How to start..?

[Oromier]

so as Im writing this Im reading the forum rules, and the adoption center, and im sorry if I can't or don't have the right to ask questions, but Im a IT student, finished my Freshman year and i wanted to start a project, i have good understanding in C++, and allegro engine, and i like Pokemon, especially the gameboy games. I literally grow up with them.

So my question is, how do you program games like that?
you Extract the ROM, and take parts of the code and edit it, or you copy it, or you use it and make a new code.. if someone would just explain it simply and fast thank you

 

[RaulCortez]

Hey!

Well, first of all, we all have the right to make questions here, as a forum and a community we're here to help each other. Don't worry about that :)

And about your question...it really depends on what you want to do, i guess!

The common and most used way to do games (not hack ROMS, which is another a almost complete different part of the forum) is with the Pokemon Essentials starter kit for RPG Maker XP. You can find it here:

http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=286369

Now, in order to work with it, you need the program RPG Maker XP, which you can find on its official webpage or...let's say googling.

Some people with knowledge on scripting and stuff try to develop their own engines, based on Python, etc. But Pokemon Essentials is the easiest way to do it.

Usually to get the graphics people rip them from the official games, which could be something as easy as screen capture the game screen and taking the graphic you want in paint, or you could extract them from the rom itself.

Bottom line is, there isn't a specific way to do it, but most of these games are developed with the Pokemon Essentials kit and RPG Maker XP :)

 

[Oromier]

how does stuff with copyright stands? can i get sued from nintendo for using their pokemon in my game for example?

 

[RaulCortez]

how does stuff with copyright stands? can i get sued from nintendo for using their pokemon in my game for example?

If you're making a non-profit fan game, nah. If you're trying to sell, commercialize, or make money of any sort with copyrighted content (Pokémon, graphics, tiles, etc) then yes, you could have problems, as with anything that's copyrighted, haha :)

 

[DaSpirit]

In C++, most people would simply recode it. I think stealing from a ROM is a lot harder... O_O

First thing you do is find some libraries. SDL, SMFL, GLFW, GLUT, libPNG, FMOD many that you could look into, all for different purposes.

Of course, you have to decide what you want to use as your graphics API, there is OpenGL and DirectX, the former being the best option in terms of portability. You have to know some Matrix Algebra in order to build basic shaders for modern versions of both. If you can't build your own matrix class and/or don't understand 3D math, you can use GLMathematics if you're using OpenGL.

If you're planning on making an actual game engine that you can reuse later, you have to decide whether you want an inheritance based system or a component based system.

There are many ways to do this. All you have to remember is that you have to take it one step at a time, but plan out everything ahead of time. How are all of your entities going to communicate with each other? Are you going to use systems or components to draw graphics? What licensees do the libraries you use have? It is not an easy task.

 

[Oromier]

In C++, most people would simply recode it. I think stealing from a ROM is a lot harder... O_O

First thing you do is find some libraries. SDL, SMFL, GLFW, GLUT, libPNG, FMOD many that you could look into, all for different purposes.

Of course, you have to decide what you want to use as your graphics API, there is OpenGL and DirectX, the former being the best option in terms of portability. You have to know some Matrix Algebra in order to build basic shaders for modern versions of both. If you can't build your own matrix class and/or don't understand 3D math, you can use GLMathematics if you're using OpenGL.

If you're planning on making an actual game engine that you can reuse later, you have to decide whether you want an inheritance based system or a component based system.

There are many ways to do this. All you have to remember is that you have to take it one step at a time, but plan out everything ahead of time. How are all of your entities going to communicate with each other? Are you going to use systems or components to draw graphics? What licensees do the libraries you use have? It is not an easy task.

my plan is to use allegro engine, im not yet very familiar with it (study for tests) but i saw that it isn't that hard to master it, bcs allegro has almost the same graphic as pokemon but more polished i would like to use it, but the problem is i want to "transfer" the game mechanics, when pokemons attack me, the battle system, the pokemon itself etc. and that is when i got stuck..

 

[Dragonite Ernston]

They generally reject any 'request' to make a fan game, no exceptions. I look at it like this, though. The only fan games that I've seen get cease and desists are those self proclaimed 'big MMOs' which the creator tends to parade around a good number of sites. If you kind of lay low with your game, and generally keep it around sites like PC and deviantArt, you'll be fine.

Nintendo is pretty much obligated to reject requests to make fan games; those fan games use trademarks (and often copyrighted materials), and if the issue were ever brought up in court, it might set a precedent as far as Nintendo is concerned, allowing for more infringement of those trademarks. Also, it's just bad company policy to let just anyone make derivative works of your games that are branded as your games, you know?

They will not, however, actively look for these fangames to take down, only pursuing a case when it becomes enough of a threat to their business practices (such as those big MMOs). They don't have that much time and money to waste.

In general, fangames, including the ones that "lay low", don't get completed often. As soon as a fangame actually gets completed, expect it to get spread around more, and expect a significant risk of it catching Nintendo's eye and them subsequently cracking down on it.

As it is a Pokémon fangame and not just a "Pokémon-style game" with all-originally-created content, there is no chance that you could simply debrand everything either, like I eventually did with Four Star Mon (went from being an open-source "Pokémon" game engine to a "Pokémon-like" game engine to a "monster RPG" game engine as the project got more and more generic and all-encompassing). So if you do ever get a C&D down the road, take your game down from everywhere (cease), and never put it back up again (desist). You can't really do much else because if you get brought to court, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose.

Still, as Daedalus said, if you can manage to keep the spread of your game down, even when it is completed, you should be okay, but only because Nintendo wouldn't actually go after you in the first place.

Obviously, those are just my thoughts and shouldn't be taken for a fact. The legality of fan games could be debated all day with no real factual resolve. Just make you game and don't worry about it. :)

If you're making a fangame, you're generally at the complete mercy of whoever's "intellectual property" you're copying. So while they're not inherently legal or illegal, the "owner" of the "intellectual property" is the person who determines whether it is or not, as well as who is allowed to and who isn't.

But take my advice with your own grain of salt too; I'm not a lawyer either, and because of that, this should not constitute independent legal advice.