[Question] Unique characters

[SpeedyAggron]

Hello,

My name is SpeedyAggron and I finally started to make my own Pokémon fan game. It is still in the very early planning stage and I already have a big dilemma.
I will have 30-40 unique characters in my game in terms of gym leaders, rivals and the evil team so I'm not looking forward to make custom sprites for them all.

I consider to use regular B2W2 sprites and give them new identities like what Majora's Mask did with the Ocarina Of Time character models in the Zelda series.
A quick example is that Roxie will become a Sound-type gym leader named Lizzy and I have all the gym leader sprites from the PWT to use differently.

I would like to know if there are other big or popular fan games that are similar in that regard or if people want to give me advice or suggestions on what to do.
I might have more questions in the future about other topics. Thank you in advance.

 

[Screedledude]

If you aren't looking forward to having to make new sprites for them all, then you should probably refactor the scale and scope of your project.

I recommend looking at a couple of spiriting tutorials (there are some that teach you the specific Pokemon style). If you go the route of re-using existing assets, it would definitely save you some time; just make sure to properly introduce them properly in the story so that the player isn't confused. Learning to edit the sprites in subtle ways can also help make them stand out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIK7LfqKBHY&t=7s

Here's one video that does a pretty good dive into the process of making a new sprite using an existing one - in this case making BOTW Zelda from a Swimmer-F sprite.

 

[SpeedyAggron]

Thank you for the reply. I've been thinking after my question and I feel a recolor could be a good compromise.
An example could be changing Cynthia into a redhead wearing a brown coat which shouldn't be too difficult.

This way I can shorten the design time by a lot and I can let them stand out more with the dialogue.
I know this will be a long project, but I also want to do this slow and steady so I won't get burned out.

 

[Screedledude]

That's a decent enough way to do it. My current Pokemon Professor is a recoloured Prof. Rowan - it's a placeholder, but I don't need to change it any time soon.

Don't try to rush the project or make it to an arbitrary deadline you set yourself - just try to make it to have fun, and make something to be proud of!

 

[SpeedyAggron]

I'm pretty sure to take that choice. If I have a different question later on, I'll make another thread.