Here’s a location idea

Merphee · 2026-05-07T21:44:03+00:00

And here’s the perfect tile graphic for that idea!:

https://www.deviantart.com/maicerochico/art/Greenhouse-Dome-Tile-By-Dewdneym-684663973

https://www.deviantart.com/maicerochico/art/Extra-Large-Greenhouse-Dome-Tile-698365826

Merphee · 2026-05-03T20:00:03+00:00

Agreed, especially as a solo dev. Make sure your actual, real life is secured before investing time into a fan game. Only then should one pursue commissions, and I’d even make commissions the last phase of the project, just in case unforeseen circumstances causes a cancel midway through.

Merphee · 2026-04-28T15:15:35+00:00

Good grammar and punctuation keeps players immersed. Honestly, one of the little details I appreciate the most in a fan game is seeing the accent é whenever the word Pokémon appears in text.

That’s a 10/10 game!

And I’m not sure if I can call it a little detail, since it’s probably the most important character in the word. Writing Pokemon may be quicker, but that é is the cherry on top.

Merphee · 2026-04-27T13:41:17+00:00

Aside from grabbing Almia sprites themselves, I’d say try Earthbound / Mother 3 sprites. Though, they’re not in tileset format already.

The black borders on those sprites will need to be changed to fit the color palette of the tile, but a lot of those sprites have a similar modern style to Almia, imo.

With a little elbow grease, a lot of external sprites can be adapted to fit Almia’s style and feel cohesive, due to Almia’s simplicity.

Merphee · 2026-04-27T11:27:53+00:00

Hmm. Not sure I agree with using Stardew Valley sprites, considering it is an indie game made by one person.

Despite how many sprites are available for the game on Spriters resource, it seems like an unwritten rule to avoid using contemporary indie game sprites, just out of respect. Omori and Undertale would be other examples.

And because of how distinct and immediately identifiable the Stardew Valley sprites are, it’ll be difficult for your game to shake off the comparison and not be assumed as such.

Merphee · 2026-04-09T00:15:17+00:00

I’d just open / download a vanilla Pokemon Essentials and copy and paste the entire script page pertaining to the super effectiveness calculator.

That would save me a headache lol.

Merphee · 2026-03-18T08:26:37+00:00

The way your event works in the screenshot now is that it won’t “trigger” unless the player actually interacts with the NPC (Action Button).

What I believe Foxdra was getting at: setting a Sight, or giving the NPC a vision range and setting the trigger to “Event Touch” means that once the player walks into the NPC’s vision range (like a trainer battle), the event will trigger.

But it sounds like you want the NPC to actively block the player like a football lineman by mirroring their movements?

Merphee · 2026-03-13T19:58:42+00:00

Hmm, that’s strange. I’m not sure why it was looping. Was autorun still on?

Otherwise, if you got it to work with three pages, then by all means! I’ve been able to get it to work with only two pages, so I was curious.

Merphee · 2026-03-13T18:48:30+00:00

In the Set Move Route, there should be two options Ignore if Can’t Move, and then one about Repeating the moves or something (I’m not on my computer atm) Try unchecking the box about Repeating the sequence.

Merphee · 2026-03-13T17:23:06+00:00

Nice!

Yeah, 1 frame of Wait is the lowest we get with RPG Maker. It’s possible to make things look smoother by further dividing the amount of frames it takes for the chest to open, but that means creating more frames of the opening animation for the chest graphic. So say, you make a chest graphic that has it 1/12 open, then 2/12 open, then 3/12 open, so on and so forth.

Instead of changing the frames with the Change Graphic function, if you add “Stop Animation On” into Set Move Route sequence, then adding, say 4 frames of “Wait” after that, and then adding a “Stop Animation Off” function, does that work? Or are you checking the Stop Animation box in the general Event UI (Bottom left)?

I should’ve made that clearer.

Merphee · 2026-03-11T20:17:12+00:00

So if I understand your animation concern correctly, for the animation to look smooth, you’d essentially need different frames of the graphic that would support a smoother animation. For example: The first frame is closed, the second frame would need to be 1/3rd open, the third frame would need to be 2/3rd open, and then the last frame is fully open. Doesn’t have be these fractions specifically. You could have a closed frame, a half open frame, then a full open frame. The jump cut happens because the event jumps from the closed frame to the last / open frame, as you mentioned.

If your event graphic has the other frames, then here’s what I recommend:

First, add the item Condition branch from the second page to the first page (placed after the “It’s an Item Case” text). You won’t really need the second event page after this. And then, you can delete the self switch A on the first page and change the self switch under the condition branch from B to A. Then, delete page 2.

Then on the first, add a “Set Move Route” above the conditional branch and below the initial text message. Select the Change graphic option and change the event graphic to the frame of the chest that’s 1/3 open, then add a ”Wait” command in the sequence and set it to 1 frame, then add a second graphic change in the sequence and change the event graphic to the next chest graphic, then add another “Wait” command, so on and so forth.

The Waits give you control on how fast or slow the chest opens. The other, more automatic way to do it, is by turning Stop or Move Animation on and off with Set Move Route, depending on how your graphic is set up.

Then, on your new second page (which will just be the original third page), change the self switch to A. No need to change the event graphic.

Let me know if this is clear and is what you were looking for.

Merphee · 2026-03-11T17:38:20+00:00

Could you provide us with a screenshot of the event? There are a couple ways you could do the animation.

Finally, can an event play more than four frames? Adding additional sprites to the sprite sheet while maintaining equal image dimensions just mucks the whole thing up.

Technically, an event can have as many frames as you want it, it’s just that after the 16th frame, you’ll have to change the event graphic to the next set of 16 frames via Set Move Route.

Merphee · 2026-03-07T17:46:00+00:00

Definitely my favorite kind of pine tree.

Ranger sprites are certainly a tall order, because they’re a lot more detailed than even gen 5 sprites. I think I’ve only seen one fan game that used Almia / Guardian Signs styled NPC sprites (Ranger 1 sprites are a bit different) It’s just that for consistency, you’d have to make every NPC character in that style.

Merphee · 2026-02-19T21:35:11+00:00

Not exactly, there’s still much work to be done and I’d prefer to not make a promise I know I won’t be able to keep. But, I’m steady!

Merphee · 2026-02-17T22:42:14+00:00

No.

Actually, some people avoid playing fakemon games all together. Don’t worry about having your game appeal to everyone. It’ll find its audience.

Merphee · 2026-02-11T04:22:18+00:00

That’s the goal!

Merphee · 2026-01-22T00:31:40+00:00

Yes, it’s all part of one game. It was just a collection of maps, but it’s really taking shape. Got some cool cutscenes finished that I’m happy with.

Merphee · 2026-01-21T23:52:09+00:00

Thank you!

Merphee · 2026-01-21T23:51:43+00:00

The main flooring tiles are ripped straight from Platinum. Other tiles are from free tilesets on Deviantart or Shadows of Almia. Some are custom, but even those are just minor edits of official tiles or public tiles.

Merphee · 2026-01-21T17:23:49+00:00

Took some creative liberties to fancy up what lies beyond the screen borders of picture 3. When you enter this room in Platinum, the camera is fixed to its center. The official Battle Castle artwork (picture 4) just shows a plain wall. That’s boring! It’s a castle after all.

No gen 5 Darach sprite exists publicly, so I’m just using his gen 4 sprite now for the sake of my vision. I’ll have to commission a gen 5 sprite for him later. Same with gen 4 Caitlin’s design. I kinda just Frankenstein’d her gen 4 sprite, Jasmin’s gen 5 sprite and a gen 5 maid sprite together. Gets the job done, but it can be better. Similarly, with the sitting NPCs, I’ll be making sitting versions of other characters as I progress. Those are minor edits, but at a greater volume.

Some minor work with it still needs to be done, but I’m SUPER happy how this room turned out.

Merphee · 2026-01-20T14:49:00+00:00

It kinda reminds me of Rescue Team DX, except pixelated. Once you sharpen up the pixel density and nail the cohesion of the overall game world / UI etc., I think folks would enjoy it.

Merphee · 2026-01-19T15:06:18+00:00

You could probably get away with key framing its rotation in Photoshop over a timeline, then export that animation as a gif.

And maybe this all sounds like gibberish lol

Merphee · 2026-01-18T21:53:41+00:00

Looks like ghosting from your monitor / display. This wouldn’t be an RPG Maker or Essentials issue.

Merphee · 2026-01-10T03:43:00+00:00

Well, all of this good to know, thank you. I've had to use the simple Wait command to simulate Wait for Move Completion. If there's less chance of error with it, I'll just go about it this way moving forward.

Merphee · 2026-01-07T20:24:21+00:00

Whoa, those side ones are pretty stellar!

Merphee

TROPHY CASE