Released Super Sludge Islands

👵👵👵 · Mar 15, 2021

Super Sludge Islands patch Released! (Fixs some minor inconvenient bugs)

fixed credits to show everyone
fixed issue when hit by autoscrolling wall, made it so you die quicker
deleted unused events
fixed crab hive mind
fixed when killing a weakpod after a diffrent monster death sound plays infinitely
fixed death in battle to kill you quicker.
fixed stars event transfer location.
fixed bug with running in battle.

TechSkylander1518 · Mar 16, 2021

This is super fun! I'm a big fan of games that use RPG Maker and try to make a platforming game out of this, and Super Sludge Islands really delivers on that! The diagonal movement and jumps make it feel like a whole new engine, and the music and artstyle is so charming! (especially that title and the heart throw animation!) And that World Map is so fun, I really love "menus" that are still so interactive like that!

Unfortunately, I seem to be at a little stopping point- I don't know if I'm just missing something, but I can't seem to jump over to this next section here-

Since the jump distance is two tiles and that gap is only one, I'm not able to hop over there. Am I missing something?

And I think you might already know this, but I get this error a lot, and I'm not really sure why-

In the meantime, a little bit of feedback-

Sludgemon have this little border around them when they slide into battle- not sure what might be causing that.

Because of how Essentials handles tiles with nothing on them, Epala's reflection tends to show up a lot in the overworld-

I know that most of the level's appearance comes from the panorama, though, so you need things to be transparent... Maybe just going over things with a transparent tile would fix that?

I think it'd be good to explain battles a bit- I was thinking they would be primarily dodging foes and kept running away from battles, not realizing it was my chance to attack when the next battle started. Or maybe you could change the "X fled!" message to something like "X went to attack!" so it's clear the next move is their attack?

I also caught a few typos here and there-

You fell pretty far but don't give up just yet! - comma after far
Befreind - Befriend
Press Z or Shift too jump- to, not too
Oh no there is all this sludge everywhere! - comma after no
I think you might be diffrent though!- different, and comma after it
and thats the smaller stars- that's
Well whatever you will figure it all out- Well, whatever,
Save the game before battles or challenges as space time - comma after challenges
and you cant save during a battle- can't

The Hot Pink Shoes are listed as "Hot Pink Shoes Quick Attack" - was that intentional? It seems a little long

👵👵👵 · Mar 16, 2021

TechSkylander1518 said:
This is super fun! I'm a big fan of games that use RPG Maker and try to make a platforming game out of this, and Super Sludge Islands really delivers on that! The diagonal movement and jumps make it feel like a whole new engine, and the music and artstyle is so charming! (especially that title and the heart throw animation!) And that World Map is so fun, I really love "menus" that are still so interactive like that!

Unfortunately, I seem to be at a little stopping point- I don't know if I'm just missing something, but I can't seem to jump over to this next section here-

View attachment 2869

Since the jump distance is two tiles and that gap is only one, I'm not able to hop over there. Am I missing something?

And I think you might already know this, but I get this error a lot, and I'm not really sure why-
View attachment 2866

In the meantime, a little bit of feedback-

Sludgemon have this little border around them when they slide into battle- not sure what might be causing that.

View attachment 2867

Because of how Essentials handles tiles with nothing on them, Epala's reflection tends to show up a lot in the overworld-

View attachment 2868

I know that most of the level's appearance comes from the panorama, though, so you need things to be transparent... Maybe just going over things with a transparent tile would fix that?

I think it'd be good to explain battles a bit- I was thinking they would be primarily dodging foes and kept running away from battles, not realizing it was my chance to attack when the next battle started. Or maybe you could change the "X fled!" message to something like "X went to attack!" so it's clear the next move is their attack?

I also caught a few typos here and there-

You fell pretty far but don't give up just yet! - comma after far
Befreind - Befriend
Press Z or Shift too jump- to, not too
Oh no there is all this sludge everywhere! - comma after no
I think you might be diffrent though!- different, and comma after it
and thats the smaller stars- that's
Well whatever you will figure it all out- Well, whatever,
Save the game before battles or challenges as space time - comma after challenges
and you cant save during a battle- can't

The Hot Pink Shoes are listed as "Hot Pink Shoes Quick Attack" - was that intentional? It seems a little long

Thanks for enjoying my game, reading this makes the 100 hours worth it! I really should have explained the new game mechanics better in-game. Jumping with Z jumps over 1 tile and jumping with Shift goes over 2. I will add some text that says that in the game too!

I have never actually gotten that error.

When does it show up?

The square border is there because I used a gif (for the animated sprites) and filled the transparency of the sprite with that shade of yellow and since everywhere where the sludgling shows up is that yellow you don’t notice it except for there! There is a reason I did that, it’s because transparent gifs don’t erase the last frame so they just draw on top of each other if that makes sense.

I actually have transparent impassable tiles all over the ground so you can’t jump and run on the background area. It doesn't eliminate the effect and I don’t know of any way of stopping it.

Yeah, I think that’s the biggest problem (except for maybe that scary error). I had installed and learned about mid-battle dialogue and was going to add a mid-battle tutorial but didn’t have enough time, but now I will implement it! I was also going to replace the “X fled” with “X is readying an attack” but I ran out of time.

Oh, the shoes are a TM so it automatically says the move after the name, I don't know how to stop that though.

Also thanks for the typos and the rest of the bugs/feedback (I really appreciate it) I'll be sure to fix all that I can! Have fun beating the demo now that you know how to get past that one spot!

TechSkylander1518 · Mar 17, 2021

👵👵👵 said:
Thanks for enjoying my game, reading this makes the 100 hours worth it! I really should have explained the new game mechanics better in-game. Jumping with Z jumps over 1 tile and jumping with Shift goes over 2. I will add some text that says that in the game too!

Ohh, I see! That's really clever!

👵👵👵 said:
I have never actually gotten that error. When does it show up?

Well, that's the unfortunate thing- it doesn't seem to have any clear cause, it's come up at various points. I think it might just be the game handling too much at once? But then, that would usually get the error of the script taking too long, not something like this...

👵👵👵 said:
The square border is there because I used a gif (for the animated sprites) and filled the transparency of the sprite with that shade of yellow and since everywhere where the sludgling shows up is that yellow you don’t notice it except for there! There is a reason I did that, it’s because transparent gifs don’t erase the last frame so they just draw on top of each other if that makes sense.

Huh, it's a shame that transparent gifs have that issue! I know there's some resources out there for making animated sprites by making a png into frames, but that'd probably be a lot of work just for the one issue lol.

👵👵👵 said:
I actually have transparent impassable tiles all over the ground so you can’t jump and run on the background area. It doesn't eliminate the effect and I don’t know of any way of stopping it.

Aw, boo!

👵👵👵 said:
Yeah, I think that’s the biggest problem (except for maybe that scary error). I had installed and learned about mid-battle dialogue and was going to add a mid-battle tutorial but didn’t have enough time, but now I will implement it! I was also going to replace the “X fled” with “X is readying an attack” but I ran out of time.

Nice, that'll be super helpful!

I can tell you right now how to change that X fled, actually! In Battler_UseMove, there's this line:

Ruby:

      @battle.pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} fled from battle!",pbThis)) { pbSEPlay("Battle flee") }

And just change that to

Ruby:

      @battle.pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is readying an attack!",pbThis)) { pbSEPlay("Battle flee") }

👵👵👵 said:
Oh, the shoes are a TM so it automatically says the move after the name, I don't know how to stop that though.

Ohh, right, of course, I forgot you don't usually write the TM name in the PBS.

👵👵👵 said:
Also thanks for the typos and the rest of the bugs/feedback (I really appreciate it) I'll be sure to fix all that I can! Have fun beating the demo now that you know how to get past that one spot!

I'm glad to help! I got to finish the rest of the demo, and I had a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to seeing the rest!

-Zigzagoon starts with "have you seen", "have" should be capitalized
-Zigzagoon says "as long as those guys didnt", should be didn't
-The sighn opens up/the sighn says it saved the treasure- sign
-Bewere of crab- Beware
-Secret crab says "havent seen anything yet", should be haven't

👵👵👵 · Mar 18, 2021

TechSkylander1518 said:
Ohh, I see! That's really clever!

Well, that's the unfortunate thing- it doesn't seem to have any clear cause, it's come up at various points. I think it might just be the game handling too much at once? But then, that would usually get the error of the script taking too long, not something like this...

Huh, it's a shame that transparent gifs have that issue! I know there's some resources out there for making animated sprites by making a png into frames, but that'd probably be a lot of work just for the one issue lol.

Aw, boo!

Nice, that'll be super helpful!

I can tell you right now how to change that X fled, actually! In Battler_UseMove, there's this line:

Ruby:

@battle.pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} fled from battle!",pbThis)) { pbSEPlay("Battle flee") }

And just change that to

Ruby:

@battle.pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is readying an attack!",pbThis)) { pbSEPlay("Battle flee") }

Ohh, right, of course, I forgot you don't usually write the TM name in the PBS.

I'm glad to help! I got to finish the rest of the demo, and I had a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to seeing the rest!

-Zigzagoon starts with "have you seen", "have" should be capitalized
-Zigzagoon says "as long as those guys didnt", should be didn't
-The sighn opens up/the sighn says it saved the treasure- sign
-Bewere of crab- Beware
-Secret crab says "havent seen anything yet", should be haven't

I got the "readying an attack" dialogue to work and it looks really nice! I don't really know what to do about the error since I can't replicate it myself but if I find out a way to fix it then I will. There will be another update soon with these implemented + more levels (maybe after the jam games are judged) and thanks for the typos and everything else too!

Foxowl · Mar 21, 2021

Hey! I played Super Sludgemon Islands on stream (vod is probably still saved on twitch Foxowl23) , and I enjoyed it. Here are some thoughts:

My thoughts:

This game is crazy and experimental and honestly, I'm really impressed with all the stuff you tried to put in here as a jam game. The platforming instantly makes the game unique among other Essentials games, and the gameplay is surprisingly complex with the platforming, Undertale-style chessboard bullet hell, and normal Pokemon battles with Sludgemon. Tech already reported a lot of the bugs I found, so I won't comment. I will say, if you lose after the Trapinch start chasing you in the Zigzagoon event, the Trapinch stay onscreen until you run the event again and new ones spawn.

I think I enjoyed Level 2's aesthetic more, and I liked all the laser mirrors, pipes, and crab Pokemon usage. The influences from Mario to Undertale are clearly seen in this game, especially in the music, and it makes it even more fun to play, since all the music choices are great!

I think the UI is a bit too bright to the point of unreadable a fair amount of the time, you could probably turn down the neon a bit.

Freind is spelled "Friend" and Construcion is spelled "Construction," unless the misspellings were intentional, in which case disregard this statement. I also didn't really know what was happening in the story at any particular moment, so you might want to try and make it more clear to the player.

This concept is very interesting and I can't wait to see what you do of it-- with a bit more polish to the story and graphics, and bug fixes, it could be a super unique and fun game!

👵👵👵 · Mar 21, 2021

Foxowl said:
Hey! I played Super Sludgemon Islands on stream (vod is probably still saved on twitch Foxowl23) , and I enjoyed it. Here are some thoughts:

My thoughts:

This game is crazy and experimental and honestly, I'm really impressed with all the stuff you tried to put in here as a jam game. The platforming instantly makes the game unique among other Essentials games, and the gameplay is surprisingly complex with the platforming, Undertale-style chessboard bullet hell, and normal Pokemon battles with Sludgemon. Tech already reported a lot of the bugs I found, so I won't comment. I will say, if you lose after the Trapinch start chasing you in the Zigzagoon event, the Trapinch stay onscreen until you run the event again and new ones spawn.

I think I enjoyed Level 2's aesthetic more, and I liked all the laser mirrors, pipes, and crab Pokemon usage. The influences from Mario to Undertale are clearly seen in this game, especially in the music, and it makes it even more fun to play, since all the music choices are great!

I think the UI is a bit too bright to the point of unreadable a fair amount of the time, you could probably turn down the neon a bit.

Freind is spelled "Friend" and Construcion is spelled "Construction," unless the misspellings were intentional, in which case disregard this statement. I also didn't really know what was happening in the story at any particular moment, so you might want to try and make it more clear to the player.

This concept is very interesting and I can't wait to see what you do of it-- with a bit more polish to the story and graphics, and bug fixes, it could be a super unique and fun game!

