Pokémon Walking - The Trigger Update

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

Demo:


Pokémon Walking (Current project title)

This project has been shifted to LOW priority, therefore updates will be SLOW. All movements (walking, riding, surfing, ledge-jumping, collision detection/response, etc.) have been implemented. Thus, I hereby announce that Pokémon Walking 1.0 has been released.

This is a project I am currently working on while I’m doing conscription service. The aim of this project is to port the walking algorithm used in the 2nd generation games of the official Pokémon game series. I’m sharing it with you guys, so if you are interested in the game, I can get motivated and continue working on this project, even if this has LOW priority and LOW activity.

If all bodes well, it’s possible that this will become a Java port of the Pokémon 2nd generation games. Highly likely, but I don’t want to get my hopes up too soon.

Everything is done from scratch/by hand. Some of the designs are mostly copied from the original Pokémon games. In the end, they will all be either replaced, or going to stick to the original games if I was to really port the game over to Java.

I have created a level editor, therefore all maps will be exported from the editor into the game. This is so that if there are any tile related bugs, I can centralize all of those bugs to the editor, making development more linear rather than branching into more forks than before.

The editor can be used to create custom maps. In the v16 update, I made it so that the game allows custom maps to be loaded into the game. Custom dialogues and items are not yet implemented, so please stay tuned.

Current Stable Version: (All new updates are marked in blue)
Game: v19,
Editor: v5
Nightly Builds: @GitHub, _testing branch.

Features:

  • Walking. (Main theme of the entire project.)
  • Area warping. (Completed)
  • Ledges to jump. (Completed)
  • Overworld (In development…)
  • Overworld connection (Complete)
  • Stairs. (Completed)
  • Mountain ledges. (Beta)
  • Surfing! (Alpha)
  • Water! (Beta)
  • Bitmap animations! (Complete)
  • Dialogues! (Beta)
  • Entity interaction! (Alpha)
  • Level Editor (Basic functions are complete!)
  • Bicycle riding. (Complete)
  • Start menu. (Incomplete.)
  • Item Balls. (Seems to be done.)
  • Inventory/Bag (Complete!)
  • Custom Maps Implementation System! (Complete!, time for modding!)
  • Saving/Loading (Complete)
  • Triggers! (Almost Fully Complete.)

Known Issues:

  • Need to set a certain condition that players should satisfy before surfing.

Plans:

  • Implement all walking situations from the original games. Walking, surfing, jumping over ledges, riding bicycle, etc. (Main goal) (Complete!)
  • Will modify the areas slightly to make Joe terracing/building the land.
  • Continuing to draw more tiles. This takes up the most of the development time.
  • Clean the whole project. It’s overdued for a clean-up. (HARD to do!!)

Source Distribution:
This project is hosted on GitHub, maintained using TortoiseGIT. All releases are labeled as v###, where ### stands for how many releases in total.

Controls:

Inputs:

  • Use WASD keys or the arrow keys to navigate around. Tapping the keys will “turn on the spot”.
  • Just walk into the water to surf around.
  • Use Z, X to interact. / and . can also be used. ZX and arrow keys are for right hand users, WASD and ./ are for left hand users.
  • Press Enter to open start menu.

Save/Load:

  • To save your game, use the in-game menu option called “Save”.
  • To load your game, just start up the game. Loading is done automatically upon start up.
  • To delete your saved data, just delete the “data.sav” file that was generated when you save your game.

GIF (HTML5) Tutorials (GFYCAT):
How to use the Level Editor, part 1: http://www.gfycat.com/NextNeighboringFluke
How to use the Level Editor, part 2: http://www.gfycat.com/FrighteningGargantuanDonkey
How to use the Level Editor, part 3: http://www.gfycat.com/SneakyTalkativeAcaciarat
You Should Know when starting the game: http://www.gfycat.com/CloudyBonyGlowworm
Adding your Custom Maps: http://www.gfycat.com/WeepyUnsightlyFairybluebird
Loading your Custom Maps: http://www.gfycat.com/FamiliarUncommonIndianabat

Downloads:
Latest Stable Version:
Main Game: http://www.thehelper.net/attachments/walking_v19-zip.18695/
Level Editor: http://www.thehelper.net/attachments/editor_v5-zip.18692/

If you have any questions/comments, please post below. I will get to lurking as often as I can. This post will be modified as often as I release new versions.

#2

Fun project! Ever thought about making into a framework?

#3

But… what does that even mean?

http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/100000/60000/6000/700/166757/166757.strip.zoom.gif

#4

Simply that tom_mai78101 could write it in such a way that other people could write their own games using this as a library of necessary constructs. Entities, interactions, algorithms, etc. would be packaged into a .jar and extended by users to make their own game with.

#5

Making a framework is an excellent way not to finish the project at hand and ending up with code nobody in their right mind would use for a new probject, including the author. Leave it to the experts, and finish that game! :slight_smile:

#6

Just leave it to me. :point:

Great to see some feedback. I was worrying this project isn’t making others interested.

#7

Sorry for the slow update, on April 7th, we’re going to get 144 freshmen into our boot camp. We’re going to start packing our bags and move to a new dormitory.

During my free time, I went ahead and created a documentation (more like “Specifications”) for my game. You can go check it out in the link below:

http://github.com/tommai78101/PokemonWalking/blob/testing/documentation/documentation.txt

I also went ahead and added some javadocs to the source code. Albeit, very slowly, since I also have to make sure the code works before and after I clean the source code up. I am just learning how to make javadocs, so some of the javadocs are a bit unstandard.

Hoped to see some feedbacks while I’m packing out.

#8

Sometimes you end up inside a tree when walking through “portals” :stuck_out_tongue:

Scenario:
*=Tree
P=Portal

*P --> * P *

So if I walk left into a portal I also walk left out of it, even if there is an obstacle :slight_smile:

#9

Yes, I believe that is a level error. By design, the area should not have perpendicular pathways when going through portals. These level errors usually occur when redrawing the test areas for testing purposes.

Thanks for the feedback. ;D

EDIT: On second thought, are there any Pokémon games that have this sort of level design near the entrances? I could possibly make it so that when these level errors appear, the game can fix it by itself.

#10

Do you plan to use another name for your game? As far as I know, “Pokémon” is a registered trademark of The Pokémon Company, affiliated with Nintendo.

#11

I don’t have a new name planned for the future versions at the moment. :clue:

And since the main theme of this project is the walking algorithm used in Pokémon games, I couldn’t think up one that is about the theme and its origins.

Any feedbacks on this is welcomed.

#12

Updated to v8:

  • Completed ledges.
  • Added overworld connectivity. (alpha)
  • Minor edits.

Any feedback is welcomed. Now, going to fully pack my stuffs. We also have a mission to do. Tomorrow is duty day.

Updated to v9:

  • Completed mountain ledges.
  • Completed stairs.
  • Added primitive terrain lighting. (testing)

Story Plot:

I decided to make a permanent town. Joe is currently looking for plot. He exits from a box, and there, he keeps on wandering around in the new land. Maybe there might be something new, maybe there should be something here, he thought, as he trekked up and down.

Will he decides on this plot? Find out next time, on the next release!

Updated to v10:

  • Surfing.
  • Water.
  • Bitmap animation.

Plot thickens:

While Joe is terracing the land, the overworld rained and poured all of a sudden, and then vanished quickly as it appeared. Joe, wet and soggy, hurried to the supplies pile to check to see if there are any damages, and noticed there’s a pool of water in the place where the suppiles are. Panicking, he jumped into the water to try to retrieve what was left over from the storm.

The picture in the first post captures how panicked he was. Maddened at his loss, and swimming hard.

To be continued…

Updated to v11:

  • Dialogs!
  • Text!

And that’s about it. I’m going to start cleaning and optimizing the whole source code for the next release. While I’m at it, I want to let people know that I’m running out of ideas I can implement as features for this project.

Bicycle, Ice Path, teleportation, escape rope, tornado dance, flying, and whirlpool spinning are what is left on my TODO list. After that, I don’t know what else I could do, other than to delve into unknown territories.

And, yes, the features I’ve mentioned ever since from the first release are practically unoriginal. That is because I’m sticking with the original games, and I’m porting over the movement algorithms from those games to Java. If I were to make a new game out of this, I can do that, and make it as a puzzle game, or a simple RPG without any battles nor anything fancy.

I also would like to share a questionnaire to you: What am I doing wrong?

Thanks again.

--------------_--------------------

This is related to your quote:

Apparently, my level design implementation is really similar to Game Freak.

Exhibit A:

Glitch through wall by entering the ladder, back in, and walk up.

Update v12:

  • More dialogue updates.
  • Made dialogues modular, separating dialogues from code.
  • Added signs.

Story Plot:

Adding some signs here and there will help Joe remember what to do next in his land plot. Of course, he is still learning how to read and write. What other things will he do? Find out in the next release.

Note: Regarding on changelogs, future changes and updates will be updated accordingly with a post. Older changelogs will be merged to another post for storekeeping. After that, when another update comes out, the now-old changelog will be merged with the rest of the old changelogs, post then gets deleted, and is replaced with a new post containing newer information of the update. This will continue, so that new contents will get their views accordingly, while the old contents can stay until they are history.

If that above isn’t acceptable, then please let me know on how I should update.

Editor update v1:

  • Added a custom level editor for use with the game. All info about the editor is posted in the first post of this thread.
  • Editor itself is pretty minimal. It’s not feature-complete, but it gets the job done in a more repetitive way. Forgive my Swing GUI coding skills for that.
#13

This is a great milestone for me!

Updates:

  • Game: Added and implemented the last movement for my walking algorithm: Bicycling!
  • Game: Added start menu.
  • Editor: Opening custom maps will cause some tiles to be corrupted.

Controls:

  • To activate start menu, press Enter.
  • From there, just like actual Pokémon games, move up and down to choose. Press ‘Z’ or ‘/’ to confirm.
  • Press ‘X’ or ‘.’ to cancel.

Why it’s my milestone?

My main goal of this project is to implement all walking (or maneuvering) actions that existed in the Pokémon 1st and 2nd generation games. This goal is now completed with the advent addition of bicycling, surfing, ledge-jumping, walking, and collision detection/response.

Therefore, I deem this release as the official 1.0 release. Enjoy!

#14

Small bug report, it seems to stop working when I go into the door of the house, doesn’t fully crash the game but I can’t move and have to close the game to do anything.

#15

Quick bugfixes:

  • Game: Fix issue where walking into the door stops the game from running.
  • Game: Fix issue where doing an action in the start menu in front of a sign causes text residues to stay until all dialogues are finished.
  • Game: Fix issue where movements are not locked while holding down directional keys while getting on/off the bicycle.

Download update v13a:
http://www.thehelper.net/attachments/walking_v13a-zip.18648/

#16

Updated to v14:

  • Added Item Balls. You can now pick up items in the overworld.
  • Added incomplete Inventory.
  • Editor: Fixed Editor not correctly opening up maps that have been created by the editor. Addressed a long time ago, now has been pushed
  • Editor: Added items. Refer to specifications to draw items. There are only two items: RETURN (id: #0) and TEST (id: #1).

Known Issues:

  • All item functions have not been implemented yet, therefore the item will return you to main menu once you select it.
  • Since the MILESTONE #1 has been reached, all of my priorities will be shifted to LOW. That means LOW activity, LOW updates, etc.
#17

Nice work for your first version. Why the heck do you turn into a voltorb when you go in water?

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTB60J9wC0zQvRYzDq-F1uCk4GzgpmQLy1s3oTkpvBFwztpa6df

#18

Good question.

I figured if I used a Lapras, it would make it look like this game is finished. I used Voltorb for 2 reasons:

  • Voltorb is the easiest to draw with animations. (Along with its evolution, Electrode.)
  • Makes it look like I’m debugging this game. I don’t know why it is linked to “In-dev”, though.
#19

It’s looking very nice so far! That said, on my computer, the editor looks like this:

594×546 30.9 KB

Is there something I’m missing?

#20
  1. Have you tried pressing “New”, enter the width and height of your custom map, then press Ok?
  2. If #1 is “Yes”, please run the JAR using your terminal, and screenshot the latest messages of the outputs.

Also, for those of you wanting to know if I’m still in development:

Yes, I’m still in active development. To see that I’m still developing it, go to this Github project page and choose the “testing” branch in-between the 2nd “PokémonWalking” title (otherwise known as the folder name), and the green button there. From there, you can see how recent I commit my changes there. I’m mostly committing changes/edits to the “testing” branch, and will do a merge to “master” every now and then. If “master” contains a big feature, it will be released immediately.

If you want to help out, I can add you as contributors and then you can help with the development. Appreciated you guys reading this anyway. :smiley: