Pocket Crystal League
A downloadable game for Windows
The entire code is now public!
https://gitlab.com/moodytail/pokecards
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PCL is a Poke-card game, although completely different to the Official Trading Card Game. The gameplay mechanics were partially inspired by Inscryption, being pretty straightforward and easy to learn.
After choosing a starter deck, your goal is to travel through Kyoumu, challenging each of the Gym Leaders from the eight major cities in the region, building up your team to reach the ultimate goal, the Crystal League. Along the way, you'll be presented with numerous choices to expand your deck, strengthen your cards, give them unique special abilities, and battle other trainers.
The current release includes Generations I-IV (but with corresponding Fairy types). The game may be expanded with more content in the future, but there are currently no plans for any further updates. It is fully playable in its current state.
Balancing can be a bit tricky at times, but I'm satisfied with the current level of difficulty, overall. The game is not supposed to be too easy, but challenging to a degree. Nevertheless, balance updates may happen if/when needed.
This project was done ultimately just for fun, and I'm not getting any kind of revenue or payment from it— please Nintendo, let it be!
I hope you enjoy it, and let me know if you have any issues!
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Gameplay Tips:
- The outskirts of each city, accesible throught the "Not Ready" button before facing a Gym Leader, feature slightly stronger opponents than the road previously leading to it.
- Don't try to rush through each area unless you're attempting a challenge run. Training on the outskirts a few times before challenging a Gym Leader is recommended to build a balanced and versatile deck.
- You don't need to equip all your Berries at all times. Think about how many you need (approximately), and how often you want to be able to draw each type relative to the entire deck. You can set a specific number of berries with the scroll wheel.
- If the current area feels overwhelming in difficulty, you can visit any previous area by using the flight service available in all cities.
- You can level up multiple cards as many times as you want during a single "Level Up" event, as long as you have enough money and have raised the level cap for your cards.
- Don't add Glyphs to all your cards! A card with any amount of Glyphs costs more Berries than a card with none, so try to keep a balanced deck between single-cost cards and cards with Glyphs.
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Keyboard Shortcuts:
- Spacebar: end turn during battle, grab all cards when opening a pack, and skip victory/defeat screen after random battles.
- Tab: sort cards in hand during battle.
- Up arrow key (or W key): hold down to attack with all cards during battle.
- Left/Right arrow keys (or A/D keys): navigate menus (options/deck), and draw cards during battle.
- Up/Down arrow keys (or W/S keys): select number of berries when building deck.
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Mods & Discord:
PCL+ and PCL++ are both standalone mods based on the v1.6 base game (not the latest release). They have a bunch of different features and additions (glyphs, events, cards, etc.), and they also changed some core stuff altogether as well. Because of these changes though, sadly, they can also be somewhat unbalanced (further than the base game), and multiple people have been reporting bugs that can either cause major issues, or even break save files completely. Consider them as a different, alternate version of PCL, with some additions, changes, and some things missing as well (mostly due to the older version they're based on). Other than that, though, the mods can be pretty fun, and worth checking out (although I suggest doing so after playing through vanilla first). I am genuinely honored that people were able to build such cool things from the base game!
Neither the mods nor vanilla are gonna receive any further updates. The mod teams have moved on to work on other things, and so have I. Although, I've said the same thing multiple times and then I go and update the base game again a bunch, so who knows, really.
For more details, please check this post: https://moodytail.itch.io/pocket-crystal-league/devlog/704889/should-you-play-va...
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- Pocket Crystal Discord: https://discord.gg/PEUqB45Hmy
Community-made server for discussion about the game. Non-official, but I'm in there too and I can help with issues, answer questions, or you can just talk to other people, show us your decks and such.
- Pocket Crystal League + (2022): https://github.com/Hyperion-21/pokecards_plus
Community-made PCL expansion (based on PCL v1.6) that adds new cards and features. Now outdated, no longer being worked on, and a little buggy. Save files are separate from vanilla.
- Pocket Crystal League ++ (2023): https://discord.gg/gc2GvSGp5f
Community-made PCL expansion (based on PCL+, from PCL v1.6), with even more new cards and features. Now outdated, no longer being worked on, and with some game-breaking bugs, so please be careful! Save files are separate both from vanilla and PCL+.
Download
Development log
- Should you play vanilla, or the mods?28 days ago
- Pocket Crystal League v2.2.0.029 days ago
- Pocket Crystal League v2.0.0.057 days ago
- Pocket Crystal League v1.8.1.0Nov 30, 2023
- Mod: Pocket Crystal League ++Feb 18, 2023
- Mod: Pocket Crystal League +Jun 22, 2022
- Pocket Crystal League's code is now public!Jun 14, 2022
- Pocket Crystal League v1.6.0.0Jun 14, 2022
Comments
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Ansioso para as proximas atualizações desse maravilhoso jogo, já zerei de varias formas esse jogo KKKKKKK foi uma semana inteira de muita jogatina, realmente conseguiram pegar a essencia do inscryption.
