[Decomps] POKéMON CANADA RECRUITMENT

robworks1 · Mar 16, 2021

POKéMON CANADA
Explore the Great White North in this new Gen 4 ROM Hack!

Hello Everyone! My name is Rob, and I'm an ambitious pokénthousiast from Canada. I started out playing Pokémon Red, and then I lost my save file. Not wanting to start again on the same game, I decided I wanted to try another Pokémon game, and I chose Pokémon Diamond. I fell in love with it, and played more Pokémon games for the DS; Black 2, Platinum, and HeartGold. After playing through all the vanilla games, I decided to try to make it a bit harder, so I played Renegade Platinum and SoulSilver Nuzlocke. I wanted to keep trying new things, but I wasn't really finding what I wanted in these games, so I started looking for ROM hacks, and I didn't really see anything new (with the exception of Light Platinum). So, I'm taking it upon myself to start this incredibly difficult project of making a DS ROM hack.

Note: This is my first time trying to do anything like this, and I haven't worked on anything even remotely similar in the past. There's going to be a lot of trial and error.

INFORMATION

My backstory

Spoiler:

ROM base

Right now, I have not decided which one I am going to use, but I am in a toss-up between Pokémon Platinum as a base or HG/SS as a base. I would love to use Platinum, but I'm not sure how the pokétch would work with map features. HG/SS would be fine, but it doesn't have the greatest snow graphics, as the majority of it is not in the snow, whereas Platinum has many snowy areas.

POSITIONS

This project is way too big for me to tackle on my own. So, I'm going to ask for help in all the categories listed in the spoiler below. Again, I'm new, and I don't know what all the roles are, so these are my best guesses at their names.

Spoiler:

PLANNER

The Planner's job is to plan out all the major parts of a Pokémon game. The Planners will also talk with other groups to make sure key elements, like trainers, wild pokemon, cities, etc. are included correctly in the game.

LOGISTICS

The Logistics' job is similar to the Planner. Logistics handles smaller details that are also important to the story, while also making sure that Planners are not completely out of control.

STORYLINE

The Storyliner's job is to take information from Planners and Logistics and write the story for the game. This will include making the evil team and figuring out how they will progress throughout the story, where HMs will be found and where each of the Gyms are going to be (in relation to their type), etc.
Note: While I would prefer a Canadian to work on this simply because I feel they would know the country a little better, anyone can help with this job.

MAPMAKER

The Mapmaker's job is as simple as it sounds; they will be responsible for designing and creating all the maps that will make up the game. This position comes with a warning; mapmaking for DS games is hard, whether you're skilled at it or not. This will be the most time-consuming position you can join.

SCRIPTERS

The Scripter's job is to implement everything onto a ROM. They will be in charge of editing maps onto ROMs, adding correct dialogue, adding wild pokemon, etc. This position is also one of the more difficult ones if you do not know what you're doing.

EXTERNAL ADDITIONS

The External Additions' job is to add anything that might be useful to the story, into the game. This could include more pokemon, changing movesets/pokémon compatibility, etc.

SPRITERS

If the group decides we also want to add fakemon to the game, or change appearances of anything, like trainers, we would add the Spriters. They would create more/new sprites for whatever we decide to have them be.

PLAYTESTERS
The Playtesters' role is to try out the game and see if there are any bugs that could prevent progress, and ensure that the ROM hack is successful.

I personally am going to focus on mapmaking (once we get enough people), but I also will be doing and overseeing planning, logistics, storyline, and playtesting (and if I can figure it out, I'll also be a part of everything else).

STORY

Because of how new this project is, and how much I want the community to be involved, the story is still being built up. (We're making up as we go so that we can be more creative with it.) The story will be community-driven, and there will be polls that can be voted on in the discord server. However, the spoiler below has what we already have.

Spoiler:

All that I will say is that the goal is to have a game that ANYONE ANYWHERE can play, with as little information as possible, and that there will be little to nothing political in the game, with the only exception of having the Elite 4 and Champion reside in Ottawa, Canada's capital.

FEATURES

While currently in development, here are some features that I hope to have:
- Completely new map and story based on and through Canada
- Tons of Pokémon from Gens 1-5 (maybe further)
- Potential regional pokemon/regional versions
- Potential Fakemon native to Canada
- Unique Legendary
- Revamped menu screens
- Major Canadian landmarks
- New Evil Team
- (Potentially) English and French Versions
- And much more.

SCREENSHOTS

Because the game is still in its planning phase, here are some screenshots of how the planning is going.

Spoiler:

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. After a little while, I'll update with some FAQ. Here are some right now:

Q: When is the release date?
A: I don't know how long this is going to take, but my goal is to move one province/area at a time and release multiple beta versions to keep people interested.
Q: I'm not from Canada, can I still join?
A: Absolutely! I want this project to be as inclusive as possible. However, it may be wise to learn a little bit about Canada so you're not completely buried in the snow.
Q: Are there any Beta versions I can play right now?
A: At the time of posting, no. However, when there is, it will be posted above.
Q: This seems like a great project, are you sharing it anywhere else?
A: I've already posted it to Reddit, where in the first day, it gained over 300 upvotes and 50 people to join the server. If you have a place that you think it should go, leave a comment.

DISCORD SERVER

If you're interested enough in helping, use the link below to join the Discord Server. This is the place where you can talk with others that do the same thing as you, as well as vote on how you want the story to go, and things like that.
https://discord.gg/F9JDsY5QQb

Thank you all for your interest in Pokémon Canada! Once there is a Beta released, it will show up here.

spacemountaincarlo · Mar 17, 2021

Wow, this looks really ambitious and impressive! I wasn't aware there were any DS Decomps in a usable form yet. How are you going about that? Best of luck to you!

robworks1 · Mar 17, 2021

In my mind (and in the descriptions), Decomps is where you take the game apart and put it back together with whatever you put in it. I don't personally know all the programs that the team is going to be using, other than the standard ones, like PDSMS, SDSME, maybe PPRE, etc., but I'm pretty sure that the scripters for the game (that will put all the things in, other than maps) don't use binary.

[Decomps] POKéMON CANADA RECRUITMENT

robworks1

spacemountaincarlo

robworks1