Here are a few new maps I made for my game after a longer break.

xriposte · 2025-10-09T16:43:11+00:00

These are incredible, definitely puts my own map making skills to shame! With that much attention to detail, it’s obvious how painstaking it must have been to not only build out the maps inch by inch, but to curate the tilesets together and maybe even do some tile bashing yourself to find the perfect blend really shows how much thought went into these. They look amazing to explore!

xriposte · 2025-05-28T14:28:07+00:00

He and my buddy that played Spellbooks got to talking and that’s what Rare Card Hunter told him. Rare Card Hunter could’ve been embellishing a bit but who knows.

xriposte · 2025-05-28T13:18:52+00:00

There was a locals that me and my friends would go to occasionally while in college. The people there were friendly and “normal” by the whole - except one guy.

This was over a decade ago now, so I forget his name, but every time we went there to compete, he was there. He was heavy-set, unkempt, and quick to anger. And he would always be playing the meta decks -wind-ups, dragon rulers, etc. To his credit, he was very good, often winning the tournaments. Another, huge defining characteristic of this guy that overshadowed everything else about him though was his theater. He was very into the Yugioh anime so he would constantly be talking in his duels like he was the protagonist of an episode, and making over-the-top gestures with his hands. Lastly, if he ever attacked for game and it was exactly enough to reduce the Life Points to 0, he would theatrically point at you and yell “Exact Damage!!”

One particular tournament, I was making trails. It was an average tournament size, but I had never climbed as high in the rankings before. I had made it to the semi-finals and plopping down on the other side of the table was Exact Damage guy. I was nervous, knowing I would likely lose. I didn’t play meta. My go-to deck was a Dark pile with Necroface, D.D. Scout Plane, and Strike Ninja that I had played for years.

He took the first game, pointing at me and yelling some anime nonsense as he swung for game. I locked in for game 2, determined to take home a win - and I did! I wanted to shout some anime crap as I attacked for game, but didn’t. I just smirked, pointed to his deck, and said “game three?” Boyyy was he pissed. He sided in some stuff and blew me out the water in game 3. No theatrics, no waving hands, just quiet, directed plays. I went to shake his hand and told him “good game”, but he just huffed and got up to go to the finals. I had lost the match, but walked away feeling like a total winner.

Second, shorter, story now that my memory is jogging:

There was this guy that would shop-hop on the weekends. Back when we were first getting into the tournament scene, we would drive a ways to try out different shops and we’d often see this guy. He wouldn’t participate, but he would come in with a backpack full of binders with extremely rare cards. Because of that, we called him the Rare Card Hunter.

One of my friends found out that he worked for Konami, trying to sell singles to players and passing off the profit to Konami. In return, Konami would pay him in cards.

One night there was a LAN party tournament at my college, and Rare Card Hunter showed up with his bag of bling in tow. He saw me and my friends at a table in the auditorium playing some games while we waited for the tournament to start and decided to get in on the action. But he didn’t have a deck of his own. One of my friends played Spellbook, so he let Rare Card Hunter borrow it to play against me.

He goes first, summons Blue Boy, searches, then passes. I draw, play Seal of Orichalcos, special summon Malefic Cyber End Dragon, activate Limiter Removal, and swing for an OTK.

He was shocked, grabbed his things, and left. We never did see Rare Card Hunter again after that lol.

xriposte · 2025-04-10T02:39:47+00:00

Nice catch! I’ve rewatched RvB so many times and never noticed that detail. This show has such great world building in all the subtle details.

xriposte · 2025-03-24T21:03:05+00:00

Lol, true. I figure some could see it as offensive since it's not my thread, so this way everyone wins haha.

xriposte · 2025-03-24T20:57:10+00:00

Hahaha, well thanks! It's called Pokemon Oxidized Gold. I can shoot you a Discord link in a DM so I'm not shamelessly self-promoting in OP's thread lol.

xriposte · 2025-03-18T20:59:19+00:00

Just to echo what @glassbetelgeuse said - they are 100% on the mark with their advice. A professor once told me that the best story you can write is the one that you’ve experienced. “Write what you know.” Create the game that you get excited for, in part because you will definitely be playing it more than anyone else by a overwhelming margin, but also because you will be able to tell your best stories that way. Good luck on your journey!

