Pokemon Torzach - The Legend Begins (We're back! Again...)

[Lyzo]

Welcome to:

Welcome!​

Wow, Pokemon Torzach, this goes way back... I think it's important for you to know about our history, so here goes!​

MegaMaccer started this game 1 year and a half ago. Back then, the game was a hack. It gained a lot of attention mainly because of our attempt to revamp all graphics, from Fakemon to tiles, and everything in between! Progress was going great and we were having a great time, until summer hit. Everyone went on vacation and progress slowed down to a rate of almost zero. Eventually, about a year after Mac(MegaMaccer) started the hack, we put it to a stop.​

Around May, the hack was restarted as a game! Great progress was made in a short amount of time. But its progress soon slowed to a point where Mac had to close the project.​

Now we're back!​

And I know that this doesn't sound very impressive or trustworthy, especially with the story up above... But in all those years of progress, did we ever bring you something to play? No, we didn't, and that's what we're offering you now! We need your opinions, and therefore, we've released an Alpha(more information about it below)!​

We're very sorry for making all of you wait so long! But to keep this going, we need your support! After all, a game with no supporters is like an, umm... Well, we're not sure what it's like, but it's not good! ​

ScreenShots:
Some of these may not be up to date... but we will update as fast as possible!

Spoiler:

Credits for the tiles are at the bottom of the thread ^^​

Video's
Same as with the screenshots, they may not all be up to date...

Spoiler:

None yet... Will come some time soon! :P

Pokemon:
And no, we're not showing you all of them XD
These are some pokemon that'll be in the game... Names are given as well... But also look at our name banners and support banners for more of them!
In total we already have over 250 concepts, and quite a few sprited ^^​

Starters

Spoiler:

Squibeel:

Meltell:

​

Freezpool:

Others...

Spoiler:

Bewstripe:

Koccinip:

Blorwee:

Flowirp:

Stontle:

​

Spoiler:

ALPHA!!!
Alright, here's our alpha. Now here are a few notes: ​

- The alpha only contains, 6 maps, 1 gym, 16 trainers, you can obtain 27 Pokemon (This involves evolving as well and all are new!!!)
- The alpha still has 3rd gen overworlds, we're working towards 4th gen, but for now we want you to play with these
- The alpha contains glitches, a list of them is below
- The alpha also has story content
- The alpha has not been properly beta tested! We want you to do so, and therfore also post all the bugs you can find!
BECAUSE OF THIS, DO NOT FORGET TO SAVE OFTEN, BECAUSE THE GAME MIGHT CRASH!

Known Bugs:
- Ragflow's backsprite is wrong and its frontsprite is well... hehe...
Overworlds are still 3rd gen style
Inside tiles are still 3rd gen style
The music is still from Poccil's Essentials starterkit
The hero and heroin battle sprites aren't complete (including battle sprites)
First gym leader's battle sprite is very bad quality and isn't the same as overworld sprite
Battle sprite BOUNTY HUNTER is also bad quality.
If you skip the intro, the intro background shows each time you warp a map.
Occasional freezes when loading new music (although you can continue playing, you just have to wait a few seconds)
There are no Pokemon icons.

This might look like a lot, but, most of these are graphical, you can still play the game quite well ;)

The main reason we are releasing this Alpha is so that you can get a taste of what Torzach will be like. Please do note that a lot will change and that this Alpha is actually quite buggy and very incomplete! ​

Download: Here, another link over here! ​

Team:
Leader: MegaMaccer
Co-Leader: Lyzo
Mapper: Rexo

Help Needed!
Beause well... we can't do everything on our own now can we?

SPRITERS - If you can make overworlds, pokemon sprites, titlescreens, cutscenes, tiles, almost anything graphic related, you are wanted!
Stats Inventor - Our Pokemon need stats, we need someone creative to think up of movesets and base stats!​

Thanks To:​

Aminako, for her wonderful concepts of the Pokemon of Torzach! ​

Poccil for his amazing starterkit, without it, we wouldn't have even been able to make this!

Chizzu, Byona, Lya, Pokemon Diamond (The person, not the game), Mssingno, Freque, DU7CH13 and everyone else who has contributed with artwork. ALL art involved in this hack is for this hack only. In other words, don't steal. ​

Vannah and West, for being some of the most amazing people to work with, and being totally talented with graphics. Most of images you see on the this page are theirs. * Special note to both of you, you are still needed!​

Further Credits:
Alucus - Tiles
ZEiN - Tiles
Rata - Tiles
Xiros - Tiles
PrinceLegendario - Tiles
lalo0101 - Tiles
help-14 - PokeGear Script
If I forgot you, please PM me and I will add you to the list!
​

Everyone else, whether you comment, contribute, or just post one of our awesome banners in your signature!



