PokeDS

Welcome to PokeDS, the next generation of game development.

What is PokeDS?
PokeDS is a game engine built using DS Game Maker (and subsequently, PaLib) which serves as an interface for making Pokemon games for the Nintendo DS system.
DS Game Maker has a user-friendly front end for easy development and a powerful C backbone for the more advanced developers.

Similarities with RMXP
Many projects here are built with RMXP and I know many of the developers would be worried as what difficulties one would face if they want to port their game to PokeDS. Anything possible in RMXP is possible in DS Game Maker. Much like how RMXP is built entirely on RGSS (essentially just Ruby), DS Game Maker is built entirely on C. Anything programmed in Ruby on RMXP can also be done in C on DS Game Maker. The limit is your imagination and knowledge of C.
DS Game Maker offers:

• Events - known as Objects
• Scenes - known as Rooms
• Maps - known as Backgrounds
• Scripts - seperated into Scripts and Actions
• Spritesheets

Differences between RMXP and DS Game Maker
Unfortunately, DS Game Maker does not offer a map building interface so importing tilesets are a no go. Maps (backgrounds) are seperated into three layers:

• Visible Layer
• Collision Layer
• Priority Layer

The visible layer is what you can see. Its the world around your hero.

The collision layer contains the data of where the hero can stand and where the hero cannot stand. This layer also has the added bonus of colour coding specific areas. e.g water can be colour coded so that the game knows that when the hero touches a blue portion of the collision map, he is infact touching water. These are very much the same as terrain tags in RMXP.

The priority layer is what it is on the tin. This is any portions of your map that the hero will appear behind e.g backs of buildings.

And for those who may be worrying about loading big images into the RAM for maps - not to worry. DS Game Maker analyses your map and breaks it up into its constituent tiles. In essence it creates its own tileset and does not store the same tile twice.

Now you guys have two options for mapping:

• RMXP

• Tiled

When can we expect a release
I can't promise you release dates, I have other commitments too. For now maybe you guys would like to have a look at this teaser:

PokeDS preview (a lot of the work from this comes from JanMulder, I take nearly no credit for this release)

This is an .nds file, go ahead and load it in an emulator such as No$GBA or even put it on your flashcart on your actual DS. Currently its limited to walking, running (hold b), opening the door of the nearest house (you'll get transported to the same map with no events on it).

Can I help you?
If you want to help me financially any donations are greatly appreciated. I don't currently own a DS anymore so maybe you guys can help me with that ;) (PM me)

Of course, donations are not expected and you will not have to pay to use PokeDS. DS Game Maker, however, does cost money and is priced at $15 to unlock the full features.

In terms of help for the development, I am alright for now. But if you are an experienced C programmer, let yourself be known. I may need someone smart to talk to; I'm not fantastic at C.

Credits
JanMulder

Good to see DS game maker get some love from this community. I had a DS game maker installed on my computer, and scripting didnt seem to be hard at first. However, I eventually gave up the idea of creating a pokemon fangame with this game engine due to the lack of map editor(which is a major problem for not-so-advanced scripters, I must say). Your Pokemon engine looks promising, and I wish you succeed. I do have a few questions to ask. The DS game maker is still under development, so how can you make sure the PokeDS engine will be compatible with the newest version of DS game maker? What if new features like Map editor are added to future versions of DS game maker? Just curious.

Hall Of Famer said:

Good to see DS game maker get some love from this community. I had a DS game maker installed on my computer, and scripting didnt seem to be hard at first. However, I eventually gave up the idea of creating a pokemon fangame with this game engine due to the lack of map editor(which is a major problem for not-so-advanced scripters, I must say). Your Pokemon engine looks promising, and I wish you succeed. I do have a few questions to ask. The DS game maker is still under development, so how can you make sure the PokeDS engine will be compatible with the newest version of DS game maker? What if new features like Map editor are added to future versions of DS game maker? Just curious.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the support ;D I did take into consideration the upgrading of DS Game Maker, right now it is on version 3.0, yet it is still buggy, and lacking many features. However the beauty of the project file (.xds) is that it can be opened in notepad and the scripts and sprites can be copied to the newer .xds. If DSGM eventually does get a map editor, I probably will rewrite the whole movement/collision system to suit it ;)

Alexandre said:

Thanks for the support ;D I did take into consideration the upgrading of DS Game Maker, right now it is on version 3.0, yet it is still buggy, and lacking many features. However the beauty of the project file (.xds) is that it can be opened in notepad and the scripts and sprites can be copied to the newer .xds. If DSGM eventually does get a map editor, I probably will rewrite the whole movement/collision system to suit it ;)

Click to expand...

That would be so nice! It seems that DS game maker is not designed for RPG game developers, and I understand how hard it is to make a Pokemon game out of an engine without a map editor. The idea of PokeDS is rather flexible since it sort of depends on the development of DS game maker.

Also do you have a userbar for this PokeDS project? I will add it to my sig if you have one.

I will make a support bar as soon as I can, I'll then add it to the first post ;)

I can't see the download link.:t209:

Oh my god >_<
1. I just started this project yesterday.
2. Read the ***** post.

Ha, I messed around with this a year ago, It is a challenge to work with. Kudos to you for attempting it.

Can't you try to make a map editor?

Na, I'm not that talented :p

Ty 101 said:

Can't you try to make a map editor?

Click to expand...

Why bother, did you not read his post it's for advanced users.

How would you get music to work? would you use midis? or would .mod's work?

As far as I know it supports .mp3's. Today I will be coding the message system, which in turn allows me to do an intro to the game (prof oak) which needs music, so I'll look into it there.

I just ask for one thing, please finish the battle system for the Online version of Pokemon Essentials, as after it, many people will be able to implement it to their games. Thank you in advance

the project look awesome i can't wait

thepsynergist said:

How would you get music to work? would you use midis? or would .mod's work?

Click to expand...

To answer your question, only .mp3 and RAW format are supported by the DS.

If you wanted me to make the online capabilities for PE:O, then those will come later. If you just wanted me to fix the resolution issue, then it will be done when I get back from holidays.

Yay, I was going to star my game on a DS Rom, but It was too difficult for me because I didn't know even a little bit how to program on that system. I don't remember the name of the program, but it's from the Torque Game Builder series. I already had some work(graphics, 3d models, etc) but I couldn't start because of my lack of knowledge.

Nice to see this, my 3d skills will now have a use!

EDIT: Adjusting the angle of the camera on each map is a bit diffucult, and too much work. Actually, I'd had to adjust the camera offsets on every room(also known as screens, or something like that), in this case, on every map.

lol you forgot to notice me that there is already a userbar for PokeDS! Anyway, I am a supporter now. Good luck with this project dude, it looks far more promising than any existing pokemon engines.

@Fraot, if you noticed in the first post, I said 3D wasn't possible ;)

@HoF, Sorry lol, I forgot. Thanks for the support.

@Alexandre:
Awwww, I thought there would be 3d models.
Indeed, I thought you were talkng about no limits, but trying to tell that the 3d models would be the problem because not too many people can make those models. Sorry, it was misunderstood.