Category: Accessible Games
Hello there folks, my name's Daigonite and actually I'm not blind. Most of my friends are though and we thought up the idea to work on an accessible Pokemon game. I dunno if it's been done before and frankly I don't care! I'm doing it anyways!
The final hope for this game is to allow players to connect and trade or battle each other's characters on a server. It's in very early stages though.
The game is currently in a really early release but it's very difficult to find sighted testers for it (which I need so they can show me error dialogues, since TTS software doesn't read off the errors spewed by the game). I'm spreading here to see if anyone wants to sign up for testing on the blind side of things. This will help me make it more accessible and catch things that might be difficult for the visually impaired.
LINKS TO VIDEOS:
A preview that I created on Youtube: http://youtu.be/iI2ClOjSPZg
an older preview with a couple of features not shown in the other video: http://youtu.be/HlrQHMgs4Hk
(pardon the voice used, I'm lazy and don't feel like using a better voice! You can use any SAPI 4 compatible voice.)
This game requires SAPI 4 and a compatible voice. I used an extension programmed by someone else, so that's why.
Give me a message if you're interested in helping with this project with testing! Feel free to give a couple ideas/comments/questions here too!
Cool this sounds fun. Have you maybe thought about creating the game for IOS?
A few things:
First off, good on ya for doing an ambitious thing like this.
Next, and probably a good deal more important: you're going to have to be careful, particularly if you want to try and sell the game. Pokémon are trademarked. I don't know what sort of hassle you might run into, but it's best to be wary.
Last but not necessarily least: almost all pokemon games, particularly on the handheld devices, are accessible to some extent. You're doing a neat thing, but there are, if the blind care to bother, other accessible and mainstream pokemon games. You may have a tough time competing with that. Good luck though.
I used to play on Pokemoncrator but its gone now.
I'm pretty sure the actual licensed games are not accessible (unless I'm crazy), especially the first 3 generations (Red/Blue/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Crystal/Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/Leaf Green/Fire Red). You might be thinking of a port, or a similar title or even some peripheral. I swore I heard of a port once that was accessible (that might be that Pokemoncrator mentioned earlier), but among my friends, never heard of it. I don't know anything of it. Oh well, that's no deterrent for me. The game plans to feature things that aren't shown in the mainstream games anyhow, such as having all the games eventually tied into one (a big request of many Pokemon fans, regardless of sight abilities).
Maybe you're thinking of a Pokemon Battle Simulator (such as pokemon Showdown)? The game's not a battle simulator but it could grow to resemble one with online capabilities. I'm not sure how accessible those are, either.
I don't plan on making money off of it right now, but there are multiple projects out there, such as a Pokemon MMO, that provide "credits" of sorts to let leveling up easier (oddly enough they somehow get away with this not only with Pokemon characters but even using an official ROM as a required file! I have no idea how they get away with that one... lol). If I do consider payment that'll probably be the route to go. It's not on my plan list right now. Making a game that doesn't have any profits will not have any problem, since that in of itself does not conflict with any copyright laws, but since it is programmed from scratch it wouldn't be hard to shift the characters to be original characters if that grows to be a problem.
I do not plan on making the game on IOS at this point yet.
I have owned the games you mentioned, and they're accessible enough, depending on what you view as accessible. Walls make a unique sound when you bump them. All pokemon have unique sounds as well, and most attacks are equally varied. This gets more noticeable with newer generations. There are parts of the first two generations that simply aren't accessible without at least a little sighted help, or a hell of a lot of consulting a walkthrough. The third generation is almost entirely accessible, as far as main storyline goes; the only part I needed routine help with were a couple of gym puzzles. I admit that you do lose out on text/story, details about what items you're picking up, and the stats of your pokemon, but the games are still very playable. In the past, I have managed to beat blue, yellow, silver, crystal, sapphire, emerald, leaf green and diamond, most with either no help at all or minimal hands-on sighted help. I did have to use hints for puzzles, and particularly in blue, yellow, silver and crystal, I needed help with a couple of areas (ice path, for instance). Beyond that though, very doable.
I still commend you for what you're doing. Took a look at one of your videos, and while I think your grass thing is weird, everything else is lovely. It would definitely be great to have all the information a sighted player has while playing, so for that reason if nothing else, have on.
Wow! I had no idea. I never even thought about it like that. I figured it'd be difficult though. I knew since the mons make their own unique sounds and all that, that it would be easier than a lot of game but I really had no idea (and that's coming from someone who's been around from the beginning). I guess the things you don't notice when you got functioning retinas... it's probably fully unintentional but that's amazing to me.
