I'm starting up a new Pokemon fangame project, hopefully this time it doesn't become vaporware like all of my previous projects. To help avoid this potential fate, I'm diving headlong into the difficult stuff.... stuff like programming the battle engine, for instance.
I've yet to decide on a title for the game, hence it tentatively being "untitled version". It's being designed to GBC screen resolution spec, but it's not going to be a rom hack... it's being built from scratch in Game Maker Studio. It will feature up to 4th gen Pokemon because I'm utilizing Pokemon sprites ripped from HG/SS... nothing against later gen Pokemon, but frankly the 5th gen sprites are awful. And 6th gen obviously doesn't use sprites.
The goal of this fangame is to create a more realistic world. This means I'll be stripping away the sugar-coating of the official Pokemon world, but it does NOT mean I'm explicitly trying to create a super-dark, "edgy" version of Pokemon. I'm going for realistic levels of everything... happiness, cuteness, sadness, darkness, etc.
Additionally, I plan to explore the idea of a more open-ended Pokemon game. A game where beating the eight gyms and challenging the Elite Four is an option, but just that... an option. One of many options available to you in the world of Pokemon. I want a player to be able to sink several hours into the game doing stuff that doesn't even involve battling. Hell, I even plan on there being a certain amount of content that doesn't even involve the use of Pokemon. It might sound counter-intuitive having gameplay that doesn't involve Pokemon in a Pokemon game, but I think it's worth exploring what the world of Pokemon is like from the perspective of somebody that doesn't have their own Pokemon.
I'm not too far along at the moment, but here's a video showcasing a glitch... basically my game's version of missingno. Also, it gives you a glimpse at what the battle screen looks like... it's based on Gen 2, but had to be adjusted somewhat due to the fact that I'm using the larger Gen 4 sprites.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMX2qLHNa7E[/video]
I'll try my best to keep you guys up-to-date on all the latest developments, even if it's not the most interesting stuff... like for instance, I just finished implementing the experience tables so that the game can determine a Pokemon's level. I thought it was going to be a royal pain in the butt, but fortunately a little bit of magic in Excel and I had literally hundreds of if statements done in a jiffy. Now if only I would've thought of using Excel when creating the Pokemon species lookup table... haha, that was a lot of typing!
So basically, what's done at this point... Pokemon species lookup table, Experience tables for all the different leveling rates, the basic layout and drawing of the battle screen... yep, this project is in its infancy right now. I only just started it a few days ago, and probably have worked on it for less than 8 hours. Excel should really expedite the creation of more lookup tables... which is very fortunate, because there is a LOT of data that needs looking up in a Pokemon game. Pokemon types, abilities, gender ratios, catch rates, egg groups, hatch times, Pokedex entry & data, EXP yield, level rate, EV yield, base friendship, held items and their chance %, base stats, learnsets, evolutions... it's truly a nightmare. XD
If anybody wants to give the latest build a whirl, I'll be posting that here as well. It's a Windows executable, so no Mac or Linux... sorry guys. The latest build can be found here: http://www.ar-machine.net/pkmnproject/PokemonGS.exe
Today's build... v0.000000001! Seriously, this thing is far from being able to be considered a "game" at this point. But you can run it to see if it works, and to see how many FPS you get (it's got a built-in FPS counter)... it's not too demanding, I get about 500 FPS on my Surface Pro 3 tablet. It's currently not geared towards end-user use, but the "controls" are as follows:
On the test screen, press 1, 2, or 3 to add a Meganium, Typhlosion or Feraligatr to your party. Pressing all three will add all three to your party in the order you pressed them in, but only the first one will be visible on the battle screen and you can't switch Pokemon yet. Pressing the spacebar will take you to the battle screen, as well as add a random Pokemon to your party in case you failed to add one yourself.
On the battle screen, all you can do is press F12 to restart the game and return to the test screen with an empty party.
I've yet to decide on a title for the game, hence it tentatively being "untitled version". It's being designed to GBC screen resolution spec, but it's not going to be a rom hack... it's being built from scratch in Game Maker Studio. It will feature up to 4th gen Pokemon because I'm utilizing Pokemon sprites ripped from HG/SS... nothing against later gen Pokemon, but frankly the 5th gen sprites are awful. And 6th gen obviously doesn't use sprites.
The goal of this fangame is to create a more realistic world. This means I'll be stripping away the sugar-coating of the official Pokemon world, but it does NOT mean I'm explicitly trying to create a super-dark, "edgy" version of Pokemon. I'm going for realistic levels of everything... happiness, cuteness, sadness, darkness, etc.
Additionally, I plan to explore the idea of a more open-ended Pokemon game. A game where beating the eight gyms and challenging the Elite Four is an option, but just that... an option. One of many options available to you in the world of Pokemon. I want a player to be able to sink several hours into the game doing stuff that doesn't even involve battling. Hell, I even plan on there being a certain amount of content that doesn't even involve the use of Pokemon. It might sound counter-intuitive having gameplay that doesn't involve Pokemon in a Pokemon game, but I think it's worth exploring what the world of Pokemon is like from the perspective of somebody that doesn't have their own Pokemon.
I'm not too far along at the moment, but here's a video showcasing a glitch... basically my game's version of missingno. Also, it gives you a glimpse at what the battle screen looks like... it's based on Gen 2, but had to be adjusted somewhat due to the fact that I'm using the larger Gen 4 sprites.
[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMX2qLHNa7E[/video]
I'll try my best to keep you guys up-to-date on all the latest developments, even if it's not the most interesting stuff... like for instance, I just finished implementing the experience tables so that the game can determine a Pokemon's level. I thought it was going to be a royal pain in the butt, but fortunately a little bit of magic in Excel and I had literally hundreds of if statements done in a jiffy. Now if only I would've thought of using Excel when creating the Pokemon species lookup table... haha, that was a lot of typing!
So basically, what's done at this point... Pokemon species lookup table, Experience tables for all the different leveling rates, the basic layout and drawing of the battle screen... yep, this project is in its infancy right now. I only just started it a few days ago, and probably have worked on it for less than 8 hours. Excel should really expedite the creation of more lookup tables... which is very fortunate, because there is a LOT of data that needs looking up in a Pokemon game. Pokemon types, abilities, gender ratios, catch rates, egg groups, hatch times, Pokedex entry & data, EXP yield, level rate, EV yield, base friendship, held items and their chance %, base stats, learnsets, evolutions... it's truly a nightmare. XD
If anybody wants to give the latest build a whirl, I'll be posting that here as well. It's a Windows executable, so no Mac or Linux... sorry guys. The latest build can be found here: http://www.ar-machine.net/pkmnproject/PokemonGS.exe
Today's build... v0.000000001! Seriously, this thing is far from being able to be considered a "game" at this point. But you can run it to see if it works, and to see how many FPS you get (it's got a built-in FPS counter)... it's not too demanding, I get about 500 FPS on my Surface Pro 3 tablet. It's currently not geared towards end-user use, but the "controls" are as follows:
On the test screen, press 1, 2, or 3 to add a Meganium, Typhlosion or Feraligatr to your party. Pressing all three will add all three to your party in the order you pressed them in, but only the first one will be visible on the battle screen and you can't switch Pokemon yet. Pressing the spacebar will take you to the battle screen, as well as add a random Pokemon to your party in case you failed to add one yourself.
On the battle screen, all you can do is press F12 to restart the game and return to the test screen with an empty party.
