Released Project Maple - A Canadian Pokémon Fangame [Part 1 - v1.3.3b]

0maeWaM0uShindeiru · Jun 28, 2021

You likely know me as theknightedexaltion on the Project Maple Discord, but hello there. The game is still enjoyable thus far, and I would even say the difficulty is reasonable all things considered. I look forward to all future updates, and here is to the bright future of Project Maple.

C.MeaX · Jun 28, 2021

0maeWaM0uShindeiru said:
You likely know me as theknightedexaltion on the Project Maple Discord, but hello there. The game is still enjoyable thus far, and I would even say the difficulty is reasonable all things considered. I look forward to all future updates, and here is to the bright future of Project Maple.

Thank you very much for the comment and for letting me know of your other name, glad to see you here. I hope I can keep going like this and eventually release Part 2 the same way :) The review is much appreciated!

16Gabs · Jun 29, 2021

I've been playing and liking it =)
I'll post a full review after I'm finished and also gonna join the discord
What I love most about fan games is the presence of fakemons so this is right up my alley.
Take care =)

C.MeaX · Jun 29, 2021

16Gabs said:
I've been playing and liking it =)
I'll post a full review after I'm finished and also gonna join the discord
What I love most about fan games is the presence of fakemons so this is right up my alley.
Take care =)

Thank you! I've preferred to not oversaturate the game with new species but as more are designed they will be sprinkled here and there throughout the game, which hopefully gives people a chance to remember their names and get familiar with them. I'm glad you're enjoying the game so far, and I'm certainly looking forward to a full review once you reach the end of the demo! :)

16Gabs · Jul 4, 2021

I said I was gonna do a review once I finished it, so here I am =)

I really liked there were more Fakemon, as that's what I like most in fan games. Also, their designs are really good.
I just have Moople, Marshquito/Junquito and Whirleaf/Maplift.
Is it possible / will it be possible to get Yukoro and Indigenapu?

"A choice of starter Pokémon is not handed to you." - I thought this was strange, because the game says "Who knows how long until a trainer comes", which indicates if you wait enough you'll get another poke. I'd suggest rewritting it to something more "Better catch it, (...) comes".

About the moral system: I like it; but it seens that are still a lot of decisions you don't make, like

becoming a part of Team Scorch, breaking into the lighthouse, finding the girl's doll, etc

Also, I got really frustated that by the end of the demo there was no other

running shoes!

; this means I played the whole thing in a slower pace and really bummed me out. There were times when I decided not to play the game because of the little time I had I knew I would be able to do much =/

I understand you want to give the feel of a "slower pacing" (and some people will like it), but I still believe a speed up button is always the best option, as it gives the player the choice of how to play the game.

About the difficulty: it's really good! It felt balanced all the time I was playing; from the Indigenapu encounter, Inspector Gadjet reference, the Battle Lounge and the Gym Leader. Nothing but praise here. =)

About the HMs: it's such a good ideia that you remove the obstacles forever. It really makes no sense to have to use "Cut" again and again. =)

Overall: it's a really good game =)
I see lots of potencial and will be waiting for the next updates and stuff ^^
Take care!

C.MeaX · Jul 4, 2021

16Gabs said:
I said I was gonna do a review once I finished it, so here I am =)

I really liked there were more Fakemon, as that's what I like most in fan games. Also, their designs are really good.
I just have Moople, Marshquito/Junquito and Whirleaf/Maplift.
Is it possible / will it be possible to get Yukoro and Indigenapu?

"A choice of starter Pokémon is not handed to you." - I thought this was strange, because the game says "Who knows how long until a trainer comes", which indicates if you wait enough you'll get another poke. I'd suggest rewritting it to something more "Better catch it, (...) comes".

About the moral system: I like it; but it seens that are still a lot of decisions you don't make, like

becoming a part of Team Scorch, breaking into the lighthouse, finding the girl's doll, etc

Also, I got really frustated that by the end of the demo there was no other

running shoes!

; this means I played the whole thing in a slower pace and really bummed me out. There were times when I decided not to play the game because of the little time I had I knew I would be able to do much =/

I understand you want to give the feel of a "slower pacing" (and some people will like it), but I still believe a speed up button is always the best option, as it gives the player the choice of how to play the game.

About the difficulty: it's really good! It felt balanced all the time I was playing; from the Indigenapu encounter, Inspector Gadjet reference, the Battle Lounge and the Gym Leader. Nothing but praise here. =)

About the HMs: it's such a good ideia that you remove the obstacles forever. It really makes no sense to have to use "Cut" again and again. =)

Overall: it's a really good game =)
I see lots of potencial and will be waiting for the next updates and stuff ^^
Take care!

