[Release] Pokemon Blackguard demo! 20-30min playthrough, looking for your feedback

Revolvee · Aug 24, 2016

Introduction

Hello! I'm Revolve. I started with Pokémon Essentials about a week and a half ago and have been working on this since. The purpose of this demo is to get feedback on the current state of the game and the direction the game should take. I greatly appreciate any and all feedback you may have! You can find a link to the download at the bottom of this post. Playthrough of this demo takes 20-30min.

Plot and setting

Welcome to the Kaloolon region! You are a member of Team Essence, a villanious organisation who've risen to prominence in the power vacuum left behind by the downfall of other teams. The organisation produces the PokéDrug - a chemical substance with psychoactive properties and severe adverse effects - and it's quickly gaining popularity in the Kaloolon region. However, the International Police has started an investigation on the matter and the conflict is about to ignite as the regional Pokémon Professor, Cypress, has been kidnapped.

Features

Original and unique story
A pokédex including pokémon from Gen I up to Gen V
Black and White animated pokémon sprites
Apart from those features, not much is set in stone. Refer to the Goals/Core philosophies chapter to get an idea of what the game will encompass and what will make it stand out from other games.

Tools used:

RPGMaker XP
Pokémon Essentials
Essentials BW V3.1.1

Screenshots

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Goals/Core philosophies

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Focus on a more compelling story than real pokémon games. I'm not saying I'm a better writer than the Pokémon developers, but the storytelling is intentionally left simple and with few layers to cater to a young audience. The potential compromise for focusing on the story will be less open world/exploration and the gameplay experience will be more linear than your regular Pokémon game. I think it's important to set boundaries for a project and not fall for the trap of being too ambigious, which is why I'm willing to make this compromise if necessary.
Starters: Three starters that are cool and unorthodox/underused. There won't be any type triangle - your rival will start with pokémon representative of Team Essence, and will capture a native pokémon from the starter zone to counter your starter pokémon.
More mature elements and language than real pokémon games, while trying to avoid being all too cringy and edgy. Plenty of humor, in self awareness, memes and references to Pokémon, other games and pop culture.
Make it feel like a pokémon game without being tied by the usual pokémon formula. For example, I believe HMs should be used in a fun way, not simply as a linear form of progression that limits the customisability of your pokémon by taking up a moveslot.
Difficult puzzles - Pokemon has had these, I just want to expand on it. The HM puzzles with the Strength HM or puzzles with ice have in my opinion been fine, but I will try to be creative and make puzzles that break the boundaries of your usual pokémon experience.
Higher difficulty. By this I don't mean that you have to grind wild pokemon to outlevel your opponent. That will always be a possibility ofcourse, but I'd rather give the player plenty of options in terms of movesets and items that can counter specific trainers. For example, if a gym trainer uses Sleep moves such as Hypnosis, I want the player to have access to Lum Berries, Vital Spirit and Sleep Talk, and choose how they want to approach the battle based on their playstyle and team of pokemon. To try to make the AI harder, I will give them abilities that synergize well with their other abilities and force them into a playstyle. I don't how difficult you can make the AI itself apart from the 0-255 values, but I will do my very best.
Try to envision what a villain team is like from another perspective. What motivates young trainers to join the bad guys? Lots of questions about ethics. Also interesting to see the inner workings of a villain team in terms of environment and infrastructure.

Plan

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Personal obersvations/Worth noting

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Feedback I'm looking for

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Credits

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Download (240mb .rar file)
http://www.mediafire.com/download/9a3wx25bb9umja4/PokemonTDB_Demo.rar

Contribute
If you're interested in contributing to or joining the project, contact me and I can share more information about the project and see how you can contribute. I am currently in particular need of a few sprites for trainers (OW, front and in one case back).

Thank you for reading and/or testing! If you notice anyone miscredited or if I've missed someone, please tell me and I'll update it ASAP.

