Hello, my name is Baz! I am pretty new to this forum and I am loving it so far! I have some questions for you about Pokemon ROM hacks so here they are!
1. How many rivals do you want?
2. Do you like a game with a long story or a short story?
3. How do you want the story to start? (for example, in a dream)
4. What legendary Pokemon do you want to be able to catch?
5. Do you want to be able to catch gen 1-5 Pokemon?
Thank you for the answers, I am currently making Pokemon Imagine and your suggestions and answers are a big help. If you would like to contribute to the game or help in anyway please add me on Skype (baz.leonard) If you have any suggestions PM me and I may implement them into the game.
1. If your keeping it similar to the originals you need of course at least one rival. Depending on how difficult you want the game to be you can add more. If you have 2 rivals you can't )make them equally strong. One will always be better than the other. It would add challenge to the game because you might beat one rival thinking that was easy and here comes the next with all pokemon 5-7 levels higher. Think about your crowd. They probably want a challenging game. Not hard, but challenging.
2. Ok. short answer: short story will need a lot of side quest or things to do at the end of the game so it's not just a finish and done type of thing. You want people to like the game so they spread the word or youtube or blog about it. Long story will be easier... don't forget a climax. My own opinion long answer: The longer the better. You have to draw people in. After you finish the main quest (whether that be becoming pokemon champ or seeing/catching all pokemon from your region or beating the enemy team or whatever) prolong the game with extra adventure. add a twist to it where oh you thought you beat the bad guys, well you were wrong. Or one of your rivals is in danger and needs saving. Just an extra scenario for when the player thinks he has completed the game there's something that will nag at him if he quits right there. Something that will make him want to play more. Draw the player in. Look at pokemon glazed for example: didn't stop at one region, but 3. After beating the enemy team, Regina regrouped the team for more action. If I remember correct you have 3 rivals in that game and one of them was super easy and one of them was quite difficult sometimes (in my opinion when I played). Other was just moderate to me. That game kept you going. That is what you want in your game. Add twists, drama, climax, horror, anything really that pulls on someone so they are thinking "Oh my word!!! What will happen next??? I have to keep playing!!!"
3. Again this is my opinion: Try to do something new. Change it up better beginning better chance your player will look into the game more and actually play. You don't want the player to play for 20 minutes and say this is boring and just quit! Need a strong beginning that will lead to the finally. Keep the story building. Don't start strong and get weak. It's like going back to the gym after not being there in awhile. Start strong; end stronger. So think hard on the beginning. Remember this is your game. Try to pretend you haven't played the beginning of a pokemon game before and all you know is you need to get to the point where you choose a starter. Build up to it. Don't make the beginning excessively long because the player is eager to train his first pokemon. Just give it a beginning like..... you're a teenager that ran away from home and... whatever. The beginning should either be exciting and happy or tragically sad. It has to get the player thinking and curious of the game they just started.
4. Like I said before, the longer the game the better. If you can think of either a side quest or attach to the main quest a reason you can battle a legendary that would be best. Some players don't like to finish the game and have to find the legendaries on their own. I think (my opinion once again) it'd be cool if you caught a legendary before you even made it to the end of the main quest. if the end was the pokemon league it would be pretty awesome if one of the pokemon you had was already a legendary. Add stuff unexpected, but also keep it realistic. You can't just throw legendaries wherever you want. They are legendary for a reason make it at least somewhat difficult to get them or add some kinda background story to finding them.
5. I think the more the better. It is cool playing new games that you can find the older generation pokemon in, but it is also cool when you play old games with the newer generation pokemon in it. I like when everything is mashed together, but again that's totally my opinion. Some people may disagree.
Hope I was some help. Sorry it is very long and drawn out. I really got into the questions. lol Hope everything works out for you.