Extra Note: The reason I (Lyzo) am starting the thread now is because Mac has made me Main Topic Manager :P But Mac is still the leader of this Project! ​

 

[MegaMaccer]

Hi all, I have in my hands two fresh new download links, seeing as the old one in the main post is no longer working for some odd reason. We'll get that sorted, but as I can't edit the main post, due to Lyzo being the guy who posted it, we'll have to wait till he gets back from holiday to sort that out. For now, just downlod the Alpha from here. So, we have a link here, another link over here, and be sure to let me know if either of these don't work for ya. I'll sort something out. Also, I'd like to remind you all that this is an Alpha, so there will be bugs. And probably a lot of bugs we don't even know about, so I need you all who play it to tell me what those are. Mac out~

 

[Planetes.]

Congrats on the demo, Torzach team. I can't wait to play.

 

[Lyzo]

Alright, so the new links are up on the main thread ;)

I'm on vacation in Egypt till the 24st of October. I just had my first hectic day here, and all I have to say is, Egypt is awesome! :)

Until then I hope all of you enjoy the Alpha! Also, please give us feedback, as that is always needed!

 

[Involuntary Twitch]

Oh, very neat. I love seeing fakemon projects, and this one especially looks promising, with an alpha out already. Downloading it now; I'll play it and tell you what I think.

 

[Planetes.]

The music is very good, but the mapping, to be blunt is atrocious.
I know the region is supposed to be very verdant and all, but the maps are hardly playable. :/

 

[Involuntary Twitch]

...huh, downloaded and played it up until after the first event, but I'll be honest: I kind of lost interest after that. It seems VERY half-baked, and I think it would have been much better of you to wait another month to tweak and perfect it, rather than releasing it as the bugfest it is now. But here's some pros and cons:

Pros:
-The fakemon, from what I've seen, are interesting and well-sprited (the exception is the fire starter, which has some outlining issues)
-The mapping actually seems pretty good to me, although there's a lot of wasted space. I encountered a passability error too, in the first town; I'm too lazy to post a screenshot, but it's the tree just above the empty house.
-The overworld music is good. (The battle music, on the other hand...)

Cons:
-THE PLOT. honestly did you actually sit down for like five minutes and think about this. Okay, an excuse plot in order to have a fun Pokemon game, I can understand. A poorly-written excuse plot that's played for drama even though it's nothing we haven't already seen a million times and which forces me to wade through tons of redundant dialogue in order to get to the gameplay? Please. Shouldn't be any wonder I lost interest so quickly.
-The heroine's OW (didn't play as the guy). OWs are supposed to bob up and down a pixel as they walk; it's hard to explain, but if you see it in action, you'll know what's wrong.
-The dialogue. I like all dialogue to have a point, and every space to have a reason for being there, even if it's just to look pretty. But you have people blankly spouting non sequitirs, and entire areas of the game that seem just... empty. Fill them with something meaningful.

All in all, you've got promise but it's not very fun. Get a writer and streamline your game to make it more playable, and you'll have a decent fangame on your hands. Until then, though, you're wallowing in mediocrity.

 

[Planetes.]

...huh, downloaded and played it up until after the first event, but I'll be honest: I kind of lost interest after that. It seems VERY half-baked, and I think it would have been much better of you to wait another month to tweak and perfect it, rather than releasing it as the bugfest it is now. But here's some pros and cons:

Pros:
-The fakemon, from what I've seen, are interesting and well-sprited (the exception is the fire starter, which has some outlining issues)
-The mapping actually seems pretty good to me, although there's a lot of wasted space. I encountered a passability error too, in the first town; I'm too lazy to post a screenshot, but it's the tree just above the empty house.
-The overworld music is good. (The battle music, on the other hand...)

Cons:
-THE PLOT. honestly did you actually sit down for like five minutes and think about this. Okay, an excuse plot in order to have a fun Pokemon game, I can understand. A poorly-written excuse plot that's played for drama even though it's nothing we haven't already seen a million times and which forces me to wade through tons of redundant dialogue in order to get to the gameplay? Please. Shouldn't be any wonder I lost interest so quickly.
-The heroine's OW (didn't play as the guy). OWs are supposed to bob up and down a pixel as they walk; it's hard to explain, but if you see it in action, you'll know what's wrong.
-The dialogue. I like all dialogue to have a point, and every space to have a reason for being there, even if it's just to look pretty. But you have people blankly spouting non sequitirs, and entire areas of the game that seem just... empty. Fill them with something meaningful.

