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Cart #project_echidna-1 | 2023-07-20 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Summary

Project Echidna is a short skill based RPG(?) where you explore an abandoned laboratory to recover an old prototype. In this game multiple enemies can fight you at once, so plan your battles accordingly! Lure enemies into corners and fight them one on one, or avoid them altogether. If you are very skilled, you can fight them off all at the same time! There is no Leveling system, there is no output randomness, it is just your ability to fight with the tools you have.

Overworld Enemies

Enemies can see you if they have line-of-sight or you get too close. If they touch you they will engage in a battle! Multiple enemies can engage at a time, so be careful!

Battle!

Battle works similar to any other RPG: You get an action, then each of the enemies gets an action.
On your turn you will play a short minigame that represents your chosen action. How effective that action is will be determined by your ability to play the minigame effectively.

You have five choices of action, some having secondary effects:

Your Actions:

Pocket Knife
[14x16]

O'l Reliable. This attack hits one target and if you do well enough it will stun your target and completely remove their action this turn! Quite useful if you are paying attention to what each enemy is going to do.

Tail Strike
[14x16]

This attack hits every target at once, and it gets easier to use effectively the more enemies are in battle with you. Using it will also remove the Slowed condition from yourself.

Fire Bolt
[14x16]

Harder to land a hit than the Pocket Knife, but this magic spell packs a punch! It can burn an enemy if you are very accurate. Burned enemies lose 10% of their HP every turn. This is very good against ones with a lot of armor.

Protect
[14x16]

Use this to block all damage that you will take this turn. There is no minigame here, so use it to slow the battle down if you need to!

Heal Self
[14x16]

Heals your own HP. Keep the red line aligned with the green line. This minigame has more luck than usual, so don't rely on it too often.

Enemy Actions:

Enemies get their own actions too! Next to their name is an icon indicator of what they will do on their turn:
[8x8]
Attack you
[8x8]
Heal and recover from Burned
[8x8]
Raise their own Attack stat
[8x8]
Apply Slowness to you
[7x7]
Disable your most recently used action.
[7x7]
They have no action left

Story

Caution! Contains sensitive subjects and mature themes!

Around twenty years ago Blacksun Mining Co. went out of business. Documents were leaked showing that they were using legal loopholes to create their own workforce using gene splicing. This workforce did not classify as "human" and were purposefully made to be visually repulsive, so they would not receive help from people outside the company.
Nonetheless, this man-made servant race was able to find help outside of Blacksun's lithium mines and eventually gained their freedom. An individual within the company dumped terabytes of incriminating data onto the internet, exposing this company's terrible actions for what they truly were. Nothing is known about this person though.
Now, twenty years after the fact, you are going to explore an old laboratory that was referenced in one of Blacksun's RND documents. Apparently they had a prototype that was completed right as the company was brought down.
P.S: I should clarify that this game and the story contained within are in no way relating to or criticizing Pokemon. Pokemon is a kid's game and can hand-wave real world problems it may bear resemblance to.

About the Music

Well, I dislike chiptune music as a whole, and I don't have any compositional ability to speak of. Every song is a remix of the original Zelda dungeon theme. Each enemy has their own variation on this theme. I think this is the weakest part of the game.

About Development

I have worked on this game for over half a year now. Originally it was going to be a fangame where your character controlled an individual pokemon (a Houndoom) trying to get a message to your destination in time. Very little of that original game stuck, except for the minigames representing moves that your character knows. Bite, Ember, Overheat, Shadow Ball were the original four moves, with a fifth for not fainting after your HP dropped to 0. Your character still retains the Blaze ability from this stage of development. (Yes, Houndoom doesn't get Blaze, I don't care.)
I quickly trimmed the fat off of the RPG turn based system and decided against any leveling system for such a short game. I did want companion creatures that would help you fight in Double Battles, but alas the sprite space was too limited.
At some point I wanted to make a dungeon as a good learning exercise. Inspired by Outer Wilds, I made a little story that was spread out around the dungeon area and could be discovered piece-by-piece.
While working on the encounter system I realized that the overworld enemies going to battle mode could be a unique way of handling encounters (nobody likes random Zubats Game Freak!). I experimented with how enemies see and chase the player until I found something I liked. Controlling when and who you fought became part of the puzzle. Later on I played Earthbound and found that it has a similar style of encounter. Neat!
Overall I think my first RPG game came out pretty good. Combat feels clean and snappy, and there is a tiny story to discover. I couldn't add the midgame bossfight I wanted, but that is okay.

ver 1.1: Fixed a bug involving dying to the final encounter before winning. Same issue was causing a window to pop up twice.

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1

Really impressed with the game, looks like a lot of work went into it. One wee issue though Ive defeated what I imagine is the final encounter twice and I keep respawning in the previous room and have to do it again.
1

close door this is hard ,and very good :D
2

@Godmil Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into it!

Alright! Found it, thank you again for the help!
2

As a huge pokemon fan and a undertale fan this is an awesome game I can't wait for more of your work
2

I loved this! Nice story and I really liked the battle system and way you can evade the enemies for a while. The game feels very polished, lots of attention to details, graphics, atmospheric music, all really add up to a great game.



1

why it is always lithium man, why don't evil mining corps go for anything else

anyway amazing game, my only issue with it is that is just sooooo short and hated that, apart from it 9/10 game wish it was fully fledged

oh well if you don't want to expand the game further i will, well at the very least the story of it
1

@prismo18 I know the length of the game was too short, but I don't have any more space for text in the code. I could have made the map bigger, but there would be no story past what I currently have. Pico8 limitations are strict!
I consider this game a prototype of sorts, and I already have a lot more story I want to tell in this setting.
Story is the easiest part of making a game, after all ;-)



2

This is a great title, it'll join my favorites tab :)
Nice sprites, especially the main character. Really good work. I could have used a teeny windup before the actual minigame begins, even though i knew the games i was always caught off guard by them just starting. It could use some boxart and a manual, if it had that I'd buy it ^^

Would like to see an extended version. (i.e. a full game.)

Not because it was too short, but because it was too good. :)
1

I had a great time playing! Love the mini game skills. The one suggestion I have is that enemies do not travel towards you, but they do block the way to areas u need to go. The reason is that I would often get swarmed and 80% of the time I would lose a battle against 3-4 enemies. So most rooms required my to lead enemies away and hope not to get cornered. I felt it would be more tactical if we could decide when to attack them. Thanks for making an excellent rpg!



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