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phgQED
For: I Wanna Christmas Buzz
For: I Wanna Christmas Buzz
My Secret Santa 2023 game made for Verve. May add a golden mode w/ wasp room item at some point if someone can help me figure out the code. Also I tried to fix the trigger layering in the final room but the object depth wasn't working for some reason.
Merry Vervemas everyone. <3
[1] Like
Merry Vervemas everyone. <3
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 51 51
Jan 7, 2024
phgQED [Creator]
For: Heart-Shaped Triangle
For: Heart-Shaped Triangle
https://mega.nz/file/pvt03KJI#buGOd4TS7KL8nO-G4dWlNPQrKpBnS8ABNSciTQrG2sQ
Upload link subject to change with game updates
[0] Likes
Upload link subject to change with game updates
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Dec 22, 2023
phgQED
For: I wanna catch you
For: I wanna catch you
This is the stella game i have been looking for. This is a perfect example of what i would call 'humanized needle', or maybe 'needle for human beings'--until the last area, none of the jumps are ever harder than 32px standard, and they're often nerfed to be more lenient than that. The difficulty in this game comes from the uniqueness of the maneuvers and pathing, not necessarily in the individual trajectories or hitboxes orientations.
Something i found especially appealing about this game, aside from its overall aesthetic (which does a nice job of painting a cohesive picture of its creator along with establishing a nice soft mood), was the fact that pathing elements could appear without being 'used to death'. What i mean, so to speak, is that with a creator of this skill level, sometimes their maps can be nearly inscrutable to someone without the experience to parse everything that's going on. What this means for me, as a fairly untalented player, is that when i see a vine or platform or piece of water, a soft fear sets in that it's going to be re-used later and i'm already missing how, as well as the pathing that comes with it. That isn't the case in this game, and it made interacting with each of the individual elements of the screen more fun when i knew i wouldn't necessarily have to revisit them. Sometimes a vine without your jump is just a vine without your jump, and you won't do a dinosaur loop to come back with your jump refreshed... that was really appealing from my perspective.
The only overall 'critique' i have for this game is that it could have been ever-so-slightly shorter and i wouldn't have complained, given the comfy slice-of-life feel the needle gives. I enjoyed all the content i played, but i did get stuck on one or two saves, mostly due to inexperience with shift holding for vine tech. i also felt like the classic 'game over' music was a bit jarring when contrasted with the soundtrack, and would have preferred just letting the music play, which i couldn't find an option for.
Overall my favorite stella game, one of my favorite needle games of the year, and possibly all time.
Something i found especially appealing about this game, aside from its overall aesthetic (which does a nice job of painting a cohesive picture of its creator along with establishing a nice soft mood), was the fact that pathing elements could appear without being 'used to death'. What i mean, so to speak, is that with a creator of this skill level, sometimes their maps can be nearly inscrutable to someone without the experience to parse everything that's going on. What this means for me, as a fairly untalented player, is that when i see a vine or platform or piece of water, a soft fear sets in that it's going to be re-used later and i'm already missing how, as well as the pathing that comes with it. That isn't the case in this game, and it made interacting with each of the individual elements of the screen more fun when i knew i wouldn't necessarily have to revisit them. Sometimes a vine without your jump is just a vine without your jump, and you won't do a dinosaur loop to come back with your jump refreshed... that was really appealing from my perspective.
The only overall 'critique' i have for this game is that it could have been ever-so-slightly shorter and i wouldn't have complained, given the comfy slice-of-life feel the needle gives. I enjoyed all the content i played, but i did get stuck on one or two saves, mostly due to inexperience with shift holding for vine tech. i also felt like the classic 'game over' music was a bit jarring when contrasted with the soundtrack, and would have preferred just letting the music play, which i couldn't find an option for.
Overall my favorite stella game, one of my favorite needle games of the year, and possibly all time.
Tagged as: Needle
[1] Like
Rating: 8.9 89
Difficulty: 58 58
Dec 14, 2023
phgQED
For: luna pixie
For: luna pixie
I was genuinely excited to play this game because I am big fan of the creator's work otherwise even though it is usually far outside my difficulty range. It is difficult to review a creation, however, when the creator says on the thing that it's 'not good', because then I feel stupid if I like it, whereas if I say I don't like it, they can respond with "well I told you it wasn't good".
With all that said, this game started out very promisingly, with a lot of fun 16px wallhugs and turnaround maneuvers. I think the tileset is great, the engine feels smooth and the game comes prepatched. Even the aesthetics of the object placement are given care and attention, with thing slike spikes merging into each other and happy hollow fruit always blocking the path somewhere. The music is a bombastic jazz tune which didn't quite fit the mood of the game for me, but it was still nice to listen to for a bit.
For some reason many of the early water maneuvers felt overly precise to me, and as the screens went on I noticed this was true of several jumps per save in general, usually which were corners seemingly nerfed by 16px. I get that the entirety of needle is a precision genre, and that you're going to make a jump as precise as feels fun for you, but it seemed odd to me that in a game focused on being low difficulty that there were random jumps which stood out in terms of their tightness.
