Evergreen

Oooh, a new update!

 

thank you :]!

i've made a bunch of progress on the normal ending's final boss graphics today (i would estimate it at ~90% done graphically), but i don't want to spoil anything... i can share this lil guy though! i don't think anyone will trigger the requirements for it to appear in the bossfight unless they deliberately set out to but oh well

Spoiler

at the moment, what i have left to do is to finish spriting one of the enemies it summons as well as draw and figure out how to implement a teleport animation for the boss itself - after that, i need to polish up the attacks to ensure they all function correctly and then finally reimplement a health bar as well as script the transition to the next phase

i'll be away for a week in a few days and won't be bringing my windows laptop (plane luggage weight limits my behated) but i'll still be able to work on sprites and stuff, so i suppose i'll take the time to polish up animations and stuff...

 

Heehee, cute non-metroid

 

wonderful news for all evergreen fans - nay, fans of cave story around the world!

the long-awaited and eagerly anticipated 'salad ending' is now fully functional and implemented* within the most excellent game mod evergreen, and will be releasing in the upcoming modgala demo in august!

(*awaiting stress-testing and finalisation of some assets)

this is what i would consider the one, true canon ending to evergreen, and it is a wonderful milestone i have achieved after a rigorous afternoon of neglecting other boring and lame responsibilities such as 'doing homework' or 'eating lunch'! celebrations and joy all around the world!

 

ooooh, yes

 

it's been a while! (oops lol)

i'm pleased to announce that evergreen will be streamed in the next few days as part of the currently on-going modgala, hosted in the csmc discord server!

due to several complications - mainly that i'm currently in the middle of my school year - i was unable to bugtest/polish the demo to the point where i'm confident about a public release... i hope to get it out in the next few weeks!

 

my deepest apologies and pleas for mercy for this egregious double-posting violation, but...

EVERGREEN 0.7 IS NOW AVAILABLE (!!!)​

this is the version that was played during the recent modgala stream, and is finished up to the first ending (+ credits); as well as this a new joke ending is also accessible! please note that i cannot guarantee compatibility with save files from previous versions, but i hope enough time has passed and enough has been changed/polished that people will be willing to replay it...

i will be releasing a few updates to this demo to fix or expand on the existing content, but i'm vaguely confident in claiming this will be the last public demo (but for real this time) and once i clear out some bugfixes, i will henceforth be beginning development on the last parts of the game: the best/second ending content, and the optional boss (which may release as an update to the existing demo)

thank you everyone for your patience and i hope people enjoy :]

 

...Want to retry? Yes!

I've downloaded and will be playing this week! Haven't replayed since 0.4.8... (sorry!) Going to savor this

 

Haven't replayed since 0.4.8...

oh wow, you've got a lot to catch up on, then! i hope you enjoy :]

 

I've been enjoying it very much! Thank you Elipsis!!
I'm about 3.5 hours into it so far and I think I'm having a better time than with many games I've bought...

It might be a bit too easy overall so far, but then again I probably need to play Cave Story again to get a proper baseline. (Also maybe I shouldn't be cheap and use my rapidfire button xD It might be a little too gamebreaking since it causes the revolver(?) to not run out of ammo often... I'll have to replay it without my crutch when I check out alternate choices!)

I love all the detail, and extra dialogues you can discover by interacting with some things multiple times. It really goes a long ways to boosting the immersion or fun factor with all the optional charming dialogue. Played another game I was thinking of picking up recently, and the single interaction dialogues just felt so NPC, one-dimensional. Evergreen has a more natural flow imo...

Spoiler

Also, running into non-game over events surprised me. Losing to the Captain, wasn't a game over, but an interesting new outcome. And accidentally messing up and drowning while working together in the Meltdown area... again, a surprising outcome! The amount of extra effort is highly appreciated Enhances the illusion of freedom as things surprisingly flow naturally and not directly to a "gameover... retry?" I do wonder if each of these... mistakes has an impact on what happens later in the story... Replay value...!!

I did record as I played, again with my unusual setup (stopped playing with reshade after the intro). I'm 3.5 hours into it so far (22 gig upload lol)...
Probably should have written down notes as I went or at least note any potential bugs. But I think I've re-located the ones I wondered about:

I marked the timeline, and added labels, including the possible bugs.

Spoiler

1) Starting a new game and answering Yes to retry, seemed to skip past the booting up scene and gives you the "let's try this again..." (Freshly booted game, no profile.dat)
However, answering No to retry, then no to giving up, gives you the normal intro.
00:19 Bug 1

2) When reading their chat, if you interact again and say No to re-reading it says "You decide to respect his privacy." I always get a twisted chuckle since I just read through their chat...
30:38 Bug 2?

3) "Elijah please add details" at a bookcase?
35:31 Bug 3?

EDIT: Also, probably from that same event (or something in that room, like the fireplace?) Suddenly the focus on character speed is max? Rather than normal gradual focus on the player.

4) Cthulhu in the Frigid Caves is un-interactable? Maybe a "..." would be better? Unless he's frozen...
1:20:06 Bug 4?

5) Meltdown, where you rescue um.. the Captain... If you interact with the same spot later, it will start the same rescue cutscene again.
1:58:44 Bug 5

6) The knockout after beating the Gaudi team... Looks off? The blade seemed to hit nothing near the player. Didn't try it again though, maybe it was just a fluke? (Earlier, I think I had cheatengine speeding up the game at one point, and Brooke in her running away cutscene, ran back towards the player before disappearing, just after the festive boss . I didn't confirm it was cheatengine that caused it though... Also I'm running the game at 60 fps! lol so not an ideal test environment.)
2:54:04 Bug 6? Pretty sure I didn't have it sped up, but would have to replay to confirm it is reproduceable.
1:19:44 brooke disappears
1:22:06 seems like cheatengine speed up caused this brooke runs back and disappears

Oh! And the 0.7.3 download came with a profile.dat, spoilers area...

Anyway! More thoughts to be continued hopefully soon... gotta go!

 

thanks for the feedback, and i very much appreciate the recording! ahh, i can't believe i forgot to delete the save file LOL whoops

Spoiler

it is pretty easy, but that's sorta intentional! my skill is more in visual design, and i don't really consider myself 'good' at games, so i like to make my mods more story/visual-based...

1. noted, i messed with the intro event for one of the private demos and must have forgot to double check everything was back in order...
EDIT: d'oh, for some reason i added a second SK+... BEFORE the SKJ, which already had a SK+ in the correct position after it...??? okay thanks past eli

2. noted, i've had that pointed out before, i'll probably add unique dialogue

3. intentional, it's a joke/reference to a piece of placeholder text accidentally left in one of the hitman games ('allan please add details') - re. the camera stuff, i have an idea what's causing it, i'll fix that...

4. oops! i recently had to change some stuff with the cthulhu npcs, i must have forgot to double check that one worked

5. noted

6. these two issues actually stem from the same problem - they're both a reskin of toroko; i imagine cheat engine is what's causing the issues with brooke but i'll add a failsafe to ensure it can't be triggered... with the gaudi projectile, tbh i do need to just figure out a more elegant way to knock hedera out LOL, we'll see what i can come up with...

 

Spoiler

Here's part 2...! Mostly bug free until...

1:16:21 Boss Time
That battle was actually pretty cool in an unintended way. Watching it again, it's easy to see what's going on. But in the heat of battle, I thought the longer it went on the more dialogue would appear! It caught me off guard, and kinda felt like a feature, fitting in with Curly's uh interjective personality lol. Perhaps being sent to meet up thanks to Misery, which she hinted, wondering what would happen if you met up... might end up with Q & C taking unnecessary damage by an overzealous player... or perhaps if you avoid finishing Q, dialogue finally reaches a point where the battle is called off and friendly relations are established... :3

Though I'm sure at this point it probably makes sense to just save the dialogue till after beating up the two legends in classic fashion
1:40:35 Figuring out the Bug / Boss Conversations

There's another bug however that softlocked progress:
1:45:42 Critical Bug Start
I saved there, AFTER beating them. Didn't save in the next room, because I wondered what would have happened if I had chosen to go in the direction they were headed...

1:46:38 Critical Bug Softlock!
Blocked... Literally :x

Anyway, lots of secrets! Couldn't figure out if there was something I should have done in the abandonded village fireplace with the empty chest... Did I need to go there at the right time? Hmm...
Is there a list of cameos? I wonder who many of these secret characters are... *checks README!!!*

Dash, B: Dredged Crusader
dawnBot (Dus): dawnDus
Kune: Gremzie1
Percival: OmegaBotDX
Hyphen, Ellipsis: God Improvisation
Jammy: Jammy
Rho: Aprkot
Aste: Lu (n3rdysk3tch3s)

Just friends making cameos? Or other mod characters?

Anyway, I had a good time! Finding the flowers... Seeing the island's surface and the building up sound as you climb... Finding secrets...
Character art and the occasional image, not to mention some new music... Very nice.

 

1:46:38 Critical Bug Softlock!
Blocked... Literally :x

to address the most pressing issue - i've just released an updated version on doukclub that should fix this bug (you won't need to reset your progress!)

for the rest:

Spoiler

- alt/'pacifist' route would be neat, but i don't really think i can implement it, especially with freeware limitations! there'd be ways to do it, i'm sure, but i think it would be a headache and i get enough of those just working on the new stuff LOL
- the abandoned village fireplace is part of an (as of yet unimplemented) side mission, the conclusion of which will allow you to fight the secret boss - you CAN actually access the fireplace, it just requires obtaining, well... jelly juice, which itself can be found when returning to a certain area...

re. the cameos, they're all friends' characters, but a couple of them are from other mods:
- Dash is from CLAVE (cancelled/unfinished) and B is from Primary (completed and a fun time, i recommend it!)
- Kune doesn't star in any mods of his own, but he does cameo in my first mod, Usagi Story
- Percival is from Cave Story - Reflections which i do not believe has a public demo yet?
- Rho is from Pledgefall (very unique and also highly recommended)

 

@cameos
Oh! I will add those to mods I need to check out! Nice.

Spoiler

@pacifisthax
I remember in my first micro mod (I never finish em!) how it relied on some trickery to allow you to grab miniboss stick wielding Toroko, or shoot her. The results were nice, but it was indeed a headache to figure out xD (Pretty sure it was a case where the boss acted exactly the same if duplicated, so I had two Toroko's. One that was the normal boss, and one that could be interacted with... Pretty sure there was a reason that was the case... assuming I'm remembering right lol. Only been 14+ years...)

Spoiler

Anyway, I've gotten off topic... (wish I had been as dedicated as you!)

@jellyfishjuice
Intriguing
Ah yes! I was actually surprised that the jellyfish juice didn't get used up after extinguishing the fire. (Though that could be a feature... ;D)

And... Here's the final part!

22:03 Critical Bug1?
36:15 Critical Bug1?
At this point I ran into a softlock? It seems that something prevented the initial dialogue event from triggering? The on that unlocks a new destination on the teleporter.

49:23 No Critical Bug!!!???
I walked down the mountain surface to the original teleporter instead of using the Lab teleporter, not sure what else was different... But the event triggered!!

30:52 Bug2 or Feature?
Is this a secret? a feature? or a bug :O

1:13:15 Bug3 or Feature?
1:15:11 Bug3 or Feature? (after loading too)
Asterix won't let you backtrack without doing his duty... again

1:45:05 Bug4? / Credits
The chopper sound haunts my dreams

2:01:18 Bug5?
Probably know about this but can replay the boss if you return all the way back

And... Huzzah!! That's a wrap!
Have you played Ghostsong? Or Sanabi? Reminding me of some great games while playing this.
Mmm.

That was quite the adventure so far... I wonder what other endings I might find... For example if I don't find the flowers...
Also I should replay at some point without using any rapidfire, resize graphic filters, and also try to see if I can potentially do things out of order somehow. Not certain I can pull off the amount of boost with the revolver that I can with rapidfire, will have to experiment... Since it exists in the original Cave Story's machinegun, I'd call it a little known feature xD

That last boss battle turned up the heat! Was fun replaying that several times, trying to see if anything happened if I tried to stay in the danger zone, rather than proceeding through the open barrier...
After reading the txt file on the boss, about how it sounded it couldn't stay in operation for very long, I originally thought I had to outlast it. (Hah... I keep trying the "pacifist", don't finish the boss.

I guess I knew from the beginning about the big reveal... Though I didn't know WHO else or HOW it all happened. I think you executed the cutscenes very well... And threw in some really cool effects here and there... Like coming out of the portrait... D: Nice touch. And the ending credit picture... Mmmm.

I wish this was only half-way through the story though.. haha x) I believe in Cave Story the story said something like, it was after He got the Demon Crown that the troubles really began... Though maybe that story is for Q&C... In any case, I can't wait to see what the final ending has in store... I get the feeling it may be bittersweet

I hope you get a good amount of people checking out Evergreen, because it should appeal to any Cave Story players wondering about prequels and sequels... Oh and I really liked the final exterior west area. It could use some enemies, though the captured mood is pretty perfect. (Music and silhouette graphics... chefs kiss.) I still think the mod in general could use some extra difficulty, but it's already a great time, so all's well.

Was Fleuron's theme the main Cave Story theme? Or is that a placeholder? I wasn't sure it lined up with what I was expecting... Access then Cave Story (Theme Song). Not sure it conveys the seriousness of the big reveal. I mean it works! But, just thought I'd mention what I was thinking at the time.

Also enjoyed the Frenzied Robot boss battle... Caught me off guard with that one ;D I was actually a little worried that by leaving Carret locked up in that lab, it might affect her D: And the slightly ominous "Door unlocked" message, and the ability to disable the security system. Did wonder if that would affect things at the time as well.

Well hope someone else can give you a more comprehensive review or feedback. But hope the bug reporting helped!
Looking forward to what comes next (Though if you want me to replay soon, I can probably do that.)

Stayed up late a few nights and had a blast. Thank you for all your hard work ;D

 

thank you so much for your feedback (and bug reports, i appreciate those immensely), i'm glad you've enjoyed it!

Spoiler

regarding the music and helicopter sfx - yes, they're all bugs, at the moment i currently use a windows XP virtual machine to playtest evergreen, and the sound drivers in it have been faulty recently so i've just been playing with the sound off... on top of this a bunch of orgs were reshuffled after i switched to an external org hack (fleuron's theme is meant to be something else!), all of which means i need to just switch to developing on my windows computer again for a while to fix all of this...