Emerald hack: Maxie's Island [v1.4] - A Pokemon Escape Room

[wiz1989]

After a fateful encounter on sea you find yourself stranded on a remote island.
Can you manage to free yourself from that place and return back home?

It's all up to you, your skill and determination!
There's no mercy for the unskilled and uninspired!


Updated to version 1.4 - see download link in this post

Hey guys, after Pokescape and National History Museum I am proud to complete my Escape Room trilogy with Maxie's Island!

This hack was created as my submission for a Rom hacking competition which means I spent an unusual amount of time in polishing and overall style and design this time. If you are playing all three hacks in a row you can easily tell the order these were created.


Story:

This time the player finds themself on a tropical island that they need to escape from eventually.
The area consists of multiple areas to give a deeper experience of the place:

• Open Sea
• Island
• Cave
• Underwater

Like with my other Escape Room hacks the task is to solve different trainer battles complemented by overworld puzzles, some being kind of obvious and some pretty hidden and tricky.
The whole game is built in a way that it can be completed without any save game resets. So once again it features a Game Master NPC that will give required hints and an item finding NPC in case you lost crucial items to progress.


NO SPOILERS PLEASE!

Since this is an escape game it means that you can only play it once and spoilers would destroy the fun.
So in case you are replying to this thread please use SPOILER-tags for talking about actual game details.


Download:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ua3j...ey=xw4lkh2v7zg0rgh9p4ic3ii4z&st=p2fly2dn&dl=1

Important remark: It is recommended to use mGBA emulator for playing the game. Other emulators could result in unexpected issues like screen freezes. Also make sure to run the newest version of mGBA to avoid errors.
For mobile users: You can use the mGBA core of RetroArch (from my personal experience, other emus like Pizzaboy or Lemuroid also offer a flawless user experience).


How to play?

• Using save states is not required.
• Ingame time will determine your final result. This is important because getting hints will be "paid" with ingame time.
• It's advised to NOT use fast-forward, You can quickly miss hints or mess up a puzzle.
• Even using instant text (which I made an option) can make you miss important text.
• Play with Sound ON.
• Estimated Gameplay time is around 2 - 4 hours (real time), depending on how quickly you manage to solve the puzzles. This is just a rough assumption though, I don't really now by now.
• This hack is HARD! Like expert level Pokémon knowledge. That's why you can buy hints ingame.
• Have fun!

Pictures:





Streams & Videos:
Here's a collection of streamers that have already played the game on stream in chronological order.

DISCLAIMER: Don't watch them if you want to play it yourself.

Spoiler:

Whacko - Release Race Event with Smallant, FlygonHG, Drxx & Hasty

360Chrism - Video cut (early Beta version)

Credits:

Spoiler:

Everyone involved is also mentioned in the game credits. See below.

Based on the Pokeemerald Decomp by:

• pret
• RH Hideout

Custom Art and Tiles

• Kalarie (Orange Islands Tileset)
• Ekat (Underwater shell and plant)
• Chairry (Battle bgs)
• kWharever (Battle bgs)
• Zeo254 (Battle bgs)
• WesleyFG (Battle bgs)

Additional Resources

• purrfectdoodle (Birds weather)
• Kasen (Fisherman with Rod)
• ghoulslash (Rock Climb, NPC on sight scripts)
• lucas7562 (DynPals)

Beta Testers

• Celia Dawn
• Bric13
• Emcee Mikey

Tools used

• Porymap
• Poryscript
• GraphicsGale
• Tilemap Studio

Special Thanks

• Archie
• The Team Aqua's Hideout Crew
• purrfectdoodle
• Celia Dawn

Version history:

Spoiler:

version 1.3:
- first official release

version 1.4 fixes:
- fixed bug where the second cave chamber could be skipped
- fixed a potential Porygon move soft lock -> doesn't learn any new moves at all
- Braille tiles getting automatically removed if that part is already solved when finding the area
- fixed NPC positioning lock for convenience
- fixed potential soft lock for fishing in the pond
- fixed game freezing edge case bug when trying to catch uncatchable mons

 

[wiz1989]

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT



The public release of this hack will be happening on Thursday, 26th September 2024.

It aligns with an Escape Room Race event on the same day at 4pm EST that will be hosted by Whacko and features SmallAnt, FlygonHG, Drxx and Hasty.

Everyone will be streaming on their own channel, but we will have a main commentary one with Whacko that I will join as well. Probably jumping from call to call to get some direct voices from the players.
Come and join us for a fun and entertaining event!

ngl, I am super excited!

 

[riddley]

This looks amazing! I can't wait to try it out.

I notice you credited midjourney - what was your workflow for using this in the rom hack?

 

[wiz1989]

This looks amazing! I can't wait to try it out.

I notice you credited midjourney - what was your workflow for using this in the rom hack?

Thank you so much! :)

I used Midjourney to get picture templates for the Title Screen and then reworked them manually and stitched everything together.
I'm not an artist by any means so I am grateful this was an option. :)

 

[wiz1989]

Whacko just released the YouTube cut for the race event.
It's linked in the main post.
Check it out if you're curious. 🔥

 

[wiz1989]

Just updated to version 1.4
The download link is replaced.
See version history for details.

 

[Liehon]

Thanks for making another engaging Pokémon escape room! Final time was just under four hours (took hints a few times).


Loved several of the first battles as they required niche knowledge. Not the greatest fan of having

Spoiler:

one of the currents lead to a secret area, it's not very visually distinctive and (personal opinion) feels too closely equivalent to having the pokéball just be a hidden item on the main beach requiring the player to blindly test each space, it's just not a nice use of time to expect players to check all tiles of such a large area to see if there's a hidden path

Feel like it would've been more interesting to obtain that item in a different way (maybe

Spoiler:

headbutt a coconut tree and have the fisherman McGuyver an apricorn ball out of it?Or maybe give the Sableye Thief and have the fisherman say that he's thrown tons of pokéball at the sharpedo? Currently the Sharpedo don't really do anything and given Sableye's Prankster it could steal an item off them before getting OHKO'd)

Like last time the final battle broke me. There's just something about me and the last battles in these things, I guess :D

Looking forward to the next escape room (if you need a sounding board for future settings/stories I'd be happy to lend an ear :) )



Errata:
* In v1.3 I noticed the opening saying "You where surfing calm water" which should be "You were" without the h
* There's some battle background (e.g. the forest one) that don't tile nicely. To fix that you could either use wider backgrounds or have the left side adjusted so it seamlessly matches the right side of the image (for that nice looping effect).

 

[wiz1989]

Thanks for the great feedback as always! :)
Much appreciated!

I am pretty much aware of everything you mentioned.
The where was fixed after v1.4 was out. So hopefully will be in a v1.5
The battle backgrounds…let's see if I find the motivation to do so 😅

For the secret area…there's a lot of different feedback, but overall people seem to like it. Even though I think that critique is very valid.

Thanks for playing! :)

 

[AtomicalSloths]

I've become stuck and the game master will not give me a hint. He just tells me to beat more NPC or look for items, which I'm pretty sure I have all of. I believe that I've softlocked, but would like confirmation that I have. I'm going to describe the situation I am in, so be warned about possible spoilers.

Spoiler: My Situation

So I have become stuck on Castaway Wilson. My party is currently Mantyke lv 10, Cubone lv5, and Farfetch'd lv15. I have an old rod, life orb, ability capsule, poke ball, and Gyaradosite and have competed the Rhyhorn puzzle. I cannot catch a second farfetch'd, remoraids don't spawn anymore so I cannot catch one of those either, and Sharpido is uncatchable. I feel like if I had a fourth pokemon I could progress, but I have no idea where a fourth one is. If I grinded mantyke to lv17, I believe I could get out of the situation with wide guard, however I don't feel like it's the proper solution and is more of a cheese solution (plus the game even says that grinding for levels is not needed). I feel like I was suppose to catch a Remoraid at the start, but I didn't find the pokeball on the east side of the map until the section with the cave, however, the fact that the remoraids stop spawning makes me feel like maybe I wasn't suppose to?

Anyways, the battle against Castaway Wilson seems impossible. There is nothing I can do to get Mantyke to get an attack off, and Mantyke is the only pokemon that has a move that can hit through Wonder Guard. I've tried using the ability capsule on Mantyke as it's the only pokemon that has a useful second ability, but this doesn't do enough for me.

 

[wiz1989]

I've become stuck and the game master will not give me a hint. He just tells me to beat more NPC or look for items, which I'm pretty sure I have all of. I believe that I've softlocked, but would like confirmation that I have. I'm going to describe the situation I am in, so be warned about possible spoilers.

Spoiler: My Situation

So I have become stuck on Castaway Wilson. My party is currently Mantyke lv 10, Cubone lv5, and Farfetch'd lv15. I have an old rod, life orb, ability capsule, poke ball, and Gyaradosite and have competed the Rhyhorn puzzle. I cannot catch a second farfetch'd, remoraids don't spawn anymore so I cannot catch one of those either, and Sharpido is uncatchable. I feel like if I had a fourth pokemon I could progress, but I have no idea where a fourth one is. If I grinded mantyke to lv17, I believe I could get out of the situation with wide guard, however I don't feel like it's the proper solution and is more of a cheese solution (plus the game even says that grinding for levels is not needed). I feel like I was suppose to catch a Remoraid at the start, but I didn't find the pokeball on the east side of the map until the section with the cave, however, the fact that the remoraids stop spawning makes me feel like maybe I wasn't suppose to?

Anyways, the battle against Castaway Wilson seems impossible. There is nothing I can do to get Mantyke to get an attack off, and Mantyke is the only pokemon that has a move that can hit through Wonder Guard. I've tried using the ability capsule on Mantyke as it's the only pokemon that has a useful second ability, but this doesn't do enough for me.

You are in fact soft locked. 😓

Spoiler:

How did you manage to proceed without a Remoraid? Just grinding your way past Seismitoad? Because yeah, you need a Remo to trade it with the fisher man.

I removed the fishing encounters on purpose because some people just grinded their way through the whole game.

This is gonna be an interesting situation to solve on my end. Gotta think about how to fix this game state in a future release.

Thanks for reporting!

 

[AtomicalSloths]

You are in fact soft locked. 😓

Spoiler:

How did you manage to proceed without a Remoraid? Just grinding your way past Seismitoad? Because yeah, you need a Remo to trade it with the fisher man.

I removed the fishing encounters on purpose because some people just grinded their way through the whole game.

This is gonna be an interesting situation to solve on my end. Gotta think about how to fix this game state in a future release.

Thanks for reporting!

Spoiler:

Sableye learns fake out at level 12. With Sableyes faster leveling, it only takes 2-3 battles against Remoraids to reach this, which really isn't that much of a grind. I lead with Sableye and used fake out, swapped to Mantyke where Seismitoad would usually use earthquake, switching back to Sableye where Seismitaod would use poison jab which is resisted. Once Sableye was low enough were he would die on the next switch, I would sack Mantyke and then use fake out into shadow sneak on the next turn with Sableye. I think I had Sableye level 13-14 when I beat the encounter to just make it go a bit faster (I don't think it really helped), but with how fast Sableye was leveling up I figured it was just to make the battle go a bit faster.

Not sure how you would solve this on your end, maybe an NPC somewhere on the upper area that would trade the Mantyke for something else?