Arborescence's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[You Broke the Game]

Pretty interesting, gorgeous art and not too difficult. A little sugestion if you ever think about continue pursuing this sort of game: lose the jumping sound or find some a bit more pleasing. This low-ish boing boing got on my fucking nerves.

[everything else]

Cool game. Fast paced, appropriately hard, lightly-slanted learning curve. Enjoyed it.

A minor complaint. Why is it that many games here set the directional inputs to arrows instead of the more common WASD?

StuffedWombat responds:

thanks!
its because we are making games for an international audience and (for example) french keyboards do not have a WASD friendly layout!

So since we do not code keyrebinding for smaller games, we just stick to the keys that every keyboard all over the world has!

[GARUA]

I like the overall theme, but the mechanics are a bit uninspired. Movement acceleration is a bit too steep, enemies are generic and the background feels rushed.

Moreover, as a general request for all platform makers in this website, stop reversing your games' controls. Movement on the left hand, actions on the right, if you would please be so kind.

[Home Story: 1971]

Touching.

[We Become What We Behold]

Interesting concept, informative, fun and (with the addition of the lovebirds) bittersweet.

[Zombidle]

This is a fairly interesting game. The non-intrusive way with which ads were shown is quite interesting. The developers' support to this game is quite unbelievable, to be honest. Kudos to you, gentlemen.

My problems with Zombidle are that the waiting curve is way to steep to make it worthwhile (as stated previously, the waiting period can amount to months) and for whatever mysterious reason, my progress was deleted. I am sure that an error has ocurred and it doesn't reflect at all the qualities of this game. but I just won't put up with it. I won't "break another mouse" left-clicking for hours just so I can wait a month without even looking at it to get a level-up or some other monster which (for its price) doesn't inflict enough DPS to make waiting for it something to look for.

[Viewpoint - A Game of Perspective]

This takes perspective (a concept with which we are all familiar) and develops it into an immensely fun and truly challenging puzzle game.

I applaud your inventiveness and thank you for choosing Newgrounds as the website for its release.

[Big Tower Tiny Square]

Tough gameplay and possible social commentary. What is not to like?

One more thing: consider a more careful manipulation of acceleration, dear sir, if this genre ever appeals to you again.

[Overlod]

Upgrade based games have become immensely more popular in the last 3 years. There is something mysteriously enjoyable in having your brain turn into mush through repetitive and somewhat mindless activities. I, for one, am no exception.

I stumbled upon Overlod through Newgrounds recommended section. I was playing Idle Evolution at the time. Eager to try something else, I jumped right into it and below lie some of my thoughts about the game.

Now, in all honesty, I couldn't possibly care less about what an upgrade based game's theme is, whether it is Berzerk Ball 2 and its epilepsy causing sounds and meta, Idle Evolution and its evolutionary progress or Effing Worms 2 and its inherit nonsense. These are not games about story, characters or playability, they are about waiting, RSI, Skinner's Boxes and boredom. However, the description of different bosses acquired (as well as the Library research titles) is a nice touch, specially given the fact that most of them are parts of actual legends and myths (although your hardcore RPG nerd might disagree on the folkloric veracity of, say, a Lych). Hence, if one person discovers who Fafnir is through playing this game, the developer has already done its share in improving the world. A feature that, much like Idle Evolution, Overlod has in its favor.

Yet, however well executed and planned out Overlod actually is, there are a few problems. Issues I shall discuss in the following lines. I have seen complaining about the lack of instructions in the GUI and, although they are correct (instructions are never to be taken for granted), I believe that many of such gripes are the product of our modern tendecy towards overreaction stemming out of spoiled and rotten sloth. Be that as it may, I did have to look up how to acquire souls. Research is the simplest of fixes, I would say. Also,

A bigger problem is its idle mechanic. The player must have that particular tab open and, not only that, but also have its cursor within the game "window". To put it somewhat too bluntly, a Flash game simpley doesn't deserve that kind of attention. Idle Evolution is better in that sense. Do whatever it is you will do and come back later. Your points will be there.

Still, what breaks this game is its sense of progression. Given that castles have "illion" Hps and the "Hire minions after attack" function is useless (in reality, it doesn't do anything. Minions have to be rehired manually in their own tab) what follows are long periods of willpower breaking clicking. Such stall is unecessary. After a while, the player will hit a plateau where the income made is sufficient to maintain the constant rehiring of minions necessary to take down a castle. It is completely pointless to have to sit there and click an "illion" times in order to demolish a castle. In addition, castles will produce a surplus of welfare that is ultimately rendered insufficient. The reason for that is price. Each of the castles will endure an optimal amount of damage which depends on the creature used for the attack. Ideally, one would have the highest boss of said creature in order to inflict greater damage. The drag arises from how much bosses cost. A level 6 zombie boss will cost x Octillion and inflict around 20000 damage in a castle with a billion hit points (or a hundred million, I don't recall). A price too high for what is only a fourth castle. One might want to do what I did. Bypass a couple of the easier castles in order to profit from the higher tier rewards later fortresses hold. It must be said that I was fully aware that I was x"illion" clicks away from the wealth I desired and that shall not be the nature of my grievance. Nevertheless, I endured in the most Zisteaunian of ways. That tactic was not very succesful either. Despite giving me some additional wealth, it didn't break the game as I was expecting it to do. In the end, nothing that a player can do in Overlod will save him from hours of waiting or clicking. In the end the grind is just too massive. After all, every upgrade game needs at least a couple of rounds where the rewards acquired through the death of neurons will inextricably result in overkill. It is part of the pleasure. A fantasy where one's power is so immense that the enemy simply cannot do anything about it but be annihilated by the millions. Waves and waves come by and they barely stand a chance against the upgrades and skills develeped throughout the whole gameplay. What is even more importat is that nothing a player can do will actually change what one could possibly perceive as one of the most important facts about based upgrades games. The fact that what is done is done for a purpose.

[WorldBox]

I have found this game by chance while browsing through the all-time top rated page here on our very old, very good Newgrounds community. What a delight Worldbox turned out to be.
At first, I played it casually, doing stuff I believe most people do in their first playthrough. After six or seven different worlds I set myself an experiment: I wanted to know what Worldbox could do on its own. The following is a report of my observations.
The test would consist of observing these creatures at regular intervals; which I assumed to be humans somewhere around the Stone Age, capable of stone tools, wooden musical instruments, fur and leather clothing, animal domestication, ceramics but not agriculture (to be discussed below) for 3000 years without any interaction from me except once. I should also mention that a year lasts for about 7 seconds. That makes up for an average of 8.5 in-game years every minute.Therefore, my experiment would last about 5.8 hours.
The continent was comprised of a large stretch of land where most of its territory was occupied by forests and tall vegetation. A small but high range of mountains near its center would be a point of future residence failures. A desert on the continent’s northeast region and two islands to its southwest were the source of the geological diveristy found in the world selected for my experiment.
Situated in the southern portion of the continent the first city grew in population and developed quickly. Feeding on the trees around them, cities multiplied rapidly during their first century of existence. There was a drawback, though. Their feeding habits would transform the trees into grass from which they couldn’t derive food. Such predatory expansion entailed an environmental change that would ultimately prove fatal. It is this phenomenon which pointed me towards asserting their ignorance of agriculture. It seemed as if they could build roads which connected their cities but were yet completely unable to domesticate plants, therefore, rendering permanently sedentary civilization unattainable.
Their apex occurred during the year 246. Their civilization was now comprised of 38 autocratic and seemingly independent cities home to a population of 156 individuals. They had expanded way beyond their original polis. Three of these cities were located as far as the high altitude points of the mountain range in the heart of the continent.
Their presence amidst the clouds were to be short-lived.
Deforestation became their major issue at the turn of the 4thcentury. The imbalanced nature of their relation with their surroundings forced many to starve for days driving them into long and erratic walks deep in yet uninhabitated areas to the northwest. Starvation led to plague and death which traversed generations. Individuals with weak body types became the majority of the dwindling population. With the shortage of food, reproduction also decreased. Cities vanished forcing those who survived to relinquish their homes. Nothing but barren land watched them seek comfort elsewhere. Where once there was a thriving community of people, there would be no more of them ever again.
Seruha Qaguuw, however, was involved in an unprecedented event. While away from his home in the mountains, one of the many to wonder around unfamiliar land scaveging for food, he was hit by a meteorite. He perished that very moment. Had he managed to return home, he would have found his birthplace claimed by death and desolation. Seruha was no longer part of the 75 individuals inhabiting the remaining 14 cities in the year 350.
As time went by, their numbers reduced and predation at an all time low, a fragile balance was reinstated. 91 individuals divided among 27 cities survived the year 666; an average which would remain constant for the next 4 centuries.
The turn of the 7thcentury marked my only interference with the development of this world. I “artificially” created a city in one of the few lush and untouched forests of the continent. This introduced a new hereditary line. I found notorious that after 600 years of continuous interaction between the numerous comminuties throughout the continent, they had succesfully managed to maintain a homogenous hereditary line which did not contain different branches. Apparently, they still perceived themselves as one very large group of blood-related individuals. I should also mention that the new city created in the year 601 produced an interesting result. Through breeding the offspring retained their father’s name, thus pointing at a patriarchal structure of their society.
And yet, even though they had survived what I would imagine they would call “The Great Famine” in the 4th century, they were unable to change their relation with nature. Predation remained constant and the areas where food was avaliable in abundance were steadily decreasing. The abandoned cities now long forgotten had deemed the land unproductive. They were once again ravaged by famine and diseases. There was not hope for survival. The islands to the southwest were never reached. They were able to build roads but not bridges by themselves. At last, a female known by Ganya Byzetef, daughter to Byluh Byzetef and Pyjapie Wyzus met her demise through starvation. She was aged 73, had a normal body type and had no children. She was the last of her kind.