Released Pokémon Convert

Jonpluff · Aug 12, 2020

For those interested, I took some of my favorite tracks from Pokémon Convert and uploaded them onto Soundcloud. This Game Jam was a lot of fun and I'm excited to make updates to this game in the future. Thanks! :)
Link

Jonpluff · Aug 18, 2020

Updated to version 1.2
Change log includes changes such as:
Balanced the level for difficult areas
Balance the volume for loud battle music
Reduced prices for some vendors
Removed a bugged Wartortle NPC
Changed Kanto Pokedex to National Dex

luxdiablo · Aug 24, 2020

Hi! I haven't fully finished the game, so some of my comments may be inaccurate. I'm currently facing Blaine (I think?), and I'm having a lot of trouble, so I decided to pause the game temporarily and come back to it at a later date. My team at the moment is as follows:
- Braum (Marshtomp) Lv. 29
- Esnek (Scraggy) Lv. 32
- Saurus (Bayleef) Lv. 33
- Eon (Eevee) Lv. 32
- Venogouge (Whirlipede) Lv. 29
- Chansey Lv. 32

This game is very interesting. It has a very serious premise and I think the premise of the game is a very solid idea. It feels unique, in a sense, and I severely doubt that anyone's ever done anything similar to this before, so kudos. So far, the biggest thing that I'll attribute to this game is its premise, though. I think that the idea overall is really neat and with the right execution, could be done well.

I apologize if this is lengthy. In no way did I dislike the game, but I did have my gripes with it. The first thing that I'd like to bring up is the lack of context. I know that I didn't finish the game, and optimistically, I assume that there was some context given, but for as much as I did play, there was nothing. There's a lot going on in this story, which is fine, but I was left completely confused. Why did the style switch? What's a barrier? Who is the Celebi? Why am I on a mission? What is the SC? Why are the Pokemon talking? Where did Shadow Pokemon come from? I had a lot of questions throughout my playthrough. The second thing I'd like to bring up is balancing. The levels, generally, were a bit high, which is fine, because I managed pretty well by catching some Pokemon. The main thing that concerns me is the Shadow typing. I don't know if you altered it, or if its meant to be this way, but it feels like Shadow is super effective to literally all of my Pokemon, and I had a pretty diverse team. The reason I stopped where I did is because no matter how much I trained or caught new Pokemon, I couldn't beat Blaine, purely because he'd OHKO all of my Pokemon with a super-effective Shadow Rush. This was REALLY annoying to me, as it felt like the only solution to beat him was to overlevel my Pokemon, which I didn't want to have to do. My final issue with the game is the music. Some of the music choices felt very... odd, namely the battle themes. The overworld themes were fine, but the battle themes didn't feel like battles. I didn't get that sense of intensity from any of the battles purely because the music, at times, was a remix of the Pokemon Center theme, which made no sense. If these issues were fixed, the game would be a lot more enjoyable in my opinion.

- Various passability issues, namely on the orange trees, on the Lacunosa house, etc.
- There should be a healer on Route 4, at least in my opinion
- If I lose to any of the SC grunts at Enso River, I teleport to the beginning and the game proceeds as if nothing happened.
- If I lose to Agatha or Blaine, my character sprite stays in the Gen 3 style
- I never saw my rival exit the areas. He only stayed put, and somehow ended up wherever I was. If I went to the gym area, he was there. If I returned to the truck, he was there. There were times he was 'restrained', but if I went to the truck, he was there.

Jonpluff · Aug 25, 2020

TheLuxDiablo said:
Hi! I haven't fully finished the game, so some of my comments may be inaccurate. I'm currently facing Blaine (I think?), and I'm having a lot of trouble, so I decided to pause the game temporarily and come back to it at a later date. My team at the moment is as follows:
- Braum (Marshtomp) Lv. 29
- Esnek (Scraggy) Lv. 32
- Saurus (Bayleef) Lv. 33
- Eon (Eevee) Lv. 32
- Venogouge (Whirlipede) Lv. 29
- Chansey Lv. 32

This game is very interesting. It has a very serious premise and I think the premise of the game is a very solid idea. It feels unique, in a sense, and I severely doubt that anyone's ever done anything similar to this before, so kudos. So far, the biggest thing that I'll attribute to this game is its premise, though. I think that the idea overall is really neat and with the right execution, could be done well.

