is the maker
-In definition 3, the container is the entire game
When used as a verb:
-In definition a), it's the ominous premise of the game; you know that will happen countless times
-In definition b), don't worry; the entire body of the kid is ensured to explode because of the most inexplicable and unexpected things and phenomena
-In definition c), it's the spirit of trap fangames
This is one of the few fangames which I have that fully understands and simultaneously applies all of the concepts from above. A falling spike is something you can predict. What about a whole giant block? What about changes in dimensions? What about the design of the game trolling you a la Duck Amuck (1953)? Back in 2007, traps were designed to anticipate how the players would think. Once the player does a plan b), the game anticipates plan b). Arcana of the Tarot, pretty much like Outbreak and Cloudburst, anticipates plans c) and d) (and takes this even to a plan f). Every single betrayal is insane as hell, and funny as Neil Breen.
When you punish the progresses of your audiences with traps, there must be a reward: give them a memorable moment; give them inventive gimmicks, establish their rules and then twist them; play with the game's design; give them something to remember so that they will want to share it with friends so they can react with a "WTF".
Today, the YouTube video "I Wanna Be the Guy - Death By Cutscene" is 14 years old and has 200K views, 1.6 K likes and only 35 dislikes. The majority of the comments are very old, but are all positive, and people keep commenting on it. One that reads "This video really captures the feeling of the whole game in less than a minute..." posted 5 years ago is one of my favorites because that comes from a person that understands the game. This is the art of breaking the rules.
After many fun gimmicks that can be considered simple and others quite fun despite borrowed (such as the Super Mario 64 one), there is nothing that will be able to properly prepare you for the wacky shenanigans throughout that will twist the entire stages. Some might look and be described as ordinarily themed ("the cave stage", "the ice stage", "the factory stage"); however reinventing twists at every turn is what sells this as a trap game.
However, even if the core of the game is trap, it is also an adventure and there is a high emphasis on this. There is a journey to fulfill, and said journey requires variety. The journey has a specific theme: travelling through worlds activating tarot cards after beating stages and thematic bosses. Recreating original videogame tilesets is always allowed as long as you make a memorable tribute to said game. The makers here don't opt for that, and decide to create a world of their own.
When both envisionings are correctly applied, the high-sky production value is more than welcome, because it will add to the game instead of being distracting. Today, many players reinforce the idea that "production value does not equal enjoyment value". Here, the visuals work in favor of the visual design of the adventure spirit and the absolutely mental traps. The latter two factors are added and then multiplied by the production value, and the result is true bliss.
I have mentioned countless times before that the trap genre frustrates me, but it all comes down to the generic conventionalisms and effortless generic deaths that the majority of makers have encapsulated the genre in. This game, after offering a plethora of 100% unpredictable tricks under the hat, never saves a trap before hitting the next save, ergo, removing the desperation of doing an entire save all over again, unlike old-school Carnival. Other lilly trap games do the exact same correct decision.
This is where the final stage comes in: the peak of lilly's creativity and style along with marimario's adventure expertise. It can barely be described with words beyond "an enchanted forest that unleashes the most unexpected troll demons at midnight". It even goes to the extent of going meta and becoming self-aware, culminating in moments of truly freaking based grandiosity.
It is impossible not to mention the bosses, especially when one has gone through Outbreak and Cloudburst: they are masterfully done, and just like the aforementioned games, they save the best for last. Still, the rest of the stage bosses are done with passion and a unique style. They are not grindy, or troll avoidances. They give the correct visual cues to react and learn the expected attacks and reactions, and implement gimmicks fantastically.
The final boss is a masterpiece: two Touhou characters at the magnificent rhythm, harmony and dubstep madness mixture of Universum by Laur. As predictable as the theme of the boss is, the boss itself is not: five stages that escalate spectacularly in difficulty with extraordinary sound editing and visual effects without saturating the screen or creating visual obstacles for knowing where your character is. The boss, moreover, has wonderful small details that I greatly appreciate, because everything adds (some may go consciously unnoticed by many, but unconsciously they allow you to enjoy the final boss much more):
-Every attack is named and has its English translation for us mortals that weren't born on the East
-When you get to the top of the screen, all titles and legends are removed so you don't lose visibility of yourself, unlike the title cards of many medleys
-Attacks are not really hard by themselves because of you requiring to do an exhausting trial and error: they hint the blind spots, announce themselves coming as a next phase, have a correct and reactable timing, and are not confusing at all. The skills required to beat them are calculation and observation.
