Released The Expedition

[AenaonDogsky]

T H E E X P E D I T I O N

In the early 80s, a group of esteemed scientists spearheaded by Dr. Fuji led an expedition to Guyana in South America, in hopes of locating a species of Pokemon thought to long have gone extinct. To avoid damaging the local ecosystem, and to keep prying eyes away, they resorted to the help of the Pokemon Rangers. The Ranger Union relayed their request to their most secretive Unit, a Unit whose history was shaped not by Styler Captures and pacifying methods, but by melee combat against the very same Pokemon they later swore to protect.

In this tiny experimental action-rpg proof of concept game, you and your Partner Pokemon will slash, fire arrows, and use tools against enemy wild Pokemon, and the occasional enraged Alpha.

Control both human and Pokemon! Use Noland's (yes, the Frontier Brain guy) exceptional swordsman skills, and his Partner Decidueye's archery, to fell your foes!

Enjoy a brief concoction of gaming elements! From classical rpg-story progression, to MGS-like codec calls, to Firewatch, to a zelda-like combat system - this stylistic marriage of gen 1 graphics and modern resolution at 60fps will make you feel like you are in a soap-opera spy thriller!

Listen to classic Pokemon Ranger tunes de-maked in the style of gen 1. Use Tools both in combat and outside of it, to explore new areas and find not-so-clever solutions to puzzles! Guard, dash-dodge, and strafe out of harm's way!

The tactical versatility I was originally aiming for wasn't feasible in this small demo, so it's mostly hitting and not getting hit (or simply running away from enemies)! Level-up in your quest to aid the scientific team in their quest to find Mew!

And perhaps, uncover a couple of darker secrets along the way...

Download:

Spoiler: Download!

The Expedition 1.2

Credits:​

Spoiler: Credits

-Spriters Resource rips

Graphics:
- RMMV Pokemon Pack
-Reimu Needs $$$ - Decidueye Face Sprite

Plugins:

• JABS
• GALV
• SRD
• Kame
• CGMZ

Music:
- Pokemon Ranger OST

Made with: RMMZ, Gotcha Gotcha Games

Resource Pack:
The Expedition Resource Pack

Bugfix History:

Spoiler: Patches

Version 1.1
-Fixed Ship interaction not working
-Fixed Game Icon not displaying
-Fixed the 3 island scenes not triggering swap to Noland automatically
-Fixed opening in Twisty Cave leading player out of bounds
-Fixed interaction with shack PC not working sometimes

Version 1.2

• Fixed out of bounds in shack due to passable tile
• Fixed softlock in Twisty Cave
• Fixed potential crash due to missing Hit1.png (redundant but caused a crash)

======================================================================================================================

I crunched really, really bad to make this game in 5 days, 4 of which were devoted to making the system work. I apologize in advance if there is not a lot of satisfying content, but I sincerely hope you can see where I was going with this! I used to be a big fan of the Ranger games, and I've always had a fascination with Mew's backstory.

As I didn't want to make just another classic-style fangame, I opted to use J's Action Battle System plugin for RMMZ. I told myself, "how would a PL:A concept be compatible with the Rangers' non-battling methods? Perhaps they too share a history of fighting off against Pokemon, before Stylers (and obviously Pokeballs) were a thing". Out of these elements, "The Expedition" was born.

I haven't had the time to fine-tune the combat elements, but what is there works well! The game is ideally played with a gamepad, keyboard should be fine but the default setup (that I couldn't change) might feel lacking for some. Not all of the default resources were replaced with gen 1 graphics, but I did the best with the time I had.





If you liked what you played, I'm always looking for help. Right now, I am working on my main game, so these small experimental side-games won't see much development unless other people drop by for some help. Thank you for your time!​

 

[No pro bro]

I liked the combat
I loved the story
The game ending after the call about George was a bummer but hey making something like this in just 5 days is pretty impressive

 

[AenaonDogsky]

I liked the combat
I loved the story
The game ending after the call about George was a bummer but hey making something like this in just 5 days is pretty impressive

Thank you very much! Towards the end it feels hastily made, because it is, but it was the best I could...



Patch 1.2 is up, credits for the reports to:

• Ntc
• RadarsPJ
• Ray

 

[Arne Slot]

Arne Slot shall try this out!

 

[RiqueRique]

Hello, I was playing the game and I was still at the tutorial area, I got to the part where you're taught how to use Decidueye but it looks like I got stuck in the "barrier" between you and the enemies so I got softlocked because I couldn't move at all :( I don't know if that's a bug or if I was supposed to do something to be able to walk again

 

[AenaonDogsky]

Hello, I was playing the game and I was still at the tutorial area, I got to the part where you're taught how to use Decidueye but it looks like I got stuck in the "barrier" between you and the enemies so I got softlocked because I couldn't move at all :( I don't know if that's a bug or if I was supposed to do something to be able to walk again

Hello, sorry to hear that - I tried replicating it but to no avail, here is a savefile right after you take the simulations down with arrows. The game autosaves at that point because it's right before the bossfight btw, so you were very unlucky!

here is the savefile

please replace save1.rmmzsave first (dont replace the other files) and if doesnt work also replace global.rmmzsave. Your saves are in the game's folder "save".

 

[RiqueRique]

Hello, sorry to hear that - I tried replicating it but to no avail, here is a savefile right after you take the simulations down with arrows. The game autosaves at that point because it's right before the bossfight btw, so you were very unlucky!

here is the savefile

please replace save1.rmmzsave first (dont replace the other files) and if doesnt work also replace global.rmmzsave. Your saves are in the game's folder "save".

I'll try playing it again, maybe it was something weird that happened (maybe it was me pressing down alongside the cutscene?) If it happens again Ill definitely use the savefile, thanks :D

 

[Tomix9tomix]

just got through the demo, I played through on controller, here are some thoughts:

Spoiler

From what I saw, the controls are kinda odd on keyboard, but at least on controller it played very nicely. I really liked what I played, and pretty much I just want more of the game so that it could be dived into more. Having more team members, more moves at your disposal, more overworld tools, I would've loved to see it all. But I commend you on firmly deciding that this project is done so that you can focus on your main project, at least you won't be teasing my heart that way

Combat was fine for 90% of the game, but I did find the hitomchan or whatever it is in the jungle area to feel way too tanky, I had to abuse fighting near the bed and it just devolved into button mashing and didn't feel fun. But everything up until then was nice, and yeah like I said, I think it would've been cool if there were more moves we unlocked or pokemon that could be assigned to different buttons, or even charge attacks for holding the buttons.

THERE WAS A LOT OF DIALOGUE. Maybe I'm kinda biased because from the get go I was just interested in the gameplay and wanted to see more, but it really felt like we were being stopped every 2 steps for a full conversation, pokemon Sun and Moon style.

I was intrigued by the mystery of mew story line and the stuff with the research team, but the DV plotline really caught me off guard. It really felt like it came out of no where, and everything until then still feels very "pokemon friendly" except for the one character saying "shit". I could see that the story was probably going to merge the DV storyline and the main storyline, and it seemed to be edging towards it at the end of the demo with Nolan reflecting on how George helped him, and how he wanted to do the same for the Operator. And I thought that dialogue was nice and well done. But otherwise it just felt very disconnected from the main expedition story, and overly uncomfortable for a fangame that was otherwise just about discovering mew.

Really liked the game, would've loved the game to have had the time to go deeper into the gameplay, but damn, for 5 days, what you managed is very impressive. Maybe when you're done with your main project you can make a spiritual successor to this (I can dream )

 

[AenaonDogsky]

just got through the demo, I played through on controller, here are some thoughts:

Spoiler

From what I saw, the controls are kinda odd on keyboard, but at least on controller it played very nicely. I really liked what I played, and pretty much I just want more of the game so that it could be dived into more. Having more team members, more moves at your disposal, more overworld tools, I would've loved to see it all. But I commend you on firmly deciding that this project is done so that you can focus on your main project, at least you won't be teasing my heart that way

Combat was fine for 90% of the game, but I did find the hitomchan or whatever it is in the jungle area to feel way too tanky, I had to abuse fighting near the bed and it just devolved into button mashing and didn't feel fun. But everything up until then was nice, and yeah like I said, I think it would've been cool if there were more moves we unlocked or pokemon that could be assigned to different buttons, or even charge attacks for holding the buttons.

THERE WAS A LOT OF DIALOGUE. Maybe I'm kinda biased because from the get go I was just interested in the gameplay and wanted to see more, but it really felt like we were being stopped every 2 steps for a full conversation, pokemon Sun and Moon style.

I was intrigued by the mystery of mew story line and the stuff with the research team, but the DV plotline really caught me off guard. It really felt like it came out of no where, and everything until then still feels very "pokemon friendly" except for the one character saying "shit". I could see that the story was probably going to merge the DV storyline and the main storyline, and it seemed to be edging towards it at the end of the demo with Nolan reflecting on how George helped him, and how he wanted to do the same for the Operator. And I thought that dialogue was nice and well done. But otherwise it just felt very disconnected from the main expedition story, and overly uncomfortable for a fangame that was otherwise just about discovering mew.

Really liked the game, would've loved the game to have had the time to go deeper into the gameplay, but damn, for 5 days, what you managed is very impressive. Maybe when you're done with your main project you can make a spiritual successor to this (I can dream )

Hey Tomix, thanks for playing!

Having watched yours and Cade's stream just yesterday: The free plugin that enables setting this system up sadly has the keyboard controls "harcoded". There is a way to make them configurable but that would have taken up the entire time I had available. The creator of the plugin had specified that his system is made with controller-only in mind, and keyboard as an afterthought (which shows in the... rather weird key spacing). With the little time I had, I actually tinkered with the gamepad-specific controls to make them as intuitive as possible for my version of the system.


Regarding combat:

Spoiler

Yeah, I couldn't even find enough time to test the enemy stats to make them less spongy. My original idea was for them to be very easy to dispatch with provided you had the right Beastbane type, Dessie advantage, or tool weakness, so that the combat would be really fast, closer to a top-down Zelda style combat than anything. I wanted it to be depndent on your gear setup rather than button spam :despair:

On writing and dialogue-combat loop:

Spoiler

I messed up here due to having written certain parts in preparation for what I believed the scope I could manage was. I had intended for each area to give one "entry" dialogue, one "mid-area" dialogue if needed (let's say objective update) and a "complete" message. Usually 2, max 3 message calls. Obviously scope management went out of the window here.

Because the last 4 dialogue chats I saw as important to give closure to the demo, I crammed them up into the very last section... which ended up being a spambot lmao

As far as dialogue-gameplay loop is concerned, I actually thought the gameplay was subpar and wanted to focus on the story aspects first (at least until you find Blaine). I had no time to get testers to join (not even to test myself) so I had no feedback on whether the gameplay loop was satisfying enough to warrant giving majority of time to gameplay and maybe then use visual storytelling and minimal operator talks. This time I opted for a Metal Gear approach (which does interrupt you frequently, albeit has much lengthier gameplay sections obviously). I was taken aback by the fact that you guys liked the gameplay, LOL

Regarding the writing itself, this is the first time I had attempted to give a small edge to the way the characters talked (specifically Selene the Operator) as a way to intergrate what you specified as the secondary plot into the primary plotline. The reason was; they were supposed to be one and the same (open spoiler to get mega-spoiled)

Spoiler: megaspoilers

A lot of the happenings on the island were to make sense personally to Noland, but not the player, until the player had found out through the narrative. To exacerbate Selene's background experience and her relationship to Noland, I wanted to show how her language transforms into a more standard version the more she interacts with Noland. Obviously I got rekt by both the scope and the delivery - I believe I overdid exposition and brute forced the crudeness due to the lack of space (I wanted to say X so I punched it harder - had it been sparser, it would also be lighter)

I understand how usual pokemon games present text and put other stuff in subtext, and how apparent "mature" delivery doesn't imply mature text, but I think the pressure of having to cram everything into the last section to specifically match the intended narrative aesthetics got to me.

Finally on some minor stuff: I tend to like beta and lore up to gen 3 the most, where real countries are mentioned (Guyana, China, America, Eiffel Tower etc.) and I wanted the aesthetics, including the text, to match a bit of the crudeness of early beta pokemon.

PS: There are some smaller implications in Ranger games, but the Legends games and entries in SV have solidified personal combat of humans versus pokemo nbefore the advent of pokeballs, so that's free real estate to write for!

On design in general:

I had intended to have major focus on tool usage :( I am a big Zelda fan (I'll try out your game soon, it's been like 20 years since I last played Oracle of Seasons) and there were some neat tricks you could come up with RMMZ. Alas, I was racing against the Moon from Majora's Mask.

Sidenote, and if you see this Cade, I can't believe how bad RMMZ's performance is on some computers. I am appaled at how a javascript game runs so bad. I would never see any "loading circles" when testing it. I am disappointed in RM's recent choices.

Again thank you very much for playing and for jolting down your thoughts!

 

[Tomix9tomix]

Hey Tomix, thanks for playing!

Having watched yours and Cade's stream just yesterday: The free plugin that enables setting this system up sadly has the keyboard controls "harcoded". There is a way to make them configurable but that would have taken up the entire time I had available. The creator of the plugin had specified that his system is made with controller-only in mind, and keyboard as an afterthought (which shows in the... rather weird key spacing). With the little time I had, I actually tinkered with the gamepad-specific controls to make them as intuitive as possible for my version of the system.


Regarding combat:

Spoiler

Yeah, I couldn't even find enough time to test the enemy stats to make them less spongy. My original idea was for them to be very easy to dispatch with provided you had the right Beastbane type, Dessie advantage, or tool weakness, so that the combat would be really fast, closer to a top-down Zelda style combat than anything. I wanted it to be depndent on your gear setup rather than button spam :despair:

On writing and dialogue-combat loop:

Spoiler

I messed up here due to having written certain parts in preparation for what I believed the scope I could manage was. I had intended for each area to give one "entry" dialogue, one "mid-area" dialogue if needed (let's say objective update) and a "complete" message. Usually 2, max 3 message calls. Obviously scope management went out of the window here.

Because the last 4 dialogue chats I saw as important to give closure to the demo, I crammed them up into the very last section... which ended up being a spambot lmao

As far as dialogue-gameplay loop is concerned, I actually thought the gameplay was subpar and wanted to focus on the story aspects first (at least until you find Blaine). I had no time to get testers to join (not even to test myself) so I had no feedback on whether the gameplay loop was satisfying enough to warrant giving majority of time to gameplay and maybe then use visual storytelling and minimal operator talks. This time I opted for a Metal Gear approach (which does interrupt you frequently, albeit has much lengthier gameplay sections obviously). I was taken aback by the fact that you guys liked the gameplay, LOL

Regarding the writing itself, this is the first time I had attempted to give a small edge to the way the characters talked (specifically Selene the Operator) as a way to intergrate what you specified as the secondary plot into the primary plotline. The reason was; they were supposed to be one and the same (open spoiler to get mega-spoiled)

Spoiler: megaspoilers

A lot of the happenings on the island were to make sense personally to Noland, but not the player, until the player had found out through the narrative. To exacerbate Selene's background experience and her relationship to Noland, I wanted to show how her language transforms into a more standard version the more she interacts with Noland. Obviously I got rekt by both the scope and the delivery - I believe I overdid exposition and brute forced the crudeness due to the lack of space (I wanted to say X so I punched it harder - had it been sparser, it would also be lighter)

I understand how usual pokemon games present text and put other stuff in subtext, and how apparent "mature" delivery doesn't imply mature text, but I think the pressure of having to cram everything into the last section to specifically match the intended narrative aesthetics got to me.

Finally on some minor stuff: I tend to like beta and lore up to gen 3 the most, where real countries are mentioned (Guyana, China, America, Eiffel Tower etc.) and I wanted the aesthetics, including the text, to match a bit of the crudeness of early beta pokemon.

PS: There are some smaller implications in Ranger games, but the Legends games and entries in SV have solidified personal combat of humans versus pokemo nbefore the advent of pokeballs, so that's free real estate to write for!

On design in general:

I had intended to have major focus on tool usage :( I am a big Zelda fan (I'll try out your game soon, it's been like 20 years since I last played Oracle of Seasons) and there were some neat tricks you could come up with RMMZ. Alas, I was racing against the Moon from Majora's Mask.

Sidenote, and if you see this Cade, I can't believe how bad RMMZ's performance is on some computers. I am appaled at how a javascript game runs so bad. I would never see any "loading circles" when testing it. I am disappointed in RM's recent choices.

Again thank you very much for playing and for jolting down your thoughts!

Really interesting to hear all that, and yeah I totally understand. Doing what you did in 42 days would've been amazing, doing what you did in 5 days is insane.

I also do think maybe some of my criticisms might've been more specific to me, and might've been more of a personal taste thing. So I do hope more people play because I'd be curious to know what other people think too.

 

[AenaonDogsky]

Really interesting to hear all that, and yeah I totally understand. Doing what you did in 42 days would've been amazing, doing what you did in 5 days is insane.

I also do think maybe some of my criticisms might've been more specific to me, and might've been more of a personal taste thing. So I do hope more people play because I'd be curious to know what other people think too.

Yeah, beyond the dev/author-player/reader balance of what is intended to be conveyed successfully and what is interpreted as such (which is subjective to a point), as a dev you need large-scale feedback to know how to fine-tune and adjust the game to be designed well, and enjoyed.

 

[miyamoris]

Completely understand why you'd rather focus on your main game now, but this left such an itch on me haha. Such an incredibly cool concept.

Cons and Pros:

Cons: Controls felt a bit... clumsy? I'm not good at action RPGs but an option to configure keys would be nice in the future.
Also, some mons in the deeper jungle felt a bit too resilient, but that's just a quip since you can always position yourself close to a bed while fighting.

Pros: Honestly I love the concedpt, the themes and the gen 1 aesthetics. But character writing were simply amazing here. I can see why some people didn't like the constant dialogue but I loved how well everyone was characterized and how Noland's current experiences (both in his mission and helping the with Selene's issue) spoke to his past. Every character has such a distinct voice without feeling gimmicky (?).

Anyway, I loved this!

 

[AenaonDogsky]

Completely understand why you'd rather focus on your main game now, but this left such an itch on me haha. Such an incredibly cool concept.

Cons and Pros:

Cons: Controls felt a bit... clumsy? I'm not good at action RPGs but an option to configure keys would be nice in the future.
Also, some mons in the deeper jungle felt a bit too resilient, but that's just a quip since you can always position yourself close to a bed while fighting.

Pros: Honestly I love the concedpt, the themes and the gen 1 aesthetics. But character writing were simply amazing here. I can see why some people didn't like the constant dialogue but I loved how well everyone was characterized and how Noland's current experiences (both in his mission and helping the with Selene's issue) spoke to his past. Every character has such a distinct voice without feeling gimmicky (?).

Anyway, I loved this!

Thank you very much, I'm really glad you liked it! I wish I had more time, but I'm very happy with how it turned out, even if it didnt have the gameplay needed to accompany the story segments! (and to refine them). Awesome to hear the characters felt that way!

The keys were a big problem to make remappable for keyboard due to the plugin's native config, but it should be possible in the future. Once the main game releases (pretty soon) I might give this a more "complete demo" overhaul.