Spork Episode 8: Smoothie + Delicia's Delicious Dreamland

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

I've re-upload episode 3 with Reborn's custom move (+weather, stat boost and drop, etc.) animations

 

Although I mentioned considering adding a randomizer mode (not to mention Legend Mode still needs to be done, although SPB doesn't have Internet back yet), for now I'd like to take a short break from working on the game to recover more fully from the burnout from episode 3. Episode 3 came out much faster than I expected it to, but a major reason for that is how often I worked on the game and how much I got done each day. I worked faster and got more done in a day on average than for episodes 1 and 2, and there were times I could feel the effects of that in my arms. (I was able to get from the 9th gym battle to the 10th gym battle in only 2 days)

 

Whether it's working on episode 4 or adding more features to episode 3, I think it's best I take some time off. I think it's especially important that I go into episode 4 at 100% health, since episode 4 is the one I think I'll have the most fun working with, and I don't want burnout to lessen that. It's also probably the most significant story-wise. The concept for Sea Stars has existed in my mind a long time before I started making Spork. I've written two stories about them, one in 2012 and one in 2013. Most of the Sea Star characters that you'll meet in Spork are from those stories. There are actually two human characters in Spork from stories I've written too: Brutus (the one who you see talking to the librarian in Virima at the beginning of the game) and Kayla. You met Kayla again in episode 3 after not seeing her since challenging Ashley, and you'll meet Brutus again and get his backstory in episode 4. 

 

I'll hopefully be back to working on Spork again by the beginning of April at the latest ^^'

[piccolo88]

On 5.3.2017 at 3:59 PM, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:

South of Aliora City. Bolaii Beach is where the 5th gym is. 

Aliora city doesn't exist?! 

5th by is in wasteland?! 

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

21 minutes ago, piccolo88 said:

Aliora city doesn't exist?! 

5th by is in wasteland?! 

I think you're confusing Spork with Reborn. The 5th gym in Reborn is at a wasteland. Spork doesn't have a wasteland area. Aliora City is the fourth city the player visits in Spork, and the south gatehouse in Aliora City leads to Bolaii Coastline which leads to Bolaii Beach. 

 

EDIT: So looking at your profile, I see you're currently viewing a topic called "Where can I find a moon stone?" from 2013. I'm guessing you were trying to find a Moon Stone in Reborn and searched for "moon stone" or something like that and found this thread because the person I was originally responding to asked where to find a Moon Stone, and you clicked on this thread from there without knowing this is a different game from Reborn. 

[Ramiru]

4 minutes ago, piccolo88 said:

Aliora city doesn't exist?! 

5th by is in wasteland?! 

This is Pokemon Spork, not Reborn, there is no wasteland in Spork iirc

[Anthony810]

Well now I am convinced I can make my Dream Team in this game that I would have in Sun/Moon if I had it.

[Dreamy]

Didn't quite realize just how much content was already in this, so will definitely have to give it a play soon when time allows!

[Tenshi]

I've been wanting to play this game and Pokémon Full Moon for a while, they both look awesome. Story wise, which one do you think has a better plot? Which one should I start with?

Thank you

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

2 hours ago, Tenshi said:

Story wise, which one do you think has a better plot?

I'm...actually kind of uncomfortable with this question being asked. I don't really like the idea of comparing one game to another, or saying that one is better than the other. Someone did that in the Desolation thread a few weeks ago comparing Desolation to Rejuvenation, granted that person's feedback was more along the lines of saying that certain things were copied from Rejuvenation (I remember the poster saying Vejyr was copied from Valor Mountain), and Caz explained that they weren't. I also remember a thread from 2015 where Jan mentioned people used to say about his game "it isn't as good as Reborn", which made him feel bad. I would also feel bad if someone said that to or about me. 

 

I think comparing games is okay in the sense of "This game is darker/lighter than this one" or "this game focuses more on multiplayer while this one is single-player and story based", but I'm not really comfortable with "This game is better than this one". 

 

What I will say about the story of Spork, other than what's mentioned in the first post:

-The Sea Stars, which are the non-human/non-Pokemon species mentioned in the first post, have been mentioned in-game a few times but haven't been introduced yet. They'll be introduced in the next episode, episode 4, where the player visits their civilization. 

-Spork's story is lighter than both fangames and the canon games. Not only are there no character deaths, death itself doesn't exist. Because of this, I edited the Pokedex entries to not include mentions of death, Pokemon eating other Pokemon (or people), souls being stolen, etc. A few legendary Pokemon, mainly Giratina and Yveltal, will also have their lore changed because of this. 

-The main post mentions that certain sidequest areas offer extra story. For the main story up to the Champion, these are optional. For the postgame story however, you'll need to do them as you'll need to have met some of the characters through them. There's actually a change of dialogue when meeting Team Portal's leader depending on whether you've done them before. If you have done them, she'll mention a character that she doesn't mention if you haven't. 

-Sometimes watching the TVs will give you extra info, for example Gym Leader interviews and history (there are also non-serious ones though like puns of real TV shows and movies). 

-While the amount of time spent with most Gym Leaders isn't as much as fangames like Reborn, they will all have appearances outside their gym at some point in the game, as will the Elite Four. You'll also get to know Team Portal's boss and admins on a personal level, not just as enemies. One admin in particular will get a lot of screen time in episode 4. 

-There's one story rather than branching paths. There is a decision in the current episode that has seven different choices, but this only effects one detail of the end result of this choice along with dialogue depending on what you choose. 

 

I hope I didn't come off as rude by explaining why I was uncomfortable with the question. I also hope I didn't give the impression that I'm not open to feedback. I've incorporated other peoples' feedback before mainly by improving on the maps (getting rid of excess space, making nature less uniform, etc.) among other things. I do want Spork to be as good as it can be, but I would prefer to avoid posts like "Spork is better than x game" or "x game is better than Spork" in this thread, especially since I'll be here to read it, being the creator of the game and thread. 

[Tenshi]

1 hour ago, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:

I'm...actually kind of uncomfortable with this question being asked. I don't really like the idea of comparing one game to another, or saying that one is better than the other. Someone did that in the Desolation thread a few weeks ago comparing Desolation to Rejuvenation, granted that person's feedback was more along the lines of saying that certain things were copied from Rejuvenation (I remember the poster saying Vejyr was copied from Valor Mountain), and Caz explained that they weren't. I also remember a thread from 2015 where Jan mentioned people used to say about his game "it isn't as good as Reborn", which made him feel bad. I would also feel bad if someone said that to or about me. 

 

I think comparing games is okay in the sense of "This game is darker/lighter than this one" or "this game focuses more on multiplayer while this one is single-player and story based", but I'm not really comfortable with "This game is better than this one". 

 

What I will say about the story of Spork, other than what's mentioned in the first post:

-The Sea Stars, which are the non-human/non-Pokemon species mentioned in the first post, have been mentioned in-game a few times but haven't been introduced yet. They'll be introduced in the next episode, episode 4, where the player visits their civilization. 

-Spork's story is lighter than both fangames and the canon games. Not only are there no character deaths, death itself doesn't exist. Because of this, I edited the Pokedex entries to not include mentions of death, Pokemon eating other Pokemon (or people), souls being stolen, etc. A few legendary Pokemon, mainly Giratina and Yveltal, will also have their lore changed because of this. 

-The main post mentions that certain sidequest areas offer extra story. For the main story up to the Champion, these are optional. For the postgame story however, you'll need to do them as you'll need to have met some of the characters through them. There's actually a change of dialogue when meeting Team Portal's leader depending on whether you've done them before. If you have done them, she'll mention a character that she doesn't mention if you haven't. 

-Sometimes watching the TVs will give you extra info, for example Gym Leader interviews and history (there are also non-serious ones though like puns of real TV shows and movies). 

-While the amount of time spent with most Gym Leaders isn't as much as fangames like Reborn, they will all have appearances outside their gym at some point in the game, as will the Elite Four. You'll also get to know Team Portal's boss and admins on a personal level, not just as enemies. One admin in particular will get a lot of screen time in episode 4. 

-There's one story rather than branching paths. There is a decision in the current episode that has seven different choices, but this only effects one detail of the end result of this choice along with dialogue depending on what you choose. 

 

I hope I didn't come off as rude by explaining why I was uncomfortable with the question. I also hope I didn't give the impression that I'm not open to feedback. I've incorporated other peoples' feedback before mainly by improving on the maps (getting rid of excess space, making nature less uniform, etc.) among other things. I do want Spork to be as good as it can be, but I would prefer to avoid posts like "Spork is better than x game" or "x game is better than Spork" in this thread, especially since I'll be here to read it, being the creator of the game and thread. 

Haha, no, thank you. You are right, I'm sorry. And thank you for your long explanation.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Re-uploaded to fix a few minor issues.

 

-Dazzling Gleam now hits both opponents in a double battle as it's supposed to

-In Lee's pre-battle speech, fixed "teahcing" to "teaching"

-When speaking to Kayla in the research institute, she said "I'm afraid I can't share any details with anyone about what exactly the project is. Not even Ashley." twice. Deleted one instance of it. 

-Made the tops of barrels passable again in the BCC because there was a grunt who couldn't pass through the barrels to reach and battle the player. It didn't occur to me until after I was already re-uploading that instead of having the tops of barrels walkable through I could've just changed where the barrels are placed... XD I'll do that for the next re-upload or episode. 

[sandy]

quick question why  did you have the announcement of a champion now instead of like a episode or 2 later, and will we meat them be4 we get to the league?

Edited March 20, 2017 by sandy

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

As the episode was released not long ago, I think it'd be better if that question was put in spoiler tags. I'll be putting my answer below in spoilers. 

 

 

Team Portal couldn't have attacked the Underwater Hotel while Triston was there, since they wouldn't stand a chance against a member of the Elite Four. They needed to wait for Triston to have to go somewhere, in this case to battle a challenger. You've already met the character that's the second Champion, and Emily will tell you who it is when you meet her at the beginning of episode 4. In early stages of Spork's development you weren't going to find out until challenging the Champion, but since this person is the second Champion in the entire region's history, it wouldn't make sense for news of a new Champion to not be spread extremely fast. 

 

I will say the Champion isn't Pandora. I mention this because some people might think Pandora challenged the league to distract Triston so they could raid the hotel. Team Portal just used this opportunity to attack, as they would've done if Triston had to go on a business trip or went on vacation. (Pandora will also be battled multiple times like the admins, so she can't be too much stronger than the player)

 

 

 

[Rusien]

Ahh dunno if this has been reported, but knock off is still showing a power of 20. Didn't it get a boost to 65?

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

2 hours ago, Nakuto said:

Ahh dunno if this has been reported, but knock off is still showing a power of 20. Didn't it get a boost to 65?

Re-uploaded with this fixed. In Sun and Moon, Knock Off's PP was decreased from 25 to 20. What probably happened was that I mixed up the power and PP resulting in the power being lowered instead. 

 

I'm pretty sure I moved her to the far left corner of the map out of the player's sight, but just in case: if anyone happens to return to Inoset Island after the 10th gym and sees Emily floating in the water, I've started working on episode 4 and had to briefly move her where players can't reach her in order to do this re-upload. 

[Rusien]

21 hours ago, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:

I'm pretty sure I moved her to the far left corner of the map out of the player's sight, but just in case: if anyone happens to return to Inoset Island after the 10th gym and sees Emily floating in the water, I've started working on episode 4 and had to briefly move her where players can't reach her in order to do this re-upload. 

Woot Woot, Episode 4 hype! I love the story so far. Only other thing I've noticed is that Tsareena doesn't learn Trop Kick when it evolves, I can probably get it in Oildrill anyway. I can't wait to see where the game takes me next!

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

23 minutes ago, Nakuto said:

Woot Woot, Episode 4 hype! I love the story so far. Only other thing I've noticed is that Tsareena doesn't learn Trop Kick when it evolves, I can probably get it in Oildrill anyway. I can't wait to see where the game takes me next!

I'm glad you're enjoying the game!

 

Thanks for letting me know about Trop Kick. I plan to do another re-upload of ep 3 once I'm up to the 11th gym, so I'll have this fixed for that. In addition to the Trop Kick issue, the re-upload will have a more complete TM location list, since when I was making the list there are some available TMs I forgot to put on there, like Venoshock and Dragon Tail. I'm also looking into a way to show how many marbles the player has in the key items pocket, since I've noticed in some fangames it actually does display the quantity of certain key items. I didn't know that was possible before. (re-upload will not include 11th gym though as that's ep 4 content)

[Rusien]

I just realized Quinn's team is full of ducks! Also y'know I'd be glad to be a beta tester if you want.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

1 hour ago, Nakuto said:

I just realized Quinn's team is full of ducks! Also y'know I'd be glad to be a beta tester if you want.

Yeah, the Portal admins all have an animal theme with their teams. Quinn is his name because it's close to quack. 

 

I haven't done beta testing in a long time for shyness reasons, but if you're willing to test, that would be helpful  

Before the public release of ep 3 I was too confident in my own ability to find bugs and other issues, and that combined with shyness reasons led to me not doing beta. But there always ends up being issues I didn't catch or things I forget to do, which leads to episodes being re-uploaded many times. 

Palletite is the first person to receive episodes when they're finished, and when the sprite revamps are done, I would send it to you and any other testers for testing, after which would be the public release. 

[Rusien]

7 minutes ago, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:

Yeah, the Portal admins all have an animal theme with their teams. Quinn is his name because it's close to quack. 

 

I haven't done beta testing in a long time for shyness reasons, but if you're willing to test, that would be helpful  

Before the public release of ep 3 I was too confident in my own ability to find bugs and other issues, and that combined with shyness reasons led to me not doing beta. But there always ends up being issues I didn't catch or things I forget to do, which leads to episodes being re-uploaded many times. 

Palletite would still be the first person to receive the episode when it's finished, and when the sprite revamps are done, I would send it to you and any other testers for testing, after which would be the public release. 

Sounds like a great idea, let me know. I'd be glad to help out wherever I can!

[Efrhain]

Spoiler

I'm in Norall mountain and i have to battle with the Team Portal admin with articuno again after losing the first time. When i get there the game just freeze... Any help?

 

 

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

7 minutes ago, Efrhain said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm in Norall mountain and i have to battle with the Team Portal admin with articuno again after losing the first time. When i get there the game just freeze... Any help?

 

 

I'm not really sure what could be causing this, but if you send me your save file, I'll try to find out what's happening and get past it for you. 

[Sr.F]

Spoiler

I don´t know if this has happened with more people, but in my case, in Norall City and Norall Mountain the music doesn´t work.

 

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

3 minutes ago, Sr.F said:

  Hide contents

I don´t know if this has happened with more people, but in my case, in Norall City and Norall Mountain the music doesn´t work.

 

The music in Norall City and Norall Mountain is GlitchxCity's Christmas Medley 2016. I watch your videos and saw it wasn't working for you, but I'm not sure why. I went to Norall to check yesterday and it was working for me.

[Sr.F]

25 minutes ago, Ice Cream Sand Witch said:

The music in Norall City and Norall Mountain is GlitchxCity's Christmas Medley 2016. I watch your videos and saw it wasn't working for you, but I'm not sure why. I went there myself to check yesterday and it was working for me.

Spoiler

 

Hum... I'll download it again to see if works. (By the way, I see this too on Virima City when I was used Surf.)

 

 

 

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

21 minutes ago, Sr.F said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Hum... I'll download it again to see if works. (By the way, I see this too on Virima City when I was used Surf.)

 

 

 

I had meant to add rocks in the water to the west of Virima City to prevent players from surfing there, but forgot. I'll do so now. 

 

The "Virimaspace" map was made very early in Spork's development and its only purpose was to prevent the player from seeing black space above the beach. Before I knew you could change the size of a map after making it, I used maps like that just to fill in the black space. It wasn't until 1.6 that I realized I didn't need to do that.