Pokémon Returns

News

- Alpha 1.0 is Released! Click Here To Download
- Alpha 1.1 is Released! Click Here To Download

Fixes

- If you have 1.0 or 1.1, you can replace your files with the ones in This Fix. It should work. You'll also notice some maps I was working on pre-fix i.e. Amber Cave on Route 111. You can't find anything there yet, but it'll be fully prepared for Alpha 2.0! This also means in theory that you could traverse Route 111 and hit the black part of the map where it will connect to a new area (again, Alpha 2.0). Do not report this as a "bug" please.
-- This "Fix" fixes a stall in the first Professor Oak Lab event (Joseph not moving as he should), Joseph's endless battle, background descriptions and organizes the NPCs in Professor Oak's lab a bit better (i.e. Joseph not walking through the player like a ghost). It also places Rock Smash as requiring 2 Badges (instead of 3) and fixes some wrong text colours on the French mom NPC.

Note: If you don't have RMXP installed, you will also need to copy/paste these files into the main Pokemon Returns folder. Thanks.

Alpha 1.1 Known "Issues"
- To Be Fixed In Alpha 2.0 -

Suggested Improvements
- To Be Implemented in Alpha 2.0 -

Summary

The story begins ten years following the disbandment of Team Rocket by Archer in HGSS. Professor Oak is returned safely to Pallet Town after his unfortunate incident at the Radio Tower with the criminal group; however, memories of Team Rocket and their activities continue to haunt him well after the fact, so he decides to relocate in order to start fresh in a new setting. His sister-in-law suggests that he move to the remote Floran Region to research and, ultimately, retire. After assuring that his grandson, Gary (now 23), and granddaughter, Daisy, are well-off, he settles down in the small town of Windigo where his great-nephew, Joseph, and his mother reside. From there, he serves the community as the provider of three unique Pokémon that new trainers can choose from: Bulbasaur, the grass Pokémon; Cyndaquil, the fire Pokémon; and Oshawott, the water Pokémon.

You, the player, are a seventeen-year-old Pokémon enthusiast and Joseph's childhood friend and neighbour. As Joseph is a relative of Oak, he already has experience with Pokémon and battling, and thus serves initially as a mentor. Like you, though, he has never taken the Gym Challenge; he prefers to spend his time helping his great-uncle (who he simply refers to as "uncle") with the completion of the PokéDEX. In regards to becoming a licensed Pokémon trainer, Floran's customs are similar to those of Kanto and Johto, only (as expressed by Joseph's mother in the beginning) they prefer to grant Pokémon to new trainers when they reach the age of seventeen rather than ten.

Although initially you are encouraged simply to try and defeat the first Gym Leader of the region, your mission soon develops into the completion of the PokéDEX and the investigation of a freshly-established criminal organization. With Joseph and both his and your Pokémon at your side, you will explore the vast and natural region of Floran and restore peace and stability to the civilians and their government.

Name may still be considered WIP.

The Region

Floran is a grand region of unspoiled natural beauty. The majority of towns are rural and cities are typically small. Most of the region is a mixture of forest, grass and mountain terrain, although in the south-west area there is a desert and the north-east is plagued with blizzards. Rural cities, unlike in actual Pokémon games, have small patches of grass that transition between the route and the town. (These patches do not block the pathways, however.) Pokémon will only appear in these patches at night, as to retain the more feral / wild identity of Floran compared to other regions. Larger cities do not have grass patches.

At the moment, the region is misaligned with the in-game map. I will figure out how to fix this later (which ultimately could shift some routes and such around a little bit). Also, according to TwilightBlade, the route and town positions portray an Arceus, but I do not see it.

Mapped Cities (Accessible)

Characters

As not to "spoil" anything, I will only be giving basic character descriptions.

Spoiler:

Green/Red
- As I don't know how to sprite, and these are default in Essentials, for now you can choose between Green or Red
- These characters both share the same story: they live in Windigo with their mother and are best friends with Joseph, the other protagonist

Joseph
- Again, Blue's sprite is used because it is already readily-available + Joseph is a distant cousin of Blue, so it still fits better than any random trainer sprite
- Joseph is the great-nephew of Professor Oak (Kanto) and resides in Windigo with his mother

May
- A supporting plot character and Champion of the Hoenn Region. It is unknown why she has come to Floran.

Brendan
- A rogue trainer associated with May. An altercation between him and May shows much despise towards her on his part, although the reason behind his hatred is currently a mystery.

