Completed Pokémon Afterlife Part I

Tomix9tomix · Aug 11, 2023

Hey I played a bit of your game! Just wanted to leave some thoughts!

I should preface with this just saying that I haven't finished the game, and I'll get onto why, but I think I've seen how the game plays for the most part and can offer some thoughts and feedback.

I really like how you've taken the dimensions theme, and while this is only the 2nd jam game I've played, it feels like it is going to be one of the cooler and more unique implementations of "dimensions". I love the mechanic of swapping between two similar, but not identical, worlds (I really like Zelda: A Link Between Worlds). Furthermore, the "vibes" of the dead world were super cool, really nice colour pallette, and I love how the water changed to this weird toxic, alien looking liquid. I really like that.

It took me a while to figure out how the game was formatted and what to do. It feels very open and there are a lot of places to explore, but eventually I got it down. Having the town as a hub and then an area in each direction is cool.

However I found the main "loop" of the game really grindy. It's cool in theory, the idea of going to the real world catching a ghost, and making a dangerous trip to the dead world to deliver it is super cool. But in practice this ends up being: Find a portal, grab a soul, go to the portal, deliever it, grab a soul, go to the portal, deliver it, and keep on doing that. And it ends up just being a lot of walking avoiding bogs and trainers. And you're expected to do this a lot of times. It felt like a bit much.

I do think something super cool and unique is here, but the part of delivering the spirits just needs a bit of tweaking to make it feel less grindy and tedious. 10 deliveries for each stage of the game is a lot. And in the deliveries you really are just walking for the most part, I think it would be cool to see the dimension jumping mechanic be used in some sort of navigation puzzles. Or maybe have the portals change locations but have a trail from the main town that you can follow to make finding it.

But yeah, I think this is the first jam you've entered, and I think you've made something really creative and unique, so massive respect to you. With a bit of fiddling about how the collection of souls plays out, I think this could be a really good game. Keep up the good work!

Altarax · Aug 12, 2023

Hey, I went through your game today.
Here are some feedbacks.

I really enjoyed the first part of the game with that open world : I spent like fourty minute doing those sidequests before actually starting the first mission.
The weather constantly changing alongside with the dimension shift really spiced up the game. Once I've managed to build a proper team the game went fluidly. The dynamic leveling of the wild Pokémon and the trainers seemed perfect for me.
However, the game got a little bit repetitive when I had to start farming the ghosts. I think reducing the number of ghosts from ten to five could help making this phase better.
I had to stop when the tree asked to farm for twenty ghosts as I got softlocked. I went back to the place where the portail was when I needed to farm for ten ghosts, and the portail wasn't there and I couldn't get back. Here is a video showing the situation (for some reason I couldn't upload it with RC):

Another minor bug I found out was the fact that we didn't need to beat the Caterpie in order to validate that mission. I just spoke back to the lady and she gave me the reward.

Overall it was a nice experience. I really liked the way you incorporated the dimensions theme!

GangstaNerd · Aug 12, 2023

Altarax said:
Hey, I went through your game today.
Here are some feedbacks.

I really enjoyed the first part of the game with that open world : I spent like fourty minute doing those sidequests before actually starting the first mission.
The weather constantly changing alongside with the dimension shift really spiced up the game. Once I've managed to build a proper team the game went fluidly. The dynamic leveling of the wild Pokémon and the trainers seemed perfect for me.
However, the game got a little bit repetitive when I had to start farming the ghosts. I think reducing the number of ghosts from ten to five could help making this phase better.
I had to stop when the tree asked to farm for twenty ghosts as I got softlocked. I went back to the place where the portail was when I needed to farm for ten ghosts, and the portail wasn't there and I couldn't get back. Here is a video showing the situation (for some reason I couldn't upload it with RC):

Another minor bug I found out was the fact that we didn't need to beat the Caterpie in order to validate that mission. I just spoke back to the lady and she gave me the reward.

Overall it was a nice experience. I really liked the way you incorporated the dimensions theme!

Thank you I appreciate all the feedback. I'll look into the Caterpie quest though. The portals move after you finish gathering the first ten. There are 2 portals available when gathering ghosts but only change when the tree asks you to gather more. I understand the repetition being really redundant, That's why I added the side quests to sort of break that up. but reducing the amount needed would make the game seem less mundane. I will take this into account for future games if I decide to expand on this game because there is no post-game after completion, but I have some ideas of how to make some post-game material.

GangstaNerd · Aug 12, 2023

Tomix9tomix said:
Hey I played a bit of your game! Just wanted to leave some thoughts!

I should preface with this just saying that I haven't finished the game, and I'll get onto why, but I think I've seen how the game plays for the most part and can offer some thoughts and feedback.

I really like how you've taken the dimensions theme, and while this is only the 2nd jam game I've played, it feels like it is going to be one of the cooler and more unique implementations of "dimensions". I love the mechanic of swapping between two similar, but not identical, worlds (I really like Zelda: A Link Between Worlds). Furthermore, the "vibes" of the dead world were super cool, really nice colour pallette, and I love how the water changed to this weird toxic, alien looking liquid. I really like that.

It took me a while to figure out how the game was formatted and what to do. It feels very open and there are a lot of places to explore, but eventually I got it down. Having the town as a hub and then an area in each direction is cool.

However I found the main "loop" of the game really grindy. It's cool in theory, the idea of going to the real world catching a ghost, and making a dangerous trip to the dead world to deliver it is super cool. But in practice this ends up being: Find a portal, grab a soul, go to the portal, deliever it, grab a soul, go to the portal, deliver it, and keep on doing that. And it ends up just being a lot of walking avoiding bogs and trainers. And you're expected to do this a lot of times. It felt like a bit much.

I do think something super cool and unique is here, but the part of delivering the spirits just needs a bit of tweaking to make it feel less grindy and tedious. 10 deliveries for each stage of the game is a lot. And in the deliveries you really are just walking for the most part, I think it would be cool to see the dimension jumping mechanic be used in some sort of navigation puzzles. Or maybe have the portals change locations but have a trail from the main town that you can follow to make finding it.

But yeah, I think this is the first jam you've entered, and I think you've made something really creative and unique, so massive respect to you. With a bit of fiddling about how the collection of souls plays out, I think this could be a really good game. Keep up the good work!

Thank you I appreciate all the feedback. To be honest, I did feel that only gathering did seem a little mundane, that's why I added some side quests to break that up a little. I could see that making the player gather fewer spirits would help make it seem less mundane. The portals do change location, it changes after every milestone of collecting the spirits, and the locations are random, just like the spirits. If you lose to the spirit or run away from the spirit it is actually lost and you have to go to a different location to find them. I also added alternate endings depending on how you play the game, which could actually allow me to expand on the game if I ever decided to. Which I definitely considering. I'm glad you are enjoying the game hopefully you'll play some more and would like to hear what ending you got, if you decide to finish it.

GangstaNerd · Aug 13, 2023

I have included an updated game link to address some additional bugs that were encountered through some people's playthroughs, I've also decreased the number of spirits that are required for gathering for every tier to make it seem less grindy. The first tier is 5, the second tier is 10, the third tier is 13. For those on tier 2 and above I have created a cheat on the right side of the Uked tree that will only activate if you need to collect spirits 13 and above. You can also start the game over if you'd like to and it will work automatically, this is optional. See the image below for the cheat location. Future updates will have this removed. There is also an added difficulty for those who reach the final boss on Friday the 13th. See below for a list of bug fixes.

Bug Fixes:
Game crash when talking to Daycare Lady
Caterpie event where reward is given without defeat the Caterpie
Mapping issue in Detniat Bog where players get stuck in that area.

Quality of Life Fixes:
Significantly decreased spirits required to gather
-Tier 1: 5 Spirits
-Tier 2: 10 Spirits
-Tier 3: 13 Spirits

Spirit Decrease Cheat

HUGE SPOILER
For those that want to know which Pokémon evolve into Ghost types see the list below.

Feraligatr
Sceptile
Scyther
Marowak
Magmar
Sandslash
Lucario
Charizard

grenin · Sep 21, 2023

Please do something about the swamp of water, I keep falling in it almost every step and need to move two three movement keys to get out of it. Overalll the game is excellent but swamp make it very irritable.
Another suggestion is :- keep physical move tutor as well not only special

GangstaNerd · Sep 24, 2023

grenin said:
Please do something about the swamp of water, I keep falling in it almost every step and need to move two three movement keys to get out of it. Overalll the game is excellent but swamp make it very irritable.
Another suggestion is :- keep physical move tutor as well not only special

I'm in the process of fully revamping the game. Adjusting the marsh tile counter was one of them. I just need to fo a few more tests and the game should be published. Most likely by the end of this week.

GangstaNerd · Sep 26, 2023

Due to the valuable feedback, the game has been majorly revamped. The updated link along with the changes made have been included in the information above. If you've already started the game, unfortunately, you will have to create a new game as the main storyline has been revamped. I would like to say thank you to all of you who took the time to play the original version and provided all of your feedback. I hope you take the time to play the revamped version.

GangstaNerd · Oct 4, 2023

Who would like to see their favorite Pokémon evolve into a ghost type? I'm currently working on Part 2 of 3 for Pokémon Afterlife. If you would like to possibly see a Pokémon favorite be turned into a Ghost type then reply to this post and I may be able to incorporate it into one of the games. If you're not sure which ones are already Ghost types then see spoiler above.

Agniko Fireking · Mar 21, 2024

So, I managed to fail one of the quests, cause I didn't realize I was being timed. The one with Sandshrew. Is there ANY way for me to fix it? Cause now I permanently have Sandy following me, and can't continue, because I'm not allowed to proceed with a follower. Also, one of the quests I completed isn't being marked as done.

GangstaNerd · May 2, 2024

Agniko Fireking said:
So, I managed to fail one of the quests, cause I didn't realize I was being timed. The one with Sandshrew. Is there ANY way for me to fix it? Cause now I permanently have Sandy following me, and can't continue, because I'm not allowed to proceed with a follower. Also, one of the quests I completed isn't being marked as done.

I found the error with Sandy quest, and it didn't remove the dependency if failed. I have fixed that I also changed it so that the player gets a sense that they are being timed so that they return Sandy faster. As for the other quest which one is not being marked as done so I can fix that as well.

Agniko Fireking · May 4, 2024

GangstaNerd said:
I found the error with Sandy quest, and it didn't remove the dependency if failed. I have fixed that I also changed it so that the player gets a sense that they are being timed so that they return Sandy faster. As for the other quest which one is not being marked as done so I can fix that as well.

I believe it was the Totodile Quest.

GangstaNerd · May 5, 2024

Agniko Fireking said:
I believe it was the Totodile Quest.

Ok thank you, I'll check it out and push out an update tomorrow.

GangstaNerd · May 6, 2024

Agniko Fireking said:
I believe it was the Totodile Quest.

I have attached an updated version of the game. To clear the failed rescue Sandshrew quest, just talk to the quest giver in Diov Town and it should clear for you. If there is anything else please let me know, thank you.

Completed Pokémon Afterlife Part I

Attachments

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

Altarax

Novice

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity

grenin

Rookie

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity

Agniko Fireking

That One Pyro

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity

Agniko Fireking

That One Pyro

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity

GangstaNerd

Madness is like gravity