Thanks a lot for the review! I think you mentioned some great points and I'm very pleased to see the difficulty balance being praised. It was certainly a mess in previous versions of the game. My goal is to have a game much less hardcore than Pokémon Reborn but a little more difficult than Pokémon BW2's Hard Mode, where it's not uncommon to lose against a trainer but typically a second go at it would be a victorious battle.

So far only 8 new Pokémon are obtainable.

The last two Pokémon you can obtain in this demo include Marshquito's female evolution and Maplift's evolution (level 32 if I recall). Yukoro and Indigenapu are not yet obtainable but will be later. Yukoro is typically found in cooler climates and Indigenapu (as well as many other native Pokémon) will be generally restricted to areas in or close to reserves. The encounter in the forest is meant to be an early introduction to that aspect of the game, but I hope to develop it further later.

As for morality:

Unfortunately, there aren't many choices in this part of the game, so it is a bit bizarre for me to advertise the feature this much already. As I mentioned in my original RC post, most choices and consequences based on those choices exist starting from Part 2. I may very well add other choices to Part 1 or improve some of the plot points to feel less convenient (the Car Key is a good example, originally it was just a plot device found in the forest for your convenience, but having Cliff later mention that he actually drops them on purpose near new trainers, and that you are the only person to have failed his puzzle makes it more realistic and counters a bit of the Deus Ex Machina feel the item drop might have had at first. This was a much later change, so in a similar way some other plot points might get later improvements.

Most choices will still remain for Part 2 onwards. This is because having most key choices be optional in Part 1 would make the game branch too much, so as much as I find the beginning of the game not as exciting as future prospects, the linearity helps reduce itself over time. For example, there's a part of the story where a corrupt mayor can be brought to justice in Part 2, but this can branch in a few ways depending on your relationship with the law, and how many times you've stolen up until then. The first really "big" choice is which district becomes your second and third, so I hope for it to impact how the game branches a lot more than the "insignificant" choices of Part 1. Maybe someday it'll be possible to decline the Moople and other things too, but I can't make a promise there yet :)

I feel you on the Running Shoes. I was originally going to have them be in one of the two upcoming districts, but I think I'll make a branching path so that no matter which district is chosen as your second, an option to acquire "legal" Running Shoes presents itself, with some long-lasting benefits too, like a promotional permanent Poké Mart discount or something else along that line.

Thanks for the note on HMs! It really never made sense to me, especially the one by Lt. Surge's Gym, so this small detail also means you don't need to keep wasting your time with them or have an HM slave on you, even if that's not really a possibility at the moment.

So far, I think the list of newer versions of the game/added features might go like this:
-Port everything to v19 (or v20 if we're so slow a new version comes out, but essentially be "up-to-date" which allows us to add new features)
-Add controller support
-Add other features like mid-battle dialogue etc.

While the coding revamps itself and new features are added, I will keep livestreaming the game's progress ~weekly on Twitch as I keep working on building Part 2, which is pretty large compared to Part 1. I don't have a release date estimate in mind, but so long as I keep working on it, it'll be public someday. I like revising events and improving things where possible, so I might play on your feedback at some point! Thanks a ton for the detailed review, it's super appreciated!

jdm20 · Jun 24, 2022

Curious if this is still being worked on :-)

Terrayoung · Aug 15, 2022

Just finished this demo and I really like it thus far! It's got a unique concept and some really interesting characters. The only downside is that there is way too many Bidoof that show up as wild Pokemon encounters, but I'm not a fan of Bidoof in general so that's more of a personal bias. Overall, a really fun game that ended too soon - can't wait for part 2!

PokemonGamer2000 · Sep 22, 2022

hi, your game seems really interesting, just curious, is there a speed up button or any plans to make one? that's a great thing in fan games.

C.MeaX · Nov 5, 2022

jdm20 said:
Curious if this is still being worked on :-)

Hi there jdm, and thank you very much for the comment! This is definitely still being worked on, although unfortunately at a snail's pace. Development picked up a little bit over the summer but most of it is behind the scenes, as we're reworking the code to update to v20 of Pokémon Essentials and be "up to date". In the meantime, I'm still developing the new districts but as other projects take precedence this only manages to get my attention once in a while. I'm just as motivated for it though, so even years later I'd say that's a good sign.

If you want more updates, the Discord server will be where I'm quickest to answer questions, and whenever I do get to put any dev time into the game, that's always streamed on Twitch :) Anyway, my apologies for the late reply, it's been a busy past few months. I anticipate I'll have more flexible time to progress with the game coming next summer, at least.