The grass sound is a stand in, I think I'm going to change it sometime. It's just so that you don't walk around in Tall Grass and run into wild Pokemon when you don't want to. I'll be doing it with several other terrain, as well as having 3D sound so when you approach items, NPCs or anything like that, you can hear them coming. I guess if you were able to navigate the worlds okay it shouldn't be too bad to make them a bit more complex. I'm thinking about developing for the gym puzzles, minigames that are little puzzles of sorts, kind of like Blaine's gym (the fire one) from Red/Blue. That way navigation is put to the side, since most of the puzzles look pretty tricky to navigate. I think I'm going to have the towns just be menu based though because there's usually not a ton to do in them besides talk to people and amenities such as the Pokemon Center and buying items.
A big thing I'm trying to reduce here is trial and error and help make the game less of a stumble in the dark (no pun intended, I promise) and help deliver the strategic element of the game that you were probably missing out on.
this sounds like a great idea . a very good idea. i have always wanted an accessable pokemon game sounds like fun.
i am interested in trying out your accesible game but the only problem is that i am blind is that okay?
It's specifically designed for the blind. Blind testers are preferable because it helps be develop the game around those needs.
Yes, I am interested in testing this game as well, also blind, so please give updates if you can.
Sure. I think I'm going to hold off sending out any more copies of the last release since I fixed a ton of bugs, should have a new demo out soon.
Hi
I'm interested in testing too! :)
I am also interested in testing.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/uugucnpml77829h/Braillemon0.0.0.5.zip
Newest release, first public release available. If you want, you can contact me privately for learning about more frequent updates. Please post ideas, questions, comments in this thread. Remember that you need SAPI 4 in order to run this game.
Just thought I'd say I'm still working hard on this. I had a week hiatus due to personal issues, but that's over. The next update will have the ENTIRE movepool from Gold/Silver/Crystal implemented, so it's going to take a while! But after that I'll have battles pretty much running 100%, bar bug checks.
Hi
Is this going to be an endless game like swamp (a zombie killing game? I haven't ever played pokaemon, but my friends do and they've told me a great deal about it and it sounds awesome! Thanks for all your doing, when your done with the game, can you please post it to audiogames.net, if its not too much trouble
Thanks and good day
Pokemon is a turn based Role Playing Game where you have a party of 6 characters to battle with, which you capture from your environment. So it's not quite like the game you described.
Once I get some more progress done this is totally going on some other sites, and audiogames.net is one I'm thinking about.
Also, I've opened up a tumblr for updates. I don't know how accessible tumblr is with it's themes, but it's all text so it should be okay. You can subscribe to RSS to get more frequent updates than here, to keep up to date with the progress of the current update.
http://braillemon.tumblr.com/
So, its turn based unlike swamp. But is it endless or is their a point in the game where your done with everything. If its put online, I would think that you would have an endless game or something. Not really played any multiplayer games that have an end so don't really how you could do that so sorry for my stupidity.
The best thing you could probably do for yourself here, dalekood, would be to look up pokemon. Try www.gamefaqs.com as a reference point. Essentially, there's a storyline where you have to go to specific places, fulfill a storyline and defeat specific non-player characters in your quest to become the champion. The game is downloadable at this point, not online, though I think there's going to be multiplayer support down the road...at least, I'm pretty sure that's the case.
The basic idea is this. You and your opponent, be they a player from somewhere else in the world or a non-player opponent, have up to six pokemon, which are little creatures that have different abilities. The goal is to make all of your opponent's pokemon faint (hit 0 HP) before he or she does the same to you.
In this way, if an actual game is built which will emulate earlier entries in the overall series of games, the story will be static, the challenge set in stone and the goal concrete. If multiplayer support is ever integrated, you'll be able to build and customize your team to play against other people.
Also also, I've never understood this zombie thing. Swamp seems to have utterly captivated some people, and I just...don't want a thing to do with it. Maybe there's something wrong with me.
To the topic creator, I have a question. Are you just taking the rom apart for its battle code and story and all that jazz, or are you trying to rewrite it from scratch? I'm curious, is all, since I used to be fairly into this series for its strategic element. If I try your game, probably when it gets a little bigger, can I expect to be on the hunt for a max-DV Starmie whose Surf attack will one-hit-kill any Marowak, for instance? I figure the best way to try and recreate a pokemon game is to get a Gameboy/GBC rom and hack it, so I'm just wondering if that's the plan here. If it's not, you've got one hell of a lot of coding and math in front of you.
Everything is being coded from scratch, for a few reasons:
- The first release will be a fairly faithful port of the original Red/Blue/Yellow, except some mechanics are based on either Gold/Silver/Crystal (such as moves and level up rates) or Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald or higher (such as stats). Most things are the same except for a few tiny nuances caused by the way I programmed the code. So yes, you should have a very similar experience.
- Making the game from scratch does not force me to require people to download a ROM file (which is usually done illegally). Most Battle simulators program the game from scratch to avoid this problem. It also allows me to have more freedom to add things to the storyline so that it gives players more to do and have DLC packs, without requiring people to download more roms.
-Making the game from scratch also has the added benefit of allowing me to intertwine all of the regions once the main game is done.
-It also allows me to copyright the code since it is made from scratch. Of course the characters aren't mine but you get the idea.
The biggest difference probably is how stat multipliers are calculated, and how disable works. The latter isn't really used frequently in competitive battling, but I'll go over both.
The former has different values used for calculation. In the original games, a table is referenced. In this, stats are multiplied by either 3/4 (if being lowered) or 4/3 (if being raised). This modifies the maximum and minimum stats quite a bit and may affect strategies seen on Smogon or something.
The latter cannot prevent the afflicted Pokemon from using that move the turn Disable is used... Not sure if I'll change it or not. I might.
Admittedly, it would be nice to see real values instead of the 4/3 and 3/4 thing, but I guess if you're trying to make an original game, then modifying the mechanics a little probably won't hurt.
That change will probably leave about 99.99% of strategies untouched. The game has a few minor mechanics that were introduced in later games, such as stomp doing twice as much damage if the target used minimize and little stuff like that. Mainly basing off of gen 2 to keep all those crazy gen 1 quirks (focus energy being broken, bugs involving hp with recover/soft boiled/substitute and that whole critical hit rate based on base speed bull crap) out of the picture. I've only got 35 more moves to program, plus a debugging feature that let's you change you or your enemy's first move, for testing. Plus (even more!) accessibility features. Next release will have all that and more! (Woo!)
Also word of god says that it might be SAPI5 compatible but don't cross your fingers just yet - it might be pushed to a later release.
From my playing days, I remember that Swords Dance, which is attack +2, would literally double the user's atk stat. But yours would multiply the attack by...what, 5/3 or so?
Using an example here, let's say a pokemon has 300atk and uses Swords Dance. It ought to boost to 600. But if you were using your 4/3 method twice in a row, basically, you'd go from 300-400, then 400-500 I think, if we're still modifying base. If nothing else, this is going to confuse veterans expecting a set-up-and-sweep mentality if they read a lot of strategies on Smogon and the like, unless I've got your idea totally wrong here. But as I said, I'm not complaining. It'll just be something to get used to.
Thank you for attending to the first-generation issues though. Good grief were those ever annoying. I'm thinking of Slash from Persian, for instance.
It's funny. Just reading and writing about this makes me feel old. I got fairly deep into the strategy of this game years and years ago, haven't really bothered for a long time though. I've outgrown it, in a very real sense, but I can't just un-know everything I used to know.
4/3 is actually for one step. Two step moves like swords dance is 16/9 (which is 4/3 times itself). So the actual value after one swords dance is actually about 533 (67 less). Its less than 600 but definitely less off than what you'd think. Belly drum (6 boost) is 4096/729 which with your first example is 1685 instead of 1800 (115 less approx). I think it may modify a few strategies based around exact numbers in specific match ups but leaves the majority of the meta game unchanged. The reason why is that it is a close approximation of the actual tables referenced (specifically for lowering stats) and I did it honestly to simplify the code so it's not constantly referencing base values and tables for each boost.
Today I programmed spikes. Modeled it off of gen 3 in that they stack. So another difference.
I'm really curious once I get this game going online what the meta game will shape up to be with the combination of effects from gen 1 thru 3 makeshift wonder how it will shape up.
Oh imagine me, I've memorized most of this stuff by heart. It's scary. Lol I still play the most recent games!
I am having trouble downloading game. Can you put it on Sendspace or Dropbox?
A new release should be out within a day or two. We have had a major breakthrough with a new SAPI 5 extension, but I'm going to provide the old SAPI 4 extension for possible compatibility clashes. In addition, every move from Gold/Silver/Crystal has been implemented, as well as new accessibility features and options. You can even, for testing purposes, test any of those 251 moves!
The overworld is still a dummy map and still will be a blank dummy map until trainer battles are fully implemented. I appreciate suggestions but it will not be worked on for some time.
Update up for download, using Dropbox out of request:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/phpvrfwmr28an1j/BRAILLEMON%200.0.0.6.zip
THIS UPDATE INCLUDES:
-Mainly just move stuff. Finished all the moves!
-a bazillion glitches fixed
-Added evasion checks (not that it mattered before considering no evasion moves were added yet)
-Fixed move calculation
-Weather Effects
-End Turn Effects
-added pretty sound effects
-Status effects
-SAPI5 COMPATIBILITY OH MY GOD - Special thanks to my main man Kyle Frownfelter for throwing this together
... damn son you're the best...
What am I looking for with you testers? Well...
Things as testers to look out for:
-If a certain sound is too loud.
-If, when you or an enemy uses a move, the following occurs:
[pokemon name] used [move name]
without any extra words or anything. It means the move nulled out.
-If, when you or an enemy uses a move, the following occurs:
[pokemon name] used null!
It means for whatever reason the blank move null was returned. It's an error checker.
-If the effect seems to work strangely.
-If any error dialogues pop up. They should pop up in the error log file.
-Anything else that pertains to battle that sticks out as unusual.
I will not respond to anything regarding:
-The overworld or its map. While suggestions are appreciated, this part of the game will not be completed for a while, and getting the battles working 100% is of more importance at the moment.
-If all your pokemon faint, there is nothing really coded to fix that. In the actual games you would be sent to the last healing place, but since that hasn't been coded yet nothing really happens. I know of this already so yeah. F3 on the overworld menu heals all your Pokemon though.
Oh, the game is currently incompatible with Windows XP, we're working on that. Forgot to mention, sorry.
So it only works on Windows 7?
Vista, 7 and 8 should work. There was a compiling issue with Windows XP with the new DLL, one of the commands doesn't work, we're working on that. It shouldn't be too long. When we get it up and running we'll hit up another link.
Aw crap, I almost forgot... the SAPI5 dll needs Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package in order to run. Make sure you pick that up before you try playing...
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5555
The lack of an edit function on this site is frightening.
I think I've located the source of the problem but I need more testing. I'll be updating the dropbox link so that it should work.
Updated link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wxmuo5825np4xrn/BRAILLEMON0.0.0.6.zip
Aha, got it to work - we were missing some necessary DLLs provided by microsoft. I'm just going to distribute them with the game since they're free to distribute.
Right now I'm just working on filling out the tables with the information on the characters, as well as adding a few more accessibility features, such as a keypress echo with name inputs. Little stuff like that. Whee!
Video Update:
http://youtu.be/QzkYe-mh6pQ
Update 0.0.0.7 expected to be uploaded soon.
this is good so far! But you didn't do random encounters yet, making the pokeballs useless.
sorry for double posting, but You should have the option of using another starting pokemon other than "blind duck". My brother and my father just made fun of me for having him, and it won't stop until random encounters are implemented.
Yeah, he's just a testing guy. Actually, he's really useful because he can tell me if data has been "nulled out" because he's unique and is referenced by the value 0.
Technically there are random encounters but they don't really mean anything yet :p I'm just testing the basic engine right now.
Sorry about your family, I didn't expect that with "Blind Duck" haha
I heard about this a while back but didn't think much would come of it at the time. Apparently I was dead wrong!
I've been wanting to play a pokemon style game for the longest time, mainly because they used to be so popular and many of my friends still play them so it'd be great to be able to talk to them about it on an equal footing.
Thank you so much for doing this. Really looking forward to see how this... evolves. :D
I like how you are using the classic sound effects and music as well.
Right now I'm lost. stuck on rout 1 (pallit town wasn't implemented yet)
The map is a dummy map and doesn't have any special features. I haven't implemented the overworld yet.
I'll probably end up closing beta testing for a while once I get the engine up and running. The engine's completion is in clear sights, so it won't be too long. I'll put up a final version of the engine before closing testing, until I get a lot more done. That way people can test the engine and figure out any bugs.
oh thank you!
hi everyone,
@daigonite
i first read your creation on the pokecommunity, then on audiogames.net and finally in here. strange order isn't it? but anyway.
i'll say it again in here. i am very exited by your idea, motivation and creations thus far. and i am very interested about how this game will evolve. and when there will come sort of credit system i'll be glad to pay for it.
@nynaeve
pokemoncrater hasn't vanished. i played it also when i was sighted but now i am blind i searched for it again and i found it, and quite playable. the adress is:
http://www.pokemonbattlearena.net
keep up the good work diagonite.
greetz mike
Oh cool thanks.
I could have joked that the test trainer was jessy of team rocket, because he brought out ekins (the same pokemon jessy used).
That site... doesn't really look much like an official pokemon game at all. It looks like it could be fun but doesn't resemble any of the official games.
Here's an update:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vk5ly6lqcpjqk94/BRAILLEMON0.0.0.7.zip
Let me know what you guys think. Post glitch reports here, IN DEPTH PLEASE! Like, what you did and all that!
thank you for the update.
In 0.0.0.7, the menu for swapping out moves doesn't close when you hit enter on a move to delete, leaving you locked inside the move menu. Only way to solve it is to hit f1 to generate a trainer battle, then continue pressing enter all the while still executing the move delete function.
Firespin has the victim and executor reversed: It says executor has been caught in victim's firespin. It should be victim has been caught in executor's firespin.
Oh shoot looks like I forgot to update the link here. Here's the new one:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l4eyvtbabkbykaa/0.0.0.8.zip
Save files with this version are incompatible with previous versions.
I've done a lot to fix the move learning glitches, but I'll look into the fire spin thing. I THINK I fixed it but not certain.
0.0.0.8 on Windows XP generates the following error message during the initialization phase:
BRAILLEMON: BRAILLEMON.exe - Entry Point Not Found
The proced nk library KERNEL32.dll.
Clicking OK on the error message results in an infinite loop of the same error dialog. The contents of the error log file are as follows:
ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object speakmain:
Error defining an external function.
I got that too.
It might be because your system doesn't support the current version of speakstring.dll. Looks like it was compiled incorrectly. Someone else was reporting issues with this version of Speakstring.dll. It's only different functionality in this version is a log that writes down all messages, which is only used in error reporting.
Try using this version in the meantime
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jkl5jtesy6ehlza/SpeakString.dll
Move this into your braillemon folder.
Also make sure that windows XP is fully upgraded to service pack 3.
If that doesn't work I'll see what I can do but it looks like it's speakstring.dll again.
I am going to try this soon. I suspect that this game will be fantastic when it's all said and done.
me too.
Is there an accessible Ugio game, just as an offshoot to the Pokemon discussion.
I don't think so. one was being worked on by bkm software, but was canceled when they were bought by x-sight (or rather the president was hired off by them).
Also, as of 0.0.0.8, random encounters are working, and do just as they did in the original Gameboy version. I got rid of "blind duck" finally, giving him away to a babysitter (or "daycare man" as the game calls them) and replaced him with "blind bever" (my meutwo).
What is the current version of the game? 0.0.8?
Hi guys I have not updated this thread in FOREVER
If you would like to play this version it is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7wc1lk8yh1p1yq/0.0.0.9.zip
it fixes a lot of glitches.
The current running release is 0.0.0.9. I am currently in closed beta but I plan to have 0.0.1.1 a public release with the first two towns and some updates to cater to visually impaired (not fully blind) players with sprites.
Read more on my blog: braillemon.tumblr.com
Any plans to port this over to the mac? Because this sounds awesome!! I'm
assuming, anyway, since it's using sapi, that it's currently just windows based.
I was playing this today. Is there a way to catch the pokemon and not just fight? Also the game doesn't close except with task manager.
Ok I found where to buy the Pokeballs and potions but there doesn't seem to be a way to get out of that menu without closing the game and what we buy is not saved.
I just eevolved Charmander into Charmeleon but after had to enter on yes to get out of menu and it said I stopped him from evolving even though he already had changed.
I just got my first badge though. :)
I got your private message... I didn't know about z to get out of the menus, so that works thanks. Closing game works with y for yes and I was actually tabbing to ok, so that was my fault. lol
as an avid player of rby, gsc, and rse, frlg, and having some usable vision, an audio pokemon game is just, nifty!!! I've not checked it out as of yet, but that's mostly cuz I'm still able to play yellow, silver, crystal and emerald and frlg, with no problems. I was reading about this in various places, and, if I were to go for this, I'd wait till it was fully set. but that's the stubbern part of me, who'd get annoied if I couldn't finish the gyms and the E4. like I can normally.
p.s charizard, dragonair, scizor, jolteon, blazikin are my favorites, after mew of course. lol
yep avid pokemon fan.
Long time no see. A lot of stuff has been updated. Here is the most recent version.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zxs1c49zcx50c9p/BRAILLEMON.zip?dl=0
It's XP compatible. Please let me know if there are any major errors. I don't frequent
here as often though.