[MMO] Pokemon Universe

[Mr_Dark]

1. Game Info
Name: Pokemon Universe
Type: MMORPG (Not a hack!)
Programming Language: C++ with OpenGL
In development since: September 2008
Website: http://pokemon-universe.com
Chat/IRC: #pokemon-universe @ Rizon.net (Click for webchat)

1.1 Introduction
Pokemon Universe is an online game which takes the gameplay of the original Pokemon games (e.g. blue, gold, diamond etc.) and turns it into massive online roleplaying game (MMORPG).

You will be able to adventure in a whole new world which has the size of 5/6 times the original games world.

1.2 The Team
- Mr_Dark (TheUnknown); PokÉditor and Server coding
- Urmel ; Client coding
- Wasabi ; Lead mapper and sprite artist
- Ilsu ; Character and custom tiles pixel artist
- Kamaran ; Outside mapper and story writer
- Bakagringo ; Vector artist

2 Story
A decade has passed since the last major Pokémon journey was made and now the time has come once again.
In the newly discovered region called Miryus people has settled down in small villages and larger cities to make a whole new living. Not surprisingly they discovered Pokémon on these new islands but what was a surprise was that it seemed like every single Pokémon known to mankind was living on these ilses - But no-one knew for sure.

When the word got out a romour quickly spread among all other regions that this might be the place of the birth of the legendary Pokémon Mew, which should be the ancestor to all other Pokémons. Trainers from other
regions and the region of Miryus walked to the new regions' starting points and began their new journey to become the Pokémon master.

But something was slightly different. The Miryus region was not as any other region. Something mysterious was over this set of isles and no one could tell what it was. Scientists started to dig in the isles past, hoping that somehow that would solve some of the mysteries surrounding the Miryus region.

While all the people settled. The official Pokémon League Commission established seventeen new gyms at the isles and started to prepare for the Miryus regions Pokémon League which would be held every 6 months along
with many other competitions. Trainers would then be able to choose one of the already known starting Pokémons from any other region when they arrive to the Miryus region as a new rule from the Pokémon League Commission.

Along with all the many settlers was some amazingly strong Pokémon trainers, who best would be described as the Brutal 5 and their leader Nathalia, who is said to live alone on one of the smaller islands and focus
on her training. No one knows the correctly location of any of the trainers since they mostly live for themself.

Only one question remains:
Will you have what it take to beat any other player in the Miryus region including the official Pokémon League and the brutal 5 - or will you brake under the pressure from other trainers reaching for the same goal?

2.1 FEATURES

• A whole new world to explore alone or with friends.
• Tons of new quests to solve.
• Catch and train all 493 currently known Pokemon.
• Battle against NPC's and other players. Including team battles (e.g. 2 vs 2).
• Tournaments. Beat all other players and win unique game content.
• Trade or sell your obtained Pokemon and items.
• Talk to the players around you or just open the world chat to talk to all currently online players.
• Character building. Ever wondered how it's possible that a trainer who has fought thousands of battles and captured dozens of Pokemon doesn't get any better in doing so? So did we... Experienced trainers will be able to train Pokemon faster, catch Pokemon faster and much more. Will you become the best?
• Create your own custom character (male or female) by editing your own clothes and accessories.

The adventure never ends. The game world will constantly grow with new area's and quests.

3. Jobs

General requirements:

• You live in European timezone. (Most of our members are from The Netherlands)
• If you can't speak dutch (NL) you have to speak good english
• It's preferred if you know how to use an IRC client (like mIRC), if you don't know we can show you how to...
• You are at least 16 years or older.

How to apply:
Create a new topic in our Jobs forum or reply in this topic.
- Tell something about yourself (where you live and how old you are)
- Post a sample of previous work so we can see your skills.

3.1 Mappers
We are looking for 2 type of mappers:

City/Town Mapper - 2 positions
Your main task is to build city's and towns with their inside maps.

Cave/Dungeon Mapper - 1 position
Your main task is to design and build caves and dungeons.

4. Screenshots

Interface Screenshots

Spoiler:

- Current GUI


- How to battle!


- New GUI concept

Map Screenshots
Note.. the world map is still under construction so don't mind the weird tiles here and there...

Spoiler:

- Desert!


- Secret cave?


- Route


- More route


- MORE route...


- An other cave entrance...

[Symbol]

Personally I agree with Pyro 100%.

Firstly I give you props for making a game in C++ / OpenGL. I am currently trying to learn C++ to make my own game. Seeing that you managed to do this, I give you props.


Now let me list some suggestions

• Check out some mapping tutorials or get some skilled mappers
• Fix the sprites, get better ones, and also fix their size, make it so it matches the game maps.
• Fix the text, it isn't great, it should be a little more upwards, so it wont block out the players name.
• Add a popup bubble for the text when you talk, let the text go inside of the bubble and let the bubble go above your head.
• I personally do not like how the battle screen is, the pokemon just look very tiny to me.

[delyemerald2]

I can help with mapping, if you like? Dungeon maps if I may.

[Mr_Dark]

Fist thanks for the comments and suggestions.

Originally Posted by PyroYahtzee

Your maps aren't good in the sense that they are full of tile errors, and just don't look very natural.
And that overworld for the emerald hero looks...very strange. Especially compared to the size of the tiles.

This character is our development character and is made by our pixel artist. For the first beta there will be around 500 different characters to choose from.

Originally Posted by Symbol

• Check out some mapping tutorials or get some skilled mappers
  As stated above the screenshots. The map is still under construction, these errors you see are already fixed, I'll try to post the new ones today. Done
• Fix the sprites, get better ones, and also fix their size, make it so it matches the game maps.
  We are looking for an other pixel artist/spriter who can make us a custom tileset so it looks more of a whole. Note that our tiles are 32 pixels and not the default 16 like in any other game.
  
  
• Fix the text, it isn't great, it should be a little more upwards, so it wont block out the players name.
  I'll tell this to our Client developer.
  
  
• Add a popup bubble for the text when you talk, let the text go inside of the bubble and let the bubble go above your head.
  Same as above
  
  
• I personally do not like how the battle screen is, the pokemon just look very tiny to me.
  We are looking for someone who can enlarge our pokemon sprites so they fit better in the battle screen.

Originally Posted by delyemerald2

I can help with mapping, if you like? Dungeon maps if I may.

I've send you a PM

[Symbol]

Well it seems you have things nicely planned out, I wish you luck on your game and hope you go far with it.
This inspires me to stop being lazy and working harder with my C++ studying:)

[SiLvER32]

Funny coincidence, I was looking for pokemon MMORPGs on google today and I stumbled upon pokemon universe on another site. Few hours after that, I visit pokecommunity to see a brand new thread about pokemon universe, hehe.

Originally Posted by TheUnknown

This character is our development character and is made by our pixel artist. For the first beta there will be around 500 different characters to choose from.

Maybe you should have a character "base appearance" and allow players to purchase clothes and accessories? that would make everything faster because designing accessories is easier than making complete character sprites.

That's what I am gonna do in my game, people love customizing their characters, feel free to do this too..

[Mr_Dark]

Originally Posted by SiLvER32

Maybe you should have a character "base appearance" and allow players to purchase clothes and accessories? that would make everything faster because designing accessories is easier than making complete character sprites.

That's what I am gonna do in my game, people love customizing their characters, feel free to do this too..

Well, that's what I meant , you can customize your character with different clothes, backpacks, hats, etc.. that way there are ~500 different characters.

Originally Posted by PyroYahtzee

Your new map is still full of errors, and again, doesn't look natural.
Not just tile errors as in the placement, but the graphical side of some of them is also incorrect. There's black dots and all. Might want to fix that, it'll turn a lot of people off for this game.

1. A video game's purpose is to create enjoyment for the player through gameplay, so good game design always begins with the player. It doesn't begin with the puzzles, or the art, or the story.
2. As previous stated. The worldmap is still under construction. At the moment our mapper is creating the whole island after that he'll add more detail to the map.
3. The current tileset we are using is temporally. We are looking for skilled spriters who can create/edit custom tiles.

[Yuoaman]

Originally Posted by TheUnknown

1. A video game's purpose is to create enjoyment for the player through gameplay, so good game design always begins with the player. It doesn't begin with the puzzles, or the art, or the story.
2. As previous stated. The worldmap is still under construction. At the moment our mapper is creating the whole island after that he'll add more detail to the map.
3. The current tileset we are using is temporally. We are looking for skilled spriters who can create/edit custom tiles.

You know little to nothing about the average gamer do you? 90% of gamers will immediately shut off a game if they see that many tile errors, and clashing graphics styles. They won't care about how well the systems were coded or how much work you put into it.

[Alistair]

No offense or anything, but it looks like you just downloaded the Eclipse engine and threw this together in about ten minutes. Everyone has already mentioned the graphical problems, so I won't reiterate them. And I am just going to throw it out there that 17 gyms is a bit much. If you can turn the graphics thing around, and if you code the game yourself rather than relying on the Eclipse engine, then I might check this out further. Good luck, and I sincerely hope you can find someone that can and will sprite tilesets for you (as well as map).

[Symbol]

@TheUnknown: Other than saying "We are going to have a character that everyone can dress up" you can just say "We will have a paperdoll system"

I am pretty sure you know what a Paperdoll system is, since you are trying to implement it for your sprites now.

[Mr_Dark]

Originally Posted by PyroYahtzee

Another nit pick I have that is rather minor, is with the party menu thing. The text that displays the Pokémon name doesn't really have a good shadow color.
And with the GUI again, your icons of MSN, the magnifying glass, and the Pokéball really clash styles. You'll want to make custom ones in one style.
I do like your concept GUI, though. It's quite clean and spiffy. The minimap will be a great help, in some cases.

The concept GUI is going to be our new GUI so, no problem here.

Originally Posted by Alistair

No offense or anything, but it looks like you just downloaded the Eclipse engine and threw this together in about ten minutes. Everyone has already mentioned the graphical problems, so I won't reiterate them. And I am just going to throw it out there that 17 gyms is a bit much. If you can turn the graphics thing around, and if you code the game yourself rather than relying on the Eclipse engine, then I might check this out further. Good luck, and I sincerely hope you can find someone that can and will sprite tilesets for you (as well as map).

I'll say this only once.. We've build up our entire engine (Client and Server) from scratch. So we are NOT using any prefabbed gaming engine.

17 gyms is not that much if you know how big our world is going to be eventually.

Go give you an idea of how big the new world is going to be, here’s a small screenshot of the worldmap (UNDER CONSTRUCTION).The original size of this picture is A2 (1650*1076 px).

The colored island is what we are working on atm.

[Urmel]

Originally Posted by PyroYahtzee

Yuoaman pretty much summed it up. If you want to be successful, you have to tweak every little thing to perfection, even if you don't see how it's noticeable.
Mapping is a huge part of any game. If the maps are crap and generic, people won't play it. Again, as Yuoaman said, no matter how much effort you put into it.

I'm not trying to shut you down on this or anything, but you really should fix these things.

Another nit pick I have that is rather minor, is with the party menu thing. The text that displays the Pokémon name doesn't really have a good shadow color.
And with the GUI again, your icons of MSN, the magnifying glass, and the Pokéball really clash styles. You'll want to make custom ones in one style.
I do like your concept GUI, though. It's quite clean and spiffy. The minimap will be a great help, in some cases.

I personally have played MMORPG's that have thousands of satisfied players even when the map has lots of generic areas. It's all about gameplay in these types of games. If the gameplay is fun and addicting, the minor things (e.g. the graphics or the map layout) won't matter as much.

Your suggestions on improving the GUI will be taken in consideration, thanks!

Originally Posted by Alistair

No offense or anything, but it looks like you just downloaded the Eclipse engine and threw this together in about ten minutes. Everyone has already mentioned the graphical problems, so I won't reiterate them. And I am just going to throw it out there that 17 gyms is a bit much. If you can turn the graphics thing around, and if you code the game yourself rather than relying on the Eclipse engine, then I might check this out further. Good luck, and I sincerely hope you can find someone that can and will sprite tilesets for you (as well as map).

This game is built 100% from scratch in C++ with only the help of OpenGL for graphics and SDL for input. Since you're so sure about how simple our client is, I suggest you prove it by recreating it with your "Eclipse engine". Waiting..

[Alistair]

Sorry, I meant to say it looks like it was made in Eclipse. The client has a very similar layout and overall look as the Eclipse engine. I never meant to say I was sure you were making the game with the engine. I am sorry if I twisted my own words incorrectly to say that you were using then engine, I only meant to say it looked like it. I am always sceptical of projects like this, so please do not take my comments to offense.

[Mr_Dark]

We are desperate in need of mappers who can make towns and city's, the first island is almost complete (80%) except for the towns and city's.

Consequences
If we don't find mappers (minimal 1 or 2) to make these for us, we can't release the game

So if you are one of those skilled mappers (or if you know someone) please contact us. We've setup a release date but we don't give this out public unless we have found some new mappers.

More info about the mapping job can be found here:
http://blog.pokemon-universe.com/?p=33