LeafGreen hack: Pokémon Keratin Version

Ladies, gentlemen and assorted creatures of the Internet, the Cutlerine is both talking about himself in the third person and pleased to announce his long-overdue new foray into the world of ROM hacking! For your delectation, for your edification, for your entertainification, he presents to you...


Introduction

If you've played my previous hack, Snakewood, you'll know that I take serious issue with the usual Pokémon game storyline of getting eight Badges, defeating a Team and beating the Elite Four. I also take issue with the usual emphasis on graphical appeal in hacks: pretty pictures do not hold the attention for more than five minutes, while a solid storyline will hold it for hours. Snakewood was my first attempt to prove that story, originality and craziness are the most important things in life. This hack, Keratin, is my second.

Storyline

Kahuto: a modern region for modern people, and one full of hope for a young illegal immigrant such as yourself. Fleeing Johto for better things, you and your friend arrive at the grand port of Puerto Viajero and immediately seek employment. Your friend knows a guy who can get you an audience with Professor Ork (who is definitely not Professor Oak in hiding) - but he's not the only one who could use a strong young person to do dangerous stuff for little or no money. There's Team Rocket, who've just turned up in Kahuto to recover from shattering defeat in Johto. Or Bad Sofa, a suspicious indie rock band who have more than a passing interest in Kahuto's black market confectionery trade. Or the Voltmeisters, who seem to want a little more than just nationwide peace. Or even the mysterious and sinister ICG, who everyone has heard of and no one knows anything about. And let's not forget the Meat Mafia, who control the valuable meat trade. With so many paths open to you, it's not hard for an enterprising young criminal to make a living. There are only three questions: who will you side with? Who are the VHP? And is Mr. Praxis really made out of solid gold?

Features

• Five different storylines and multiple possible endings, depending on which faction you join up with
• A huge array of mini-quests and side stories
• An ever-increasing number of new Pokémon
• Four brand-new types: Light, Sound, Nuclear and Beauty
• A few type changes here and there, partly due to the new types and partly due to caprice
• Pokémon from all five official game regions
• An unusual Gym system
• A vast new region, Kahuto, with semi-realistic-sized cities and towns
• The return of certain Snakewood characters
• Decapitalisation of Pokémon/item/move/place names
• An increased difficulty level, and the option to ramp it up even higher
• And, of course, a shot of insanity laced with referential madness.

Screenshots

Now, what we've all been waiting for: the screenies.



Bugs

Refreshingly, none!

Completion Status

About 7% done, which means one city, one route, one suburb and one CBD, in addition to about 30 new Pokémon so far. Kahuto is a big place.

Credits

Since this hack is, as ever, wholly created by me, I have no one to thank except all those who created a tool or a tutorial that I used; there are probably so many of them I can't count, and every one of them has made this hack significantly easier. I thank you all here. Cordially.

Download

None as yet. But hey! Who knows what tomorrow might bring?

Five different storylines? That sounds awesome. Looks like it will be the first hack I'll play. :D

sounds cool to me. I wonder if it'll be even harder than snakewood

This looks okay (maps could use some work; at least they're original this time) but I'm doing a sequel game too.

It'll have SIX different storylines.

And it won't be named after dead skin cells.

So there.

Looks great! I loved Snakewood, so I'm looking forward to this. Are you going to release in alphas and betas this time or just complete then release it, like what you did with Snakewood? Good luck! :D

Oh god yay. I totally cannot wait for the first beta. Or hell, the finished product. :D

The Cutlerine is back with a new hack...

I definitely see the story as the biggie here. And if it's anything like Snakewood, I'm going to be playing this for hours on end :)

(Happy) New Year to you, Cutlerine.

It would have been nice if you stuck to Ruby, so it can have the same feel as snakewood, with all the tiles and such.But still if this hack is as good as snakewood, it won't matter what the hack looks like. :D

This looks good. If you do get new types in without deleting old ones I'd like to see. I like Light and sound. I'm on the edge about Nuclear (maybe virus?) and Beauty doesn't sound all to good. The idea of 5 different endings sounds cool. Everything sounds good. Keep it up! :)

I do like the idea of five different endings, as long as they are followed by five different storylines. I don't just want to choose my path at the end of the game.

Well, when this is complete, I'll be sure to play it for a long time! Snakewood is fun, and I haven't finished it yet, so that just shows the amount of work you put into these hacks.

Mothman said:

Well, when this is complete, I'll be sure to play it for a long time! Snakewood is fun, and I haven't finished it yet, so that just shows the amount of work you put into these hacks.

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Thanks. I hope this will surpass Snakewood, because this time around I'm taking extreme measures to prevent the occurrence of game-breaking glitches.

teejermiester said:

I do like the idea of five different endings, as long as they are followed by five different storylines. I don't just want to choose my path at the end of the game.

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There are five different storylines, yes. The game starts with a choice between working for Ork or for the Rockets, and if you choose to work for Ork then you have the option of defecting to other gangs at various points: to Bad Sofa at the Beach Festival, to the ICG in the mountains or to the Voltmeisters in Voltaire City's Industrial District. The five stories all relate to each other, and things that you would have done in one storyline effect those in others. Reading that last sentence back, I realise that it's supremely confusing, but I won't reword it because I like the mystery.

Speedster said:

This looks good. If you do get new types in without deleting old ones I'd like to see. I like Light and sound. I'm on the edge about Nuclear (maybe virus?) and Beauty doesn't sound all to good. The idea of 5 different endings sounds cool. Everything sounds good. Keep it up! :)

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The types don't overwrite any old ones. Light and Sound are the two most common ones. Nuclear is used solely for one or two hidden Pokémon, so you don't have to even come across it in-game if you don't want to, and as for Beauty... Well, I can't say too much about it, but I'm actually obliged to include it.

ΣŁ1ŦΣ CHΛRIΖΛЯĐ said:

It would have been nice if you stuck to Ruby, so it can have the same feel as snakewood, with all the tiles and such.But still if this hack is as good as snakewood, it won't matter what the hack looks like. :D

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Ruby... eh, I got bored with Ruby. Besides, this doesn't have that much to do with Snakewood - that's why it's a sort-of sequel and not an actual sequel. The only things they have in common are a few recurring characters. There's Usher, for one, and... well, I'm sure you could guess the rest.

ChaosSonic said:

The Cutlerine is back with a new hack...

I definitely see the story as the biggie here. And if it's anything like Snakewood, I'm going to be playing this for hours on end :)

(Happy) New Year to you, Cutlerine.

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Happy New Year to you, too. Yes, the aim of this game is more to use the Pokémon game mechanics to facilitate a story, rather than tell a story in order to give a reason to the game mechanics. I can't promise quite as much insanity as in Snakewood (I have to plan the story out in advance because of the connecting storylines, so I can't make things up as I go along) but I'll try and keep the same spirit.

Ettadara said:

Oh god yay. I totally cannot wait for the first beta. Or hell, the finished product. :D

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Suicune™ said:

This looks good, I also like the fact that you decided to go with Leaf Green instead of Fire Red, not many of those out there.

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Yeah, I have an irrational fear of FireRed, because my early hacks were all built on FireRed and all died to horrific glitches that I created. So, now that I'm bored with Ruby, I decided to switch to LeafGreen rather than FireRed.

chrunch said:

Looks great! I loved Snakewood, so I'm looking forward to this. Are you going to release in alphas and betas this time or just complete then release it, like what you did with Snakewood? Good luck! :D

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It won't be fully complete when I release it, but the first release will definitely include at least half of the story for at least half of the storylines. I've got the first third of the Rocket, Ork and Bad Sofa lines complete, so I know that I should be able to do it. Although scripting five concurrent storylines does sometimes make me feel like my brain's about to explode.

hinkage said:

This looks okay (maps could use some work; at least they're original this time) but I'm doing a sequel game too.

It'll have SIX different storylines.

And it won't be named after dead skin cells.

So there.

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Keratin is actually not dead skin cells. It's a structural protein that occurs in fibres, which fuse to form filaments that can then be further fused into strong sheets and wires. It does occur in the outer layer of human skin, but only as a support within the cells rather than as a cell itself. It is also the main component of nails, hair, feathers and scales, and is the substance from which rhinoceros horns are made.

And you're free to make whatever you want, although if it's a sequel game to Snakewood then it would be nice if you asked me first.

AustinWolff said:

sounds cool to me. I wonder if it'll be even harder than snakewood

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I'm not sure. It'll certainly be interesting, if nothing else.

gvgisdi said:

Five different storylines? That sounds awesome. Looks like it will be the first hack I'll play. :D

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Well, maybe not. It's going to take a while, especially considering all the other things I'm trying to do at the same time.

So,this is your newest hack,Cutlerine?I played your Pokemon Snakewood and I really like it!I think this hack will be better than Snakewood Version,I believe that this hack will be very great!

This new game looks really great. I'm looking forward to playing it.
The idea of Five different storyline completely appeals to me, particularly because we can form a part of a bad organization, that's awesome.
I wonder if this game will be as good as Snakewood version, if it will be as much crazy ! Anyway I hope.

This hack is among the most epic in scale I've seen... In fact, had you announced this before Snakewood with this as your first hack, I would have been skeptical that anyone could pull this off, or would have the mental fortitude to finish

However, after seeing your storytelling abilities in Snakewood, and the fact that you already have a (mostly) finished hack under your belt, I am confident that you will be able create and finish what I anticipate to be an absolute masterpiece.

I love the idea of using Pokemon Game Mechanics to create a 100% original story. You did the same with snakewood, I feel that this will exceed it in every way (Except...there are no Zombies. OH WELL.)

GOOD LUCK MAN!

This hack sounds really good, I already expected that comeing from you though xD
Good luck with this hack and look forward to playing it :)

um..

leafgreen? seriously? why not platinum? or HG/SS? or something with a tileset that will make this hack stand out... EG not base it on a rom series that overdone. Heck I'd take another hack of ruby.. even crystal! Love Snakewood though, really wish you'd put the work you're putting into this into finishing up that. Glitches really aren't hard to fix when you're the person behind the game.. if something is glitched wither fix it or delete it, snakewood has too much "you're not alone" in the later part. It's a feature that attracted myself and many others in the start of the game.. but by town 2 you just.. idk, don't care as much. Also the survivor camps would be better if you left them, got another badge or marker passed, came back and everyone was dead.

1158 said:

So,this is your newest hack,Cutlerine?I played your Pokemon Snakewood and I really like it!I think this hack will be better than Snakewood Version,I believe that this hack will be very great!

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I think it will be better, too. Snakewood was really just someone who didn't know what they were doing rambling incoherently about zombies and lunacy for a while. I now know what I'm doing, and sure enough, there are no bugs. Yet. Hopefully.

Mentalii said:

The idea of Five different storyline completely appeals to me, particularly because we can form a part of a bad organization, that's awesome.
I wonder if this game will be as good as Snakewood version, if it will be as much crazy ! Anyway I hope.

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It probably won't be quite as crazy, because I have to plan most of the story out in advance - a lot of the lunacy of Snakewood came from the fact that I made it up as I went along. However, I'll do my best to retain the mad, amoral spirit. In fact, I've already started improvising; there now appears to be an invasion of a certain species of carnivorous ambulatory plant on Duchamp Trail that definitely isn't in any of my plot outlines.

DonMoosavi said:

This hack is among the most epic in scale I've seen... In fact, had you announced this before Snakewood with this as your first hack, I would have been skeptical that anyone could pull this off, or would have the mental fortitude to finish.

However, after seeing your storytelling abilities in Snakewood, and the fact that you already have a (mostly) finished hack under your belt, I am confident that you will be able create and finish what I anticipate to be an absolute masterpiece.

I love the idea of using Pokemon Game Mechanics to create a 100% original story. You did the same with snakewood, I feel that this will exceed it in every way (Except...there are no Zombies. OH WELL.)

GOOD LUCK MAN!

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I really am more of a storyteller than anything else, so any game I (try to) make will basically end up being a story. And these five stories, though perhaps not 100% original - I think the last truly original idea was used in 1884 - are certainly fairly typical of me: weird, a bit dark and hopefully quite funny.

As for the zombies, well... I can't do them, I'm afraid. I just hope cops, mobsters, roadies, rollerblading graffiti artists, triffids, mad scientists, lobsters, clowns, hippies, holograms, and terrifyingly angry sparrows can compensate in some small measure.

Actually, while we're on the topic of game mechanics, I just implemented something that kind of switches the game to hard mode, if such a thing could be said. I have a name for that game mode, too, but I'm not revealing it yet.

Tcoppy said:

This hack sounds really good, I already expected that comeing from you though xD
Good luck with this hack and look forward to playing it :)

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Thanks, Tcoppy. I don't know when you can expect a release, but I'm working on it.

Aurasan said:

leafgreen? seriously? why not platinum? or HG/SS? or something with a tileset that will make this hack stand out... EG not base it on a rom series that overdone. Heck I'd take another hack of ruby.. even crystal! Love Snakewood though, really wish you'd put the work you're putting into this into finishing up that. Glitches really aren't hard to fix when you're the person behind the game.. if something is glitched wither fix it or delete it, snakewood has too much "you're not alone" in the later part. It's a feature that attracted myself and many others in the start of the game.. but by town 2 you just.. idk, don't care as much. Also the survivor camps would be better if you left them, got another badge or marker passed, came back and everyone was dead.

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Platinum? Seriously? Why not LeafGreen?

I admit that ROM hacking is a world in which you need a fancy tileset to stand out. But when that becomes the sole reason to play... who would want to play? I choose satisfying gameplay and story over graphics every time. (Dinosaurs also help. If Mr. Big Game Designer is reading this, I'd like to ask him to put more dinosaurs in everything. Doesn't matter where, let's just have more.*) I made a point about the importance of story with Snakewood by choosing a ROM base that many people think is ugly. I'm making another one now by choosing one that many think is overused. Same point, different method of expression.

As for Snakewood... someone very kindly aided me on that front, and I hope to soon be able to add a fully fixed version to the Snakewood thread. Details will be posted in the relevant thread as soon as they become available.

Also, I'm going to flat-out deny the possibility of there being any changes to Snakewood's story at all. The fact that you're less alone later than at the start really isn't the biggest problem with it - that honour goes to the fact that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The second-biggest problem is that it completely changes direction after Meteor Falls, becoming entirely about some unspecified prophecy and Senex instead of being about the apocalypse. And you know what? I like it that way.

*Also, teach voice actors to pronounce their names correctly. I refuse to accept ParasauroLOphus as legitimate, whatever the scientific community say.

Goodbye, Deadly Seven, you will all be missed! I hope there are decent replacements for their type of completely insane characters, though...