Survey: Interest in a short-story hack?

Hello pokecommunity. I am relatively new to the hacking scene and after learning the ropes of rom hacking, I think I'm ready to start one of my own.

That said, I do not think that I have the proper dedication to make a full blown hack. I've heard of some of the better ones taking several years to develop, and there is no way that I would realistically finish such a project on my own.

That said, I was wondering how a shorter hack would be received, sort of like a short-film or a short-story, but as a rom hack. Short films are considered an art form in their own right, and it is common advice for aspiring authors to publish a short story before they attempt a novel. Why not attempt a short game?

This idea was loosely inspired from the short-runned anime Pokemon Chronicles on Cartoon Network, where each episode was a 30 minute slice-of-life into various characters who lived in the Pokemon world. The plotline would be entirely different than that of a normal Pokemon game, and have little to do with collecting gym badges or fighting an evil team.

The idea which I've been playing with is that you are a farm kid who needs to collect money to save a dying family business. The player would be initially prompted to explore the local rural area, and feature a couple small towns. Eventually the player would travel to the big city to enter a tournament in order to receive the money. Of course this is kind of cliche, and I would probably mix it up a little, but this is more for the sake of showing how the plotline would differ.

The play time of the game would probably run four to five hours, or perhaps the length that it typically takes a player to complete four gyms. To get into the action more quickly, the starters would be of a higher level than normal, I was thinking level 25. There would still be a fair variety of Pokemon, with around 60-70 to collect, and at least two evolution-lines for each type.

I personally really like this idea because, just like a short film, it is a great way to portray a short and sweet plotline without taking up unnecessary time. Ideally, I could create several of these little stories. That said, when talking it over with some friends, they seemed to think it was a poor idea because one of the more fun elements to Pokemon is the collection, and a smaller Pokemon pool would be a turnoff to them.

What do you think? Would you play such a game?

-Mittens2

I am probably more likely to play a short story hack right now because I don't have to invest too much time into a full blown hack.

But remember: Just because it's short doesn't mean it's easy. There's still a lot of quality you can insert in a 4-5 hour gameplay.

Of course I would invest the time to make it in-depth and high quality. The shorter story length is what would allow me to do that.

I think the majority of ROM hack players would rather play a full-length hack, but personally I'm like Crizzle, I'd probably play a short-length hack these days. There was a Game Jam contest in Game Dev a while ago where you had to make a short game with the flash mechanic in Pokémon, and all submissions were pretty fun!

I made a short hack for April fools a few years ago about a Spheal with sunglasses and saving the world and it was really fun developing it, it's what got me back into ROM hacking. So even if a short hack might not get as much attention, I'd definitely recommend going for it. You might even eventually try and turn it into a full-length hack.

I support this idea!
I'm starting my own rom hack too, and I also thought on making it short :O
So, go for it :) If you play your cards right, it can become a really nice game <3

I think this is a great idea! I'd certainly play it.

I think a short-story hack has a lot of potential. We've had a few short-story hacks produced as the result of different competitions and such over the years, and I've always thought that because they were produced without the expectation of a full game they are able to focus on making the story interesting and fun.

I feel like the general quality of a short story hack will be higher than a full length hack done by the same hacker. Like you said, it's difficult to create enough interesting content to fill a full story hack, and it takes a long time. Shorter hacks allow the hacker to narrow their focus and polish what actually makes it in. I'd definitely play a shorter hack, why not?

While farm kid looking to save the family business going into a tournament may be cliche-sounding in other places, in rom hacking it's extremely original, simply due to the incredibly repetitive nature of the standard romhack: kid with no detail on their family life whatsoever beyond having a mom goes on quest to catch pokemon and get 8 badges, beat an evil team, and defeat the league.

If you deviate from that formula, you're pretty much guaranteed to be original here.