Game review: Swift Turn 2

Swift Turn 2 is an action-puzzle hybrid game by Andriy Vinchkovskiy with art, sound, and music by Volodymyr Dzitsiuk. The objective of the game is to collect all the stars in each level and then reach the level's goal.

Summary of analysis
Originally jarring but later good new player experience, passable gameplay experience, directional-only main game controls with alternates during mini-games, effective graphics, mediocre music.

Tutorial/New player experience
With one notable exception, the game's tutorial elements help the player through newly-introduced elements of gameplay. The exception is that the player is left to guess at the basic controls on the first level of the game. Aside from one glaring error, the new player experience of the game is well-accomplished.

Gameplay experience
Swift Turn 2 has it's ups and downs (pun unintended). At times the controls felt sluggish, likely due to the game's physics resisting changes in motion. Unlike many puzzle games I've played, this one seemed to discourage analyzing a level and encouraged jumping right into the action and adapting or restarting. A number of levels relied on a sort of play and pray mentality where launching the character into the unknown was the only way to progress and probably having to restart with the knowledge of where the landing point is afterwards.

Interface & Controls
Keyboard arrow keys or wasd control scheme with choice of hotkeys or mouse for menu selections. There are a few mini-games scattered that rely on slightly different control schemes such as space bar only or drag and drop mouse action.

Graphics
Simple and consistent art style, with a few animated objects including the player character (an anthropomorphized cube). One thing to watch out for is spiked surfaces, they're sometimes really small but no less deadly spikes.

Music & Sound
The game's background music, while nice to listen to, seems a bit out of place in this game. It's somewhat relaxed whereas the game is largely action-oriented. The game's sounds on the other hand do their job much more effectively than the music.

Commentary
This game might have been better made had there been a larger team. Having one person programming and handling level designing is a frequent route to needlessly hard levels. The mini-games also seemed a bit out of place as they functioned dramatically-different from the rest of the levels. had they been implemented as an extra feature rather than being part of the regular level progression, it's likely they would be less unusual.

Game review: Zombie Goes Up

Zombie Goes Up is a casual, action game produced by Neutronized. The programming and artwork is by Glonathan Pesaresi and music by Sserrac. The player's objective is to get the zombie up to the surface, navigating around obstacles and opposition.

Summary of analysis
Quick learning curve which parallels steep difficulty curve, decent if occasionally unforgiving gameplay, minimal interface and simple keyboard controls, cartoon-style graphics, interesting and amusing sound.

Tutorial/New player experience
With only four in-game controls, it's a fairly quick learning curve to master the basics. As new elements of the game are introduced, the player will be passing by the tutorial elements in the form of underground signs. Be careful about getting confident, as the gameplay difficulty increases just as quickly as the new elements are introduced.

Gameplay experience
After the first few levels, it gets frustrating trying to dodge between obstacles, thankfully there appears to be an infinite lives mechanic at play. Nonetheless, there are quite a lot of times when the game's safe path is tightrope-thin.

Interface & Controls
The interface consists of a progress bar, score, and game menu controls (pause and mute functions). The gameplay controls are just the four arrow keys.

Graphics
Cartoon-style zombie and creatures alongside similarly-styled world objects and animated interactive objects. The graphics definitely help the casual appeal and it's always nice to see Halloween-themed games abstain from the blood and gore tedium.

Music & Sound
Zombie Goes Up has an interesting background music that seems equal parts light-hearted and dramatic tension. The sound effects certainly go along with the graphics with plenty of boings, pops, and tiny explosions.

Commentary
It's a well-made game and decent way to fill a little time. I'd say that after the first few levels, the game's bound to lose appeal to a casual gamer audience but due to the time commitment by that point, it's already starting to tread into hardcore gamer style anyway.

Gaming theory: Grinding

Grinding is the terminology in gaming that's often applied to elements of tedious, repetitive tasks the player may (in some cases, often) need to accomplish in order to maintain a minimal degree of character power level or character skill competency according to the challenges they're expected to face.
Grinding does have a degree of subjectivity to it depending on the particular tastes, expectations, and how a specific player defines what is fun in a game. In my own case, for example, I often consider nearly all combat elements to be grinding unless it directly affects the outcome of a game's storyline yet I often enjoy the  logistics and industry elements of a number of games which a lot of my friends simply cannot stand.

Cons
Unnecessary padding of game duration (though many times considered a pro, especially in subscription-model Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs)
Lacking entertainment value (subjective)
Emphasizes and reinforces character skill over player skill (more in commentary section below)

Pros
Aids development of reflexive player patterns (quicker player response times for common strategies)
Emphasizes and reinforces character skill over player skill (again, more in commentary section)
May be used to establish a period of learning strategies, features, etcetera with repetition of new elements

Commentary
There is both good and bad that can be said about a game that focuses more on character skill. To its benefit is how it allows for a slightly more fair playing field for casual or less experienced players, something that many MMOs will need to thrive due to their reliance on a much wider player-base. It is also a heavily criticized element of gameplay, for the same reasons, by hardcore players who often feel lacking challenge from games that implement grinding systems and which essentially handicaps development and implementation of more advanced strategies.
An important thing to keep in mind about grinding is that it tends to be more rewarding when considered as a rate equation (rewards over time) rather than a work equation (rewards over effort). This means that low-end efforts tend to pay off a lot better than high-end efforts due to lower chance of failure and a steadier but less impressive income of rewards. These sorts of efforts support the practices known as item or gold farming (randomized reward game elements have a higher output with higher numbers of  weaker opposition defeated than fewer but higher quality opposition) and is sometimes why the practice of grinding is called xp farming.

