Pokémon Amethyst

[gsorby]

looks interesting...How did you make your logo? Photoshop, it looks great!

[|Maximus|]

Originally Posted by flopy_frops

great game will there be any patches out

Patches? This game isn't a rom hack!

And that was an unneeded post, next time post some Constructive Criticism or something.

[Dr Gregory House]

Wow, I'm absolutely blown away by the amount of effort that has clearly gone into this game! I would be on top of the world if I saw it finished! You're doing a fantastic job, so don't stop!
:3

[Wichu]

Hey guys :)

I haven't posted here in a while. To be honest, that's because I haven't actually been doing much on the game in quite a while; other things have been keeping me occupied (such as holidays, programming other things, and completing my shiny legendary collection :P). However, I have been thinking about it; I haven't really had a chance to do so while making it.

So, having a look over what I've done so far, I didn't really like where it was going. Sure, the screenshots and Pokémon were pretty, but the game itself wasn't as good as it could have been. There are two reasons why I thought this - firstly, the game itself was pretty much unplayable (you can't see from the screenshots, but outside of battle, it was running at a mere 10-20 FPS). Secondly, the graphics and general appearance were bad. I'm pretty proud of my spriting and tiles, but let's face it, it was basically a GBA game. In this era of 3D overworlds and 80x80 Pokémon sprites, my GBA-style graphics look pretty rubbish :P

So, I've made a bold decision. Production on the old Amethyst has stopped completely. Although I did have a lot of work done, due to the reasons above, I figured there was no point continuing. Instead, Amethyst is being restarted from scratch. Well, almost; the old Pokémon designs, story, and other ideas are still as good as ever.

However, graphics and script-wise, I'm starting over.
Firstly, the DS screen resolution is going. What's the point of limiting yourself to a 256x192 window when it's not even going to be played on the DS, and you have masses more screen space to use? I'm either going to use 512x384 (double the current resolution), or 640x480. I'm leaning towards 512x384, as that will give a similar field of view in the overworld as the DS games. However, 640x480 is a decent alternative. RMXP's default resolution, as well as the lowest resolution of many other PC games, is 640x480. I could use this extra screen space for an inteface, similarly to how HG/SS use the touch screen. I'm not going for any higher resolution than that, since it will be too much work to make huge sprites. I'll try and get a full-screen feature in, though.
Secondly, seeing as I'm increasing the resolution, all the graphics are going to be resprited too. I'm switching to 32x32 pixel tiles, the same as RMXP's default tile size. All the OW sprites will be redone too; this isn't much of a problem, as we only had about a dozen or so anyway. In-battle sprites will be upgraded too, to 160x160 pixels. I was originally planning a neat battle system with animated sprites etc., but I've decided against it on the grounds that it would take far too long to sprite multiple poses for several hundred Pokémon. It's still an option, but don't expect it to happen for a few years :P
I'm going to start a public sprite project to help achieve this. Not only can anyone help, but the whole community will be able to use the sprites (not the fakemon, though; the game's team will take care of those). If you're interested in helping out, you can either contact me, or wait for me to make a thread for it in the Pixel Projects forum. If we work together, it isn't such an impossible goal to aim for ;)
Thirdly, I need to deal with the horrendous framerate and glitches. To do this, I'll have to sort out the scripts which are causing them. However, it's more than likely that it's due to the many custom scripts I've added, not just one or two. So my solution to this is to restart the scripting side of things, too. It's going to take a lot of work, but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end :)

So, any comments? This is the biggest event so far in Amethyst's timeline, and I want to pull this off perfectly.

Oh, and thanks for the suggestions everyone; I'll be sure to include some in the game. Keep the ideas coming!

[Ravecat]

This is either going to be horrible or amazing.

And since you're behind it Wichu, I'm leaning towards absolutely stunning.

[~JV~]

Well, I'm really looking forward to this =], this will be the first 32x32 game here on pc, you maybe should contact Alistair, sice he has a project of making 32x32 tiles and characters... I understand your problem with the fps, I had it in my game, but since you were using way more scripts than me, I imagine that there was no solution to it =/. Good luck!

[Blazers]

Agreed I'm looking forward to this as well.
If the creator wants to better his, game there's nothing we can do.
Although I did like what you had going, I'll love what's in store.
Good luck.

[Neo-Dragon]

I'm glad your starting over Wichu.
A revamp will help you reignite your passion for working on this project and I'm sure that it will turn out great for you.
A bit generic, but good luck, and I look forward to seeing some eye candy of the new tiles/new resolution when your ready to showcase it.

[O.G. Duke]

I'm so glad to hear that.
Although Amethyst need to be restart, but it's still better than letting it down and gone.
Can't wait to see how you implement your idea into it. Good luck anyway.

[Luka S.J.]

Wow...this decision is to be admired. Personally I don't find anything wrong with your game. The graphics are beautiful and the systems are stunning. You are the reason why I got into game development. There might me downsides to this, but personally I think it's going to be a big benefit. Starting all over again, brings more excitement to it and makes it all more interesting. It's also very interesting that you went for the big screen size, and all the best wishes to you, because I know how painful it is to determine positions for images on a bigger screen size. I hope you also come up with something new and fresh along this new time line of development, and wish for you to maintain (or even raise) the standard of your game. Regarding the lagging problem, I don't know how you're really going to improve on that, since the update methods are pretty much causing things like that (and they are important).

Overall I think it's an admirable step you took, and other developers should look up to that. I hope you manage to get everything done, and I'm looking forward to the new Amethyst.

[Jayje]

Dagnabit! i've been following this for awhile now. but eh, i respect your decision. personal satisfaction is whats important. so do your thang and we'll be behind you.

[The Smell]

Wow... It's been a long journey, Wichu. I remember I was here when it started a long time back, and now I'm here for it to be started again! You may remember me for my clumsy Chatot sprite. Hopefully now that I am older, I can be of more help than before.

[ArchXDeath]

Wow....starting over...for real! I admire your work Wichu, and though I barely understand what you meant by the -x- pixel thingies...Good luck! But...I really didn't see anything wrong with before....(I love Wichu! The pokemon, I mean. I hate you. No, I'm kidding! You're awesome!)

[Charmageddon]

Wow, that's a brave decision, starting over from scratch. I personally though the GBA-style graphics were great, in fact much better than the GBA's, but your decision is your decision. Good luck!

[FlaafyFTW]

Heyyy i'm quite an avid follower of this game and i just want to say, good luck for the overhaul!!! I hope all goes well as this has so much potential=D

[Soul.//Silver]

I'm glad your finally doing something about Amethyst. It was a bit sad seeing the thread here just collecting digital dust (and n00b posts lol but I won't go there). Can't wait to see the results of this massive overhaul. Btw, I thought the Pokemon tiles (when doubled in size) were 32x32? Unless your tiles were the normal size (somehow o.o)?......now that I read your post properly, I'm assuming you kept the resolution normal (e.g 256x192 is the DS screen when it isn't doubled) Now I understand lol. Hope to see an update soon Wi"awesome scripter"chu (hmm, nice nickname? xD)

[KennethXEcker]

I can't wait to play this! This is the most advanced custom poke hack i have seen yet!

[cadgod120]

Originally Posted by KennethXEcker

I can't wait to play this! This is the most advanced custom poke hack i have seen yet!

Not a hack. Read the first post.

[Pokemon Team Mars' Revenge]

No offense, but you should try harder to draw the heroine back sprite better.

[Lady Berlitz]

Wow... Restarting? Cool! I can't wait to see what you'll come up with next. I love seeing games being restarted, because they always come back with something that looks great and ends up being even more incredible than what it originally was. Good luck. :)

Originally Posted by Pokemon Team Mars' Revenge

No offense, but you should try harder to draw the heroine back sprite better.

And you should elaborate more. Give some details about why he should do this, and not just tell him that he should do it again.

[Emerex]

That's a bit sad that a game with such a potential had though moments, but that's good that you still want to work on it. I wish you everything best in your work. ;]

[Wichu]

I'm redoing all the sprites anyway. The heroine backsprite was one of the first sprites I did for this game, so it's not as good as my newer work :)

[Atomic Reactor]

Can't wait to see what you will do with the revamp wichu :)

[masterpokemontrainer]

this is good. no this is brilliant! great plot, great pokemon (and great userbars!) and a generally perfect game. i'm thinking of making a game but no way will it be as good as this!

[Train rides by]

wow this looks so cool i cant wait to be able to play it