In Development Pokémon: Bloodlines

ranko · Mar 15, 2021

Fixed all the softlocks. Please download the most current release.

AnonAlpaca · Mar 15, 2021

I'll say it again, it's really cool what can be done with PSDK! definitely gonna check this one out

Aerun · Mar 16, 2021

It's really cool & a great job!

I really like the clock cutscene!

Ekat · Mar 18, 2021

This was a very fun mini-project, Ranko!

Aesthetic

From a cutscene perspective, the game is great. I love how you figured out how to do even more dynamic movements with the camera since GoK. In addition, I appreciate how you went through the painstaking effort to make sure that your music matches up to what is going on in cutscenes. I've tried it with some of my games in the past, and it's an absolute nightmare to get just right.

The music selections were also great, and I liked the game's little sound effects. I did notice that the cutscene where the house is on fire could use some background ambiance, though. (Perhaps the sound of a wood fire crackling, as the camera pans away from the home?)

The tilesets in the game are nice, but I did want to give a few suggestions.

First, with your outdoor tileset, I think you should tweak the colour of the water. I made a quick and dirty mockup with one of your demo gifs to show what I mean. Right now, the game's water is a very bright blue, which sticks out against your more neutral colour pallet. (I just pulled colours for the mockup water from your tree bases.)

Next, it would be nice to see a few more decorations. I just made a quick list of things that came to mind that you could consider adding.

Differently-styled snow patches. (Tracks/snow angels/holes/lumps/snow balls.)
Boulders and other rock formations.
Stacks of wood, tree stumps, and axes. (Because people are likely cutting down trees for their fires. The axes would be great to have Pawniward react to.)
Smoke rising from the chimneys.
Ice floes in the water.
Variations in the trees. (Different sizes, different colours, etc.)
NPCs hanging out in the deep snow.
Smaller frozen ice falls coming down from the cliffs.

I also noticed a few tiny issues in your Pokémon Center tileset. (Mostly to do with the way the tiles align, and variation in the shadow colour.) I also believe it would make sense for the tree beside the Dark Mart Man to be in the darkness as well.

The Gameplay

The gameplay was solid for what it was. When you talked about how the game was cut short, I was not expecting nearly as much content as I got. I loved all the small events, and even the battles you did manage to fit into the world. I was super excited to see Shuppet return as well, with music and all. His letter in particular was excellent. It's good to know my destruction will pay off.

I did notice many of the blank events, but it's difficult to critique those, given your situation with the time crunch.

The Writing

I know you said you wanted critique of your writing, but I find it difficult to not just give the game a chef's kiss and leave it at that. I loved your writing in GoK, and it's still excellent here. Even though the game isn't too far in development, I like how there are already hints of some major themes. Violence, technology versus tradition... All good stuff. I especially like how you've twisted around "technology is amazing" into something far more sinister.

I think if I were to give a critique, it would be about the pacing in the intro. I believe you could to more to build up the significance of the house to the player. That would make their quest for revenge start off on a stronger note. You don't need to lore dump them, or anything, but you could add a few events in and around the house to allude to its significance. (A special mailbox? It could be implied that was what Pawniward was trying to reach. A family photo, like in the grandmother's house? Perhaps there's a rock with the date it was built and by whom outside? I'm just throwing ideas at the wall.)

From a gameplay perspective though, you don't want the intro to be overly drawn out. Most players prefer to cut straight to the action. It might be a tricky balance to build things up, while creating a sense of accomplishment/progression...

Bugs

1. I will destroy the clock. No collision shall get in my path.

1.

Overall
It's short and sweet, but your entry is still pretty enjoyable. Great work with this!

KennyCatches · Mar 18, 2021

Hey! I just played your game!

Even though it is an unfinished project, I still enjoyed it! The best part about this game and GoK is the atmosphere. The music, the cutscenes and the maps fit so perfectly I actually get immersed in your games. I can tell you put a lot of effort in the cutscenes and events, keep it up!

Looking forward to your future projects :)

ranko · Mar 19, 2021

Bloodlines 1.3 is released. Unless someone shows me something gamebreaking, this is the final patch before it gets put on the shelf for post-jam.

Fixed softlocks with trainers.
Fixed trainer transitions into battle
Fixed last cutscene.
Cleaned up priority and tile errors.
Added a reminder that this game is not played with Essentials.

ranko · Mar 22, 2021

Post-jam development is underaway, as well as a redemption project. Thank you to everyone who has played gave me your thoughts so far.

Feel free to leave feedback in my DMs as well! Anything to make this game better, it needs it.

Foxowl · Mar 30, 2021

Hey Ranko, congratulations on releasing another jam game! I beat Bloodlines in about 40 minutes and I thought I'd give you some thoughts.

My Thoughts:

Bloodlines was fun, albeit short (for obvious reasons). I really liked the setting and exploring the town and routes, collecting items, and committing needless acts of violence towards certain inanimate objects.