Game review: Piggy Wiggy

Piggy Wiggy is a physics puzzle game developed by Anton Kosechkin with graphics by mAx and music by Sergei Stern. According to the credits, it was made using the Box 2D engine. The goal in the levels of Piggy Wiggy is to help the pigs reach acorns through creating and breaking tethers as well as manipulating objects.

Summary of analysis
Hands-on new player experience, short and fun gameplay experience, mouse or mouse+keyboard control scheme with minimal non-gameplay interface, cutesy graphics, appealing music and sound.

Tutorial/New player experience
There's only a few skills a player will need to learn in order to make it through the game and they're effectively introduced mostly through one-time only interface elements. This game gives the player these hints and lets them watch what occurs in order to teach them how to play.

Gameplay experience
Piggy Wiggy is a short and amusing game, there's a low degree of difficulty, making for a pleasant diversion.There's a slight amount of replay value for those wanting to get a higher score.

Interface & Controls
The game is mostly mouse-controlled with a few keyboard hotkeys available if desired. The game's interface holds a few menu controls and the mouse variant to the keyboard hotkeys.

Graphics
Cute, cartoonish piggies! They have idle animations in addition to interactive animations such as collecting the acorns and, unfortunately, crying should they get lonely or in pain.

Music & Sound
There's a single, upbeat background track throughout gameplay that effectively supports the game's theme. In addition, there's some pleasant and amusing sound effects to go along with the animations.

Commentary
Piggy Wiggy seems to effectively accomplish what it set out to do, be a fun game without being a major time commitment to either player or developer.
I was surprised to see that although the game's developer has a lot of titles under their belt that they've yet to establish a personal-professional site. By now, I'd imagine that they've got enough experience to showcase their accomplishments and even pursue a career with many of the established studios.

Game review: Lab of the Dead

Lab of the Dead is a strategy game sponsored by Newgrounds. It was programmed by Evil-Dog, features the artwork of SickDeathFiend and music by Symphony of Specters and Evil-Dog. The game's premise is to perform research on zombies, meaning the player will be testing the effects of various objects upon the living dead. Fair warning, the game is considered mature audiences only, likely due to subject matter and gritty content.

Summary of analysis
Comprehensive and well-accomplished new player experience, interesting but over-padded gameplay experience, complex menu-driven interface, decent graphics which lose their appeal over time, competently-accomplished music and sound.

Tutorial/New player experience
Lab of the Dead features a relatively comprehensive amount of tutorial elements, every object has its own data which can eventually be brought up for review and hints and the game keeps track of a lot of stats for the player. Given the premise of the game, it's actually very appropriate to let the player discover how to do things through trial and error.

Gameplay experience
Most of the early gameplay flows very quickly and manages to be interesting, but this diminishes almost as fast as it begins with a dawning realization that the game is a multiple hour commitment to be able to see all the game's features and content. I'm going to give it to you straight, the game involves a lot of task grinding which becomes exponential as more features are introduced. Thankfully, newly-discovered reactions and achievements help take some edge out of the research point farming by rewarding the player more than the actions normally would. But the game relies far, far more on character skill than player skill and it pads its length with wait times while "researching".

Interface & Controls
As a mouse-controlled, menu-driven game, there's a lot of interface to handle. Luckily, elements of the interface are introduced over the course of play and there's very few ways that the player can accidentally screw up their gameplay experience (one discovered so far by me is lack of a save game feature, which may be site specific to where I'd first tried my hand at it).

Graphics
I'm a bit torn in opinion on the game's graphics. On one hand, there's a good deal of detail and work put into this game. On the other hand, the game's duration gives a player the chance to see where corners were cut and templates were applied. For someone with experience in the industry, it's likely to be obvious, quickly, where elements were recycled. Still, those first-time discoveries of reactions are made a bit more rewarding by the monotony of the grinding (at least when they're significantly different from the usual animations).

Music & Sound
The background music seemed minimal in part due to being a much lower volume level than sound effects and also due to a lot of gameplay time spent without any music playing, leaving the player in an almost eerie, sterile quiet. Whatever the case may have been with the design, it seems a decent choice of avoiding annoyance factor of hearing cyclical music over the course of multiple hours. Sound effects are a mix of interactive occurrence, ambient zombie sounds, and interface sound effects. Some of the interface sound effects seem a bit overly dramatic with sharp-sudden effects accompanying "neutral" reactions.

