Lornami, i'm not sure if matt knows this, because I just thought of it, we would have two different male characters, and two female characters. one boy and girl from Ash and Misty, and one boy and girl as your rivals. Maddie, (The Rival Maddie) is based on leaf, but she has blonde hair, and her hat is all white. her clothes might be a bit different. the male hero, (Name still undecided, because Ash jr. sounds too cheesy) looks like ash, but he has misty's hair, no hat, and a black t-shirt with Ash's hat logo on it (from the first season)
Lornami, I like your sprite for the female Hero, and i might use it. :)
also, on a side note, your rival is gonna play a larger part in the story than it did in firered and leafgreen. instead of you and your rival hating each other more and more as the game progresses, but you will become closer...
EDIT: I will put up some pics as soon as I make 15 posts.
EDIT 2.0: people have been asking a about the gym leaders and pichu, we are making all new gym leaders, some of them may be in some way related to the original.
as for pichu, it evolves from a happiness evolution, so, let's just say it was around for a while before the game starts, making it happy around you, but not necessarily leveling up, so it evolves into pikachu