Completed Pokémon Battle Spotlight [English & Spanish!]

Armin · Aug 11, 2021

Hi! I tried to confirm my team for the match by clicking on the "confirm" button, but this error pops up. I wonder if this is supposed to happen?

In addition, trying to confirm the team by pressing the enter button on the keyboard wasn't possible for me, as I kept selecting the Pokémon instead. Is this supposed to be a bug, or am I simply pressing the wrong thing? ~~Please forgive me for sounding like a noob, it's my first time using PSDK controls~~

HollowGap · Aug 11, 2021

Armin said:
Hi! I tried to confirm my team for the match by clicking on the "confirm" button, but this error pops up. I wonder if this is supposed to happen?

This is a bug. We'll figure something out about the mouse clicking. Thanks for letting us know!

By default (if you don't change the key inputs), you can press the "V" button to confirm your team selection. Apparently "Enter" button also corresponds to "A" button in PSDK, which makes you select a Pokemon.

EDIT: This issue has been fixed! Clicking will do just fine.

King_Waluigi · Aug 11, 2021

Heya! I found a few... strange bugs. Basically, the Carefree dude's Durant can constantly use First Impression, which it shouldn't be able to do. Next is, in the same battle, I put Leech Seeds on the Durant, which works fine, but Durant's second First Impression (lol) knocked my Roserade out. The strange part is... I didn't really faint! The Leech Seeds kinda recovered my HP, but not the sprites lol!

Pokémon Battle Spotlight 8_11_2021 3_19_14 PM.png

Pokémon Battle Spotlight 8_11_2021 3_19_28 PM.png

Pokémon Battle Spotlight 8_11_2021 3_19_31 PM.png

King_Waluigi · Aug 11, 2021

An amazing game! Great job! Even tho you aren't seeking to get a spotlight... I expect you may! You'll be getting my vote at least!

Pros:

Amazing dialogue!
Excellent story!
Beautiful custom art!
I love the game team variety! (reminds me of my winter game jam game, Pokemon Championship!)
The choices in the game matter! (kinda like a simplified UNDERTALE)
Love the use of PSDK!

Cons:

There were a few bugs, such as the First Impression and Leech Seed bugs which I mentioned in my previous comment.
Music didn't play in the waiting area before battles, which I thought was a little meh.

Overall, beautiful game! GG!

Aurora · Aug 12, 2021

Hey, I just finished your game. I enjoyed the process but I won the tournament and nothing happened. The last moments were for the other competitors but not a prize or a last scene with the other competitors or alone. Something. It gives you the feeling that you did it for nothing. Except the end, i liked it.

ranko · Aug 12, 2021

Just woke up to the thread (due to crunching lmao), and late. Being a fan of both competitive gameplay and story, I loved working on this cute little game with Hollow and Tablet.

Considering the initial concept of this game, a regular old battle simulator where we literally just test battles on the new engine and that's it, I'm pleasantly surprised on how the game was able to be wrapped up into something with a little bit more substance.

It's going to have some nagging issues due to being on a new engine (the first PSDK.25 game) and the time crunch, but I definitely think it went beyond our expectations and I'm excited to see how the systems in the game can be expanded. Feel free to send feedback to me as well.

We hope you enjoy it! ♡

NocTurn · Aug 12, 2021

Hello! Finished my playthrough, I'll say outright first- I was really impressed. Going in I expected this to be a short battle sim with very little substance but I was always surprised during every turn at just how clever this game was. Here are my pros and cons:

Pros:

Really intense battles that always kept me on the edge of my seat! I felt very challenged by every trainer (even the bug one!) and it cost me a couple of losses. I had to reset a few times to get a perfect score.
I imagine the story changes based on what you say to certain people before their matches, like with the brother and sister duo, and that's always nice to see.
I thought the story was so charming, and also somewhat emotionally challenging at some points. It was clever without being too complicated, which I can always appreciate. And the dialogue wasn't that bad either! No scene went on for longer than it should have.
There are so many clever interactions between characters! The TV host and Aegislash, the Xatu being a phony fortune teller (really funny and also, again, clever btw), etc. I can tell thought was put into how the whole ensemble worked together.
Mapping, although there wasn't much of it, was very nice to look at.
I can tell there's a lot of replay potential here with the alternate options as well as just customizing your team, trying out new things, etc.
UI, a default PSDK thing for sure but clean and worked very nicely here.
PSDK in general! I like playing with newer building blocks, and PSDK is very clean and neat. I'll have to give it a try some time!

Cons:

Animations. I know this is a default PSDK issue but I had to mention it, especially with the stat up/down animations being color coded by type and not by raising/lowering. It made it confusing with how much was going on at points. As well, many animations didn't have an accurately flipped Opp animation.
The epilogue was too short! I would have loved to actually have that final battle with the wheelchair chick, and I think everything wrapped up a bit TOO cleanly, you know?
A few move glitches that were, again, a result of PSDK. Things like Sky attack and Toxic Spikes.

The cons list was short here, and mainly had to do with things relating to PSDK itself. I really think all the devs here should be super proud of what the game shaped up to be, and I can't wait to see what they work on next. I've already reported all the bugs to the developers themselves so I won't repeat them here.

Armin · Aug 12, 2021

Hi! I played your game and had an enjoyable time, so I thought I'd share my experiences!

The characters are very endearing (even that damned Xatu, in a certain way!) and the custom trainers are really gorgeous and well-drawn (both their artwork and overworlds!). But the battles are the highlight of the game for me, to be expected for a battle sim, I guess!

The Battles

My team, should anyone need it for reference purposes

The Pokémon selection is pretty great. They're not Pokémon one would tend to use, I'd think, so it's nice that players get a chance to play with them here, and each seems viable in its own right (from the looks of it at least, since I didn't really get to use them all). Eventually, I thought I'd mess around with Toxic Spikes + Hex/Venoshock, but the relatively high number of Steel-types/airborne Pokémon kind of puts a dent to those plans. ~~Because of course the devs would've thought about something like this and crafted the opponents' teams accordingly... well played.~~ Nevertheless, I'm glad that Garbodor's innate tankiness as well as Mismagius's moveset of Hex/Psybeam/Mystical Fire/Power Gem managed to carry me through the whole tournament!

One thing I really like is how the opponent teams make the most out of the "no held item" clause - most notably, Acrobatics and status conditions that cannot be easily cured with a Berry (the latter applies to the player too!). Essentially, it's a game with a lot of thought put into making its battles challenging (and yet not impossible), an effort which I really appreciate.

PSDK Issues On My End
It's my first time playing a PSDK game so I'm not sure if those are PSDK issues or issues stemming from my computer, but I'll list them down anyway.

Unable to set-up Toxic Spikes against Steel-types.
Poison-types do not absorb Toxic Spikes.
Keyboard controls can be rather unresponsive, especially when using the PC. Had to wait for a few seconds/press the key again for it to actually register.
Framerates of the animated battler sprites slow down during move selection/text display, before speeding up again all of a sudden when the Pokémon use their moves. I don't know if it's intentional, but it feels rather jerky.
That said when the animations are smooth, they're buttery smooth. And the text in dialogue boxes flow so beautifully as well.

To the dev team, thank you so much for making this game and the 45 minutes of fun (probably spent too much time on team selection)!

lichen · Aug 12, 2021

VERY good! Love the story and teeny character arcs. The Indri storyline broke my heart a little. Overall short, and PSDK has a couple quirks with the battle system (synchronize managed to burn my chandelure lol), but great overall!

KennyCatches · Aug 15, 2021

Hey! I just finished my playthrough (twice). I really enjoyed this battle sim game!

Thoughts:
-Even though this was a battling-focused game, the characters were the best part IMO. It added so much more substance to the game! The character portraits are perfect, and I love the different personalities and team comps.
-The battles were challenging, but it was just right. I lost many times (because I'm bad at battling and team building), but it made me think more about my strategy. I actually played this game twice because I lost most of my battles the first time, and I wanted to see how my choices affected the story. However, I was a little disappointed that the ending didn't change when I won though!
-I absolutely love PSDK, the animations and graphics are clean asf, it feels reaallly good to play!

-Passability:

-Also, I think Sucker Punch isn't working as intended. The enemy Blaziken used Bulk Up, but Sucker Punch still went through.

Overall, I really enjoyed both the gameplay and story elements of the game. Great work Hollow + Ranko + TabletPillow!!

Sailorxraven · Aug 16, 2021

It was a rather fun battling game. Admittedly I'm not always the biggest fan of just a bunch of pokemon battles. But this made them actually fun. The characters were fun as well!

HollowGap · Aug 25, 2021

New update is out!

There has been complaints about the game being too easy. So we changed some teams to be slightly more challenging.

We can't really make big changes until the judging period is over. Stuff like multiple endings, multiple opponent teams, randomizer mode, those have to wait until another month or two.

Thank you for everyone's feedback! The bug reports have been useful as well. If anyone wants to make a feature request (i.e, have certain Pokemon included for the game), we'll consider them to be added into the game.

Hopefully the FMod bug has been squashed at last...

Let us know if the music suddenly stops playing again.

mustafa505 · Aug 27, 2021

Gotta say I really enjoyed playing this, at first I made a big mistake of only choosing 4 Pokemon at the start which gave me a tough time but being able to change moves really helped me get through it nicely.
Pokemon leading their own team or on behalf of their trainer is a really good concept and worked really well in the game and Xatu was really interesting in her concocted predictions. Loved seeing the rotating Pokemon return, all the characters were really unique, amazing work with the portraits too, nice to see some decision one could make however I didn't want to go off-course from the original quest the player has and went for the full victory, though it took me a few resets.
The difficulty wasn't easy or hard, not until the battle with the brother which Banette's Phantom Force really carried me out of.
I encountered a single glitch - when talking with the first opponent after the match made the bgm stopped suddenly.
The only graphical problem I could see was how some backsprites didn't fit in their position, like in the case of Sudowoodo looked he was off position and nearer to the center Pokeball circle

Sk8erBoizzz · Sep 2, 2021

Great game! I enjoyed it so much!!!

I ran into 2 bugs,
1. Honchcrow has flash fire, maybe still not changed from Chandelure
2. I fought Mr. Mime with Honchcrow, I got it down to half, it kept hitting me with a fire type move, then every attack did close to 1 damage, took me maybe 30 attacks to take down Mr. Mime from half (I used Aerial Ace, Night Slash, Sucker Punch and Feint Attack, all got the same problem)

Link to video here if you want to check it out:

Haunted Ditto · Sep 3, 2021

This game was a great experience!
It was short, but you managed to gave the NPCs alot of personality. I also quite enjoyed the selection of Pokemon. No big competitive beasts, but still very strong if used well.

Went for the full win streak instead of being "nice" towards Team Rust and the girl with Hawlucha so I'm going to check out how much this will influence the story.

All in all a great game!

HollowGap · Sep 25, 2021

Version 1.4 is out!

PSDK is updated to 25.5, so the game is updated as well. Some bugfixes here and there. Nothing major yet because the jam judging session isn't over yet, though.

AenaonDogsky · Sep 29, 2021

A charmingly presented tournament game with a focus on participants' motivations and the meaning of victory.

Thoughts:

- The cancelling-out-of-menu situation, when you first start the game, was a gameplay-tied warmup to PSDKs controls, or simply an unconventional way to start? either way I liked it

- standard NPC dialogue is of good quality

- the maps are well made, though first interior is a tad on the big side

- surprised that there is dialogue for leaving at the very beginning. But shouldnt the player take a step back, as is usually the case with the franchise's games, after the flavor text has been shown?

- if the player does not access their PC at the start, are they forced to go solo sudowoodo for the next match? WARNING, MAJOR BUG BELOW

- tile choice is good

- portraits are always a nice touch! Editing official art, but also drawing og art in a way that looks natural throughout, deserves praise.

- I understand the jam constraints and the necessity of exposition as a result, but I wish we could have gotten a cutscene showing the main character taking care of the abandoned mons. It would have established a connection and a stronger motivation in a way that couldnt have been delivered with the exposition alone

- what is the reason for giving the player those stones at the beginning? to reduce the number of strong mons that could potentially evolve? Also should your coworker's dialogue change if you've won but haven't used them?

- mercedes saying "whoever made it this far must be a skilled opponent" right after "you must be my first opponent" doesn't make too much sense... considering it's your first match too

- one of macgargo attacks (I think it was bulldoze) has got some bright flashing lights, might cause harm to some people. Same goes for zap cannon, could be other attacks too

- lol at Xatu

- player being able to ignore xatu is normal, right? (interacting not required to participate next round)

- all the characters are interesting, and are presented in a charming manner, with unique personalities and motivations

- does mathew have different dialogue if you say "I'm throwing the match" and yet you dont?

- "a girl who can walk with a bird who can't fly" It got me right in the feels

- pokemon choices are well balanced, both for you and your opponents

- is there an actual way to report Xatu? lol, that'd have been hilarious

Bugs:

MAJOR, SEE 1 and 1e:

1. You can access the spectator's area if you enter from the right hand entrance. This alone does not introduce a game-breaking bug, but NOT having accessed your PC beforehand does. Please see below.

1a There is a visual glitch cutting off the upper half of the spectators heads if the player simply walks towards the spectator's entrance, here's a screenshot.

Could be because you haven't actually sprited/tiled that part or have used real NPCs with priority tiles above their heads, or simply never intended for the player to get there in the first place

1b Should you really start battling once you've entered from the spectators entrance?

1c transfer to spectator side also spawns you facing up

1d Xatu asks whether your advice is trustworthy without having ever talked to it before if the glitch above has been exploited

1e game crashes when you're asked to select your team, because there's only sudowoodo to choose from...

Minor:

- most rooms seem to have been mapped without enough space on their upper parts. When the player walks towards the uppermost sides of any room, the camera can't follow.

- Some of the walking npcs can block the entrance to the spectator's side, usually by standing inbetween the plants. (right one in lobby).

- "win incorrectly appears two times when your coworker mentions "if we win" during her in-front-of-PC dialogue

- PC shutting off SE plays twice

- Indri "still we wouldnt able to join this tournament", missing "be". (after 1st battle)

- aegislash's trainer sprite's crop outline hasn't been properly cut, same goes for Xatu's

- Im not sure, but I think my macgargo's hp never went down when it hit itself in confusion

- the audio issue you're already aware of (seems to be tied to the menu)

- "had you won that last round, my sister would lose her chance" should be "would have lost"

- move selection shows up before your mon has been sent out (probs a PSDK thing)

- absol tried to paralyze me, when my mon was already paralyzed, two times in a row (perhaps not really a bug)

- "if you win you don't have to pay for that stones I gave you" should be "those" or "the"

- I do believe knock off does item-holding damage when the opponents have none, unless there's no message indicating they've lost their item

Thematic Feedback:

- The reasons behind the participants' motivations are obviously the main focus. I think it's been executed well, but that it hasn't been fully developed. Understandably, this is a time-constraint issue. But a fully fledged presentation of the characters, their motivations, and their interactions would have given the game that additional oomph. It doesn't feel as fleshed out in the progression and pacing sense, not so much in the story or writing sense, since the dialogue makes up for the aforementioned. Could have been even richer if the fates of the participants were interwoven in some way.

The theme of victory and loss, was what needed attention and development the most. As it currently stands, and partly because of the exposition at the start, there wasn't as strong a connection to our own motivations as players. Granted, I could still feel that purpose calling me, despite not feeling the pressure. But as far as the other participants' motivations are concerned, I never felt conflicted, aside from the whole deal with Indri. While not every participant has to have some backstory filled with serious motivations, and while the setting itself doesn't lend to any easy-to-implement cutscenes or backstory dialogue in a more dynamic manner, since you only get to talk to people during breaks (so that part is understandable) I still felt like the presentation didn't assist in visually and acoustically accompanying the little moments of victory and loss, backstory dialogue and/or event movement. One way to tackle this would be to include more cutscenes with event animation, more or better presented interactions between participants other than the siblings, and some camerawork. Granted, you're limited due to the setting, the rounds, etc, but that doesn't stop you from introducing more participant interactivity, or even showing "flashback" scenes assuming you don't deem these as detracting from the experience due to various reasons.

In short, I didn't feel there were high enough stakes as related to both the player, and the participant, and no conflict of motivations in a way that would have made more than 1 decision leave a more meaningful impact.

Other:
I was planning to make a very similar sidegame at one point, and had to consider the limitations mentioned above, so I can understand the difficulty of doing this from a developer perspective too. This game has given me enough inspiration to contemplate on how the aforementioned issues can be tackled, so if you guys have any ideas once you've updated your game to a post-jam state, hit me up. I'll probably do a vanilla NPC thing graphics-wise, just to be able to cram in as many fights as possible.

HollowGap · Sep 29, 2021

You can access the spectator's area if you enter from the right hand entrance.

Huh. The area isn't supposed to be accessible. That's why all the game-breaking bugs happen (like going solo or cutscenes not playing properly). Guess we forgot to block that access for the last update.

It's fixed now, and so all the bugs related to it. There are some good finds for PSDK-related bugs and issues, too. Thanks for letting us know!

One of Magcargo attacks (I think it was Bulldoze) has got some bright flashing lights, might cause harm to some people. Same goes for Zap Cannon, could be other attacks too.

All the move animations are from default PSDK. I get that it's very scuffed. We'll see if we can immediately replace the Bulldoze or any light flashing move animation, though. ~~Maybe we can amplify the flashing by 1000 times.~~

I understand the jam constraints and the necessity of exposition as a result, but I wish we could have gotten a cutscene showing the main character taking care of the abandoned mons. It would have established a connection and a stronger motivation in a way that couldn't have been delivered with the exposition alone.

Does Matthew/Mary have different dialogue if you say "I'm throwing the match" and yet you don't?

...include more cutscenes with event animation, more or better presented interactions between participants other than the siblings, and some camerawork. Granted, you're limited due to the setting, the rounds, etc, but that doesn't stop you from introducing more participant interactivity, or even showing "flashback" scenes assuming you don't deem these as detracting from the experience due to various reasons.

Ranko was supposed to make that intro scene showing the Daycare, but due to time constraint we decided to take that off. It accidentally led us to make the intro cutscene "Press X to cancel" which somehow works as controls warm-up as you said earlier.

Time constraint is why some contents have to be trimmed down. The initial plan was to have "show, don't tell" cutscene for several characters to show where they came from and what they do outside the tournament (for example, a cutscene of Indri borrowing Andre's team in their house. I think Ranko wanted Richard to have crazy detailed cutscene of him and his team too). This is also why we didn't get to make multiple endings, although we did manage to squeeze in a few branching dialogues. ~~Time is the enemy of all humanity and we must find a way to transcend beyond it.~~

If you guys have any ideas once you've updated your game to a post-jam state, hit me up. I'll probably do a vanilla NPC thing graphics-wise, just to be able to cram in as many fights as possible.

Jam update is probably more about adding a randomized mode, probably entirely separate from the story stuff we have right now. The ultimate goal for this project is to bug hunt the PSDK battle system, so yeah, thanks for the offer! We'll think about it.

AenaonDogsky · Sep 29, 2021

Huh. The area isn't supposed to be accessible. That's why all the game-breaking bugs happen (like going solo or cutscenes not playing properly). Guess we forgot to block that access for the last update.

It's fixed now, and so all the bugs related to it. There are some good finds for PSDK-related bugs and issues, too. Thanks for letting us know!

Yeah, that's why I listed it under "1" since all of them were tied to the spectator area bug. You are welcome!

~~Maybe we can amplify the flashing by 1000 times.~~

I-It can't be! Are you one of the original Porygon episode animators?

Time constraint is why some contents have to be trimmed down.

Yes this is one assumption that should always be followed when playing jam games, I doubt people aren't taking it into account when playing these games.

cutscene for several characters to show where they came from and what they do outside the tournament

I'd suggest you do that for post-jam updates, it might demand more work even if it might feel like it's not worth the time, but why not make your game the best it can be?

Completed Pokémon Battle Spotlight [English & Spanish!]

Armin

☆★★☆

HollowGap

How am I still alive

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

Aurora

Trainer

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

NocTurn

Hoothoot enthusiast

Armin

☆★★☆

lichen

i make sprites , i think

KennyCatches

can he catch his?

Sailorxraven

I exist!

HollowGap

How am I still alive

mustafa505

Ruby

Sk8erBoizzz

Rookie

Haunted Ditto

Creator of Pokemon Pandora and Pokemon Climate

HollowGap

How am I still alive

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos

HollowGap

How am I still alive

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos