Released Pokémon Crimson & Cobalt (Act I)

Armin · Sep 23, 2023

Trixx said:
hi is there any way the game can be converted to a google drive link??
the mega link is not working for me

excited to try the game!!!

Here you go -> click here

gohstar95 · Sep 27, 2023

A great game, hope you complete it! Any estimated time for the next update?

Armin · Sep 27, 2023

gohstar95 said:
A great game, hope you complete it! Any estimated time for the next update?

Thank you, I hope I complete it too! >__< Act I (first 4 Gyms) took me ≈4 years to make, so I'd estimate that Act II (second 4 Gyms) would take around the same amount of time as well...? No promises, though!!! Chances are high that I'll be totally off in my assumption, since life loves derailing people's plans and I'm not committing myself to any hard deadlines; it's a hobby game after all. Hopefully you (and this website) will still be around by then haha.

BetaCatastrophe · Sep 28, 2023

What an Amazing game so far! I especially love the narrative and the dynamic the main character, the elite four, the freaking champion, and our rival are going through. Only had a couple of questions so far as far as the game goes.

Where does one catch an Eevee?

I love the region's look and feel. I genuinely cannot wait to visit all the towns and cities, not to mention the beautiful routes and secret areas. Is there any way of incorporating any lore or backstory, such as where the region is a close relative to the other regions, the region's history before Team Crimson, and perhaps any lore about the Yveltal and its history in the region (if I'm assuming correctly that Yveltal has made his abode the Ibara Region)?

Finally, with the whole darker but still anime feel to the game, I would love to see even more side characters traveling around with eventual events that reward exploring and not just blitzing the game. I love the quests that incorporate much of the "event" side of what I said previously so that more events would be a definitive boon for the game. That said, more character-driven quests involving recurring characters would be amazing! Also, I love the character designs of the gym leaders, so maybe they could serve as a great way for character-driven quests to work.

Now, onto the main question: Is there a discord for your works and such? I would love to hang out, talk to fellow players about their findings, and ask a few questions about how they are playing the game without flooding this forum.

Thanks again for taking the time to read (and hopefully) respond!
- Beta "Breyan" Catastrophe

Maor80 · Sep 28, 2023

I hope it's helps but I couldn't download the game from the shared link could you make another 1 ? I hope this feedback helps if not sorry

Armin · Sep 28, 2023

Maor80 said:
I hope it's helps but I couldn't download the game from the shared link could you make another 1 ? I hope this feedback helps if not sorry

You can try this Google Drive link! -> click here
Or maybe you can try downloading it from the original link again after waiting some time -> click here

Armin · Sep 28, 2023

BetaCatastrophe said:
What an Amazing game so far! I especially love the narrative and the dynamic the main character, the elite four, the freaking champion, and our rival are going through. Only had a couple of questions so far as far as the game goes.

Where does one catch an Eevee?

I love the region's look and feel. I genuinely cannot wait to visit all the towns and cities, not to mention the beautiful routes and secret areas. Is there any way of incorporating any lore or backstory, such as where the region is a close relative to the other regions, the region's history before Team Crimson, and perhaps any lore about the Yveltal and its history in the region (if I'm assuming correctly that Yveltal has made his abode the Ibara Region)?

Finally, with the whole darker but still anime feel to the game, I would love to see even more side characters traveling around with eventual events that reward exploring and not just blitzing the game. I love the quests that incorporate much of the "event" side of what I said previously so that more events would be a definitive boon for the game. That said, more character-driven quests involving recurring characters would be amazing! Also, I love the character designs of the gym leaders, so maybe they could serve as a great way for character-driven quests to work.

Now, onto the main question: Is there a discord for your works and such? I would love to hang out, talk to fellow players about their findings, and ask a few questions about how they are playing the game without flooding this forum.

Thanks again for taking the time to read (and hopefully) respond!
- Beta "Breyan" Catastrophe

Hi! Thank you so much for taking the time to play the game and leaving such a kind and thorough comment! It really made my day <33 To answer your questions:

- Eevee can be obtained from the Casino for 6666 Coins or by catching the daily Jolteon in the Secret Glade and breeding! (Although the Day Care will only be available in the next version of the game)

- The lore and backstory of the game will be (is meant to be) gradually revealed as the game progresses, Yveltal stuff included! That said, Crimson Society and their deeds five years ago will be the central focus of these stories, so things like "how the region came about millions of years ago", or "what the region's relations are with other regions" probably won't be covered in-depth, if at all.