Could you add compatible to MacOS
is there any way to play this game on a Acer Chromebook R 13??
Poderia por modo ONLINE em seria perfeito nota 10 !!!
I just downloaded the game and it won't let me run the installer, any help? :S
Is there any way to make the number 13 look more clearly like a 13 instead of an 18? I know my vision isn't the best but my eyes cannot help but see 18 every time when there's the 1 in front of the 3, specifically when it's in the prediction of damage the my card will do. The pixels don't seem to visually touch the same way to my brain in other places when it comes to the number 13, maybe because the outline is darker in the prediction text? Maybe my brain is just dumb.
you are absolutely not dumb, I see the same thing
Meanwhile I'm good with colours, supposedly, and I'm struggling to see the difference between the four pixels of blue/green on the Pokemon cards (to see what they need) in battle.
Is there a better way to sort/find cards in my collection that I'm not aware of? I have so many that it's hard to find specific names, types, or upgraded/tributed cards I have. A big example is when I go to tribute and I'm trying to find something I have the most duplicates of and then having to try finding them again afterwards to sell them since they're useless after using them for tribute.
the update totally screwed my deck comp ;_;
Any plans to add a tribute mechanic during the match ( tribute a pokemon of the same energy with a berry of the same energy for a pokemon with 2 energies )
are you play ygo too much?
perphaps
what is a star for? Stats are the same. Or it is just cosmetic reskin?
they are supposed to be shiny versions
just tried to download and it said invalid upload, i cant believe i tried to download the base game as you were uploading a new patch lmao
saw this game on youtube and thought i would check it out
The tribute function is confusing. I can't tell what it does.
You sacrifice all potential of one Pokemon to boost the potential of another (max of 3 upgrades per card). The tributed card effectively because useless and may as well be sold while the upgraded card gains more stats than another copy of it would at fewer or no hearts.
So say I tribute three different copies of my numerous Magikarp collection to upgrade my Togekiss over the course of finding 3 tribute opportunities. My level 10 Togekiss with 3 hearts currently has 23 HP, 15 ATK, and 7 DEF while my other level 10 Togekiss with 0 hearts has 16 HP, 11 ATK, and 5 DEF.
You may not see a difference in level 1 pokemon but it increases the stats it gains as it grows, similar to being a later stage evolution in an evolutionary line (e.g. Charizard vs Charmander).
any plans to linux users?
Hey I love this game content but I dont have a computer, are there any plans for mobile (android preferred)?
Hey, just wanted to say I loved the game! Cool idea to take inspiration from inscription for this. I do have one question though; are pokemon with branching evolutions meant to be randomly chosen on evo? I ask as I've evolved like 30 Eevee and ALL of them have been Vaporeon so far, so not sure if I'm missing something here.
You can click multiple times on the evolution button to cycle through all their evolutions!
OH! I WAS missing something! Thank you so much!
I've tried using that cycle button, but does it not work for Pokemon with other forms like Cherrim or Ninjask?
Cherrim's form is tied to its special ability, just like in the main games. Shedinja is also a special card that is separate from Ninjask.
in the PCL++ its impossible to remove data, including rogelite mode and all, basically i cant lose or start a new game... In my roguelite save I have negative lives (-3 lives)
Yup. I'm sorry, but as stated here in the page, the mods are outdated, discontinued, and pretty buggy. I recommend playing the regular version first, then trying out the mods afterwards.
oh i see, sorry man. btw very good game :3
Hi can you consider adding macOS support too?
Pls i want to play with my friend
You ever consider adding gamepad support (if it doesn’t have it already)?
This is a fantastic effort for a fangame.
Heya, super fun idea.
UX anecdotye: I can not for the life of me stop pressing the green end turn button before manually attacking.. perhaps you could consider improving this by greying out the button if they player hasnt attacked, or adding a warning/confirm popup if they try to end turn without attacking or just making the pokemon atttack. ( I havent run into a situation yet where I wouldnt want to attack every turn).
this is a really cool idea and genuinely fun, Nintendo should hire you
are there any plans for a web version? this looks super fun and i would love to try it out but im on a chromebook and cant download exe files
why i can't G-max toxicity, everytime i try it turn into weak 1hp/1atk meltan
I've been told the ++ mod has a few bugs, but I don't really know if they'll get worked on or not, since it's been a while (I am not one of the mod developers, just vanilla).
Absolutely love the game, but I've run into a softlock. It has given me 3 choices that I can use none of, All of my pokemon are max level, fully evolved and I don't meet the number of pokemon to take on the battle. Is there anything that i can do or is my save file pretty much ruined?
I'm sorry. Sadly, this is an issue in the modded versions. If the mod devs fix it, I'll update it here.
I think the game is too easy. I've completed it in the Original and + Versions and if you grind in some parts (Like 4th and 5th gyms) you can easily go through the entire game.
I love the game, i really like it, but it needs more content, please more content :C
I can't play at all! Whenever I try to launch the game, either basegame or + or ++ I get a "This App can't run on your PC. Check with the software provider" error!
This is weird cause it ran just fine on this PC before I factory restored it. I'm running Windows 11 if that helps!
I like the UI, very friendly and easy to learn! Unfortunately the gameplay is kinda boring (a lot of pokemons do the same, the berry mechanic isnt as interesting as how the squirrels work in Inscryption. It's mostly a grindfest to level up all your cards, meanwhile in Inscryption you have limited time and have to choose the best usage of ressource. The scribes should be the most important point of cards but they are only small icons on the card.) I also think Inscryption made the right choice by being asymetrical, you can plan/predict what the opponent will do/whats coming, whereas here you cannot.
The delete all save data feature on pocket crystal league ++ is kind of bugged and in some gym or league fights the game will crash if u have a lot of cards. The rest of the game is 10/10 congrats!
true
i dont know if it is just me but the unlimited challenge mode is bugged in crystal ++ and it gives me this error code when i select my pokemon into my deck.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object ob_card:
local variable dupemax(100521) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_ob_card_Step_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_ob_card_Step_0 (line -1)
You can talk to the mod dev in their Discord server, listed in the links here! I don't know if they check these comments.
thing get better and bette
A mobile version would be awesome!
Is it possible to get this made on linux? I played it on windows and would love to see it on linux.
Haven't played the ++-Mod yet, but base game and + work like a charm with wine.
Can confirm PCL++ also works.
Since you don't know about Wine and apparently used Windows until recently (and I want to help others getting into Linux gaming :-D), I'll assume you're a new user and give you a short tutorial.
To play, install wine if it isn't already, then download and unzip the game and start it with "wine PATH_TO_UNZIPPED_FOLDER/Pocket\ Crystal\ League\ ++\ \(v2.3.0.0\)/PocketCrystalLeague.exe".
You might want to rename the folder to avoid the escape characters, or just use an alias. For example, if you put
alias pks++='wine ~/Downloads/Pocket\ Crystal\ League\ ++\ \(v2.3.0.0\)/PocketCrystalLeague.exe'
in your .bashrc (and change the path accordingly), you can start the game by simply typing "pks++" into the terminal.
Alternatively, you can add the .exe to your Steam library and play it with Proton (compatibility tool for Windows games on Linux, based on Wine).
Hope this helps, have fun!
do you have any clue why the game would run with just a black screen on wine with mac?
No, I know nothing about mac.
I have used wine many times in the past, i jsut really dislike uising it as it takes up way to much space on my computer. (i only have 30gb storage drive) I did try taking the source and compiling it into a linux excutable, that didnt work one bit lol.
Lots of fun! Suggestion - you should incorporate ideas from the TCG like "Double Energies" (maybe Double Berries that grant 2 of a type?) That would make pulling from the berry deck a bit more fun. Also (I think someone suggested it here) auto berry cost payment if you have the berries would be a nice QoL improvement.
I think I have the hang of not ending my turn without attacking ;_; still would be nice to be able to set it to automatically do that!
Lastly - now that I have more pokemon, I'm really wary of entering a sacrifice or glyph screen without the pokemon I had in mind on the team. Maybe allow picking from 'benched' mons on those screens?
Thanks for the great game!
It's a beautiful game. Is there any chance of releasing an Android version?
I can't really find much strategy or thinking in this game. it seems to me that the only thought really is in picking the card that grows in stats the most when you level it. the abilities are rendered useless because they make your card cost 1 more, so the game kinda just revolves around stat points and that's it. I think I'd appreciate it more (though it would take much more work) if every card had a power to begin with, making it more similar to how Pokémon is already.
This is just my opinion, and if your target audience isn't supposed to be people who like strategic thinking or decisions then don't listen to me. How this game is now though, I assume I'm not the target audience, and I like strategy games.
"Hey author, pretty plz drastically change the game to fit my idea what the game should be!! :))))"
and what should the game be?
Yeah reading this post again, I sounded a lot more like I was putting down the game than I intended... I guess I didn't really get the game, but like I said maybe I'm not the target audience
I think it is pretty good for the category of game it is. It is similar to most board games. Enough depth that you can play a couple of times and have fun, but once you master it it becomes trivial.
WOW! This is soo col!
Hey! If anyone is interested, I created a very simple python script that makes transferring saves easier.
I made it for myself originally as I tend to move between my laptop and desktop quite frequently, but designed the script to work with any computer.
Really makes it less of a headache :P
EDIT: It's only designed for the Mod save FYI
Do you still update this game because it's really good
Thank you! There are no more planned updates at the moment, but I still check back here from time to time. Maybe in the future!
This game is fire
I like pokemon!!!
I like pokemon too!