Hello,

You have style, I like the message of the animation, and the sound is solid, unfortunately there are too many serious flaws that drag this piece down.

I guess my primary issue with this short film is that the animation seems really lazy and slapped together, it's mostly just tweens of simple shapes that have been blackened to hide their lack of detail. Unlike your film "Tarboy" which used similar techniques masterfully, I could tell you were cutting corners on this to fill the length of the audio.

Another issue I have with this piece is the art style, while interesting, doesn't seem to like a good fit to the serious tone of the message that you're trying to convey, I feel something more realistic would have been more appropriate given the subject matter.

The use of colour is probably the best thing aesthetically in the film, the use of dark blue gives everything an ominous feel.

Again I like the message, but taking an objective position on the film, I think the material could have been handled better.

With love,
- Celx

P.S. When is the next Tarboy coming out? Everyone's waiting!

I would buy this on DVD,

No seriously I would, I love the character designs, and while the animation is lacking, the writing and voice acting compensate by hitting all the perfect notes.

I absolutely love the concept, and humour; the jokes are methodically paced and delivered with perfect timing. The writing never went for cheap non-sequensial "shock" laughs, instead choosing to take the high road and have the jokes come from character based humour that never felt out of context to the situation.

Throughout the series, the humour felt like it was intrinsic to who the characters were, Charles is a prick and elitist, but it may be because of a complex caused by his short arms, these aspects made the characters feel real instead of just puppets regurgitating silly lines of dialogue.

The last thing I liked about this series, is it can step back and show empathy for it's characters, even in a comedy series I think there should be some room for "serious" moments, if Charles was just a prick throughout the whole series without this being acknowledged it would make the character so unlikable.

The ending was touching, and a perfect coda to a damn fine web series!
Sincerely,
- Celx

Astonishingly Beautiful.

Hello,

I was taken by surprise by how pretty everything in this game was, despite it's simplistic "abstract" art. The colours captured the feeling of the ocean perfectly, and offered incentive to continue playing if only to discover the other "marine life".

The gameplay is simple enough that anyone with some basic gaming knowledge can pick it up, but deep enough that one could spend a significant amount of time exploring for "the story recordings", and upgrading their tools.

The oxogen bar adds a certain risk/reward element, especially when venturing into the deeper levels of the ocean to hunt the larger and more dangerous game for more financial gain.

The sound designer, and music author also deserve some massive praise, they nailed the atmosphere of the game and complimented your submission wonderfully.

I guess if I had one complaint, it would be the menu screens could have been designed in a more aesthetically pleasing manner, and the diary entries would have benefitted from some illustrations. By the way should you ever decide to incorporate some illustrations on a similar forthcoming project; I'm ready and willing, wink wink nudge nudge.

Kidding aside I loved this game so much, it's classy, and a makes a good contribution to the independent gaming movement. It's enjoyable just to aimlessly explore, that's a unique trait in a game.

Sincerely,
- Celx

Review #100

I wanted to save this review until I found something really worthwhile to use it on, and man was this worthwhile.

First off let me express how impressive the narrative was, your ability to tell a story using only mannerisms is incredible, and the aspects of symbolism at play here are magnificent.

Despite the lack of spoken dialect, the main characters are both affable, and interesting with their own quirky personas, it's amazing what you've managed to pull off without language.

The game is violent, and captures the true nature of what fairly tales were meant for, which was to serve as cautionary satirical stories about the capricious and dangerous nature of the world. That said none of the violence really seems out of place within the context of the narrative, and although at times the violence can be humorous, it never comes off as patronizing to your audience.

The wonderful art style, and animation makes this submission stand out, I love the simple yet beautiful "watercolor" backgrounds, and the character design is unique, I feel as though I'm playing through a Russian fable.

The audio and sound effects all compliment the submission perfectly, and the music composers, and sound designers all definitely deserve major kudos.

Speaking about the gameplay now, I must say I'm impressed by all the puzzles and side quests the designer managed to work into the game. None of them seemed half assed or unwarranted, and all of them seemed to play into the themes of the game or add to the overall mythology, sometimes doing both in tandem.

The controls themselves were so easy to pick up and play I feel even someone with no understanding of video games could dive right in.

The actionscripting was pretty flawless, and the games autosave feature is something so useful I don't understand why it hasn't become standard practice in the flash game development community, the programmer is certainly of a high ilk and should be commended for his work on this project.

All the additional content such as the bonus hats, and different medals and endings (especially that quixotic robot ending), add to the replay value, whilst also conveying the amount of time that went into this games development.

I've often contemplated what makes an "adult" game (that is a game that would appeal to adults, not speaking in terms of the "pornographic"), and I feel this would stand as an excellent example.

The three things that I feel would make a game appeal to adults are accessible controls, intelligent design, and a mature narrative.

Your game capturers all of this and makes it into something unique and rare, a professional product that manages to transcend the cliche conventions of the genre and stand on its own merit as an exemplification of "fine art" in the realm of flash game design.

I can see why you were nominated for the tank awards, and with upmost sincerity I hope you and you're staff wins, this anthology of games you building is amongst the most noble uses of flash I've ever seen.

I feel once complete your saga will serve to garner more respect for videogames as a whole, something that the industry in this era of hypocrisy and aggressive critical opinion hurled at the craft from opportunistic charlatans is in dire need of.

It was a privilege to play something so deep, well rounded, and rich in substance. I'm eagerly awaiting the finale of your trilogy so I can view your saga as a whole, if this submission and the one prior serve as a prognostication of things to come I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

Thank you,
- Celx Requin

I can't believe people are voting his down...

Because of the title.

Seriously what is wrong with you people, why are you assholes coming to newgrounds if you're only wanting to jerk off to porn, wouldn't it be easier to do a google search instead?

Regardless your cartoon was really charming, I liked the simple aesthetic and animation. The concept was funny and cute without crossing the line into the saccharine, and it contained a simple and innocent but effective punch line.

Good clear audio, honestly there isn't too much I have against the piece other than it was kinda short, and the drawings and some of the animation could have been touched up.

Keep up the good work!
- Celx

A nice cheery tune.

I really like the guitar, and the minor use of vocals, it is a little repetitive though.
That said for a short piece it's not bad at all, I'm not sure if anyone would listen to it over and over again though, although there's probably an audience out there for this kind of composition.

Additionally the sound was crystal clear which is always a good thing.

That's my one generous act for the day!
- Celx

Hello,

It's rare music captivates me enough to write a review, but this was an utterly fantastic "gritty pulp" track!

I love the moody opening and how it slowly builds towards an epic finale, you made a wonderful use of the eclectic"instruments", and everything is paced out perfectly.

This is the perfect piece of music to compliment the last act of my film, thank you so much for uploading it, and I hope once the film is released you'll like what you see :)

Thanks,
- Celx

This is pure unadulterated noir.

I love the brooding feeling this track invokes, the main beat is great, but then at other times the track goes silent and only hints of the piano keys are present; then somehow you manage to bring back the main gritty vibe in an organic manner.

It's really fantastic stuff, it's so good in fact, I'm cutting the trailer for "A Twisted Transparency" to it, so I guess I'm writing this just to say thanks for creating such a awesome track!

Sincerely,
- Celx

Mr. Rice on acid again?