It disappoints me greatly that this project has been buried in the section like this. Zirconium is definitely one of the top projects in the Drawing Board and hasn't been given nearly enough support... Come on people!
We're actually making a fair bit of progress with things like the menu screens and various other GUI things, but I want to hold off on showcasing that here until we get it all done. There has also been a few new Fakemon designs tossed around, might tease one of those, too. But yeah, important stuff getting done now, menus are looking pretty nice. Our boy NikNaks has been a great asset to the team.
And thanks for the support, I'm glad to see someone hasn't forgotten us. =D
=D how dark are you aiming to be, i know I had an old old old old project, that was rated M and had some gore X.x that was a pokemon project. but i dont think you're going that dark xD
cant wait to see this further developed =]
First off, thanks for the support! It means alot to me. Secondly, thank you for asking this question!
The story has actually gone through quite a few drafts and each version has gotten "progressively" less dark. When we first set out to create Pokemon Zirconium Version, it was both something of a parody (see; the freaking title of the game) and a dark reimagining of the franchise we all knew and loved. The story has at one time included atrocities such as - but was not limited to - four onscreen deaths (one of which was a child), matricide, implied rape, and the protagonists (children, mind you) being tricked into killing God (Arceus). It was deep, I thought! It was philosophical, I said! It was wild and crazy and something no one had ever seen before, I wanted to believe!
I then promptly
woke the hell up and realized I needed to drastically change things.
I wanted to remove all of the dark stuff in my life and go in a new, brighter direction. Looking around my book shelf and game shelf, there was nothing but stories about morbid stuff and being smothered by adversity and whatnot. I got to thinking, "whatever happened to stories about optimism and inspiration?"
I started off by watching the Digimon Movie. Yes, that's right, the Digimon Movie. If you haven't seen it, do it, it's a fantastic film. That more or less gave me the right frame of mind with which to write the story in; it's lighthearted and fun, but still gave the audience a sense of urgency and legitimately felt like a "cool" movie while still being a "kids film". I know nobody likes calling Pokemon a "kids game" but frankly, that's what it is. Not only that, but the soundtrack was
hilariously awesome.
I then stumbled upon this interview with Alan Moore, aka Chieftain of Jackassery. Sure, he may be a douchebag, but this interview made alot sense to me. Moore, as you may or may not know, was the author of The Watchmen as well as the Batman spin-off comic "The Killing Joke". Moore stated that out of all his career, he regretted writing The Killing Joke the most because he felt as though The Joker wasn't meant to carry that much weight; he was designed to be a lighthearted character, and Alan Moore admitted to making him too dark and serious. I disagreed with this sentiment, but it got me thinking. Maturity and darkness are two separate concepts altogether, and while I can respect a fangame creators intent to make their fangames "mature" and "serious", I don't think Pokemon was designed to be dark.
There's also the fact that, in my humble opinion, dark writing is far too easy compared to lighthearted and optimistic writing; it's too easy to just kill your characters off, but a real challenge would be to figure out how to have them all live happily ever after without sounding cheesy. I want to challenge myself.
Growing up, I never really had much of a problem with Shadow the Hedgehog, despite being a lifelong Sonic fan ever since the Sega Genesis era. But now that I'm a bit older, I sort of see him a bit differently, and I understand a little better why so many people hate him. I sort of hate myself for not seeing it sooner.
I dunno, it's five AM, and I still don't think this post conveys what I'm feeling. It's a very serious issue for me, probably a bit too serious. But the tone of this game is something I'm putting alot effort into. I want to inspire people, dammit.
