Pokémon TCG Adventure [Recruiting]

[TCG_RPG]

TCG Adventure
​

What Is This Project?
In 1998, Nintendo released "Pokémon Trading Card Game" for the Gameboy, an RPG in which you collected Pokemon Cards and used them to duel NPCs in the Pokemon TCG. In 2001 they released the Japan-only sequel, "Pokémon Card GB2: Great Rocket-Dan Sanjo!" which expanded the card pool slightly and continued the story. However, both the first game and its sequel are limited to only containing cards for Gen 1 Pokemon, and there has never been another entry in this series after that. If you've ever wanted to explore an RPG world and collect cards featuring modern Pokemon from Gens 2 onward, then you've been out of luck until now.

The goal of this project is to imagine what a successor to these games would look like if Nintendo had made a sequel in the GBA or DS era of Pokemon. All Pokemon TCG cards up to the XY series will be collectable within the game. (Some later cards may appear, but not necessarily all.) Furthermore, all older cards (and even some particularly broken newer cards) will be updated and rebalanced to be more in line with the average power level of the XY era of the TCG.

I am creating this project in Unity, and I am currently fulfilling all roles (programming, art, and design) by myself. I do have the ability to do all of these things myself, but it will take a long time on my own, so I'm making this thread to recruit anybody who's interested in helping lighten the load for me in any area.

I want to create a fun and relatively balanced Single-Player Card Collecting RPG experience. The goal is not to create a competitive multiplayer TCG simulator. I have no intention of competing with Nintendo's Trading Card Online or TCG Live apps for that. No multiplayer of any kind is planned at this time (although I may implement trading if there's a demand for it), and the game is not being balanced for competitive multiplayer.

Story
This game will not continue the stories of the GB TCG games. Set in the traditional Pokemon Universe, with the exception that nobody has any memory of Pokemon existing, this game will see the player traveling across several regions facing off against Gym Leaders in Pokemon TCG Duels in order to become the TCG Champion of the world. Pokemon Trading Cards are mysterious artifacts that were discovered only recently, but have skyrocketed in popularity and taken the world by storm.

The game begins with the player, having washed up on the shores of Pallet Town, rescued by Professor Oak, a researcher of all things Pokemon Cards. The player has no possessions on them except for a mysterious Ancient Pokemon Card that they remember nothing about. In return for the chance to study this ancient card, the Professor offers the player one of multiple Starter Decks, and teaches them how to play the Pokemon TCG, then sets them on their way to become a champion.

The story and characters of each region will generally follow similar beats to their associated games, but Cards instead of Pokemon existing will lead to changes here and there.

General Gameplay
Rather than roaming through an entire mapped out world like a traditional Pokemon Game, this game will see the player selecting cities and sub-locations from a World Map menu, where they will then find NPCs to speak with and Duel against. These smaller areas will be mapped out and will use Pokemon Essentials graphics. Players may tackle the regions and Gym Leaders in any order, provided they manage to complete the various quests associated with each Leader. As the player plays, they will unlock more cards, complete side-quests, and unlock various cosmetic collectibles, all while learning bits and pieces about their own mysterious circumstances.

The battle system will follow the rules of the TCG, and function similarly to the GB Games, albeit with some updates for modern convenience.

Screenshots
All of these screenshots are in-engine, developed in Unity. Please note however that the project is quite early in development and these screenshots won't necessarily reflect the final appearance of the game.

Spoiler:

(Snapshots of the "Card View" Screen. The equivalent of this screen in the GB game.
This is what the player sees when viewing a card in detail to read its ability descriptions or view other information.)

(Very early snapshot of the Duel Screen. The equivalent of this screen in the GB game.
Much of the UI here is placeholder to test the extremities. Normally only as many circles as represent a Pokemon's Max HP will be shown.)

(Early snapshot of the "Play Area" Screen. The equivalent of this screen in the GB game.
UI elements and Background are not done yet.)
​

What Kind of Help I'm Looking For
As said previously, the goal is to update old Pokemon cards to follow modern standards. To give examples of what that means, here are some instances of Nintendo reprinting old cards with rebalances or updates to either buff them to be usable with modern cards, or nerf them to stop them from being completely broken:

Spoiler:

As you can imagine, there are lot of Pokemon cards, and updating them all to comply with modern standards is quite the task. I've already updated hundreds of cards on my own, and intend to continue regardless, but what I'm mainly looking for are people to help me in that area, whether it's just having someone else to consult with over grey areas, or having people to divide up the work.

All you need in order to help is either some level of familiarity with the TCG, or a willingness to learn, along with a good design sense.

Later on, it would also eventually be helpful to have people willing to help build decks for NPCs to use, as well as contributing ideas for dialogue and side-quests.

As far as programming and art go, I'm not actively in need of any assistance (although, any artists/spriters willing to contribute, or programmers familiar with Unity are welcome). I'm capable of handling all of that myself. I'm currently planning to use only official music, but if any musicians would like to join the project to give things some extra flair, that's certainly welcome as well.

Positions Recruiting:
- Assistance with Game Design/Balance
- Artists willing to recreate art from GB Exclusive Cards
- Deck Builders

Send me a PM if you're interested and would like to help.
Feel free to leave any questions or feedback in this thread as well, and I'll try to get back to you.​

Credits

Spoiler:

-TCG_RPG
-Adem

 

[TCG_RPG]

Quick update: The dialogue system is done. Here's a little clip of it: https://gyazo.com/1ab2265fcce7dba6d9d457b52400de36
But most of my attention has been going toward the card re-balancing. Currently I am about halfway through the Gym Heroes set (including all Japan-only promo cards that were released up to that point), which is not very far in the grand scheme of things.

I've also decided on a slight change of plans. I will only be implementing the gen 1 and 2 cards for the time being, and then I will release updates with the later cards as I finish those. That way this project becomes a lot less huge in scope, at least for the time being. My plan is still to update and include all cards up to X & Y, but after gen 1 and 2, each other region (Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova) will come as individual updates complete with that gen's cards.

Only counting gen 1 and 2, that puts my rebalance progress at about 40% complete, which is a bit more reasonable.

Also, I thought I'd take a bit of time to address some questions I've gotten:

Q. Why The Rebalance?
A. Because power creep in the TCG is very extreme, and most of the classic cards that everyone is nostalgic for and remembers from their childhood would be outright unplayable when introduced with modern cards. Most old cards are rendered completely obsolete by modern alternatives in the actual game, and my goal is to make it so that this is no longer the case. It wouldn't be very fun if the only choice you had to make in deck building was picking whatever happened to be the newest card you had. That said, I'm doing my best to stick to the original spirit of the card effects when possible and to keep cards roughly as powerful as they were intended to be.

Q. Can't you just import all the cards as-is and not worry about all this?
A. No, unfortunately that's not an option. There is no conveniently formatted database of cards to import. Manual data entry is required. So if I'm going to be entering the data in anyway, it doesn't hurt to look them over while I'm at it. Manually creating the effects of each card within the engine will be required as well, so the rebalance serves a double purpose of familiarizing myself with all possible card effects for when it comes time to implement them, as well as preparing the text of all of the cards so that they're properly formatted when they're implemented.

I have already laid some of the groundwork for easily implementing card effects in the future. A card's effect will be stored in a format that looks something like this:

It will be designed in such a way that even someone with no programming experience should be able to help implement card effects, in case I end up getting assistance in that area later.

But for now, all of this is secondary to the rebalance, which is my main focus.

 

[Squip]

idk what im looking at coding wise but this is very dope! keep up the work!

 

[TCG_RPG]

Here's an update. I've now rebalanced and fixed the wording on over 1000 cards (including hundreds of Japan-exclusive cards). I'm almost halfway through the ones I have planned for the initial release.

In doing so, I've come across some cards that were only ever released in the Gameboy games and never printed, so their official art doesn't exist anywhere. For example, Dark Clefable. So I've decided to recreate blown up versions of their art so they can be implemented in this game.

This is the original art from the GB game:

And this is my recreation of it:

I've also reached a point where it might be a good idea to start recruiting people who are interested in building decks, because there will need to be a lot of decks in the game. If building decks using revamped Gen 1 & 2 cards sounds fun to anyone, let me know.

 

[TCG_RPG]

I have a decision to make about this project that I would like to get some feedback on if possible. The latest batch of cards I've arrived at for rebalancing is the Pokemon VS set which was only ever released in Japan.

Compare that set to the cards in Gym Challenge, for example, and you'll see that they are quite bland in comparison. The Gym Leaders' pokemon cards in Gym Challenge often have unique attacks or abilities that make them a lot more interesting, while the Johto Gym Leader's pokemon tend to have more generic attacks, many of which have no effects. What's more, all of the Johto cards are Basic Pokemon, meaning they don't really interact with the evolution mechanic at all either.

In the game, I want the player to go through Kanto and Johto and face all the Gym Leaders, with them each using cards centering around their iconic pokemon cards. But to go through Kanto and then start Johto, it would be extremely underwhelming to suddenly face decks centering around these bland cards. Even with the addition of the Technical Machine cards, they're just not interesting.

I was wondering how people would feel if I were to change these cards, either giving them entirely new effects/attacks, or effects/attacks based on future cards (from SuMo/SwSh) that wouldn't be included in the game otherwise. I'm also wondering how people would feel about changing them from their basic forms into evolved pokemon, and adding custom pre-evo cards.

My current plan, unless there's a huge outcry against it, is to replace the VS set with a custom set called VS+, which will include a mix of VS cards, modified VS cards, and entirely new cards (most of which will be based on SwSh or SuMo cards). A version of the original VS set would still exist in the game, but would not be used by the Gym Leaders.

Would changing things that much defeat the purpose of including those cards in the first place, or would it be worth trying? Very curious to hear anyone's thoughts.

 

[Guzeinbuick]

I'm very familiar with the tcg, deck-building, and balancing rules. Please send me a PM to get me up to speed with your project and if there's anything I can do to help!

 

[Paperfire88]

I am someone who has been creating card sprites for the last 3 months thanks to these Games and although personally I would like it to be in the style of those games, I obviously understand why it is not like that and I still love the idea.

With the rebalancing issue: I understand why you do it, but I think that people would like/will be more interested in playing in a more familiar environment and more according to the time when the cards originate, instead of one where practically everything is new and changed.

Although seeing how you already took the trouble to do it, obviously my opinion is not worth much xd, In the same way I can't do much to collaborate but I hope that the project will do very well

 

[TCG_RPG]

I am someone who has been creating card sprites for the last 3 months thanks to these Games and although personally I would like it to be in the style of those games, I obviously understand why it is not like that and I still love the idea.

With the rebalancing issue: I understand why you do it, but I think that people would like/will be more interested in playing in a more familiar environment and more according to the time when the cards originate, instead of one where practically everything is new and changed.

Although seeing how you already took the trouble to do it, obviously my opinion is not worth much xd, In the same way I can't do much to collaborate but I hope that the project will do very well

Actually, I could likely make use of those card sprites, as there will be special versions of cards called "GB Rare" that use their GB art (along with a bunch I got permission to use from Cataclyptic, dev of the TCG Neo romhack). If you're willing to let me include them, I'd be happy to.

As for the rebalance, I understand that perspective. My goal is to only really change numbers and wording, for the most part, so the cards should still feel how they always did, generally. For the changed cards in VS, I ultimately made the decision that I will implement the VS set without many changes, but it will not be used in the story. Then I will also include a custom set called "VS+" which will contain the more changed versions that would be faced in the story, as well as some "custom" cards which are basically toned down versions of various post-XY cards.

 

[Paperfire88]

I don't have any problem that you use them, just the typical thing of giving myself credit for making them, I have made mainly Gym Heroes/Gym Challenge sprites and in fact I have no problem if you want me to make a specific card if you want.

 

[TCG_RPG]

I don't have any problem that you use them, just the typical thing of giving myself credit for making them, I have made mainly Gym Heroes/Gym Challenge sprites and in fact I have no problem if you want me to make a specific card if you want.

I don't really need specific cards, cause I can just make GB rare versions of whichever happen to have sprites. If you're willing to send me them, I could definitely use them. And yes, of course credit is a given.

 

[Paperfire88]

Ok, the vast majority is on my DeviantArt (it's called the same as my User Name) except for a few that I haven't uploaded yet but everything I've done is there :)

 

[Guzeinbuick]

Ok, the vast majority is on my DeviantArt (it's called the same as my User Name) except for a few that I haven't uploaded yet but everything I've done is there :)

Dude your work is freaking incredible. Seriously, amazing job 😍

 

[Paperfire88]

Dude your work is freaking incredible. Seriously, amazing job 😍

Thanks, I really appreciate it :)

 

[Zrodgers814]

Praying this is finished before I kick the bucket

 

[Sl0w_Mag1c]

Hey, I joined just to reply to this thread.

This looks and sounds amazing! I'm really excited to see this progress. Is there any other place to follow you or follow the progress of this project?

Thanks :)

 

[Kraloth]

Have you played MtG Shandalar? There's a lot of cool ideas there that might be useful

 

[TCG_RPG]

Have you played MtG Shandalar? There's a lot of cool ideas there that might be useful

I have not, no. Most of the ideas for the game's structure will come from the Pokemon TCG GB game as well as various Yugioh RPGs I've played in the past. If there are any specific ideas you think could work well though, I'm open to them.
edit: I checked it out. It does some interesting things with the roguelike aspects. I do have something in mind for replayability, but it won't be quite to that extent.

Hey, I joined just to reply to this thread.

This looks and sounds amazing! I'm really excited to see this progress. Is there any other place to follow you or follow the progress of this project?

Thanks :)

Currently there isn't. There is a discord but it's for people contributing, and it's not especially active, so any significant updates I post there, I'd post here anyway.

Here is an update though. I've still been primarily working on the card rebalancing. I've finally finished the VS+ set, which was the trickiest and probably required the most thought, so it will be downhill from here with a few minor bumps here and there. My total progress on the rebalance is 48%, which doesn't sound like much, but I passed the 1000 cards complete mark a while ago, so every percentage point is significant. The biggest challenge of the rebalance is when older cards have unique effects that don't show up in later sets, so a lot more thought needs to be put into the modern wording for those effects to keep everything consistent.

I'm currently the only one actively working on the rebalance, and it's not something I do every day, so it will still take a fair bit of time.

Engine-wise, what's implemented is the basic card data logic, and some rough UI work. Nothing too significant. Theoretically if I needed to switch engines (I have no plans to currently, but I'm keeping my options open), it would not take too long to re-implement what I have. Most of the actual engine work was done in less than a month.

As always, any offers to help lighten the workload for the rebalance could potentially reduce the time it takes to finish by a lot, but in the meantime I am trudging along In my spare time every now and then. I've gotten a few people interested in deckbuilding, but I've found that when they actually see the hulking rebalance document, they get intimidated and their interest fades, so no decks have actually been made yet, so if anyone else is interested, keep that in mind.

 

[TCG_RPG]

Quick update: I've made a fair bit of progress on the rebalance in the past couple weeks. I'm now at 56.9% completion, and I've officially finished with all of the Japan Exclusive cards. The only sets remaining (at least as far as those planned for the initial Kanto and Johto release go) are the E-Card sets, Fire Red & Leaf Green, Team Rocket Returns, and Heart Gold & Soul Silver sets. Everything from before Expedition Base Set is done.

HGSS will mostly be okay to leave alone balance-wise, since they're pretty close to XY, so the only thing to update will be wordings. (For full transparency, the majority of HGSS cards will not be available in the initial release of the game. All Hoenn and Sinnoh pokemon from HGSS will be saved for their respective updates.)

Other than that, something I plan to do once the rebalance is complete is to create a searchable database for the cards to make deck-building more convenient (and also so that I can then import that database into the game). I'm at the point where I'm starting to see the finish line for this phase of things, so my next update here will probably be when the rebalance is complete, unless someone ends up having questions.

 

[yu8]

I would also like to participate in this project. You can also participate as a tester. Thank you for your consideration.

 

[TCG_RPG]

I would also like to participate in this project. You can also participate as a tester. Thank you for your consideration.

Your enthusiasm is appreciated, but there is nothing to test at the moment. That's a much later down the line thing.

Anyway, current rebalance progress is 64.2% for those wondering.