Thank you so much! I always love feedback. I spent most of my development time creating the combat, movement, and art and I forgot to teach the game mechanics well (and put in the story I made). I saw a bit of the vod and thought of some improvements I could make.

Foxowl said:
I think the UI is a bit too bright to the point of unreadable a fair amount of the time, you could probably turn down the neon a bit.

Thanks, I actually wasn't sure if it was too bright or not, I might change up the contrast and darkness of it as well as toning down the neon!

Foxowl said:
Freind is spelled "Friend" and Construcion is spelled "Construction," unless the misspellings were intentional, in which case disregard this statement. I also didn't really know what was happening in the story at any particular moment, so you might want to try and make it more clear to the player.

I wish it was intentional

Foxowl said:
This concept is very interesting and I can't wait to see what you do of it-- with a bit more polish to the story and graphics, and bug fixes, it could be a super unique and fun game!

Glad to hear that! I plan on fixing and adding lots of things as I continue to work on the game after the jam!

Foxowl · Mar 22, 2021

Oh, one last thing-- the door to the intro world from the world map doesn't lead to the correct tile on the map.

luxdiablo · Mar 29, 2021

Hi there! I played through Super Sludge Islands and wanted to give my thoughts!

I think the gameplay for this is very unique. I like the idea of mixing Undertale fights with Super Mario-esque levels, while also using the Pokemon battle system. It's very creative overall and I think it worked well, especially in the context of your game. The only thing that I would suggest is maybe adding a tutorial section, so the player knows what to do in battles. I was kind of confused in my first battle because it wasn't entirely clear that I should dodge the jams and whatnot. I'd suggest doing something with Swablu, where it could be like 'before you go out, let me show you how to properly fight' and such. Other than that, I think the gameplay was pretty solid.

The main thing I noticed about the story is that it was very convoluted and confusing. I think there could've been an exposition bit while the meteors were shown to be falling. Some backstory on the meteors, why they're falling, etc., etc. would be nice. I feel like the story as it is has a lot of interesting components, but they don't entirely make sense right now, so I'd suggest adding a slight bit of exposition. Another thing I noticed is that there's a lot of errors with spelling, punctuation, and capitalization that should be fixed as well. I don't know if you speak English natively, but I'd suggest running your dialogue through Grammarly or through some playtesters first.

Throughout the visuals, the game was very bright and colorful, which is fine in some instances, but not so good in others. For example, the loading screen and battle UI are practically unreadable purely because of the amount of bright color. I'd definitely look into changing that up and adding some sort of color theory to both of those UIs. The animated sprites for Sludgeling were really cool, but I couldn't really make out Sludgeling's face until I looked really closely. I think the battle sprites, specifically on Epala and Crablam, could use some better shading and spriting overall. Also, the Trapinch/Grimer graphic looks really off for some reason, mainly because you wouldn't expect a Trapinch to just dissolve into goop.

Overall, I think the game was enjoyable and the creative gameplay was definitely the highlight here. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in the future!

👵👵👵 · Mar 30, 2021

TheLuxDiablo said:
Hi there! I played through Super Sludge Islands and wanted to give my thoughts!

I think the gameplay for this is very unique. I like the idea of mixing Undertale fights with Super Mario-esque levels, while also using the Pokemon battle system. It's very creative overall and I think it worked well, especially in the context of your game. The only thing that I would suggest is maybe adding a tutorial section, so the player knows what to do in battles. I was kind of confused in my first battle because it wasn't entirely clear that I should dodge the jams and whatnot. I'd suggest doing something with Swablu, where it could be like 'before you go out, let me show you how to properly fight' and such. Other than that, I think the gameplay was pretty solid.

The main thing I noticed about the story is that it was very convoluted and confusing. I think there could've been an exposition bit while the meteors were shown to be falling. Some backstory on the meteors, why they're falling, etc., etc. would be nice. I feel like the story as it is has a lot of interesting components, but they don't entirely make sense right now, so I'd suggest adding a slight bit of exposition. Another thing I noticed is that there's a lot of errors with spelling, punctuation, and capitalization that should be fixed as well. I don't know if you speak English natively, but I'd suggest running your dialogue through Grammarly or through some playtesters first.

Throughout the visuals, the game was very bright and colorful, which is fine in some instances, but not so good in others. For example, the loading screen and battle UI are practically unreadable purely because of the amount of bright color. I'd definitely look into changing that up and adding some sort of color theory to both of those UIs. The animated sprites for Sludgeling were really cool, but I couldn't really make out Sludgeling's face until I looked really closely. I think the battle sprites, specifically on Epala and Crablam, could use some better shading and spriting overall. Also, the Trapinch/Grimer graphic looks really off for some reason, mainly because you wouldn't expect a Trapinch to just dissolve into goop.

Overall, I think the game was enjoyable and the creative gameplay was definitely the highlight here. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in the future!

Thank you so much for playing (and giving feedback)! I agree the story and gameplay are confusing, after watching someone else play it after the deadline it was very apparent. As for the (many) typos, I might have some friends test for that. And yeah, I might have gone a bit too far with making everything a bright yellow...

I'm glad it's not completely unbearable tho. I will fix all of that in a big update after the jam judging. I hope you like it enough to play when its updated :)

ThatWelshOne_ · Apr 2, 2021

Hello there! I've just played your game. I have to say, I'm so impressed with what you achieved. I had an absolute blast playing through the levels you created. Kudos!

It did take me a few tries to get used to the controls, but once I did, I was flying through the levels. I wasn't sure how to get that last star on the first level and I didn't see any stars at all on the second level. That's probably just me, though. I did notice that if you beat the game and then return to one of the levels, the stars you haven't yet obtained aren't there. I'm not sure if that was intended. Sometimes I was able to not trigger the chase scene on the first level, too. I couldn't do it consistently, so might be worth looking into that.

Like some of the others, I was confused during the first few encounters of the checkboard scene. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing (I'm still not sure I fully understand after playing through both levels). I found it slightly frustrating that the Sludgemon could flee before me attacking. Again, unsure if that's intended.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game. It was cute, colourful and unique. Definitely one of my favourites. I very much look forward to whatever comes next for Super Sludge Islands.

👵👵👵 · Apr 3, 2021

ThatWelshOne_ said:
Hello there! I've just played your game. I have to say, I'm so impressed with what you achieved. I had an absolute blast playing through the levels you created. Kudos!

It did take me a few tries to get used to the controls, but once I did, I was flying through the levels. I wasn't sure how to get that last star on the first level and I didn't see any stars at all on the second level. That's probably just me, though. I did notice that if you beat the game and then return to one of the levels, the stars you haven't yet obtained aren't there. I'm not sure if that was intended. Sometimes I was able to not trigger the chase scene on the first level, too. I couldn't do it consistently, so might be worth looking into that.

Like some of the others, I was confused during the first few encounters of the checkboard scene. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing (I'm still not sure I fully understand after playing through both levels). I found it slightly frustrating that the Sludgemon could flee before me attacking. Again, unsure if that's intended.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game. It was cute, colourful and unique. Definitely one of my favourites. I very much look forward to whatever comes next for Super Sludge Islands.

Thanks for playing, enjoying, and sharing about my game

!! (I really appreciate it.) About not finding that star and having the other stars not show up, there is one glitch (, probably an eventing error,) that despawns all of the stars and enemies in a level. I will hopefully have it fixed in the next update tho! The chase scene is also a little jank too as once you trigger the scene on one tile you can't trigger it on that same tile again (same-ish for the flying Sludglings too, if you get hit by one it doesn't come back). I probably will have those fixed in the update too! Thanks again for playing!

👵👵👵 · Jul 27, 2021

I have made some progress on my game and made a small trailer with what I have so far!

World one is about 90% done and world two is now about %25 done. The complete game will have anywhere from 3 to 8 worlds but probably will have less than 8 because that is a lot for me. If you saw my trailer then I hoped you liked it and thanks for watching!

Released Super Sludge Islands

👵👵👵

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TechSkylander1518

Wiki Dweeb

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TechSkylander1518

Wiki Dweeb

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Foxowl

Professional Procrastinator/Idiot

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Foxowl

Professional Procrastinator/Idiot

luxdiablo

Berserk Inferno

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ThatWelshOne_

Champion

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