Hello! New here, some questions...

[jamiedix0n]

I hope I've posted this is in the right place...

Anyway...

I'm new to making Pokemon fan games though I have experimented with a few I don't have much experience.

I REALLY want to make a game based on the story of the Hoenn Anime Arc. Similar to how Pokemon Ash Grey was made but with more cutscenes etc and I have a few questions.

Which would be better to use.. Pokemon Essentials and RPG Maker or editing a Pokemon game with Advance map and other related tools? I thought the obvious choice would be to use Emerald and edit that but does anyone have advice on what I should do.

Can I make it so for certain battles I'd use Ash and his Pokemon, but then for other battles I'd use May and her Pokemon for example? (I haven't seen this anywhere)

How hard is it to implement Pokemon contests into fan games?

I won't actually be starting this hack until April as that's when I finish university and can fully start to invest my time into making the game. But I'm pretty excited to get started.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[DizzyEgg]

Depends. If you're a total noob, I advise choosing essentials.

 

[jamiedix0n]

I'm a noob when it comes to creating games, but have some experience in coding websites etc if that helps.

Also, love the Fantastic Dizzy pic! Brings back so many memories XD

 

[DizzyEgg]

I'm a noob when it comes to creating games, but have some experience in coding websites etc if that helps.

Also, love the Fantastic Dizzy pic! Brings back so many memories XD

Yeah, I've got some nice childhood memories with that game too. :)

Well if you have some experience with coding I think you may able to tackle rom-hacking.

Both ways of creating a poke game have their advantages and disadvantages. I think it would be best if you gave a try both romhacking and rpg game making. I'm a rom-hacker myself, so my opinion would be obviously biased. :P

 

[AkameTheBulbasaur]

Generally using something like Essentials is less restrictive, because you're not limited by what the base game is capable of (although ASM can do quite a lot, but if you've never done it before/only done it a little then it would probably take a while to learn enough to create custom routines. It's not impossible though!)

I've never used Pokemon Essentials so I don't know how low the barrier of entry is. Even if you do use Essentials, you still have to code the features yourself (I believe RPG Maker and it's derivatives use a variant of Ruby, but I'm not 100% sure), and that might take a while to learn how to do more complex stuff, but I'm sure it's not all that hard given how many tutorials there are out there on how to do certain scripts.

If you want to be able to play the game on actual hardware (aside from a computer), then you'd probably want to do a ROM hack, because those are already GBA files, so you can just get a flashcart and put it on. I don't know if you even care about that, but that was something I wanted from the beginning so maybe someone else cares too. As far as I know, I don't know of a way to put RPG Maker games on hardware other than computers, but if there is a way out there then ignore this part.

This will more than likely be a multi-year process no matter which you choose, so be prepared for that. Best of luck!

 

[jamiedix0n]

OK well I think I'm going to do a rom hack as Pokemon Essentials battling seems very buggy at first look.

I know its going to take a LONG time, but it'll be worth it if it works out :)

 

[jamiedix0n]

Also, does anyone know the best place to request/find fan-made sprites of characters (such as Harley and Drew)