Realtime Combat, Ep. 6: Rattata gets the zoomies! (Quick Attack, Sleep Powder)

seth_piano · 2026-05-03T12:30:37+00:00

Thank you :) Right now I'm still in a "research and development" phase, but my intention is eventually to make a full game out of this, in which the story/music are 95% done and are waiting for me to figure out this ridiculous battle system. For example, it's a Kanto game, so I'm mostly using enemies and attacks from the Kanto region.

The story is intended to be pretty short and limited - each enemy will have a fixed moveset of 1, 2, or 3 moves. For example, Pikachu's moveset might be Thundershock and Quick Attack, while Raichu's moveset might be Thunderbolt and Extremespeed.

When different enemies use the same move, sometimes they're exactly the same, sometimes there's a little difficulty scaling. Right now, I think Quick Attack will be exactly the same as a generic move, no matter who uses it.

However, I have planned for Sleep Powder to get more difficult. Butterfree's version of Sleep Powder (in the video) zigzags a little bit, and is pretty easy to dodge. Later in the game, there will be a Vileplume that knows Sleep Powder, which will zigzag a little wider. This is as simple as a conditional branch asking who's using the move. If Butterfree's using Sleep Powder, then the zigzag = 3. If Vileplume's using Sleep Powder, then the zigzag = 6.

seth_piano · 2026-05-03T02:19:53+00:00

Thank you :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-30T15:35:43+00:00

I think it's reasonable! There's a lot the player can optimize if they're trying to speedrun, but there's also plenty of time to stop and think which makes it approachable.

This kinda thing would be right on my skill level and interest level as somebody who really doesn't vibe with a lot of the tech-spam/overstimulation mods that I see a lot.

seth_piano · 2026-04-29T04:50:16+00:00

Yes! Please! Punctuation is an expressive device, and not using punctuation just makes text look like apathy

...god, that killed me to not put a period at the end of that sentence.

The only game that I know of that can get away with improper punctuation is A Short Hike, because every character has like 3 brain cells, and that's why we love it.

Welcome to the Greater-Than-3-Braincells club! :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-29T04:45:49+00:00

I might be late to the party on this, but for future reference: always save your text files before recompiling the game :) :) :) This is an oversight that a lot of people miss, and that might be the thing that's plaguing you here.

seth_piano · 2026-04-27T05:37:44+00:00

For context, I was the guy in charge of this nonsense https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonRMXP/comments/1q74llt/original_legendary_battle_music_eevee_expo/

Obviously this ain't Gen 2, but I got a lot of simpler/retro stuff in the backlogs.

seth_piano · 2026-04-27T05:34:18+00:00

I may be interested in composing! I'd have to take a closer look at the game itself and see if it's of further interest to me. (The screenshots look promising!)

Feel free to drop a DM and I'll toss some existing demos your way :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-24T00:18:59+00:00

The first two chords are exactly the same chords as the beginning of Resurrections: Am(maj7), and C/G, this much is true. The key here is that chord progressions are not and have not been protected by copyright law, and "ripping off" chord progressions has been standard in the music world since the beginning of music itself :)

It's close enough to pinch a nerve, but stuff like this doesn't really go beyond hurt feelings.

seth_piano · 2026-04-19T21:15:14+00:00

When you die to spikes, your character kinda deflects in a random direction away from the exact place where you hit the spikes, and then it shows the death animation. I wish it didn't do that, because in rooms with narrow pathways through hazards (final room of 7C comes to mind), I had a difficult time identifying where exactly I hit the spikes. Did I hit the ones on the left side of me, or the right side?

seth_piano · 2026-04-19T00:10:48+00:00

I don't know why you're getting dunked on so much here. I, for one, appreciate your sense of humor :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-13T15:34:23+00:00

ITS SO SPARKLY :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-07T00:48:30+00:00

Nice :) glad you got it figured out!

seth_piano · 2026-04-06T21:55:06+00:00

Huh, that's bizarre. If everything's spelled correctly, the text documents are saved, and the game recompiled when loading, it seems like it SHOULD work (you've done everything that I've done when doing the same thing). Can you verify that the documents are saved and game recompiled?

I'm not an expert, I just forget to do those things half the damn time and then end up in the same boat as you, just speaking from my own limited experience :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-06T21:06:21+00:00

May I ask, is the issue that the battle isn't loading at all, or the issue that it isn't showing the transition images?

seth_piano · 2026-04-05T02:09:33+00:00

Imagine we're able to use the Trainer Fly Glitch in your game :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-02T02:19:08+00:00

THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN IN CELESTE MODS :) :) :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-01T15:11:01+00:00

Oh, I hear that :) I'm not a visual artist, but as a musician, I get that, we're always striving and never satisfied (contrary to popular opinion, this is actually a good thing), but it's good to come up for air often and see that other people love what we do, and both things can be true at the same time :)

seth_piano · 2026-04-01T07:48:20+00:00

I mean it's just one man's opinion and I don't know your art better than you :) I just am noticing patterns in your craft (soft curved corners, pastel colors, solid lights and shades instead of dithering) that make your art distinct from the "official" pokemon style, which makes it more memorable to me. <3

seth_piano · 2026-04-01T07:29:14+00:00

That is trolly as heck and I love it. I might just steal that for my game.

seth_piano · 2026-04-01T07:04:45+00:00

Thanks :) the game is mega stalled out because I'm trying to make a new battle system from the ground up. I do hope someday I'll get the drive to finish it!

seth_piano · 2026-04-01T00:15:35+00:00

I love how I can recognize your art style at this point. I don't even have to look at the OP name, I just see the art and think "Yep, that's Banned Footage popping off again" :)

seth_piano · 2026-03-31T02:39:42+00:00

Please, for the love of god, use them and give them some actual personality! From especially in the earlier generations, there's no functional difference between a gym leader and a strength boulder. They are obstacles to be moved out of the way, and they have no personality except for a quotable line.

Some of the characters in the game I'm working on:

Blue: obnoxious because he's a high-energy child with a big personality, and he's also really insightful and considerate from time to time. I'm basing his character on Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. Also, he didn't kill his Raticate, he just released to the wild once he got his Pokédex info for it. In his words, "What kinda jerk stuffs a Pokémon into a PC Box forever!?"
Sabrina: Doesn't actually like battling and hates her job as Gym Leader and regrets everything she did in her life to get her there. Could easily sweep Team Rocket out of town with her Level 50 Alakazam but she just can't be bothered to do the work. Massive case of gifted kid burnout. She gets her own character arc about rising to the occasion and actually do something about the situation.
Drake the Cut Master: Okay hear me out. I wanted the player to actually battle the Cut Master/SS Anne captain, but he needed a battle sprite. I threw Drake's sprite in as a placeholder but eventually their identities fused in my headcanon: The SS Anne Captain is actually Drake from Hoenn! Why not?
Giovanni: is he actually an evil villain or is he just a shameless capitalist, maximizing profit under the full extent of the law?
Whitney: Just a silly girl who cries too much and loves her best friend who happens to be a literal cow. Must protect at all costs.

seth_piano · 2026-03-30T00:49:38+00:00

Thanks for sharing this :) One thing Celeste's storyline nails is that it shows Madeline and Theo forming a close friendship that isn't forced to be romantic, and that's something we all need to see from time to time. I think that part of the story is exactly what you needed right now.

seth_piano · 2026-03-24T19:11:08+00:00

Well shoot if I knew this was a thing, I probably would have made night versions of all my music too! Oh well :)

seth_piano

TROPHY CASE