I apologize if this is lengthy. In no way did I dislike the game, but I did have my gripes with it. The first thing that I'd like to bring up is the lack of context. I know that I didn't finish the game, and optimistically, I assume that there was some context given, but for as much as I did play, there was nothing. There's a lot going on in this story, which is fine, but I was left completely confused. Why did the style switch? What's a barrier? Who is the Celebi? Why am I on a mission? What is the SC? Why are the Pokemon talking? Where did Shadow Pokemon come from? I had a lot of questions throughout my playthrough. The second thing I'd like to bring up is balancing. The levels, generally, were a bit high, which is fine, because I managed pretty well by catching some Pokemon. The main thing that concerns me is the Shadow typing. I don't know if you altered it, or if its meant to be this way, but it feels like Shadow is super effective to literally all of my Pokemon, and I had a pretty diverse team. The reason I stopped where I did is because no matter how much I trained or caught new Pokemon, I couldn't beat Blaine, purely because he'd OHKO all of my Pokemon with a super-effective Shadow Rush. This was REALLY annoying to me, as it felt like the only solution to beat him was to overlevel my Pokemon, which I didn't want to have to do. My final issue with the game is the music. Some of the music choices felt very... odd, namely the battle themes. The overworld themes were fine, but the battle themes didn't feel like battles. I didn't get that sense of intensity from any of the battles purely because the music, at times, was a remix of the Pokemon Center theme, which made no sense. If these issues were fixed, the game would be a lot more enjoyable in my opinion.

- Various passability issues, namely on the orange trees, on the Lacunosa house, etc.
- There should be a healer on Route 4, at least in my opinion
- If I lose to any of the SC grunts at Enso River, I teleport to the beginning and the game proceeds as if nothing happened.
- If I lose to Agatha or Blaine, my character sprite stays in the Gen 3 style
- I never saw my rival exit the areas. He only stayed put, and somehow ended up wherever I was. If I went to the gym area, he was there. If I returned to the truck, he was there. There were times he was 'restrained', but if I went to the truck, he was there.

Hello Lux thanks for giving the game a shot! I'm sorry that you had difficulties getting through that portion of the game, but I can give you some advice and answer the questions/concerns that you had.

The idea was something that I've thought about for a while now. The premise is something that I thought would be interesting to explore through the lens of a Pokemon game so I'm glad you liked it.

Thank you for the lengthy response. I need all the feedback I can get because I want to polish this game a lot more in the future. In terms of the context, the amount of information I provide is intentionally limited. I attempted to slowly ease the player into the plot rather than overload the player with information. But to clarify some things, I can explain things a little further.

So the style switch is due to the shadow cleansers. The organization alters the world in order to make it seem more simplistic. Since the world they create appears more mundane and "old-school" it can be easier to control people to do their bidding. I wanted to convey this idea without overtly saying it so I thought changing the graphical style could get the idea across.

And for the barrier I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly so if you could clarify that would be greatly appreciated :). As for who is Celebi, why are you on a mission and where did the shadow pokemon come from, those will be explained later.

And for an explanation on why the pokemon talk, they just do in this universe. There are instances in the Pokemon anime (such as Slowking in Pokemon: The Movie 2000 and Mewoth from Team Rocket) where they can talk so I thought I'd make an entire game where they all can speak. I think it provides an interesting perspective on how pokemon and humans can coexist together and add more depth to the world. And for the who the sc is, they are the organization you are originally a part of at the start of the game. There are cutscenes within the game that slowly explain to you who they are and what there motivations are.

So in terms of shadow pokemon there are some things I left in the game that makes shadow type a lot more manageable. After speaking to 633 in the RV he created a machine that allows you to catch shadow types from trainers. These shadow types and this mechanic are based from the same ones from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness and Pokemon Colosseum. Aside from that, there is an azumarill with the ability huge power you can hire at the mercenary shop of that town that is very effective against the blaine look-alike. Also since shadow rush is a physical attack, there is a willowisp tm that can cut enemies attack stat in half due to burn (which is found in the route below June Island) and there is a vendor in the south of the town that sells eviolites.

