Warning to all users: Your user page should contain some text or your account will be banned (at least temporarily). This is to prevent bots. Just put hfjdaibvyl or something.
GDW Issue 3
Contents |
Information
The Game Dev Weekly Newsletter is managed by Avatar at PokeCommunity it is geared toward bringing more popularity to the games in the Game Development section.
Alternate format can be found here.
This issue, Issue #03 was posted Friday, January 20th, 2006
News
Changes have come to Game Development.
New sub-sections have been added to hopefully make the Game Development section more organized.
Games
No game reviews this week.
Interviews
If you wish to be interviewed refer to the Contact Information section.
Pokemon Chromatite interview
Platform: Sphere
My Rating: N/A
Thread Rating: 5/5
Information:
Pokemon Chromatite is a project brought to you by The Spherians. It looks interesting thus far, and the demo should definately be worth a try.
Interview by: Avatar
Interviewed: DarkDragon
Avatar: How long have you been developing games?
DarkDragon: my interest in games appeared about 7 years ago, since then I've tried different tools but Sphere has been the one I liked the most so far
Avatar: What tools have you used?
DarkDragon: I started with RPG Maker 95, since then I changed to Sim RPG Maker 97 then RM2k and RM2k3, after that I found out about Game Maker but I didn't quite like it so I had just started using RMXP when I found out about Sphere and its potential
DarkDragon: I also tried Dark Basic but I didn't like it
Avatar: Who make up the Chromatite team besides yourself?
DarkDragon: I started alone, then the first people who I can remember joining first were Waudby, Masa, gibslpsg then later SouthernIslands, Sylph and Datriot joined. Budgie_boy has been helping but he doesn't want to be officially included in the team.
DarkDragon: There also a number of other people who I can't recall right now who helped with little bits, they will be included in Chromatite's credits
Avatar: What do you, in your own eyes think makes Chromatite unique?
DarkDragon: I think the ammount of available choice is what makes it unique, you don't have to stick to a storyline, you MAKE the storyline by making decisions that will affect how NPCs and pokemon react to you, etc.
Avatar: Available choices? Could you explain further?
DarkDragon: Sure, you start as a normal person. Many ideas were kind of based on games such as Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II and GTA San Andreas. Not only you but your pokemon as well have choices, there will be stats like fat, muscle, reputation, goodness bar, power boost and many other which all affect your performance in battle and how people react to you overall.
DarkDragon: The g dness bar is the one which plays a big role in the game, the fact that you can work for one of the evil teams or one of the good ones makes it possible in chromatite to have a third type aditional to the other one or two that normally a pokemon has, that type can include 5 variants, they are: Light, Shiny, Neutral, Shadow and Dark
DarkDragon: the nicer you are to people and pokemon the more your goodness bar will go to the Blue side
DarkDragon: as an example, we can use the fact that when in a battle after all of the enemy's HP is out it will enter a death bar, you can leave it alone, kill it or call the pokecenter.
DarkDragon: or catch it
DarkDragon: catching/leaving alone doesn't affect you but calling the pokecenter adds Blue points and killing adds Red points to your goodness bar
DarkDragon: the more evil you are so will your pokemon team, they will be affected by the time they spend with you, depending on how good/evil they are they will gradually change to shiny and then light or shadow and then dark.
DarkDragon: It is also important to remember your pokemon have age and so on which affects their performance in battle, they also enter a death bar and you must call them back on time or they can also be killed. When they get old enough they can also die, that's why breeding is important.
DarkDragon: In addition to that, an alien virus made it possible for pokemon to have many different colors, that will be done by using an Hue + Saturation engine that will make sure the colors won't hurt your eyes, but it will give you more possibilities and you will rarely get a pokemon of the same color.
DarkDragon: some pokemon of pure color will be obtained in the game the others you can obtain them by breeding through generations using a genetic algorithm, the more you breed the right pokemon the more you get closer to the pure color.
DarkDragon: that was an introduction to the choice factor, there's much more which will be a surprise
Avatar: Anything else you want to tell us about Chromatite?
Avatar: Planned features, for example?
DarkDragon: well, you will have real time, so if there's a pokemon you want to catch at night you have to play at night (no use trying to change the clock value, the game will know and do bad things to you), we also plan in having a difficulty system so that every trainer you fight will be of an average level near yours so that it makes it harder to fight trainers but you also get more experience. An idea we had is that if you kill a pokemon after battling it will work as a repel effect for a while, if you don't feed your pokemon and their loyalty level is not very high they will run away from you. You might encounter them later though and recapture them. Some other features we plan to add is the job system where you can get a job which will ask yout o complete certain tasks, some examples would be for example gym leader (using our random trainer generator), scientist, work for some team, pokemon fotographer, pokemon watcher or even simple stuff like working at the pokemart/center or being a cop. Jobs will be used to get money to buy really expensive items, etc.
DarkDragon: And we will also add an online feature just where you enter the other players ip and port and you
go to a room where you can trade and battle, etc.
Avatar: What is the estimated progress on Chromatite?
DarkDragon: As for regions, the first version of chromatite will not have all of them. We plan to have Sylion, Hoenn, Johto, Kanto and Sevii Islands, SAVE files will be able to be transported to newer versions and in a future version after we will have Orre and Orange Archipelago
DarkDragon: right now the progress on chromatite is of about 5%
DarkDragon: we are trying to finish the engine first and worry about the NPCs, etc later
Avatar: Any final words?
DarkDragon: We are aiming for a release next summer, I would like to thank you all the support we have been having and all team members. And finally, I will never give up on the project, doesn't matter how hard it gets
More Info
Demo Unavailable
Pokemon Vault interview:
Platform: RPG Maker XP
My Rating: N/A
Thread Rating: N/A
Information:
Pokemon Vault is a game by Zerro. It boasts a CABS, (Custom Action Battle System) it is a brand new way of battling!
Interview by: Avatar
Interviewed: Zerro
Avatar: How long have you been developing games?
Zerro: Well? I'd say for about 5 year's now.
Avatar: What sparked your interest in Game Development?
Zerro: Hmmm... I'm not really sure, I have always loved to write, and makeing games is just an extenion of it.
Zerro: It let's me make my own little world.
Avatar: How long have you been working on your game?
Zerro: For about a year now. I started a game called Pokemon - Master Quest, but stoped updating it. Anyway I never really stoped working on it.
Avatar: So is Vault a new game, or did you change its name?
Zerro: I changed its name.
Avatar: You are using RPG Maker XP right? What made you choose that over other options?
Zerro: Well basicly, It's just what I started it on. I like the fact that I can change the game scripts with it, but I still feel restricted. Therefore I might switch to Sphere.
Avatar: What kind of features do you have planned for Pokemon Vault?
Zerro: Many, many new features, such as the PHC or, Pokemon Habitual Container. It will eliminate boxes, and will allow the trainer to upload himself into a cyber interface. Inside your pokemon are free to Roam. You will be able to have a brand new relationship with your pokemon, and breed them in a brand new way. Another great feature that will change the way the game is played is my CABS.
Avatar: CABS? Could you elaborate on the feature?
Zerro: Sure, It stands for Costom Action Battle System. You will still have random battle's, but you will battle in a brand new way. You will have to move your pokemon around the feild, using a combonation of close and long ranged attack's. It will also make catching pokemon alot harder, because of the fact you actualy have to throw the ball, and hit the pokemon that could be running around the feild.
Zerro: Where you battle will make all the differnce.
Avatar: Any last words before I conclude the interview?
Zerro: Yes, I would like to thank Spoony for making fantasic new pokemon for the game. And I would like to encoarge people to post in my thread on any sugestions they might have.
More Info
Demo Unavailable
Contact Information
Wish to be interviewed? Have any questions? Got news on your game?
Contact me on PC.