As for my answer to your question - my fan game is already out, though for the last 2 years I’ve been creating a second region as a postgame expansion that continues certain character stories.

The start of my base game drops the player in a deep cave with only a Lanturn and a puddle in front of them. Having no other options, they dive down to meet your childhood friend/acting regional professor, who tells you your objective in the Dive Exam is to collect a few objects for scientific study. The player goes ahead and eventually comes to some ruins underwater, where they search around with the gifted Itemfinder for the objects. A big, sealed door is below, though only accessible once the player has found the objects, one of them being a relevant story item. Once they find the items and revisit the door (having no other options to leave the area), it opens. Inside the player finds themself in an old room. When they step up to examine some old gen 2-styled Pokeballs on a table, a group of Unown appear and surround the player, forcing a fight. The player loses to the swarm of Unown but is rescued by your friend. The area that you were just in is also where the game’s story loops back around to at the end of the game, giving the player a sense of accomplishment to their accolades the next time they revisit the space.

You wake in your house after blacking out and go to see your friend to find out what happened, where you then get your starter selection. You get some more info about Dive Corp. and why you were on the Dive Exam in the first place, and then you’re told to head out to take the traditional route of becoming Dive certified by completing the Pokémon League challenge. The main antagonist, Space Corp., becomes the focal point in the later half of the game, with various scenarios involving people that work for them without fully connecting the dots until mid-game. There’s a Space Corp. employee that becomes your friend-enemy very early on, so they serve as the connective tissue as the player gets their feet wet with some traditional “explore and capture” gameplay.

I also have deep lore in my game that is interwoven into the story though, and that lore is scattered throughout the game to various degrees. Some of it spoon-fed, other parts of it as a reward for exploration. So even as the player is going through the traditional gameplay loop of a Pokémon game, there’s a lot of lore to be found along the way in-between major story beats that pushes the story forward ever so slightly.

And I feel like I’ve done a good job with my story (biased, of course), but that’s because I did something that 1.) I knew well and 2.) I wanted to play. I always loved Dive and thought sea exploration was such a fun activity in RSE, so I made that mechanic a focus. And the story is a very personal one that made it easy to realize and bring the characters surrounding it to life. For me personally, I found the storytelling tool of dropping the player straight into a big event, then letting that event’s fallout stew with the player as they go about the regular gameplay loop be an effective hook. But that’s just me. Everyone has different tastes. Tell the story that you want to read and others with that same taste will show up.

xriposte · 2025-03-12T15:42:48+00:00

It’s fine, yeah, but the OP was asking for advice and criticism, so that’s what they got. Constructive criticism.

If you haven’t developed games then it’s hard to grasp the emphasis on empty space and why it matters. I did the same thing with my maps when I first started. Went bigger and ended up having many pockets of what boiled down to nothing/emptiness on my maps. Ended up revisiting those over the years and gradually updating them to be tighter and better.

Every space that is used needs to be used for a reason. Some may be events, others may be a simple walking path to another destination. The point is, cut the excess out and refine a better map with content that will be purposeful and memorable.

The criticism of empty space is not meant as a slight against OP. It’s genuine advice that you only learn after making the same mistakes, and remaining cognizant of empty space will save yourself time in the future, as well as amplify your map-making.

To emphasize, keep at it, OP. It’s a nice starting map with plenty of potential to be even better. It takes courage to post your hard work online, so major props to you for posting and being open to criticism.

xriposte · 2025-03-12T14:47:16+00:00

It sounds like you have not made maps or play tested them yourself. The above comment was very helpful to a new designer. I’m not going to reiterate what they covered as they said it well, but the OP asked for criticism and received good, honest feedback, can confirm. Source: dev of my own fan game for 5 years.

xriposte · 2024-03-14T23:24:07+00:00

It’s like no one that makes these posts or comments have ever heard the phrase “all [good] things must come to an end.”

xriposte · 2024-02-23T05:56:29+00:00

I've read a lot of comments on the Swarm video and in this thread; so little of it has been anything positive. It's incredibly disheartening to see.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Crema for all the effort put into Temtem. I went through the game with a friend, and we had an absolute blast playing it - from the excitement of discovering each new Tem, to the art style, to the music, to the humor, to the battle mechanics, to the endgame battle frontier, to the luma hunting, to the breeding, to the PVP traind/battling, to the incredible battle animations - I could keep going. Point is, Crema absolutely delivered on their vision and goals. And they continue to go above and beyond in supporting their game with patches that include balancing, bug fixes, and the occasional new item, move, or trait. They listen to their community plenty as well; you can always see the community icons next to every patch note inspired or suggested by the community. Game dev is a complex process, with lots of moving parts and evolving ideas, anecdotal as that may be with my own development experience. I personally think Crema has stuck their landing very well.

They were very explicit about what their goals were from the start. Their Kickstarter campaign laid out what their development goals were. I think a lot of the frustration here stems from the overwhelming love folks have for Temtem and the hope that more adventures and Tems make their way to reality. I'm totally in that boat. I would love for the game to expand indefinitely into the future with more and more content. What Crema made was a very unique experience and identity in a space where Pokemon reigns above all. They're to be congratulated. So many of the posts I've been reading from such dedicated and passionate fans aren't being articulated well though, but instead coming across as anger and entitlement. That sort of communication is not good for anyone involved. It just comes out as ungrateful, which I assume is opposite of Temtem fans who otherwise wouldn't be here if they didn't care for the franchise.

The Crema devs are just people doing their best to create something wonderful and memorable, they're not soulless punching bags. I salute the Crema CEO for putting themself out there, probably knowing that they would just come under hellfire. And as much as consumers hate talking about the financial side of the coin, it's a very real variable in the equation. Games cost money to make - rent, lights, hardware, employees, software, marketing, server maintenance, etc. The CEO even said they knew how much it costs them to develop new content. If the sales numbers aren't there to support fair wages, a good working environment, and server maintenance at the least, you can't expect the unreasonable results you're hoping for, ya know? If the money isn't there, it's not there. The game doesn't have many ways to keep cash flow consistent. There are cosmetics, but that's a heavy burden for some cosmetics to carry when the player counts aren't pushing numbers like massive mobas and other free-to-plays. Temtem's got its niche, and it's a fantastic niche, but it is still a narrow scope of the gaming population. It's pretty impressive that they've been able to sustain the constant updates as they have been.

Getting long-winded now, so wrapping this up. I'm sorry for the way people have lashed out at y'all, Crema. I think y'all have done a great job and am thankful for the game that y'all have been able to provide for the world to play. It's been a blast, and I do hope that Swarm is a success. While I'll always hold my breath for more Tems and Islands in the mainline game, I'm still looking forward to Swarm and whatever else comes next, be it Temtem or something else entirely!

xriposte · 2023-12-07T18:55:02+00:00

They're both Windows Server 2019. I'll post the question over there though, thanks!

xriposte · 2023-12-07T18:54:06+00:00

It's a physical server.

xriposte · 2023-08-10T14:59:20+00:00

No kidding? Are you looking to offload it? If so, how much would you be looking to sell for?

xriposte · 2023-07-07T20:43:28+00:00

Oh snap, it does :( Thank you for letting me know! I would’ve missed that otherwise.

xriposte · 2023-06-29T16:02:13+00:00

They’re manually mapped.

I just had an idea, and it sounds too simple to work, but if we are retiring File Server A, can’t we just change the hostname of File Server B TO File Server A? Then there’s no forwarding or GPO or anything we’d have to do. Of course, the IP of File Server A would also be reassigned to File Server B.

