[Discussion] How do you decide on starters?

[Vociferocity]

I know some games use fakemon, and some just use some/all of the original starters, but some games have three pokemon chosen, seemingly randomly, from the six hundred odd pokemon available. for people working on those games - how did you pick those three? I'm planning out a second pokemon fangame (the first one got a little dull halfway through development, and that was like...two years ago lmao. so it's time for something new!), and I'm totally stuck on the starters.

like, it would be kind of cool to have something other than the typical grass/water/fire three evo stages pokemon, but that leaves a lot of options. I could have baby pokemon! pokemon that don't evolve! zangoose/seviper! pokemon that are like, steel or dark typed! I have no idea how to narrow it down :(

 

[pkmn.master]

I didn't even decide to make the player choose from three, but rather mixed it up and the player starts off with one Pokemon, based on my favorite, sort of how they did it on Colosseum or XD.

 

[DarkDoom3000]

I usually just use first gen starters. Switched to second gen for storyline purposes.

I basically pick the one that feels right for the game. The starters you use will determine the overall feeling of the game.

 

[Vociferocity]

just one starter is an option that didn't even occur to me! man, there are so many options x___x

and yeah you're totally right, starters are an important part of the game. maybe I'll keep planning out/working on the game, and then see if some starter ideas start flowing naturally?

 

[Vociferocity]

aaahhh, vague post is vague and also intriguing! now I want to know what you're up to XD

in the last pokemon game I was working on (which never actually made it onto the forum! mostly because I am absolute pants at css so I could never make a nice looking post;;), the "starter" the player got was randomised from a list of all the pokemon you could actually acquire in the game (which was about....sixteen, I think? not counting the special prize pokemon, anyway). and that was a fun way to do it! it just doesn't work in this situation (but as we speak I've narrowed the list down to like, ten pokemon or so...so I'm almost there XD!)

 

[Maruno]

The player will have a special connection to their starter Pokémon, as it's the first one they'll own (and often the first Pokémon they'll ever see in the game). It should therefore have some degree of exclusivity to it (i.e. no Rattata). It should also feel special, specifically more powerful than the Com Mons you'll be facing for at least a third of the game. The official starters fill these requirements, so it's a good place to begin thinking about it.

The style and theme of the game is also important. The hero protagonist and friend to all living things should get a choice of good starters, but a new grunt in Team Rocket will be given a Rattata and told to go away.

There are plenty of set-ups for how to obtain a starter. You could have no choice, the typical grass/Fire/Water choice, a randomly-chosen Pokémon, or even no starter at all.

 

[Ho-oh 112]

Well if I were to do so I'd look for some things:

Different from normal starter types, how common it is in the official games, they all have the same evolution count, evolutions are the same type (such as trade/level/item) then I think is this pokemon really going to be a good choice, overthink it and either accept or decline the pokemon, also I check for a trio chan (fire, water, and grass is one and rock, flying, and fighting is another)

 

[Nickalooose]

Just choose the Pokémon you like, and if you want to keep it to, Grass, Water, Fire... Ice, Fire, Ground... Ghost, Psychic, Bug... I don't know... There are a lot of choices you can have, if you want to keep it within a weakness based choice, but picking your favourite is always a good start... Being able to pick from a few kinds of Pokémon, I think, gets a little too complicated, too much choice is bad for you.

 

[Maruno]

One thing that should be mentioned is that a strength/weakness triangle (e.g. Grass/Fire/Water) is only useful if another character(s) will get whichever starter(s) you don't choose. If this isn't done, then having the triangle is nothing more than tradition.

 

[FL]

I think the starter thing is VERY overrated and even make the players to only trains one pokémon, is only just a pokémon, and several other are in wild.
Now we have 649, so be stuck on three is only for tradition or even if you didn't wish to make a many rival possibles teams.
Put all the gen starters or even one for each type can make more variable teams for your game.
If you make the cliché thing of few pokémon to choose, at least put some pokémon that have several evolutions like Eevee and Tyrogue. For rival I like the Yellow scheme, maybe you can further refine to check that pokémon the players gets first on pokédex (like Vaporeon, Flareon, etc...) and make rivals using distinct teams.

 

[Maruno]

FL inspired a further thought: how about a fixed starter, but it's one that suits the player?

Mystery Dungeon does this, where the "starter" depends on the answers to a few personality questions at the start of the game. It could be an interesting take on the whole starter thing (depending on how you pull it off).

 

[zingzags]

I was planning on doing what Pokemon yellow did, get a certain pokemon and the starters come later.

 

[FL]

FL inspired a further thought: how about a fixed starter, but it's one that suits the player?

Mystery Dungeon does this, where the "starter" depends on the answers to a few personality questions at the start of the game. It could be an interesting take on the whole starter thing (depending on how you pull it off).

Uranium had it.
I don't like the Mystery Dungeon questions because its make to most of players reseting the game util they picks their favorites ones. Maybe this can work if you can put an option like "I don't like it" that player can have other pokémon or even goes to a selection screen.