And for the music, I am a novice composer so sorry that some of the battle music didn't fit the atmosphere as well. I took an electronics music course a month prior so I wanted to compose most of the music within the game. I saw that in your description you are a composer yourself so I'd love to know if you have some insight on how I can improve further in that area. And with the pokemon centre mixes, I intentionally wrote those parts for the shadow cleanser (sc). In the introduction it's explained that one of their main goals is to heal shadow types. So I primarily made their music and battle music different renditions of the pokemon centre song to add a musical theme that aligns to the goals of the organization.

- Thank you, I didn't notice haha.
- I was told by the relic castle discord that content changes such as adding a pokemon centre is prohibited so I am waiting until the results of the game jam are in to add that.
- From the cutscene in enso river, it is not required to beat those two trainers. They are there to "teach you a lesson" and there is not any additional content if you beat them.
- Haha i need to fix that thnx.
- I need to fix that too oops lol.

[/QUOTE]

Thank you again for your detailed response on playing the game. I respect you as a game dev from your work developing the Pokemon Parallax entry so this is some very valuable information. I'll fix the bugs you caught and I'd love to hear any more advice you have!

luxdiablo · Aug 25, 2020

Jonpluff said:
Hello Lux thanks for giving the game a shot! I'm sorry that you had difficulties getting through that portion of the game, but I can give you some advice and answer the questions/concerns that you had.

The idea was something that I've thought about for a while now. The premise is something that I thought would be interesting to explore through the lens of a Pokemon game so I'm glad you liked it.

Thank you for the lengthy response. I need all the feedback I can get because I want to polish this game a lot more in the future. In terms of the context, the amount of information I provide is intentionally limited. I attempted to slowly ease the player into the plot rather than overload the player with information. But to clarify some things, I can explain things a little further.

So the style switch is due to the shadow cleansers. The organization alters the world in order to make it seem more simplistic. Since the world they create appears more mundane and "old-school" it can be easier to control people to do their bidding. I wanted to convey this idea without overtly saying it so I thought changing the graphical style could get the idea across.

And for the barrier I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly so if you could clarify that would be greatly appreciated :). As for who is Celebi, why are you on a mission and where did the shadow pokemon come from, those will be explained later.

And for an explanation on why the pokemon talk, they just do in this universe. There are instances in the Pokemon anime (such as Slowking in Pokemon: The Movie 2000 and Mewoth from Team Rocket) where they can talk so I thought I'd make an entire game where they all can speak. I think it provides an interesting perspective on how pokemon and humans can coexist together and add more depth to the world. And for the who the sc is, they are the organization you are originally a part of at the start of the game. There are cutscenes within the game that slowly explain to you who they are and what there motivations are.

So in terms of shadow pokemon there are some things I left in the game that makes shadow type a lot more manageable. After speaking to 633 in the RV he created a machine that allows you to catch shadow types from trainers. These shadow types and this mechanic are based from the same ones from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness and Pokemon Colosseum. Aside from that, there is an azumarill with the ability huge power you can hire at the mercenary shop of that town that is very effective against the blaine look-alike. Also since shadow rush is a physical attack, there is a willowisp tm that can cut enemies attack stat in half due to burn (which is found in the route below June Island) and there is a vendor in the south of the town that sells eviolites.

And for the music, I am a novice composer so sorry that some of the battle music didn't fit the atmosphere as well. I took an electronics music course a month prior so I wanted to compose most of the music within the game. I saw that in your description you are a composer yourself so I'd love to know if you have some insight on how I can improve further in that area. And with the pokemon centre mixes, I intentionally wrote those parts for the shadow cleanser (sc). In the introduction it's explained that one of their main goals is to heal shadow types. So I primarily made their music and battle music different renditions of the pokemon centre song to add a musical theme that aligns to the goals of the organization.

- Thank you, I didn't notice haha.
- I was told by the relic castle discord that content changes such as adding a pokemon centre is prohibited so I am waiting until the results of the game jam are in to add that.
- From the cutscene in enso river, it is not required to beat those two trainers. They are there to "teach you a lesson" and there is not any additional content if you beat them.
- Haha i need to fix that thnx.
- I need to fix that too oops lol.

Thank you again for your detailed response on playing the game. I respect you as a game dev from your work developing the Pokemon Parallax entry so this is some very valuable information. I'll fix the bugs you caught and I'd love to hear any more advice you have![/QUOTE]

Hi! Nice to see some of my concerns being addressed.

