Yuoaman
I don't know who I am either.
- 4,582
- Posts
- 19
- Years
- Age 32
- Ontario, Canada
- Seen May 19, 2024
GDW Issue 7 *Merry Christmas PC*
[a id]rhn1-welcome[/a id]
(Here ends the flowery introductions, and begins regular community commentary.)
As some of you may have noticed - or not, as the case may be - I have recently been slightly 'out of it' in regards to our community. Rather than sit around doing nothing with my time I decided I needed something constructive to do with my plentiful free time. From this sprang both my LP of Quartz (in the Hacking section) and, of course, the rebirth of GDW. The fact that my first attempt at reviving GDW was a little discouraging, but after steeling myself I decided to dive in again, and finally here we are!
It will take some time for me to become fully acquainted with all of the new projects which have sprung up in my partial absence, but I hope that by the next issue I will be able to impart some enlightening commentary.
Well, once again; welcome back to GDW, and I hope you enjoy the read!
[a id]rhn1-reviews[/a id]
Pokemon Rise of Oblivion/Demise Preview by T3h Kaiser
THREAD
[a id]rhn1-section ID here[/a id]
Interview with Minorthreat0987 by Yuoaman
(Note: Interviewer comments in bold)
[a id]rhn1-section ID here[/a id]
Pokemon Scarlet Sneak Peak by the Scarlet Team
Who could those be?
Say hello to Scarlet's first Gym Leader.
That's right, everyone: Scarlet has their own TCG!
Pokemon Malachite Sneak Peak by PokemonOI
[a id]rhn1-section ID here[/a id]
Fakemon Guide by ZephyrPlusle
Rural Route Mapping Guide by Yuoaman
(The wee hours of the night... truly the greatest time to do some mapping.)
[a id]rhn1-section ID here[/a id]
**All opinions expressed in articles published in GDW are the opinions of the author of said article, not GDW as a whole, or other writers.**
Game Developer's World
The PokéCommunity's Game Developer publication~!
The PokéCommunity's Game Developer publication~!
Issue 7 - December 24th, 2009
Developed by: YuoamanWelcome! Welcome to GDW!
Well, we're finally back, after several months and a couple of failed attempts GDW is finally back on PC. And not a moment too soon, I believe, as the Game Development section has reached a peak in activity recently, with a multitude of amazing projects for display. We here at GDW hope to help you, the PC Game Dev community, by delving deep into the murky waters of our community and pulling forth the gleaming gems (and some... less than gleaming things as well) embedded there.(Here ends the flowery introductions, and begins regular community commentary.)
As some of you may have noticed - or not, as the case may be - I have recently been slightly 'out of it' in regards to our community. Rather than sit around doing nothing with my time I decided I needed something constructive to do with my plentiful free time. From this sprang both my LP of Quartz (in the Hacking section) and, of course, the rebirth of GDW. The fact that my first attempt at reviving GDW was a little discouraging, but after steeling myself I decided to dive in again, and finally here we are!
It will take some time for me to become fully acquainted with all of the new projects which have sprung up in my partial absence, but I hope that by the next issue I will be able to impart some enlightening commentary.
Well, once again; welcome back to GDW, and I hope you enjoy the read!
[a id]rhn1-reviews[/a id]
Reviews and Previews! Checking out this game!
Pokemon Rise of Oblivion/Demise Preview by T3h Kaiser
THREAD
Spoiler:
You're a young kid living in a world not unlike our own, but one that also just so happens to be full of magical creatures. Nobody special, you just try and make your way through Pokemon school so that maybe one day you can journey into this funky fresh world and make a name for yourself. One prophetic dream later and your whole life gets turned upside down. Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so, too.
This is the story of Pokemon Rise of Oblivion/Demise, a fangame with an identity crisis so severe that it sees fit to advertise it in the title. It's being made by our very own Freak A, a strapping young lad with a mere 30-something posts to his name. It debuted some two months ago, and seems to be made using RPG Maker XP. You know, this is still sounding oddly familiar.
