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Released Pokémon: Ghosts of Knowledge

This project has a release available. The full version is still a work in progress.
Project Status
Work in Progress
Project Version
1.8.3
This game was made for the Relic Castle Game Jam # 6

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Seasonal explorers Dust and Zee spelunk their way to the bottom of the sea, expecting to find all sorts of relics and treasures of aquatic nature. However, they instead stumble upon a world that has already ended...

Join them in their whimsical and hopefully non-explosive journey through the streets of a former paradise
by collecting treasures and uncovering the secrets behind its remains!

Who knows what happened down there?


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TEAM

rankoruru - Story, Eventing, Spriting, Writing, Dialogue, etc.

HollowGap - Puzzle Master, Scripting, Bugtesting

Mikecakes/mustafa - Spriting, Mapping, Bugtesting

Droid779 - Spriting

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SCREENSHOTS
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FEATURES

A Different Engine!

- This game runs on the french Pokémon Essentials alternative PSDK which boasts a variety of differences in performance, layout, and form. It also allows me to do unique events! A special thanks to the entire PSDK team for helping me get this product out and pointing out how everything works. This was not possible without Nuri Yuri and Rey, who helped me the most with PSDK engine related things by fixing crashes, bugs, and scripts.

The Journey!

- Featuring Dust and her lovely Porygon-Z, they'll traverse their way through the labyrinth in search of gold and knowledge in Generation 4 Graphics with Pokémon available up to Generation 8! The story begins with them entering the ruins through an underwater cave, but the region ends up becoming much more complicated to comprehend over as they go on...
- Lots of strange and impossible events are taking place in this submerged region... How did this all happen, anyway?
- Pokémon that appear in this game are a bit different, some of which are Regional variants unique to the labyrinth! There are tons of balance changes and quality of life fixes that change how some Pokémon are used. Change log here, but beware spoilers:
All special evolutions of Pokemon in this game have been changed, and experience gain is boosted across the board.
The full details of each MODIFIED evolution in the game is listed below.

ALL POKEMON hold a Heal Powder, Energyroot, or Revival Herb when they're caught at a 50% chance and hold a Nugget at a 5% chance.

Porygon Zee learns a variety of new Attacks and Status moves, has balanced Attack and Special Attack and better bulk.
Pancham evolves at level 28 now
Mawile learns Steel moves at earlier levels and learns Spirit Break. Always has Intimidate
Dottler evolves at level 28 and learns a variety of status moves, and also has higher Sp.Atk stat.
Farfetch'd learns Brave Bird earlier and has stat boosts across the board
Staravia evolves at level 30 now
Azumarill learns Superpower earlier
Shellos evolves at level 25 and learns useful moves earlier
Fomantis evolves at level 24 and learns useful moves earlier
Lurantis always gets Solar Power or Cloryphyll and learns a variety of strong moves. Also learns most TMs found in the game.
Sneasel evolves by leveling up while holding Razor Claw and learns Ice Shard, Ice Punch, and Icicle Crash by level
Gligar evolves by leveling up while holding Razor Fang
Ferroseed evolves at level 29
Ferrothorn learns Steel moves and Power Whip earlier
Breloom learns Spore earlier, but still late and other useful moves
Flaafy learns Thunder Wave by level and learns Thunderbolt instead of Discharge, as well as other moves
Nidorino/Nidorina learn Toxic instead of Toxic Spikes
Nidoking/Nidoqueen learns Earth Power at level 33
Darumaka evolves at level 27 and learns its good moves earlier
Darmanitan learns useful moves earlier
Golett evolves at level 28 and learns useful moves earlier
Golurk learns useful moves earlier
Aipom learns useful moves earlier (Double Hit at level 30)
Honedge evolves at level 30
Machop evolves at level 25
Noibat evolves at level 32 and learns useful moves earlier
Noivern learns useful moves earlier
Machoke evolves at level 35 and learns useful moves earlier
Stunky evolves at level 28 and learns Poison Jab by TM
Shuckle gives a lotta XP and holds Nugget at a very high chance
Ponyta evolves at level 30 and moveset is adjusted to take in account earlier evolve
Rapidash learns Fire Blast earlier
Magmar evolves by holding Magmarizer and leveling up
Corsola has stat buffs across the board
Clamperl evolves holding Deepseatooth/Scale and leveling, also holds Nugget at a high chance
Gorebyss and Huntail learn useful moves earlier
Mareanie evolves at level 30 and learns useful moves earlier
Toxapex learn useful moves earlier
Tynamo evolves at level 25
Eelektrik learns useful moves earlier
Chinchou learns useful moves earlier
Frillish evolves at level 30, moveset adjusted to account for earlier evolve
Bosses have their base stats adjusted to fit the progression of the game.
- In addition, Experience Points are boosted to reduce grinding, and every Pokémon in this game has a 50% chance to drop a unique item, and a 5% chance to drop a Nugget. I wonder what they're used for in the underground...
- There are currently two endings to the game, and three unique zones to play through, with a run time of roughly 3-5 hours!
Treasures!

- There are special items known as Treasures littered throughout the region. Collecting them places them as a little trophy at the main campsite!
- Treasures aren't just for show, however. Someone might give you something nice for collecting a ton of treasures...
Challenges!

- At each zone, a very powerful foe will appear. Defeating them not only gives you the ability to move on, but choose exactly which area to unlock first...
Note: (The right door is a bit more difficult as of this Jam release)
- There are more than battles to overcome however... There are places around the region that test your mind rather than your strength!
Secrets!

- Look around each and every part of the region to find rooms that lead into each other, Pokémon to befriend, and items to collect...
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READ ME
I hope you all enjoy playing this game as much as I did making it. I worked 40 straight days and nights in the middle of exams and I'm really happy with how a lot of it came out.

Lemme know if something breaks!!



Please keep in mind we were working on a deadline, and therefore a lot of bugs are probably present.

In addition, the battle system for PSDK is extreme work in progress. Everything is functional, but we need to know where the issues are to improve the engine. There is also no possible way I can animate 800 moves in one month, so the animations are just a liiiittle janky. Thank you for considering.


Anyway, were you expecting something self-deprecating?

Yeah, like this is easily my best project yet by a landslide. It even has two endings, but one of them is extremely rushed. I will fix it really soon! Working on this game was a lot of fun, and I will miss Dust and Zee in the coming future. The entire game has a beginning, middle, and end. Despite the content cuts, this is a full experience for once and I'm so happy I got to this point.


That being said, I'm not perfect. I always want to get better. Please report and bugs here, Twitter (@rankoDev) or discord on Relic Castle.


IF YOU PLAYED IT PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT AND ANY SUGGESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE!

Content Cut from the game include:

True forms of Fossil Pokémon
The Map system being fully fledged out
More branching paths in the 2nd and 3rd zones
A 4th zone
The True Ending

Will these features come? Maybe... Depends on reception to the original.

POST SPOTLIGHT THOUGHTS

I hope this isn't too campy or stuck-up. I really wanted to say something on this end. I legitimately didn't think this game would get this popular, especially against so many high-profile developers and so many beautiful games created for the Jam (I played every single one of them). I, uh, had a lot of conflicting thoughts on this project, so to the many many people that voted on this game as their top 3 favorites, thank you so much. I've been around the scene for a decent amount of time, but always have been scared to release a project. I have lots of scrapped projects. It feels weird knowing people thought about and remembered my game (otherwise, they wouldn't have voted for it).

thatbbsdfnk yousf ;-;

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RESOURCE PACK

Includes custom graphics that I edited or made for the game. Not needed to play.
Resource Pack 1.0

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DOWNLOAD v 1.8.2!
Project Knowledge 1.8 (Old Version)

Mediafire Download: Version 1.8
  • Fixed up terrain and tileset bugs
  • Fixed game breaking issues with Nuggets
  • The last few Treasures now show up in the Motherbase
  • The reset button in one of the puzzles should now work
  • Added a disclaimer to allow your own Keybindings (for all you people used to Essentials)
  • Fixed up late game dialogue and events so it looks less rushed
  • Scyther can now properly evolve.
  • Added more preventative measures for the FollowMe bug (it is still not perfect however)
  • Fixed an oversight where Azumarill was not a Fairy type.
  • Animations have been updated.
  • Balanced the Speed stat of certain bosses to complement players speedrunning the game. You can play around them going second with good 'mon choices, and if you were training, you were outspeeding them anyway.
  • Fixed a few loading issues.
  • Last round of late game clean-up.
  • Balance changes, which include better TMs to combat enemies.
  • New cmd.bat in the folder allows you to change the screen size. Accompanied by instructions.txt
- FOLLOWING BUG IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Adjusted Zee's moveset to have Psybeam in slot 1 by default. This allows you to use Conversion without having to set it up yourself.
    • Tentative fix for lagzone
    • Fixed more broken moves
    • Removes X Items from the game as they crash the game if someone decides to throw them on not the lead pokemon
    • Adjusted Zee's moveset at later levels (because he's easy to grind)
    • Adjusted other movesets
    • Fixed typos
    • Fixed level curve of some Pokemon

Project Knowledge 1.8.3 (Complete) - Latest - In Birth - Under

Mediafire Download: Version 1.8.3



    • Added a QoL change that allows you to use Teleport from the Zee's Projection in the Key Items pocket. (Big change)
    • New PC mechanics! You can use the mouse to mass release Pokémon in the PC UI
    • New Learn Move UI!
    • Minor balance changes.
    • Fixed game breaking bug when in a prolonged battle


KNOWN ISSUES

PSDK is an incredible alternative to Essentials, but the battle system is very experimental. If you see something off, tell me and I will report it. They need feedback to improve it!