All in all, you've got promise but it's not very fun. Get a writer and streamline your game to make it more playable, and you'll have a decent fangame on your hands. Until then, though, you're wallowing in mediocrity.

odd. I actually liked what they're doing with the plot, I mean its like you know what might happen, but then again you're not sure. (Yes, hard to explain) I know. The mapping wanted to make me rip my eyes out. Windbere town had wild encounters, there were random logs and the tiles don't go with the setting at all.

 

[MegaMaccer]

So, some mixed messages coming through; As far as bugs, we'll sort all that out. I'm not sure about the story, as this is only an Alpha, it's only a brief insight into the story that you're actually getting. I was going for an original approach, so I'm a little confused by Zephyr's remark. What exactly have I got in there that has been used millions of times? Did you actually read all the dialogue? I know there are a few walls of text, these aren't going to be all through the game, they are just to give some backstory. The last thing I want to do is bog players down by enormous tidal waves of boring dialogue, but I also don't want a generic plot that causes it to be just a "so-so" game. Remember, this is only an Alpha, and the reason we've posted it is to get some public critique, which you guys have been giving (And I thank you for that) I hope you understand the mixed messages though; One says mapping is good, one says bad, one says dialogue and story are good, one says bad... I know there are a lot of bugs, and we'll get those sorted as soon as Lyzo gets back from Egypt ^^ Just keep playing, keep looking, and please, feel free to let me know anything that needs fixing. Zephyr, perhaps you could PM me with some advice? Just give me some exacts that I can work on. I personally thought the story was very original :(

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Wow Torzach has a an alpha? And it's back again?
That's fantastic! I really hope that now you guys won't stop =)

 

[Lyzo]

Thank you for giving us your opinions! They are highly appreciated!

It's good that you bring up the playability of our maps. We were experimenting with different styles because we were trieing to make our maps as natural as possible. But this indeed results into bad mobility. This means that we will have to try and make our maps bigger, while still keeping them natural.
During the main events a lot of dialogue comes along. This may be very irritating as you have pointed out. This is maybe why you don't like that story, Zephyr? I think we should cut down on dialogue but still keep the story, please tell us what you think ;)
There is also another issue that you have pointed out Zephyr, which is that the maps are quite empty. This is true, we tried to fill them up with random people, but the problem with putting too much of these people in the maps is that you'll quickly run out of things for these people to say and do (it was already hard to fill the houses :P). But we are looking for solutions, thinking about Pokemon Overworlds in the maps, ect. But, if you have any ideas, please tell us :)

AceDragonite, I have one small question. What do you mean with: "The tiles don't fit with the setting?" Do you not like the tiles, or do the tiles not fit together?

Anyway, I'm glad you all enjoy the fakemon, as that is one of our main features of the game :) I'm also glad you like the music, all though this will go through a major change :P
These opinions are highly valued as the game greatly benefits from them! As you can see, with just two people posting their opinions, we already know about many more things that should change! So please, if you could please tell us what you think, that would be great! It doesn't matter how harsh it is, we will always benefit from your opinion!

Again thank you for posting! And I hope you can still enjoy the Alpha!

Oh, and thanks for reminding me. We do need extra people on the team, so Mac and I will come up with a list of jobs that are required and put them up on the main post. So if you're interested in being part of the team, please look at this list when it's up!

 

[Planetes.]

Thank you for giving us your opinions! They are highly appreciated!

It's good that you bring up the playability of our maps. We were experimenting with different styles because we were trieing to make our maps as natural as possible. But this indeed results into bad mobility. This means that we will have to try and make our maps bigger, while still keeping them natural.
During the main events a lot of dialogue comes along. This may be very irritating as you have pointed out. This is maybe why you don't like that story, Zephyr? I think we should cut down on dialogue but still keep the story, please tell us what you think ;)
There is also another issue that you have pointed out Zephyr, which is that the maps are quite empty. This is true, we tried to fill them up with random people, but the problem with putting too much of these people in the maps is that you'll quickly run out of things for these people to say and do (it was already hard to fill the houses :P). But we are looking for solutions, thinking about Pokemon Overworlds in the maps, ect. But, if you have any ideas, please tell us :)

AceDragonite, I have one small question. What do you mean with: "The tiles don't fit with the setting?" Do you not like the tiles, or do the tiles not fit together?

Anyway, I'm glad you all enjoy the fakemon, as that is one of our main features of the game :) I'm also glad you like the music, all though this will go through a major change :P
These opinions are highly valued as the game greatly benefits from them! As you can see, with just two people posting their opinions, we already know about many more things that should change! So please, if you could please tell us what you think, that would be great! It doesn't matter how harsh it is, we will always benefit from your opinion!

Again thank you for posting! And I hope you can still enjoy the Alpha!

Oh, and thanks for reminding me. We do need extra people on the team, so Mac and I will come up with a list of jobs that are required and put them up on the main post. So if you're interested in being part of the team, please look at this list when it's up!

the houses just look a bit too modern for the forest-like exterior.
great game btw but when does Meltell learn ember?

 

[Deleted member 143209]

Upon playing Torzach, I noticed many things. The severe clashing of style is what put me off completely. Your OW sprites are based on FRLG/RSE, yet, your tiles are verging onto 4th generation ones. I say verging, because you have tiles which would fit in 3rd generation, such as your lampposts, you need to be more consistent, the constant style clashing is causing me to dislike this game right away. Either go with 3rd generation tiles and sprites (the only place these are consistent is indoors) or go with 4th generation, which is recommended if you're going into Game Development, you may as well take the advantages.

I read that you're experimenting styles of mapping, but if you want to look official, and have your game look good and have nice playability, there is only one style of mapping in which you should use as a foundation, and that is Gamefreak's style. If you're worried about making your maps look natural, just have more of a variety of tiles to add more depth whilst making space. The fakemon look pretty nice, but they're way outdated, I remember seeing the exact same ones when this was released as a hack.

My solution to your dialogue problem is to merely have a cut scene, showing your storyline, rather than just saying it. So make events, with a text box on the bottom explaining what you're seeing, so as to make sure that the player does not get bored.

All in all, the game needs some serious refinement, it's very rough around the edges right now, but a little more time and effort, a bit of practice and taking some pages out of Gamefreak's books, will give you a push towards what could be a fun game.

 

[Cilerba]

I just downloaded the demo and I'm writing this as I play along. First of all, you didn't even change the game's title from "Pokemon Essentials" to the title of your game, and the intro logo was all stretched and blurred. The intro movie scene looked like it was a poor slideshow. Then, after the movie scene, the title screen appeared, and it wasn't even edited! You just left it as the default starterkit title screen. So far I'm not impressed at all.

Then, when I went to the loading screen, there was still a save file in the folder. So, somebody can easily just play from the save file. I started a new game, and I noticed that the message box was a bit higher than usual. I have no idea why this is like this because the resolution is the default 480x320, so the message box shouldn't be this high. And as I'm going through the intro, it doesn't seem like you edited any of it. It's basically the default intro that came with the starter kit. I finished the intro, and I got transfered to the player's house, and while the Hero's OW was moving, I noticed that the overworld's head doesn't move up and down like it's supposed to. It really looks like the overworld is just floating and moving it's legs. The eventing doesn't seem that great, as well. The way the characters speak doesn't really seem "normal." The mapping really impressed me. All of the maps, ignoring the palettes for some of the tiles, look pretty good. What bugged me was that the maps weren't all that playable.

I just got to the event where that Pokémon disappears. The disappearing was a nice touch, if it didn't take so long. You should make it wait 1 or 2 frames. That'd work better, in my opinion.
I just got into the first battle of the game. The trainer sprite was horribly resized. Remember, they can be larger than 128x128px (the default size for trainer sprites), so you can have the full trainer sprite there with it looking normal, just don't resize the box too much. Bewstripe's stripes and eyes, basically every spot that's white, is transparent. What you can do is recolor the background of the image, I use green, and use that as your transparent color when importing it to RMXP.
After getting a chance to save, I noticed that you don't have icons for most of the fakemon. When releasing a demo, these are the little things you want to make sure that you have completed.

So, I was walking through Windbere Town, and I walked into the Pokémon Center and the game displayed the map's name. You never want to have an indoor map display the name. In the Editor, edit the metadata so "Show Map" is set to false. I just lost in a trainer battle. I had no potions at all to revive my Pokémon, and the "Pokémon Center" that I scurried back to, was actually just my house. There's a section on the notes on how to set where you go to when your party faints, so that should help you there.

Well, that's really all that I have to say. If you need any help at all, with your game, then just send me a PM and I'd be more than glad to help you.

