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Completed Pokemon Elpis

This project is complete. Any future revisions will be bug fixes or small updates.
Project Version
1.6
Pokemon Elpis:

Days pass by slowly on your small island, in the sun-embraced Phaos Archipelago. When not graced by the presence of the irregular tourist, your only source of novelty becomes the monthly visit of mainland ships, bringing in goods, explorers, researchers, and the occasional new species of Pokémon you've never seen before. You often wonder what the mainland looks like, or what people eat, aside from Magikarp. Is it true that they eat apples that come from the earth, called "potatoes"? Silly rumors, one would assume, according to your grandparent, and only family. The peaceful and relaxing days give off a feeling that time has truly stopped. But that would soon prove to be wrong, since your savvy grandparent's tourist exploitation tricks, helped bring in enough dough to buy you a ticket for your 18th birthday. A ticket to Leukos Island, the Archipelago's biggest island. Overjoyed, you kiss them goodbye, and board the Jerry Ferry.


The fact that this game was made at all feels like a miracle. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Made Using:
PSDK
and RMXP

Team:
Dogsky
: Development, Character OW, Animation, Mapping
Epiphany: Audio mastering, pokemon ID insertion, testing
Mysmy: Custom tilesets, and Character OW
Manul: amazing and fast Mapping, Testing


Features:

- A seafaring, island-hopping, open-world adventure!

- A huge ocean featuring a dynamic npc-spawning eventing system, which includes Overworld Encounters on PSDK for the first time!

- The first fangame to feature actual zooming out when travelling in the overworld!

- The first fangame to feature pushing AND pulling boxes around!

- Actual naval battles!

- A wide variety of aquatic (and land) mons, whose spawnable levels and species scale with your progress

- My disappointment that I couldn't take a vacation this year, and some obscure childhood dreams of the sea, along with a poem that touched me, turned into a game

- Authentic music befitting the setting. I did a lot of work to dig up veeeery old folk MIDIs from the internet, and turn them into something new-ish that followed some of the franchise's musical conventions. Kudos to Epiphany for the audio mastering side

Theme Implementation:
Yes


Screenshots:
Screen1.PNG
Screen5.PNG
Screen2.PNG
Screen3.PNG
Screen4.PNG
screen6.PNG

Download Link:
Download here! Version 1.6

Resource Pack
https://eeveeexpo.com/resources/1343/

Notes:

Pay attention to what the NPCs in the starting island (where you get the boat) say. They will give you directions to get you started on a smooth early game. Since Wild Pokemon scale to the number of Sea Masters you have defeated, it's not recommended to make a team of six early on. You can catch a variety of types if you explore a lot, and can revisit older dungeons to catch mons of corresponding levels.

My time was very limited this jam, but I think I've managed to make a couple of very fun and unique systems. The game is complete, although not up to par with my original vision. I had to leave earlier than the deadline, so any issues you find please report. The inspiration behind this game has been Wind Waker, River King, and Link's Awakening, along the longing for the "island hopping" mood. I did a lot of work to scour the internet for old folk song midis that would suit the game's setting - you will see. Kudos to Epiphany for helping me with Audio Mastering, and testing, and Manul for the super fast mapping that saved this jam game.


Credits:
PSDK Credits

https://pokemonworkshop.com/en/sdk/credits

PSDK Plugins:
Gen9 Held item Mechanics, Toggle EXP ALL - Invatorzen


The Amazing HGSS Sea Autotile:
DeepBluePacificWaves

Tiles:

Akizakura16
Shiney570
Ultimospriter
PrincessPhoenix
SailorVicious
Slaqueens
Peekychew
Phyromatical
zetavares852
Evolina
Flurimon

Characters and Trainers:
Larryturbo - dhelmise OW
Kyle-Dove
CreativeEd


Music:
Very old Greek folk song MIDIs, heavily remastered and re-arranged by me, audio mastering by Epiphany