-This is my favorite aspect and is the most beautiful thing ever: the battle syncs extraordinarily with the song. I am not freaking kidding! How can you be such a programming genius in this sense?? It is not an avoidance!! Well... During your first successful casual playthroughs, you'll realize that by the time the song says "Seek out your enemy", you'll be watching the transition to Phase 3; by the time the dubstep kicks in, you'll be doing the most intense attacks of Phase 3 with the position-based purple energy balls; exactly when the transition towards Phase 4 ends, the piano kicks in, and the avoidance starts at the same time; finally, when phase 5 starts, the song is approaching to its end and the most intense part of Phase 5, which definitely is the most pulse-pounding and epic part, the chant of the song intensifies.
Needless to say, this is a strange hybrid with hyper-contemporary adventure set-pieces aimed to cause a reaction and leave a very satisfying feel of accomplishment at the end.
[1] Like
Review written while listening to the song "Universum" by Laur, from the album "The Angel's Message", which is, objectively, the most proper song to use to write about Arcana of the Tarot.
trap
/trap/
noun
noun: trap; plural noun: traps
1.
a device or enclosure designed to catch and retain animals, typically by allowing entry but not exit or by catching hold of a part of the body.
2.
a situation in which people lie in wait to make a surprise attack.
3.
a container or device used to collect a specified thing.
verb
a) prevent (someone) from escaping from a place.
b) have (something, typically a part of the body) held tightly by something so that it cannot move or be freed.
c) induce (someone), by means of trickery or deception, to do something they would not otherwise want to do
When Kayin envisioned I Wanna Be the Guy, the game evolved into an adventure comedy, one that was tough as nails. Upon closer inspection, it really was an exercise of frustration, one that experimented freely with the patience of the player, unrestrained, balls-to-the-wall deception while giving surprises save after save. The response of the player pretty much determined how much he/she was understanding the purpose of the game. Those that smashed their keyboards or screamed in anger are used to quick progress; those that laughed or gasped were open-mindedly accepting a new branch of adventure experimentation.
The reason why I bring the original to the table is because the adventure feeling made it more alive, and remains a favorite of mine after thousands of fangame renditions and derivatives. After 15 years, things have evolved to specific genres and can be pretty much classified, unless something new comes along and is tagged as "Special". The exploration was made in the style of a Metroidvania, and the endless references to original retro masterpieces, with some mixes of modernity, made it a classic.
This is an adventure trap game that works as a comedy. If you take it as such, this will prove to be an insanely creative experience. After Outbreak and Cloudburst, this is the perfect closure for the thematic gems that lilly created, and with marimario aboard, a maker with tons of year of experience, this wonder comes out. The difficulty curve is perfect, culminating in the most satisfying challenges, and the traps literally, I dare to say, reinvented the genre for fangames.
Now go back to the definitions of "trap" because I'm pretty sure you skimmed them. When used as a noun:
-In definition 1, the animal is The Kid
-In definition 2, the attacker is the maker
-In definition 3, the container is the entire game
When used as a verb:
-In definition a), it's the ominous premise of the game; you know that will happen countless times
-In definition b), don't worry; the entire body of the kid is ensured to explode because of the most inexplicable and unexpected things and phenomena
-In definition c), it's the spirit of trap fangames
This is one of the few fangames which I have that fully understands and simultaneously applies all of the concepts from above. A falling spike is something you can predict. What about a whole giant block? What about changes in dimensions? What about the design of the game trolling you a la Duck Amuck (1953)? Back in 2007, traps were designed to anticipate how the players would think. Once the player does a plan b), the game anticipates plan b). Arcana of the Tarot, pretty much like Outbreak and Cloudburst, anticipates plans c) and d) (and takes this even to a plan f). Every single betrayal is insane as hell, and funny as Neil Breen.
When you punish the progresses of your audiences with traps, there must be a reward: give them a memorable moment; give them inventive gimmicks, establish their rules and then twist them; play with the game's design; give them something to remember so that they will want to share it with friends so they can react with a "WTF".
Today, the YouTube video "I Wanna Be the Guy - Death By Cutscene" is 14 years old and has 200K views, 1.6 K likes and only 35 dislikes. The majority of the comments are very old, but are all positive, and people keep commenting on it. One that reads "This video really captures the feeling of the whole game in less than a minute..." posted 5 years ago is one of my favorites because that comes from a person that understands the game. This is the art of breaking the rules.
After many fun gimmicks that can be considered simple and others quite fun despite borrowed (such as the Super Mario 64 one), there is nothing that will be able to properly prepare you for the wacky shenanigans throughout that will twist the entire stages. Some might look and be described as ordinarily themed ("the cave stage", "the ice stage", "the factory stage"); however reinventing twists at every turn is what sells this as a trap game.
However, even if the core of the game is trap, it is also an adventure and there is a high emphasis on this. There is a journey to fulfill, and said journey requires variety. The journey has a specific theme: travelling through worlds activating tarot cards after beating stages and thematic bosses. Recreating original videogame tilesets is always allowed as long as you make a memorable tribute to said game. The makers here don't opt for that, and decide to create a world of their own.
When both envisionings are correctly applied, the high-sky production value is more than welcome, because it will add to the game instead of being distracting. Today, many players reinforce the idea that "production value does not equal enjoyment value". Here, the visuals work in favor of the visual design of the adventure spirit and the absolutely mental traps. The latter two factors are added and then multiplied by the production value, and the result is true bliss.
I have mentioned countless times before that the trap genre frustrates me, but it all comes down to the generic conventionalisms and effortless generic deaths that the majority of makers have encapsulated the genre in. This game, after offering a plethora of 100% unpredictable tricks under the hat, never saves a trap before hitting the next save, ergo, removing the desperation of doing an entire save all over again, unlike old-school Carnival. Other lilly trap games do the exact same correct decision.
This is where the final stage comes in: the peak of lilly's creativity and style along with marimario's adventure expertise. It can barely be described with words beyond "an enchanted forest that unleashes the most unexpected troll demons at midnight". It even goes to the extent of going meta and becoming self-aware, culminating in moments of truly freaking based grandiosity.
It is impossible not to mention the bosses, especially when one has gone through Outbreak and Cloudburst: they are masterfully done, and just like the aforementioned games, they save the best for last. Still, the rest of the stage bosses are done with passion and a unique style. They are not grindy, or troll avoidances. They give the correct visual cues to react and learn the expected attacks and reactions, and implement gimmicks fantastically.
The final boss is a masterpiece: two Touhou characters at the magnificent rhythm, harmony and dubstep madness mixture of Universum by Laur. As predictable as the theme of the boss is, the boss itself is not: five stages that escalate spectacularly in difficulty with extraordinary sound editing and visual effects without saturating the screen or creating visual obstacles for knowing where your character is. The boss, moreover, has wonderful small details that I greatly appreciate, because everything adds (some may go consciously unnoticed by many, but unconsciously they allow you to enjoy the final boss much more):
-Every attack is named and has its English translation for us mortals that weren't born on the East
-When you get to the top of the screen, all titles and legends are removed so you don't lose visibility of yourself, unlike the title cards of many medleys
-Attacks are not really hard by themselves because of you requiring to do an exhausting trial and error: they hint the blind spots, announce themselves coming as a next phase, have a correct and reactable timing, and are not confusing at all. The skills required to beat them are calculation and observation.
-This is my favorite aspect and is the most beautiful thing ever: the battle syncs extraordinarily with the song. I am not freaking kidding! How can you be such a programming genius in this sense?? It is not an avoidance!! Well... During your first successful casual playthroughs, you'll realize that by the time the song says "Seek out your enemy", you'll be watching the transition to Phase 3; by the time the dubstep kicks in, you'll be doing the most intense attacks of Phase 3 with the position-based purple energy balls; exactly when the transition towards Phase 4 ends, the piano kicks in, and the avoidance starts at the same time; finally, when phase 5 starts, the song is approaching to its end and the most intense part of Phase 5, which definitely is the most pulse-pounding and epic part, the chant of the song intensifies.
Needless to say, this is a strange hybrid with hyper-contemporary adventure set-pieces aimed to cause a reaction and leave a very satisfying feel of accomplishment at the end.
Rating: 8.4 84
Difficulty: 60 60
Jul 18, 2022