Pokemon Protectors

[Neo-Dragon]

Pokemon Protectors

I need to update this first post more. Remember to read the latest pages for info.
Introduction
I'm Neo-Dragon. I've been running Calis Projects for awhile now. Officially have had my hosting and domain name since 2006.
Protectors has been in the works since Nov. 2006. A quick search on youtube will show you the concept video I done around that time.
The game still had firered graphics back then- and a "wild" Charizard. People complained, but those who did, must not understand what a "concept" is lol.
Then the game got a revamp. Kyledoves graphics were added in. Now after getting a patch for RM2k3 to allow mouse control, I've began a new revamp.
This revamp has been in the works since October- when I got the patch. Because of certain conditions of using the patch, I was forced to begin a new project in Rm2k3. I tried importing as much as I could from the current build of Protectors at the time. Resources were easy to import- maps were a bit harder, but code wise- it was really hard to copy and paste the code into the new project. Mainly because of the variables needed to run the mouse patch (it also allows full keyboard support)- these variables were used for menus in the old build. So I had to revamp code. All this time, I was just about a month(?) in college doing Game development. I wanted to apply what this newbie was learning lol.
So I spent all of November doing Pre production work. I think I'm on 4 A4 pages in notepad now lol. All this time, trying to code the foundation for the ideas I had.
Now- in the first week of December, I'm pretty much ready to begin showing off the development of Pokemon Protectors again.
Enjoy.

Being made with: RPG MAKER 2003

Game Location


The game doesn't take place in a full "Region" but rather a "State" or "County." This State is called The Caladan State. The Caladan State is part of the Altar Region as a whole. The plan is to have more States added after release of the game, which will then make up a the full region (there are four states in total in Altar.)
This State is broken up into smaller areas called "Districts." Each District is has a theme. For example. There is the Urban District. The main activity center of the Caladan State. The Trainers District, an area for all the trainer's of the State to live in and focus their time at.
There are also smaller areas worth noting in Caladan, such as the farm, which is located on the coast.
Also note that this Region is my own creation in my own "universe" with it's own lore. So stories on legends will be different to official games as well as no official regions appearing in Protectors.

Okay, so let me explain that map. That is a "zoomed" in version of the Caladan State.
The main red square in the centre is the Urban District. This is the main place of activity for the state.
The red rectangle up in the top left is the Trainers' District of Caladan. This map so far is the only map nearly completed- It is 148 tiles by 120 tiles.
The Blue markers are Sub-Urban Districts.
The purple markers are farming locations.
And the yellow Maker is the Pokemon theme park.

You will also notice the regions routes have more branching paths. This is to make it feel more like a State, then a full region with just up or down paths- or left and right.

Storyline:
*note: this is wrote in a kind of rough state, but is bang on to the storyline in game lol. *

The game kicks off with a bang.
The hero is at a speech being held by Mark Hogan, the CEO of the Pokemon Protectors, in the City Square in the Urban District. The hero is only young (8 years old) and is with his father.
The speech by Hogan is about the branching of the Protectors to form a sub organisation- the Pokemon Rangers, who will handle all the Pokemon related issues (and allow the Protectors to focus on enforcing the law in general).
Suddenly, mid way through the speech, a few members from the cult like Team Arceusian blow up a Protectors owned building right behind Hogan.
Everyone flees.
It is then announced on the TV that a new system is being put in place by the Protectors to help stop terrorist acts. This system is where everyone must declare their role in society (their jobs mainly) to the Protectors and carry a special passport with them at all times holding information on them. Nobody is allowed to pass between States without the passport. Only adults are given the stamp on their passport to pass after clearing a test, while anyone under 18 is not allowed leave the State without an adult (with said stamp on their passport).
Once the background story is finished, the next scene is the hero in school at the age of 16. There will be a few tutorial style stuff to introduce players into the features of the game.
The game is then in the hands of the player. The player is given the freedom to grow up in this persistent world. A world where everyone has a role or job to fill.
The player is tasked with getting a job themselves.
Become a famous Pokemon Trainer and earn money from battles?
Become a Ranger and earn money for doing quests?
The choice is yours.

Features:
Other then the obvious (such as menus, and common stuff)
The Conscious Choice System- allows the player to make choices and have different outcomes depending on the choice made.
Alignment System- Who do you wish to align yourself with? Maybe work for the Pokemon Rangers but do quests for Team Arceusian. With the aid of the Conscious Choice feature, the player will be able to align themselves with a gang or company and make choices in that gang or company which will effect the gameplay.
Reputation System- The name says it all. With the aid of the Conscious Choice system- different actions will effect how the NPCs in the game react to you.
Job Specific Systems(see below for classes and jobs): Each job will have custom systems to suit that job. Being a Ranger will have the player able to use the Ranger Capture system. Becoming a trainer will enable standard (official game style)battles.
PokeCyber: Acting as a device as important as a computer in the real world, this device will come with various Operating Systems(OS's) which will determine it's features. Become a Trainer and the PokeCyber will be able to store your caught Pokemon for you, allowing you to switch between storage pokemon and Team pokemon anywhere on the map.
A living world. Since everyone in the region (not just Caladan) has to announce who they are to the Protectors, and their role, every NPC in the game will live it's life. An example would be a Mart worker who lives near his shop, would get up at a certain time (is time a feature still? I count it as common stuff lol) actually go to the shop and open it. Work there until night time, close the shop and head home.
Also every NPC will have a name, which will be visible when talking to them, and will make it easy for the player to track them in the game and see how they live their life.

Class and Job system:
There will be 3 Classes in Protectors.
The Trainer Class.
The Ranger Class.
The Civil Service Class.
So far, the trainer class has been revealed.
See this post for details:
http://www.pokecommunity.com/showpos...&postcount=600

Screenshots


Old screenshots of the menu and bag- will be changed in a big way soon!


Latest look to the battle system menu above


This is a test team, with test stats- what you see is functional in game, but stats have been added and randomised for debugging purposes

The Bag/Item system in battle

The ability to save in the middle of battles! Just press shift to bring up this menu.

All screenshots were taken from gameplay as the Trainer Class. The overworld screenshots were taken in the Trainers' District of the Caladan State (which it that red rectangle up north/west of the map). The menu, bag, and battle system are systems exclusive to the Trainer Class.
All screenshots are from an early development stage. They are subject to change but each screen represents final vision of the game.

Please note, all screenshots shown here with overworld gameplay are all old. The tiles have changed. If you work is here and you are not credited, it's because the tiles have changed. Sorry for any confusion.
New screenshots will be added when they are posted.


For more info. Please read the Trainer Class post.

So there you have it. I would love to read your comments.
I'll be revealing more of the Trainers' standard features- including the new battle system with it's new concepts.
Other Jobs- such as being a Ranger (and un-announced jobs) and their custom systems will be revealed at a later date.
- - - - - - - - - - - -



Credits: (As of current)
The Calis Projects team:
Neo-Dragon
00Vampire
Riceeman
NikNaks
FMP
Atomic Reactor
Martyr
Pyro
Darkpegasus

Featuring additional graphics by Kyledove, Alistar.
<If you see your tiles in this game, please let me know and I'll amend this list >


And everyone who has left feedback!

*Also, have a look over the pages for alot more detailed description of features and even more screenshots! *

User Bars/Banners:

Show your support! Stick this in your sig.
Leave a comment and come over to the official Calis Projects forum.

[brendan mc]

Neo this game looks so good.
i will help in anyway i can all you have to do is ask mate!(,)

[DarkPegasus]

Well, hi there Neo

I like what I read and see so far. There are some sprite issues, but nothing to serious. If you have the time PM me your MSN e-mail, so we could talk :p

[abed]

Finally a game where you can join a team. But is there only evil teams or there will be good teams to join? Anyway i really like the battle system. Good luck with the game and hope you finish it.

[Neo-Dragon]

I for to mention some things in the first post.
I have now edited them in.

Credits and what the game is being made with have been added in.

@abed: There are six teams in the game. 3 good and 3 evil.
The good teams are:
The Pokemon Rangers
The Pokemon Protectors
And the PNX (Pokemon New-age Xtremests)

The 3 evil teams are:
Team Rocket
Team Aqua
Team Magma.


Each good and bad team will have their on values and takes on the pokemon and the pokemon world.

I'll have a post in the future with more detail on this.

[Star★Seeker]

Nice game.I sure hope it comes out soon.Oh,also,can you join a good team and an evil team?

[RMXPUser462]

I'm guessing only 1 team, so either a good team, or an evil team


Neo-Dragon, that battle system is sexxayy along with everything else, glad to see some new features in your game too :D

[RM2K3kid]

Its sucks that the other projects are discontinued but I do wish you the best of luck with this one. I like your battle system, using DP sprites I see.

[Vampire://Krimm]

W00t, I love the battle system format. Good Luck Neo

[halowarrior]

Yeah good luck dragon, this looks like a great time.

[Dawson]

Yeah, it's a shame about your other projects being discontinued. But you've taken the right attitude in using the new skills you've gained to start developing a new, better game.

The screens look cool, the battle system style is nice. I noticed that the Pokemon names aren't there, are they to be added later on?

I still don't really like the colours on that text box though..XD

[Neo-Dragon]

I had a bit of time to work on the game today, but nothing worth telling about just yet. I'm mainly focusing on putting together the region and code in the foundation for the battle system

I have a video that I posted on youtube a few days ago.
It's my "Proof of concept" vid.
It's just to show the coding is done for the menu and the basics for the battle system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VACIK_ixZGc

*please note, that some graphics are missing in the battle system (like the hero throwing the pokeball at the start of the battle) and bulbasaur appears from the middle of the screen. These have been fixed/corrected. *

[spike6958]

wow man that video is incredible, the battle system is amazing much better than the offical one's good luck with this

[DarkPegasus]

I really like the video. It shows that you have progressed very far with your CBS, where most other games fail... And that's a big plus in my book ; )

[RMXPUser462]

The video is phenominal (sp??)!! beautiful work, yet again, the battle system looks great!! :D

[Nova92]

very great game. Can't wait

[Neo-Dragon]

I've got a quick update for you all on the development of the game.
As most of you may have seen in the video I posted earlier, alot of the ground work for th systems are in place. So I decided to start laying out the basic mapping. When I say mapping, I'm putting all the town/routes in and linking them together. The game will be like my previous games, no load times, or fades between outside maps. The outside maps will be like the normal pokemon games - as if it is all one big map.
I am also adding in place names to the maps, for example:


I've also made some slight changes to the message system. The message box backgound will be 30% transparent- and the boarder is not transparent
EG:

It is a small touch, but adds to the feel of the game, since most message boxs or menus in Pokemon Protectors are around 30-50% transparent.

[foofatron]

This looks like a really good game.

[geoklkl]

this game is awsome i love the graphics please carry on making this it annoys me the amount of people who dont complete there games

[Neo-Dragon]

I am doing alot of work on the game this week and I'm looking for members to submit various forms of custom resources.

What I mean by custom resources:
Custom trainer sprites (both "overworld" and "in battle" )
Custom tilesets and buildings
Custom Music or soundeffects.
Custom pokemon (sprite and "artwork" ).

I am also looking for someone who can do fan art for the game- but this can come at any stage.

Any custom resources that are accepted into the game will get you to be part of the games beta when it is out.
If you do not wish to post your resources, please send me a PM instead.

[userpr]

It's a shame that your other projects died before they were finished. I wish you the best of luck with this one as it seems very cool. The screens are amazing as should be expected from your third game. But to me the PNX sound sort of like the pokemon version of hippies.

[Neo-Dragon]

Hahahaha, yeah, the PNX are like that. That was my point of making them, I didn't want all the teams feeling the same. I didn't want all the good teams out to save the world, all the evil teams to stop it. I want each one to have a reason for why they are involved in the storyline and I want the player to be able to play the game 6 times, each time picking a different team, and getting a different experience.

Anyways.....

Small update for you all. Since monday, I've had the whole week off and free. I am doing alot of work on my game.
As i said in the last update, I am currently linking the maps together.
Thanks to a plan I made before I began the project, I know how the maps are all linked with the storyline, and which towns the player will be going to in order. This has made it alot easier for me to fly through it.

I'm trying also to finish off all the basic things that need to be in the game on the maps. When I say basic things, it is the coding for jumping a ledge, and just making sure that code is on all of the ledges in the map or maps. Making the signs show when you press the ENTER key on them.
These things I say are basic, but most fan game developers, myself included, leave out these things, and these things add to the game feeling more rounded and more like an offical game.

Towns are still NOT POPULATED yet.....
The reason for this I want to code all of the stuff mentioned above (the "basic things" ) first - then the storyline and the NPCs will be last to go in.
So In the screenshot I'm about to show you, it may look a little bit bare, but don't worry, I will be fixing that after everythng for the map is done.....

It also shows the style of the sign message box, were it shows a small screenshot of the town too .

I'd love to hear what you think....
And remember, I'm looking for staff to help me .
Thanks.

[The Dash]

I think I'm in love again..

[RMXPUser462]

Hey, I've got a little proposition for ya...


Well, I was making a game called Pokemon Dark, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to get it done with everything goin on in my life, so, how about this...


We are still going to make the dex, but instead of 151, there are 251 pokemon, we have about 75-100 concepts in already, and official art is being done by the illustrious ShiShiKo (I'm sure you've heard of her, she is amazing!!) I'm offering you to use our dex in your game, so pretty much, we'll provide the custom pokemon with official artwork, and possibly sprites (we have one spriter atm, Absol Attacker).

That's all there is to it, just need a yes, or a no, it's all you're choice on if you wanna take the dex

[Adamant Linoone]

This games looking really good dude! I wish you luck with it and I hope this game gets finished.