Screenshots

Spoiler:

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xx

xx

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Available Pokémon
- Applicable To: First Beta
- Total Available: 123, 1st-5th Generation
- Last Modified: April 4th, 2013
- Map Spawns Only; More By Evolving

Surf/Super Rod/Good Rod Pokémon are implemented, but as of now there are no methods in which to acquire these items (thus, omitted from the list)

Credits

Completion Status
- Note, this takes longer because all text / trainers, etc. are in English and French

Story Outline: 100% +/-5%*
Town Maps (Includes Interiors & NPCs): 36% +/-5%*
Gym Maps Completed: 2/8 = 25%
Route Maps: 20% +/-5%*
Miscellaneous Maps (Forests, Caves, Fortresses): 16% +/-5%*
Trainer NPCs: 43/approx. 550** = ~7.8%
Custom Music: 0%
Custom Sprites: 0%

*For Changes
** Unique Battles; More with Rebattles

Team

Just me! And I don't know how to script/sprite (only recolour), so I can't make anything customized to the game. I'd make my own music, too, but I don't have a USB keyboard to play with on Fruityloops.

Thanks for reading my thread! (Took me four hours to write)

This a really promising game you know. But I have some questions:
If this is after the HGSS events, why do you use FR/LG graphics?
Can you only catch pokemons at night?
And btw if you need custom sprites, search the shops in the Pixel Projects sub forum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JNathan This a really promising game you know. But I have some questions: If this is after the HGSS events, why do you use FR/LG graphics? Can you only catch pokemons at night? And btw if you need custom sprites, search the shops in the Pixel Projects sub forum.

I don't know how to properly structure a tileset in RMXP so that the sprites are aligned with the little lines that separate the blocks :\

I've seen a few HGSS/BW tilesets around, but they're not very big. I'd love to me able to make the graphics HGSS, though :)

And you can catch Pokemon any time of the day; however, in cities, Pokemon only come out at night. There's a lot of morning-only, day-only and night-only Pokemon on routes, so it's recommended to thoroughly search routes every time of day, or else you'll miss something!

Have you tried searching for crazyninjaguy's HGSS kit? You could import the graphics from there. That's what I did.

Okay, sorry about this JNathan, but I don't recommend HGSS graphics, just my opinion, I think it looks better in FRLG graphics.
First of all, theres a wider range of FRLG Grahics.
I think that if you use FRLG graphics, it gives you more of a RPG feel to it.
3rd, when I use FRLG graphics, I tend to make the map more detailed, I just think FRLG graphics are better. It also looks like you came a long way already, so I see no reason to switch.

I might consider remaking the game later in HGSS graphics (should be simple enough, just copy/paste the folder, redo permissions, and redo the maps - events are already in-place and working), but for now I'll stick with what I have. It doesn't look too bad anyway, and it might actually be better for spriting resources.

I edited the Pokemon List with a few new Pokemon, bringing the total to 89 (not including Water/RockSmash/Rod Pokemon, which are omitted).

Also added a bit more character information as well as Gym Completion Status (currently two Gyms are functional).

Will add more Pokemon to the list later, too, since I'm doing a few more Routes.

[Edit]

Lainie Farms:

Spoiler:

I wanted to show purpose as well as the map itself, which is why the pics might seem redundant in themselves.

The farm safari has a lot of Pokemon you can't find anywhere else. They're all farm animal-like, so you can speculate which ones are there.

Or, if you wanna know right away, you can look at the first post lol but you'll not know how rare they are.

Total is now 102 normal map spawns, more with evolutions.

Thanks for the comments, Raven. As for the rival bit, he might not be all that he seems. Jealousy does stuff to people. Good people.

I also have a functional alpha to release. Let it be known as Alpha 1.0!

You can download Alpha 1.0 by clicking here.

It lasts approximately two hours. Your Pokemon ought to be around Level 20-24 by the end of Alpha 1.0.

Towns Available
- Windigo
- Ausable
- Burntwood
-- Gym Open
- Malbaie
-- Gym Open
- Coppermine

Routes Available
- Route 101
- Route 102
- Route 103
- Route 104
- Route 105
- Route 109
- Route 110
- Route 111

Along with other miscellaneous maps, like caverns, indoors, etc.

What I'm Looking For

- Map Critique
- Storyline Critique
- Trainer Critique (Too Hard? Too Easy?)
-- Trainer Errors (Non-Existent, etc.)
- MetaData Errors (Indoor/Outdoor, Battlebacks, etc.)
- BGM Errors (No BGM Indoors (Due to Forgetfulness))
- Grammar Errors (French, Specifically)
-- French Script Errors (Non-Existent, Freezing, etc.)
- Other Constructive Criticism

When giving feedback, please be constructive and thorough; otherwise, it won't help the project, nor may I be able to fix errors due to not understanding the actual issue.

You can download Alpha 1.0 by clicking here.

Thank you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yusshin You can download Alpha 1.0 by clicking here.

wow, already?
cool; I'll play it real quick and let you know what i think when i finish

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saving Raven wow, already? cool; I'll play it real quick and let you know what i think when i finish :P

Awesome! And I've been working on this for about a month now. Easily 50+h into development thusfar XD so it might seem like "already" because the thread has only been around for a week, but there's four weeks of work in this.

I'm expecting bugs and the likes. Just hopefully not too rough of stuff! When I tested events, etc. everything seemed functional, so here's to a smooth "launch."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yusshin Awesome! And I've been working on this for about a month now. Easily 50+h into development thusfar XD so it might seem like "already" because the thread has only been around for a week, but there's four weeks of work in this. I'm expecting bugs and the likes. Just hopefully not too rough of stuff! When I tested events, etc. everything seemed functional, so here's to a smooth "launch."

um, so I found a few things wrong or unpleasant:
i was cruizin' around and noticed nothing has any description; i thought oh some book cases, oh some tv's, or some cabinets, I bet theres some cool back story, but nope, its just background stuff and i was disappointed >.>

I also didnt like how i couldnt go up the stairs in the prof.'s house, and when i was talking joseph walked right through me; you should make it so that cant happen, like an auto start that makes you walk up to the prof. and then makes all the stuff happen so that doesnt happen >.>

and then finally i lost the battle against joseph with my oshawott, but it kept restarting the battle so i couldnt train, and i kept losing

i do like the mapping, and the hidden stuff
oh and your music is very nice, its a real plus! :D

Hmm.. That's odd :s I don't know why it would keep restarting. I'll check it out. I also tried to dumb his Eevee down lol Initially it had Tail Whip and Tackle and it swept me every time lol figured Growl would work better. Maybe it's because I said "True" for continuing if you fail? I thought that meant that the event would automatically end and switch to "A," not that it would cause endless rebattles to occur.

I'll check out what's wrong with the Prof Oak. scene, too. That didn't happen to me either lol shall see~

As for background stuff not having any description, I haven't thought about what I want on TV yet, like help channels and stuff. They'll be edited when I have useful stuff to put :3 I think just adding things to "fill" for the heck of "filling" is worse than having it empty for now.

Thanks ^^

[Edit]

This stuff is fixed. Download:

** If you have 1.0, you can replace your files with the ones in This Fix. It should work.
- Alpha 1.1 is Released! Click Here To Download
** Alpha 1.1 Fixes "Endless Joseph Battle," the "Through" Joseph NPC in Prof. Oak's Lab, and adds content to shelves and other decorative items

To end re-battles, make sure the condition branch has an "else", tick the box at the bottom of the condition branch, event... Then use a switch.

A few things, I didn't understand the Pokémon bit, is the purple ones, Pokémon you can capture, but they are evolved forms? Didn't see any key to tell me different, that's what I thought.

Most games I've looked at, give me nothing to read, I usually just skim through and read what I want to and if I didn't read enough, I don't comment... But I read almost everything you had put, I checked out the pictures, I didn't download, I'd prefer to wait til I can get further, like gym 3 or something, so I won't judge the game play... I like how this has progression, yet, the progression is unavailable to us, surf/rod and rock smash Pokémon I like that... Shows future prospect when they are available.

You don't need to be a scripter to have a good game, story, game play and events, make the game what they are, you wouldn't believe all the scripts original Pokémon games have, that you don't see, that you probably don't even use... Most implemented scripts are for show really, "just because I can", kind of thing... You don't need to script to make good things either, you can script an entire event, using switches, variables and other even gizmos.

The region sounds nicely worked, however, some of the screenshots don't do it justice... They look, lifeless, but will have to wait and see... Nice to see usages of the day and night encounters, I don't have that in my game, which makes ours completely different, I don't like day and night encounters, I do silly hours at work and I could work from 7am-7pm, how will I ever encounter day or afternoon Pokémon, that's the downfall, not everyone has time on their hands... Let's hope you don't make too many day or night specifics to even the game out a little.

