Post by leafgreen386 on Jul 28, 2008 14:59:33 GMT -5
C/P'd from the zirconium thread.
So basically... the kamex studios game has several pokemon redone in extreme ways, forcing a precedent with which to change many subsequent pokemon, which would alone take a significant amount of time, with nothing more into the storyline completed beyond maybe the intro, and our programmer has decided to start over with a new engine, essentially putting us back at square one. In the mean time, KKM is starting his own game, has got a basis of a storyline down for it, and that's it. Could someone tell me how we're any further along than KKM here?
*sigh*
It's almost embarrassing looking at how little has been completed in a year, when comparing it to something contrived in far less time. The problem is we've spent almost all of our time coming up with stuff that would be assigned to one team of many producing a pokemon game - the creation and editing of pokemon themselves. In reality, pokemon are the least significant part of making a pokemon game, and we're trying to add way more than is really necessary, especially when we already have a basis in already existing games. Very minor changes were all that were necessary to be made to the already existing pokemon and moves, in order to give more out of battle functions and maybe to balance the game out a bit more. Editing the pokemon should be the thing we spent the least time on, but it's been the thing we've been spending the most time on, instead of actually working toward completing the game. I really don't see this project ever getting finished, simply due to the mindset here, and the overambitiousness that seems to persist. That overambition seems to actually be what has caused the project to slow down, as we've been working on menial things, which serve little importance to the primary goal, and thus causing the game to have an incredibly slow rate of progression, feeding back into itself and reducing motivation to actually keep going.
The most important parts in making a pokemon game... no... any game at all... is the storyline and the world it is set in - the puzzles you must solve, and the foes you must face. We already have a precedent for the battle system in the game, so we should only need to make very minor changes to that, and instead focus the bulk of our time on the environment the game is set in, and on why the player is in that environment. Pokemon, by its very nature, is a fairly tame RPG, so figuring out ways of livening it up should really be our main priority. Working in complex puzzles into the game to decrease the monotony of travel between towns or in dungeons, and making a storyline that is not only involved, but also does not drag on are two critical things that need to be addressed. Also making battles that are not incredibly boring, and actually require more work on the player's part than just "lol power leveling" (which would probably be remedied by applying some sort of modifier to NPC's pokemon's levels based on the player's pokemon's levels).
Right now, this project is as good as dead. If anyone actually feels like reviving it, we need to start talking about the important stuff: actual level design.
So basically... the kamex studios game has several pokemon redone in extreme ways, forcing a precedent with which to change many subsequent pokemon, which would alone take a significant amount of time, with nothing more into the storyline completed beyond maybe the intro, and our programmer has decided to start over with a new engine, essentially putting us back at square one. In the mean time, KKM is starting his own game, has got a basis of a storyline down for it, and that's it. Could someone tell me how we're any further along than KKM here?
*sigh*
It's almost embarrassing looking at how little has been completed in a year, when comparing it to something contrived in far less time. The problem is we've spent almost all of our time coming up with stuff that would be assigned to one team of many producing a pokemon game - the creation and editing of pokemon themselves. In reality, pokemon are the least significant part of making a pokemon game, and we're trying to add way more than is really necessary, especially when we already have a basis in already existing games. Very minor changes were all that were necessary to be made to the already existing pokemon and moves, in order to give more out of battle functions and maybe to balance the game out a bit more. Editing the pokemon should be the thing we spent the least time on, but it's been the thing we've been spending the most time on, instead of actually working toward completing the game. I really don't see this project ever getting finished, simply due to the mindset here, and the overambitiousness that seems to persist. That overambition seems to actually be what has caused the project to slow down, as we've been working on menial things, which serve little importance to the primary goal, and thus causing the game to have an incredibly slow rate of progression, feeding back into itself and reducing motivation to actually keep going.
The most important parts in making a pokemon game... no... any game at all... is the storyline and the world it is set in - the puzzles you must solve, and the foes you must face. We already have a precedent for the battle system in the game, so we should only need to make very minor changes to that, and instead focus the bulk of our time on the environment the game is set in, and on why the player is in that environment. Pokemon, by its very nature, is a fairly tame RPG, so figuring out ways of livening it up should really be our main priority. Working in complex puzzles into the game to decrease the monotony of travel between towns or in dungeons, and making a storyline that is not only involved, but also does not drag on are two critical things that need to be addressed. Also making battles that are not incredibly boring, and actually require more work on the player's part than just "lol power leveling" (which would probably be remedied by applying some sort of modifier to NPC's pokemon's levels based on the player's pokemon's levels).
Right now, this project is as good as dead. If anyone actually feels like reviving it, we need to start talking about the important stuff: actual level design.
