[Developing] Emerald Remake using Monogame, C#

[Dubai Senpai]

Hello everyone, I registered here to show you something I'm working on. But first, I think I should tell you a thing or two about myself. I've picked up programming as a hobby recently and what I'm going to show you is actually my first big project. I would refer to myself as an intermediate programmer, I know my way around most of the time and if there's something I don't understand I read it up and usually understand it quickly. So what I'm trying to say is, the following is by no means a professional piece of software but an amateur/hobbyist work. Please keep this in mind when judging it. That being said, I'm looking forward to reading your opinions and constructive criticism, which is the reason why I'm posting here.

Game Engine / Introduction
From what I've seen most people here use the Pokemon Essentials which is basically a finished "Pokemon maker". If it was just for the sake of making a Pokemon Game I'd go for it too, but I wanted to write my very own game. It was pretty clear for me that I'd do this in C# because I know this language fairly well (Actually I only know some Java, C# and ruby). I learned about Microsoft's XNA framework for Pc and Xbox360 games and the project that was built upon it after Microsoft discarded XNA: Monogame.
Monogame is a cross-platform, open-source framework/game engine that I found really easy and handy to use so I chose to use it for my game. It supports both 2D and 3D graphics but since I'm not experienced with game development I will stick to 2D graphics. Even though my project is not limited to GBA graphics/resolution and could run at about any resolution, I decided to keep it simple for now.
After It was clear which engine/framework I'd be using, I had to make a decision: Should I make an entirely new game, a remake or even a 1:1 port? Well I'll be honest, I don't have the artistic skills to draw my own sprites, nor the imagination to tell a new story and so on. Therefor I went for the remake/port. I chose Emerald because it was/is probably my favourite Pokemon game of all time.

Changes to the base game
None of the following is implemented at this time. These are just ideas and may or may not find their way into the game as the development progresses.

• 
  Pokemon can be found at different locations than in the original game

• 
  All 386 gen 1 - 3 pokemon obtainable

• 
  Slight rebalance of some Pokemon and moves

• 
  Revised Ev and Dv mechanics

• 
  Optionally increased difficulty

• 
  Slightly altered story, new side"quests"

State of this project - Updated Nov 06, 2015

In-game screenshots:

Spoiler:

Mapping status:

Spoiler:

Little Root Town: 95%
Oldale Town: 90%
Petalburg City: 85%
Route 101: 99%
Route 102: 99%
Route 103: 97%
Route 104: 95%

Implemented features (so far):

Spoiler:

• 
  Collision detection

• 
  Linking maps with each other

• 
  Keyframe animations

• 
  Layers

• 
  Wild Pokemon encounters

The player can walk around in both areas and collision detection is working properly too, as well as layers (drawing tips of trees /roofs over the player etc.). I made a fairly simple level editor (which will be developed parallel to the game). It can already load, save and manipulate maps successfully. Upon the start of the game, the player can chose whether he wants to play the game or open the editor. The editor may very well become a part of the finished game too.
Next I'll be targeting the implementation of the main menu, in-game menu and basic events such as leaving/entering an area by going through a door. The battle system and NPCs will follow a bit later. If all goes well, a short playable demo may be avaliable around christmas/NYE.
I understand that it will be hard for you to give any criticism at all without screenshots, and because the project is in a super early state. Nonetheless I'm hoping for a reply or two.

In the future
None of this is going to happen anytime soon but depending on how this project is going and what the feedback will be like, I could very well imagine to work with other people (primarily artists and creative minds) on an entirely new game, using the environment of this project. I'm probably still a noob in game development, but I'm designing my program to separate code and content where I can. This way it could be easily used in new projects.

Credits
Above all, the content I will be using for my game belongs to Nintendo and I do not claim to own any of it, nor do I intend to make any profit from this. It is a mere fan work and I encourage everyone to support Nintendo and buy the official games.

Credit goes to Microsoft for making Visual Studio avaliable for free, and the creators of Monogame for providing a sleek and easy-to-use game development framework. And of course to Nintendo and Gamefreak for making these great games.

 

[Dubai Senpai]

So my thread has finally been approved, yay! I've added some more features in the last days, for example animations for doors and grass, as well as the mechanism which links two maps with each other via the door.

Note that the maps are not finished, they are just there for testing new features.

 

[Dubai Senpai]

I made substantial progress on the save format for maps, using XML format instead of simple text files now. I'm also extending the editor, it can now make simple keyframe animations for stuff like flowers, water, etc. Now I'm improving the map editor, which I hope to show you tomorrow.

 

[ArcHeLL]

This looks really good, good luck your with your project!!

 

[Dubai Senpai]

Thank you very much!

Here is a screenshot of the editor, well it's not gonna win a prize for the best user interface but I'm quite happy with it, considering it's the first time I'm doing something like this.

Spoiler:

It's still a little impractical as you can only draw one tile at a time but that will change soon.

 

[Dubai Senpai]

Slowly but constantly this is getting somewhere. I'm now working on the actual Pokemon battles, the event for random encounters is already working. Some more screenshots:

 

[looneyman1]

Not bad at all. I always like a good emerald remake rom hack, but this is the first time I've seen a proper fangame remake for emerald. Hope it all goes well.

 

[Dubai Senpai]

Thank you!

Progress on the Pokemon battles:



I've added all sprites including shinies and front sprite animation. Also added some pokemon metadata (base stats, type arithmetics). Next I'll work on attack moves, Pokemon menu and main menu.

 

[lilbluedemon]

Are you going to upgrade the graphics, or leave it as it is?

If you leave it as it is, it's not really a "remake" per se, it's more of just a port.

 

[PokeVec40]

Hey, Nice work there!
I'm pretty new to the pokecommunity (like 'today' new), but not programming. Its pretty nice to see you working on branching out to other platforms for fangame development. I've been using RPGMakerXP, and have come to the conclusion that ruby is really frustrating to develop with. By developing something like this, people could use C# to develop other pokemon games, (granted I'm not very familiar with C#). Those development tools are coming along nicely by the way.
Awesome job!

P.S. Emerald is my favorite also!:)

 

[Astralneo]

I wish you luck with the project although developing without RPGX and Essentials might prove very difficult but seeing some fresh games made by new engines is a wonder too .If this proves to be successful , everyone might benefit from it especially for the basics for a new Pokemon kit that works on mobile platforms.