- There is a pervasive bug with the FollowMe feature that randomly has events follow you when they're not supposed to. Simply exit and reenter a room to fix it. This bug ONLY happens if you save the game before entering specific maps.UPDATE: FIXED in 1.7! LEMME KNOW IF IT HAPPENS STILL.
- Stuff you guys haven't run into yet and I won't know about unless they get reported :)

CREDITS

PSDK Team

Pixel Art Ocean Background - KnoblePersona -
Caves - Flurmimon's Tileset
Logs, and other misc items - Rekman's Game Jam Resource
Dark Ruins/Forest Dungeon/Water Dungeon Tileset - Phyromatical, Kyle-Dove, Magiscarf
Statue of Pokemon - Neffertity
Tents - RBRNNova
Water Auotile - Clara-WaH
Platinum Style Water Tile - Rayquaza-dot
Dante house tileset - Moebius/giova90, Womanizer, >dante</SteveN
Edgy Character's Room Interior - Princess Phoenix
Post office interior - Princess Phoenix
Excello's House Interior - Princess Phoenix
Pokeball Factory Tileset - Princess Phoenix
PMD Soundeffect 204 - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team
Underwater Tiles - Hel-el-grande
Nintendo + Gamefreak - Underwater tiles
Character Sound effects - Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Puzzle Sound effects - Golden Sun
Orbeetle and Dottler sprites- KingOfThe-X-Roads, leParagon. Smogon Gen 8 Sprite Project
Pokemon Infinity tilesets - AtomicReactor, Pokemon Infinity
Gardevoir PMD Sprite - ripped by EternalLight
Gyarados PMD Sprite - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Hartmann's Youkai Girl Arrange + A Tiny Tiny Clever Commander Arrange - Hatogoya Spring
Battle Pike Arrange - Zame on Youtube
Battle and Boss theme - I am Setsuna
Futile Hollow, and yet, the Future - RD Sounds/Diao Ze Yong
Night Falls Gently - RD Sounds/Diao Ze Yong
Dusk Flight - RD Sounds/ Diao Ze Yong
Delta Gardevoir Alernate Sprite - TheOSC on Pokemon Insurgence Forums
Sun Stone Overworld - PurpleAladdin
Aekashic's Static Battlers Librarium - Erebus
Living With Determination - Mix Persona 3
Eastern Dream Acoustic Demo and Normal - Demetori

PSDK CREDITS
  • SFML : Backend of LiteRGSS
  • Game Freak, CREATURES INC. et The Pokémon Company : Pokémon Universe
  • Microsoft : Visual Code
  • FIRELIGHT TECHNOLOGIES PTY LTD. : FMOD lowlevel API
  • PokeAPI and its contributor : Data input for newer versions
  • Nuri Yuri : Creator of PSDK
  • Aerun : Active Contributor (DB & Moves)
  • Rey : Active Contributor (UI Programming)
  • Speed / SirMalo : UI Designer
  • Leikt : Old Contributor (Various System like PathFinding)
  • Jayzon : Gen6 Battle Entry Graphics
  • LiteRGSS Contributors : Scorbutics, nthoang-apcs, SuperFola, Nuri Yuri
  • PSDK Wiki Contributors : Jaizu, Rey, yyyyj, buttjuice, SMB64, Nuri Yuri, Bugfix, Akiyra, Guizmo, Metaiko, Mud', ralandel, Zenos
  • DataBase Contributors : AEliso, Aerun, Avori, Bentoxx, dragon935, Eurons, joeyw, RebelIce, Nuri Yuri, PokeAPI, Pαlвσlѕку, Walven, Tokeur, Redder, Schneitizel, Mauduss
  • Translation Contributors : SoloReprise, Pumone, Midarlarsupl, Frogginikus, SMB64, yyyyj, Rey, SirMalo, Aerun, Helio, Gehtdich Nichtsan, PadawanMoses, Kaizer, Eduardo Dorantes, Leikt, Jaizu, Dax
  • Ruby Host Contributors : AEliso19, yyyyj, Maxoumi, Bentoxx, Splifingald, Buttjuice, Nuri Yuri
  • Other Contributors : Otaku, Fafa, Jarakaa, Shamoke, BigOrN0t, Bouzouw, Diaband.onceron, Kiros97, Likton, MrSuperluigis, oldu49, SMB64, sylvaintr, UltimaShayra & Unbreakables, Aye, Anti-NT, Solfay, Cayrac, Amras
Resource related credits


  • Gen1 to 5 Overworlds :
    MissingLukey, help-14, Kymotonian, cSc-A7X, 2and2makes5, Pokegirl4ever, Fernandojl, Silver-Skies, TyranitarDark, Getsuei-H, Kid1513, Milomilotic11, Kyt666, kdiamo11, Chocosrawlooid, Syledude, Gallanty, Gizamimi-Pichu, 2and2makes5, Zyon17, Zenos
  • Gen6 Overworlds : Princess-Phoenix, LunarDusk6
  • Gen6 Pokémon Battlers : Diegotoon20, Domino99designs, Falgaia, GeoisEvil, Juan-Amador, N-Kin, Noscium, SirAquaKip, Smogon XY Sprite Project, Zermonious, Zerudez
  • Alolan Sprites : Smogon
  • Official Pokémon X/Y Texts : Smogon, X-Act, Peterko, Kaphotics
  • Official Sun & Moon Texts : Asia81
  • Animated icons : Pikachumazzinga
  • Gen7 icons : Poképedia, Otaku
  • Pokémon Offsets : Don
  • Epic adventures Tileset :
    Alistair, Alucus, Bakura155, Bati', Blue Beedrill, BoOmxBiG, Chimcharsfireworkd, CNickC/CNC, CrimsonTakai, Cuddlesthefatcat, Dewitty, EpicDay, Fused, Gigatom, Heavy-Metal-Lover, Hek-el-grande, Kage-No-Sensei, Kizemaru_Kurunosuke, Kymotonian/Kyledove, LaPampa, LotusKing, New-titeuf, Novus, Pokemon_Diamond, PrinceLegendario, Reck, Red-Gyrados, REMY35, Saurav, SL249, Spaceemotion, Speedialga, Stefpoke, sylver1984, ThatsSoWitty, TheEnglishKiwi, Thegreatblaid, ThePokemonChronicles, TwentyOne, UltimoSpriter, Warpras, WesleyFG, Yoh, Youri (Yuri / Nagato Yuki), 07harris/Paranoid, 19dante91, 27alexmad27
  • Gen7 Pokémon Battlers :
    Amethyst, Jan, Zumi, Bazaro, Koyo, Smeargletail, Alex, Noscium, Lepagon, N-kin, fishbowlsoul90, princess-phoenix, DatLopunnyTho, Conyjams , kaji atsu , The cynical poet, LuigiPlayer, Falgaia of the Smogon S/M sprite project, Pikafan2000, Lord-Myre
  • PSP Animations
    • Metaiko (Création des animations)
    • Isomir (Animation Close Combat)
    • KLNOTHINCOMIN (Animation Aéroblast, Eco-Sphere et Fulmigraine)
  • Battle Backs : Midnitez-REMIX
  • Brick icon & ADN Berserk : Maxoumi
  • Pink Ribon Icons : yyyyj
  • Mega-Blastoise Sprites, Cap-Pikachu : Smogon / Leparagon
  • Meltan & Melmetan : WolfPP/Wolfang62 et conyjams
  • Mega-Drattak Sprites : BladeRed et Amras Anarion
  • Default Message windowskin : ralandel
  • XBOX 360 Keys : Yumekua
  • Shiny Animation : Neslug
  • Quest Book UI : Renkys
  • Option UI : Mud'
  • Trainer Card & KeyBinding UI : Eurons
  • Alpha Ruins Puzzle : FL0RENT_
Special Thanks

PSDK would never have happend without Krosk the former creator of Pokémon Script Project which introduced Nuri Yuri to Pokémon Fangame Making in 2008.






 
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ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
Versions 1.2 is up! Fixed up some things that slipped my mind and removed as many Bulbasaurs as possible

This will be the definitive jam version until another big bug comes up
 

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
Version 1.3 is out! Lots of bug fixes and smarter eventing to avoid RPGMaker Bugs, and fixed an issue that ended the game early by accident

- A changelog of ALL Pokemon adjustments added to the game download, it is viewable as changeLog.txt. Beware spoilers!
- Fixed really stupid looking cutscenes
- Fixed an issue where you can have 2 followers
- Fixed move route where Zee doesn't show up
- Fixed end-game dialogue that breaks because I forgot to update
- Fixed priority issues misc
- Fixed a bug where discharge straight up doesn't work
- Added a small event in the Jar grotto if you're in the end game phase
- Credits scene now works

Please give it a try!
 
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This entry was a super fun playthrough. I felt like there were a pretty good balance between the puzzles and the battles. Neither of which felt overly difficult.

All of the puzzles were creative and well-designed! I think my favourite kind out of the bunch was the adjacent floor tile puzzle. I don't think I've seen anyone try to set up that kind of puzzle in a Pokémon fangame before, and they were particularly fun to figure out. The log jams were neat too! They brought a new sort of twist to your typical strength puzzles. I also appreciate that there were restart switches and hints available to the player- very handy, especially when you're doing something like the strength puzzles.

When it comes to the battles, I found that I didn't run into any problems with the fights. Some of the bosses were a little difficult, but Zee was great for tearing through most opposition once I got Return. My other team members chipped in, but Zee was definitely the all-purpose MVP for a lot of fights. (And at the end of the day, I'd rather things err on the side of easiness than unplayable difficulty.) The game had really good Pokémon selection. Having an abundance of items also helped- especially things like the evolution stones. In my experience, the stones can sort of become an afterthought in fangames, and then you wind up carrying a Pokémon you can't even evolve. (Plus, that Shuppet in the large urn was amazing. 1000/10. The animations were adorable. Loved it, and the Ghost Trick music.)

Along with that, I really have to compliment the game for its expressiveness. Dust and Zee had great animations, which really made the world feel more alive. I think my favourite of the reactions had to be Zee's flashing eyes, although I adored the Trash Shuppet Spin™ as well. Even when characters didn't have animation frames, the event moveroutes were interesting. You also did a few neat things with the camera as well. (Scrolling, keeping it stationary while the player walked into the scene, etc.) That being said, there was no cutscene or animation I felt went on for too long, another plus!

One final strength I found with the game was the writing. I loved the dynamic between Dust and Zee. They were great characters, bouncing off each other with interesting dialogue and funny exchanges. You did a good job of fleshing them out as characters, without going into detail about their pasts. Just from their actions, and the way they speak, you can understand a lot about who they are as people. (Or Pokémon.)

I liked Jacques' little notes as well. The joy he expresses over being a puzzle creator is definitely something I can relate to as a fangame dev. I guess he was sort of a gamedev in a sense, now that I'm thinking about it, haha. Along with that, the surprise twist that Dusclops was Jacques was also neat! I felt like that did a really good job of tying everything in the world together. It really gave more meaning to what Jacques was saying. (Especially how he would not be on the planet forever.)

Bugs
I already DMed you about the game-breaking bugs I found, so I won't repeat those. I did, however, find that I also experienced the extra partner bug with the Honedge and on the two levels of the cave where the bushes could attack you. Honestly seeing the bush follow me around was pretty hilarious though, so I can't complain.

Nitpicks

  • I would have liked to have had repels or some sort of repel equivalent in the game
  • I wish we got to learn a little more about the professor that Dust reports to
  • I wish there had been a few more indications of human civilization once being in the ruins: tools, more human writing, maybe a skeleton if you wanted to be spooky
  • I would have liked to have seen Pygmalion again. It seemed like he was set up to reappear, but unfortunately, he didn't
  • Sort of branching off of that point, I would have liked to learn more about what the relationship between Pokémon and humans was like in the abandoned civilization. I felt like that would've helped build up to the boss better. (Ex: maybe you could have done something with each of the objects you pick up from the Regis, like with the Arceus plates, where there's a short blurb of lore written on the back.)
Other Miscellaneous Things I Liked

  • The ability to teleport back to any base right off the bat
  • The increased experience on the wild mons made training up new team members very painless
  • The TM totems were cool
To sum up though, great job with this! Congrats on completing another game jam!
 

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
This entry was a super fun playthrough. I felt like there were a pretty good balance between the puzzles and the battles. Neither of which felt overly difficult.

All of the puzzles were creative and well-designed! I think my favourite kind out of the bunch was the adjacent floor tile puzzle. I don't think I've seen anyone try to set up that kind of puzzle in a Pokémon fangame before, and they were particularly fun to figure out. The log jams were neat too! They brought a new sort of twist to your typical strength puzzles. I also appreciate that there were restart switches and hints available to the player- very handy, especially when you're doing something like the strength puzzles.

When it comes to the battles, I found that I didn't run into any problems with the fights. Some of the bosses were a little difficult, but Zee was great for tearing through most opposition once I got Return. My other team members chipped in, but Zee was definitely the all-purpose MVP for a lot of fights. (And at the end of the day, I'd rather things err on the side of easiness than unplayable difficulty.) The game had really good Pokémon selection. Having an abundance of items also helped- especially things like the evolution stones. In my experience, the stones can sort of become an afterthought in fangames, and then you wind up carrying a Pokémon you can't even evolve. (Plus, that Shuppet in the large urn was amazing. 1000/10. The animations were adorable. Loved it, and the Ghost Trick music.)

Along with that, I really have to compliment the game for its expressiveness. Dust and Zee had great animations, which really made the world feel more alive. I think my favourite of the reactions had to be Zee's flashing eyes, although I adored the Trash Shuppet Spin™ as well. Even when characters didn't have animation frames, the event moveroutes were interesting. You also did a few neat things with the camera as well. (Scrolling, keeping it stationary while the player walked into the scene, etc.) That being said, there was no cutscene or animation I felt went on for too long, another plus!

One final strength I found with the game was the writing. I loved the dynamic between Dust and Zee. They were great characters, bouncing off each other with interesting dialogue and funny exchanges. You did a good job of fleshing them out as characters, without going into detail about their pasts. Just from their actions, and the way they speak, you can understand a lot about who they are as people. (Or Pokémon.)

I liked Jacques' little notes as well. The joy he expresses over being a puzzle creator is definitely something I can relate to as a fangame dev. I guess he was sort of a gamedev in a sense, now that I'm thinking about it, haha. Along with that, the surprise twist that Dusclops was Jacques was also neat! I felt like that did a really good job of tying everything in the world together. It really gave more meaning to what Jacques was saying. (Especially how he would not be on the planet forever.)

Bugs
I already DMed you about the game-breaking bugs I found, so I won't repeat those. I did, however, find that I also experienced the extra partner bug with the Honedge and on the two levels of the cave where the bushes could attack you. Honestly seeing the bush follow me around was pretty hilarious though, so I can't complain.

Nitpicks

  • I would have liked to have had repels or some sort of repel equivalent in the game
  • I wish we got to learn a little more about the professor that Dust reports to
  • I wish there had been a few more indications of human civilization once being in the ruins: tools, more human writing, maybe a skeleton if you wanted to be spooky
  • I would have liked to have seen Pygmalion again. It seemed like he was set up to reappear, but unfortunately, he didn't
  • Sort of branching off of that point, I would have liked to learn more about what the relationship between Pokémon and humans was like in the abandoned civilization. I felt like that would've helped build up to the boss better. (Ex: maybe you could have done something with each of the objects you pick up from the Regis, like with the Arceus plates, where there's a short blurb of lore written on the back.)
Other Miscellaneous Things I Liked

  • The ability to teleport back to any base right off the bat
  • The increased experience on the wild mons made training up new team members very painless
  • The TM totems were cool
To sum up though, great job with this! Congrats on completing another game jam!

Thank you so much for the playthrough, the review, and the kind words. It means so much to me that it's hard for me to put into the correct words... But I told you that haha

I appreciate the feedback as well. A lot of things were actually going to happen! But unfortunately, I ran outta time to flesh things out.

Thank you again, i'm so happy you enjoyed the game!
 

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
Version 1.3.4 is now released. It's a lot of minor changes in order to perfect everything in the game.

The most notable change is allowing you to see the credits in all of its glory now!
 
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ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
1.4.4 is up. Fixed a few gamebreaking bugs. Thank you to everyone who told me where the issues were!

- Trick House Tileset broken in 1.3.4
- Wiping out the first boss froze you
- Priority errors
 
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ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
Finally! After many days of playtesting, update 1.5 is here! This should be the final update to the Game Jam version.

- Fixed up terrain and tileset bugs
- Fixed game breaking issues with Nuggets
- The last few Treasures now show up in the Motherbase
- The reset button in one of the puzzles should now work
- Added a disclaimer to allow your own Keybindings (for all you people used to Essentials)
- Fixed up late game dialogue and events so it looks less rushed
- Scyther can now properly evolve.
- Added more preventative measures for the FollowMe bug (it is still not perfect however)
- Fixed an oversight where Azumarill was not a Fairy type.


Thank you all so much for your support and kind words towards this project. This is hopefully the best the Game Jam Version of the game can be without actually adding content. If we do any more significant updates to this project, it will be after judging is over.

We hope you enjoy!
 
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ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
We went a few days without any major issues, so I was able to fix some minor issues with the game! v1.6 is out with a few balance updates and miscellaneous changes!

- Animations have been updated. This is going in a bit untested, so bear with us if something happened to break.
- Balanced the Speed stat of certain bosses to complement players speedrunning the game. You can play around them going second with good 'mon choices, and if you were training, you were outspeeding them anyway.
- Fixed a few loading issues.
- Last round of late game clean-up.
- Console added to allow larger screen sizes, including 3x3, 4x4, and Full Screen! (May cause screen tearing). Read the text document in the download to know what steps to take.

We've isolated the Following Bug (You ever have Honedge or bushes follow you?) and have figured out how to replicate the issue 100% of the time. The solution is pending, but here's the cause:

Saving the game DIRECTLY before entering certain rooms (not all of them) causes synchronization issues. If it happens, literally all you have to do is exit the room and reenter. Nothing big! Hopefully it can be killed soon!

Since this update doesn't change much but has potential to break, it'll be going out as a separate download from the last one. Thank you for the great support so far and everyone who's reached out to me via DM. It means the world to me.
 
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Lario

Rookie
Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2020
Posts
1
I am absolutely in love with this lovingly put together gem of a Pokémon hack! It amazes me how the whole thing was somehow put together in only the span of a single month and I still don't even know where to begin talking about it.

The locations and sceneries would probably be a good place to start and it's probably already my favorite thing about the game. All the ruins and routes are incredibly atmospheric, they all do a really good job of sucking you into the world of this underwater cave while still giving this great sense of mystery that not only wants you to keep exploring but also make you ponder on what the places were like before. Despite the limitation set by the story itself, there's a lot of different colours at play from area to area and it all connected nicely, especially when taken the Pokémon themselves into consideration.

You're already given such a huge plethora of Pokémon to catch and train from the very first patch of grass and it never starts getting dull either. The beginning part of my own journey moved at a really slow speed because I genuinely didn't know what Pokémon I wanted to put on my team and ended up flipflopping a lot until I felt comfortable. Which was also quite easy to do, since the wild battles give an enormous amount of experience, so grinding rarely ever becomes a topic. exploration is heavily rewarded with nothing but actually useful items like evolution stones or TMs (in form of cool ancient rock thingys) scattered across the game. Ghosts of Knowledge also has a really creative and endearing way to reward you for finding nuggets and treasures without the need of a shop, which I really don't want to spoil. My only complaint here is that I would have liked to have the option of repels towards the end of the journey when I really didn't want to level up my team anymore.

Shuppet is so adorable. I love the little tune that plays when you interact with them and how they pop up from the jar <3

The music was bonkers, I was thoroughly invested into all the events because of the great soundtrack and it truly helped me in feeling exactly the kind of emotions I was supposed to feel from place to place and scene to scene. That Vivienne and Zee theme actually makes my head bop. And speaking of those two, they had some quality dialogue and characterization! All the lines felt very organic and considering almost all the Pokémon fan games I've played in the past generally had lackluster dialogue, this made me specifically very satisfied.

Lasty some things I wanna touch upon and then my nitpicks. The puzzles were a lot of fun! It actually takes a surprisingly big focus in the game so I felt like mentioning it, but yeah I can't say much more other than I found them fun and creative. The whole battle engine worked perfectly fine for me. It was very fluid, worked just like in the games and I never really ran into any issues. So good job there to whoever created the engine for it! Oh, also I was a big fan of the fast travel teleports, made the whole adventure feel much more streamlined and it was easy to keep everything in check and view like that.

Honestly adding the nitpicks makes me feel kinda eh, since I know most of them could have been avoided if given more time, but it's proably still fair to include them and none of them really ruined my experience, so here it goes.

- the "it had no effect" in place of the "it missed" text kind of confused me at first and it didn't really feel necessary
- The regis and the final boss were a little on the easy side sadly
- Pygmalion not appearing again was kinda disappointing because I enjoyed him a lot
- Would have liked a name rater option somewhere
- The story beats sadly felt a little rushed at the end
- This isn't really a complaint but that blue tile puzzle thing took me like a full hour to solve or something and idk if I should feel like a genius for solving it or like an idiot for taking so long

But yeah overall I really, really, really enjoyed this game a lot and absolutely cannot wait for any future hacks or continuations to come out now :)
 
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HollowGap

How am I still alive
Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2017
Posts
80
This isn't really a complaint but that blue tile puzzle thing took me like a full hour to solve or something and idk if I should feel like a genius for solving it or like an idiot for taking so long

The lead dev took an hour to solve it too so you're not alone there ;)
 

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
I am absolutely in love with this lovingly put together gem of a Pokémon hack! It amazes me how the whole thing was somehow put together in only the span of a single month and I still don't even know where to begin talking about it.

The locations and sceneries would probably be a good place to start and it's probably already my favorite thing about the game. All the ruins and routes are incredibly atmospheric, they all do a really good job of sucking you into the world of this underwater cave while still giving this great sense of mystery that not only wants you to keep exploring but also make you ponder on what the places were like before. Despite the limitation set by the story itself, there's a lot of different colours at play from area to area and it all connected nicely, especially when taken the Pokémon themselves into consideration.

You're already given such a huge plethora of Pokémon to catch and train from the very first patch of grass and it never starts getting dull either. The beginning part of my own journey moved at a really slow speed because I genuinely didn't know what Pokémon I wanted to put on my team and ended up flipflopping a lot until I felt comfortable. Which was also quite easy to do, since the wild battles give an enormous amount of experience, so grinding rarely ever becomes a topic. exploration is heavily rewarded with nothing but actually useful items like evolution stones or TMs (in form of cool ancient rock thingys) scattered across the game. Ghosts of Knowledge also has a really creative and endearing way to reward you for finding nuggets and treasures without the need of a shop, which I really don't want to spoil. My only complaint here is that I would have liked to have the option of repels towards the end of the journey when I really didn't want to level up my team anymore.

Shuppet is so adorable. I love the little tune that plays when you interact with them and how they pop up from the jar <3

The music was bonkers, I was thoroughly invested into all the events because of the great soundtrack and it truly helped me in feeling exactly the kind of emotions I was supposed to feel from place to place and scene to scene. That Vivienne and Zee theme actually makes my head bop. And speaking of those two, they had some quality dialogue and characterization! All the lines felt very organic and considering almost all the Pokémon fan games I've played in the past generally had lackluster dialogue, this made me specifically very satisfied.

Lasty some things I wanna touch upon and then my nitpicks. The puzzles were a lot of fun! It actually takes a surprisingly big focus in the game so I felt like mentioning it, but yeah I can't say much more other than I found them fun and creative. The whole battle engine worked perfectly fine for me. It was very fluid, worked just like in the games and I never really ran into any issues. So good job there to whoever created the engine for it! Oh, also I was a big fan of the fast travel teleports, made the whole adventure feel much more streamlined and it was easy to keep everything in check and view like that.

Honestly adding the nitpicks makes me feel kinda eh, since I know most of them could have been avoided if given more time, but it's proably still fair to include them and none of them really ruined my experience, so here it goes.

- the "it had no effect" in place of the "it missed" text kind of confused me at first and it didn't really feel necessary
- The regis and the final boss were a little on the easy side sadly
- Pygmalion not appearing again was kinda disappointing because I enjoyed him a lot
- Would have liked a name rater option somewhere
- The story beats sadly felt a little rushed at the end
- This isn't really a complaint but that blue tile puzzle thing took me like a full hour to solve or something and idk if I should feel like a genius for solving it or like an idiot for taking so long

But yeah overall I really, really, really enjoyed this game a lot and absolutely cannot wait for any future hacks or continuations to come out now :)

ahhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHH. thank you so much for the kind words, lario. i'm actually still shocked you made an account to review this. that was really thoughtful, thank you.


I also have an announcement for everyone else...

Version 1.7 has large changes, but not in quantity:

- THE FOLLOWING BUG IS DEAD! Hopefully, at least.
- Adjusted Zee's moveset to have Psybeam in slot 1 by default. This allows you to use Conversion without having to set it up yourself.

That's all!
 

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
And with Thundaga's playthrough yesterday, we fixed every issue he found! Check out the vod:

Thus, 1.8 is now released.

- Tentative fix for lagzone
- Fixed more broken moves
- Removes X Items from the game as they crash the game if someone decides to throw them on not the lead pokemon
- Adjusted Zee's moveset at later levels (because he's easy to grind)
- Adjusted other movesets
- Fixed typos
- Fixed level curve of some Pokemon


Thank you!
 
Is there a way to change Zee's settings? The map was removed when I got the ability to teleport.

I've played a bit so far and I'm loving the interactions between Zee and Dust, and the music is really great! I had the game running in the background a bit when I got distracted writing something, and actually forgot I was listening to it instead of my usual chill ambiance soundtracks...
 

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare
Expo Team
Is there a way to change Zee's settings? The map was removed when I got the ability to teleport.

I've played a bit so far and I'm loving the interactions between Zee and Dust, and the music is really great! I had the game running in the background a bit when I got distracted writing something, and actually forgot I was listening to it instead of my usual chill ambiance soundtracks...

oh what do you mean by map removed?? Zee's projection in the Key Items is the old map, but the teleport map should show the map anyway

edit: edited my last comment i thought you meant something else
 
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oh what do you mean by map removed?? Zee's projection in the Key Items is the old map, but the teleport map should show the map anyway

Oh I didn't realize the teleport had a map or that it was also an item?! I just saw that the option changed from like "Show Map" to "Teleport to Camp" so I didn't try to use it. My bad, don't stress about it!
 
Hey, I just finished playing your game and I thought it was really really good! This game was beautiful. The art, graphics, music and story were so well done. I've never heard of PSDK and I can tell that it's a really powerful tool. The exp boost was really nice, definitely made grinding less of a chore. And the puzzles were also unique and fun to solve!

Thanks for making this wonderful game!
 
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