Released Pokémon Smeargles

AenaonDogsky · Aug 17, 2021

A charming, humorous game with imaginative characters and a quirky atmosphere.

Thoughts:

- A bit of an expositionary start but necessary given it's a jam game, just a minor nitpick

- I am not sure if this is intentional, but you can't save from the menu! Seems like a design choice though

- the characters and their mannerisms are lovely

- great natural tree mapping

- like being able to see Smeargle info

- Squad management and auto-level up of standby members is a plus

- do you get insta-healed after every battle? good

- perhaps you could rename the pokedex to smeargledex in the pause menu too? you can do so easily

- the dialogue is charming and well-written, but there's just quite a bit of swag both from enemies and the party, tho I've only seen federico's dialogue up to the point where you get more than 2 companions.

- nice implementation of unique boss in-battle events

- transition to base post-gulpin victory is a bit sudden, perhaps fade out, then wait a bit, and fade in post-transfer

- same with briefing cutscene, and many later transitions as well

- jumping on the dried river rocks isn't very clear at first, perhaps make the tiles stand out more?

- the river's "labyrinth" on the left side was challenging without being too confusing, tho there were tile incosistencies (could pass behind certain trees, while not behind others, trees used same tiles)

- Lol at the Timburr! Nicely written! Also aron later.

- glad to see Jeff is also called Jeff in-battle

- subjective, but that rejuvenation bit, while humorous, needn't be that explicit considering the way thematic implementation is usually taken into consideration in these jam games. A simple restoration of the river, visually delivered, or a healing of sorts depicted in some other way might have been more fitting .Though I understand you ran out of time seeing as ending the corruption (which you didnt have time to flesh out) would rejuvenate the land anyway?

- I haven't bought any items or used anything else other than tackle and pound throughout the run and was fine (except water gun v sunfisk, mud-slap in cave, and metal claw in snow mountain. Also I just lied, I've also used a couple of oran berries), the difficulty seems good to me till the later parts where it's hard to level up and the enemies are quite strong

- do you need to interact with helioptile to activate its event, or did I simply hit spacebar just when the event started activating? Also seems like it happened with Cave smeargle too

- I like the fact that enemy mons dont have big movepools, balances it out with smeargles' and also feels natural

- ~~onix, yes genes are really important when it comes to building muscle, but so is hard and smart work, also big muscles are a plus when fighting, they just tire you out more quickly if you aren't well-conditioned~~

- dark cave light radius is used well, since you are basically moving on rails during certain parts, so it doesn't get annoying

- the mapping is really good, and it feels both organic and game-y at the same time. But it could use a bit of non-linearity, though this is subjective. It didn't bother me personally

- the humor is good

- while I personally don't have any problems with 4th wall breaking, it felt a bit much if you add the bergmite event to that too (though I can't remember all previous occurrences)

- the one smeargle that consistently fell behind in levels, was the player character, tho that was probably me being a bit yolo

- well designed sliding puzzles

- nice touch there with the dizzy movement

- shouldn't Ginny, who's wearing goggles, not get confused? would also make the already hard battle easier. You can use Smeargle equipment and appearance to your benefit in terms of battles and gameplay mechanics in the future.

- noctowl fight is quite hard if you've got all sketch slots filled and no ice move. might be even impossible since no grinding is available, or have I missed something?

- do the other party members learn sketch upon levelling up as the player smeargle does?

- what's the deal with this game's fascination with muscles? Why present muscular guys as brutish? lifting helps with cognitive ability as well

- I'm unsure if adding more unique smeargles is a good thing, I'd say focus on fewer of them and write them well, than expand too much

Bugs:

- You can see the black border of the starting map if you go all the way to the left

- Default Smeargle's backsprite (the player) is suspended in the air, needs position adjustment, as does Federico, I guess the other members too? (yes)

- Surskit is also wrongly positioned

- I think it's an MKXP/ specific Essential version thing, but apostrophes don't show correctly

- Mincinno isn't interactable after battling it. Actually most of the mons there aren't

- you can see the right black border of the river map if you go all the way to the right

- bidoof and paras have levitating tendencies too

- can walk on the bunnelby cave entrance

- mons not interactable in desert too, same with cave, and most mons for the rest of the game

- aron and onix also levitating, skar too, bagon in snow mountain as well (well yeah okay hypnotized), medicham too. Sudo too. Also doesnt have hypnotized eyes

- sudo is the only mon that is interactable I think

- the game asks you to save even when you respawn post-loss where you'd have to have saved anyway

- stufful's cry is too loud compared to other mons

Strong Suite: Charm, Characterization, Portraits, Mapping
Feel: Humorous Adventure, Team Effort, Exploration

Other: You can check a code snippet for what you asked here

Joroma · Aug 17, 2021

DogzNDogz113 said:
A charming, humorous game with imaginative characters and a quirky atmosphere.

Thoughts:

- A bit of an expositionary start but necessary given it's a jam game, just a minor nitpick

- I am not sure if this is intentional, but you can't save from the menu! Seems like a design choice though

- the characters and their mannerisms are lovely

- great natural tree mapping

- like being able to see Smeargle info

- Squad management and auto-level up of standby members is a plus

- do you get insta-healed after every battle? good

- perhaps you could rename the pokedex to smeargledex in the pause menu too? you can do so easily

- the dialogue is charming and well-written, but there's just quite a bit of swag both from enemies and the party, tho I've only seen federico's dialogue up to the point where you get more than 2 companions.

- nice implementation of unique boss in-battle events

- transition to base post-gulpin victory is a bit sudden, perhaps fade out, then wait a bit, and fade in post-transfer

- same with briefing cutscene, and many later transitions as well

- jumping on the dried river rocks isn't very clear at first, perhaps make the tiles stand out more?

- the river's "labyrinth" on the left side was challenging without being too confusing, tho there were tile incosistencies (could pass behind certain trees, while not behind others, trees used same tiles)

- Lol at the Timburr! Nicely written! Also aron later.

- glad to see Jeff is also called Jeff in-battle

- subjective, but that rejuvenation bit, while humorous, needn't be that explicit considering the way thematic implementation is usually taken into consideration in these jam games. A simple restoration of the river, visually delivered, or a healing of sorts depicted in some other way might have been more fitting .Though I understand you ran out of time seeing as ending the corruption (which you didnt have time to flesh out) would rejuvenate the land anyway?

- I haven't bought any items or used anything else other than tackle and pound throughout the run and was fine (except water gun v sunfisk, mud-slap in cave, and metal claw in snow mountain. Also I just lied, I've also used a couple of oran berries), the difficulty seems good to me till the later parts where it's hard to level up and the enemies are quite strong

- do you need to interact with helioptile to activate its event, or did I simply hit spacebar just when the event started activating? Also seems like it happened with Cave smeargle too

- I like the fact that enemy mons dont have big movepools, balances it out with smeargles' and also feels natural

- ~~onix, yes genes are really important when it comes to building muscle, but so is hard and smart work, also big muscles are a plus when fighting, they just tire you out more quickly if you aren't well-conditioned~~

- dark cave light radius is used well, since you are basically moving on rails during certain parts, so it doesn't get annoying

- the mapping is really good, and it feels both organic and game-y at the same time. But it could use a bit of non-linearity, though this is subjective. It didn't bother me personally

- the humor is good

- while I personally don't have any problems with 4th wall breaking, it felt a bit much if you add the bergmite event to that too (though I can't remember all previous occurrences)

- the one smeargle that consistently fell behind in levels, was the player character, tho that was probably me being a bit yolo

- well designed sliding puzzles

- nice touch there with the dizzy movement

- shouldn't Ginny, who's wearing goggles, not get confused? would also make the already hard battle easier. You can use Smeargle equipment and appearance to your benefit in terms of battles and gameplay mechanics in the future.

- noctowl fight is quite hard if you've got all sketch slots filled and no ice move. might be even impossible since no grinding is available, or have I missed something?

- do the other party members learn sketch upon levelling up as the player smeargle does?

- what's the deal with this game's fascination with muscles? Why present muscular guys as brutish? lifting helps with cognitive ability as well

- I'm unsure if adding more unique smeargles is a good thing, I'd say focus on fewer of them and write them well, than expand too much

Bugs:

- You can see the black border of the starting map if you go all the way to the left

- Default Smeargle's backsprite (the player) is suspended in the air, needs position adjustment, as does Federico, I guess the other members too? (yes)

- Surskit is also wrongly positioned

- I think it's an MKXP/ specific Essential version thing, but apostrophes don't show correctly

- Mincinno isn't interactable after battling it. Actually most of the mons there aren't

- you can see the right black border of the river map if you go all the way to the right

- bidoof and paras have levitating tendencies too

- can walk on the bunnelby cave entrance

- mons not interactable in desert too, same with cave, and most mons for the rest of the game

- aron and onix also levitating, skar too, bagon in snow mountain as well (well yeah okay hypnotized), medicham too. Sudo too. Also doesnt have hypnotized eyes

- sudo is the only mon that is interactable I think

- the game asks you to save even when you respawn post-loss where you'd have to have saved anyway

- stufful's cry is too loud compared to other mons

Strong Suite: Charm, Characterization, Portraits, Mapping
Feel: Humorous Adventure, Team Effort, Exploration

Other: You can check a code snippet for what you asked here

Thank you for taking the time to play through the game and for the extensive feedback! Admittedly, I did run out of time, which explains the lack of mon positioning, lack of fleshed out boss battles, and lack of post-battle dialogue (and other bugs/oversights). I also defaulted on stereotypes probably too much when crafting the dialogue, which is part of what you mentioned. Do you remember a specific spot where the apostrophes weren't working? I wrote most of my dialogue on Google Docs while I was on vacation and had to edit it all by hand once I pasted it into the game engine. I forgot to fix the sudo gender variant without hypnotized eyes, and I was wondering if I could give Smeargles sketch if they level up outside each mission (thanks for that code, btw), but ran out of time. Also, the saving was a design choice and I'll try to fix that save after a reset. As for balancing, most of it was done before I realized a lot of mechanics were broken so I hurried through some parts. I also tried making it easy because I didn't know how most players would do it, with the idea that players would replay a level and have more information about what they may need to sketch. Overall, a lot of polish and plot development would have been better if I had more time or was more motivated, but that's part of the challenge! I'll be sure to take this feedback and everything else you mentioned! Thank you again for playing.

AenaonDogsky · Aug 24, 2021

Joroma said:
Thank you for taking the time to play through the game and for the extensive feedback! Admittedly, I did run out of time, which explains the lack of mon positioning, lack of fleshed out boss battles, and lack of post-battle dialogue (and other bugs/oversights). I also defaulted on stereotypes probably too much when crafting the dialogue, which is part of what you mentioned. Do you remember a specific spot where the apostrophes weren't working? I wrote most of my dialogue on Google Docs while I was on vacation and had to edit it all by hand once I pasted it into the game engine. I forgot to fix the sudo gender variant without hypnotized eyes, and I was wondering if I could give Smeargles sketch if they level up outside each mission (thanks for that code, btw), but ran out of time. Also, the saving was a design choice and I'll try to fix that save after a reset. As for balancing, most of it was done before I realized a lot of mechanics were broken so I hurried through some parts. I also tried making it easy because I didn't know how most players would do it, with the idea that players would replay a level and have more information about what they may need to sketch. Overall, a lot of polish and plot development would have been better if I had more time or was more motivated, but that's part of the challenge! I'll be sure to take this feedback and everything else you mentioned! Thank you again for playing.

Welp sorry for taking so long to reply, I will try to play through the parts where the apostrophes went wonky when I have time, but I've also gotta go through many of the other jam games, so apologies if it takes me too long!

As far as stereotypes are concerned, it's not specifically them being so - they weren't handled bad, it's just that this one in particular was a bit... frequent xD

Yeah I feel ya on the time constraints don't worry about it. I wouldn't say it's too easy, cause if you forget to sketch certain moves (and since you actually can't sketch certain moves considering you don't have access to the items that enable your smeargles to learn sketch again!) some people might actually get kinda softlocked.

ranko · Sep 18, 2021

Hi! I'm having a weird bug when Buizel uses Sonicboom.

It gives me this error message, attempts to play Sonicboom again, and then gives me the error again. It's basically a soft-lock.

Joroma · Sep 20, 2021

Ranko said:
Hi! I'm having a weird bug when Buizel uses Sonicboom.

It gives me this error message, attempts to play Sonicboom again, and then gives me the error again. It's basically a soft-lock.

Thank you for the heads up! I'll look into it when I get the chance. Thanks for playing and I apologize for the inconvenience!

Released Pokémon Smeargles

258.96 MB file on MEGA

Attachments

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos

Joroma

Novice

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos

ranko

The Wind and Snow Continue to Stare

Joroma

Novice