Team Pyrite: Project Orre

[ganonrai]

Welcome to: Team Pyrite
Coming Soon: Pokemon Pyrite Version​

This hack probably appears very bare-bones at the minute, and that's because it is. While I don't have any screenshots or anything up (as I can't post links just yet), I assure that progress has been made on this. However, I feel that this is a very ambitious project and I don't want to start focusing all my efforts on this until I can get a team together. That's why I need YOU. I truly believe that this has the potential to become the next big hack!

Into
I've been an off an on pokemon fan/ROM hacker for the last four or five years now. I've always wanted to make a hack, yet at the time when I was most interested, I lacked the maturity and technological know-how to be able to pull it off. Now that I'm older and wiser, I thought that I would get back into it, and try and come up with something. A few weeks ago, I posted a thread in the "Ideas" forum. It was well received, and many people supported me. I got to thinking though, with ORAS coming out, and the hack centered around Hoenn, I figured it would be kinda pointless. Back to the drawing board I went, and I applied some of the same ideas I had to a different region and story. I believe that what I have here is a pretty solid idea. I thought about it and worked out the details for several weeks before posting this. My skillset is decent, but not great (as I will explain later), and if I could get a team together, I honestly believe that we could make a really great ROM hack, one unlike any other. Without further ado, this is what I came up with:

Plot
For those of us that played the Gamecube spinoff games Colosseum and XD, we all probably remember Orre as a pitiful, desert-wasteland overridden with crime. I pose the question: What if it wasn't always that way? As an amateur geographer, I thought about how places become like this, and created a little back story. When Orre was first founded, it was a lush region, full of water and trees and rolling plains. Situated north of Hoenn, and Northwest of Johto and Kanto (according to Serebii's Pokearth Map), the settlers of Orre quickly developed a thriving maritime-trade community. As the region became wealthier, more and more people wanted to live there, causing mass immigration. Not all immigrants to Orre were wealthy though, many poor, destitute peoples came from all over. As time grew on, the region saw the merchants grow increasingly wealthy while the poor continued to stay poor. This gap between classes eventually let to some serious social problems. Crime became a popular way for lower class kids to make money, and a certain group of people are attempting to incite a rebellion against the upper class. As the player, you will be tasked with uniting the region, and calming the tensions between Orre's people.

More About Orre
I'm kind of limited with what I can do here because I can't post links/pictures, but I'll do my best.

-Geography

Spoiler:

As stated earlier, Orre is a lush, resource-rich region located North of Hoenn and Northwest of Johto and Kanto. There is a mountain range in the far west, a lonely mountain, and several hilly areas in the southeast around Pyrite Town. The middle part of Orre, in-between Agate Village and Phenac City, is a great, rolling plan where farmers produce food for the whole region. The eastern part of the region is home to giant forests, where the lumber industry thrives. The southern shoreline features a couple different capes and bays, such as Cape Orre and Gateon Bay, and an estuary divides the region into uneven halves, east and west.

-Pokemon

Spoiler:

Because Orre is a nation of immigrants, its Pokemon are likewise. In the southern parts of the region, like Gateon City, Orre City, and Pyrite City, Pokemon from Hoenn are found in abundance. The east and north have lots of Pokemon from Johto and Kanto. Since Orre has been confirmed to be based on America (Arizona actually), I'm considering adding in a few Pokemon from Unova (Braviary and Bouffalant namely) in as well. I also want to add in a few fan favorites from Sinnoh too.

-Culture

Spoiler:

The culture in Orre is very different from that of any other region. Most things that are considered "Orrian" in nature stem from the upper class, while the lower classes tend to cling to the way of life from their homeland. When a trainer becomes 18 and has completed school, he or she beings a journey to figure out what they will do for the rest of his or her life. Some will become Pokemon masters, others will go into the family business. Needless to say, there is some corruption about. Many parents will go as far to pay less fortunate trainers to raise pokemon for their children. Its not even uncommon for bribery to occur in Colosseum battles (which will explain in more detail later on). The people of Orre also have a strange fixation with Eevee. It is custom for a young man or woman to receive an Eevee for his or her 18th birthday. These Eevees are kept almost exclusively as pets, and it is very uncommon to use them in battle.

Orrians also deeply enjoy going to the local Colosseum, where Pokemon battling is a giant, spectator-sport. Instead of having eight gyms and an Elite 4, trainers go through a gauntlet of Colosseum tournaments. The tournaments work similar to a gym however, with two bosses per tournament, and anywhere from 3-6 other challengers in-between. Those few trainers who are powerful enough to win all the Colosseum tournaments may then take up the Challenge at Mt. Battle. Mt. battle will work in a similar way to the regular Colosseums, however the difficulty and length will certainly be increased.

-Evil Team

Spoiler:

Everyone remembers the lovable Team Snagem and Cipher from Colosseum and XD, right? Since this is a prequel, these two organizations will not be making and appearance in this hack. This means no shadow pokemon, and no snag machines. There will be however, a sort of "proto-cipher". Greevil and Evice will certainly be in the hack, as will Gonzap. The agenda of both Greevil and Evice revolves around getting the lower class to rise up against the upper class, full French Revolution style. Of course, their true reason for doing this is not to help the poor, but to put themselves in power. I'm not sure if there will be a full-blown evil team or not, but there will certainly be some "ruffians' out there under the influence of Greevil and Evice that want you killed for being a rich kid.

-People (I will add more later)

Spoiler:

This hack will feature many new faces in the Orre Region. These include:
-Two rivals: One is a poor boy you help out in the begging of the story who has good intentions, but goes down the wrong path in order to help his family. The other is a rich boy from Phenac City, the son of some wealthy Aristocrats. He is the opposite of the first rival in every way, and although he means no harm, his arrogance ultimately causes some big problems.
-Prof. Kaminko: A scientist turned evangelist, Prof. Kaminko dedicates his life to giving poor children opportunities they would have normally never gotten. For example, Prof. Kaminko breeds rare Pokemon from different regions to give to poor children, who normally would have been so busy working that they wouldn't have had time to catch their own pokemon.
-Eagun: Old, but not quite as old in the gamecube games, Eagun, like Kaminko, is somewhat of an evangelist. He considers it his personal duty to look after the lower class, and goes around the region, offering you advice and trying to improve the lower class's condition. He is rumored to be everything from a crazy old man, mastermind of the rebellion, and even the champion atop Mt. Battle.

Current Progress (1% Complete)
As I cannot post links just yet, I have no pictures to show you of the ROM. It is very barebones at the moment, but some of the features I've already added include:
-100% Completed story-line. On paper, not implemented yet
-Physical/Special Split
-BW2 Repel System
-Decapitalization
-Better Font
-Running Indors
-A few of the first towns mapped

Current Team Members
-Ganonrai (Story, Mapping, Scripting, Other)
-FaeBladez (Mapping)

Joining the Team
I'm really excited about getting this hack together, and I think it can go far if we work as a team. My skills are somewhat limited, as I am only an intermediate scripter at best (the method I learned with is outdated now, and I had to start fresh). I've already got the story down, and I can handle mapping, although any help would be great. I can also write/arrange music for the ROM (I'm a music minor in College). This being said, if you feel like you would be a good addition to the team; fill out the application below. We are currently looking for (in order from most needed to least needed):

- Someone who can edit the world map
- Spriters/Artist in General
- Scripters
- Additional Mappers

Skills:
Experience:
Past Work(s):
Time Zone:

Any other info that you can provide, or pictures would be great! Please note that applications like these will be ignored:

Skills: i cn laern scripting mb
Experience: ive nevr worked on a rom b4
Past Work(s): ive nevr worked on a rom b4
Time Zone: idk i live in america though

Thank you all for reading, and I hope that I can get to work with some of you!

 

[FaeBladez]

Skills: A little bit of everything
Experience: I'm not that much of an expert, but I can do decent mapping, scripting, tile work, and other graphical elements. Currently working on this
Past Work(s):Pokemon Sea of Flames (On hiatus)
Time Zone: -7 ( whatever that means lol)

 

[ganonrai]

Welcome FaeBladez to the team! Still looking for more members.

 

[gogojojo33]

Skills: Fleshing out people and plots of the world, and willing to learn from anyone!!
Experience: None
Past Work(s):None
Time Zone: Midwest america... not sure what that is...

 

[ganonrai]

Perhaps I was just being silly, but I really thought people would be in a frenzy to join this team. I'm a very busy man, and while I'm dedicated to making this happen, it won't work with just three people. If I'm unable to find the people I need soon, I will unfortunately just have to give up because I seriously don't have the time. :(

 

[Christos]

From my experience, teams like these rarely work. Hacks are mostly made individually or by small teams of 2-5 people. Your best option would be to try and learn the majority of skills you will need on your own and start off with the team you have so far, more people might join in the future after seeing more of your project, or you might find that you don't need a lot of people in your team after all.