After receiving this dream-vision the evening prior to your final day at Trainer School, you find a letter addressed to you - quaintly referring to you as the Chosen One - written by the curiously-named ???. Tracking him down, you find an old man who gifts you with two Pokemon for seemingly no reason. Why two? Because Rise of Oblivion/Demise is unique, gosh darn it. Your starter choices include an angry fire chicken, a grassy koala thug and... Psyduck. The elderly man then proceeds to explain the meaning behind your earlier dream, but... hey, who has time for all of that business?! You have Trainer School to attend!
Upon returning to school, you find yourself getting back into the same old routine you had before this whole dream business ever started. This humble journalist would like to suggest that this is not, in fact, poor pacing, but instead clever symbolism being used to demonstrate youth culture's tendency to ignore world crises and instead drown themselves in their own sedentary lifestyles. Bravo, Freak A; you are a poet among scribes, and a god among men.
From this magnificent introduction, we see the protagonist begin his fantastic journey with Pokemon... after receiving his parent's permission, of course. Along the way, we're promised several delightfully cookie cutter friends, copious amounts of homages to Sliders as well as cameos made by Kingdom Hearts' Organization XIII!
If that shockingly mundane plot wasn't enough to convince you to board the hype train, then perhaps the sprite butchery will. Each character is said to be inspired by members of the team responsible for this game, which makes me wonder if the resemblance is meant to be physical or not. Clearly not a fan of scratch sprites, Freak A has opted instead to craft his cast using various parts of existing sprites; this results in a whole family of Frankensteins, evoking a feeling far worse than Uncanny Valley upon sight. "It's so bad that it's good" is a phrase sometimes used to assuage such atrocities... but unfortunately, these sprites just barely miss that mark. They're simply bad.
Continuing the trend of things that are bad, the maps of RoO/D make an inspired use of both 3rd and 4th generation tiles. This clever mishmash is a technique rarely seen in fangames, most notably because it is a very bad idea. The end result, as seen in the screenshot detailing the protagonist's "gratuation", is freakishly inappropriate. While the ground below appears silky smooth, the tables and stairs and whatnot are all rough and far too large. This says nothing of the map design itself, which is both spacious and mildly dull.
All told, Pokemon Rise of Oblivion/Demise ranges from the spectacularly-bad to the just-plain-bad. From the confusing name and the awkward sprite job to the stale characters and a storyline ripped right out of fanfiction.net's junk file, Freak A has a comedy gold mine on his hands. On the upside, however, there is definite room for improvement. With enough love and care (not to mention a new title), the game could be something worth playing... even if it does still sound way too familiar.
~T3h Kaiser
This is the story of Pokemon Rise of Oblivion/Demise, a fangame with an identity crisis so severe that it sees fit to advertise it in the title. It's being made by our very own Freak A, a strapping young lad with a mere 30-something posts to his name. It debuted some two months ago, and seems to be made using RPG Maker XP. You know, this is still sounding oddly familiar.
After receiving this dream-vision the evening prior to your final day at Trainer School, you find a letter addressed to you - quaintly referring to you as the Chosen One - written by the curiously-named ???. Tracking him down, you find an old man who gifts you with two Pokemon for seemingly no reason. Why two? Because Rise of Oblivion/Demise is unique, gosh darn it. Your starter choices include an angry fire chicken, a grassy koala thug and... Psyduck. The elderly man then proceeds to explain the meaning behind your earlier dream, but... hey, who has time for all of that business?! You have Trainer School to attend!
Upon returning to school, you find yourself getting back into the same old routine you had before this whole dream business ever started. This humble journalist would like to suggest that this is not, in fact, poor pacing, but instead clever symbolism being used to demonstrate youth culture's tendency to ignore world crises and instead drown themselves in their own sedentary lifestyles. Bravo, Freak A; you are a poet among scribes, and a god among men.
From this magnificent introduction, we see the protagonist begin his fantastic journey with Pokemon... after receiving his parent's permission, of course. Along the way, we're promised several delightfully cookie cutter friends, copious amounts of homages to Sliders as well as cameos made by Kingdom Hearts' Organization XIII!
If that shockingly mundane plot wasn't enough to convince you to board the hype train, then perhaps the sprite butchery will. Each character is said to be inspired by members of the team responsible for this game, which makes me wonder if the resemblance is meant to be physical or not. Clearly not a fan of scratch sprites, Freak A has opted instead to craft his cast using various parts of existing sprites; this results in a whole family of Frankensteins, evoking a feeling far worse than Uncanny Valley upon sight. "It's so bad that it's good" is a phrase sometimes used to assuage such atrocities... but unfortunately, these sprites just barely miss that mark. They're simply bad.