C.MeaX · Nov 5, 2022

Terrayoung said:
Just finished this demo and I really like it thus far! It's got a unique concept and some really interesting characters. The only downside is that there is way too many Bidoof that show up as wild Pokemon encounters, but I'm not a fan of Bidoof in general so that's more of a personal bias. Overall, a really fun game that ended too soon - can't wait for part 2!

Hi! Thank you so much, I appreciate!

There are no immediate plans for a speed-up button, but once we upgrade the game to v20 of Essentials and bring the game up to date, I'd like to implement a speed-up button for battles at least, eventually. While I admit the early game is pretty slow, I'm less keen on a speed-up button for the general environment because I do want it to be experienced at a certain pace. In the next version, however, there are 1-2 "skips" to save time in the early game, and with the game being more open-ended later it will be easier to move through it at your own pace, although that might increase the difficulty as a result. For example, there is a pretty slow lighthouse part of the early game that will be skippable as of the next version, if the player goes through a branching path of the story for a bit.

C.MeaX · Nov 5, 2022

Terrayoung said:
Just finished this demo and I really like it thus far! It's got a unique concept and some really interesting characters. The only downside is that there is way too many Bidoof that show up as wild Pokemon encounters, but I'm not a fan of Bidoof in general so that's more of a personal bias. Overall, a really fun game that ended too soon - can't wait for part 2!

Thank you very much!

I appreciate the feedback. The Bidoof are somewhat due to there being fewer native species around in the mix (for now), but they are less present in other parts of the region. I agree that they can be overwhelmingly present at times. The development is still rather slow, but I hope to get back into it when I get more time again. There are some new things ready for Part 1 for when we upgrade to Essentials v20, but beyond that I'm still working on Part 2, which would almost triple the game's content :) I'm glad you liked the characters. I hope to make them even better in the future!

safr · Nov 23, 2022

I don't know you're still exist in the forum or not but thank to you now i feel the next pokemon game can be inspired from Canada as new region

C.MeaX · Dec 12, 2022

safr said:
I don't know you're still exist in the forum or not but thank to you now i feel the next pokemon game can be inspired from Canada as new region

Hey there! I'm definitely still on the forum, but only occasionally :)

I am crossing my fingers that it's not the case though (I want Maple to get further along before all my ideas are taken). I could see Canada working as a region eventually but I'm not sure how Game Freak would take it now, as I don't think it's a country that really fits their type of game. I could be surprised though, but I don't see them being able to handle the country well unless they base some of the lore on the actual history of the country with some of the more unfortunate events, as otherwise it's more of a less-dense United States with more snow and ice. I could be wrong, but I think we might see India in the next few generations. A return to Japan is really possible too.

TheGamingPaladin · Feb 12, 2023

Liked and Watching this, downloaded the demo, will have to get around to playing it, but i definitely see this being in my fangame collection.

C.MeaX · Mar 18, 2023

TheGamingPaladin said:
Liked and Watching this, downloaded the demo, will have to get around to playing it, but i definitely see this being in my fangame collection.

Thank you very much! I really look forward to getting back into development for this game once I clear up my schedule some more. It should pick back up in mid-spring. I hope to be able to push the game further from there!

floodryan123 · Oct 28, 2023

how is development?

C.MeaX · Jan 16, 2024

floodryan123 said:
how is development?

Hey there! It's going well! Sorry for the late reply. Development has really sped up in recent times and we're making good progress to porting the game over to Pokémon Essentials v21.1, a big upgrade over using 17.2 that did require us to re-code most of the game, but in doing so the new build is running more efficiently and will now be futureproof with being easier to code around when adding new features.

The main page of the game swapped from here to having its own website page now: https://shuhari.productions/project-maple
I will keep this page updated too as things progress. Right now we'll looking more at a spring release for the next version, but this is the most realistic estimate I've been able to give in a long time so I'm really happy with the project moving along again. Thanks a lot for asking!

Released Project Maple - A Canadian Pokémon Fangame [Part 1 - v1.3.3b]

0maeWaM0uShindeiru

Novice

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer

16Gabs

Trainer

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer

16Gabs

Trainer

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer

jdm20

Rookie

Terrayoung

Rookie

PokemonGamer2000

Trainer

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer

safr

Elite Trainer

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer

TheGamingPaladin

TheGamingPaladin - Youtuber, Foodie, Gamer 4 Life

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer

floodryan123

Trainer

C.MeaX

Project Maple Developer