Completed Super Scientist Mountain

KennyCatches · Feb 23, 2022

Hey there! I played your game for around an hour and I just wanted to share my initial thoughts! This game is AMAZING.

First of all, I am very impressed with how you made a fighting game using essentials! I can't imagine how much scripting this took.
I have only played the Scientist but I really like the special move swapping mechanic. I managed to defeat all bosses except Kazumeon due to a bug - Their health bar reached zero, but the fight continued. So I can't get the last key.

This also happened once with Krablam, not sure why.

Suggestions for now:

I rarely used the normal punch ability because it was too slow and did little damage. I would suggest lowering the cast time maybe.
This game is really fun but also really difficult! (Might be just me because I'm kinda new to fighting games). If you want to make it easier, you could give the player more health.
Some of the fights were located a bit too far from the save point, so I had to spend a lot of time walking.

The health bar stays on screen after losing a fight

My character's walking sprite turned into a punching sprite. I think this was after losing a battle, I forgot.

The character sprite occasionally turns into black stripes when punching.
Also, not sure if this is intended, but I can use my abilities during dialogue and cutscenes.

I'm having a lot of fun with the game so far and I can't wait to try the other characters!!

👵👵👵 · Feb 23, 2022

KennyCatches said:
Hey there! I played your game for around an hour and I just wanted to share my initial thoughts! This game is AMAZING.

First of all, I am very impressed with how you made a fighting game using essentials! I can't imagine how much scripting this took.
I have only played the Scientist but I really like the special move swapping mechanic. I managed to defeat all bosses except Kazumeon due to a bug - Their health bar reached zero, but the fight continued. So I can't get the last key. This also happened once with Krablam, not sure why.

View attachment 9022

Suggestions for now:

I rarely used the normal punch ability because it was too slow and did little damage. I would suggest lowering the cast time maybe.

This game is really fun but also really difficult! (Might be just me because I'm kinda new to fighting games). If you want to make it easier, you could give the player more health.

Some of the fights were located a bit too far from the save point, so I had to spend a lot of time walking.

View attachment 9024
The health bar stays on screen after losing a fight
View attachment 9026
My character's walking sprite turned into a punching sprite. I think this was after losing a battle, I forgot.
View attachment 9027
The character sprite occasionally turns into black stripes when punching.
Also, not sure if this is intended, but I can use my abilities during dialogue and cutscenes.

I'm having a lot of fun with the game so far and I can't wait to try the other characters!!

Thanks for playing! I'm really glad you liked it! It surprisingly didn't require that much custom scripts. Aside from all of the UI, everything you would think is a script is made with common events! It still was very challenging but I know less about scripting so I chose this method.

You're right about his light attack. It does seem to be not much faster than a powerful special move so I might have to buff that by a couple frames soon. And I'm glad you like the special swapping mechanic, I'm pretty proud of that one!

This game is really fun but also really difficult! (Might be just me because I'm kinda new to fighting games). If you want to make it easier, you could give the player more health.

Some of the fights were located a bit too far from the save point, so I had to spend a lot of time walking.

Adding more health is a good idea to make it easier. If the health was annoying or needlessly difficult for others too then I think I will change it. There are actually two healing points if you didn't notice and each sets a new spawn location. You might have just only used the first one.

I managed to defeat all bosses except Kazumeon due to a bug - Their health bar reached zero, but the fight continued. So I can't get the last key. This also happened once with Krablam, not sure why.

This is (hopefully) a weird harmless visual thing. For some reason when a boss is like one hit away from being K.O.'ed there health bar disappears but they can still be hit and stuff. Hopefully this is the issue, but if you can't actually beat Kazumeow because of this tell me and I'll fix it.

My character's walking sprite turned into a punching sprite. I think this was after losing a battle, I forgot.

I think you lost while in the middle of punching and interrupts the function before it can change the sprite. I should be able to fix this.

The character sprite occasionally turns into black stripes when punching.
Also, not sure if this is intended, but I can use my abilities during dialogue and cutscenes.

Yeah.. This is because of the way I did sprites conflicting with diagonal movement. Idk why but it does that sometimes. It also does that on some diagonal walk frames when you are emitting a shadow from a fire. I don't know if I can fix this but thanks for calling it out.

I'm having a lot of fun with the game so far and I can't wait to try the other characters!!

I hope you can beat the game now with this info (if not tell me). Have fun trying out the other characters and thanks again for playing and for all of the bugs and feedback!!

KennyCatches · Feb 23, 2022

Hey! Thanks for the reply! You were right about the health bar issue. I've played every character and I have a lot of thoughts!

Here are my thoughts on each character!
Scientist
Again, I really liked the special swapping mechanic. I think my favourite was the experiment style! However, I had a lot of trouble with Kazumeow because it was too fast haha.
Power level = 3/5
Birdbrawn
OP. I literally won every fight just by spamming light attack. It does a ton of damage and I could defeat them before they could even retaliate. The flurry of punches was super cool but I just used light attack.

Power level = 5/5
Kazumeow
Very fun! I loved zooming around. My go-to combo was using powered-up special and then spamming light attack! The dodge visual effect was cool too!
Power level = 4/5
Polamoth
Like Kazumeow, I liked chaining my attacks. The backwards kick was a little awkward to use, but the light attack was fun.
Power level = 3/5
Maskyu
The backwards bump was also a little awkward to use, but sometimes I could spam it and deal a lot of damage. But the real fun began in liquid mode when you could summon a Palkia looking giant!!! I loved that so much haha.
Power level = 3/5
Krablam
I'll be honest, I didn't play this character much because it was rather buggy. The boulder would sometimes duplicate, or even disappear from the screen! However, I think the concept is very interesting and it has a lot of potential.

Overall, my favourite would probably be the Scientist, but I seriously had a lot of fun chaining abilities and forming strategies on every character. You also nailed the sound effects and visual effects!

The AI for the bosses were done well. Though Polamoth was easy as it didn't do much besides run around. Krablam was again, kind of buggy and confusing, but it wasn't difficult.

Writing-wise, I would've liked it more if each character had a different story! Though it didn't matter too much since the story wasn't the game's focus. There were some spelling mistakes but it wasn't too bad.

Nitpicks - I wish I didn't have to restart a new save file every time I wanted to play a new character but that's ok! Also, can you leave the training room? I couldn't seem to find a way.

This game was really enjoyable! The gameplay was fun and addicting. Toby Fox music is always a plus. I also really liked the art style! Great work on this!

I couldn't exit Polamoth's cave while I was playing as Polamoth.

👵👵👵 · Feb 24, 2022

Your welcome and thanks for all of the feedback I really appreciate it!

Here are my thoughts on each character!
Scientist
Again, I really liked the special swapping mechanic. I think my favourite was the experiment style! However, I had a lot of trouble with Kazumeow because it was too fast haha.
Power level = 3/5
Birdbrawn
OP. I literally won every fight just by spamming light attack. It does a ton of damage and I could defeat them before they could even retaliate. The flurry of punches was super cool but I just used light attack.
Power level = 5/5
Kazumeow
Very fun! I loved zooming around. My go-to combo was using powered-up special and then spamming light attack! The dodge visual effect was cool too!
Power level = 4/5
Polamoth
Like Kazumeow, I liked chaining my attacks. The backwards kick was a little awkward to use, but the light attack was fun.
Power level = 3/5
Maskyu
The backwards bump was also a little awkward to use, but sometimes I could spam it and deal a lot of damage. But the real fun began in liquid mode when you could summon a Palkia looking giant!!! I loved that so much haha.
Power level = 3/5
Krablam
I'll be honest, I didn't play this character much because it was rather buggy. The boulder would sometimes duplicate, or even disappear from the screen! However, I think the concept is very interesting and it has a lot of potential.

Ooo a tier list!! This list almost matches how I intended for them to be. I think I might have overlooked Birdbrawn a bit. I'll touch up his light attack in a patch. For Kazumeow I wanted the fastest character to be like the easy mode and be slightly better than the rest. (If you've played smash ultimate you know that Kazuya's a little OP so that's where I got a bit of Kazumeow's name from lmao.) Happy to see you found some cool combos too! I used that combo myself quite often. Polamoth's kick is meant to be like a risk reward move. If you ever hit it then it will greatly power up your light attack. And Polamoth is built around combo's and chaining move so that's great to hear that! Maskyu and Krablam are probably the hardest to play (especially Krablam if you don't got the hang of him). I like that Maskyu feels that way and I'm glad you love the Awesome Kaiju Punch tm! Yeah Krablam seems a little jank sometimes. I think I can try and fix that in a patch though!

I couldn't exit Polamoth's cave while I was playing as Polamoth.

Oh I forgot about that

. Ok just fixed it! This will probably be released as a patch soon. Thanks for catching that!

Overall, my favourite would probably be the Scientist, but I seriously had a lot of fun chaining abilities and forming strategies on every character. You also nailed the sound effects and visual effects!

The AI for the bosses were done well. Though Polamoth was easy as it didn't do much besides run around. Krablam was again, kind of buggy and confusing, but it wasn't difficult.

Writing-wise, I would've liked it more if each character had a different story! Though it didn't matter too much since the story wasn't the game's focus. There were some spelling mistakes but it wasn't too bad.

Thanks I'm really proud of how the game feels! I put a lot of care into the custom visual effects and I'm glad they are appreciated! That is a cool idea to have specific stories but yeah the focus was on combat and that might have taken a while. I'm glad the spelling wasn't as bad as I made Sludgemon's demo but your right, there is still room for improvement

.

Nitpicks - I wish I didn't have to restart a new save file every time I wanted to play a new character but that's ok! Also, can you leave the training room? I couldn't seem to find a way.

I'll try to fix these in a patch too

This game was really enjoyable! The gameplay was fun and addicting. Toby Fox music is always a plus. I also really liked the art style! Great work on this!

I'm really happy that you liked it! All the feedback was really helpfully too. Thanks again for playing!!

TheDogDad · Feb 24, 2022

Just finished the game and I loved it! I have a few points of feedback:

The controls were never really explained so it was difficult to grasp at first
I liked the story but I felt like it needed maybe a bit more context although I liked the resolution
I couldn't figure out how to save the game

Other than that this game really surprised me and was incredible and it wasn't even a Pokémon game!

👵👵👵 · Feb 24, 2022

TheDogDad said:
Just finished the game and I loved it! I have a few points of feedback:

The controls were never really explained so it was difficult to grasp at first

I liked the story but I felt like it needed maybe a bit more context although I liked the resolution

I couldn't figure out how to save the game

Thanks for playing and giving feedback!
I probably could have explained things more, especially the controls. They are explained in training mode and in the game guide but the player doesn't know that. I have an idea for how to fix that now. Also there is a save game option at all of the rest fires.

Other than that this game really surprised me and was incredible and it wasn't even a Pokémon game!

I'm glad it was unique and you had fun playing! Thanks again!!

ranko · Mar 6, 2022

Hi! I played your game!

Disclaimer: The following is my personal opinion, warped by how I personally played the game. Things I do and mention may rub off and be experienced differently to other players.

I'm sure you've already seen the small, but active speed-running niche consisting of people from Thundaga's community (to which I have joined) and so, you'll probably already realize that I really liked this game! I've had a lot of experience with fighting games and some medium professional experience with them too, so when I learned that someone made a fighting game for the Winter Jam, I knew I had to play it.

Overall, the way each character is designed is fun and fulfilling. I played a little bit of each character, and though I had a bit of a warped labbing session with each (because I was trying to figure out who was the best for speedrunning rather than, who is the best designed character lol), I liked the thought that went into making each character unique. Kazmeow was probably the most I've played with besides Krablam (for obvious reasons lol), and I like how you designed the characters to be simple execution wise, but with the ability for player growth (highlighted by the built-in dodge cancels, special mechanics for each character, etc). For a game jam such as this, I think you really made them fun. The biggest kicker being that, since I've never played a grid-based top-down fighting game like this, I can't really compare it to traditional fighters I'm used to, but that's kind of a plus because it was really fun figuring this out and knowing that the game definitely takes some inspiration from regular fighting game design philosophy.

In terms of universal mechanics, the stamina system I think was pretty decent. I felt a little restricted at times due to dodging and attacking costing so much stamina if I wanted to do some more complex things, but I did learn how to manage it over time. I think some moves burned too much stamina though (anything that wasn't Krablam on the ground lol) for the amount of damage it did, or didn't do enough for the stamina cost. I think I switched off Kazmeow due to the combination of long wind-up animation (or even post-animation), stamina cost, and damage over time. Of course, some characters I think were well designed, like Polamoth, and played with the universal mechanics very well, able to smoothly transition through different attacks like butter. Maybe if characters had ways to restore their stamina if they chained certain attacks in a certain way? It'd be like, this game's way of combo extenders in traditional fighting games!

Oh yeah, thanks for adding a practice mode. That lets me know it's a real fighting game.

The game definitely has it's fair share of polish issues, to which I don't blame on people due to time limit, (some buggy mechanics, typos, and etc). But I think the bottom line was that the game was just good ol' fashioned fun. I've probably played this game the most out of all the other Jam games. Also, for some reason I kind of really like the art-style for the characters in this game. It's honestly adowable, and Kirby-like in a way, and overall refreshing to see! Also, the graphic design is a massive improvement from your last game.

This was a really great and welcome entry to this year's Winter Jam, and to those lurking the thread, I highly recommend giving it a try! A single playthrough is very short as well!

Thanks for making this game and the gamer times grandmaemojigrandmaemojigrandmaemoji <3

and that's the review!

For those not in the loop, Thundaga and some other pals in that streaming community have been doing speedruns of this game. I have the world record. I'm the best at this game. Challenge me if you dare.

👵👵👵 · Mar 6, 2022

Ranko said:
Hi! I played your game!

Disclaimer: The following is my personal opinion, warped by how I personally played the game. Things I do and mention may rub off and be experienced differently to other players.

I'm sure you've already seen the small, but active speed-running niche consisting of people from Thundaga's community (to which I have joined) and so, you'll probably already realize that I really liked this game! I've had a lot of experience with fighting games and some medium professional experience with them too, so when I learned that someone made a fighting game for the Winter Jam, I knew I had to play it.

Overall, the way each character is designed is fun and fulfilling. I played a little bit of each character, and though I had a bit of a warped labbing session with each (because I was trying to figure out who was the best for speedrunning rather than, who is the best designed character lol), I liked the thought that went into making each character unique. Kazmeow was probably the most I've played with besides Krablam (for obvious reasons lol), and I like how you designed the characters to be simple execution wise, but with the ability for player growth (highlighted by the built-in dodge cancels, special mechanics for each character, etc). For a game jam such as this, I think you really made them fun. The biggest kicker being that, since I've never played a grid-based top-down fighting game like this, I can't really compare it to traditional fighters I'm used to, but that's kind of a plus because it was really fun figuring this out and knowing that the game definitely takes some inspiration from regular fighting game design philosophy.

In terms of universal mechanics, the stamina system I think was pretty decent. I felt a little restricted at times due to dodging and attacking costing so much stamina if I wanted to do some more complex things, but I did learn how to manage it over time. I think some moves burned too much stamina though (anything that wasn't Krablam on the ground lol) for the amount of damage it did, or didn't do enough for the stamina cost. I think I switched off Kazmeow due to the combination of long wind-up animation (or even post-animation), stamina cost, and damage over time. Of course, some characters I think were well designed, like Polamoth, and played with the universal mechanics very well, able to smoothly transition through different attacks like butter. Maybe if characters had ways to restore their stamina if they chained certain attacks in a certain way? It'd be like, this game's way of combo extenders in traditional fighting games!

Oh yeah, thanks for adding a practice mode. That lets me know it's a real fighting game.

