Released Pokemon Wilderness

NocTurn · Aug 11, 2021

Just finished my playthrough of Wilderness! I have a few prevailing points, so I'll list them out in Pros and Cons form:

Pros:

Very interesting premise! I like the idea of settlers in the wild west era settling new land, and overall it was a great idea.
Playing with the crafting system! I've never seen a game use it before, so this was a good test ride
The interior tileset was very nice!

Cons:

The resource gathering! I found it tedious and boring, I had to return to the same small map too many times, after the 6th time seeing Province Field to go back for more Stone I was a bit exhausted.
Lack of running shoes! This made the gameplay feel all the more exhausting.
Mapping. There wasn't enough elevation to play with, everything felt too small scale.
More resources, and more recipes! The current set feels far too limited, and Oil and Iron are only used for a single recipe- a Key Item.

Overall, this is a very solid base, but there are some essentials that are missing and need to be brushed over one more time. Some misc. Comments:

There's a really nice jam sprite made for the Winter Jam asset pack that you could use instead of a Super Potion for the Jam healing item!
There are way more trees than there are rocks, and this made getting 100 stone at the start pretty tedious.
Why are the iron and oil desposits so far from camp? Getting back to them after the Ursarang fight was fairly tedious as well.
The entrance to Province Woods is a bit too hidden in my opinion! I had to check the map about 3 times before I eventually stumbled across it.
I would love it if the NPCs in Province town had a bit more purpose! Right now they really only give you additional items, but maybe one of them could give you a quest, or some could offer crafting recipes?
The "darkness" radius isn't actually centered on the player when they enter Province Woods so I don't know where I am for a few seconds!

Layering issues in maps

Berry trees produce infinite berries

I had to debug this event, I believe the wrong variable was used somewhere, because I can't loose as well.

I had to walk on this item to pick it up

Missing tiles

Another small tile issue

And thank you for contributing to the Summer Jam! Even with all the issues I presented, I really hope you can learn from this experience and improve your next game with the knowledge gained from this one.

King_Waluigi · Aug 11, 2021

NocTurn said:
Just finished my playthrough of Wilderness! I have a few prevailing points, so I'll list them out in Pros and Cons form:

Pros:

Very interesting premise! I like the idea of settlers in the wild west era settling new land, and overall it was a great idea.

Playing with the crafting system! I've never seen a game use it before, so this was a good test ride

The interior tileset was very nice!

Cons:

The resource gathering! I found it tedious and boring, I had to return to the same small map too many times, after the 6th time seeing Province Field to go back for more Stone I was a bit exhausted.

Lack of running shoes! This made the gameplay feel all the more exhausting.

Mapping. There wasn't enough elevation to play with, everything felt too small scale.

More resources, and more recipes! The current set feels far too limited, and Oil and Iron are only used for a single recipe- a Key Item.

Overall, this is a very solid base, but there are some essentials that are missing and need to be brushed over one more time. Some misc. Comments:

There's a really nice jam sprite made for the Winter Jam asset pack that you could use instead of a Super Potion for the Jam healing item!

There are way more trees than there are rocks, and this made getting 100 stone at the start pretty tedious.

Why are the iron and oil desposits so far from camp? Getting back to them after the Ursarang fight was fairly tedious as well.

The entrance to Province Woods is a bit too hidden in my opinion! I had to check the map about 3 times before I eventually stumbled across it.

I would love it if the NPCs in Province town had a bit more purpose! Right now they really only give you additional items, but maybe one of them could give you a quest, or some could offer crafting recipes?

The "darkness" radius isn't actually centered on the player when they enter Province Woods so I don't know where I am for a few seconds!

Layering issues in maps
View attachment 6071

Berry trees produce infinite berries
View attachment 6072

I had to debug this event, I believe the wrong variable was used somewhere, because I can't loose as well.
View attachment 6073

I had to walk on this item to pick it up
View attachment 6074

Missing tiles
View attachment 6075

Another small tile issue
View attachment 6077

And thank you for contributing to the Summer Jam! Even with all the issues I presented, I really hope you can learn from this experience and improve your next game with the knowledge gained from this one.

Thanks so much! I'll deal with these bugs and fix them ASAP! About the infinite berries, that is intentional! Thank you so much for playing and have a nice day!

King_Waluigi · Aug 11, 2021

UPDATE! Pokemon Wilderness v1.1 is now available!
-Some bugs were fixed
-Some Tile and Layer issues were fixed
-Some Graphical issues were fixed

KennyCatches · Aug 14, 2021

Hey King Waluigi! I just finished your game, and I liked it! I actually have a ton of thoughts to share:

Aesthetics + Audio:

I REALLY like the aesthetics and the atmosphere of the game! The tileset is cute and fitting, and I also love the fog you used on the creek map! The title screen is also gorgeous, and I like the battle UI as well! I also want to say that I LOVE that Mr. Pine animation, it makes me smile every time I see it!
The music choice is fantastic, I'm a sucker for piano music so I really liked the atmosphere of the game (I hear that wonderful Legends: Arceus trailer music

). Though I have two minor nitpicks about the music: Default surf music, and I felt like the mini-boss battle music was a little too dramatic haha.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is very unique for a pokemon game! I really like the crafting system and the material gathering. However...I was not too fond of the part where you had to get 100 stones and 100 wood, because it was very grindy and slow.

I also didn't care for the battling sections, I actually lost every battle because my team was too weak and I was too lazy to grind levels. However, I really appreciate how you let the player lose the battles, it saved me a lot of time!

Writing:

I liked the cute short story! I do wish there were more NPCs to talk to though!

Overall, I really liked the atmosphere of this game. It was a very relaxing 1-hour playthrough, almost felt therapeutic. The gameplay could've been better, but I think you did a great job! Congratulations!

King_Waluigi · Aug 14, 2021

KennyCatches said:
Hey King Waluigi! I just finished your game, and I liked it! I actually have a ton of thoughts to share:

Aesthetics + Audio:

I REALLY like the aesthetics and the atmosphere of the game! The tileset is cute and fitting, and I also love the fog you used on the creek map! The title screen is also gorgeous, and I like the battle UI as well! I also want to say that I LOVE that Mr. Pine animation, it makes me smile every time I see it!
The music choice is fantastic, I'm a sucker for piano music so I really liked the atmosphere of the game (I hear that wonderful Legends: Arceus trailer music ). Though I have two minor nitpicks about the music: Default surf music, and I felt like the mini-boss battle music was a little too dramatic haha.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is very unique for a pokemon game! I really like the crafting system and the material gathering. However...I was not too fond of the part where you had to get 100 stones and 100 wood, because it was very grindy and slow. I also didn't care for the battling sections, I actually lost every battle because my team was too weak and I was too lazy to grind levels. However, I really appreciate how you let the player lose the battles, it saved me a lot of time!

Writing:

I liked the cute short story! I do wish there were more NPCs to talk to though!

Overall, I really liked the atmosphere of this game. It was a very relaxing 1-hour playthrough, almost felt therapeutic. The gameplay could've been better, but I think you did a great job! Congratulations!

Thanks for your thoughts! My main goal was to make the game feel more therapeutic for sure! I forgot to change the default surf music, lol! I'm glad you enjoyed the game, though! Due to time crunches and whatnot, I really did want to do more, but I was so distracted trying to finish up Pokemon Nimbus, which is my pride and joy for a Pokemon game lol! Thanks for your feedback, and have a great rest of your day!

Maurili · Aug 19, 2021

pls can you give me credit for the
Hunger System

King_Waluigi · Aug 19, 2021

Maurili said:
pls can you give me credit for the
Hunger System

Oh absolutely, I thought I already did! My apologies!

AenaonDogsky · Aug 24, 2021

A unique game with an interesting setting, atmosphere and implementation of mechanics, with tight mapping and pretty spritework.

Thoughts:

- yes gimme OOT music

- love the option menu and screen backgrounds

- Mr. Pine's "trainer" sprite looks good, aside from boot color imo

- I like your musical choices

- you know how it is, some people might not like the carrot icon pixel density etc, but I don't really mind it

- the tiles look good!

- lost opportunity for "steam" balls!

- craft menu lower bar is default bar, and clashes with rest of the palette

- another zelda fan huh xD

- battle ui looks great and is consistent with rest of the game's palettes and presentation, but why do the battles lag that much?

- good use of Audino farming (RIP lil guys), but the permanent arrow indication might break the immersion for some people, perhaps make it temporary like with other objects?

- is there a reason you are not using connected maps? To check for variables to transport the player to and from the changed base map? One way around that would be to copy paste a different set of interconnected maps for each town progress level, though that'd be a bit too much

- really interesting implementation of mechanics! Parallel process with variable checking? Hm... this might lag for some people depending on how you did it! If you are constantly showing pictures under a parallel event this will surely cause lag. Parallel should be used for checking and setting only, while graphics display should be forked over to an auto/ secondary parallel event that sets itself on and off depending on info sent over by the 1st parallel. I can imagine the pictures are also loaded even during battle scenes, because they aren't erased if not called explicitly through an event afaik. Also how many parallel processes are you using? usually not more than 1 should be used, 2 if you have really thought it out well.

You should do the checking of variables in a parallel, and then the activation of an autorun or parallel event that shows the picture and then sets its switch off.

Example: Parallel checks for food value. If value == something, then set second paralell event switch to on (could be an autorun if it doesn't wait to finish), event runs the appropriate show picture command (and erases all others), then returns to off

- the spritework is good

- dangit, if you weren't working on Nimbus, I'd ask you to join a secret 19th project we're doing, I need these palletes and UI styles

- nice little Mr. pine animation, very charming

- very good use of the various resources on this site

- encounters seem a bit high to me!

- also is it me, or are the default sounds of 18.1 essentials a bit high volume?

- can you collect resources from wild mons?

- i'm sorry, but after a point I had to debug repels in because it was very difficult to progress in conjunction with the lag! Either remove grass that stands inbetween usual player routes to get to the trees and stones, or reduce encounters

- LOL the swablu music, feels like I'm facing against Dialga xD

- perhaps reduce the required amount of wood and ore to 50 for the trees and 30 for the stones instead of 100? It's really grindy, considering the obtrusive tool use messages

- also, shorten the messages before you use a tool, or remove them completely, it will also be consistent with the item pickup messages which are instantaneous and non-intrusive

- tile selection is great

- when you rest in easy mode your hunger goes down?

- also, is the player ever told they can craft better things in their cabin? (oh they are if they talk to pine) These are inaccessible from the menu though...

- the mapping is pretty tight!

- town progress being shown is a very nice idea

- if you make battles unloseable, I suggest you put a pbSave script command before the cutscenes that trap you with said mon interactions have been activated, so the player wont lose progress and will have the opportunity to go farm exp

- likewise, the raft should be accessible from the menu, you can add it to the array as per the scripts guidelines, and have it appear upon switch conditions

- nice to see a raft surf sprite

- perhaps make the raft a bit smaller?

- it's good that your team is prepared for the boss battles due to their types

- likewise, lantern should be craftable from the menu, since gathering the resources is a task of its own, backtracking to your house shouldn't be required, though you do need to pass by that area to get to the woods

- I can imagine some people having a hard time finding that one tree stump that was used as a roadblock for the woods early in the game (and now isn't there), perhaps use something that would stand out a bit more?

- grotto looks sick

- how would a celebi know what humans call a certain category of trees?

- green flashing light post-celebi should be either darkened, and flashing duration lowered, or both, since some people have sensitivity to lights like that. Once or twice is enough tbh

- perhaps remove the UI during "the end" scene and/or celebi talk

Bugs:

- All trees in the game that are next to each other seem to be missing their "edges". Depending on how you've tiled this, it might be difficult to do.

- there's no battle music during wild encounters

- low HP music still plays during battles, but no other music can be heard

- I have 8 oran berries, and not only does the woman not recognize it, she also says "you don't have any oran berries". You are checking for variables instead of oran berries! This isn't needed, why set a variable for it? Simply check item quantity in bag! Also you haven't set the variable to add +=1 for one specific berry tree which means the player can't progress if they don't pick 9 berries, (instead of 8) since they cant craft the tools!

- Ledges are cut short in Provice field, perhaps a "fading" out ledge tile would be a good patchwork solution for it

- Player has a potion in their "storage" xD Looks like dem unova 19th century scientists did it again!

- Provice northwestern part of map has visible cut trees near the ledge

- even if you lose to the swablu, it still gets defeated, applicable to all event battles

- also aside from maps not being connected, they are also edge-snapped, which I don't really mind, but it's generally not consistent with pokemon games

- do berry trees continuously give out oran berries in chapter 2?

- the player isn't informed that you need to spam the interact button to get oran berries (or did I miss something), a sound effect would be a good indicator at the very least.

- hm, interior battle doesnt seem to lag nearly as much. This could also be due to the fact that the game doesnt have to load big maps + all the pictures

- unsure if a bug or a design choice, but the new npcs in ch 4 look the same as the previous ones. Mind you, I interacted with those in the northern cabins first

- message showing player losing money shouldnt show up considering the setting

- mr. pine doesnt face the player during ch4 pre and post sawsbuck dialogue (direction fix on)

- dialogue when player exits house in ch5 has them stuck ON the door, should move them 1 step down before dialogue happens

- provice mountain trees next to eastern entrance are missing some parts

- black walls in forest

Strong Suite: Uniqueness, Presentation, Graphics, Mechanics, Art Direction, Mapping, Atmoshpere
Feel: Wild, exploration, serene

King_Waluigi · Aug 24, 2021

DogzNDogz113 said:
A unique game with an interesting setting, atmosphere and implementation of mechanics, with tight mapping and pretty spritework.

Thoughts:

- yes gimme OOT music

- love the option menu and screen backgrounds

- Mr. Pine's "trainer" sprite looks good, aside from boot color imo

- I like your musical choices

- you know how it is, some people might not like the carrot icon pixel density etc, but I don't really mind it

- the tiles look good!

- lost opportunity for "steam" balls!

- craft menu lower bar is default bar, and clashes with rest of the palette

- another zelda fan huh xD

- battle ui looks great and is consistent with rest of the game's palettes and presentation, but why do the battles lag that much?

- good use of Audino farming (RIP lil guys), but the permanent arrow indication might break the immersion for some people, perhaps make it temporary like with other objects?

- is there a reason you are not using connected maps? To check for variables to transport the player to and from the changed base map? One way around that would be to copy paste a different set of interconnected maps for each town progress level, though that'd be a bit too much

- really interesting implementation of mechanics! Parallel process with variable checking? Hm... this might lag for some people depending on how you did it! If you are constantly showing pictures under a parallel event this will surely cause lag. Parallel should be used for checking and setting only, while graphics display should be forked over to an auto/ secondary parallel event that sets itself on and off depending on info sent over by the 1st parallel. I can imagine the pictures are also loaded even during battle scenes, because they aren't erased if not called explicitly through an event afaik. Also how many parallel processes are you using? usually not more than 1 should be used, 2 if you have really thought it out well.

You should do the checking of variables in a parallel, and then the activation of an autorun or parallel event that shows the picture and then sets its switch off.

Example: Parallel checks for food value. If value == something, then set second paralell event switch to on (could be an autorun if it doesn't wait to finish), event runs the appropriate show picture command (and erases all others), then returns to off

- the spritework is good

- dangit, if you weren't working on Nimbus, I'd ask you to join a secret 19th project we're doing, I need these palletes and UI styles

- nice little Mr. pine animation, very charming

- very good use of the various resources on this site

- encounters seem a bit high to me!

- also is it me, or are the default sounds of 18.1 essentials a bit high volume?

- can you collect resources from wild mons?

- i'm sorry, but after a point I had to debug repels in because it was very difficult to progress in conjunction with the lag! Either remove grass that stands inbetween usual player routes to get to the trees and stones, or reduce encounters

- LOL the swablu music, feels like I'm facing against Dialga xD

- perhaps reduce the required amount of wood and ore to 50 for the trees and 30 for the stones instead of 100? It's really grindy, considering the obtrusive tool use messages

- also, shorten the messages before you use a tool, or remove them completely, it will also be consistent with the item pickup messages which are instantaneous and non-intrusive

- tile selection is great

- when you rest in easy mode your hunger goes down?

- also, is the player ever told they can craft better things in their cabin? (oh they are if they talk to pine) These are inaccessible from the menu though...

- the mapping is pretty tight!

- town progress being shown is a very nice idea

- if you make battles unloseable, I suggest you put a pbSave script command before the cutscenes that trap you with said mon interactions have been activated, so the player wont lose progress and will have the opportunity to go farm exp

- likewise, the raft should be accessible from the menu, you can add it to the array as per the scripts guidelines, and have it appear upon switch conditions

- nice to see a raft surf sprite

- perhaps make the raft a bit smaller?

- it's good that your team is prepared for the boss battles due to their types

- likewise, lantern should be craftable from the menu, since gathering the resources is a task of its own, backtracking to your house shouldn't be required, though you do need to pass by that area to get to the woods

- I can imagine some people having a hard time finding that one tree stump that was used as a roadblock for the woods early in the game (and now isn't there), perhaps use something that would stand out a bit more?

- grotto looks sick

- how would a celebi know what humans call a certain category of trees?

- green flashing light post-celebi should be either darkened, and flashing duration lowered, or both, since some people have sensitivity to lights like that. Once or twice is enough tbh

- perhaps remove the UI during "the end" scene and/or celebi talk

Bugs:

- All trees in the game that are next to each other seem to be missing their "edges". Depending on how you've tiled this, it might be difficult to do.

- there's no battle music during wild encounters

- low HP music still plays during battles, but no other music can be heard

- I have 8 oran berries, and not only does the woman not recognize it, she also says "you don't have any oran berries". You are checking for variables instead of oran berries! This isn't needed, why set a variable for it? Simply check item quantity in bag! Also you haven't set the variable to add +=1 for one specific berry tree which means the player can't progress if they don't pick 9 berries, (instead of 8) since they cant craft the tools!

- Ledges are cut short in Provice field, perhaps a "fading" out ledge tile would be a good patchwork solution for it

- Player has a potion in their "storage" xD Looks like dem unova 19th century scientists did it again!

- Provice northwestern part of map has visible cut trees near the ledge

- even if you lose to the swablu, it still gets defeated, applicable to all event battles

- also aside from maps not being connected, they are also edge-snapped, which I don't really mind, but it's generally not consistent with pokemon games

- do berry trees continuously give out oran berries in chapter 2?

- the player isn't informed that you need to spam the interact button to get oran berries (or did I miss something), a sound effect would be a good indicator at the very least.

- hm, interior battle doesnt seem to lag nearly as much. This could also be due to the fact that the game doesnt have to load big maps + all the pictures

- unsure if a bug or a design choice, but the new npcs in ch 4 look the same as the previous ones. Mind you, I interacted with those in the northern cabins first

- message showing player losing money shouldnt show up considering the setting

- mr. pine doesnt face the player during ch4 pre and post sawsbuck dialogue (direction fix on)

- dialogue when player exits house in ch5 has them stuck ON the door, should move them 1 step down before dialogue happens

- provice mountain trees next to eastern entrance are missing some parts

- black walls in forest

Strong Suite: Uniqueness, Presentation, Graphics, Mechanics, Art Direction, Mapping, Atmoshpere
Feel: Wild, exploration, serene

Thanks for the feedback! I don't know why the battles lag so much lol! I agree with everything you said, btw thank you for the buglog! This game isn't as great as I was hoping to get it, mostly due to working on Nimbus lol! It does seem like you enjoyed the game, well... From what I heard! I just started college today, so if I even get around to fixing up this game, it won't be for a while. Btw, I'd be more than happy to help with UIs! I really enjoy making them, but just a warning, I especially don't have very much time on my hands right now. I would still like to help tho!

AenaonDogsky · Aug 24, 2021

King_Waluigi said:
Thanks for the feedback! I don't know why the battles lag so much lol! I agree with everything you said, btw thank you for the buglog! This game isn't as great as I was hoping to get it, mostly due to working on Nimbus lol! It does seem like you enjoyed the game, well... From what I heard! I just started college today, so if I even get around to fixing up this game, it won't be for a while. Btw, I'd be more than happy to help with UIs! I really enjoy making them, but just a warning, I especially don't have very much time on my hands right now. I would still like to help tho!

Hey man, don't put your work down. Game jam games all share the same constraints, it's understandable don't worry about it. It's more like a taste of where a dev can get a game to. Have a good semester xD things are only getting harder from now on - nah kidding, it's the job market where it's at. Anyways, just do the bugfixing when you can, and yeah I enjoyed the game, tbh there's not a single game I didn't like, every dev has something to offer.

King_Waluigi · Aug 24, 2021

DogzNDogz113 said:
Hey man, don't put your work down. Game jam games all share the same constraints, it's understandable don't worry about it. It's more like a taste of where a dev can get a game to. Have a good semester xD things are only getting harder from now on - nah kidding, it's the job market where it's at. Anyways, just do the bugfixing when you can, and yeah I enjoyed the game, tbh there's not a single game I didn't like, every dev has something to offer.

Thanks for the kind words! Oh, and just so you know, I'm almost done with Time's Edge, and when I am, I'll write that review!

King_Waluigi · Aug 27, 2021

UPDATE! Pokemon Wilderness v1.2 is now available! I just fixed up a few problems, so yeah!
You can download it here!

GaDemICE · Sep 1, 2021

I had 9 oran berries when i went back to the girl. She wanted 8 and said i didn't have them. I checked the event and it was looking for a value equal to 8. not equal or greater.

King_Waluigi · Sep 1, 2021

GaDemICE said:
I had 9 oran berries when i went back to the girl. She wanted 8 and said i didn't have them. I checked the event and it was looking for a value equal to 8. not equal or greater.

Oh, thanks for catching that! A bug fix will be released shortly!

King_Waluigi · Sep 1, 2021

UPDATE! This update includes some minor bug fixes!
You can download it here!

Released Pokemon Wilderness

NocTurn

Hoothoot enthusiast

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

KennyCatches

can he catch his w's?

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

Maurili

Not a scobunny

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

GaDemICE

Rookie

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!