Art 2: Pixel Art Method

My Pixel Spriting method is very similar to my HD Spriting method, but with more steps.
As a disclaimer, I have to mention that I am not a professional pixel artists, and personally find HD Spriting easier. If you want to see tutorials made by more experienced pixel artists, try The Pixel Joint or 2DWillNeverDie.
Pixel Art is both a different medium and technique from Traditional Art, so try both and find which one you prefer.

The steps in Pixel Spriting and HD Spriting are very similar: first is the Rough. In some cases the initial rough is so messy that I'm still not sure what to do with it, so I create a second one over that. For me this occurs much more often when working in Pixel Art.
As you can see, the initial rough is "messy" while the second is "nude." It's more important to make progress at this stage over any other, as you are trying to build your foundation here.
In Lily's case I used a larger drawing as my rough. I don't recommend doing this, as the larger drawing will be difficult to see when scaled down. I was creating very large sprites so it was an effective method in my case, but this will not work for most pixel sprites.

The next step is outlining. I find this much more tedious to do in Pixel Art, as you don't have as much freedom and each pixel needs to be carefully placed. When you're animating you want to work mainly with the outline, but you'll inevitably have to animate using colors too in order to achieve tiny details.
Important to note: while I don't color my outlines in HD Spriting, I do in pixel art. HD sprites get zoomed out often, so their outlines need to be very visible from a distance. Pixel sprites however usually remain at a constant size, so their outline is better off fading into the form.

The final step is rendering. Every pixel is important, and having a single one out of place can change the entire composition. As such coloring, shading, and lighting are all combined into a single phase. Most of the time I render the head before the body just to make sure the skin and hair look good next to each other. The rendering phase in easier to animate for pixel art than traditional animation, so you can go into much more detail here. In some cases you may even need to render as you animate to ensure you get the smaller details.

When animating, I found it much easier to have a worksheet of pieces you can reuse. With the character above as an example: his torso, legs, shoes, tail, and arms were all animated traditionally. His head, hands, and bracelets however were made from recycled pieces so as to quicken the rate of animation. It was especially important for the bracelets, as drawing them was a huge pain in the ass. This is a common trick in pixel spriting, examples of which can even be found in masterpieces like Metal Slug's art, so don't be afraid to take some shortcuts.

Most pixel sprites are around this size, the two sprites on the left were based around the Jump Ultimate Stars style. The sprite on the right is from the Ludum Dare game I am currently working on as of this post being published. The above method works fine for these smaller sprites, but animating the outline becomes more difficult, and you'll find yourself animating the rendering more often (animating the colors instead of the outline). Also, it is more important to use highly contrasting colors with these smaller sprites.
Quick note: As a rule of thumb, running animations for any sort of sprite should be around 6 frames long on average. Use 8 frames only when you really have to, and use 4 frames when you're feeling lazy.

One last quick thing worth talking about is tilesets. In the above example I placed 5 squares in an "n" shape, and drew the tiles over that. This is effective for practically whatever tileset you're trying to make, but keep in mind you'll likely have to work beyond it for any type of sloped flooring. You can also include a second "inside" tile for added detail, or just to settle your OCD over that empty square between the tiles. You can also add a third row above for grass or background tiles.

I'll be very busy for the next few weeks. I'm taking part in the Ludum Dare for the first time, after that I'm joining in the Lewd Jam, and after that my Fall classes start up. Look forward to seeing information on my new projects in future updates, as well as Evanlily Crown.

Blog 3: Mighty No. 9 Review Part 2

Continuing from last week, my review of Mighty No 9.
Part 1 can be found here

Mighty No. 5 Battalion

Level Design

Kind of a bitch. This level wants to frustrate you. Have an enemy that you can't shoot right away standing right in your path. Oh, you found a secret path? Have an unavoidable mine shit on you right at the end of it. There's also one part where you have to jump on a box to shoot a barrel, and the timing's pretty precise. I don't have a big problem with it, there's not a lot of punishment for messing this part up, but it does still end up being an annoying puzzle.

Boss Fight

Sucks. You have to guess at what the boss is doing, as it'll at random perform one of 4 actions: jump, shoot bullets, shoot missiles, or shoot bullets in the air. The best way to fight it is to stay behind it. Also halfway through he shoots a missile out that you just jump over. This essentially limits where you can stand to only half of the arena, as he can detonate this missile at will. Shit boss overall.

Power

Second best power in the game, and the best boss-killer. I used this power exclusively when fighting the final boss. The damage output is great, and being able to detonate it at will is a great bonus.

What I learned

Should be obvious: but don't punish the player for doing a good job, and don't throw in unavoidable obstacles and enemies if they don't have a quick way to avoid or dispose of them. Also, it's important that the bosses have some sort of tell. I kinda just hate RNG in general.

Mighty No. 6 Aviator

Level Design

It's not bad at all, but I think the wind's a bit too strong. This level introduces a really cool idea: the updraft. If you dash in an updraft or use Aviator's power, you go upwards. It doesn't get used much here, but it gets used in the last level.

Boss Fight

It's fine too. Though it's a bit long if you don't have Dynatron's or Battalion's powers. It was a good idea to use the updraft as a way to make it a little easier.

Power

I didn't get to use it much outside of the final level. I assume it's good since it makes you fall slower and gives you a higher jump. It gets used a lot in the final levels of the game.

What I learned

Don't make your wind too strong, unless it's going upwards.

Mighty No. 7 Brandish

Level Design

It's shit. The concept is great, but the execution is terrible. The signs that come at you are annoying, hard to see in the rain, and can catch you off-guard tossing you into the road.. The worst part is the enemies that block the air above you when you don't have any attacks that can reach them. You have to jump and take some damage to take them out, and even then they take multiple shots to kill. I used Seismic's power to rush my way past everything, and it worked out fine. Just make sure to stop using the power when you want to hold unto a ledge.

Boss Fight

It's shit too. Use Seismic's ability to beat him quickly, because it is a frustrating boss otherwise. The cross-slash attack's fine, but every other time he seems to just fight using randomized patterns, with little to no tells.

Power

It's useful in the final level when you're dealing with the xel orb things, as it has a tall hitbox. It also seems to do a bit more damage than your pellets, but the risk is really high as it forces you to get really close to you enemies. Normally I'd take that risk, but not when the enemy stays alive until you dash into it or slash it 3 more times. I think it would have been a better idea to have the sword insta-absorb enemies for you, I'd take that over it being able to deflect bullets.

What I learned

Make your close-range attack worth it, and don't block your player with something they have to struggle to kill (again).

Mighty No. 8 Countershade

Level Design

Varied. Some like it, some hate it. I hate the fact that dying makes you start from the beginning, made even worse when one of the room uses instant-kill electricity. Use Seismic's ability to go through the rooms quickly, but watch out for the UFOs that re-arrage your control scheme for a full 5 seconds.

Boss Fight

Also varied. It can be very long and boring, just like the level, if you don't have the right power. Use anything destructive, like Dynatron or Battalion's powers.

Power

Useless. It's strong against Aviator and the first form of the Robot Factory boss, but otherwise it's just a weak move.

What I learned

Like with Cryo, don't overuse a good gimmick. Learn to tell when the player will get sick of it.

Call's Prison Level

Level Design

Pretty boring, but it is a stealth level. There's also some precision gliding, which can be annoying.

Boss Fight

Cruddy, but nothing major. Duck under the robot's face whenever it begins to shoot at you.

Power

Call's gameplay sucks. Beck gets 3 bullets on screen at a time, Call gets 1. Beck can dash at enemies to kill them quickly, Call has to keep shooting at them with her slow-ass weapon.

What I learned

Stealth levels suck. Alt character gameplay shouldn't feel like a gimp.

Robot Factory

Level Design

Pretty good, it gives good reason to everyone who believes this is the only good level in the game. You have to use multiple powers to complete puzzles, and the atmosphere is great as a few of the Mighty no's fight alongside you. My only complaint is that it doesn't use more than 3 of the powers for puzzle solving, and leans on Aviator's and Battalion's powers a lot.

Boss Fight

I hate it. The first robot seems to be weak to Countershade's power, so snipe at it. The second phase though is a real bitch, as rockets drop down on you while you're on a moving conveyer belt with little time to react. Use Seismic's power to get through that, and the rest should be easy-going.

What I learned

Don't drop missiles on a moving floor. Just more about stacking obstacles on a player, it makes the game's design seem like it was put together by a kindergartener. "My level has one thousand goombas!"

CND 1201 Trinity

Level Design

Not too bad overall. You can get past most of it easily by riding the Seismic power, and the xel orbs aren't too hard to get through with Brandish' power. There are some parts where it's really hard to get through without taking damage, getting through the level is mostly just trial and error. Or maybe it was only trial and error for me because this was the only part of the game I didn't look ahead for.

Boss Fight

I have mixed feelings about the game's final boss. It took me a lot of tries to finally beat this thing my first time. Just use Battalion's power to beat it, you don't need any other power. Niether of these fights is particularly difficult after you know what you're doing, but it will take time to learn.
Phase 1: Rage-inducing, until you get the hang of it. Just spam her face with Battalion's missiles whenever she's vulnerable. The second I saw her shooting pieces of herself out I was worried it would be as long and boring as a Yellow Devil fight, but it's not nearly that bad.
Phase 2: Pretty on-par with the first phase. When she's walking towards you like a Pokey, shoot 3 missiles and then dash through or jump over. When she's spitting out spores take out her base first, then stand on a ledge and spam her with missiles diagonally. When she's shooting her spiraling energy at you just figure it out, there's a moment that you can jump through it. Lastly, remember not to stand in the center as she may appear suddenly from under you.

What I learned

First I'd say not to include a level before the final boss as you have to run through it every time you want to fight it, but that's subjective. Second, the xel orb enemies can be a bit of a bitch for the fact that they immediately respawn when you're a short distance away. That's not bad when you use Brandish's power, but otherwise it can be as you try to dash through an opening only to have it spawn right on top of you. Overall it's not the worst final boss and level.


I beat it on normal mode and tried it on hyper, but I refuse to play through it twice. I'll probably feel a desire to play it again at some point in the future, but I'll try to talk myself out of it. That's my review/ introspective of Mighty No. 9. I give it a 5/10, better than Star Fox Zero. It's not a huge victory, but it's better than nothing.

Blog 3: Mighty No. 9 Review Part 1

I beat Mighty No. 9 recently, and playing it gave me a lot of ideas for my future games. So here's a half-review and half-introspective of the game.
I did not go into the game blind, and I don't recommend anyone try to do that. It's a frustrating game, and knowing what unavoidable traps are about to be thrown in front of you can help in being able to enjoy it. Do not go through the game for your first time with less than 9 lives, go into the options and set your starting lives to 9. Also I played the Wii U version. I heard about the rumors that it could brick your console, but those were just rumors. Presumably though the Wii U version did crash often, which seems to have been patched out.

Disclaimer: This may sound like an angry rant, but I actually enjoyed a few parts of this game. That said, I chose to review this because it is at best a mediocre game, and at worst a frustratingly bad game. Though this review may seem nitpicky, the point is to learn from it My experience wasn't entirely negative though and I think anyone can benefit from playing through this game at least once, as a learning experience. Keep in mind that I also didn't back Mighty No. 9 on Kickstarter, and don't own any of the DLC or backer content. Also worth noting is that I'm not even a Megaman fan, and have not beaten any Megaman games besides Megaman 2, Megaman & Bass, and Mighty No. 9.
Now I'm going to go through each boss, level, and power up of the game one by one.

Intro Level

Level Design

Fine. It's an alright intro level. The only complaint I have is that it doesn't teach you everything, like how to do diagonal shooting. The skill is pretty useful and should have been mentioned. It's not the most effective intro stage overall, but it's easy enough to get the player used to the game.

Boss Fight

It's good too. It's easy just like the level, and introduces the game well.

Power

Beck's moveset is far below the average Megaman set. Not being able to charge your shots kinda sucks, and having to dash at enemies to kill them sucks a lot. Especially since your shots don't go through enemies without getting a red powerup, so you have to shoot-dash-shoot-dash when you're fighting multiple enemies at once. What's more, a few of the skill are only shown to you through the in-game manual.

What I learned

One big cutscene at the start of the game is preferable to multiple short cutscenes at the start of the first level.

Mighty No. 1 Pyrogen

Level Design

Pretty bad. The first half of the level is just fine, but it turns to utter shit when you get to the falling canisters. This is where you really don't want to go in blind. It's bad enough that the canisters force you to slow down, but for some reason the designers chose to include falling balls of fire that could stun you right into an instant death canister or a pitfall. At least it was a useful lesson to me: do not throw too much at your player at once. If they're already being forced to deal with one instant-death obstacle, don't throw in hundreds of something else that's even more difficult to avoid. I tried to dash through this section using Seismic's power but the lag makes it impossible, at least on the Wii U version. To get through it easily, use Seismic's power for the first half and Aviator's for the second.

Boss Fight

It's below average. Pyrogen's the type of boss that you're supposed to bait, which a lot of blind LPers never seemed to figure out. But it's a tough boss even knowing that, mainly for the fact that the tell isn't very good. You're supposed to predict him based on what he says, but an animation tell would be more effective than the audio tell. As it is now it becomes entirely unpredictable for the few seconds that the character dialogue is up, a fact that will seem very unfair to anyone playing the game on a harder difficulty.

Power

Situational. It's pretty much only good for taking down Cryosphere faster, and killing the tiny robots.

What I learned

Don't throw too much at your player at once. Try to make it kind of obvious that your boss is meant to be baited, apparently not a lot of players figure it out easily. I think the best way to do this is by giving the boss two baiting moves. One that can be avoided if you fail to bait it out, and one that can't. Also make sure the boss' tells can't be obstructed by dumb things, like dialogue.

Mighty No. 2 Cryosphere

Level Design

The level is not particularly bad. You can skip over some parts just by dashing, and it has the same problem every level has of there being too many instant-death obstacles all over the place. Otherwise, it's an averagely designed level. Not being able to grab ledges and slipping is a bit annoying, but that's expected of an ice level. The one thing I do hate though is the pong boss fight. It's a clever idea, but it should have only been used once.

Boss Fight

Cryo is extremely frustrating if you fight her without Pyrogen's power. Otherwise though it's not a big deal, just charge up when she's unreachable and explode when she creates her tow of ice. It paralyzes her and you can shoot her dead.

Power

100% useless. There's no reason to use it over the regular pellets, especially when you can shoot diagonally. If you don't know how to do that look at the game manual, as the game doesn't tell you how to do it directly. By default on the Wii U, it's ZR+Y.

What I learned

Don't overuse gimmicks, getting frozen is annoying, and slippery ice levels are annoying. Also, bosses that heal are annoying. If you don't absorb Cryo while she's on the ground, she'll heal up while out of your reach.

Mighty No. 3 Dynatron

Level Design

Cruddy. I didn't have any problem with the level, but I knew what was coming ahead of time. The tiny robots are annoying if you don't have a power that can take them out quickly, Pyrogen's should work just fine here. The purple buzzsaws also gave a lot of people trouble, but if you know they're coming you can get through it pretty quickly. Just run through and crouch-dash with good timing. Overall this becomes the easiest level once you get a hold of it.

Boss Fight

I hate it. Apparently I had more trouble with it than anyone else who I watched play the game. If you get Brandish's power first though it becomes a cakewalk.

Power

Situational. I tried using it on a few bosses, but it just gets outclassed by Battalion's power.

What I learned

Don't overuse your gimmicks. I always think to myself that gimmicks should be used to their full extent, but some gimmicks are just meant to only be seen once, usually bossfight gimmicks. Even more important than that though, don't include instant-death on obstacles with precision timing. Especially if your game has long load times.

Mighty No. 4 Seismic

Level Design

I hate it, everyone hates it, too much instant death everywhere. The worst part is the silverfish robots that hide inside boxes. They get in your way while the drill is chasing you, and unless you know where they appear they'll always get the jump on you. There is a lot of talking too, which is a terrible idea when you're trying to descend in a level. Yeah, go ahead and cover up where the spikes are with your dialogue box. Also, this level is one of the laggiest in the game. The frame drops are so bad that you could end up teleported right into the electric spikes.

Boss Fight

It's good, I liked this boss. The drill attack was annoying at first, but you can get the hang of it after a few attempts.

Power

Wheel Kirby is the best power in the game. If this game gets speedran, this will be the power they go after first. You get semi-invincibility, and you can pretty much just plow through a lot of stages. Get this power early on. At first it's annoying that you always bounce off walls and enemies you run into, but it's easy to get used to that thanks to your dash.

What I learned

Keep your auto-scrolling level's speed reasonable. Don't just throw everything in front of the player if you're going to rush them. Especially don't use puzzle elements, precision platforming, and surprise silverfish enemies when your player is already freaking out about the giant electric drill chasing them. Lastly dialogue boxes should never impede the gameplay, that's just common sense.


That's the first half of the game. In case anyone is actually taking this advice, here's my suggested order for fighting the bosses: 4 Seismic, 5 Battalion, 6 Aviator, 7 Brandish, 1 Pyrogen, 2 Cryosphere, 3 Dynatron, 8 Countershade.

Part 2 of this review can be found here.
Lastly, here's a video Game Soup made last week about Mighty No. 9. Their criticisms are pretty similar to mine so I felt like linking it, enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohb8RdPsm3U

Art 1: HD Spriting method

Summer classes are over, so here's something I hadn't done before to celebrate.

My method for creating the HD sprites is pretty simple. My tool of choice is Manga Studio 5/ Clip Studio Paint. 

Here are 3 character sprites as an example.

The first phase is the "rough." The amount of how finished it turns out can vary a lot. 

I'll use a "messy" rough when I don't have a good idea of how the character's sprite will look, and just want to get the pose down so I can have at least a solid enough foundation to design on top of.

The "nude" rough comes out when I have a really good idea of the character and pose, but haven't fully finished their design or haven't decided on what they should be wearing. I use this one the most often, especially with finished pieces. Sometimes the nude rough won't even have hair.

The "polished" rough comes out when I know exactly what I want from the sprite. Usually there's still a messy and nude phase, but after a certain point I've cleaned the rough so much that I just ended up erasing them.

I just use a basic pen brush for this. Feel free to choose any thin brush with minimal aliasing.

The "outline" phase can go by very fast or very slow depending on how developed the rough phase is.  If the rough is "messy", the outline might as well be a second roughing. Regardless, the outline is always faster than the rough as even a very incorrect rough gives a good foundation. On the other end, if the rough turns into a "full outline" I can just skip this phase and copy the rough over.

For the initial idle sprite I do the roughing and outline using Manga Studio 5. But when I'm animating I use TvPaint instead, and then export the outline to MS5 for coloring and rendering. I'll go over my animating and TvPaint techniques some other time.

The "color" phase has multiple steps to it. First I select the area that's going to be colored. I do this by placing a selection block around the outline, and deselecting everything outside the character. After that I color everything inside the selection with the character's most prominent color. 

Each character gets a block. This is used to compare the colors without an outline getting in the way.

Then I just color the character with the fill bucket.

The following step of the "color" phase is one of the most important. I create color blocks representing the character in a minimalist form. I've mentioned this before (thank you, Mark), the best way to test if your colors are effective is to compare them in a simplified format. 

In the picture above: the right block is the character's original colors, and the left block with a circle over it is the re-colored version. You want to keep each color from clashing with anything it's touching. You also don't want two colors to fight for attention regardless of how far they are from each other. Lily(right) has red as the most saturated and dominant color. Originally the blues would clash with the red because they were just as bright, so I desaturated them in the second version.

The final phase is the "render," where the lights and shadows are applied.

When I'm working on a full piece, I have a dozen or so different layers full of colors and fx. However when I'm making a sprite I want to keep things simple as I have to move the sprites around a lot, so in total there are only 3 layers used for each sprite (rough layers are not counted): the outline, the color, and the shade layers.

You generally want the lighting to come from just above the camera, but it's not a bad idea to put it at a slight angle. The Crown sprites are designed to have the lighting come from just behind the character.

The first step of rendering is to just draw the shadows. My tool of choice is a custom brush I call "Watercolor Sketch," the settings of which are in the image above. 

The second step is drawing the highlights. I also use the Watercolor Sketch for this, but combined with the "Flat Brush" also shown above.

Overall this phase doesn't take very long. It's usually the shortest as it's the phase that requires the least design work, you're really just improving on the color phase. Keep in mind though that you do at least have to choose colors that look good. Beyond that, rendering is about technique.

Scripting 5: Script: Camera_Control

Camera_Control speaks for itself. It's the camera script.

This is an overview of the Camera_Control Script.

VOID Start()  Only used to set certain variables that can't be set earlier.

VOID Update()  Does everything.

• First InputCheck is called and player data is read.
• playerspeed = player's.hspeed*3+player's.endlessrun.
• hspeed records horizontal speed.
• endlessrun is automatic movement, used in some bossfights.
• playerfall = player's.rigidbody2D.velocity.y;
• holding right adds +1 to the variable "aboutFaceLag." If it's value becomes 100, the camera will now stand to the right side of the player. The opposite is done when holding left.
• This allows you to see ahead of the character, and adds a delay to camera movement when the player is changing directions.
• If playerfall<15(player is not jumping), the camera stands in the default location.
• If playerfall>15(player is jumping), the camera tries to stay still.
• If playerfall<-10(player is falling), the camera attempts to keep you in sight.
• If playerfall<-24(player is in a long fall), the camera tries to get below you.
• Wall climbing
• Reads the player's fspeed, and adjusts to look over or under the player depending which way they're going.
• If you tap left or right, threatTest is called. If an enemy is found within the aimed vicinity, the camera moves slightly to get them into view.
• goingLow is one of many variables used to control the y offset of the camera from the player. If you hold down, goingLow decreases to move the camera lower.
• At this point, custom movements are taken into account. If the camera is moving automatically, most of the above is ignored, and the camera instead moves based on a value.
• The player is not allowed to exit the camera's field of view while it's moving automatically.
• If the camera is moving horizontally, it will attempt to keep a strict y position.
• Rotations are set through a Quaternion.Lerp by 0.01f;
• The field of view and z offset are both set through Mathf.Lerp by 0.02f;
• Earthquaking moves the camera around rapidly for a set amount of time. 
• The camera tests for walls and water.
• If there's a wall overhead, the camera will avoid rising.
• If there's water underneath, the camera will try to stay above it.
• Colorizer: Reads the main light's script and changes the background color accordingly.

At this point the final camera movements are being calculated.

• First the camera's movement is smoothened. 
• playerposSmoother = Vector3.Lerp(location, target, 0.98f);
• startx and starty = playerposSmoother;
• startz = playerposSmoother + zoffset(the default distance the camera should keep);
• The final variable "Target" is now calculated.
• target.x = startx + playerspeed/3(player's running speed) + xoffset(default distance to keep);
• If y can move freely then target.y = starty + yoffset;
• If the camera is too close to the bottom of the level, target.y won't fall below 10;
• If the z position of the camera can move freely, target.z = startz;

Between the first and last calculations, the overrides are set.

• The camera uses a raycast to stay away from walls in order to prevent clipping or xraying.
• A circlecast checks for focusers. 
• If any is found, focusCheck = true; and FindFocus() is called.
• If none is found then focusCheck = false, and the rotation and field of view are reset;

And now the final movements are set.

• moving.x = Mathf.Lerp(current x position,target.x,cameraspd*50*Time.deltatime);
• moving.y = Mathf.Lerp(current y position, target.y, cameraspd*mathf.Abs(currentpos.y-target.y)(changes speed based on distance) * 2.5f * Time.deltaTime);
• moving.z changes similarly to movingx, just slightly slower (30 instead of 50);
• transform.position = moving;
• If the distance is too great or the player dies, the camera snaps to the target via SetCamFast();

 IEnumerator Camflix(float shiftSpeed)  Turns the camera on and off, used after the player dies and during the level's start while things are still loading.

VOID SetCamFast() Quickly resets the camera. 

VOID setFields(int settingT) Changes the field of view between presets. 

VOID ThreatTest() Checks for surrounding enemies. If there is an enemy within a certain location, the camera will move towards it when changing directions. 

VOID FindFocus()  Focuses tell the camera where to go while the player is within its field. Focusers can affect field of view, rotation, and location. 

VOID InputCheck(int whatCheck = 0)  This is a basic input checking function that reads the arrow keys, WASD, joypad, and joystick all at once.

Blog 2: Summer Game Ideas Part 2

Two weeks ago I talked about the inspiration I drew from watching SGDQ. Now I want to talk about the android games I've been trying out, and the new ideas I've had thanks to them. I was mainly inspired by Pokemon Go to do this, since I'm not usually interested in phone games. I'll also rate them out of 5 at the same time.

Monster Sweeperz 5/5 (side scrolling shooter): This has been my favorite game from the Google Play store. Like almost every other android game, it features an autoplay button. But unlike other games, the autoplay is treated like a gameplay feature rather than just an anti-grinding mechanic. The most useful aspect of it is that automatic movement is better at avoiding projectiles than the player, which works even better due to the fact that not every projectile is meant to be avoided and must be destroyed or you take damage anyway. This turns knowing when to take your fingers off the screen into a strategic element. I'm not sure if I got a lot of design ideas from it though, as it is a really solid game but doesn't do anything all that different from other android games, just improves on already popular gameplay features.

Pokemon Go 3/5 (I don't know): It's a barebones game, whose mechanic isn't as unique as everyone seems to think. The best thing I guess would be the explorative element, which I would probably enjoy more if I didn't live in such an empty town. And of course the reason it's so popular is because of the fact that it's Pokemon, the most popular video game series in history. I wonder if parents out there recognize Mario, Mickey Mouse, or Pikachu faster.

Hit 5/5 (Top-down Action Game): My second favorite game. I don't normally like top-down beat-em-ups, but Hit's gameplay, graphics, and abundant features make it very worth playing. I'd like to try making a game like this one some time using Evanlily characters. It'd be relatively quick and easy compared to making a metroidvania, 3D platformer, or platform fighter. Another idea I like is the "instant complete pass" that lets you immediately complete a level you've already beaten. It helps save on the grinding, and they're not too rare or too common.

Delight Games Full Library (Pick your own adventure story) 4/5: Ironic that my three favorite games from the android store are from genres that I normally hate playing. The stories are pretty good, though I've only played 4 chapters total of the Wizard, Witch, Dragon stories, and haven't finished any of them fully. I'm enjoying it though, so I wanted to recommend them anyway.
I also felt a bit of inspiration from them, but not really game design inspiration. I don't plan to make any choose your own adventure games, but I have been writing Evanlily's story lately. I hope to be able to share that story in novel format during future blog posts. Years ago I had planned the story out as a comic series, but when I started learning how to script for games I decided to concentrate on this instead.

Soul Seeker (Top-down Action Game) 3/5: This is the kind of game I would like to make myself. The character designs are pretty good, the graphics are nice, and there's a crapload of content. The biggest drawback is how repetitive it is, as the levels are just the exact same thing over and over again regardless of how far you get into the game. There's also a risk of getting a lot of lag due to all the monsters that can appear on screen at once. What's more the gameplay is not very involving, you might as well just always have auto on. It could have been fixed easily just by including any sort of defensive option, like the dodge button that every other game in this genre has. One thing I do really like though is the fact that you get rewarded every time you fully level up one of your characters. Playing it has pushed me away from wanting to make a top-down action game with a "crew," and instead makes me to want to make something more like Hit that focuses on one character at a time. Not that I have any current plans to do either, I'm trying to focus on Crown.

Minimon (Top-down Action Game) 2/5: Minimon is very similar to Soul Seeker but with worse graphics, less playable characters, and slightly better gameplay. Like Soul Seeker, I really wanted to like this game. The graphics and repetitiveness are the only things pushing me back. The character designs were my main draw, they're all pretty attractive and the girls are thick as fuck which I love. The gameplay also doesn't lag like Soul Seeker, but it's still repetitive. There are a lot of levels in each world, but they all look the same. And the game only ever gives you baby monsters, expecting you to put in hours of work to evolve them into the better ones. I just got bored, but at least there's a dodge button.

Digimon Heroes (Matching Card Game) 4/5: This game has the exact opposite problem as Minimon. While Minimon gives you utter shit, and expects you to work like a bitch to evolve it into good shit, Digimon gives you great shit early game. But that's still a problem. Why should I be expected to evolve the Guilmon I just unlocked through lottery, when I already have a Gallatmon Crimson mode? There's no balance to the Digimon you can get. In the early levels you can unlock a Patamon, and in the next world you'll be unlocking MagnaAngemon before you ever get to gather the evolution materials to get regular Angemon (Which you already unlocked from another level). Evolution is worthless and difficult, but I still enjoyed the gameplay. Once you get the hang of it, it's a very easy but very fun game to play. I'd like to try making a card game some time, but it's not a high priority and probably wouldn't be a matching game.

Honorable mentions: I don't care enough to write full reviews about these games.

Pocket Mortys: It's good, but I'm not a fan of RPGs.
Sonic Boom Dash: It's just a boring runner. I don't have a real opinion on the genre, I've enjoyed runners before. There's nothing special about it, it's really just a time waster.
Sonic Runners: Just like the game above, but better and more fun. Unfortunately all support for this game will have ended by the time I publish this review. Hopefully there's a sequel, and they fix the lag.
Plague Inc: It's alright. It can be fun, but I don't think I will be playing it very much. Maybe the fact that I only played the free version just left a sour taste.
Traffic Rider: It's fun at first, but I hate how much it makes you grind.