Pr4mius · Aug 25, 2016

So, I completed the game and im gonna say I really liked it. I didn't really want whismur, so I picked between magby and elekid and picked magby in the end. The game wasn't that hard playing with him, even though I actually got blacked out once. The story seemed pretty good, it was nice being the bad guy, and I loved the dialogue. I would say things were kinda forced in the events but that was okay for me, I was just excited to see what would happen after everything. Besides that the trial caves trainer were kinda easy, but the question with the guys name wasn't that straightforward, even though I got it in the end. (But I guess that's just me not thinking deep enough). Overall I liked it a lot, so i'd say keep on working on it, cause it seems to have some great potential!

Revolvee · Aug 26, 2016

Pr4mius said:
So, I completed the game and im gonna say I really liked it. I didn't really want whismur, so I picked between magby and elekid and picked magby in the end. The game wasn't that hard playing with him, even though I actually got blacked out once. The story seemed pretty good, it was nice being the bad guy, and I loved the dialogue. I would say things were kinda forced in the events but that was okay for me, I was just excited to see what would happen after everything. Besides that the trial caves trainer were kinda easy, but the question with the guys name wasn't that straightforward, even though I got it in the end. (But I guess that's just me not thinking deep enough). Overall I liked it a lot, so i'd say keep on working on it, cause it seems to have some great potential!

Thank you so much mate! I really appreciate the feedback, and I agree with everything you've said. About the Trial Cave (which I'm going to move to a later stage in the game), how did you go about completing the riddle about his name? Did you immediately go talk to the trainers, and did you realise right away how the riddle should be completed? Do you have any suggestions on how to make it more straightforward (or shouldn't it be)?

Pr4mius · Aug 26, 2016

Revolvee said:
Thank you so much mate! I really appreciate the feedback, and I agree with everything you've said. About the Trial Cave (which I'm going to move to a later stage in the game), how did you go about completing the riddle about his name? Did you immediately go talk to the trainers, and did you realise right away how the riddle should be completed? Do you have any suggestions on how to make it more straightforward (or shouldn't it be)?

Well, I didn't realise it immediately. However, as a game creator when creating the question and answer the solution should be at least possible for the player, so having that in mind and not having many clues when you're doing it, the only thing it could've been was something like that cause there wasn't anything else in that case. It wasn't easy though cause you don't immediately think about that. Can't think of anything right now to make it more straightforward though.

Revolvee · Sep 5, 2016

Hi everyone. For anyone interested in the project, I figured I'd pop in and give you an update. The project is temporarily put on hold due to the WoW expansion Legion, I mean, demons don't really kill themselves. So for the next few weeks I won't be working much on the project, but I will get right back into it soon enough. I'm still super motivated about working on the project.

What I've done since the demo release is:

Given the project a name!
Adjusted difficulty based on feedback
Created a new route; new screenshots are available
Updated some textures in the first area
Created new sprites which can be seen here
Moved the Trial Cave to a cave in route 1 and replaced it with a training facility
Various bugfixes and small general fixes

The plan right now is to work my way up to the first town and the first gym with related story events. Once that is complete I will update the demo, which will be the last demo release before the final release of chapter 1.

CatholicLeoJoe · Sep 9, 2016

I can't figure out the name for the guy to finish the trial cave area. Also is there any thing that you can do to make a bigger screen size to choose from? Other than that good game so far.

Revolvee · Sep 10, 2016

CatholicLeoJoe said:
I can't figure out the name for the guy to finish the trial cave area. Also is there any thing that you can do to make a bigger screen size to choose from? Other than that good game so far.

His name is

Spoiler:

. The trial combatants give you clues to his name after you've battled them if you talk to them. In the next update, the Trial Cave will have moved and will be optional, but I hope this will help you get further in the demo. Regarding screen size, I have looked into it and will look to include either options or have the default screen size bigger, although there is nothing available in the demo apart from full screen (Alt+Enter).

Thank you!

CatholicLeoJoe · Sep 10, 2016

Thanks and I think I got the name but did it wrong as I think I put in ZuluKuru. I can't wait for more gameplay. I will make sure to check for future updates to the game.

creeper861 · Oct 14, 2016

Looks cool, I am definitely exited for this.