[Developing] Pokémon Windrose

[D. Lawride]

Introduction
Pokémon Windrose is my second attempt at an extensive fangame with Pokémon Essentials. I started dabbling in more exploration oriented projects with The Island after attempting to give Pokémon Nightmare a certain facelift that had exploration as a focal point. I attempted to create several smaller projects since then, each with some gimmick about them that the Pokémon games usually don't have. It wasn't until a while after Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out that the idea for a plot began to surface, and after some time in development, I decided it was a good time to show it.

Story
Confined to a small island since birth, a group of young friends discovers a strange flying machine, stowed away in a facility older than any living being could remember.
With the entire world suddenly open for them to explore, they take to the skies, and slowly begin to unveil a history that the world has long since forgotten.

But not even the skies are safe!
Claiming to be the descendants of ancient masters of the world, a gang of thugs who call themselves Sky Pirates has begun to terrorize neighbouring islands, pillaging and kidnapping people for their own needs.
They say that they are searching for something, and that they are in a race against someone... could there be a bigger problem in the horizon?

Features

• A very large overworld (check the screenshots for a bit of it!), with a myriad of locations and secrets to find. Expand your world by finding the stations to boost your machine's signal and reach distant islands.
• Use special Key Items or HMs to explore the world. Upgrade those Key Items with Ore to perform even more tasks! What your inventory contains is up to you!
• Discover the Fragments of an ancient orb, bring them to the appropriate person, and boost your stats: luck, speed and other types of bonuses.
• Defeat Sky Pirate ships and pillage their loot!
• Find hidden caverns to receive special moves!
• Defeat a league of trainers hand-picked by the elite tamers of Blackthorn to claim your place among their ranks!
• Work your way to victory through Apricorns, Herbal Medicine and Berries - treasure the potions you find!
• Unlock new locations in the overworld by way of treasure charts to access even better loot! We promise it's not DLC!

The Overworld

In Pokémon Windrose, you have at your disposal the porotype of an aircraft with which you can fly from location to location. The image above is just a small glimpse of the actual overworld map.

In-game, you will see Landing Spots on the map, in any location where you can land.

Screenshot of the ingame Overworld

Also displayed on the screenshot above is the fact that you have a limited range in which you can travel. This range is determined by the amount of so-called amplifiers that are active, and the starting point is the island seen in the middle of the screenshot, Beacon Isle.

But there's more than just walking to the overworld! The Sky Pirates have begun to roam the skies, and meeting them will result in a battle. More on this in the future, when proper screenshots can be shown! [STAY TUNED!]

But that's not all! There are landing spots that you cannot see in the overworld. You may find that they are there by accident, or you may learn about their approximate location from NPCs who will tip you.

The Shards

These mysterious shards of an unknown object pulsate with power. One does not simply find one of these, as each shard has a story to tell - and so will you once you find one.

The right person might be able to help you... relieve yourself of them, in exchange for a bit of their power. You can allocate that power to whatever you desire, including, but not limited to:

• Your luck (especially when fishing, or searching for rare or shiny Pokémon!);
• Your stamina (so you can run and swim faster than ever!);
• Your prizes (so you can find yourself richer as fast as possible!);
• ......

Progress

The features listed above have been implemented to almost their full extent, but there is plenty more to do. The list wil grow as development goes on, and we hope you will keep track of our progress.

As of now, the story is still in development, so it may be a while before a demo sees the light of day. However, we will be sure to keep this up-to-date with the latest screenshots of features and developments.

Screenshots

Now for the eye candy! These screenshots are from the earliest version of the game, so they may not always be up-to-date, but they are fitting enough for demonstration purposes.

Credits
To close, here are the credits of all the assets and resources used:

• Maruno, the Essentials Community, Flameguru & Poccil - Pokémon Essentials
• Luka SJ - Title Screen script
• Salimus - Main Character, Sky Pirates, several other overworld sprites
• CyndersAlmondEyes - Shard
• JorgeAamelo - Ancient Facility Tiles
• The soundtrack is mainly from the official games
• Dewitty - Pond tiles
• pokemondiamond - Tall Grass Autotile
• Kyledove and Alucus - Multiple Tiles throughout the Tilesets
• If you spot something that's yours and I didn't properly credit you, please message me so that I may rectify that!

 

[D. Lawride]

Hello!

Decided to add some screenshots to emphasize the previous post, as well as a screenshot of your home island, Beacon Isle.

The first one refers to Apricorns, which come in Scented and Non-Scented varieties. I'm sure not a lot of people have noticed that Johto Apricorns are, in fact, scented, but if you have, then now you know they have another use!

The second refers to Berries, of course, and how they're very common in comparison with Potions and such. Be sure to plant berries wherever possible.

Lastly, your home island. The screenshot was taken in a very high spot, with a very special cave in the background.

 

[Mana1]

Love the idea of having an overworld/aircraft view to navigate around the world - very interesting idea that seems to be pretty rare these days. Reminds me of the kind of map you might see in an older final fantasy game.

Your other, more modern, graphics are really swish - and so far the NPC text you've shown looks to a high standard too.

I look forward to seeing more! o/

 

[Vin_Prismriver]

I'm glad you are developing a new game after Nightmare was abandoned, and this looks utterly amazing! ^3^

 

[D. Lawride]

Love the idea of having an overworld/aircraft view to navigate around the world - very interesting idea that seems to be pretty rare these days. Reminds me of the kind of map you might see in an older final fantasy game.

Thank you for the kind words! Such Final Fantasy games did work as inspiration, as well as Zelda 2's overworld. Given the world, it seemed to be the best way to traverse the overworld without resorting to extensive surfing.

I'm glad you are developing a new game after Nightmare was abandoned, and this looks utterly amazing! ^3^

Thank you as well! It's a shame Nightmare basically collapsed under its own weight, but I'll be sure to use what I learned from it here.

 

[MontyBellum]

This is looking and sounding great! I'm curious about what the starters are, are they planned yet?

 

[D. Lawride]

This is looking and sounding great! I'm curious about what the starters are, are they planned yet?

Yup! There's a story reason for this, but your starter will be a Houndour (leveled 10 for you). To balance this out of course, there will be a good variety of Pokemon in the first few areas you visit, so you can build your team as you see fit. I'll add this to the main post when I have some screenshots and imagery to back it up. I can say, however, that it's move pool will be slightly modified to your advantage.

 

[4ndaKava]

Wow. It's like a mixture of RPG-games like the old final fantasy games and Pokemon. I really like this. :D

 

[D. Lawride]

Wow. It's like a mixture of RPG-games like the old final fantasy games and Pokemon. I really like this. :D

Thank you! I'm glad you like it! :D

Quick little update for tonight. I've got a map to show this time, probably one of the few I'll show so I don't spoil anything - because trust me, it's very easy to spoil something like this.
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MONOLITH ISLAND

Spoiler:

This is Monolith Island; it's a small settlement within reach of your home island. Unlike the people of Beacon Isle, your home, the people from Monolith are dedicated lumberjacks and farmers, with large farmlands stretching throughout the rainforest right next to them. They trade the goods they farm with the goods that the people of Beacon Isle fish, even supplying wood for their ships and medicine for their people and their Pokémon. Pokémon roam freely throughout the rainforest, and even a bit on the town. Recently, however, with the continuously receding forest, the Pokémon have become a rare sight, and many have become rather hostile for seeing their homes taken down...

A witch and a soothsayer live here, or so they say. The former is feared among the townspeople, but the latter is revered as the leader of the town. The soothsayer is supposedly extremely old...

Other important buildings here will also supply important tools for your journey - for the right price.
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This is most likely not the final version, but it's been through quite a few iterations already, so it came to a point where it looked complete enough to show.

 

[shadowkat67]

This seems so unique, and I can't wait to see it out! (You should totally upload it on Vizzed when you get something here...just saying.)

 

[Maruno]

As fabulous as you may think this game is, this thread's been dead for over 100 days. We call that dead. And what don't you do with a dead thread? You don't post in it, that's what you don't do.