Released Pokemon Hunt For the Yeti!

Elle · Feb 22, 2020

Hurray for team snow tiles; I love it! :D

Tomix9tomix · Feb 22, 2020

Elle said:
Hurray for team snow tiles; I love it! :D

legit, winter jam got everyone in a snowy mood

Foxowl · Feb 23, 2020

Known bugs (To be fixed soon)

Walking near the edges in Lower Rocky Cave will cause the player to disappear (snap edges)
Priority error on the cash register in Gear Shop
All trainer battle themes don't play
The bike in gear shop is passable
Swinub sidequest in Talaboche doesn't give you a choice when it should
I forgot to put stuff in one of the Talaboche houses
assorted tile errors
Talking to Tasha in the gear shop occasionally softlocks the game

Foxowl · Feb 24, 2020

V1.1 is out!

Fixed:
basically everything I mentioned above- the cave, the priority error, the battle themes, the bike, and the talaboche house, as well as the softlock (probably).
Forgot some of the other stuff like tile errors and the swinub quest but those aren't too important and will be fixed later.

AngelusMortis · Feb 25, 2020

I just finished Hunt for the Yeti and I got to say, this was been a good time.

Where to start with this...

I love winter, aside from snow sadly not being an issue with work, and for this being the first Winter Jam, you definitely captured the winter aspect of it with all the snow.

The story seems like it is going to be a great one and I can't wait for the next installment in the demo to drop.

The little details you added to the mandatory map to make it your own are very nice.

I did find a few bugs/errors/ECT I would like to share with you.

Deerling... As much as I wanted to add it to my party for Ground/Rock types, the game crashed everytime I managed to catch it. I can share the error it gave me via DMs in Discord if you'd like.

If, for some reason, the player manages to lose the last battle, it can prompt the battle a second time immediately after your party is revived by the nurse at that location. And, should the player win that time, it will soft lock the player during the intended move route. I'd consider moving the nurse to an indoor location to keep it from happening.

There were others I found, but I have the original version of the game and above messages said that you had fixed them, so I will look into that version to cross-check mine before reporting them once the jam has concluded.

Job well down, Fox and team. I hope to see the next installment of this in the future and more games from y'all.

Foxowl · Mar 1, 2020

V1.2 is out!
Changelog:
Deerling no longer crashes the game!
I moved the nurses into tents so that the event in Second Camp no longer automatically activates upon respawn.

I recommend if you're updating and you've already gotten to First or Second Camp to go inside and reset your spawn point with the nurse. Not doing so may have bad consequences.

Additionally, thanks for playing, Kirik. I'm glad you enjoyed the game and I at least am also looking forward to continuing this project!

SmokedPaprika · Mar 9, 2020

Hi Foxowl! Great job on your jam game! I just finished it, and I'll give you some thoughts!

Some early game stuff, really quick: I like the effect you're going for, but it needs some revamping; the flashing title screen is just too strong of an effect and doesn't land on the eyes super well. And another visual thing in the intro cutscene is that the red text just does NOT look super good against that grey backdrop, which is something worth looking into.

I like your attempt at delving into different character personalities, though! I get a feeling for who each character kind of is, but at the same time, they're very inactive in the story, and you don't really see what the character's PURPOSE in the story is. So you've got a good start on that level, just gotta work on pulling me into the world with them too.

You use music definitely to your advantage for the most part, I get a vague sense of the tone the game is going for once again in the music choices you use. Again, it's really important, in my opinion, that you use music that isn't super popular or culturally relevant when making a fangame, so your good choices make the game feel way more unique. That said, I think that "story relevant" character battle music is way too intense from the get-go, and that specific track should be used for the late-game final battle primarily. Secondly, the main trainer theme is very short, and I'd recommend a larger cycle.

That said, I would work on making your cutscenes more interesting. When they're primarily characters just standing around spitting dialogue at each other, it's easy to lose sense of who's talking, and it also takes away from the tone and personality of your game. That said, dialogue from NPC is GENERALLY relevant and tasteful, but I think an extra kick of charm could do wooooonders for the world you're developing. Thank you for generally staying away from meme humor and random jokes that would kick me right out of your world.

That said, you made a joke about not knowing what kind of dialogue to give trainers when you encounter them. I think something a lot of people struggle with is trainer motivation. I think you often find that it's hard to give trainers motivation because you think it must be something unique and grandiose, but something as simple as, say, "I want to see how strong my Rattata is!" or "I don't like the way you're looking at me, punk. Wanna fight?" is great for basic routes! In a story like this, maybe... "Hey, you can't be here, I'M the one that's gonna reach the top first!" or "No, I won't let you pass! It's too dangerous! What? You don't care?! Why you... if you won't listen to reason, maybe you'll listen to a Pokemon battle!" Perhaps that last one was too long. But you get the point!

I will say, the strongest point of the game is definitely your mapping. They're built well, nice to explore, and have personality and charm to them. The only thing I could remotely complain about is cave encounter rates and the fact you have Sneasel as a regular encounter, which makes running from them really frustrating. If you're going to have a big cave section, I would recommend also having a story even take place in the cave section as well - otherwise, as a required, linear passage I have to wander through, it feels a bit like filler made to have me grind more than I really need to.

Two minor little things I noticed:
Cryogonal disappears mid-walk cycle.
I can pick up the choice specs through the wall in the bottom cave section, which allows me to skip the psychic trainer battle.

Great job on finishing your jam! You had a charming idea, and very very nice mapping, and I just want to see you improve on that execution a teensy bit more! Keep it up, Foxowl!

ranko · Mar 17, 2020

Hello! I completed your game. Congratulations of making a fleshed out experience! That's very hard to do. Here's my review.

Disclaimer: This is my opinion given from my perspective as a player. This is just highlighting my personal experience and anyone else playing may have different thoughts.

I really liked this game! It's definitely a solid title. I think there were a lot of small hiccups in the game-play and progression that hindered my experience at certain points, but overall, I do really like what you did in this game.

First, I really appreciate your commitment to cutscenes and the characters, and I can tell you put a lot of effort into making those parts work. In terms of having multiple characters on screen however, it got a bit confusing to figure out who who was talking to at points, even with the Name Tags in play. Especially when I got to parts where all the characters were knitly close together and everyone commenting on other people. Some things to consider would be map scrolling, more character movement, different text boxes (text color is hard to see, i would not recommend that), a few frames of waiting between implied pauses in dialogue etc. I also feel there was a lot of exposition at certain parts of the game, and I think cleaning up the dialogue would do a lot for the game in general.

I'm saying that because the setting for this game is REALLY strong imo! I like how you're introducing characters that revolve around the main objective, reocurring characters some of which are even optional, the mapping is really spiffy and beautiful at the same time, and there's a strong build-up to the mountain expedition and the Yeti that I was really sad to see cut short! I know you only had a month to make the game, so I will bide my time until then. Really looking forward to what everyone's up to post-jam and how the writing plays out.

The gameplay and progression wasn't bad, but I feel it could've been improved. I also got lost in the details a few times after dialogue ended, I gotta admit. One specific hiccup was that I couldn't find a merchant, and sort of assumed it was more of a survival game. I ran out of PokéBalls and tried to exit the cave the first time I went in, only to have the way blocked out (the one in the jam map), making it impossible to return home until for some reason, after making it to the 2nd camp, I decided to backtrack all the way back and it ended up working again. I also ended up finding the merchant too, after talking to everyone in the town again. After the "look for a guide section", I just assumed everyone didn't have any more dialogue for me, only to find out the merchant was one of the guys in the building lol. While I appreciate the detail that he has bonus dialogue during that segment, I feel like placing him a little bit to make it more obvious he was a merchant might be better, as some people don't really talk to people twice in a row and he looks identical to the other guys in the Gear Shop. Another thing I thought would make sense is to having traveling merchants at the various camps, but that was way before I decided to backtrack to the main house.

Pokémon variety could be a little bit better. While yes, it's a Winter Jam Game, and a lot of Ice-type Pokémon technically makes sense and it's a cute idea, it made it a bit difficult to fight things sometimes when you, for example, only have Aurora Beam to hit other Ice-types. At certain points, I felt like I was encouraged to just use Rotom and steamroll everything, but I stuck it out anyway, and found a lot of value in a lot of the mons I caught as they leveled (although I started to have to skip encounters since they couldn't beat anything quickly). The Pokémon variety hits the hardest when having to fight the boss with 2 fully evolved Fighting-type Pokémon, which I was able to beat by cheesing and death fodder plays, because even the non-Ice options were weak to Fighting! While I appreciate a challenge, I feel as the best way to supplement a challenge is by allowing a variety of options to tackle said challenges. I'm not exactly saying to just give me stuff that stomps the competition, but overall I would appreciate a decent enough defensive synergy to play with. I ran with 4 Pokémon and was still a bit lower leveled than the final boss, the level balancing was pretty okay although a level 35 Machamp REALLY threw me off at first. I do like how the Fighting-type Pokémon have stuff like Foresight to discourage Rotom spam, so I did notice that part of the game design. Also, I'd like to point out the lack of useful Pokémon to play around with the moment you start with the grass. Sneasel for example, only had stuff like Metal Claw and I think mostly every encounter had to be babied to become useful (Sneasel only became good after it learned Beat Up and I caught more mons, Cryogonal basically was death fodder most of the time unless I fought something that magically didn't resist Ice and had no Fighting/Rock moves, Probopass just didn't work haha). I do also notice that a lot of luxury items were thrown around here and there like Choice Specs and Scarf. I found it odd at first, but they were useful so I played with them anyway. I think that's all I can think of at the moment. My thoughts might have gotten lost while typing and thinking. Apologies for that.

Basically, I'd dig a bit few more layers deep into the game design if you ever find the time as well as cleaning up a lot of everything else. This was a strong title. Great job again!

emzee · Jun 30, 2021

Hi! Currently playing and while I enjoy it so far (only up to second camp atm), I get an error that crashes my game. It's when I try to trade my swinub for the numel. Other than that no issues yet. I'll update with my thoughts when I get to as far as I can go.

Update: Wow that cliffhanger! I had fun with the game and I can't wait for the final release!

Released Pokemon Hunt For the Yeti!

Elle

Maker of Many and Finisher of Few

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

Foxowl

Professional Procrastinator/Idiot

Foxowl

Professional Procrastinator/Idiot

AngelusMortis

Novice

Foxowl

Professional Procrastinator/Idiot

SmokedPaprika

Stinky Person

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

emzee

Novice