Commentary
While an interesting gameplay experience, there's way too little emphasis on player skill to this title. The game really just plays itself with suggestions from the player. For the most part, this seems to be a seasonal title that likely started out as being just for fun but wound up being overly-complicated and ultimately wasteful design. That's not to say that it isn't a well put together piece, but that the gameplay experience is unlikely to be able to support the sheer mass of the game's features. There's a diminishing appeal to players over time and Lab of the Dead's gameplay length outlives the length of appeal.

Game review: Halloween Shooter

I'm certain there's a lot of games titled "Halloween Shooter", this one was released in October 2011 by Gameshot.org and Bored.com. The premise is simply to launch halloween-themed characters into their matching goals.

Summary of analysis
Lacking though possibly unnecessary tutorial elements, decent gameplay, mostly mouse-based controls with an awkward interface, appealing graphics, calm/casual music and amusing sound effects.

Tutorial/New player experience
The game is easy to play but relies a lot on trial and error and the absolute minimum of tutorial elements (i.e. it will tell the player about switching characters and point out their specific goal points).

Gameplay experience
It is an okay diversion, nothing really great however. The game's level design leaves a lot to be desired, especially when trying to fight physics and work around very awkward corners. To its credit, it's cutesy and extremely laid back gameplay.

Interface & Controls
Mostly mouse-driven control scheme with some keyboard hotkeys. The interface is occasionally problematic, especially with how often it's going to get accidentally interacted with in the course of trying to make awkward shots.

Graphics
The cartoon-style graphics are definitely the best element of the game, with rag doll character animation adding to the absurdity through their flailing around and slumping over after shots.

Music & Sound
Second to the graphics is the music and sound of the game. There's a subtle background music during the levels that's theme appropriate. The character sound effects are also amusing to listen to.

Commentary
There's little to say about this title, it had a lot going for it and a few notable issues. Probably the one thing that best aids it is being a short and simple game. Too many games go overboard with features, complex systems, and trying to appeal to far too wide an audience. If a game can manage to be fun, that's the most important thing.

Game review: The Honeymoon is Over

The Honeymoon is Over is an 'escape the room' puzzle game from TimeFall. Like other games in its sub-genre, the premise is to figure out how to escape from a locked room or series of rooms.

Summary of analysis
No tutorial elements leading to a grating new player experience, mediocre gameplay experience, mouse-driven controls and minimal interface, moderately-appealing graphics, and pleasant/relaxing choice of background music.

Tutorial/New player experience
One day I'll see a game in this genre with tutorial elements... today, however, maintains the status quo. The new player experience is, in all honesty, terrible. The Honeymoon is Over, like many titles in the escape games style dumps the player with no explanation and questionable sequence logic straight into the gameplay leaving them to figure out everything through trial and error. Thankfully, most escape games, this instance included, are short.

Gameplay experience
The game's title also serves as a somewhat apt description of the gameplay experience. It's all hard work and optional reward, with the player having to figure out the developer's particular sense of logic through brute-force random effort. Sadly, there appears to be an incomplete features in the game, the phone and magazine combination, which only adds to the confusion when the player puts forth the efforts to no visible benefit.
In no way could I blame someone for looking up a walkthrough for a game such as this, it can make the difference between fifteen minutes and two hours.
There is also no replay value to the game as there is only one solution and a single, disappointing ending.

Interface & Controls
The game has a completely mouse-driven control scheme. The gameplay interface consists of an inventory bar and darkening edges which show movement between screens. There's a couple of zoom-in on object windows that feature an option to reverse the orientation of the objects in order to pursue objectives, however, these lack any icon or cues that signify the possibility.

Graphics
The game's graphics are decent, though the towel really looks more like a throw pillow. There's also no real way to tell apart interactive objects and non-interactive objects without clicking on them, leaving a player to click on every single object in the rooms *cough* multiple times *cough*. To its merit, everything appears to have been drawn in a single artistic style, adding to the level of professionalism and avoiding the jarring effects that can occur with haphazardly-gathered clip art.

Music & Sound
The background music fits the theme of a vacation/honeymoon getaway, creating a more relaxed mood than one may expect from the situation of being trapped. I personally find it to be an interesting choice of trying to reinforce the casual style of gameplay that the theme contrasts.

Commentary
I imagine that there's a sizable audience for escape games out there, players that enjoy the abstract and often convoluted sense of logic. Sadly, I've yet to see a single game in the whole sub-genre that manages good game design principles.
As a game design attempt, escape games are incredibly easy to put together but doing so with quality manages to be an almost holy grail of its style of gameplay. An internal hint system really would need to be available and well-built to keep things flowing. Next, the game needs to avoid relying on external knowledge or skills (I've actually seen one escape game that had a sudoku puzzle embedded, but never explained it). A helpful interface/graphics scheme that actually helps the player avoid clicking everything repeatedly would really cut down on wasted play time. Music and sound can be used to set the mood but is unnecessary.