I was also confused by the pathing in several points, even though I'm sure it's rudimentary to everyone else—I have a real problem discerning anything more basic than 'go exactly here at all times', so this isn't a real knock against the game, but it did leave me with a feeling of frustration which was compounded by the aforementioned jumps. The save point placement often felt too early in a map, leaving me stuck on the second half for far longer than the first.
I think the inclusion of a golden challenge is cool, as it adds an extra level of replayability for more experienced players, and a cool feat for someone dedicated to set their eyes on.
Even though this game wasn't my exact cup of tea, I still greatly appreciate that makers are attempting to release games in this difficulty space. It's for that reason that I downloaded and played this game almost as soon as I found out it existed, and why I took the time to provide detailed feedback instead of just leaving a rating. I hope that some of comments were useful, and that I get the privilege of playing more of this maker's games in the future.
With all that said, this game started out very promisingly, with a lot of fun 16px wallhugs and turnaround maneuvers. I think the tileset is great, the engine feels smooth and the game comes prepatched. Even the aesthetics of the object placement are given care and attention, with thing slike spikes merging into each other and happy hollow fruit always blocking the path somewhere. The music is a bombastic jazz tune which didn't quite fit the mood of the game for me, but it was still nice to listen to for a bit.
For some reason many of the early water maneuvers felt overly precise to me, and as the screens went on I noticed this was true of several jumps per save in general, usually which were corners seemingly nerfed by 16px. I get that the entirety of needle is a precision genre, and that you're going to make a jump as precise as feels fun for you, but it seemed odd to me that in a game focused on being low difficulty that there were random jumps which stood out in terms of their tightness.
I was also confused by the pathing in several points, even though I'm sure it's rudimentary to everyone else—I have a real problem discerning anything more basic than 'go exactly here at all times', so this isn't a real knock against the game, but it did leave me with a feeling of frustration which was compounded by the aforementioned jumps. The save point placement often felt too early in a map, leaving me stuck on the second half for far longer than the first.
I think the inclusion of a golden challenge is cool, as it adds an extra level of replayability for more experienced players, and a cool feat for someone dedicated to set their eyes on.
Even though this game wasn't my exact cup of tea, I still greatly appreciate that makers are attempting to release games in this difficulty space. It's for that reason that I downloaded and played this game almost as soon as I found out it existed, and why I took the time to provide detailed feedback instead of just leaving a rating. I hope that some of comments were useful, and that I get the privilege of playing more of this maker's games in the future.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 50 50
Nov 29, 2023
phgQED
For: culvert
For: culvert
For a surprise release from the makers of one of my favorite simple needle games (I Wanna Cigarette) this was a bit of a disappointment. For one thing, it's an unpatched gm8 game with no native fullscreen and the K2 save bug in 2023. While I appreciate working in nostalgic environments to a degree, these quality of life features are just annoying to be without in the current day and age.
Aside from that, it feels like the game barely gets going before it's over, and my favorite screen of all the ones played was the final one. Up to that the needle felt more rudimentary and annoying than pleasant to go through. The water implementation was a nice nod, but it felt mostly basic until the very end of the game where it finally started to come to life.
The tileset and presentation are nostalgic in general, but you also have things like saves that are placed more than a block away from the start of a jump, and final jumps that feel like they're simply more precise than the rest of the save just because. None of it was upsettingly difficult, and might be good for beginners, but it didn't scratch that 'nostalgic easy needle' itch that it seemed to set out to, at least for me.
Aside from that, it feels like the game barely gets going before it's over, and my favorite screen of all the ones played was the final one. Up to that the needle felt more rudimentary and annoying than pleasant to go through. The water implementation was a nice nod, but it felt mostly basic until the very end of the game where it finally started to come to life.
The tileset and presentation are nostalgic in general, but you also have things like saves that are placed more than a block away from the start of a jump, and final jumps that feel like they're simply more precise than the rest of the save just because. None of it was upsettingly difficult, and might be good for beginners, but it didn't scratch that 'nostalgic easy needle' itch that it seemed to set out to, at least for me.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 3.5 35
Difficulty: 45 45
Nov 24, 2023
11 Games
Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
---|---|---|---|
I wanna be the (mis)Nomer | 68.4 | 4.9 | 11 |
I Wanna be the AIW | 56.0 | 6.9 | 25 |
I Wanna be the Fleeting Flower Forever | 71.8 | 7.1 | 7 |
Heart-Shaped Triangle | 61.8 | 7.6 | 10 |
I Wanna Meet the Oracle at Delphi | 65.2 | 5.8 | 10 |
I Wanna One Day Wonder | 44.6 | 7.5 | 11 |
Stranded. | 67.9 | 6.6 | 10 |
Suffering | N/A | 6.5 | 4 |
I Wanna [VERB] the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN] | 67.9 | 6.3 | 11 |
I Wanna – | 61.3 | 5.9 | 8 |
I Wanna — | 55.3 | 7.6 | 12 |
38 Favorite Games
128 Cleared Games