 

[MegaMaccer]

Hi all, many thanks for the reviews, especially Cilerba and Abnegation. I think what we can gather (in a nutshell) is that we should have released a much (much) more polished product? I love the idea of a cutscene, I'll definitely be using that. I actually have a bit of a confession to make; I'm extremely new to game making. Hacking, I know. RMXP, not so much. The reason I switched over is so that we could stretch the limits a bit more, make it more interesting. I'll be taking in everything you guys are saying, I'll be working on all the issues, and trying to solve all the problems asap. Cilbera, I may take you up on your offer for some help at some stage. I really want Torzach to be a good game, obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have started it, but I can see that perhaps we should have waited and slogged through zapping the bugs before we made an actual release. On the other hand, getting comments from you guys really makes an impact and makes it a heck of a lot easier to get things achieved. But, there are some people I need to make things go smoother, some things that I can't do, and things the rest of my crew can't. Number one is Spriting. I need some spriters, and I need them urgently. Most of the Torzachians don't have icons, tiles need redoing, overworlds need redoing, text boxes, just about everything. If you can sprite, I'd love to have you. Just let me know either via the thread, PM, or VM. As a matter of fact, we have positions open for just about everything to do with game making, so let me know if you're able to help. I'd love to have you. Again, thanks all for the comments, keep'em coming, and we'll get on to the problems just as soon as Lyzo gets back from Egypt.

 

[ProdigyX]

i suggest before you release a demo you get 1 or 2 guys to beta test the game over and over again, and pin point all the bugs. Though i like the work and effort you guys have done so far, keep up the great work and effort and i will be looking forward to see the future of this game!

 

[MidnightShadowKitty]

I cant wait for the completed game me and my friend had been hoping for an alpha relese

 

[HOT MESS]

Can someone post a screencap of the starters' evolutions?
I'm dying to see them but I can't download this right now! :(

 

[MegaMaccer]

i suggest before you release a demo you get 1 or 2 guys to beta test the game over and over again, and pin point all the bugs. Though i like the work and effort you guys have done so far, keep up the great work and effort and i will be looking forward to see the future of this game!

That's definitely something we will be doing for the Beta. This is an Alpha; a pretest of the demo, basically. The Beta will be much improved ;)

I cant wait for the completed game me and my friend had been hoping for an alpha relese

Thanks for your support. Have you tried the demo?

Can someone post a screencap of the starters' evolutions?
I'm dying to see them but I can't download this right now! :(

NOOOOOO!!!! No one can post screencaps of the evos. I'm afraid it's just too big a spoiler. You'll just have to wait until you can download it and play it through, my friend ;)

========================================================
Ok, so, I'm sure you all want to know what progress is being made. Well, not much can be till we get some spriters, but we will be working on maps and scripts. I believe I have access to three full Fakedexes, but thats unconfirmed as of yet. You'll hear more on that later ;) I'll be back on the thread soon with more info on everything, although I may be out of touch a bit next week, as I'll be on the road, and may not have internet access where I'll bee sleeping. But I'll check for questions and comments and reply to them as often as I can.

 

[Lyzo]

Sorry for not posting for so long. I was on a boat for a few days, no internet there... Although I tried posting something on my dad's Kindle, but that was too slow :P

Anyway, I again want to thank you for the reviews that have been given :)

I also want to apologize for the quality of the Alpha we released. We know a lot of it is not complete. But we thought that after a year and a half of waiting you deserved at least something to play. We're very sorry if this dissapointed you. But, we didn't do it for nothing! We gained a lot of knowledge thanks to those reviews that have been coming in! Believe me, our next Alpha/Beta (whatever comes out next) will be tested a lot more and will be much more complete. But for that to work out we need extra people to come help out, so, if you want, please do ask us!

Cilerba, I want to thank you for pointing out those basic things that should have been done in this Alpha (icons, show town, intro, Pokemon Essentials, ect.). I hope you don't mind if I come to you with occasional questions about certain things, seeing as Poccil's notes aren't working at the moment, and you seem to know a lot :P

Abnegation, thank you for ideas on mapping and the cutscene. I still haven't spoken to our mapper, and I'm not sure if he's read the thread either, but he's going to need to change his style to make our maps more playable. But I still think we're going to aim for naturalness. Gamefreaks maps our all very square, and if you don't mind me saying, often are also kind of boring. So I guess we're going to have to find a nice balance between Gamefreak's style and our own style. We'll see how that works out :P

Just a note about the graphics, we will completley switch over to 4th gen graphics. Overworlds, tiles, ect. The problem is that certain things have to be sprited, and at the moment, we don't have any spriters!

Personal note about Egypt :P I'll be back in about 22 hours... I'm in a hotel now, and we'll fly off to Holland at around 4:00 in the Morning -_-

Again, I want to thank all of you who have posted and especially those who have provided us with useful tips and information!