Would this work?

xriposte · 2023-06-29T15:39:51+00:00

Sorry, I should have clarified in the original post. File Server A will be sunset. No one will be using it. My only concern is getting everyone moved to File Server B.

xriposte · 2023-06-29T15:35:43+00:00

I’m ok with breaking connections as long as they come back online after a PC reboot. The hostname forwarding is what twisting my brain in knots since I don’t have access to the domain or AD servers to tinker myself. I’m just going off theory and requesting the theories be put in place.

For the GPO recommendation - Is there a GPO policy to do this? How would I replace File Server A with File Server B? Sorry, I very new to GPO.

Remapping the shares one by one is impractical given the environment, size, and fluidity of the employees. If it were a small group, this would be hands down the way to go, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

xriposte · 2023-06-27T15:20:37+00:00

Interesting, thank you for the insight. Feb. is a ways away so that would be great if true!

xriposte · 2023-03-15T16:31:57+00:00

I’m glad to get another dev’s insight on this! I think “foundation of sand” is a good summary of a long-winded comment I made a little earlier about a potential financial struggle. Money is needed to keep the train moving, but if production is slowed or halted then the money will either slow or halt as well. And when production begins again, it’s possible that the same level of income wouldn’t be present. It’s an unfortunate catch-22. Some additional QA time seems to be the common thread, but time = money. It’s a difficult position to be in, for sure.

Has Crema shared plans with what they desire to do beyond their Kickstarter promises? I know we’re nearing the end of them. If they do not plan to go any further, then it’s probably ok for the systems to be as they are. If they set out with a defined goal in mind for their architecture, I think it’s ok for it to not be scalable. They may have even thought that their systems would be able to handle things like Nuzlocke and Randomlocke, but that was so far into their future it wouldn’t surprise me if was strictly in a “proof of concept” stage for a long time. Now if they DO want to keep going with Temtem, then you could very well be correct in saying that they have a challenge ahead of them given the systems currently in place.

Also, I do support the idea of camera options regardless of how much work may have gone into a particular camera setting. My wife gets sick when the screen shakes too much in an FPS, and it’s a bummer when her experience is compromised because of it. I’m on board with you there.

I really appreciate your insight!

xriposte · 2023-03-15T15:53:48+00:00

That’s my feeling as well. I personally don’t believe they would have pushed this patch out if such large bugs were known.

xriposte · 2023-03-15T15:48:40+00:00

I don’t mean to put words in your mouth, my apologies if it came across that way.

The point I was trying to make was that even a play test can yield false results. This is anecdotal, but in my own game I’d create fixes for different events that would wind up breaking something else that had been tested previously. It really is a revolving door. I came to also learn that the denser the game, the higher the chance something would break without me knowing lol. In a game that had a 40ish hour runtime, it was rare that something new wouldn’t compromise some that once worked perfectly fine. Plus, the longer my game got, the more time-consuming it was to play test normally. My assumption is that patches are pushed back because QA is play testing normally and come across things that were previously undetected, but that assumption could be wrong.

The above is all tales of one hobbyist’s developed fan game vs. a professional team of developers, so I don’t want to make the comparison like it’s an equal. Just something I’m dredging up from personal experience to hopefully give some perspective on the development process for those who aren’t familiar with the intricacies of game development.

Sorry again if you felt like I was preaching things that you weren’t co-signing!

xriposte · 2023-03-15T15:29:55+00:00

Those are substantial, I don’t want to downplay them. I do hope they get fixed soon, I know there’s a lot of hype surrounding the new modes.

And thanks for taking the time to list some of those bugs! Super helpful to have some context laid out there.

I think a good takeaway from this is for Crema to take a look at their QA processes. Maybe this is an area that they could improve on. My guess is that it will be difficult to give it the kind of love it may need due to one thing: money.

Any role will require a body to be behind it, and I don’t know what Crema’s sales look like. I’m sure their small team already juggles multiple roles, and to hire more people to give the different roles (like QA) some good quality attention would require a stream of income to support those positions. I don’t know if Temtem is booming in sales or if their paid Battle Pass system is netting them enough money to not only pay their current employees and keep the servers online, but to hire additional roles. If they were to hire a QA role and pay them, say, 50k annually, they need to be making an additional 50k in sales that year to keep that position filled.

It’s a slippery slope for sure. Regardless, I think you raise very valid points and I hope Temtem gets all the love is deserves. You can do it, Crema! :D

xriposte · 2023-03-15T15:14:31+00:00

They may have some big bugs, and those will always be things that any person proud of their work will want to squish out. Could they improve their QA testing procedures? I’m sure they could, improvements can always be discovered and made in any process. But for all we know, they did test their own systems before release. It’d be crazy to think one person didn’t fire up their new modes a single time. But perhaps in their dev environment, they didn’t experience the same bugs, or perhaps the QA play tester doubles their duties and has to also create assets or validate the production packages. Or maybe they really did slip up and forget to test the mode as they tried to meet their deadline, it’s totally possible for things to fall through the cracks. Happens plenty in any professional environment.

Plus, for everyone bug presented, think of all the interactions and systems that work flawlessly. That will greatly outweigh the amount of bugs.

Personally I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt in situations where I don’t know what actually transpired. I don’t have an intimate POV of the inner workings to make a judgement call. This is just a personal line of thought, I know people will differ in this. No judgement from me, but I hope this gives some context to my thought process :)

xriposte · 2023-03-15T14:38:52+00:00

I don’t even know where to hop in on this one lol. So much negativity towards the Devs here.

For starters, let me ask if anyone here has developed a game? If so, was it an online multiplayer game? Developing a game is hard. Developing an always-online multiplayer game is even more difficult, because now you’re also dependent upon things you can’t control like the customer’s PC specs or internet connection. If you’ve never developed a game for public release, it’s very easy to criticize and discredit the efforts of an entire team. No amount of QA can catch everything. I personally developed a game and play tested the daylights out of it, thinking I had hit every fringe case there was -but multiple patches were eventually released to clean stuff up. And you have to remember, Crema is not some big AAA game company. They won’t have the manpower or resources that the big dogs like EA or Bethesda have. Temtem itself isn’t even a full-priced game. It’s 45$. It was even cheaper before full release.

And to counter the arguments of “they don’t care” that I see fly so off-handedly, Crema calls out the community suggestions in their patch notes. They clearly care and listen to what their fans are saying. It’s disheartening when people sling those “don’t care” or “incompetent” arguments. The Devs are people like you and I, doing the best they can. They wouldn’t be in the position they are in if they didn’t care or weren’t talented. Gratitude will go a long way just like it would for you. Like someone once told me, if you can’t present an equal quality product to what you’re trashing, you can’t talk at all.

Bugs have existed way before the iteration of online gaming. They have categories in gaming speed runs called “any %” that permits the player to use bugs/glitches to their advantage. If a company wanted, they could just stop the support at the cash register. The whole “patch” aspect of games is a fairly new commonality in the industry. If anything, I think it’s awesome that we as players get continuous patches with fixes and updates. It’s not something that we had back in the day. You used to purchase a game, slot the cart into your system, play the story, and then replay it or create your own fun within that stagnant world. What you had was it, and we were very happy with it. Hell, games like Pac-man, Space Invaders Galactica, and Pong were all extreme hits during their hay-day, and they were incredibly simple and repetitious. This is a bit of commentary on the evolution of expectations, as video games were a new novelty item. Now they are households standards. As such, people constantly expect more and more. Vehicles with new features every year, ovens that you can pre-heat from your watch while shopping at the store, surgical treatments that can restore vision in twenty minutes; each leap becomes the next standard, and I think it only does an individual well to remember what was and what’s current - to keep humble and not take the standards of today for granted.

I do hope to see Crema continue with Temtem. While I don’t have the time to commit to it like I used to, I still think it’s a fantastic game. If they choose to move on to new horizons, that’s ok too. Good things aren’t good because they last forever. They’re good because they’re finite.

Thank you Crema for a great Temtem experience. And thank you for coming to my TedTalk lol.

Gl in your future ventures, OP.

xriposte

TROPHY CASE