Continuing the trend of things that are bad, the maps of RoO/D make an inspired use of both 3rd and 4th generation tiles. This clever mishmash is a technique rarely seen in fangames, most notably because it is a very bad idea. The end result, as seen in the screenshot detailing the protagonist's "gratuation", is freakishly inappropriate. While the ground below appears silky smooth, the tables and stairs and whatnot are all rough and far too large. This says nothing of the map design itself, which is both spacious and mildly dull.
All told, Pokemon Rise of Oblivion/Demise ranges from the spectacularly-bad to the just-plain-bad. From the confusing name and the awkward sprite job to the stale characters and a storyline ripped right out of fanfiction.net's junk file, Freak A has a comedy gold mine on his hands. On the upside, however, there is definite room for improvement. With enough love and care (not to mention a new title), the game could be something worth playing... even if it does still sound way too familiar.
~T3h Kaiser
[a id]rhn1-section ID here[/a id]
Interviews and Round Tables! Hear what they have to say!
Interview with Minorthreat0987 by Yuoaman
(Note: Interviewer comments in bold)
Spoiler:
First I'd like to thank you, Minorthreat, for agreeing to this interview.
~Your very welcome, I enjoy talking about all this kind of stuff! Glad to help out GDW as well.~
Thanks Minor, my first question for you is: what first got you interested in game development?
~It was one of Neo-Dragon's first games, Pokemon Silk I believe, I saw a banner in his signature on some forum and I just got interested and started messing with RM2K3.~
Nice, Minor. What was your first major project.
~I forget the title, I think it was like Pokemon Teal, some name that wasn't thought out well and had no weight to it, haha. But it was supposed to be a G/S/C remake in FR/LG graphics, I had mapped all the way up to like Mahogany Town, but only coded like to Violet city. But that was years before I started posting them on pokecommunity. My first one there was Pokemon Golden Heights, again a G/S/C remake but it was way better than the first one. I learned a lot about design by that time and I was more skilled.
Haha, I think we've all had projects like that - taking off far more than we can chew at the time. Anyways, What part of the development process do you find most appealing?
~As far as like which position in game development to I prefer the most?
Oh well I think I most prefer being a mapper, but I must say leading a project isn't to bad either, you can get away with doing less, haha just kidding, but I think that leading is a good position because it lets you do a little bit of everything, but also the project doesn't rely on how well you can do each aspect and how speedy you are with your work. Mapping is just the most fun because it allows you to create your own environment, and gives you the ability to plan out your own land. I think its possible the most creative position in game development since with out a good mapper, its difficult for a fangame to look professional and to be successful as far as aesthetics go.~
Nice answer, now Where do you get inspiration for your projects?
~Ah inspiration, well a lot of it comes simply from ideas that I think would be neat, or cosmetics that work well together and provide the player of the game with things to look at when they are playing the game to kep them interested. Also I like to have fan input especially since to me the point of fangames are to provide the community with the things they feel are lacking from offical games.
Also a little friendly competion doesn't hurt. I often find myself trying to outbeat fellow fan games with innovating ideas an concepts.~
Haha, everyone loves a little competition. Okay, what direction do you hope that Scarlet goes in under your leadership?
~Well I hope it goes in a direction that allows it to be the best that it can be. The project is forever chaging and evolving, I just want to help propell the project in a direction that makes it the best it can be. A project of this size really developes it self, with the team that I have the amount of work that I have to do is very minimal as far as makes the project good. I just have to help manage the project and push it in the directions that we, as in the Scarlet team, feel best. I think that within the coming weeks I hope that people will begin to really get a feeling about what Pokemon Scarlet is all about, and trust me when I tell you, there is a lot of awesome things going in behind the scenes with Pokemon Scarlet, I just hope that people see it as the best version of Scalet yet because it definitely is one of the best, in my opinion.~
Good, long, answer Minor. Which project posted on PC do you consider your favorite, and why?
~Haha, I take it I can't say Pokemon Scarlet then huh? Well as for the other projects I must say that Pokemon Garnet is by far one of the best project I have seen. The pokemon and trainer sprites are amazing. The tilework is out of this world it is just the best graphic game that I have seen in awhile, and I'm a sucker for awesome graphics thats what really sucks me in and I must say that Pokemon Garnet has really sucked me in.~
What feature, that other projects have used, to you wish you could implement into Scarlet, Minorthreat?
~Duel Screen system with a "touch" feature with the mouse. Its just a good idea, it allows for a lot of features to be added. I just think that its an awesome way to incorporate a lot of new and fresh ideas to the game. Its just a little bit out of my range with my scripting abilities unfortunately.~
Alright then, this is the final question Minorthreat: What Pokemon design, area, or feature from Scarlet do you consider your favorite?
~I believe that the story is my favorite aspect of scarlet. Its just so unique and I think that the portions of the story that haven't really been released yet really tie together all the loose holes in the plot, and I think that the story is unique and is very interesting in the fact that it ties together backbones from official nintendo designs, and incorporates designs of our own ideas together with those of Nintendo's and it seems to work flawlessly, and trust me when I say that the outcome is pure awesomeness!~
~Your very welcome, I enjoy talking about all this kind of stuff! Glad to help out GDW as well.~
Thanks Minor, my first question for you is: what first got you interested in game development?
~It was one of Neo-Dragon's first games, Pokemon Silk I believe, I saw a banner in his signature on some forum and I just got interested and started messing with RM2K3.~
Nice, Minor. What was your first major project.
~I forget the title, I think it was like Pokemon Teal, some name that wasn't thought out well and had no weight to it, haha. But it was supposed to be a G/S/C remake in FR/LG graphics, I had mapped all the way up to like Mahogany Town, but only coded like to Violet city. But that was years before I started posting them on pokecommunity. My first one there was Pokemon Golden Heights, again a G/S/C remake but it was way better than the first one. I learned a lot about design by that time and I was more skilled.
Haha, I think we've all had projects like that - taking off far more than we can chew at the time. Anyways, What part of the development process do you find most appealing?
~As far as like which position in game development to I prefer the most?
Oh well I think I most prefer being a mapper, but I must say leading a project isn't to bad either, you can get away with doing less, haha just kidding, but I think that leading is a good position because it lets you do a little bit of everything, but also the project doesn't rely on how well you can do each aspect and how speedy you are with your work. Mapping is just the most fun because it allows you to create your own environment, and gives you the ability to plan out your own land. I think its possible the most creative position in game development since with out a good mapper, its difficult for a fangame to look professional and to be successful as far as aesthetics go.~
Nice answer, now Where do you get inspiration for your projects?
~Ah inspiration, well a lot of it comes simply from ideas that I think would be neat, or cosmetics that work well together and provide the player of the game with things to look at when they are playing the game to kep them interested. Also I like to have fan input especially since to me the point of fangames are to provide the community with the things they feel are lacking from offical games.
Also a little friendly competion doesn't hurt. I often find myself trying to outbeat fellow fan games with innovating ideas an concepts.~
Haha, everyone loves a little competition. Okay, what direction do you hope that Scarlet goes in under your leadership?
~Well I hope it goes in a direction that allows it to be the best that it can be. The project is forever chaging and evolving, I just want to help propell the project in a direction that makes it the best it can be. A project of this size really developes it self, with the team that I have the amount of work that I have to do is very minimal as far as makes the project good. I just have to help manage the project and push it in the directions that we, as in the Scarlet team, feel best. I think that within the coming weeks I hope that people will begin to really get a feeling about what Pokemon Scarlet is all about, and trust me when I tell you, there is a lot of awesome things going in behind the scenes with Pokemon Scarlet, I just hope that people see it as the best version of Scalet yet because it definitely is one of the best, in my opinion.~
Good, long, answer Minor. Which project posted on PC do you consider your favorite, and why?
~Haha, I take it I can't say Pokemon Scarlet then huh? Well as for the other projects I must say that Pokemon Garnet is by far one of the best project I have seen. The pokemon and trainer sprites are amazing. The tilework is out of this world it is just the best graphic game that I have seen in awhile, and I'm a sucker for awesome graphics thats what really sucks me in and I must say that Pokemon Garnet has really sucked me in.~
What feature, that other projects have used, to you wish you could implement into Scarlet, Minorthreat?