The game definitely has it's fair share of polish issues, to which I don't blame on people due to time limit, (some buggy mechanics, typos, and etc). But I think the bottom line was that the game was just good ol' fashioned fun. I've probably played this game the most out of all the other Jam games. Also, for some reason I kind of really like the art-style for the characters in this game. It's honestly adowable, and Kirby-like in a way, and overall refreshing to see! Also, the graphic design is a massive improvement from your last game.

This was a really great and welcome entry to this year's Winter Jam, and to those lurking the thread, I highly recommend giving it a try! A single playthrough is very short as well!

Thanks for making this game and the gamer times grandmaemojigrandmaemojigrandmaemoji <3

and that's the review!

For those not in the loop, Thundaga and some other pals in that streaming community have been doing speedruns of this game. I have the world record. I'm the best at this game. Challenge me if you dare.

Thanks for writing a review and showing off all of the speedrunning!

I'm sure you've already seen the small, but active speed-running niche consisting of people from Thundaga's community (to which I have joined) and so, you'll probably already realize that I really liked this game! I've had a lot of experience with fighting games and some medium professional experience with them too, so when I learned that someone made a fighting game for the Winter Jam, I knew I had to play it

That’s cool!! Having a pros feedback is going to be really useful! And yeah I love watching everyone’s speedrun videos!

Overall, the way each character is designed is fun and fulfilling. I played a little bit of each character, and though I had a bit of a warped labbing session with each (because I was trying to figure out who was the best for speedrunning rather than, who is the best designed character lol), I liked the thought that went into making each character unique. Kazmeow was probably the most I've played with besides Krablam (for obvious reasons lol), and I like how you designed the characters to be simple execution wise, but with the ability for player growth (highlighted by the built-in dodge cancels, special mechanics for each character, etc). For a game jam such as this, I think you really made them fun. The biggest kicker being that, since I've never played a grid-based top-down fighting game like this, I can't really compare it to traditional fighters I'm used to, but that's kind of a plus because it was really fun figuring this out and knowing that the game definitely takes some inspiration from regular fighting game design philosophy.

That's great! I'm happy it turned out that way (especially the unique movesets being easy to learn but hard to master)! I thought making a fighting game in RPG maker could work and it seems like it did. I think having played a lot of fighting games helped the overall design too

In terms of universal mechanics, the stamina system I think was pretty decent. I felt a little restricted at times due to dodging and attacking costing so much stamina if I wanted to do some more complex things, but I did learn how to manage it over time. I think some moves burned too much stamina though (anything that wasn't Krablam on the ground lol) for the amount of damage it did, or didn't do enough for the stamina cost. I think I switched off Kazmeow due to the combination of long wind-up animation (or even post-animation), stamina cost, and damage over time. Of course, some characters I think were well designed, like Polamoth, and played with the universal mechanics very well, able to smoothly transition through different attacks like butter. Maybe if characters had ways to restore their stamina if they chained certain attacks in a certain way? It'd be like, this game's way of combo extenders in traditional fighting games!

I do agree with all of this, especially the stamina being restrictive (in an unintended bad way) sometimes. Also I like the idea for combo extenders. I will keep these in mind for the small post jam update.

Oh yeah, thanks for adding a practice mode. That lets me know it's a real fighting game.

Yw!

The game definitely has it's fair share of polish issues, to which I don't blame on people due to time limit, (some buggy mechanics, typos, and etc). But I think the bottom line was that the game was just good ol' fashioned fun. I've probably played this game the most out of all the other Jam games.

Thank you! I'll make sure to fix some of that stuff and release it after the jam too. I'm glad you and other people seem to really like my game this much! Watching you and Thundaga speedrun my game is super awesome and one of the coolest things to me!

Also, for some reason I kind of really like the art-style for the characters in this game. It's honestly adowable, and Kirby-like in a way, and overall refreshing to see! Also, the graphic design is a massive improvement from your last game.

I'm glad you like my style! I have been working on Sludgemon for over a year now and I think that has helped my art skills a little too

Thanks for making this game and the gamer times grandmaemojigrandmaemojigrandmaemoji <3

Your welcome Ranko and thanks so much for playing and making fun speedrun videos!

👵👵👵 · Mar 9, 2022

A small update to Super Scientist Mountain has just released! (the download link in the first post has been updated)

Buffed Scientists light attack (comes out 5 frames faster)

Buffed Maskyus special move (costs 1 less stamina and has 4 less frames of end lag (applies to both forms))

Added a sandbart in training mode that gives you full stamina when touched

Also added colored tiles in training mode to help tell the sandbarts apart

Added more funny noises to some of the sandbarts

Made every characters dodge cost only 1 stamina

Made Krablams light boulder attack cost 1 more stamina

If you hold right and light attack after pressing the story mode button it skips the cutscene

Starts the first battle at full stamina

Birdbrawns light attack does 4 less damage

After the jam I might even make a major update... but I'll have to wait until the jam is done ;)

Ekat · May 30, 2022

Originally, I was over at @Michael 's house and we played through it together back when the jam started. I decided to run through it again on my own, given that it has so much replay value. Plus, I got to experience both the before bug-fixes and after bug-fixes versions!

For the most part, I agree with Kenny's thoughts on the strengths & weaknesses of the different characters. (Krablam is still my favourite of the bunch, though. I had a blast rolling around and whacking everything in my path.) The others have pretty much covered the detailed feedback I would have given, so, I'll keep things short and not rehash what they've said.

This is just a really fun, unique concept for a fangame. I find it admirable that you were able to integrate all these unique fighting mechanics for the characters. There was a surprising amount of depth to it all, even with just a few simple moves. Working out the best techniques was very satisfying. I feel like there could be some tidying up of the graphics and dialogue, but, I think that might be a tricky balance with the style you're trying to go for. I have noticed a big improvement from Super Sludge Islands, though. Aspects like the UI and tiles, while still colourful, are far easier on the eyes.

"It" saying, "Bbbbbbrrrrrrrbbbrrrrrrbrbrbrrrrrr" was one of the emotional lines in the game. That hit me even harder than, "mkmmkmkm." But, that was only when I reflected back and thought to how everything was foreshadowed by "ow, -uorney." Just masterful storycrafting overall.

Great job with your work on this!

👵👵👵 · May 30, 2022

Ekat said:
Originally, I was over at @Michael 's house and we played through it together back when the jam started. I decided to run through it again on my own, given that it has so much replay value. Plus, I got to experience both the before bug-fixes and after bug-fixes versions!

For the most part, I agree with Kenny's thoughts on the strengths & weaknesses of the different characters. (Krablam is still my favourite of the bunch, though. I had a blast rolling around and whacking everything in my path.) The others have pretty much covered the detailed feedback I would have given, so, I'll keep things short and not rehash what they've said.

This is just a really fun, unique concept for a fangame. I find it admirable that you were able to integrate all these unique fighting mechanics for the characters. There was a surprising amount of depth to it all, even with just a few simple moves. Working out the best techniques was very satisfying. I feel like there could be some tidying up of the graphics and dialogue, but, I think that might be a tricky balance with the style you're trying to go for. I have noticed a big improvement from Super Sludge Islands, though. Aspects like the UI and tiles, while still colourful, are far easier on the eyes.

"It" saying, "Bbbbbbrrrrrrrbbbrrrrrrbrbrbrrrrrr" was one of the emotional lines in the game. That hit me even harder than, "mkmmkmkm." But, that was only when I reflected back and thought to how everything was foreshadowed by "ow, -uorney." Just masterful storycrafting overall.

Great job with your work on this!

Thanks for playing and giving feedback! I'm glad you liked it! I like the feedback and will continue to try and improve on my color choices. I'm happy to see that my color balancing has seemed to improved though. Also I love your tilesets they helped make my game look a lot more polished!

And thanks for appreciating and hiding the MAJOR spoilers. I wouldn't want that excellent writing and storytelling to get spoiled. ;)

Completed Super Scientist Mountain

KennyCatches

can he catch his?

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KennyCatches

can he catch his?

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TheDogDad

I love jam

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ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

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Ekat

That One Guy's GF

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