The aesthetic of the game is great, and I like the tiles you used. Snow tiles are always fun to see, and Bloodlines does it quite well. I also like your buildings. The little bits of lore on the Ede region and the Nesa province also helped make the town feel alive, as well as the pretty well-executed Pokemon-style dialogue/flavor text. The Gully Consortium seems real nice. The music is fitting and very calming, and worked for this presumably northern, quiet snowy setting. The game is full of little details, even if you rushed it, so it doesn't feel like a waste of time to play. I especially liked how each item has a slightly different text for when you find it (like Revival Herbs being described as bitter), and the population signs, and also the radio event. And Shuppet.

I know you tried really hard with the writing and eventing, and so I want to draw attention to the fact that it is a success here, even as just an attempt to experiment and improve. Your title screen eventing is really awesome, and it's literally unique to this fangame out of probably every other Pokemon fangame in existence. I also liked the battle intros and the arson event.

Things I like about your eventing:
-The dialogue is quirky in the Pokemon way, and I feel like you can hear it in the laughs and the slightly unrealistic way of speaking
-You use movement well and not only that, but movement speed and changing it
-Your overworld animations work and are a fun way to convey emotion and different little actions
-No dialogue feels tedious or too long, even if it goes on for a couple text boxes, and I think this is because you were so careful with fitting a line into one box

I don't have a lot of feedback on the game itself, since it's pretty short. All I can really say is it'd be nice to continue fleshing out and continuing, as your way of worldbuilding and delivering lore as well as character motivations is good and I do want to know more about the Ede region. It'd be nice to polish up some of the emptiness/rushed stuff in the second route as well, and in Grandma's house. I do think that one of the jams should cure paralysis instead of freezing because I got paralyzed way more than frozen in Bloodlines.

My biggest thing I can say is to keep on using the eventing tricks and improving from stuff you experimented with in Bloodlines. It'll be really nice to see. As much as you might want to deny it you are really really good and really driven to try new things with writing and surpass the mediocrity of Pokemon fangame writing. You're following in Pap's footsteps well, and also doing your own thing. Keep on making games!

Thanks for making the game! I had a lot of fun playing it and writing this!

Radical Raptr · Apr 5, 2021

I don't know what else to say except I wanted more.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the set up for the story I expected to go on. The cutscenes and interactions (early in the game at least) were what really drew me in, but I was quickly thrown out of the fun by little momentum speedbumps where the 4th wall was broken and I was told something wasn't finished because there was not enough time.

It was thoroughly disappointing to see that the game was largely unfinished, without even a natural stopping point or any kind of satisfying conclusion. The journey barely even began before it was ended. It was quite a shame because despite the little hiccups I was fully invested in this little journey. Knowing a bit of the behind the scenes and your initial idea for what the game would be focused on also served to make little things like named protagonists and such less of an issue, but the way it was done here felt like you were juggling too much at once and couldn't figure out how to make it satisfying enough.

As it stands right now, I fear the story felt too focused on the player and made me too invested in the particular trainer, since the game, at least in its conception, was not supposed to revolve around Livia herself, but Pawniard - and I think the dynamic between the two was very weird for how I would expect the game to progress when you shifted protagonists.

I ran in to several little annoyances along the way

Having only one language to choose from makes the language selection screen feel unnecessary.
The cursor felt very tacked on since there were instances I felt I should be able to use it, and couldn't and instances where I could use it but didn't think I would be able to.
Not being able to access the options menu prior to starting the game was a bit upsetting, especially given the loud volume - but even then, being able to access the options did not allow me to adjust the BGM, only the SE and my issue with the SE was that it wasn't a slider, so you were forced to slowly change the volume rather than set it however you wanted.
In the bag menu I felt a bit weirded out how the bags were arranged, typically the balls menu is not before the medicine menu, while the berries menu is never last, its not standard so I was wondering why this was done?
Another issue with the bag menu was it gave no description of the items, so I had oran jam and did not know what it did until I was able to buy some.
The walking srpite was misaligned, when walking down the sprite moves up whereas when walking down the sprite stays the same and bobs like normal - I believe this was to show off the legs? But thats not how it should look. (I realize this was the sprite before you change clothes, but it was what I noticed for the first few minutes of the game.
Having an unskippable intro for the game is a bit annoying if you close the game and want to pick it up again afterwards.
Finally I'll say my piece on having character being named and forced gender - its really alienating and makes the connection between the player and player character much more distant when you are playing a game where you are essentially that character - this isn't like other games this is a Pokémon game. I will say though, knowing what I know about the direction of the story, having named protagonists is actually a good idea for what you're trying to go for since the character is interchangeable while Pawniard stays constant, but the issue I ran into was feeling too attached to the player character, so I'm not sure this idea would work out as you envisioned - especially when Pawniard does not get a name entry to let me feel like its mine, and I'm essentially the Pawniard.

Overall I really enjoyed what you made, the dialogue in the early areas was very nice and made the landscape feel unique, I just wish there was more, the game felt cut short very abruptly. The music was also nice and served to make a very pleasant game - if it was entirely custom made or from something else and plopped in, it fit the game nicely and only served to make my more excited for what was to come.

emzee · Jul 27, 2021

Just finished playing it. I honestly didn't expect it to be that short. I also did enjoy Ghosts of Knowledge, as a side note! Nice cameo from

Shuppet

, too!

Just some feedback under spoilers.

You got Scatterbug and Spewpa's back sprites mixed up.
Bulbasaur being the only encounter in Feli Path was really odd, and the levels were so disproportionate to the previous route.
I agree with the other comments on how the intro should've went.

Wish there was more!

Inner Rhymes · Sep 1, 2021

This definitely looks interesting to me. I will give this a spin. The screenshots look quite appealing, and being music biff myself, I am naturally drawn to games with custom music implemented.

AenaonDogsky · Sep 1, 2021

Inner Rhymes said:
This definitely looks interesting to me. I will give this a spin. The screenshots look quite appealing, and being music biff myself, I am naturally drawn to games with custom music implemented.

I think I have seen you on Pokecommunity too! I have remastered Kanto's OST for "The First Journey", and I am working together with the lead dev on the non-jam version of the game. As far as the OST goes, there wasn't even enough time to test volume incosistencies before jam application, so I'd advise you to wait until the improved version is out! (With more and better music!)

Tomix9tomix · Jun 16, 2022

I finally got around to giving this short little demo a go today on stream! You watched me so I'm sure you know I enjoyed it, but I just wanted to say it here.

It was a short demo but by exploring and interacting with everything (and fainting once), I was able to get nearly an hour out of it. This game is the pinnacle of character, all the little events have so much flavour! And all the characters feel so fun! The two baddies, the hacker with his spinning sneasel, do I even have to mention Khuhuhu.

But yes, loved this little demo, I hope you continue it one day but I know you have a lot on your hands as it is.

ranko · Oct 11, 2022

Hey there! This game's development is once again under development. We are dedicated to finishing this project to it's completion.

Here's a slight redesign of the first area, and taste of the OST that will be in the game!

The game will have a fully original sound-track, massively updated graphic polish, and a complete story.

Tomix9tomix · Oct 11, 2022

Ranko said:
Hey there! This game's development is once again under development. We are dedicated to finishing this project to it's completion.

Here's a slight redesign of the first area, and taste of the OST that will be in the game!

View attachment 13096

The game will have a fully original sound-track, massively updated graphic polish, and a complete story.

That music is so bloody hot. Love it and looking forward to some more of Bloodlines!

ranko · Dec 8, 2022

Good news everyone! Bloodlines has gotten quite a face-lift in the past few months! And even better...

We are looking for the following:

(HIGH PRIORITY) Strong Map Design/Level Design/Mappers

Sprite Animator for Gen-5 Style Fakémon Sprites

Overworld Sprite/Tileset Artist (Gen 4/Flexible)

If you are interested in this project but feel your work warrants a commission instead, please let me know. Check out the Recruitment Thread here for more details and even a custom track or two...!

ranko · May 21, 2023

Hello everyone! Some updates on Pokemon Bloodlines!

We have taken down the old download link as the current build is too different from the demo version for it to stay on this thread. It will be replaced when it's ready.

We have a new title screen! The title screen was done by @StarGazaArt (Twitter), and the logo work is done by @Pyvetal (Twitter), with edits done by MikeCakes of the Bloodlines team.

Bloodlines will feature a fully original OST, with a few revamps of songs to fit the Bloodlines piano style. Take a listen of a few here!

And lastly, we have grown the Bloodlines team to twice it's size in the original demo version, and are looking for one more crucial member! If you are familiar with the PSDK code-base, please hit us if you are interested in helping us implement region-specific phenomena and features!

That's all! See you all again...some time!

Dragor33 · May 21, 2023

OOH OOH!!

Tomix9tomix · May 21, 2023

Now this is pog

But for real, it is awesome seeing this game continuing to be worked on. I'm really looking forward to what is to come.

In Development Pokémon: Bloodlines

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

Why Do People Call Me A GOAT

Pixel Beartist

That One Guy's GF

can he catch his?

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

Professional Procrastinator/Idiot

Bug Maniac

Novice

Trainer

Arbiter of Doggos

The beetle is waking up

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

The beetle is waking up

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

(HIGH PRIORITY) Strong Map Design/Level Design/Mappers ​

Sprite Animator for Gen-5 Style Fakémon Sprites ​

Overworld Sprite/Tileset Artist (Gen 4/Flexible) ​

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

Novice

The beetle is waking up

(HIGH PRIORITY) Strong Map Design/Level Design/Mappers

Sprite Animator for Gen-5 Style Fakémon Sprites

Overworld Sprite/Tileset Artist (Gen 4/Flexible)