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From Pokémon Fan Game Wiki

Information

Game Development Weekly (or GDW) is a fan game related newsletter that is updated at PokéCommunity. Despite the name, it doesn't always update weekly.
This issue, Issue #01 was posted February 6th, 2009

Letter from the Editor

By h POKE

AS ANY true lover of video games can tell you, there was a time, albeit long ago, when America ruled the market. Yes, those where the good old days, now long lost to the sands of time, or more ac- curately the floods of profit.

You see, way back in 1983, things changed. A market, bloated on the sheer quantity of product flying out of it (with little to no con- cern at all to quality, I might add), finally collapsed on its own weight. On that day, the day the ticker tapes stopped for many cash-hungry American men, I think the industry changed as a whole. Gone now was an age of innocence, where nobody had experienced the harsh consequences of a truly cold market, and in its stead was real- ity.

Thank God for reality.

To these people, the realization that ANY market will collapse if there is little concern to the consumer came bearing upon them like a Mac truck. And with a swish of concession by the groveling Americans, in came the Japanese, with force.

Once again, our eyes were flooded by marvelous technicolor wonders, almost as great to be played as they were on our store shelves. Those hesitant consumers (i.e, those regular kids) eventually came out from underneath the covers, and were willing to embrace the video game again.

Looks like a happy ending for our fair consumer, but what about all that reality? We see the reality of the video game industry every day, you maybe just don't notice it because failures, well... fail. In truth, most failures of today are no longer simply based on a lack of quality, but a failure on part of the consumer. The Bioshock and the Fallout 3 is put center-stage because of advertising, whilst The Last Express, Psychonauts, and countless others sit on the sideline waiting for some person to learn that good stuff comes from the least expected places.

The principle this website was founded on, I should hope. Sure, we all have experienced our crashes like those Americans in 1983, but the gold, the real gold comes from here as well. And that is what I know this newsletter was founded upon. So, continue to create, to inspire, and even to work together because no matter how pointless all this deigning may seem some time, know that I've got your back.

Sincerely, J.P. Ryan

Games

(Soon to be implemented into article.)

Interviews

~JV~

GDW: What made you decide to make games in the first place?

~JV~: The main reason for my interest in making them was that while playing games like Zelda Ocarina of Time or Pokémon Red, I always tried to go further looking for more to do in those games and all. That was the start of the dream of making games, firstly I thought it was an impossible dream, but after some friends showed me RPG Maker 2k3 I got interest on it and decided to spend time making games. Some weeks later I moved to RMXP and that was the engine I loved most. It has actually been around 3 years, and I have been using it [since then].

GDW: What were some of the major challenges you had to overcome when you started designing games?

~JV~: Ideas, to have a good game idea was really hard to me, mainly because I was influenced too much by other videogames so it was hard to though of my own. The second biggest obstacle would be the time I would have to have to spend on the game making.

GDW: Did you work on any other games before Uranium?

~JV~: Pokémon Uranium was my first public project even though I had already tons of them. That's because PU was the only one that I thought would gather interest from people. I also never worked on other people projects, I always prefered the idea of creating my own game.

GDW: I know you've talked to victorspvl before on his topic, Pokemon Silver Chronicles, about some of the differences between American boards and some of the supposedly more lenient Brazilian boards. All in all, it made me think that game design might be different in different sections of the world. Is game design really that different in Brazil compared to PC?

~JV~: Yes it is. In Brazil they hardly accept any kind of fangame as a RMXP project. They also prefer to use their own custom systems rather than using those scripts that are given to everyone. I was actually lucky that PU was accepted there with no problem, probably because it's one of the few pokémon fangames that has decent quality sprites, graphics, systems and plot. Other than that, the differences aren't that huge.

GDW: In your opinion, what do you think inspired you the most to create Uranium?

~JV~: That's a rather easy question, hehe. As every developer here at PC, I have already dreamed of playing in my own fake region, with my own fake pokémon, fake plot etc. So after I met RMXP, I started searching for tools or scripts that I could use to make a pokémon game. I found PC and the old Blizzy's starter kit. I started to make with it some maps, events and systems for the "no named" pokémon game. After a few days I named it as Pokémon Uranium as a total random name. Sadly, after some time I gave up on it because it would be obviously impossible for me to finish it with his crappy kit. So one year later I come back with the actual project using the Pokémon Essentials.

GDW: What are some of the new features you hope to include in Uranium?

~JV~: The first new feature I thought for the game was the Pokémon Race, one idea given by Zephyr Plusle, the main writter and also spriter. It was supposed to look similar to the good and old ratatta racing minigame from N64 Pokémon Stadium. I have already finished the system's main engine but have gone on hiatus with it because I needed to spend more time to do the most important game stuff. Another feature would be the possibility of buying a hotel room and furnishing it, I already have it working but didn't implement in the game itself yet. I'm mainly focused on making custom minigames, I already have in mind one that looks like table tennis, also one fishing contest that would work like the classic bug contest. I dont know if you consider it as a exclusive feature but as everyone knows there will be the complete custom move animations.

GDW: What were some of the first independent games and hacks you played? Does any one game specifically stand out in your head?

~JV~: I never had much patience on playing independant games and even more hacks. But I remember one that didn't use any custom scripts or graphics, it name was "Corporal Buggy Bear". It was a minigame orientated comedy game and I really enjoyed palying it! It has already been some time since I played it though, so there probably is no download link of it anymore.

GDW: What was your inspiration for the wild shapes of Inflagetah, or Eletruxo?

~JV~: Eletruxo was based on a hippocamp, a Greek mythological creature that is represented by a "water horse". Inflagetah was based on the cheetah, one of the quickest animals on Earth. It's my favorite animal and I put it as a fire type because that would fit its role as a light runner. Though most of PU pokémon were random ideas that worked out well or were Pequedark-Velvet designs. Pequedark is a Sugimori artist from deviantart who allowed me to use his designs in my game.

GDW: Would you take up a career in game design? Do you consider design a hobby, or a passion?

~JV~: No, certainly not. I never dreamed that and I only develop games as a hobby. In 3 years I'll start on college, hopefully, and at the moment I plan on studying Economics or Manufacturing-Engineering courses.

GDW: Do you have anything else you'd like to mention?

~JV~: These last days I have seen here on Pokecommunity a large number of developers that had lost all the progress because of computer problems and also rmxp ones [problems]. I just want to give a tip to everyone! Always be organized! Often make backups of your files in a pen drive and if possible back them up at free file hosting sites as well. I make weekly Uranium backups and I'm glad to know that it's almost impossible to lose data on my project.

Thanks for the interview, h POKE ^^. I'm really happy to be on the GDW first edition.

(Other interview soon to be implemented into article.)