Pandora 'pokemon' Style Game For Pandora?

[bananajamslam]

I think this sounds like a great idea and I would like to help if it ever gets off the ground. I am not sure what I could help with as I don't really have any programming background but maybe I could create some sprites for the creatures, come up with move sets, or help with the storyline.

 

[Sly]

It's nice to see there's a good set of support for this game already. I don't think I can say thank you enough.

I'm still having difficulties comming up with the concept, mainly I want it to take the best of what the Pokemon games are but not just rehash the same idea.

How should these creatures excist? should it just be a random catalogue of weird and wonderful set of 'monsters' or should it be based on a theme, e.g. maybe the ones in the 'wild' are just your average critter and then when you've 'captured' them they're upgraded to be cybernetic or something. This might be a better way of bringing variety to whole thing e.g. You need to give your creatures upgrades but without overloading them with abilities that they lose their 'nature', making it all that more interesting than purely spending the time leveling up. Althought with Pkmn it wasn't that bad training to lv. 100, I'd still rather it was easier to gain levels but more difficult to produce truely powerful creatures.

How should the battle mechanics work, I always liked the Rock-Paper-Scissor part of the game e.g. Water beats Fire. But I'm wandering, can it be more simple maybe, less types or different ways to counter attacks?

Also what should the goal of the game be? Should it just be about battling? I want the game to be pretty open ended, so there's more than just making a team set and sticking with it to go on battling to the top, are there any other challenges that could go along with the story, e.g. more trading, more breeding. or should these be confinded purely to side quests?

Would be happy to hear suggestions.

 

[Jan-Nik]

Also what should the goal of the game be? Should it just be about battling?

IMHO there should be some kind of storyline which the player has to finish. Like rescuing a princess. Well, maybe a little bit more complex.

 

[Aimless_E]

Seriously... if you do, that'd be a great help. I would like to state though, starting this project isn't a garentee, as much as I'd love to have it going, I've got nearly 0 exp. at games development and as a student I've got a ton of commitments already...

Okay. Nevertheless I'll try to implement something. What operation system are you using?

Typically Windows, but I do have a linux (ubuntu 8.10) machine that I'm happy to do the work on so I'd think it would probably be best to work with. I would assume any graphical work should really be done on linux due to the difference between 24bit and 32bit color, as the quality might differ when porting it either way.

Not to sound too much like a Linux geek but, there isn't that much difference between 24bit and 32bit color. So little in fact that theres really no such thing as 32bit color but actually 24bit color with compression. So use what ever you like and don't worry about it.

A further thought, you may want to pick a color depth before starting the project. 32bit/24bit color looks great, but can cause more overhead when pushing lots of sprites to the screen. Or at least that was the case on older platforms. If your just doing 2d cartoon styled pokemon-esc characters then you could probably get away with 16bit for most of the game. Which if the overhead thing is still an issue then you can draw more to the screen at a time which will most certainly out way any color loss.

just a suggestion.

Best of luck to you both.

 

[Anonymouse]

I'm very interested in this game and could help you with coding. If you like, I will create a prototype engine for you with a level editor, so that you can easily create the world.

You could try this as a base:
http://www.tuxemu.foo.se/

See "Free Pokemon"

This doesn't work, the download won't unzip.

 

[lulzfish]

I had an error where it only downloaded the first 1.2 MB, I just reset the download and it worked.

It looks decent, but it needs a lot of work... It's basically just the movement and talking to people part of the engine, it's barely even a base.

 

[bananajamslam]

It would be nice to see if there could be multiple endings, even if it was just two different endings. That is one thing that I thought that the pokemon games lacked. For instance rather than simply beating the elite four you would have an option to get the master rank in each contest, catch all the pokemon (for the local pokedex not the whole thing that would be brutal! But obviously we are going to only have one library of creatures for this), or perhaps even explore some kind of huge dungeon in which you find a powerful item/artifact/pokemon(this one would have to be excluded from the catch all the pokemon goal). Of course after you have beaten the game the first time (the credits roll and something new becomes available) you have the option of pursuing another goal.

I just thought that this could be an interesting twist especially since the pokemon games seem to always make room for alternate endings but instead seem to always turn them into useless little time wasters (namely the contests and battle frontiers...)

 

[Jan-Nik]

A further thought, you may want to pick a color depth before starting the project. 32bit/24bit color looks great, but can cause more overhead when pushing lots of sprites to the screen. Or at least that was the case on older platforms. If your just doing 2d cartoon styled pokemon-esc characters then you could probably get away with 16bit for most of the game. Which if the overhead thing is still an issue then you can draw more to the screen at a time which will most certainly out way any color loss.

I don't think this will be an issue on the Pandora.

Best of luck to you both.

Thanks

It looks decent, but it needs a lot of work... It's basically just the movement and talking to people part of the engine, it's barely even a base.

I tried it too and have to agree: It is not much and I don't think it will be worth reusing the code.

 

[Sly]

ok, well I'm pretty confident I've got some inspiration to be the producer a top notch game here but still no cigar on a concept idea, e.g. I'm thinking to much as if it's just Pokemon 2.0, which I don't want it to be, because this could be sooo much better

Ideas that I have already...

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The Player needs to level up just as much the monsters he uses. E.g. The character gains battle experience to unlock new contests etc, rather than following always a set path of beating one person to move onto the next. Secondly this can be in several areas, e.g. Breeding or Capturing.

Secondly... The creatures themselves, I don't plan on there being any 'ledgendaries', with my focus to take the game online at some point I think it's silly as everyone will have one and they usually add to unbalancing a game, my hope is if I do manage to get the online side of things going, there will be special online events and the only way to get into them will be through a lottery system that invites the player for that day only to enter but then any new captures will spread via breeding the creature.

Thirdly, I only want around 150 base creatures... and maybe about 50 to 100 that are unlocked by breeding certain pairs of the first 150.

---

Now, my apologies for using this thread like my own personal notepad but I like the idea of sharing them here, at least till I can get a blog up and running where I can just post down my thoughts.

But here's the part I'm struggling to work on, I need a basic concept still and some kind of name for the game or at least for the creatures in total?

 

[bananajamslam]

Names are important but I don't think that they are to be considered top priority. I say this only because whenever I have had to name something it seems to come to you later on, like when you are working on the project. I think that it might be better to come up with some kind of easy to remember simple codename for the project (inevitably something that everyone hates, but who knows maybe people will actually be provoked to suggest better names based on our bad title). Something along the line of "Creature Game" may be suitable. Another thing that I would note is that it should fit the demographic we are aiming at, in other words please don't come up with a name that has "friends", "Buddies", "Pals", and most importantly "Babies" in it if we are going to target teenagers and young adults (Although personally i don't know when using "Babies" in a title is ever suitable).

 

[Sly]

Names are important but I don't think that they are to be considered top priority. I say this only because whenever I have had to name something it seems to come to you later on, like when you are working on the project. I think that it might be better to come up with some kind of easy to remember simple codename for the project (inevitably something that everyone hates, but who knows maybe people will actually be provoked to suggest better names based on our bad title). Something along the line of "Creature Game" may be suitable. Another thing that I would note is that it should fit the demographic we are aiming at, in other words please don't come up with a name that has "friends", "Buddies", "Pals", and most importantly "Babies" in it if we are going to target teenagers and young adults (Although personally i don't know when using "Babies" in a title is ever suitable).

lol, probably right, yet I can't think of even a suitable name... project critter is the best I could think of... not all that inspiring

 

[bananajamslam]

This is a shot in the dark but I thought that for a name it might be a good idea to look at a thesaurus and search for synonyms of words like beasts, pets, etc. Anyways, my goal was to find a word that I have never heard or seen before and I think I may have found that.

Amenable

You can look at the definition directly but it basically means one of three things.

1. Obedient
2. Responsible to a higher authority
3. Susceptible

I determined that with what we are trying to create every definition applies to our creatures.

From this word I thought we could just add an 's' to the end to make it plural.

Amenables

And there you go. It is no longer recognized by the dictionary (on this page at least) so it is original, applies to the things that you are trying to create, and even sounds and looks like animals.

It is pronounced "A" "MEAN" "A" BULLS" by the way. I thought it would be a good idea to get that right from the start.

That's my suggestion. I think that at the very least it will work for now, but tell me what you think.

 

[Sly]

This is a shot in the dark but I thought that for a name it might be a good idea to look at a thesaurus and search for synonyms of words like beasts, pets, etc. Anyways, my goal was to find a word that I have never heard or seen before and I think I may have found that.

Amenable

You can look at the definition directly but it basically means one of three things.

1. Obedient
2. Responsible to a higher authority
3. Susceptible

I determined that with what we are trying to create every definition applies to our creatures.

From this word I thought we could just add an 's' to the end to make it plural.

Amenables

And there you go. It is no longer recognized by the dictionary (on this page at least) so it is original, applies to the things that you are trying to create, and even sounds and looks like animals.

It is pronounced "A" "MEAN" "A" BULLS" by the way. I thought it would be a good idea to get that right from the start.

That's my suggestion. I think that at the very least it will work for now, but tell me what you think.

Yeh actually, that's not a bad technique for finding a name, I won't lie and say it's perfect but as a working title, it is only the spelling of it that's weird cause I look at it like 'A-MEN-DA-BLES'.

Now I just need a real concept to go at, I'll have go hopefully over this week to get something down.

Thanks for the help bananajamslam!

 

[bananajamslam]

You will have to tell us just how similar to pokemon you are going to make it. It might be best to just start making little changes in the design first so you don't get lost in the process (for example changing the pokeballs to nets or something...). But it is your game so it's up to you just make sure to keep us updated.

 

[bananajamslam]

Over the past few days I have given this game some thought and come up with some ideas that I thought would improve the game. (Mostly I want to collect all the little scrap pieces of paper and napkins and stuff and write them down somewhere before I lose them!)

Here's my suggestions in order of preference:

1. Lets get this one over with quickly, NO SAFARI ZONE. (I hate the safari zone it is painful)

2. This may be a little cliche but it is hard to find things that aren't. Turn based battles that require a meter to charge before you can select an action. (like Final Fantasy 7 for example) I always thought that this idea worked very well and wondered why I don't see it more often. The main point of this is to allow a character to act more than once before retaliation. It just seems to be more realistic and practical.

3. The character that you directly control and explore the map with learns the "HM' moves. I always hated wasting a perfectly good move slot with flash, fly, strength or any other undesirable "HM" move, It seems so much easier to just say "Jimmy learned how to swim!" instead of surf, or "Jimmy Learned karate and can break boulders in half with is bare hands" instead of rock smash ,or "Jimmy found 1 000 000 000 airmiles. He can fly anywhere for free!" instead of fly. (Although we may need a better explanation for fear of not being taken seriously. Maybe Jimmy get's a car instead... or a JETPACK!!!)

4. The rival thing is too cliche, no rival. Or at the very least make the rival as non cliche as possible. Maybe a traveling hobo with a lust for battle is frequently encountered in his endeavor to receive a free sandwich.

5. By now you must have realized that I would prefer a comical take on the game, not the creatures themselves but just the story and it's corresponding parts.

6. Finally i think that there should be anything but a clean cut number of creatures. For example 167 or 139, as long as the developers keep their mouths shut it will leave players guessing and implies that sense of realism that comes with the real world. Although this is not to say that we make characters go mad searching for that one more "Amenable" (until a better name is found) the game should tell the character when they are done.

 

[dflemstr]

I'll say one thing: MMORPG.

 

[Sly]

Over the past few days I have given this game some thought and come up with some ideas that I thought would improve the game. (Mostly I want to collect all the little scrap pieces of paper and napkins and stuff and write them down somewhere before I lose them!)

Here's my suggestions in order of preference:

And here's my replies

1. I agree and it has my stamp of approval... I don't think the safari was a bad thing, but it wasn't a good thing either...

2. I'm not sure about this one... having never played those games myself I can't really comment, could you find me a video on youtube or something that demos this? From the sound of it, it might not be the best idea purely because to me, 'Final Fantasy = hardcore RPG' and 'Pokemon = so simple nearly everyone can do it'

3. Again, I agree, but I think it still needs to be with the creatures, but my thought is that you have to get your hands on non-tradeable items that allow you to use those abilities. e.g. once you have the item you still need a creature with you that's compatible to perform the task but they don't need to be taught it as a move or anything. (p.s. I wouldn't include Flash or one or two others because they were rubbish anyways)

4. I'm not sure yet... it's difficult to have any standing on story atm, but I prefered the idea of a rival over the idea of a 'team rocket' situation as I always found their goals to be reakky cliche

5. Not sure what you mean exactly... But I definately like the idea of having some in-jokes about stuff. Who knows really... Again it's a story issue.

6. Well I think as it goes (I posted this earlier on) for the single player there has to be a set figure really... it'd be to difficult with out it, but the games 'pokedex' won't be locked to that number as new ones will be added online I hope, plus hey, the game can always be updated.

----

7. I thought I've had is there probably won't be 'PC' to access your creatures exactly... my idea is for 'Wifi' coverage e.g. when you reach a town you'll be in area that allows you to swap your party critters around so later on in the game when you've completed it all you effectively have a 'wifi coverage' upgrade that lets you do this in a wider range of areas, such as out in the wild. (obviously some areas you just won't have this ability ever). If not, it could be idea that your player gets charged each time he uses this feature...

 

[bananajamslam]

For my second suggestion here is a video you can skip to about 3:00 that is where it starts. My link

You will have to notice a few things. There is a limit and a time bar. My suggestion is to just keep the time bar to increase simplicity. Notice how it slowly fills up and then a box appears asking what the character wants to do. I suggest that we have the same options pop up here that are in pokemon (RUN, ATTACK, ITEMS, POKEMON). The major difference would be that characters bars fill up faster than others, thus the get to attack more often. It also makes knowing when the opponent is going to attack a mystery but this could be solved by showing the opponents bar if we wanted the players to know.

I think I will agree with you on the third point, but I still think it might be more fun to just give the character a weed whacker.

I also agree with you on the fourth point. I forgot about team rocket, but I do think that we should have a criminal aspect in the game just not a large scale one. Like how you found the burglers in the mansion on cinnabar island.

I may not have been clear with the sixth point, I guess what I meant was for it to be a set figure of course but just not exactly 150.

I think that the seventh idea that you added is great.

dflemstr: "I'll say one thing: MMORPG." I am going to have to disagree with him here though. Not that I don't want an online component to the game at all I just think that it may be too difficult to do right away, it may have to be added later when we have more support. The second reason that I will disagree with him on this point is that it restricts people that do not have an internet connection and (more importantly) ones that have a bad internet connection. I live in rural Alberta (Canada) and have the crappiest internet of anyone I know, it is not slow, it just disconnects every 5 minutes and would make this game unplayable. In other words if everyone agreed to make this a totally MMORPG game then I would have to abandon the project completely.

 

[lulzfish]

And some people just really hate MMORPGs. I wouldn't mind having it as an option, but I would never use it, and it would make the game useless while away from the house.

Make a solid single-player game and add a MMORPG version later.

 

[bzar]

Just a silly idea, but how about making the battles like in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? You start with just your trainer in the field, and use summon/throw pokeball/whatever to get your creatures to desired locations. The trainer would not fight, but would be needed for administrative stuff, like escaping (creatures left behind would actuallu be left behind, maybe even captured by the enemy) and managing the creatures. The enemies of course could not attack your trainer, that would be cheap . Also in regard to the wait-bar (the progress bar that must fill before you can choose your action), I'd think a HOMM-style approach might be better, where the speed of the character (creature) determines how often it gets turns. A creature with X speed would get one turn in the time a creature with 2*X speed would get two. Coupled with the FFTA battle field mechanics this would really give a nice edge for quicker creatures.

I don't know, it's not my game, but if I were to do it, this would probably be my starting point

EDIT: Of course, this would be a heck of a more work