[Question] Thoughts about recolored pokemon as regional variants/forms?

[Allan5829]

I like regional variants/forms and think they give a game a more unique experience vs playing with only the official pokemon. I spent some time recoloring some pokemon just to see how they'd turn out and I don't think they look bad. Although compared to official regional variants/ other fan made regional variants, mine seem lazy because they don't have any new aspects just different colors. (If I did include them in a game, I'd treat them as new pokemon with new type/stats/etc.) If you see a game with new pokemon forms like that, would that be a negative towards the game? If I do spend time and make some pokemon like that, could it deter people from playing the game because "Those forms looks like you were lazy making them" or any other reason like that?

Some background on my art skills. I'm comfortable editing tilesets but I spend too much time making something from scratch and constantly second guess myself on quality. I've tried making new pokemon forms but didn't like how they turned out. You could say it comes down to quality vs quantity but I don't think my "quality" forms would turn out much better if at all compared to recolored forms.

Since the images aren't showing here's a link to some I made https://imgur.com/a/PtllPzJ

 

[silverlime]

I like regional variants/forms and think they give a game a more unique experience vs playing with only the official pokemon. I spent some time recoloring some pokemon just to see how they'd turn out and I don't think they look bad. Although compared to official regional variants/ other fan made regional variants, mine seem lazy because they don't have any new aspects just different colors. (If I did include them in a game, I'd treat them as new pokemon with new type/stats/etc.) If you see a game with new pokemon forms like that, would that be a negative towards the game? If I do spend time and make some pokemon like that, could it deter people from playing the game because "Those forms looks like you were lazy making them" or any other reason like that?

Some background on my art skills. I'm comfortable editing tilesets but I spend too much time making something from scratch and constantly second guess myself on quality. I've tried making new pokemon forms but didn't like how they turned out. You could say it comes down to quality vs quantity but I don't think my "quality" forms would turn out much better if at all compared to recolored forms.

Since the images aren't showing here's a link to some I made https://imgur.com/a/PtllPzJ

I personally don't like regional variants that are just recolors. They honestly just look like custom shinies in my opinion. I think it's important to change at least something about the original sprite if possible, even if it's only removing some features of the original (since this is easier than adding stuff to the sprites). Another thing that can help is using a different sprite than the original form as a base, as it amplifies their differences. However, I myself wouldn't say that simple recolors would deter me from playing the game, especially if they were on a different base sprite. The regional variant aspect just wouldn't be something that would draw me to the game.

Here's the first regional variant I've tried out (just for fun), along with the base sprite for it and the regular in-game sprite (in that order). As you can see, it's not great or anything, and all I changed was making the head stuff look more like petals, closing the eyes, and removing the neck piece & forehead thing, but I think it still feels a bit more like a grass-type than if I were to just recolor either of the original sprites.

I'm not much of an artist though, so you can take this with a grain of salt.

 

[Lucidious89]

I think you can get away with a few recolors as long as theyre meaningful. Just changing a sprite from blue to red and making it Fire-type isnt interesting enough. That's what'll make it feel lazy more than anything.

But if this new form has something so unique about it mechanically that makes it memorable and fun, then the graphics are less of an issue and you can get away with it a bit more.

Maybe something like the new "form" is actually a parasite wearing the Pokemon's body as its skin (i know this is morbid, but just a general concept). So like on the surface, it looks like a regular Lurantis, but the true Pokemon is the parasite inside the host. You can retype it to Bug or something to reflect this, and give it some crazy ability that plays off this theme like something where whenever the Pokemon is KO'd, the parasite jumps from its host into the attacking foe, and makes them not obey their trainer for a few turns or something.

Idk, this is all off the cuff. But my point is just that you can make up for a lot if you have meaningful and creative ideas to support it. There are ways to turn a weakness into an advantage.

 

[silver-wind]

if you're not comfortable making new sprite from scratch, try using something as a base, like take horns/claws/etc from other pokemon sprites, or even pokemon items. there's also a website which fuses two pokemon, which you can use, the result is very different from the original pokemon, so it makes an interesting base.

 

[Allan5829]

Thank you for the ideas! I'll definitely keep these thoughts in mind as I keep working on my game.