Looks good so far, will keep an eye on this for now, see how things progress, I believe I've helped you with something before, need anything, just give me a shout and I'll see what I can do

Good luck

Purple just means new Pokemon on the list. Everything on there can be captured in the wild in some way. Then obviously, they can evolve, but that list only includes "capture in the wild" Pokemon, so evolution-only isn't included. That means that you can capture Igglybuff (as seen on the list), but in order to get Jigglypuff, you have to evolve. Jigglypuff isn't on the list because it cannot be captured in the wild.

Maybe I'll rework the list after work to clarify.

Day/Night can easily be worked around by changing the time on the computer; however, if people really want to stay "true" to the system, I think it's a nice way to integrate Pokemon :3 Also, with 649 Pokemon available, and limited encounter rates, I think it's necessary to fit every Pokemon in smoothly.

Thanks for commenting, Nickaloose. I tried to take screenies that showed plot development or the mapping. Maybe if demo-testers will take some of their screenies, I'll add it to the first post; otherwise, I'll try to do another run-through and add them.

Alpha 1.1 includes two gyms, a few plot scenarios, two rival battles and quite a few towns and routes. It may take a month or two to develop Alpha 2.0. I'd be fantastic if you'd try it out at that point.

Thanks! ^^

I will look at downloading it when more progress is made I don't want to get into it and it ends

No problem, I guess I could download the game and check the maps out myself...

The list isn't the problem, just wasn't clear and I wanted to know, is all... Nice to have clarification... Keep the updates coming, I, got my eye, on this

Another thing, I don't quite understand the status part either... I don't know if the progression is good or barely touched the surface haha

I think this game looks really good, 2 hours gameplay in one months of work, I'm impressed. I'll give you feedback after I play it, you got me interested!

So I decided to play your game, first thing I noticed wrong was the birthday card says:
"seventeeth" instead of "seventeenth".
Same birthday card, a little grammar mistake:
"I'll be there, too, of course." should be "I'll be there too, of course."
Same birthday card:
"but I'll see you later, too!" should be "but I'll see you later anyway!" or "but I'll see you later!"
The guy by the water should say:
"...there's a Pokémon move that let's you travel across water."
Then I entered the lab and spoke to Oak, he rambled on like we all know he likes to do, I chose a Pokémon, spoke to Oak again, then Joseph appears out of nowhere, his starter must be Ninjask cause Joseph is such a ninja too, (maybe make him walk down the stairs instead), After he says I'll go tell mom, I just sat there for a moment waiting for the kid to walk off, but realized he wasn't going to haha... So off I went to start my journey, yay, what could possibly go wrong I thought, since others have played this game... Only for the door to tell me to talk to Oak... When I already have and he says the same text over and over, I thought maybe it was a trick and Oak wants to tell the same thing 10 times, but that wasn't the case here, the door doesn't want me to play

So I figured maybe the kid has something useful to say, maybe he could lend me some of his ninja skills and I could get out somehow... Damn! I thought... He's giving me the silent treatment, I don't think I done anything to annoy him btw, he obviously doesn't like me, is there any way I can make him like me in the first 2 minutes of the game? So I saw a window, now to put my ninja skills to the test... Oh I can't climb out a window, but I can walk along the wall... Why do the posters stop me, but the window doesn't, tile error maybe?

So I did a little digging, cause I'm crafty like that... Or it was the fact you allowed to me download your whole project and I could open it up... You lock the door with a switch, but you don't unlock it... You also don't turn the aid switch on either... So I done a little more digging and saw a hidden event outside the map (you are sneaky, maybe the rival has your ninja like abilities)... I looked within and noticed, without trying, I actually tricked your game, by missing 2 certain squares... So Joseph didn't walk off and then for some reason the rest of the event never continued, which I gather is because you didn't make Joseph have the "through on" movement.

So that's all, what turned out to be a couple errors turned into a little running commentary, I had fun considering I only played 2 minutes of your game

Hope this helps for future releases.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nickalooose "seventeeth" instead of "seventeenth".

Fixed.

That's just being picky. When using "too," you're supposed to have a comma before and a comma afterwards; that's how we were taught anyway. The second part has "too" because in the context, Joseph might be implying that "Hey, I gave you a gift, so don't expect me to come around." This is how he reassures the player that he will also physically see you for your birthday, too.