- Act II will come with 3 more Secret Hollows + some extra stuff, so I hope you look forward to it ^^ I honestly wish I could have even more quests or side events as well, but having too many of them = more work I need to do writing them, coding them, coming up with stories for them etc. => I will take an eternity to finish making this game T__T so I have no choice but to limit what I eventually include. I'm really, really happy that you enjoyed them and went the extra mile to do them; some of my favorite moments of the game are from these events!

- There isn't a Discord server for this game (or my other games), and I likely won't create one, mostly because I have a lot of reservations about my willingness/capability to manage it properly, among a slew of other reservations lol. I do understand wishing to talk about other players about a game, though! And I know it's rather difficult to find fellow players with this website's forum format. If people want, they can totally set up a sort of unofficial Discord server on their own ^__^ (assuming that there's a real demand for something like that haha) Otherwise, you can feel free to DM me on Discord @armin3507 if you have any more questions.

Once again, truly, thank you so much for all the love you have towards this game! <33

JohnGohan · Sep 28, 2023

Armin said:
In that case, perhaps you might want to try following the instructions in this video or this thread? Basically, go to your Advanced System Settings -> the Settings button in the Performance section -> Data Execution Prevention ->check the "Turn on DEP for all programs except those I select" box -> add the Game.exe to the list. Hope it works!

What a real shame I cannot seem to be able to get this game to start on my machine. Using the very same steps for a different far older game appears to work. All that appears to happen is a split second loading cursor with no end result.
In regards of that: How come Crimson & Cobalt wasn't directly developed for any of the modern versions of essentials? I don't see this being a game from the year 2018 or similar.

So unless there is some way to get this going and not crash on me all the time (as is with old essentials) it looks to be yet another bad example which could've been at least relatively good. Kinda anti-consumer to do this, no?

Well at least looking from the provided preview it does look quite good despite the (to me) less favorable gen 4 aesthetic. Good luck, I guess?

TechSkylander1518 · Sep 28, 2023

JohnGohan said:
In regards of that: How come Crimson & Cobalt wasn't directly developed for any of the modern versions of essentials? I don't see this being a game from the year 2018 or similar.

As Armin says earlier in the thread, this game has been in development for four years.

Armin said:
Act I (first 4 Gyms) took me ≈4 years to make,

v18 Essentials (the version used here) was released in 2020, not 2018.

JohnGohan said:
So unless there is some way to get this going and not crash on me all the time (as is with old essentials) it looks to be yet another bad example which could've been at least relatively good. Kinda anti-consumer to do this, no?

This is a free game, you haven't paid for anything and are therefore not a consumer. It's not fair to developers to say that they've somehow slighted you by not working for free to make their game perfectly compatible with every system. (Especially when you've hardly given any information to troubleshoot with)

JohnGohan · Sep 29, 2023

TechSkylander1518 said:
This is a free game, you haven't paid for anything and are therefore not a consumer. It's not fair to developers to say that they've somehow slighted you by not working for free to make their game perfectly compatible with every system. (Especially when you've hardly given any information to troubleshoot with)

It costs me time that I've spent attempting to fix an issue that shouldn't have existed in the first place.
Defending a free* product based on such lowly facts is never going to cut it. No matter the price tag, a video game deserves the same treatment as any other on the market.
And as such the people behind said products should also take responsibility for their mistakes and not redirect blame at the consumer itself for supposedly being in the wrong (when the truth is nothing but the opposite of that). (although it wasn't Armin (or any other related person) but you who responded)

This ain't about pleasing a specific group of individuals with an art direction, story elements or other gameplay related features. No, it's about a core functionality failing. The very thing which allows players/consumers to even attempt enjoying said product.

A consumer attempting to download/install any video game (in case it doesn't take like 4 different launchers and yet another 2 completely unrelated user accounts) on average will already be discouraged from playing said game if it doesn't function as intended. That can be through bugs, lack of software optimizations or in my case a complete refusal to launch said software. I am talking about the average consumer as in someone who doesn't engage with anybody but sees only a download page with a few buttons to click.
As for me? I am an extremely rare case of someone who goes out of his way to actual speak up about things and not move on with my day because.. at some point it's too much to bare!

*excluding <blank> amount of time invested

TechSkylander1518 · Sep 29, 2023

JohnGohan said:
It costs me time that I've spent attempting to fix an issue that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

If you truly think your time is so valuable that you can accuse someone of being "anti-consumer" because you tried to download something that didn't work on your system, then I'm sure you have better things to do than complain here.

As I said before, you've provided no information to troubleshoot beyond "doesn't work". You insist that this is a matter of core functionality, that it's the dev's responsibility to make it work on your machine, that you're not the one in the wrong - but you haven't even shown that you're playing on the intended system. And you expect her to "take responsibility" (when she's not the developer of the kit used to make the game) and make it work for your system without even telling her what that system is.

JohnGohan said:
This ain't about pleasing a specific group of individuals with an art direction, story elements or other gameplay related features. No, it's about a core functionality failing. The very thing which allows players/consumers to even attempt enjoying said product.

No game works on every system out there. Every game has some barrier to letting players access it.

JohnGohan said:
A consumer attempting to download/install any video game (in case it doesn't take like 4 different launchers and yet another 2 completely unrelated user accounts) on average will already be discouraged from playing said game if it doesn't function as intended. That can be through bugs, lack of software optimizations or in my case a complete refusal to launch said software. I am talking about the average consumer as in someone who doesn't engage with anybody but sees only a download page with a few buttons to click.
As for me? I am an extremely rare case of someone who goes out of his way to actual speak up about things and not move on with my day because.. at some point it's too much to bare!

And? What loss is a developer suffering if someone chooses not to play their game?

JohnGohan said:
As for me? I am an extremely rare case of someone who goes out of his way to actual speak up about things and not move on with my day because.. at some point it's too much to bare!

Your posts have all been dedicated to your personal opinion. I find it hard to believe that writing your thoughts on something is an especially laborious task.

JohnGohan · Sep 29, 2023

TechSkylander1518 said:
As I said before, you've provided no information to troubleshoot beyond "doesn't work". You insist that this is a matter of core functionality, that it's the dev's responsibility to make it work on your machine, that you're not the one in the wrong - but you haven't even shown that you're playing on the intended system. And you expect her to "take responsibility" (when she's not the developer of the kit used to make the game) and make it work for your system without even telling her what that system is.

What is so difficult to understand about "..shouldn't have existed in the first place."?
It should be none of my business if the game engine used is clearly outdated, no matter if from the year 2020 or 2013 when the likes of Essentials v20.1 was released on the 20th June 2022, more than a year ago. It should also be none of my or in fact anybody's business whatever restrictions there potentially were that prevented a port.
All that matters is the end result.
Game crashes that could've been resolved by upgrading beforehand? - Consumer shouldn't be required to report on. Developers fault.
Underwhelming performance on lower spec hardware due to an older build of the core game engine? - Also not a thing the consumer should care about. Once again falls back at the developer not doing the work they should in order to prevent wasting a consumer's valuable time.

So why in the flipping heck should I bother providing a step-by-step instruction manual on how to recreate my issue, when it ultimately falls back to developer choosing not to use the updated version of the very same base they're already using for it?

TechSkylander1518 said:
No game works on every system out there. Every game has some barrier to letting players access it.

You are right. Guess why minimum and recommended specifications exist.
Oh wait a minute.

MKXP works just fine I hear? There were bugfixes that could've been made use of? Wow.

TechSkylander1518 said:
And? What loss is a developer suffering if someone chooses not to play their game?

That's ultimately for said developer to decide. Maybe respect? Or fame? Reputation? Dissatisfaction of being unable to please said consumer? What a question really.

TechSkylander1518 said:
Your posts have all been dedicated to your personal opinion. I find it hard to believe that writing your thoughts on something is an especially laborious task.

Yes. And I will keep being open about it. One could say I am based.

Ott · Sep 29, 2023

(personal reply, not as a mod)

JohnGohan said:
How come Crimson & Cobalt wasn't directly developed for any of the modern versions of essentials? I don't see this being a game from the year 2018 or similar.

There may be many reasons. Here's one; they may have too many plugins that would need updating, either to a new existing version or are defunct and would need to be manually updated and they may lack the skill to do so, thus remaining in the version that fills their needs.

JohnGohan said:
So unless there is some way to get this going and not crash on me all the time

There could be, if you provide more info about your system. Who knows, someone may know what the issue is and help you solve it.

JohnGohan said:
It costs me time that I've spent attempting to fix an issue that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

You willingly spent a few minutes, perhaps an hour, downloading and troubleshooting a free game that you can easily discard without losing anything at all but time. Rather than accepting your losses and/or spending 10 minutes writing a helpful report, you spent the better part of a day arguing in a forum?

JohnGohan said:
I am an extremely rare case of someone who goes out of his way to actual speak up about things and not move on with my day because.. at some point it's too much to bare!

What is too much to bare? That someone without professional development skills and who spent 4 years making a free game that works for most machines made you willingly waste a little bit of your time because yours couldn't run it for some unspecified reason that you refuse to elucidate us on but rather continue to bash someone because they either didn't or couldn't spend more of their free time, possibly money out of pocket as well in to a game that will never make them a dime, upgrading their game as new versions of Essentials released? catching my breath

If you had paid for it, yea I'd probably be with you on this (the rudeness could be left out though). You would have spent actual money, that could have bought you things, on something that didn't work. But you spent time, and willingly decided to spend more time to fix it. Time that you would have spent anyway doing any other thing. Time that you've willingly wasted here too. You could have chosen to not spend any more time more than what you wanted to.

JohnGohan said:
Defending a free* product based on such lowly facts is never going to cut it. No matter the price tag, a video game deserves the same treatment as any other on the market.

It does, and it has received it. It runs quite well on many other machines. Unfortunately, the issue lies with your machine and the game. Perhaps you can provide more information so that people can possibly help you? We don't even know if you're running the game on Windows 7 (based on the video and GoG thread you replied to) or W10/11? Hopefully it's the latter, to not fall for the same "sin" as the dev.

I am not saying "it runs well on my pc, tough luck", rather "It runs well on many. Unfortunately it doesn't on yours, it happens. Care to share what the issue is, what you're using and how it happened?".

However, it's flawed to compare a free indie fangame made by a few unprofessional people with limited skills to everything else, such as a full 70$ AAA game made by industry professionals and funded by monoliths with deep pockets. We're comparing a free slice of ham vs an expensive five-course meal made by Gordon Ramsey. It's non-comparable. The expectations and scrutiny should be managed to fit the thing we're hammering about. Be helpful. Not just by "saving other's time" (who might even not have the same issue you do, but may feel discouraged to even try with this). By helpful for the dev and the fandev community as well.

JohnGohan said:
This ain't about pleasing a specific group of individuals with an art direction, story elements or other gameplay related features. No, it's about a core functionality failing. The very thing which allows players/consumers to even attempt enjoying said product.

Not all games can run on all machines. Unfortunately not everything can be accounted for in every piece of software. This isn't the dev's fault, even if they could upgrade to V20 or V21. They used the engine and version available to them at the time and were, perhaps, unskilled to be able to upgrade it. This is made by people for free, in their spare time. Perhaps they just didn't want to upgrade it. Perhaps they were unaware there were stability issues and kept using v18 to keep development coming along and have a finished chapter to show off.

JohnGohan said:
Game crashes that could've been resolved by upgrading beforehand? - Consumer shouldn't be required to report on. Developers fault.

Game crashes, regardless if it could have been fixed or not? Report it anyway. There were 3 replies where a report could have been added. Maybe by being polite and helpful it can be solved without needing to upgrade for now. Or the dev may be more excited to upgrade it to v21 in their free time, for free, seeing that people are still excited to play it but are unfortunately blocked by an unexpected issue.

JohnGohan said:
Underwhelming performance on lower spec hardware due to an older build of the core game engine?

Depending on how "lower spec" we're talking about, the consumer should care.

JohnGohan said:
prevent wasting a consumer's valuable time.

Yet here we are.

JohnGohan said:
So why in the flipping heck should I bother providing a step-by-step instruction manual on how to recreate my issue, when it ultimately falls back to developer choosing not to use the updated version of the very same base they're already using for it?

Common courtesy? Not wasting your valuable time? Help the dev to figure out what the issue is and possibly fix it (by upgrading or otherwise?)

JohnGohan said:
One could say I am based.

Careful, falling off a high horse can be fatal. I'll just say that; "brutal honesty" can do without the "brutal" part. Why "brutal"? You can be honest without being rude. Nobody here hurt you. It can do without the sass too. This isn't "based", this is being brutal, rude, unpleasant, under the guise of "honesty". Nobody's asking you to be a people pleaser, and nobody's deserving of being rude towards them.

Out of the 701,265 hours (80 years) an average person has, you possibly wasted 1 on a free game that people made in their free time, for fun, not asking in anything in return.

In the end; Didn't like the game? Then feel free to share your respectful opinion. Game didn't work? Feel free to respectfully let us know what happened and what system you have. Maybe someone can assist. Perhaps Chapter 2 will be in V21. It's an ongoing game, it's not the end of the world that you can't play one free game today. Play another in the meantime.

Armin · Sep 30, 2023

JohnGohan said:
How come Crimson & Cobalt wasn't directly developed for any of the modern versions of essentials? I don't see this being a game from the year 2018 or similar.

The game will remain in v18 until the very end. It's currently far too entrenched in the v18 engine (with way too many events and script edits) for me to warrant an upgrade to a newer engine. That would require me to spend a whole lot more time and effort than I'm willing to, and unfortunately for my players I'm the kind of selfish, wilful dev who values my own time and enjoyment more than I value theirs, who does what I want to do with my game rather than what I objectively should. Perhaps this does make me "at fault", or "anti-consumer" in certain definitions of that term, but I'm not being paid enough to be otherwise. Thank you for understanding.

Anyway, the game has been updated to Version 1.2 (Google Drive Mirror), with the following changes:

Implemented MKXP
Minor script and event fixes to accommodate MKXP

Hopefully, that will make things run smoother and get rid of the crashes...?

Important: If you've played a version of the game earlier than v1.2, your save file will be located in C:\Users\<YOUR USERNAME>\Saved Games \Pokémon Crimson _ Cobalt (with an accented "é"). Please transfer the save file to the correct folder, C:\Users\<YOUR USERNAME>\Saved Games \Pokemon Crimson _ Cobalt (without the accented "e") after upgrading to v1.2 or beyond.

To play, click on "Game.exe" instead of "Game_backup.exe". If "Game.exe" does not work, rename the original "Game.exe" to "Game_backup.exe" and the original "Game_backup.exe" to "Game.exe". Then, run the new "Game.exe".

Teddington · Oct 1, 2023

hey sorry to bug but im on route two now and after fighting the parasol lady my game started running super slow and has a delay registering input. when i hit f12 it crashed. i tried hitting alt for speed up but its not making it any better.

im loving the game so far and i love the main character. hes got a massive chip on his shoulder and its fun and unique the way he reacts to everything - from getting angry over the slightest thing to smiling back at pokemon.

Armin · Oct 2, 2023

Teddington said:
hey sorry to bug but im on route two now and after fighting the parasol lady my game started running super slow and has a delay registering input. when i hit f12 it crashed. i tried hitting alt for speed up but its not making it any better.

im loving the game so far and i love the main character. hes got a massive chip on his shoulder and its fun and unique the way he reacts to everything - from getting angry over the slightest thing to smiling back at pokemon.

Hi! Thank you so much for trying out my game! The main character isn't the easiest guy to love, I admit, so I'm really, really happy you enjoyed playing him as much as you did. <33

I assume you've already upgraded your game to v1.2, as detailed in the post above yours? If you haven't, please do; MKXP makes the game run much smoother! Otherwise, perhaps you might want to try saving the game immediately after noticing any delays, closing the game traditionally with the "X" button at the top right, then opening it again. Hopefully, that might fix things.

KennyCatches · Oct 2, 2023

Hey! I've been playing this recently and it's been a lot of fun. However, I ran into a softlock!

I loaded a save in the apricorn house but I cannot exit. Let me out, Cornelius!!

Armin · Oct 2, 2023

KennyCatches said:
Hey! I've been playing this recently and it's been a lot of fun. However, I ran into a softlock!

I loaded a save in the apricorn house but I cannot exit. Let me out, Cornelius!!

This literally NEVER happens... I think Cornelius likes you too much to want to let you go >__< Do you mind DM-ing me your save file so that I can get you out of the house? (Discord @armin3507 or here on Relic Castle). Thank you so much and apologies for this! Actually, scratch that, I know why it happened and I apologize for the trouble. T__T It's been fixed, so please update your game to the next version!

The game has been updated to Version 1.3 (Google Drive Mirror), with the following changes:
- Fixed a minor door bug (thanks Kenny! ^^)

Nick Blaze · Oct 3, 2023

Hello,
For some reason i cant play your game, it shows this error, whenever i try to launch the game

Armin · Oct 3, 2023

Nick Blaze said:
Hello,
For some reason i cant play your game, it shows this error, whenever i try to launch the game

It seems that you're missing the Animations.rxdata file in the Data folder of the game.

I'd suggesting re-extracting the game folder from the .rar file you downloaded. Please make sure you've extracted all the files!

Released Pokémon Crimson & Cobalt (Act I)

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Novice

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Cooltrainer

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Wiki Dweeb

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Wiki Dweeb

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My crown is made from the Yellow Pages

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can he catch his w's?

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Novice

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