Bug reports post-jam:
  • Geoswag
  • Cadeorade
  • Kaffeine
  • Ntc

Jam Bugfixing History:
  • Fixed a Gamebreaking Bug, where entering the hotel after the prologue events, would return you back to said prologue events
  • Fixed two of the boss mons abilities and movepools in White Cave, so that the possibility of getting stuck is almost inexistent
  • Fixed Dungeon mons not disappearing after battle
  • Made Pirate battle events a tad more difficult (but not overwhelming)
  • The move relearner event has been implemented properly
  • Fixed some boss battles missing their custom moveset
  • Fixed Shop access crashing the game
  • Fixed inaccessible small island paths
  • Fixed some gen7 mon only using struggle (more might exist, please report)
  • Fixed Researcher Blake's Grimer using Fling only
  • Fixed Tourist Jake having no pre-battle dialogue
  • Fixed dark spots in White Rock cave, added back the item that was supposed to be there in place of one of the shadows (poke ball)
  • Fixed Volcano tiles in the second lava room
  • Fixed TM101 Scald showing up in the "other" pocket, rather than "tm"
  • Fixed small eastern island item pickup not functioning
GAMEBREAKING BUGS FIXED:

  • Fixed a gamebreaking bug where defeating the Sea Masters wouldn't activate their rewards and story progression. If you had defeated any master prior to version 1.2 it's necessary that you start a new game. Apologies for this issue - you may give me your savefile along with the number of Masters defeated, and I'll fix it for you. However, you must NOT talk to any of the previously defeated Masters, afterwards.
  • Fixed a gamebreaking bug where the Manor dungeon couldn't be completed due to wrong warps
  • Fixed watefall ledge tiles in the northeastern area preventing you from accessing the last cave, where the ending takes place

MAJOR BUGS FIXED:

  • Fixed encounter Spawns not taking Sea Master defeat into account
  • Fixed canonball fire not dealing damage
  • Fixed pirate cannonbal not spawning in the correct spot
  • Fixed pirates being able to attack you while on shore
  • Fixed game freezing when talking to the carpet grandma in Leukos from the right side
  • Fixed invisible tiles messing up many maps
  • Fixed ending cutscene transport spawning you in the wrong place

MINOR BUGS FIXED:

  • Fixed and Underwater mon spawn sprite not adapting to the random array
  • Fixed Trainer Card displaying the wrong sprite
  • Fixed incorrect tileset graphic size
  • Fixed passable golden pot
  • Fixed incorrect fadeout when exiting Leukos houses
  • Fixed boxes not being colored (PSDK wouldnt display hue change, so I had to fix the graphics)
  • Fixed Sandcastle sidequest not rewarding you with money
  • Fixed divers using THROUGH on to ... swim on land
  • Fixed passable lighthouse exterior
  • Fixed Tourist OW sprite not matching his trainer battle
  • Fixed passable high cliff tiles
  • Fixed being able to surf from elevated bridges and onto the sea below
  • Fixed wrong lamp tile in player's room
  • Fixed passable green-roofed houses
  • Fixed passable pond
  • Fixed a couple of OW ladder events needing "action button" instead of "touch" to trigger
  • Fixed Popplio having Liquid Voice as a hidden ability, making voice moves water-type. Now it will have torrent till it evolves into 3rd stage
  • Fixed Wailord sprite not showing during battle
  • Fixed a couple of typos
  • Fixed Familiar sprite not disappearing off-camera
  • Fixed Helean saying she has 6 mons, instead of the actual 2
  • Fixed boss mons turning around
  • Fixed ladder priority
  • Fixed Toxapex event not activating correctly
  • Fixed minimap not showing eastern rocks
  • Fixed early trainer wrong levels
  • Fixed trainer defeat dialogue not being displayed post-defeat
  • Fixed southern island bridge landing tile
  • Fixed battle backgrounds not showing according to different maps
  • Fixed Menu Blur showing black screen, however it still isn't centered on player
  • Fixed last Master text post-defeat
  • Fixed last pre-battle dialogue nameboxes not showing
  • Fixed last cutscene Familiar namebox not showing
  • Fixed game not reading the coordinates of the islands correctly
  • Fixed Nighttime not activating after certain events
  • Fixed upgraded boat speed BGM not playing
  • Fixed sea gap near pirate lair
  • Fixed waterfall spawning from nowhere in secret island
  • Fixed sea map using wrong sprite
  • Fixed plant lady not turning up to face plant
  • Fixed first pirate cutscene taking place during the daytime, when it should have been nighttime
  • finally actually fixed Popplio's ability
  • Fixed registering pirate battles as won even if lost during the pirate attack phase on the island
  • Fixed player direction respawn facing up, instead of down
  • Fixed music playing for half a second when it shouldn't, during cutscene transitions
  • Fixed many erroneous tiles
  • Fixed using the non-custom tiles for the cutscene of Leukos' attack, when the normal map used the custom ones
  • Fixed some minor grammar errors
  • Fixed Helena wrong dialogue order
  • Fixed pushing towards the ocean's edge enabling you to overcome the map's boundary detection
  • Fixed tileset including duplicate tiles
  • Fixed exiting various caves and dungeons, resulting in time tint being disabled
  • Fixed second entrance to Leukos Sea Master Arena not registering your respawn coordinates
  • Fixed a big cave not having BGM
  • Fixed random Bellossom in the Volcano, and shadow OW instead of sprite
  • Fixed Surf BGM not updating for third Boat upgrade
  • Fixed wrong variable taken into account for Hull Strength and Boat Level(speed)
  • Fixed starting boat position not being offset by a number of Y pixels, along with not having a box tile on the side, to signify where to interact with it
  • Fixed shadow being displayed under boat, as if the player was on land
  • Fixed incorrect BGM for the small island after pirate attack
  • Fixed last cutscene transfer audio bug
  • Fixed stray pixels in the ruins part of the Pelago tileset
  • FINALLY fixed daynight cycle, if the game stops using the cycle at any point PLEASE notify me
  • Fixed incorrect verse order during the poem scenes
  • Fixed errors in first and last verse of poem
  • Fixed attack scene house doors being walkable without pushing the player back
  • Fixed Anthony's basement tint as if it were an exterior map
  • Fixed incorrect tone setting by the sandcastle mom
  • Fixed initial island tone being morning 8 instead of night 8
  • Fixed time update after quest completion set to 2 instead of 3
  • Fixed grammar in some events
  • Fixed all dungeon and cave maps being tinted
  • Fixed map itemball direction ON
  • Fixed wrong Overworld respawn if you lost to the 2nd and 4th Sea Masters
  • Fixed automatic messages post-battle if the battle was lost in the ovwerworld (if I have missed anyone please inform)
  • Fixed Autosave not working
  • Fixed Trainers not asking you for battle (it only worked for the first Trainer)
  • Fixed last Cutscene fading in, much earlier than it should (this ruined what little atmoshpere I managed to make for the ending T_T)
  • Fixed Tourist Jake having incorrect team levels
  • Fixed canonball no4 incorrect detection value
  • Fixed Sea Battle loss leading to gameover, erasing player progress
  • Fixed Pirate Lair island tiles
  • Fixed a couple of Underwater tiles
  • Fixed Dive prompt not pointing to the correct tile
  • Fixed chance of ships spawning while player is on land
  • Fixed one mon OW spawn in the Abandoned Ship not disappearing after battle
  • Fixed player canonball not shooting correctly, this is still a bit buggy but works much better now
  • Fixed wrong waterfall length on secret island
  • Fixed waterfall near Pirate Lair tile allowing you to walk through the ledges

 
Last edited:

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos
Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2017
Posts
501
Elpis 1.5 is out! Thanks to Cade's stream for helping me catch a great number of (highly embarrassing) bugs.
One bug (the right-hand side cannonball) cheese strat is something I couldn't fix yet, though.

Please note that saves are locally stored, so you'll need to manually move them if you are updating.

  • Fixed wrong Overworld respawn if you lost to the 2nd and 4th Sea Masters
  • Fixed automatic messages post-battle if the battle was lost in the ovwerworld (if I have missed anyone please inform)
  • Fixed Autosave not working
  • Fixed Trainers not asking you for battle (it only worked for the first Trainer)
  • Fixed last Cutscene fading in, much earlier than it should (this ruined what little atmoshpere I managed to make for the ending T_T)
  • Fixed Tourist Jake having incorrect team levels
  • Fixed canonball no4 incorrect detection value
  • Fixed Sea Battle loss leading to gameover, erasing player progress
  • Fixed Pirate Lair island tiles
  • Fixed a couple of Underwater tiles
  • Fixed Dive prompt not pointing to the correct tile
 

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos
Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2017
Posts
501
Elpis has been updated to 1.6.

This should fix some OW spawns persisting after exiting surf, and will make the cannonball much more usable.

  • Fixed chance of ships spawning while player is on land
  • Fixed one mon OW spawn in the Abandoned Ship not disappearing after battle
  • Fixed player canonball not shooting correctly, this is still a bit buggy but works much better now
  • Fixed wrong waterfall length on secret island
  • Fixed waterfall near Pirate Lair tile allowing you to walk through the ledges

Since PSDK does have support for new gen mons themselves, but not for some of their abilities and moves, if anything doesn't work, please report in this format:

Toxapex - Paneful Bunker doesn't work.
 

Mega Greninja

Professional Amateur Creator
Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2020
Posts
43
YOOOOOO! I know I'm late but I hadn't realized there is a game inspired by my country here! Is the Greek translation ready, because I wanna play the game in Greek if possible.
 

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos
Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2017
Posts
501
YOOOOOO! I know I'm late but I hadn't realized there is a game inspired by my country here! Is the Greek translation ready, because I wanna play the game in Greek if possible.
Haha, thanks.

This small jam game has had a tumultuous history, at first I envisioned a full-scale Greek-based region, but I was extremely short on time this jam around, so I spent all the time I had left on the mechanics.

The reason I'm telling you this is: I want to eventually make a recruitment post for people who are interested to either develop it into a full-region game, or to expand upon the current game in some form. I would prefer that to a translation team. (I also have in mind someone who can type in polytonic Greek, looks much more beautiful imo). In addition, just slapping any translation into the current state of the game won't do, as if there is any future change to be made, a lot of the text will be reworked.

I usually do not want to bug other people to come into development, but I will be now focusing on the main game I've been working for some time, so if there is any big update to come that will take quite a while.

Aside from that, I caught the Youtube vod, and you should definitely defeat the "big" boss of White Rock cave which you skipped (you only got to the four minions), since you'll get the grappling hook on your way (which will allow you to scale the wooden poles)
 

Mega Greninja

Professional Amateur Creator
Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2020
Posts
43
Haha, thanks.

This small jam game has had a tumultuous history, at first I envisioned a full-scale Greek-based region, but I was extremely short on time this jam around, so I spent all the time I had left on the mechanics.

The reason I'm telling you this is: I want to eventually make a recruitment post for people who are interested to either develop it into a full-region game, or to expand upon the current game in some form. I would prefer that to a translation team. (I also have in mind someone who can type in polytonic Greek, looks much more beautiful imo). In addition, just slapping any translation into the current state of the game won't do, as if there is any future change to be made, a lot of the text will be reworked.

I usually do not want to bug other people to come into development, but I will be now focusing on the main game I've been working for some time, so if there is any big update to come that will take quite a while.

Aside from that, I caught the Youtube vod, and you should definitely defeat the "big" boss of White Rock cave which you skipped (you only got to the four minions), since you'll get the grappling hook on your way (which will allow you to scale the wooden poles)
Ah okay I see!

Well, my end goal (if you can call it that) is to eventually make or work on a Greece based Pokemon Fan Game, so I guess I'll keep an eye for that recruitment post. Although my polytonic greek ain't the greatest but what can you do😅

I'll keep in mind what you said about the big boss, though I'm not sure I'll be to finish the game live cause of real-world responsibilities.

Regardless, the project really catches the spirit of the greek islands, especially the music, to which I was holding back the urge to stand up and dance a νησιώτικο! I'm excited to see what else it has to offer!

Thank you for making this! It's about time people realize Greece is a perfect setting for a Pokemon Region!
 

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos
Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2017
Posts
501
Ah okay I see!

Well, my end goal (if you can call it that) is to eventually make or work on a Greece based Pokemon Fan Game, so I guess I'll keep an eye for that recruitment post. Although my polytonic greek ain't the greatest but what can you do😅

I'll keep in mind what you said about the big boss, though I'm not sure I'll be to finish the game live cause of real-world responsibilities.

Regardless, the project really catches the spirit of the greek islands, especially the music, to which I was holding back the urge to stand up and dance a νησιώτικο! I'm excited to see what else it has to offer!

Thank you for making this! It's about time people realize Greece is a perfect setting for a Pokemon Region!
Glad you liked it!

Well, many Youtube "Pokemon Region/ Pokedex" videos have covered Greece (one of the reasons I made this game was due to being spammed by Youtube recommendations "bUt WhAt iF gReEcE was aPokemon RegiOn?" Like again, and again, and again LOL!) But seeing as nobody had actually attempted it, I was like "let's give it a go"!

The music is real traditional music that I heavily remastered (it took me a while to find sites from like the 90s that had those midis). I wasn't surprised you couldn't identify some, especially the older Rebetika - those have gone out of favor completely with subsequent generations. Originally, I envisioned the Region taking place after WW2, in a recovering Greece, and during that time, there was a renaissance of the Rebetiko due to, among other things, the introduction of the 4th string thanks to Chiotis, and the merging of western and eastern styles. I digged into it a lot, and found the most "pokemon-like" tracks. I was very surprised to see many motiffs matching gen1 and gen 2 specifically, possibly because of the hardware limitations forcing strong melodies without strong chords on the background - kinda similar to the solos coming from the old Greek instruments.

Buuuut... I also made a big bummer and forgot to include 5 extra pieces in the jam version, now that the judging's over I'll get to bringing them back.
 

safr

Elite Trainer
Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2021
Posts
318
This really need more attention. I personally get little frame rate drop after playing few hours but i think just my old laptop. I pretty much love this concept seeing different island with different feeling make the game not monotonous for me. Personally this concept have pretty amazing potential if in future you decide to touch this concept again and make it bigger island or between region league. In the end thank you and stay healthy
 
Just finished! Here are some thoughts!
Really cool and unique game! Once again you've managed to cook up something super unique which I respect a lot! The sailing mechanic felt very smooth and cool, it's honestly mindblowing how you managed to pull it off. The exploration and all was super neat, it felt cool coming across a new island and checking out what was inside and possibly finding a new upgrade. I gasped when I found the hookshot, that was super cool

I know that you didn't get to present the story in the way you envisioned, but I still thought it was very nice. It reminded me a lot of a book called "I'm Thinking of Ending Things". Just the idea of this lonely man coming to the end of his lonely life, and having one last fantasy in his head before he says farewell. It's a neat story.

My downsides with the game are pretty nitpicky, and despite them I still had a lot of fun with the game. And I think a lot of them are also just due to time crunch.
-There were a couple islands where I'd go inside a cave or a dive spot and just find no reward
-I wish there was more guidance towards the sea masters, I got very lost trying to find the 4th sea master
-The ship battle game felt pretty confusing and unclear, I think it'd be nice if the enemy ship had a hp bar as well as your own ship. Sometimes I didn't really know if I got hit or not. I'm also not entirely sure that you can beat other ships as I was constantly shooting with my cannons but I'd still get the "managed to escape pop up". But an npc mentioned them having good loot so I think it must be possible.
-I appreciated the new moveset for popplio, giving it more range, but it felt pretty weird that brionne and primorina didn't learn any moves by level up from what I saw. Just makes those later level ups feel more stale.

Keep up the good work! I'm extremely keen for your next project as always!
 

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos
Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2017
Posts
501
Just finished! Here are some thoughts!
Thanks so much for playing! Sadly I couldn't catch the stream again, but I just finished watching the VOD.

I am glad you got some enjoyment out of the game, I was afraid most people would be put off by it feeling half-finished :S
In regards to other details:
Yeah, the plot is about the twilight years of an elderly person, who was mostly alone for the entirety of their lives. It's amazing how much of a coincidence the book you've mentioned is. I never read it, lol! Though the theme of the game was inspired by the poem (actually the lyrics from a song that isn't exactly from post-war Greece, but can be considered old by now, I assume). The song is talking about an old man - who never had any friends, and lived on an island. Depending on one's interpretation, either a mermaid, siren or a human woman, feels sorry for the man. The seagulls tell the latter to try to love the man, and she pleads for her mother ? (the sea, or a mermaid) to sing him a song, to help him open up. He is presumably extremely introverted. The mother does not sing along with her, and her song drowns into the sea. In the end, she remains undecisive between the sea and the man, and withers away. Finally, the last line says "counting her dreams come every dawn" but it's not known what "her" refers to. And who is actually saying said line. But it is strongly implied that the lonely man remained lonely till the end of his life.

So, originally, I wanted to put this entire story forward in a meaningful and more faithful manner. Remnants of this can be found in the usage of Popplio who is based off of a siren, you being referred to as an old man (but sadly not consistently), the relationship between the mysterious person and the player that I had 0 time to write for and event, and the pirates and the professor acting as the part of the player that wanted out. I was really sad I couldn't implement this properly, but I had a lot of fun (and pain) developing the base systems. I put so much effort into it some development days would peak at 13 hours! Average was 9 hours a day. Yikes! But, although not properly developed for, I consider this game the most rewarding game I've ever developed. I still have no idea how I did it, it felt like a miracle, and I am sure it was.

I have noticed many more things during your VOD, and I hope I'll be able to fix them and revamp them eventually. By the way, you missed a dungeon where you can get double the sailing speed! It was on the bottom left part of the map. I also believe the Sea Map should be available immediately, and for the very entrance of the endgame dungeon to be completely sealed off at the point of the whirlpool, as to not force players to backtrack. Same goes for some of the island designs that zig-zag too much around. Oh, there is also a secret island that you can access through the right dive spot. It is beautiful but is unfinished. Sad :( There is another not so secret island that you've missed (entrance through a ladder, top left), but it doesn't have anything noteworthy. As you mentioned, some places feel barren because I ran out of time. I also forgot to include some BGMs in the release version, and I wasn't allowed to bring them in, it until post-jam - which I haven't done yet.

As for the pokemon moves and some other bugs like TM icons, those mostly derive from my unfamiliarity with how PSDK does things, and I prioritized the systems over everything else. The ship minigame now actually works, but I misjudged the time needed to win, therefore the timer runs out before enemy ship health goes down. A health bar is an awesome idea, though. As for the sprites, they were mostly placeholders. Originally I wanted to make unique sprites for every important NPC. Also, I wanted to make a boarding minigame too. Lastly, I believe Sea Master confusion can be dealt with by marking their location in the map - after all the dungeons are more fun to find by yourself, rather than the masters.

Again, thanks so much for playing, I really appreciate it, as it allows me to notice things my sleep-deprived butt couldn't during the crunch xD
 
Last edited:

jeacky

Novice
Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2022
Posts
21
i have enjoyed myself.

the doenside was i did only after every other gym the hookshot cause in the cave i got so absorbeb in getting non water types that i forgot everything else.

so i searched for over an hour. for anything i could have missed.

which also ment that i had the hole game the slow speed .
 

AenaonDogsky

Arbiter of Doggos
Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2017
Posts
501
i have enjoyed myself.

the doenside was i did only after every other gym the hookshot cause in the cave i got so absorbeb in getting non water types that i forgot everything else.

so i searched for over an hour. for anything i could have missed.

which also ment that i had the hole game the slow speed .
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I wish I could have designed the game a bit better. I might revisit how faster speed is used in the future. For now, I can't revamp this game due to various other ongoing projects.
 
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