A Speed-up button in Fan Games. (Do or Don't)

[Ice]

I personally don't see any real problems with a speed-up button. It allows for people to skip through the parts of experiences they don't care about. I don't feel comfortable as a creator curating how people should experience this game I made for them. Games as an art-medium are about choice, and I like the idea of adding an option that gives the player more options in what part of the game they aren't that interested in. Retreading a route, grinding, hatching, I feel like a speed-up button there is just a quality-of-life improvement.

 

[Kawaiiski]

Speed buttons are okay. I don't mind them for any kind of gameplay, buuut sometimes in general they can make one skip a few things. ...Especially Let's Players. I keep up with MunchingOrange and he uses the speed button when available, resulting in some rather preventable deaths. Now, I ain't about to sit here and say that he's the best Pokemon player in the world-- he can be rather frustrating to watch, in fact. Still, sometimes that even happens on grindy sections, so it's not always wholly his fault. I find that I also can have a tendency of losing my focus when grinding and-- whoops! Pokemon drops faint for some reason I couldn't see. Annnd now I have to drag out my next Pokemon that might be weak to this Trainer. ...Whoops.

In general though, I think it's a good idea. Just... be mindful when playing. Which is a given, but a hard rule to actually implement.

I would worry about it being implemented in Pokemon Essentials, though. I could be completely out of the loop-- actually, I am-- but isn't that hard to implement? Didn't someone try that several years ago and it didn't work as well...? And even if it does, a Fangame can lag-- a lot, sometimes. It depends, really, on a LOT of key factors (and that's a whole other bag of worms people can't 100% figure out) but yeah. *Shrugs*

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

Speed buttons are okay. I don't mind them for any kind of gameplay, buuut sometimes in general they can make one skip a few things. ...Especially Let's Players. I keep up with MunchingOrange and he uses the speed button when available, resulting in some rather preventable deaths. Now, I ain't about to sit here and say that he's the best Pokemon player in the world-- he can be rather frustrating to watch, in fact. Still, sometimes that even happens on grindy sections, so it's not always wholly his fault. I find that I also can have a tendency of losing my focus when grinding and-- whoops! Pokemon drops faint for some reason I couldn't see. Annnd now I have to drag out my next Pokemon that might be weak to this Trainer. ...Whoops.

In general though, I think it's a good idea. Just... be mindful when playing. Which is a given, but a hard rule to actually implement.

I would worry about it being implemented in Pokemon Essentials, though. I could be completely out of the loop-- actually, I am-- but isn't that hard to implement? Didn't someone try that several years ago and it didn't work as well...? And even if it does, a Fangame can lag-- a lot, sometimes. It depends, really, on a LOT of key factors (and that's a whole other bag of worms people can't 100% figure out) but yeah. *Shrugs*

it's obviously very doable, as Pokemon Edge Rising, a Game Jam Entry had a speed up option, so cant be that hard to implement if it was put into a Game Jam Entry.

and yeah, the one thing i hate about RPG Maker is lag, i wish that stopped being a thing...

then again my laptop lags with every game more advanced that a N64 game. :P

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I don't know about several years ago, but NoodlesButt's games use it now, and it doesn't seem like there were any lag issues caused by it. EDIT: Ninjaed with another example!

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

i will have to see about getting a speed up function for my fan game, cause i know that it will be welcome when it comes to grind or hatching sessions...

almost 9k steps to hatch an Eevee... Arceus help me! lol

 

[TechSkylander1518]

Oh, I can't believe egg hatching never came up in this thread!

Egg hatching steps only make sense when the player is given an egg by an NPC. The challenge is for them to continue in the game while reducing their party by one, in hopes that whatever's inside will be worth it, so the long duration makes sense.In every other situation, I think egg hatching is a lot of needless busy work. There's literally nothing tested but patience with hatching eggs. You don't solve a puzzle, battle someone, or even talk to different NPCs. You just move your character back and forward on a screen, over and over. It's really not gameplay, and I don't think it should be the only reason a speedup button is included.

Personally, I think it'd be much better to just reduce the number of steps needed to hatch an egg. When breeding, people are already trying their luck to get good IVs and natures, and they're already obtaining the Pokemon they use in breeding, so it's not like steps are a necessary difficulty. And breeding alone can't help the player advance in the game, since Pokemon hatch at level one-so why suck up so much time for a personal project?

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

right, but i was only mentioning hatching because it's ONE reason to have a speed up option, grinding can also be a good reason for one, because there always comes a time and place that someone needs to train their pokemon, even for a couple level ups.

all in all there are many uses for speedups, there are just 2 of the most popular reasons, repeating story elements due to lack of saving or the game crashing is another reason as well, i just think the option should be there.

 

[Maruno]

There are plenty of ways to speed up, say, egg hatching. Make them require fewer steps, don't have breeding in your game at all, have those warming abilities that speed hatching up, invent an item that speeds hatching up, make them take a certain amount of time in the party rather than a certain number of steps...

The first solution is NOT to double the frame rate (which I believe is what speed-up buttons tend to do because it's easy).

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

There are plenty of ways to speed up, say, egg hatching. Make them require fewer steps, don't have breeding in your game at all, have those warming abilities that speed hatching up, invent an item that speeds hatching up, make them take a certain amount of time in the party rather than a certain number of steps...

The first solution is NOT to double the frame rate (which I believe is what speed-up buttons tend to do because it's easy).

hmm, that's a fair point, personally i love breeding (just hate the repetition) so i wouldnt exclude breeding, but yeah i'd say the number of steps needs to be reduced when ppl make fan games, cause by default even with the warming abilities that some pokemon have, it still requires a lot of back and forth...

now a time-centered hatching system would be interesting, the only question is how much time would it be set at for maximum efficiency? 15 mins? an hour? 12?

 

[Dragonite]

The first solution is NOT to double the frame rate (which I believe is what speed-up buttons tend to do because it's easy).

I'm pretty sure this is understood by this point in the thread but I'm going to point out that this applies to basically ALL arguments related to "playing the game takes a lot of time," particularly tasks that are grindy and boring, not just egg hatching. Remember, as the game creators the power is in our hands, and we're not going to be struck down by a sparkling mystical deity if our games don't include Annoying Tropes A, B and C.

 

[Deo]

The player's time is valuable, in my opinion. If you have to include a speed-up button in your game because it's a grindfest, maybe you should take a look at why it's really grindy and tweak a few things to make it a bit smoother. You can definitely make the player work for things and reward them accordingly, but try to value the player's time. They shouldn't have to grind just to keep up with a level curve; that's not "fun" or "difficult", that's just filler gameplay. If a game has a bad level curve, I can almost guarantee that'll be the #1 complaint from players about it.

There's already options to turn off battle animations and to increase the text speed, and I want to echo what Maruno suggested with perhaps going even further with adding more options to speed up the game organically. Aside from bad game design, I don't really think fan games are slow enough to warrant adding in a speed-up button that the player will hold/toggle for the rest of the game. I don't think you can add it with the idea that they'll only use it when they really need to either; they will absolutely use it if it's there.

I don't think you're alienating anyone by not adding it. Impatient people will be impatient, and will probably end up using something like cheat engine to speed up your game anyways. Unless they're your target audience for some reason, I don't see why a game needs one.

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

personally the only thing i was considering to have a grind in my fan game is an endgame world tournament, where you would need to breed and raise a champion team of pokes, like PvP only not PvP... if that makes any sense. lol

 

[doof]

personally the only thing i was considering to have a grind in my fan game is an endgame world tournament, where you would need to breed and raise a champion team of pokes, like PvP only not PvP... if that makes any sense. lol

With all due respect, I don't think players are going to go through all of that in the end-game of a fan-game. I know I sure wouldn't, even with a speed-up button.

All things considered, I agree with what others have said above. If people are having to grind, then you might need to adjust your gameplay. Or at the very least, give them better and more interesting ways to grind up - kinda like Insurgence's Audino trainer. A speed-up button, in my mind, is just a lazy way to deal with bad game design.

 

[Fontbane]

invent an item that speeds hatching up

Just a quick idea, maybe it'd be a good idea to give the Oval Charm that added effect. That would help speed things up for breeding.

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

Just a quick idea, maybe it'd be a good idea to give the Oval Charm that added effect. That would help speed things up for breeding.

makes sense for the Oval Charm to get Breeding Effects, i'll definitely consider doing that, and still i'll lower the overall steps, so that way even without it the steps to hatch an egg wont be so ridiculous.

 

[zarexraze]

makes sense for the Oval Charm to get Breeding Effects, i'll definitely consider doing that, and still i'll lower the overall steps, so that way even without it the steps to hatch an egg wont be so ridiculous.

Even better if one of your party members is holding a Flame Orb. That's what I'm doing.

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

Even better if one of your party members is holding a Flame Orb. That's what I'm doing.

Flame Orb? interesting, didnt know that affected hatching at all.

 

[zarexraze]

Flame Orb? interesting, didnt know that affected hatching at all.

Oh, I sorry, it doesn't. What I meant is that it's one of the things I planning on doing in my project. It sadly doesn't do that effect in official games.

 

[TheGamingPaladin]

Oh, I sorry, it doesn't. What I meant is that it's one of the things I planning on doing in my project. It sadly doesn't do that effect in official games.

ah cool, well for me Oval Charm makes more sense, as it represents an egg shape, as for the Flame Orb it burns pokemon, so i'll keep Flame Orb as is.

 

[aiyinsi]

Are there actually fangames out there that require good iv? Like breeding isn't really a thing in fangames besides some storyeggs maybe and those should be timed to hatch during the adventure. Therefore I don't think we need a speed up button for this ... but just getting rid of eggs altogether and giving the Pokémon wouldn't be the worst idea if it's for competitive(but then again that's not really a thing in fangames).

Well I just think a speed up button breaks the game world. Like it doesn't exist within it but is an element outside of it and therefore can easily destroy the feeling of beeing in the Pokémon world. Therefore more natural "speed up buttons" like fly,run,bike,cliffs,clicking c/x to speed up dialog,... are much better. Also instead of feeling like your doing stuff in 2x speed it rather feels like a new feature if you give it some interesting attributes. Like the match bike going up slopes e.g.

I want to stress that I'm not against speed up ... just for making it fit into the Pokémon world. It'll influence the impression and gameplay of your game positively.