~Duel Screen system with a "touch" feature with the mouse. Its just a good idea, it allows for a lot of features to be added. I just think that its an awesome way to incorporate a lot of new and fresh ideas to the game. Its just a little bit out of my range with my scripting abilities unfortunately.~
Alright then, this is the final question Minorthreat: What Pokemon design, area, or feature from Scarlet do you consider your favorite?
~I believe that the story is my favorite aspect of scarlet. Its just so unique and I think that the portions of the story that haven't really been released yet really tie together all the loose holes in the plot, and I think that the story is unique and is very interesting in the fact that it ties together backbones from official nintendo designs, and incorporates designs of our own ideas together with those of Nintendo's and it seems to work flawlessly, and trust me when I say that the outcome is pure awesomeness!~
[a id]rhn1-section ID here[/a id]
Sneak Peaks and Developer Announcements! Info on your favorite projects!
Pokemon Scarlet Sneak Peak by the Scarlet Team
Spoiler:
Who could those be?
Say hello to Scarlet's first Gym Leader.
That's right, everyone: Scarlet has their own TCG!
Pokemon Malachite Sneak Peak by PokemonOI
Spoiler:
(image no longer exists)
HERE
HERE
[a id]rhn1-section ID here[/a id]
Pro Tips So that's how you do it.
Fakemon Guide by ZephyrPlusle
Spoiler:
Fakemon Guide
If there's one thing that I'd consider utterly polarizing among the Pokemon game dev community, it'd be Fakemon. Some people loathe them, and seeing any fakes in a game is an immediate signal for them to stop playing. Others aren't at all interested in games with existing Pokemon. Choosing to have fakemon in your game is dangerous, but it opens up new possibilities for your story.
...Not that people do that very often, of course; 90% (well actually more like 100%) of original-region, fake-Pokemon games simply travel along existing, stereotypical pathways. You have your reptillian grass starter, your red-mammal-with-fire-on-it fire starter, and your blue water starter that's whatever the heck you want it to be (but probably some sort of dinosaur). And you know what? Clicheity isn't bad; it works, and it appeals to mostly everyone besides those that would nitpick and complain (me). But in order to make that appeal, it at least has to be well-designed.
Let me put it basically: a well-designed unoriginal fake is more appealing than an ugly but creative one. Note that I didn't say better. I've seen -lots- of things where the designer had a brilliant idea but wasn't by any stretch a spriter. And nobody notices them if the artist isn't good! It's really rather sad, but you as a designer can find ways to circumvent this.
Three ways to make your fakes more appealing:
1. Practice practice practice. You will get better in time if you practice drawing and spriting.
2. Look at existing Pokemon when you make yours. Does it look like it could be a Pokemon? Is it in the same style as the official ones?
3. If you really think you can't improve, find a spriter. They're rare but not unheard of. There's plenty in this community.
...Oh, and about the spriter thing. I'm gonna hawk my own personal opinion here: SPRITES COME FIRST. Before Sugi art. Geez. I see so many game projects focus all their attention on the "official" art before they even get one or two sprites done coughacanthitecough. This does not help. What it does do is plunge your game into development hell; you start nitpicking over designs, and one artist inevitably gets shouldered with the entire thing. And then when you actually start developing the game (which should come first before even that), you don't have anything useable-- just a bunch of oversize art. It's -nice- as a spriter to have something to base your designs on rather than coming up with them on the spot, but what this practice ends up amounting to is a huge timewaster that will decimate otherwise good game projects.
What you could also do is find a spriter with an existing fakedex that would be willing to share, or let you make a game out of their region. I mean, really. Although most of the well-known spriters with fakedexes will be opposed to something like that, there are plenty of second-tier spriters who simply have a region project, a multitude of decently-designed fakemon, and nowhere to go. You, as a developer, can offer them that opportunity (something I so rarely see). Of course, it also means you'll have to be more susceptible to their demands; this choice is better made by game projects really early in their development, because if you try to stick their fakes straight into your region, there might be some inconsistencies.
Now, let's look at some of the community's more well-known game projects and see how they use fakemon. Commence the flamebaiting!
Malachite: The archetypal fakemon game, if there ever was one. An original region with TONS of fakemon, interspersed with existing ones; their dedicated spriters have nearly finished an entire dex, complete with evos and prevos of such lines as Psyduck, Luvdisc, and Tauros. The fakes are of varying quality-- on the one hand, there are multiple ones that are glorified real-life animals (chipmunks and the like) with uncreative names like Flamous (a fire mouse). On the other hand, there are some truly brilliant ones, like the fire starters. With a slightly greater devotion to quality (and less abuse of the circle tool), these Pokemon could be excellent. As it is now, they're still pretty good. (also, sprites first! Good job, OI!)
Nebula: Gets a lot of well-deserved attention for its fakes. Darthvagabond is simply an incredible spriter with brilliant ideas, and is able to turn even the most ludicrous fan suggestions ("Make a rabid Buneary!") into cleverly-designed Hunt Pokemon. However, that's unfortunately as far as the game gets. With so much emphasis placed on making the exquisitely designed and diverse fakes (with more made-up types than you can shake a stick at [seriously, Wind-type? Virus-type? I can deal with Light and Alien to a degree, but why those when you already have Flying and Poison?]), there's next to no actual game development going on here. It's basically just a condensation of fanboyish fantasies into game form, backed by a superb spriter but with next to no hope of launching anything playable.
Kyle's MMO: This one is so far down on the fakemon scale that it uses NO real Pokemon. This is utterly intentional, according to Kyle, since they ultimately want it to not be Pokemon at all. I don't really have a problem with this; the fakes are well-designed, if simplistic.
Pokemon Opal: The only game on PC that I know of with a female developer, so kudos to her. However that's not relevant right now; we're looking at this game's fakemon. And, well... they're unimaginatively designed. Very much so. When your starters look basically the same but with different colors, something's gone wrong. There are lots of great ideas here, which makes it an example of what I said above: good concepts, poor execution. I'd love to see an electric-type tiger line, but not stripeless ones that are basically the same thing made bigger twice. This is a case of the artists needing to cross-reference existing Pokemon: the fakemon are adorable and interesting, but their not being in style means people just browsing through won't think "this is a bona fide Pokemon fangame" upon seeing Opal. They'll think "oh, some girl that thinks she can make fakemon, huh." Also, Sprites Before Art please!
Uranium: A little on how I design my fakes for Uranium (yes, it's me! You might have been wondering, "how is this girl at all qualified to talk about this?" Well now you know). I get a concept in my head first, or a prompt: for example, our second gym leader built his gym in a cave that he excavated, and uses cave Pokemon. But we needed a Pokemon the players hadn't seen before, in order to mix it up. So I associated caves and excavation with moles, and drills because I had been watching TTGL. I them sketched a couple designs for a ground/dark mole fakemon with a drill on its nose, and an evo that's a mole with tusks that have drills on the end of them. I almost always sketch my fakes out on paper before I sprite them, nowadays; whether or not that helps you sprite, I don't know. Oh, and we also use the hijack-existing-dex method with Kees, our other spriter, who has plenty of inspired fakes that we pick and choose from to make up around 50% of the dex. The others are mine and existing Pokemon, with some designed by other fakemon makers.
tl;dr: Sprites before Sugi art, more creativity plx, quality too.
If people are interested, I'll write a follow-up article that's a step-by-step fakemon designing procedure. Or I'll do a fakemon review, where I take apart what makes a fake (that you, the readers, will nominate) and suggest ways to improve upon it. What do you say?
If there's one thing that I'd consider utterly polarizing among the Pokemon game dev community, it'd be Fakemon. Some people loathe them, and seeing any fakes in a game is an immediate signal for them to stop playing. Others aren't at all interested in games with existing Pokemon. Choosing to have fakemon in your game is dangerous, but it opens up new possibilities for your story.
...Not that people do that very often, of course; 90% (well actually more like 100%) of original-region, fake-Pokemon games simply travel along existing, stereotypical pathways. You have your reptillian grass starter, your red-mammal-with-fire-on-it fire starter, and your blue water starter that's whatever the heck you want it to be (but probably some sort of dinosaur). And you know what? Clicheity isn't bad; it works, and it appeals to mostly everyone besides those that would nitpick and complain (me). But in order to make that appeal, it at least has to be well-designed.
Let me put it basically: a well-designed unoriginal fake is more appealing than an ugly but creative one. Note that I didn't say better. I've seen -lots- of things where the designer had a brilliant idea but wasn't by any stretch a spriter. And nobody notices them if the artist isn't good! It's really rather sad, but you as a designer can find ways to circumvent this.
Three ways to make your fakes more appealing:
1. Practice practice practice. You will get better in time if you practice drawing and spriting.
2. Look at existing Pokemon when you make yours. Does it look like it could be a Pokemon? Is it in the same style as the official ones?
3. If you really think you can't improve, find a spriter. They're rare but not unheard of. There's plenty in this community.
...Oh, and about the spriter thing. I'm gonna hawk my own personal opinion here: SPRITES COME FIRST. Before Sugi art. Geez. I see so many game projects focus all their attention on the "official" art before they even get one or two sprites done coughacanthitecough. This does not help. What it does do is plunge your game into development hell; you start nitpicking over designs, and one artist inevitably gets shouldered with the entire thing. And then when you actually start developing the game (which should come first before even that), you don't have anything useable-- just a bunch of oversize art. It's -nice- as a spriter to have something to base your designs on rather than coming up with them on the spot, but what this practice ends up amounting to is a huge timewaster that will decimate otherwise good game projects.
What you could also do is find a spriter with an existing fakedex that would be willing to share, or let you make a game out of their region. I mean, really. Although most of the well-known spriters with fakedexes will be opposed to something like that, there are plenty of second-tier spriters who simply have a region project, a multitude of decently-designed fakemon, and nowhere to go. You, as a developer, can offer them that opportunity (something I so rarely see). Of course, it also means you'll have to be more susceptible to their demands; this choice is better made by game projects really early in their development, because if you try to stick their fakes straight into your region, there might be some inconsistencies.
Now, let's look at some of the community's more well-known game projects and see how they use fakemon. Commence the flamebaiting!
Malachite: The archetypal fakemon game, if there ever was one. An original region with TONS of fakemon, interspersed with existing ones; their dedicated spriters have nearly finished an entire dex, complete with evos and prevos of such lines as Psyduck, Luvdisc, and Tauros. The fakes are of varying quality-- on the one hand, there are multiple ones that are glorified real-life animals (chipmunks and the like) with uncreative names like Flamous (a fire mouse). On the other hand, there are some truly brilliant ones, like the fire starters. With a slightly greater devotion to quality (and less abuse of the circle tool), these Pokemon could be excellent. As it is now, they're still pretty good. (also, sprites first! Good job, OI!)
Nebula: Gets a lot of well-deserved attention for its fakes. Darthvagabond is simply an incredible spriter with brilliant ideas, and is able to turn even the most ludicrous fan suggestions ("Make a rabid Buneary!") into cleverly-designed Hunt Pokemon. However, that's unfortunately as far as the game gets. With so much emphasis placed on making the exquisitely designed and diverse fakes (with more made-up types than you can shake a stick at [seriously, Wind-type? Virus-type? I can deal with Light and Alien to a degree, but why those when you already have Flying and Poison?]), there's next to no actual game development going on here. It's basically just a condensation of fanboyish fantasies into game form, backed by a superb spriter but with next to no hope of launching anything playable.
Kyle's MMO: This one is so far down on the fakemon scale that it uses NO real Pokemon. This is utterly intentional, according to Kyle, since they ultimately want it to not be Pokemon at all. I don't really have a problem with this; the fakes are well-designed, if simplistic.
Pokemon Opal: The only game on PC that I know of with a female developer, so kudos to her. However that's not relevant right now; we're looking at this game's fakemon. And, well... they're unimaginatively designed. Very much so. When your starters look basically the same but with different colors, something's gone wrong. There are lots of great ideas here, which makes it an example of what I said above: good concepts, poor execution. I'd love to see an electric-type tiger line, but not stripeless ones that are basically the same thing made bigger twice. This is a case of the artists needing to cross-reference existing Pokemon: the fakemon are adorable and interesting, but their not being in style means people just browsing through won't think "this is a bona fide Pokemon fangame" upon seeing Opal. They'll think "oh, some girl that thinks she can make fakemon, huh." Also, Sprites Before Art please!
Uranium: A little on how I design my fakes for Uranium (yes, it's me! You might have been wondering, "how is this girl at all qualified to talk about this?" Well now you know). I get a concept in my head first, or a prompt: for example, our second gym leader built his gym in a cave that he excavated, and uses cave Pokemon. But we needed a Pokemon the players hadn't seen before, in order to mix it up. So I associated caves and excavation with moles, and drills because I had been watching TTGL. I them sketched a couple designs for a ground/dark mole fakemon with a drill on its nose, and an evo that's a mole with tusks that have drills on the end of them. I almost always sketch my fakes out on paper before I sprite them, nowadays; whether or not that helps you sprite, I don't know. Oh, and we also use the hijack-existing-dex method with Kees, our other spriter, who has plenty of inspired fakes that we pick and choose from to make up around 50% of the dex. The others are mine and existing Pokemon, with some designed by other fakemon makers.
tl;dr: Sprites before Sugi art, more creativity plx, quality too.
If people are interested, I'll write a follow-up article that's a step-by-step fakemon designing procedure. Or I'll do a fakemon review, where I take apart what makes a fake (that you, the readers, will nominate) and suggest ways to improve upon it. What do you say?
Rural Route Mapping Guide by Yuoaman
(The wee hours of the night... truly the greatest time to do some mapping.)
Spoiler:
Step One:
This is pretty simplistic, just create your map and fill it with grass.
Step Two:
Another rather simple step, just mark out your basic treeline, though of course, if you already have an idea of what you want to do you can skip this step.
Step Three:
Fill in all of your trees. Just remember, DP style trees cover an extra space to the side when not overlapping another tree, so be sure to go through and add the tree edges.
Step Four:
Add in your grass. Be sure to always put your grass in first when mapping rural areas, as people won't have done as much to push the wild grasses out of the way of paths.
Step Five:
Put in your paths and the signs representing new areas. Another simple step, just be sure to make the paths make sense, in areas with more grass people are usually going to shy away from grass, while when there is no grass along a straight area the path will usually widen.
Step Six:
Fill in other details like flowers, small trees, signs, and other such things.
I know my mapping in this tutorial isn't the greatest, but it is just a demonstration on how easy mapping can be.
This is pretty simplistic, just create your map and fill it with grass.
Step Two:
Another rather simple step, just mark out your basic treeline, though of course, if you already have an idea of what you want to do you can skip this step.
Step Three:
Fill in all of your trees. Just remember, DP style trees cover an extra space to the side when not overlapping another tree, so be sure to go through and add the tree edges.
Step Four:
Add in your grass. Be sure to always put your grass in first when mapping rural areas, as people won't have done as much to push the wild grasses out of the way of paths.
Step Five:
Put in your paths and the signs representing new areas. Another simple step, just be sure to make the paths make sense, in areas with more grass people are usually going to shy away from grass, while when there is no grass along a straight area the path will usually widen.
Step Six:
Fill in other details like flowers, small trees, signs, and other such things.
I know my mapping in this tutorial isn't the greatest, but it is just a demonstration on how easy mapping can be.
[a id]rhn1-section ID here[/a id]
Credits Who are you people!?
Here we list those who've contributed something to GDW, maybe you could be here someday?
Yuoaman - Editor
Penor, Mono, penor.
Vampire://Krimm - CSS Designer
You made this possible Krimm!
T3h Kaiser - Critic Extraordinaire
He is, at that.
ZephyrPlusle - Tip Writer
Thank you very much for being the first to submit an article for GDW's rebirth, Zephyr.
Yuoaman - Editor
Penor, Mono, penor.
Vampire://Krimm - CSS Designer
You made this possible Krimm!
T3h Kaiser - Critic Extraordinaire
He is, at that.
ZephyrPlusle - Tip Writer
Thank you very much for being the first to submit an article for GDW's rebirth, Zephyr.
**All opinions expressed in articles published in GDW are the opinions of the author of said article, not GDW as a whole, or other writers.**
Last edited: