[SPEE] Full Game Available Now!

I'm so excited to announce that Super Pokemon Eevee Edition is finally available as a full release! It's been a long and exciting journey, and I'm so grateful for the enduring excitement around the game's releases for years.

[DOT] Dot Debugger 2021 Update

I've made a bunch of changes to make the game polished and to actually feel like a full, finished game. The game is now essentially "done". This is exciting, because this is the first time I've actually felt like i completed a project :D

Here's a rundown of the changes: 

1. Available on STEAM

I've finally published a game on Steam! YAY! (it's still free)

Steam Storepage

It's also available on itch.io, and google play for android.

2. Renamed

When I first started the project, the game had a working title of DOT. Turns out, that name is really hard to search up, so I added a subtitle to the previous version, "DOT Debug". I've now changed it again, to DOT Debugger, as I find it rolls of the tongue more easily. This is probably the last name change. But no promises!

3. Length Change

The game was always meant to be short. In the world of live games that go on forever, I quite appreciate it when a game doesn't overstay it's welcome. The previous version had 3 acts, each with 6 levels each and each act took place in a different part of the moon.

It could probably be completed in less than an hour, but oddly I still found the second act to feel a little meandering. And the different locations didn't feel like they were fleshed out at all, it made the act based structure feel pointless. And honestly, it was pointless.

I decided to chop down to 12 levels. It still takes the basic act structure, the first 6 levels are about evacuating the Binary Engine, and serve as an introduction to the mechanics. The last 6 levels are about finding someone in the Engine's CPU, these levels is where the difficulty ramps up and types of enemies is expanded quite a bit.

The game probably takes from 30m to 1h to finish if you know what you're doing. But extra modes are there for some "postgame fun"

4. Finished the Story

Cutscenes have a bad reputation in games, but honestly, I enjoy getting context to what I'm doing. I don't need all games to have a story, but it often helps make a game feel more complete, to me. I don't have the time to do fully animated scenes, but I really enjoy making pixel art, so I think even the sideshow approach that DOT uses is effective enough.

Previous versions of the game had a few cutscenes, namely at the start and end of acts. This update now revamps the cutscenes, by adding opening cutscenes to every level. The story has also been re-written to something a bit more interesting, but still pretty basic.

So, basically, the story is complete. And there is an ending.

5. Powerups have Cooldowns

The game has powerups, or "functions". They are neat to use, but cost bit energy to use.

Energy cost of powerups was very hard to balance. Players could just stock up on energy, and just use them all at once, often making the game trivial. It was kinda hard to tell what powerups you could use at any given time as you had to do some quick maths to calculate costd. And worst of all, players would just stick to one or two powerups because there was no use varying it up if they had a similar cost. It was simply not a smooth or intuitive experience.

I didn't want to do cooldowns, because every game has them... but then I added them, and yeah... it's way better. Cooldowns cause you to think twice about whether to use a powerup or not, do you use it now, or just sneak around and use the powerup when you really need it. 
The best side effect of it was that it caused players to actually use different powerups. Goes to show you that just because a game mechanic is overused, doesn't mean it's a bad thing.

Powerups were also purchased inside shops, but that has now changed. You can unlock powerups inside specific levels as you progress though the story. This fixes the problem of players missing the powers. You can still purchase upgrades of powerups in the store.

6. Bit are only Currency

In the previous version of the game, the Bits were used for 2 things. Energy, which is used for powerups, and as Currency, which is used to buy upgrades and new powerups. I thought it would be a cool mechanic, but again, it was needlessly confusing. 

You'd enter every level with a bit count of 0, and wouldn't know how that converts to the menu's bit count.

Due to removing the Powerup cost factor, bits now ONLY serve as currency, and the total amount is always displayed in the level.

7. Musical Changes

For the music of the game, i'm using a bunch of public domain tracks from an artist named Komiku. It's quite hard to retrofit existing songs into a game which wasn't designed for it, but I think it works well.

I've changed volumes across the board to be less ear grating, and replaced some of the less interesting tracks with more interesting ones. This includes changing the title theme.

There are also a bunch of minor and major changes which I don't have time to talk about.

---

I was thinking about the possibility of adding ads and microtransactions, or to make the game cost money, as it does cost me a substantial amount of time to make games....  

But I instead decided to make this a fully free game. Because honestly, as a hobbyist developer, i just want as much people to play my games as possible. I consider this game "Freeware".

This is my first "complete" game, it's really exciting for me, as i've been developing games for 10+ years and never actually managed to finish one. I'm very much looking forward to move back on to SPEE and now complete that one with all the lessons i've learned finishing up DOT Debugger.

Please try the the game, and I hope you enjoy it. 

[SPEE] Update 0.9 (Terminal Velocity) Now Available

*Patch 0.901 has been released*

Hope you guys enjoy the update!

Update by using the launcher, or Download Here

Mystery Gift: TM Ice Beam

Change Log

-----------------------------------------------------
0.901 : Patch 1
-----------------------------------------------------

[bug] Fixed issue with non talking VoidPhantom quest giver
[bug] Fixed issue with blocking tile in Void F3 Glitch City
[bug] Fixed Midnight Howl trophy in trophy log
[bug] Fixed issue with Litore Storage House
[bug] Fixed issue with night encounters (Route 21, 22, 24, Left Terminal)
[bug] Fixed issue with enemy Flygon named Vibrava
[bug] Fixed issue with summons
[bug] Fixed issue with open cliff placement on Route 9
[bug] Fixed Route 14 - Ros Lake surfing warps
[bug] Fixed issue with Silph Co. president being invisible
[bug] Fixed typo with NPC calling Blue Oak "Gary" regardless of what you've named him.
[bug] Fixed issue with Elekid not being able to be bought in the Adoption Agency.
[bug] Fixed issue with Shellder showing Starmie sprite when caught
[bug] Fixed issue with Route 7 - Magnus City surfing warps
[bug] Fixed issue with Dratini not being recognised as caught


-----------------------------------------------------
0.900 : Update
-----------------------------------------------------

[map] Litore City Updated

[map] Clair's Gym (8/8)

[map] Train 

[map] Finis Village

[map] Tomb of the Sand King  

[map] Tomb of the Steel King 

[map] Magnus City updated

[map] Ferreus Town updated

[map] Route 14 updated

[map] Route 21 updated

[map] Route 22 updated

[poke] Poochyena (Route 21) (Night)

[poke] Cubone (Route 11 - Day)

[poke] Horsea (Route 17) 

[poke] Snorunt (Frig Glacier) (Night)

[poke] Slowpoke (Route 19)

[poke] Chinchou (Route 20)

[poke] Miltank/Tauros (Route 22)

[poke] Snorlax (Route 14)

[poke] Lapras (Ros Lake)

[poke] Omanyte/Kabuto (Void F3)

[poke] Chansey (Prize Zone - 777c)

[poke] Magikarp (Magikarp Salesman)

[poke] Starter #3 (Oak)

[poke] Registeel (Summon)

[poke] Regirock (Summon)

[side] Ninja Kid available in Litore City

[side] Island Sisters Quest 

[side] Bouncy Ball Quest 

[side] Bird Wings Quest 

[side] Water Crystal Quest

[side] Vibrant Flower Quest

[trop] Added Silver trophy for completing Soul Challenge

[trop] Added names to all pokedex trophies

[trop] Added Bronze Trophy for getting to F5 of battle zone

[trop] Added Silver Trophy for getting to F12 the battle zone 

[trop] Gold Trophy added for getting eevee to Lv99

[trop] Bronze Trophy added for encountering a shiny

[trop] Aerodactyl Trophy Added

[trop] Absol Trophy Added

[trop] Starmie/Cloyster Trophy Added

[trop] Regice Trophy Added

[trop] Void Phantom Quest Trophy Added 

[trop] Dead Miner Quest Trophy Added

[misc] Added Challenge Mode option in the Room PC

[misc] Various pokemon/item changes

[misc] Shiny Pokemon drop Shiny Data if defeated (no pokedex required)

[misc] Automatically recover 1PP for every 8 steps

[misc] Water Bottle can now be used in-battle to restore PP

[misc] Recharge PP recovery now limited to 25PP 

[misc] Eevee (standard form) now learns Attacks at earlier levels

[misc] Chapter 6 Silver Battle added in Frig Town

[misc] Gym Leader and Rival battles have a difficulty boost

[misc] Magikarp Salesman now available in PokeCenter, will sell for ever increasing prices 

[misc] New Message graphic

[misc] Redesigned Encounter Bar

[misc] Battle Zone - won't trigger a game over when you lose anymore

[misc] Battle Zone - now rewards 10zp per floor insted of 5zp

[misc] Battle Zone - multiplyer will only increase instead of decrease randomly

[misc] Battle Zone - full healing on entry and exit

[misc] Battle Zone - now won't get money for defeating pokemon

[misc] Battle Zone - now costs $200 to start

[misc] Prize Zone - prices increased

[misc] Quick Attack now has a chance of inflicting Flinch instead of Confusion

[misc] Surfing Music updated (again)

[misc] Added 2 trainers to Ember Forest

[misc] Added 2 trainers to Frig Glacier

[misc] Replaced Swinub with Jynx in Pryce's team

[misc] Giga Impact available from Mega Mart

[misc] More TMs available from Prize Zone

[misc] Can now buy nametags from Name Changer in Magnus City

[misc] Raised Eevee's overworld sprite to be inline with Hero sprite.

[misc] Moltres Battle is now Optional

[misc] Slugma location now moved to floor 2 of Ignis Volcano 

[misc] Adoption Agency now shows buyable pokemon's picture 

[misc] Prize Zone now shows buyable pokemon's picture

[misc] Crystal now gives updates on pokemon in the Adoption Agency

[misc] Crystal now gives info on pokemon in the Prize Zone

[misc] Added Magnus Storage House

[misc] Pokemon Encounters modified

[misc] Swapped around Corrupted Pidgey and Weedle/Caterpie locations

[misc] Exeggcute moved to Viridis Isles

[misc] Increased accuracy of Thunder to line up with other 350 damage moves

[misc] Sewer Terminal quest now gives Thunder Punch

[misc] Sawdust quest now gives Air Slash

[misc] Fixed issue with gameover triggered when losing to blue

[bug] Fixed bug where a gameover would be triggered after a battle if Eevee is dead but other pokemon are alive

[bug] Fixed issue with oak dialog appearing after losing to Academy Challenge

[bug] Fixed issue with Weavile Sprite not appearing in PokeBox

[bug] Fixed bug where losing a battle inside a building would disable bike

[bug] Fixed minor graphical bug with water tiles

[bug] Fixed EXP issue after a summon

[bug] Fixed bug where characters would say Death Quotes before meeting them

[bug] Fixed bug where Silph Co F4 staircase would take you to wrong place

[bug] Fixed bug with certain trophy progress counters

[bug] Fixed bug where shinies would stop appearing after 7 shiny encounters

[bug] Fixed bug where last void phantom doesn't exist [test]*

[bug] Fixed Mors Letter trophy log entry [test]*

[bug] Fixed issue with trophies not activating immediately 

[bug] Fixed issue with 180 pokedex entries trophy

[bug] Fixed issue with paperboy quest showing wrong money reward

[bug] Fixed issue with Money Training mode not appearing after rank 8

[bug] Fixed double encounter bug with Ros Lake at night.

[bug] Fixed issue where Bagon would appear in prize zone before gen3 pokemon is activated

[bug] Fixed issue with Crystal not giving pokemon locations after reaching end of demo

[DOT] New Shadow System

I've added some additional visual flourishes to DOT Debug

I realised that by tweaking my procedural tiling system, I could easily get the game to add shadows to walls.

Looks quite neat if i don't say so myself.

Early builds of the game I used hand placed tiles, which looked neat, but was such a maintenance nightmare whenever I wanted to modify the level layout. plus it added a lot of overhead for new levels. Moving to a procedural tile system is so much better

Basically, when a level starts, a 2d structure is created, which stores which objects exist at what 32x32 square of the map. That 2D structure is essentially the level. indicating free spaces, walls and error tiles. (since the game is gridbased, this works perfectly).

Then the tiling system goes into place for every point of the level, it decides what to put there. if it's blank space, it puts a floor tile which varies depending on the level. if it's a wall, a black tile is placed. and if it's a error tile a red tile is placed.

if it's a blank space, with a wall above, or to the left, then it places a shadow tile.

Here's some updated screenshots

[DOT] Now available on the Android Play Store - DOT Debug

DOT Debug, my original game is available on the Android Play Store. Check it out, i'd love some feedback.

Go to Play Store

https://i.imgur.com/4hUEQ4n.png

[SPEE] New Screeshots from Chapter 8

New batch of screenshots for the 0.9 Update!

[SPEE] The End is Coming

Hello everyone, hope you had a good new year.

It's a decent way into 2019 now, and well, it's been a long journey. 

It feels like just yesterday when I started SPEE.... it was during my first year university break. Years ago I had worked on a Pokémon fangame called "Pokemon Illusion", and was starting to get the itch to create another one. 

The game went though a lot of early iterations. From being about humans hunting glitchy pokemon, to considering gen4 graphics, then using gen3 graphics, then downgrading to gen2 graphics. 

One thing which set the direction firmly was how I'd always been fascinated by the idea of an Eevee which could switch evolutions, almost like a digimon... 
(Later I found out that the Pokemon Manga had this very concept!)

I managed to implement the eeveelution system, and started tilting the game to be focused around it. the concept started evolving to be more like "remix" of the 2nd gen games (my favourite ones). Breaking the 4th wall was a bit of a revelation to the story, because it allowed me to raise the stakes in a way that the official games couldn't. 

The game started taking same, it actually started becoming fun, I added the first gym, and made a thread on pokecommunity.com, where I released by first demo.

Anyway, that was back in 2010.

Now I've finally added the 8th and final gym. 

Wow, it's been literally 9 years of development so far. It feels surreal. 
I can see the finish line in sight. The only thing remaining is victory road and the final hypervisor battles. That means it's only 1-2 more update to go.

I can't believe I've made it this far. I've super proud of what i've accomplished in this game. It's everything I always wanted it to be. The game has been evolved and iterated a lot.... 

In this time I finished university, I got a software development job, I lost a lot of my free time.... and as much as I like working on the game, it was sometimes tough to stay motivated, especially during the middle years. 

I took breaks. I started other game projects that are in different states of development....
but I never gave up on SPEE because of all the love and effort I poured into it, and because of how much dedicated fans there.

So, thank you, to everybody who has supported the game, and I hope you continue enjoying the journey, and I also hope you continue following my other game projects after SPEE!

Also; here's some new screenshots of the upcoming update.