Released The Last Nurse Joy

If a battle doesn't go in your favour, or the journey is just too harsh, the Nurse Joys and their strange machine are there to make sure the game goes on unhindered. Being able to take a Pokemon from battered and bruised to stable seems like magic. Still, it's a magic that no-one really questions.
But even magic had to be invented at some point. Some people in the Pokemon world today were alive when the machine didn't exist.

...And some nurse Joy, right at the bottom of the Pokemon world, had to be the last to get it.


The year is 198X. A team of top-class scientists (and one nurse) from across the globe are anxiously waiting for the storm to end. They're one of the few to work in Antaxius 'overwinter' - it's the last region to be discovered by man, an icy waste where the nights are a month long. Once the weather finally clears, an icebreaker ship can make it to the mainland and deliver valuable equipment. Among the cargo is the Re:Vive - a machine that promises to magically heal any Pokemon, and any ailment.

Resident nurse Aida has been working here for 20 years, and out of all the miracle cures she's seen, this one could be for real. She knows it'll change the field of Pokemon care forever, and possibly the rest of the world. No more panic, no more stress, no more death, even.
But how will she spend the last week before that change happens, knowing things can't and shouldn't go back?



The Last Nurse Joy won't have traditional Pokemon gameplay (mostly) - instead, it's more of a slow-paced puzzle game. Each patient will have an ailment that needs to be treated - but unlike vets in our world, a Nurse Joy has to deal with over eight hundred different kinds of pets.
Most of the puzzle lies in finding out what the issue is, or getting a finicky patient to co-operate with you!


~Take your patient's temperature, measure their heartbeat, or even X-Ray them at the blue observation desk.
~Have a look at their anatomy, or find out if Ice-Types can catch a cold at the green diagnosis bookshelf.
~Pick up everything you'll need to treat, feed, or comfort your patient at the red treatment table!
~If you're completely stuck, try the hint chair.
~You can get a lot out of just observing your Pokemon, and more importantly - you can pet all of them.
Once that's done, talk to Chansey to lock in your treatment, and see if your judgement was right...

Depending on how well you've done your job, you can get a Bronze, Silver, or a Gold ranking. There are 6 cases total in the game (with bonus cases potentially being added in the future once the judging is done. I'll keep you updated on that.) How many extra steps you took to make sure the Pokemon was happy, if you even succeeded in treating the Pokemon; all of that determines your rank, and...eventually, the ending you get.

Oh - and digging a little deeper into the where, why, and how of your patient's injury could lead to something special, but you'll have to find that yourself.

Note: this game depicts animal injury and distress in a semi-realistic way.

Main Game
Resource Pack
Credits Text File


MAIN TEAM:
AnonAlpaca - Lead Dev (Lead Dev???) for the game.
TechSkylander - Provided three custom scripts for the game - Drawers, Scoring, and a Medical Summary - and also bugtested most of the game. (Go check out those scripts, they should be linked on this page when they post them!)
Pantastic - Sprited some Pokemon, then both designed and sprited both Dr. Clementine and Dr. Garcia, who, she would like to clarify, is "the best character."
AceTrainerAvery - Made fogs, a few cutscenes, and composed some original music tracks for the game! Aida's theme is a certified hood classic.

Spoiler: Public Resources

Tilesets

Firstly...
I'll put a Content Warning for some blood, cuts, bruising, injury on cases 1&6. It's nothing gory, but if you don't want to see that, I totally understand.
Secondly...

Thirdly...
If you want to talk more about this game, then you can join a (temporary) Discord server dedicated to it. It's a tiny bit barren at the moment since I kind of forgot to maintain it amongst all the stress of the jam game, but here's the invite anyway. If you want to contact me personally - if there's any issues with crediting, if I need to include anything else on this thread, then feel free to reply, and we can continue our conversation in Discord DMs.

Lastly...
This is my first time being a lead dev as opposed to a lead spriter, and while there were a lot of growing pains involved and a lot of mistakes I undoubtedly made, I'm still immensely happy that I could put out a complete story, and thankful for everyone that helped make this happen.
I hope the Last Nurse Joy...brings you joy?