Thursday 15 August 2013

[Sample Book] I NEED A TITLE! Please comment and help Becky with a title - UnEdited

I was floating, suspended in midair and touching nothing. My whole life was like this. My name is Allison Nordson and this is my story.

I was told, there was a time before this, where humans could actually could actually touch things. I spent so much time of my life daydreaming and wondering what it was like, the time before this. The Age of Friction.

The word 'Friction' was banned, ever since the war of Galvanites. Galvanisers were a clan devoted to bringing Friction back.

The Montpeliors were the Royal Family. The Age of Momentum is the my time, but that was about to change drastically. 

The Montpeliors were afraid of people wanting to bring the old times back and were desperate for control which was sadly lacking in the past month.

That is the Trailer...
NOW HELP ME!

Saturday 10 August 2013

[Book Review] {Becky} The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

I'm probably one of the last people on the planet to read The Iron King, but I was caught up with, 'The Immortal Rules'. And to be honest this series wasn't as good as, 'Blood of Eden' series. So you could figure out that I was happy when, 'The Eternity Cure' came out. And now I'm just waiting for, 'The Garden of Eden'. Whoops, I've gone a little off track. This is the first book in, 'The Iron Fey' series, and this series has ended. And Meghan's brother, Ethan's story begins. I'm waiting for the third book of Ethan Chase's story. Sorry guys, that's a bit of my reading update. I'll begin...

So, a quick recap of what it’s about. Sixteen, Meghan doesn’t fit in anywhere. (Just like about every other teenager in America, if the authors of YA literature would have us believe) Anyway, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday her brother is stolen by faeries and replaced with a changeling. Of course, like any intrepid heroine, Meghan has to get him back. That quest leads her to Nevernever, the land of dreams and imagination where every conceivable mythical creatures lives. Here, Meghan discovers she is part fey, the daughter of Oberon, King of the Summer Kingdom.


Unfortunately, all is not well in Nevernever. This is where Julie Kagawa’s imagination goes into overdrive. I give her ten out of ten for her plot. It really is brilliantly conceived.

You see, human imagination, which spawned all these magical creatures in the first place, has also created a Kingdom of Iron fey, born of the Industrial Revolution and the electronic age. And, as anyone worth their oats knows, faeries and iron don’t mix. Think Superman and Kryptonite. Naturally, (the 'Iron King' gave the order) because the 'bad guys' (Iron Fey) have started to override the forest and changing it into iron, it’s up to Meghan to defeat the Iron King.

Of course, she has help. This aid comes from two rival, but adoring, faeries - Prince Ash and Puck - and one very cynical, streetwise cat called Grim. (My favourite character by far) Yes, you read right: the infamous Puck from Midsummer Night’s Dream is the other love interest in this book. Only here, he’s not only an incorrigible prankster, he’s also snarky, smart, and brave. A credible love interest for our heroine. I really liked him. The dark, brooding Prince Ash is also intriguing, but a bit too tortured for my liking. I far preferred Puck’s open, let’s-just-kill-them-now attitude, but Ash is definitely better looking. The Summer and Winter courts must co-operate even though they are sworn enemies. Ash is from the Summer court and Ash is from the Winter court. Meghan is from the Summer court and can't have a relationship with Ash. *Sigh* It turns out okay in the end *Wink*

So, did I like the book? I must confess that I was not overly impressed to start. The story began slowly, weighed down with way too much descriptive stuff. Yes, I admit, I'm a philistine who likes fast-moving dialogue and action. Also, Meghan was a little too won't to cry for my liking. That, unfortunately, was not a flaw she managed to overcome by the end of the book. Every time I looked at her, she was either blubbing or fighting tears.

Maybe I'm just heartless . . . okay, I admit, I like my heroines made of sterner stuff and Meghan felt a lot like a damsel in distress in this book. But by the time Prince Ash intercepted her and Puck in the Winter Kingdom, I was hooked - so much so that I read until three in the morning, woke up early and finished it off. That speaks for itself. By the end, I had a much greater admiration for my heroine. I still think she cries too much, but she does develop a bit of steel in her soul. Because I was hooked, I dived straight into the next one in the series: 'The Iron Daughter'.

So, in conclusion, although I don't think I'll be trading Julie Kagawa's Vampires for her Fey any time soon, I’m thoroughly enjoying this magical world and I give it four shiny stars.

~ Becky

Monday 24 June 2013

{Cmdbxx} The Birds and The Bees - Sploder Game Review

Introduction


Hello and welcome to the first review by me, Cmdbxx. Today I’ll be reviewing ‘The Birds and The Bees’ by Sceptile.




Pre-Thoughts


Sceptile had been on Sploder from the very beginning, back from 07 and would still be on, if he didn’t receive a ban. He was a member who was very confident with his games, yet didn’t communicate with others to tell them about his upcoming games, usually he would just post a comment on his page saying that he’s working on a game; he didn’t give any real information away and I think I know why, Sceptile has this thing called ‘Asperger Syndrome’ and I know what it’s like, as a friend of mine has it. I feel really bad for him because in real life, he lacks in popularity, he told me this via tinychat, just after his banning; but look what happened, he has over 5,000 friends, which is a really good achievement for someone of his condition.


If you had the chance to get to know Sceptile, before his banning; you would know that he was quite a nice guy and surprisingly received over 400,000 views just because the PPG creator was made.


To elaborate further, let’s start the review and see if ‘The Birds and The Bees’ really was feature worthy. Shall we?




Game Information:


Game Name: The Birds and The Bees


Game Type: PPG


Game Genre: Adventure


Game Maker: Sceptile




Game play


Wow, to me the game play is astonishment. It is very peaceful and the atmosphere is simply quiet. The Birds and The Bees is very straight forward, it’s simple, it isn’t unique and I find this common amongst PPGs. Although it doesn’t fail me, it doesn’t stand out to me against other PPGs; yet I still find it addictive, throughout the first four levels. I simply see that Sceptile has nicely arranged everything to do with the scenery, allowing us to enjoy and understand the well developed game play. If you’ve experienced most people’s games, they don’t show and represent as much peacefulness, if any. But then again, The Birds and The Bees is supposed to be almost full of melancholy and despondency as the story is based on such a mood.




Scenery


The scenery in The Birds and The Bees extraordinary, truly brilliant. Lots of brilliant graphics were used in the game and I think that Sceptile has done himself proud. Everything used in the scenery was well organised and I’ve never seen so many great graphics used in one PPG. The scenery suits the story quite nicely, so there’s not much to worry about. Sceptile even created the enemies in The Birds and The Bees, all in different shapes and sizes which I think is very common in recommended video games, such as; Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog. Although the scenery lacked a bit in level one, I still found it advanced compared to other PPGs. A little, blue and white bird from a children’s programme called ‘The Regular Show’ is the main character of The Birds and The Bees, and they’re brilliant and unique graphics, made by the brilliant and unique Sceptile.




Originality


The game was full of originality, on every level. Although the main character was copied from a children’s programme, it was still original on Sploder. I find that originality can make a good and huge impact on games and I find it very tolerable. With most popular PPGs nowadays, originality become widely used at the beginning of a game, but seems to fade or disappear on the following levels which is just plain rubbish. I’ve experienced a lot of originality in the game and I found it very common as I progressed playing The Birds and The Bees. This has been a great and major improvement since most of his other games failed in being original. It would surely be original in levels of the game, if Sceptile made it more constructive. It started getting a bit boring after level 4 but I’m still impressed with the outcome of the first 3 levels. But then again, originality isn’t everything, it just makes a game more addictive and something you would call rare. Sceptile’s games turned out to become rare in the past few months, so I guess I don’t want to depress his fans to much with the review.




Placement


If Sceptile was still on Sploder, he should listen to this bit; I think there wasn’t enough brilliance and superiority with the placement. The Birds and The Bees had a couple of various that weren’t the best in my opinion. The main enemies were obviously the bees; and I’ve realised that Sceptile has just placed them facing horizontal, vertical and/or diagonal. The bees were mostly placed in precious paths; the bees were placed in narrow places, in other words. That’s one thing Sceptile needs to improve on but one thing’s for sure: it affects the difficulty. Since it affects the difficulty, it can become frustrating and I find this very common in all the levels of The Birds and The Bees. But I’ve noticed there is some excellence to the vertical position of the bee(s). Furthermore, the switchers were placed in great places or positions, but it still didn’t stand out to me; that’s the dilemma. Although I’d love to see this be improve. If the switches in The Birds and The Bees weren’t as confusing, that would most likely affect the addictiveness of the game. At least it’s a PPG so there’s no need to worry much about the placement for now; just a couple of things that Sceptile could’ve improved on.


Now that’s finished it’s time for the ratings.




Pros:


Good game play


Nice scenery


Quite addictive




Cons:


Originality went down


Bad placement




Ratings


Game play: 4/5


The story didn’t match the mood of the actual game, which is a shame, but other than that the game play was well-developed.


Scenery: 4/5


Almost everything was perfect but level 1 had a loss of scenery unfortunately, but I still found it pleasurable.


Originality: 3/5


It was very original but it got quite boring on the levels beyond level 4, as the originality dropped quite a bit.


Placement: 3/5


The placement needs to be improved as much as possible, the bees were placed in very narrow path ways or passage ways, but that isn’t the only thing. The switches caught my eye and I found it quite pleasurable.


Overall: 4/5



Conclusion


Overall it was a well made game and is quite addicting, although I feel it would’ve been better if everything was a bit better. If the same amount of originality lasted all the way through the game it would’ve been a lot better, for example: there could’ve been a different type of bee, or a few more puzzles etc. Other than that, The Birds and The Bees was a brilliant game, well done Sceptile!




Feature Worthy?


Yes, no doubt about it. It deserved its feature. It was by far, one of the best, yet basic PPGs ever made.


Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it.





This has been a Classic Review!

{Hash} Is This Some Sort of Magnet? - Sploder Game Review

Game: Attraction
Maker: Chloride
Type: PPG

Pre Thoughts

“Ooh, a new game by Chloride!  Let’s see what it is.”

That pretty much sums up my thoughts when I saw this game.  Chloride is a great game maker.  His first 3 games were all featured, and has more features.  When I saw Attraction on the Featured Games page, I knew immediately that it would be a good game.  Even though it was a PPG (A creator Chloride hadn’t used yet) I still had high hopes for it.  He has major talent when it comes to making games.  Chloride doesn’t disappoint when it comes to games.

Chloride is a very popular member.  He has many fan accounts (Chloride2 for example).  Many members love him (Don’t take that the wrong way) and his games.  But is Attraction feature worthy?  Let’s find out.

Gameplay

“Wow, this is pretty neato-torpedo”

When I started playing this game, I was stunned for a minute.  The game had great design in every level.  The controls were smooth and didn’t have any bugs.  Right at the first level I saw why Attraction was featured.  Everything was neat and organized, and I was only at level 1!  If the first level is that good, the levels beyond it should be amazing.

The challenge level wasn’t that high, and yet it wasn’t too low.  This makes a good game.  You don’t want something uber hard, but you don’t want a walk in the park (Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to get some fresh air in the park).  What you want in a game is challenge, but not too much.  Spamming enemies and hazards won’t make your game better, it will make it worse.  Never do that.  Put enemies in the right area and you’ll be good.

The graphics in this Attraction weren’t what I expected.  What I expected were great graphics and unique design.  But it didn’t have that.  Chloride made a bad choice using just solid colours.  It doesn’t make the game as good in my opinion.  You and Chloride may think otherwise, but I’m stating my opinion.  That’s what a review is for; stating opinions.

If I could improve one thing, it would be the sensor layers on the cubes.  You could take the green cube to the blue place thing, the blue to the yellow, the yellow to the red, and the red to the green and still beat the level.  Chloride was really lazy with this one.  This could definitely be improved.

Overall, Attraction was a great game.  Although here could be some improvements here and there, it was still a good game.  Now, does it deserve it’s feature?

Ratings

Creativity: 2/5.  This game was copied.  Here is original game made by someone else.

http://www.sploder.com/games/members/cubeoid/play/cube-puzzle-demo/

As you can see, it’s the exact same thing as Attraction, so Chloride kind of stole Cubeoid’s feature.

Level Placement: ⅘.  Good design, but could’ve been improved.

Enemy Placement: ⅗.  There were very few enemies in Attraction which gave it a lower score.

Puzzles: ⅘.  There were many puzzles in Attraction, which bumped up the overall score.

Overall: 13/20.  Meh.

Final Thought

Looks like it’s time to end.  It was fun reviewing Attraction, but everything must stop (Except a straight line, of course).  I’ll see you next time (Which is when I get off my lazy butt and do something).  Goodbye!

Sunday 23 June 2013

{Hash} You're Misunderstanding It's My Sword - Sploder Game Review

WARNING:  Reading this review may cause dizziness, short term memory loss, being obsessed by Swords and/or Legend of Zelda, and drama next semester.

        Why, hello there!  I'm Beefburito, but call me Beefy.  First one question, did you read the warning I wrote?  If you didn't I would.  If you don't want any of those things in the warning to happen, shut down your device and go think about trains.  It clears my mind.  Also, try licking a lollipop.  It will have you feel the intense sensation of the lollipop's flavour.  Have it surge through your body.  Awesome right?




        So, you aren't afraid of the warning being true?  I am impressed by your bravery.  Now let's get down to the juicy goodness that will give you short term memory loss and all that snazzy stuff.  You know what I'm saying?  I hope so.  Now read on, and if you don't feel like reading, you can always have that lollipop.


Review

        Now, today I will be reviewing LOZ Search for the Sword by Tbremise.  If you didn't know, LOZ stands for Legend of Zelda, that really old Nintendo game.  If you haven't played it, try it.  It would give you a feel of what to expect, I guess.  Well, not really.  It may have you know something.  Not anything of great importance, but something.  Also try playing the game I'm reviewing, because there may be some spoilers.  Don’t worry, I’ll stay here.



            Back already?  That was quick.  That game is a bit long.  You must be a **** gamer to have finished the game that fast.  You deserve a prize if you won  LOZ Search for the Sword that fast.  Here, have a cookie.  ^_^

I admire Tbremise's skills with the PPG creator.  He is also great at drawing graphics.  So combine the two and you get an amazing PPG, also known as LOZ Search for the Sword.    The challenge was amazing.  It wasn’t too easy or too hard.  That’s how I grade games on the Challenge category.  Is it too hard?  Is it actually possible?  That’s important, because if you have an impossible game, it most likely won’t get featured or reviewed.  Keep that in mind when making a game.  It will go down to that one thing.

 

   The game had décor, I will tell you that.  Some things weren’t needed in the game!  That shows that you are good.  That also is a sign that you won’t stop at okay.  You keep going until you have perfect, or better than perfect.  That’s what Tbremise did.  He didn’t make it okay and said he was done.  He kept going.  He made it so there were no flaws.  He made it pinpoint accuracy.  Everything was in the appropriate spot.  That is another thing that I will look at when reviewing.  No snazzy décor, no review for you.

   Enemies.  There were enough of those.  They made the game what i is.  It gave it a challenge.  Enemies are an important factor.  Enemy placement is a key thing needed in a game.  It is very rare to see a featured game with no enemies.  So if you want a review or feature, bring out the enemies.  Don’t spam them, just put them where they are needed.  Tbremise did that in LOZ Search for the Sword.  He spread the enemies out.  That is a reason why I reviewed this game.  Proper enemy placement.

   Ratings

   Now it is time for the ratings.  This is what it all comes down to in a review.  Is the game good enough to play?  Keep reading.  If you’re too lazy to look at something just leave.  Everyone should be able to see the ratings of LOZ Search for the Sword.  I mean, you just read this review!  How can you read about 600 words but not scroll down to read more?

Challenge: 4/5.  Great deal of action which bumped up the challenge.  This game was hard, but not impossible.  Which is way it got a ⅘.

Level Placement:  5/5.    The decoration was astonishing.  Just amazing.  I can tell why it got featured just by looking at the décor.  It wasn’t just the decoration that got it featured though.  There were more things, but the decoration was just amazing.

Enemy Placement: 4/5.  The enemies were placed when needed and where they were needed.  No spam, just perfection.

Puzzles: 3/5.  There weren’t very many puzzles in LOZ Search for the Sword.  There were some, and they were good, but there weren’t enough.  That didn’t do well for the score.

Creativity:  4/5.  Tbremise was very creative when making this game.  If it wasn’t a spinoff of an actual game, I would have gave it a 5/5.  It was still very creative though.

Overall:  20/25.  This game would get around an A- or a B.  Good score for a PPG.  They are hard to make.  Tbremise has the skills to make great PPG’s.

Well, it has come to an end.  LOZ Search for the Sword was fun to review.  I will see you in my next review.  Who knows what game I will be reviewing next?  It might just be yours.  If those things in the warning actually happened, don't read my reviews from now on.

{Cmdbxx} Mario's Epic Adventure - Sploder Game Review

Pre-thoughts


Oh hi, didn't see you there, anyway today I will be reviewing Mario Epic Adventure by Liamnight.


Liamnight is an experienced game creator and has already got 9 featured games, and Mario Epic Adventure was one of his first featured games, so I was definitely expecting a game that would be organized, addictive and most importantly, FUN! The first thing I looked at was obviously the thumbnail and title. The title of the game was a common one. It was about Mario. I have seen and played billions of Mario games on Sploder and none of them had impressed me so then my expectations grew even more. The thumbnail showed a Physics Puzzle Game made entirely out of graphics. That really grabbed my attention so then I started playing...


Game Information:


Game name: Mario Epic Adventure


Game type: PPG


Game genre: Adventure


Game maker: Liamnight


Review:


So we played as Mario. Not a big surprise, but, what did surprise me was that the entire game was made out of graphics. It's true most of the graphics weren't made by him but the game was more important then the graphics. It's also true that the graphics were mind-blowing and were very realistic but the gameplay and addictiveness totally made the graphics seem as if they meant nothing to the game. This piece of pure magic by Liamnight made me feel as if I was right in front of my T.V playing an actual Super Mario Bros game. Liamnight added literally every detail that could possibly be added. The way of defeating enemies is to jump on their head, and that is exactly how we defeated the enemies in Mario Epic Adventure. The way of getting heath is to jump onto the platform and a mushroom pops out which we have to collect to get an extra life and that again was exactly how we collected an extra life in Mario Epic Adventure. Actually, thinking about it, this game of Liamnight might just be a little bit better than the actual Super Mario Bros games. I mean it would be after it got published as a real game for game consoles and had sound effects. But the only two things that disappointed me, were the difficulty and how short the game was. For me, and yes I know it's different for others, but I personally thought that the game was quite easy. I could easily skip and hop past the enemies and hazards. The height of jumping Liamnight allowed us was a bit too much in some places and that is why I could get past the enemies and hazards easily. The only enemy that troubled me the most, was the big worm. Now the shortness of the game depends on the gamer. If the gamer can finish this game easily, he/she will think the game is too short. If the gamer can't finish the game easily and taked more time, then he/she will think the game is too long. It might have 5 levels, but I wasn't troubled very much by any of the levels. Although, the last level had a little puzzle in it. If you moved forward towards Bowser (a Mario character) he would come splode to you. If you reared away from him, he would move back as well. If you jumped he would jump. So that kind of troubled me.


Scenery:


The scenery of this game was very nice. The graphics mainly made the scenery up, but unfortunelty were kind of ugly(No offnce, Liam). Like I said earlier, the graphics might not have been made by Liamnight but he did place them and set them very well. Kudos to Liamnight for the scenery. The only complaint I had was that in some places the game was lacking good scenery and backgrounds, especially the last level. There isn't much to say on this paragraph so let's move on.


Creativity:


The idea wasn't a new one, to have a Mario game because like I said earlier, I have seen billions of Mario games. But this game really spoke to me and the story might have been a short one but it was new and Liamnight totally came up with it. Anyways, the overall creativity of the game was fabulous. The graphics and gameplay totally mixed into each other in places that really left my mouth opened. Liamnight had totally made my day because of how creative this game was.


After The Game:


Mario Epic Adventure is probably the best Mario game is the history of Sploder Mario games. It is fun for all ages and used a lot of new things that I think no one had seen before. This game was actually better than what I expected, but I suggest that you should've made it a bit more difficult and a bit longer next time if you're making another Mario game (hopefully you are). But overall, it was brilliant in nearly every single nook and cranny. It was more like the next generation of Mario!



Pros:


-Creativity

-Used Graphics

-Fun


Cons:


-Short

-Easy


Ratings:


Creativity: 3/5


Block Placement: 4/5


Enemy Placement: 3.5/5


Fun: 4.5/5


Overall: 3.5/5



Feature worthy:


No, I thought it was to easy and just not what you'd expect from a featured game.


This has been a Classic Review

{Chlorede} Let's Go For A Swim - Sploder Game Review

Game: Waves II

Maker: Creatingames

Type: Platformer.


~Pre-Thoughts~

I was looking down the featured game page and this popped up, it is by on of my favourite game makers Creatingames so I had to play it because I play all my mates games. But it was a feature so I knew it would be a good game. I also got caught in to it by the thumbnail because it was technically the title; I thought this game would be good at my first look of the thumbnail. I expected it to be harder than it was though because I found it simple after a few goes.


~Review~

This game was full of fun and some annoying puzzles, but it was addictive and kept me playing it and if you do you will beat it. I think there should of been less enemies because I hate loads of pointless enemies just to make there health go down. On the bright side I loved the puzzles.

I found this game to be like a puzzle plat but it was just off, it did have puzzles I am not saying it didn’t because it had legendary puzzles in it and the puzzles were fun, some were frustrating and some were really hard but together it makes a great game. I think he could have changed some of the enemies into a puzzle to make it more of a puzzle plat.

Another thing I loved about this game is that there is no traps only puzzles which seem like traps, but are puzzles. I would like 1 or 2 traps though to make it a bit harder and it would help get more views if they have to start again, so 1 or 2 traps would help it be a harder game than what it is.

The action in waves II is amazing you have to keep moving because you might have to run to not get trapped and it helps the game be harder and better, it also keeps you thinking but you have to think fast otherwise you might get stuck or die. The actions in all of Creatingames’s games are outstanding so this was not a surprise to me.

The scenery in this game was not that good, it had background but no skulls, spider webs etc. I liked the background though but it needs more decoration. It need to look good and make people think you spent a lot of time on it and not, “oh I can’t be bothered putting in a background”. The have got to know you wanted this game to be featured and you wanted it to be famous and not I don’t want to. Because that extra time good give you more views than it had before so I would decorate it more.

The Enemies and hazards were everywhere mostly the enemies. I don’t mind hazards but I hate enemies because all it does is waste your time. I hate games full of enemies but this was not full of them, but this game did not have loads, but a few of them were pointless, it ok if they are part of a puzzle or are guarding a switch but some where just there for no reason. Enemies in my opinion should be there for a reason. The Hazards I only saw a few but them few where in good place it is better than having 100‘s in pointless places. So the hazards where oh but it is just the enemies.

The placement is ok but he did not have much to place because he did not as I said before decorate it enough scenery. The enemies that were there for a reason were placed well and the puzzles were perfect.

The thumbnail was amazing it was as I said before just like the title. But i did not find the thumbnail exciting and it does not draw you in so you need more excitement, like have skulls decorate the thumbnail the best to make it interesting other than that great job on the thumbnail.


~Pros/Cons~

Pros:

Thumbnail: The thumbnail was like the title and it reminded me of waves.

Gameplay: The gameplay overall was amazing it kept the game interesting and it was a fun game to play.

Puzzles: This game was full of new and old, hard, easy puzzles.

Placement: He has spent time on the placement and that time gave him a better game.

Cons:

Scenery: I think he should of decorated the game more because it is just a background.

Traps: There were no traps I could find but I would like 1 or 2 traps in this game.

~Ratings~

Gameplay: 4/5
Difficulty: 3.5/5
Action: 4/5
Puzzles: 4.5/5
Traps: 0/5
Scenery: 2/5
Placement: 4/5
Creativity: 3.5/5

Overall: 3.5/5.

I think it has a bit more to go before being 5/5.

~Feature Worthy~

It was featured but I think it is not because it has problems like Traps, Scenery etc. But it is close in my opinion.

Thanks for reading.