That doesn't make sense. "Let's" = Let us. "There's a Pokemon move that let us you travel across water"? "Let's" is for imperative / commands i.e. Let's go!

I recently made a variable event where Joseph ought to have walked. For some reason, it's blocking him; however, the event works if you talk to Oak from the right because it walks around the event instead. Since I'm going to work now, I'll have to fix this tonight and reupload. Initially, I had Joseph walk through you, but that didn't look too good so I modified the event to have him walk around; however, Joseph stil needs a "through" for the event tile it would seem. Not a big issue; again, talk to Oak from the right and he'll walk around instead.

I'll also fix the wall tile under the window. Not sure why it was set like that. Maybe it's a bit on the stairs that's set to "0"

Talking to Oak and getting through that event should fix walking into oblivion, too, since the "AutoRun" isn't messed up. The Aid should also turn off, too, since it's semi-reliant on that event turning off for its switch to turn off.

Thanks for finding it. It's always odd to me that invisible, underneath events with no graphics block characters from passing overtop if "Through" isn't on. So bothersome.

You know, you could always use:
Conditional Branch, Page 3, If Character, Facing <insert directions here>.

Tidier, less events used, less variables used and works well... I always have my moving events have "through on" in case a stupid "invisible" tile stops my characters.

I checked the grammar and things with my iPhone, so I guess technology isn't all it's cracked up to be... I questioned whether the context was right, but my phone changed it every time... Was just a few things I spotted, won't know whether they are meant to be or not if I don't point them out

Generally, if you wave movement in a scene that can be blocked if you talk to him from a different place, you either have to start the scene from farther away and have the scene walk the character to the place you want them to be, you have to have conditional branches that change the walking route based on which side you talk, or you have to have multiple events that activate from each side (this is in the case of having the event only activate from one side) with the various walking routes plus a switch that turns all them off when its complete.

Or, if you're talking about an event that would normally be invisible, then I believe there's a setting for events called Through that sets whether or not other events can pass through it or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lx_theo Or, if you're talking about an event that would normally be invisible, then I believe there's a setting for events called Through that sets whether or not other events can pass through it or not.

Yeah, I know how to fix it; I just didn't realize it was there / causing an issue til someone brought it up lol

I'll fix it now and upload a "Fix" file (copy/paste into Alpha 1.1, about 5mb). That ought to work. Give me a few minutes (for now, you can just talk to Oak from the right and Joseph will move around Oak instead, thus no blocking occurs).

Thanks :3

[Edit]

There he goes! It was one square that was missing "through" lol

And the fix:

Alpha 1.1 Fix [MediaFire]

Just copy/paste into the Pokemon Returns folder.

Thanks for testing, guys. Can't find all the bugs by myself! D: kinda like how you shouldn't proof-read your own paper...

Also, I've looked over Ausable, and I think I'll redo it for Alpha 2.0. It seems a bit empty to me. I like cluttery grassy maps.

So silly how the smallest of things can cause such catastrophes!

Just a small bump.

I've redone Windigo in HGSS tiles. Does this look better than FR/LG graphics?

Also, I've done Amber Cave on Route 111 as well as Route 112 in its entirety. Working on Annapolis, but won't start until I've decided whether or not to swap to HGSS tiles.

Okay, I can help here, I recognize your style from my mapping. I see that your maps are more squeezed together with fewer buildings, and HGSS tiles are made for more for bigger maps with more houses. If you want to map in HGSS tiles, try making your maps bigger and have lots of houses or caves that are unplayable. I think that HGSS styles have a more modern look, but, if you look at HGSS maps, everything is more spread out, unlike FRLG. If you want you can continue the way you map now, it probably won't make a big difference.

Bump.

I am still working on this, but remapping the whole game (so far) in HGSS is a huge task. I didn't expect the character files to be so gigantic - literally every map in the game has to be resized by 25% (larger) because otherwise, the characters look like giants. Plus, events need to be redone, too - bigger maps = different warp points = different move patterns.

That said, Hoenn is making some very nice trainer sprites for the project. Has anyone tried out Alpha 1.1 (FRLG graphics) since the last reported bugs? That's always helpful.

Thanks!

Bump.

We finally figured out what was causing this crazy bug in my game, so remapping can recommence (on Wednesday)! Yay!

But again, it'll take a while to redo all the maps. In the meantime, be sure to report any Event-related bugs in the current 1.1 Alpha in this topic.

Thanks!