I must've missed 633 mentioning the shadow catcher in the RV, my mistake. Also, I figured that the context was left out intentionally, I just wish that maybe the NPCs could have at least hinted as to what was going on, in a sense? I feel like the funny dialogue is allowable for sure, but overuse can ruin the immersion and confuse the player. Also, in terms of the battle music, I think that it would be best if you did some analysis research on existing battle themes. You'll notice that these themes feel more intense, jumpy, using heavy bass and drums, and they're generally pretty fast. I completely understand if you're a novice, though, and I just want to help you become even better in the future! Also, I think the grammar is off at some points, like with the two trainers at Enso River, which is where I got confused.

That being said, I'll definitely look into the stuff you mentioned and continue my playthrough. Thanks!

ranko · Dec 19, 2020

Hey I completed your game (as in, I got to the ending) ! Great job submitting a Game Jam Project, which is a feat of its own!

opinion, everyone is free to disagree

This game had quite a lot of unique ideas, and introduced a lot of new things as well, so I'm thinking of how to start this out...

The story of this game did a lot of interesting turns (a particular early part hit a bit close to home), but the pacing of which feels a bit all over the place, as well as the context of the game. I think the setting may be a bit too unique for it's own good, if you catch my drift. This becomes a problem when you're introducing so many new concepts and ideas that while may connect with each other technically, is really hard to explain and provide context for without making the player feel lost with questions (most of them being "why"). All Pokémon being able to talk in universe felt a bit weird as a new rule, like it was kind of added there without much reasoning other than, they do.

I also thought it was a bit awkward how you could change your pronouns and stuff but only after picking your name (kinda hurt the whole point, y'know?) since the very first cutscene was choosing your name. Yes, technically you said "what would you LIKE to be called", but seeing this at the beginning I thought I was naming a unrelated Male MC rather than actually myself, like most games, so I was basically playing a girl with the male name for the entire game. Overall, while I think the premise has potential to be fine, it could use a lot of polish. Maybe a beginning scrolling cutscene outlining what this universe entails of would work? Usually, I really like subtlety in games, but there is just so much to question here that goes against what normally Pokémon games entail of that it becomes confusing. I'm not one of those people who are a purist to say you can't like, do anything new or different but you also can't just throw out literally everything about a typical Pokémon world and then not tell the player that this is happening, y'know? It's important to ease the player through new concepts as well as context for the story. I think the dialogue and writing in general could prove to use a lot more polish as well.

Gameplay was pretty frustrating, not going to lie. I can't count the amount of times I wiped to the trainers in this game. Shadow Pokémon are really really really powerful, hard to wall, and that doesn't include the overleveled Pokémon I had to get through to get to them, and sometimes there are multiple of them on the same team. Shadow moves pretty much OHKO'd everything that had a dual type while 2HKOing everything else besides other Shadow Pokémon, who can only hit those Shadow Pokémon with Shadow moves (which is resisted). It felt pretty unfair that my opponents has Shadow Pokémon with moves but I didn't. So I could only beat this game by cheesing through it by soft resetting if I didn't catch the Shadow Pokémon in one throw, and then trying to out-evasion the other trainer's Pokémon with Sand-Attack. Furthermore, each trainer had a tad too many Pokémon and each of them too strong, especially if they had Shadow Pokémon (which, most trainers did).

I'd recommend not giving normal trainers so many Shadow Pokémon and fixing the level curve significantly. In general, I would also lower the amount of Pokémon each trainer had on average, and lower the rate of trainers in quick succession. I also really disliked the cave encounters, which sucked more since repels were expensive due to wiping out and my mons being too underleveled to use them anyway and said cave was veeery veeery long.

The graphical changes and generational differences, while clever, was incredibly jarring. I understand the intent, but it plain out doesn't look very good, especially when a Gen 3 Overworld and a Gen 5 Overworld were in the same room.

It felt like you were pushing a lot of new and original concepts into this game, which I really respect! I'm big on experiments, so I know where you're coming from. I think it's a good idea to tone down ambitions and polish on the stuff that is working first, though. I hope to keep seeing you around! Good luck <3

Released Pokémon Convert

Jonpluff

Novice

Jonpluff

Novice

luxdiablo

Berserk Inferno

Jonpluff

Novice

luxdiablo

Berserk Inferno

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare