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Fan game starter ideas?

Rinkoou

Awful-Pun Master
54
Posts
7
Years
Hi, I'm making a fan game and I was wondering what Pokémon should the starters be?
Should I add old Pokémon as starters or should I make my own starters, and if I should make my own starters, what should that Pokémon be based after?
Right now, the game has no title and a bit of story, but I decided to ask so it would appeal to more people.
Anyways, thanks!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
1,805
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7
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  • Age 30
  • USA
  • Seen Jan 15, 2024
what you base your starters should somehow reflect the region or the game you're representing.

I mean if you want to add fakemon why stop at the starters? If you're rehashing old favorites, people might be more familiar but it lessens the uniqueness of the game somewhat. There are already 721+ a seventh generation about to come out. I'm up for well-designed fakemon and old favorites. (If your fakes look corny/derivative and are unbalanced they can take away from the game, as well.)

Do you have an idea where this game is set? What themes your game will cover? If you can answer those two questions, then you can make your own decision.
 
22
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7
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  • Age 28
  • Seen May 31, 2018
Personally, one of my favorite things about starters is what secondary types they gain. It breaks away from the Grass>Water>Fire triangle and gives the starters a bit of variety. Of course, a pure-typed final evolution of a starter has become rare, so you could keep one or two of the starters as a pure-type all the way through. I am not opposed to the idea of choosing completely new types for your starters as well, but it would be important to keep the triangle of effectiveness if you pick new ones.

Above all else, though: Please, pretty please, do not invent another Fire/Fighting starter line.
 
1,405
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11
Years
Above all, your game should have something unique; a reason to be played instead of all the other Pokemon fangames being made here.

EDIT: Since I sorta misunderstood the point of the thread; you can still apply what I said to starters. Maybe make it a Fighting, Psychic, Dark triangle, maybe make it so they don't even have anything to do with each other or make the player start in a for example water based area and just give him choice between water starters and make the early game around that, etc. Basically add something new and different.

Don't think that many people like Fakemon though.
 
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1
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 22
  • Seen Oct 24, 2016
make a defensive fire poison type
Ability: with flash fire as hidden ability and blaze as normal
Moves: give it knock off recover sludge bomb and wilo whisp .

a fast ghost grass type
Ability: hidden ability sap sipper overgrow as normal
Moves: give it moves such as shadow ball leaf storm leaf blade.

and a water psychic type more of a mixed between defense and offence.
Ability:hidden ability water absorb and normal is torrent.
moves: scald t wave earthquake and smack down
 
7
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7
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  • Age 24
  • Seen May 18, 2017
Instead of having the noramal fire,water and grass do something differnt. like an idea could be ice, flying and fighting.
 
8
Posts
10
Years
  • Seen Jun 11, 2022
I honestly like something like Eevee more from a design perspective if you're going for a more challenging experience. It lets you get started and build up a bit before needing to choose your main Pokémon's capabilities, whereas a fresh start with 3 starters basically makes you choose without having a feel about the playstyle and what types you want/need the most since you get the starter before ever getting into a battle.
 
2
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7
Years
  • Age 20
  • Seen Nov 20, 2016
a good starter type would be electricke/poison electricke/dark or water/dark
 

Smash Brony

Cool Dude
74
Posts
7
Years
I personally like the idea of having a Rock, Fighting & Flying triangle...
This is because the 4 most important elements of Asian culture are Fire, Water, Earth & Air.
The original triangle has 2 out of 4 & this triangle has the other 2.
(Although, I guess Grass could count as Earth, but usually when I see the 4 elements together, "Earth" refers to rock, soil, etc.)
Also, the original triangle were once all special types & this one I'm suggesting were all physical types.
Don't matter now, but I find it fun to think about.
In other words, I came up with this triangle to compliment the original.
You could always make it to where the players get 2 starters at the start, 1 from each triangle.

EDITED IN:
Oh, also, this triangle has what I call the "true triangle relationship", in which each defending type resists, but is not immune, to one type & is weak to the other while the attacking types do half damage to one & double to the other, just like with the original triangle.
Anyways, like the others said, it's your choice, just presenting options.
 

FSBS

Defunct
147
Posts
8
Years
  • Seen Apr 19, 2019
The way I see it, you can do traditional starters (dull, but effective), multiple sets (such as picking a single starter out of all 21 - a bit over the top, but perfectly fine), type effectiveness (such as in the official games) or a theme.

Theme is something I'm toying with. As the working title is Kanto Roads and I've replaced the Johto and Hoenn starters, I'm probably going to go with Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle but I've considered a trio of pseudo-legendaries (initially Beldum, Larvitar and Dratini), dragons (Dratini, Gible, Deino), two-stage (Bergmite, Skiddo, and Mudbray), custom three stage (long ago it was Geodude, Mareep, and Spheal)...there's really no wrong way to go in my opinion.

However, my favorite has been Ultra Violet's Safari-Zone style catching of a starter. I'd love to do that myself one day.
 

Logan

[img]http://pldh.net/media/pokecons_action/403.gif
10,417
Posts
15
Years
I always like the idea of an unusual trio but can never find 3 that balance well enough.
 
58
Posts
8
Years
  • Age 32
  • Seen Oct 6, 2019
Instead of having the noramal fire,water and grass do something differnt. like an idea could be ice, flying and fighting.

^This. I'm tired of the traditional Grass, Fire, and Water paradigm. Ice (or Rock), Flying, and Fighting would be a much welcomed (and unusual) change.
 

Damien.aspiring.fandev

Chapter 16 A New Dawn { ||:^❩ )
960
Posts
7
Years
Aside the regular starters from the 7 generations, few viable options
might be the exceptional starters (Pikachu from yellow, Eevee from XD, Conquest and
as rival starter in yellow, Espeon and Umbreon from Colosseum) and the starters
appearing in the Mystery dungeon sidegames (Meowth, Psyduck, Machop, Cubone,
Skitty, Vulpix, Phanpy, Shinx, Munchlax, Riolu, Axew).
However, I'm not sure how many of these proposals might do as starter choices...~_~
BY THE WAY! There's one idea which I've had for a while : what if the starters had backstories?
 
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