[Developing] [Ren'Py] Pokémon Dating Sim V1.0 Alpha

The project is currently frozen and this thread is closed. People who would like to help in the future should PM me their email adresses.


And here I am with the promised Dating Sim! First off, I hope you guys don't mind that I write the same thread for the other board and this one.

So, what is happening? You (the player) are gymleader Brock (the protagonist) and – as we all know – a single like no other. But you get a big opportunity when the Pokémon Association announces the very first WORLD TOURNAMENT! There'll be a lot of trainers and due to statistics also a lot of girls, so while you see no chance in competing in the tournament (because a lot of other strong trainers will be there, e.g. the champs of the regions), you will take the chance to finally get a girlfriend! Because of the around 400 contestands from around the globe the tournament lasts a whole month and that is your time limit to use your charm (as well as strength, intelligence and skills) on the island where the tournament is hold. Good luck!



[CREDITS]
Inspired by Emerald07
Game Design - Sebastian "Ayutac" Koch
Plot Writing - Sebastian "Ayutac" Koch
Character Writing:
Misty - Sebastian "Ayutac" Koch
Sapphire - Gero "Myrrhion" Büßing
Cynthia - Cazicon
Character Tracing:
Misty - Sebastian "Ayutac" Koch
Sapphire - Gero "Myrrhion" Büßing
Cynthia - Sebastian "Ayutac" Koch
Item Tracing - Sebastian "Ayutac" Koch
Background Images - provided by morguefile.com
Programming - Sebastian "Ayutac" Koch
Music - provided by The Ghoul alias partyghoul2000

Special Thanks To:
the members of the lemma soft forums for their help with programming issues

Programs of Choice:
Ren'Py V 6.14 for the actual game
jEdit for writing the source code
InkScape for tracing Characters and Items
GIMP for olifying the Background Images
SoundConverter (on Lubuntu) for converting the music files to .ogg

© 2002-2013 Pokémon. © 1995-2013 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc. TM, ® and Pokémon character names are trademarks of Nintendo. / © 1997-2013 TV Tokyo, ShoPro, JR Kikaku / © 1997-2013 Pikachu Records

No copyright infriction was intended. This game can be downloaded and played free of charge. If you paid for the contents of this game in any way, you were ripped off. In this case, or if you want to contact the developers, please write to [email protected].
[/CREDITS]

Download and play the game! By the way, this is the Alpha Version, it is almost completely untested, through I hope you won't get to much error messages. If you do, please report them here. Also, this game is safe for work, as save as playing a Pokémon Dating Sim at work can be.

Known bugs: - Save/Load does not works perfectly. After saving your game, you have to start a new game and then load your saved progress. Loading from the main screen will cause an error.


It has been exactly a year since I've started documenting this projects (and judging from the idea thread a little bit more since the idea came to me out of boredom). It is written in Ren'Py and Python, where Ren'Py is a visual novel engine written in Python itself, thus the high compatibility. Besides some minor things, the game is a pretty standart Dating Sim, so you build up your stats and conform the girls to get them to like you. But a Pokémon Dating Sim (to date girls) did not really exist up until now (except the links posted in the idea thread). And I programmed it: As a programmer, my goal was to keep the programming as general as possible, so that it is extendable. I did good. In fact, on this point of development I'm already satisfied because if I would give out the source code, people could use it to create their own (not necessarily Pokémon) Dating Sim with little effort. Except for the fact that I won't at this point of time, because there are sure some bugs left AND two, three code designing decisions have to be changed.

Up to now, we have 3 dateable girls, which are Misty, Sapphire and Cynthia. Now the magic: As long as you provide me with a vector image of her and/or her lines in the game (which would be specified in my development board as soon as someone says he/she wants to do it), I'll add any (Pokémon) girl you want. Image/Lines can come from different persons, you don't have to do both. As soon as I have both, she'll be added. However, there is one restriction. It would be stupid if two people would do the same things for a character independent of each other, so that one who claims a part first, get this one. But since the work could be done on one free day alone and since I don't want to wait / block a character for others forever, it should be done within a month before I set the character free again. I'm also going to make a vector tutorial within the next month because despite the tracing itself it easy I have to make sure people trace the girls in a way we can easily change details. Meanwhile I've learned my way of tracing is probably not the way everybody would go on a first try.
See also.

By the way, battling is (of course) possible, but it is not the main component and by now it is only a coin toss.

As I mentioned, I'm the programmer and the organisator. I don't even see tracing the images, building the inventory GUI and looking for sounds/backgrounds as my duty. Nevertheless I did it because nobody else did, so I guess I'm not the usual guy who says "organisator" when he means "I say things and you all do them!!1!".
That doesn't change the fact that I still don't want to create GUI or graphics. And what is still missing at the moment are certain screens and item vectors. Go figure.
...
Well, I better do a list of what still needs to be done. Help is wanted with everything as long I don't write otherwise.


## Screen language:
- A calendar.
- A better navigation system, not this text menu based thing.
- An overview of every girl, not this thing under the status bar. This is especially important since there could be any number of girls.
- A screen to distribute the start points. Until then Brock will stick with 10 for each.
- Make the credits accessable from the main menu.

## Screen language and coding:
- Expand/build a debug/cheat system, INCLUDING the GUI. This is needed for proper game testing.

## Coding (I'll do that):
- Work over the navigation code-wise (more loops and return, less jumps).
- Create a bigger maze (automatism in progress).
- Create a better battling system (in progress).
- Work over interaction.rpy, because the way it is now is kinda stupid.
- Add more-liners and expressions to the automatic talking of girls.
- Maybe implement the language switch (not needed yet, but really, really easy to implement).

## Graphics:
- More girl's expressions! I could do that, but you know... The basic idea is to take a vector and add some layers to build in the expressions.
- Special/second vectors for the girls, e.g. sleeping, on date, kissing I guess
- Vectors of certain characters which aren't dateable: Brock, Oak (both season 1 please) and maybe the shop keeper
- Make the missing item vectors, by now we only have pokeball and super potion
- Vector backgrounds would be nice instead of olified photographs, but then we would need them for ALL current backgrounds, which are quite a lot. Also creating a new olified is faster than creating a new vector bg when needed.

## Graphics and writing:
- More girls, therefore lines/vectors.

## Writing:
- More questions for the existing girls (in progress)

## Misc:
- Get (real) sizes, length and mass for girls! This is standart Dating Sim Information but not only I'm introverted enough to not know this but I'm also not used to the bust/waist/hip measurement because in good ol' Germany we don't really have that. At least I didn't notice.
- The source code commentary must be improved. Programmers know how funny this part is.
- Also some balancing in the game would be nice.
- And there is a README.html delivered with the game which pops up when the Help Button is used. Maybe overwork this one.


This were the things that NEEDS to be done, but there are way more ideas we want to implement in the future, ranging from Legendary Pokemon Encounters to a complex inventory system, where you have to order the things in your bag to fit (right now you can carry anything).

Meanwhile Version 1.0.4: Fixed certain bugs that occurred, see the lemmasoft thread (first link in first post) for details.

The downloads Don't seem to be working....

EDIT: Never mind they just took a while

You made everything air-tight, so its hard to over analyze your project like you have done a few others, but I can try

While I've never been a big advocate of these games, it seems to be a huge untapped market, and fairly original from the standpoint of laying pokemon and dating a girl, rather than the classic "running into a female sprite and claiming you have kissed them" as I'm sure we have all done intentionally, or unintentionally, and It is very refreshing to see something like this

use your charm (as well as strength, intelligence and skills)

Click to expand...

what confuses me is will this be like other indie games where you have stats like charm, intelligence, etc that you have mentioned, and depending upon choices and dialogue you choose, will these be increased? will you be able to do minor or major battling (as this is a huge tournament) and increase these skills of yours? is there a way to lose? could you lose a battle and be kicked out? We've all seen ash beat his opponents, and you rarely see them again; do you just leave? what girl would want to date a loser.

also, do you have like a dorm or barracks where you stay, and during the day you go and charm the ladies, but you have to be battling a few times, or once a day, or once a week? it seems weird that a person could just show up and stay a month trying to get a girlfriend and never once actually battle

other than that your game seems really interesting and I hope you get more feedback, or attention

The "choice" is either to spent 50 of your daily HP to increase the stat or not. The navigation and decisions are much more free than a typical visual novel.

Yes, battling is possible, but only the girls, as battling is far from being the main aspect of the game itself. The tournament itself is strictly organized and battle plans are already made. When I get someone to make screens for that, this plan will be accessible through the game. Battling does not increases stats, as it would make infinite stat rising possible if I do not limit the Pokemon Center visits through using some HP. But like in the games, I wanted the Pokemon regeneration COMPLETELY free. Same goes for money for winning.

As I said at the very beginning of OP, Brock doesn't even participate. Through when a player's character will not win OR loose as it is planned with the tournament plan, the game would be probably over for destroying the time line. Also, Ash always stays until the Closing Ceremony is held. And everyone looses a battle from time to time, the girls know that. Being in the tournament is good enough. Through there IS the possibility ready to change the girl's attitude towards a player depending on won/lost games.

I really forgot to mention there is a huge hotel in the town on the island (or more, whatever sounds more convinient), where the characters are resting.
Brock is invited as a gym leader. Through I rather use the Anime-Brock for the girlfriend search convenience I pretend he is still or again the gym leader of his home town. Anime and Manga are both represent in this game: Ash and Red are different persons, while Misty and Misty or Brock and Brock are not. This plothole/inconsistence is a small price to pay for the possibility of having any girl of Pokemon as a girlfriend. (The day when I add Agatha is far away, but out there ;P)

I hope I could answer all questions.

Ayutac said:

The "choice" is either to spent 50 of your daily HP to increase the stat or not. The navigation and decisions are much more free than a typical visual novel.
...I hope I could answer all questions.

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thats really cool, and sounds really fun, I love the idea and Oh my god, I want agatha now, that is hilarious and awesome and for some reason I think she has some kind of thing going on with prof. oak...but if you're using the whole "he was invited as a gym leader" then you could do that for so many others and increase the number of women you could potentially be with by so much, and it could prolong the game, rather than making it some short choice between 3 women

also, is there a way to lose? like you dont get any women?
and is there a restriction on what women you could win over? like are you strictly going on main series/ anime/ classic games/ or will you only make it trainers?/ only gym leaders? only champions and night minor trainers?/ will you exclude heros like leaf or blue/green/yellow w/e her name is?
are you also going to exclude side games like collosseum, XD, or pokemon ranger?

When I get someone to make screens for that

Click to expand...

what do you mean by that, because it sounds fairly easy to make graphics, and I do that a lot and could help you, but i cant do anything script-like hahaha

Saving Raven said:

thats really cool, and sounds really fun, I love the idea and Oh my god, I want agatha now, that is hilarious and awesome

Click to expand...

Looks like I found a fan. You know there is a download link in the description above?

Saving Raven said:

also, is there a way to lose? like you dont get any women?

Click to expand...

Yes, this is the bad ending. But you can also get Game Over, when you disrupt the space-time-continuum or do other things that are really, really stupid. Never open a box that has DOOM written all over! But besides the normal bad ending none of this funny business is present in the current version (1.0).

Saving Raven said:

but if you're using the whole "he was invited as a gym leader" then you could do that for so many others and increase the number of women you could potentially be with by so much, and it could prolong the game, rather than making it some short choice between 3 women

and is there a restriction on what women you could win over? like are you strictly going on main series/ anime/ classic games/ or will you only make it trainers?/ only gym leaders? only champions and night minor trainers?/ will you exclude heros like leaf or blue/green/yellow w/e her name is?

Click to expand...

Except for some very special common trainers (like Youngster Joey) I do not plan to put any (more or less) nameless character into the tournament, although exceptions can be made. (The female Black/White Ace Trainer looks cute.) Most of the other characters you mentioned are already included in the tournament: hero(ine)s, gym leaders, champions, frontier brains, up to Black and White 2. I didn't searched through the anime girls because I don't know which one would be considered important enough.
ANYWAY being in the tournament is just a formal thing and no guaranty for inclusion as a dateable character. I can change it anytime, too. So what is a guaranty? To bring me at least one vector image and lines, lot of lines. After asking me to do a certain character (just so that no character image or text is worked on by more than one people at a time respectively). Oh, and both shouldn't be too low quality, but checking your Showcase game out tells me you can tell the difference between good (IC) stuff and crap.
Also, I want to make a tutorial how to trace characters. Not because it is difficult but because I want the vector image to be so that other people could technically work on it later on, too (e.g. for new expressions). This tutorial isn't done yet, but I'll try to find some spare time during my 2 exam months (which started today, to my surprise). For the writings, there is also some template on my project board. The template is hidden for guests and old, it needs some overworking. Again, I need a bit of time.

Saving Raven said:

are you also going to exclude side games like collosseum, XD, or pokemon ranger?

Click to expand...

I'm very tempted to do so, but again, it depends on the stuff delivered to me. I don't feel like tracing more characters (well except for the tutorial of course).

Saving Raven said:

what do you mean by that, because it sounds fairly easy to make graphics, and I do that a lot and could help you, but i cant do anything script-like hahaha

Click to expand...

Would you be surprised to hear all scripting to do to add a additional character would be about 5 lines because I wrote everything so excellent? ;P
Which character would you want? I remind you that I need both lines and vector image to add her. Else the given material will be stored until the other component arrives. If you have no preference and think you can write lines for nurse joy, tell me. If you would prefer to do an vector image, I still have none for Brock and Professor Oak. These two are not dateable, but a vector image would be splendid, for story telling purposes.

I'm going to sleep now. Tell all your friends that they can help (as soon as I've got the tutorial online).

EDIT: Oh, my quoting answering deleted your quote. Seems I missunderstood and thought you would want to make a character (which would be really great). The screens are another thing and I'm sorry but they work through scripting in Ren'Py. Here is the beginner's introduction to that.
But I assure you, tracing is totally easy, too. Just takes its time, like any good thing ;)

Ayutac said:

Looks like I found a fan. You know there is a download link in the description above?
If you would prefer to do an vector image, I still have none for Brock and Professor Oak. These two are not dateable, but a vector image would be splendid, for story telling purposes.

I'm going to sleep now. Tell all your friends that they can help (as soon as I've got the tutorial online).

EDIT: Oh, my quoting answering deleted your quote. Seems I missunderstood and thought you would want to make a character (which would be really great). The screens are another thing and I'm sorry but they work through scripting in Ren'Py. Here is the beginner's introduction to that.
But I assure you, tracing is totally easy, too. Just takes its time, like any good thing ;)

Click to expand...

haha, as I said before I'm not much of an advocate of this sort of thing, I just like the idea of it hahaha, its just nice to know its out there :P
and if you need some vector images it sounds fun to do, I just need to find out what a vector image is...
but I'll look into it and let you know! my big thing right now is working on those terrible gen 5 back sprites >.< as nice as it is they exist, it kills me to know how terrible they are, and yet how willingly they are thrown around
....who am i kidding I'm working on any kind of image that can capture any amount of my time x.x I really have a problem hahahahah, but I'll look into your thing for you!

Hey, I've been on the endless HP mode trying to win the Misty ending... I'm at 30,000 and am still her Boytoy. Can you tell me at what point our relationship upgrades again?

@ Saving Raven: I'll send you a PM when I got the tutorial ready.

opalhat said:

Hey, I've been on the endless HP mode

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What? How? I mean: You mean that your actions doesn't drain HP from you, right?

I'm at 30,000 and am still her Boytoy. Can you tell me at what point our relationship upgrades again?

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I'm sorry pal, but would you let yourself fall in love with the guy who buys you everything? Misty is on the other side now :P I guess your stats are somewhat high, so try to date another girl without making the same mistake as with misty,

@ Saving Raven and opalhat: Well, when I spoke about bad endings because no girl became your girlfriend, of course I included the possibility that YOU made it impossible xD

A save/load issue bug was found, see first post to see how to load your games correctly.

Also @opalhat: Y U NO response?

Gary was here. Ayutac is a loser

You last visited September 17th, 2013 at 12:15 PM.

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And I had to find the Delibird theme again. A shame, really.

Okay guys, next version is under it's way with 3 new dateable characters and a lot of cool stuff!

And I'm looking for test players. This game is the first really big thing I ever did and I alone am not enough anymore to test out all combinations of what's possible, so before official release I would like to have some people test it a little bit, maybe 3?

I'll beta... I'm kinda new but I'll do anything I can to help!

This game is depressingly hard. ♥♥♥♥ing dating.

hey dude i would love to beta test i am actually playing this right now if i find any bugs i will report them to you :3

Please don't revive dead threads.