I'll make my own Pokémon, with Blackjack & Hookers!

[Xhukari]

I figured I'd match the ambitious games already in the chamber, with what essentially is Pokémon, but my own IP! I'll be wearing some of the inspiration on my sleeve, as it were. To help differentiate it though, I plan to lift some mechanics from Final Fantasy:

• Team is limited to 4 monsters; all 4 are out simultaneously.
• Will use Active Time Battle (Wait).
• Mana-esque replacement for Power Points. Can be regained when resting, from items, or from victory (only 25% for Victory).
• Conditions stack and may synergise (e.g., if a monster is bleeding, they're more likely to be poisoned from attacks which cause Poisoned).

Other Features

• Level-ups come easy, but defeating each Gym-leader equivalent ups the level cap; you cannot outlevel the Gym Leaders.
• Tools replace the HM system from Pokémon; don't have to teach your monsters specific skills just to progress.
• In addition to Gym-equivalents, there will be repeatable mini tournaments based on a singular type (you can only bring that type). Which depending on your placing, can reward items (some specifically suited to that type), with 1st place awarding you with a monster of that type you can't get elsewhere.

Storyline

• Branching Storyline (a bit like the quests from Fable 1, when you can defend or attack; you can join the bad guys at this game's Nugget Bridge equivalent).
• Your rival is the inverse of you; they choose the other option (a bit like Whisper from Fable).
• Proper Dialogue options unlike Pokémon. This could tie into the branching storyline; possibly talking people into or out of doing monster battles.

The Monsters

• Each monster has mild degree of stat randomisation; 10% bonus, 10% penalty, split randomly to each stat on wild encounter. These changes modify that monster's max-level stat values, which their current level is a % of.
• Unique to each specie of monster, is a Trait (think Passive Ability). These are usually positive, and often the monster could've had a different trait instead.
• There is a list of quirks, which are mostly mild negative effects. These are available to all monsters, and each monster has between 0-2 of them. An example would be Kleptomaniac (If this monster is not holding an item when they're readied, they will steal one randomly from an adjacent ally -- overall a mild effect, as held items will be plentiful throughout. But it can be made into an advantage, if the Kleptomaniac holds an item consumed on use, and they only have 1 adjacent ally who could be holding a replacement item for the Kleptomaniac).
• Type Shift: Each monster has 4 types available to them; one of these is the Mundane variant. Mundane-types can be shifted into another type. This is irreversible. It can change some of their learnable skills, their ability, quirks, stats and appearance. This will trigger naturally upon level 50, but can be declined (player gets the choice between the 3, or can decline it like an evolution in Pokémon). Alternatively, the player can use an injection on the monster to trigger the Type Shift on demand, including at max level.

Additional Aspects

• I'm a big fan of the first gen games, and always wanted to do a remake my way. So a piece of end-game content, after defeating the League (Elite 4 equivalent) and capturing all monsters. Is fighting the last, legendary monster... who will fight you as if they were a trainer, with the same monsters as you, but better (think Mewtwo Strikes Back).
• Optional Rules: I'm a big fan of nuzlockes for added difficulty, so I plan to program optional rules into the game, such as the Nuzlocke rules, and some others.
• I plan to have about 150 monsters like in Gen 1 (not counting the 3 Type Shifts per monster; Type Shifts aren't a massive change - more akin to an evolution, but their stat total doesn't really change).

 

[Ellie]

What do you think this is, a game making site?

Good luck with this. Is it gonna be marketed as a Poke game or your own thing?

 

[Xhukari]

Thanks! Marketed as my own thing; I ultimately plan to sell it, so wouldn't be able to do that if I infringed on someone else's IP. Plus fan games have a terrible habit of getting Cease & Desisted, or worse.

 

[ZenVirZan]

what strategies do you have for creating 150 not-pokemon? i feel like even gamefreak is struggling for new ideas currently, so making another 150 that dont overlap seems like itd be a challenge

 

[Xhukari]

It'll definitely be a challenge; perhaps the hardest part to pull off well!
I'm okay with some of the monsters sharing the same high concept, as long as the execution is different enough.

For actual design, my plan is to do something similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender, where they combine 2 or more monsters together, then I'd be adding type-differences on top of that for the Type Shift. Plus I'm planning to have my types more pronounced within the designs, with some whackier types than Pokémon, which could help with inspiration. I also don't mind if my designs end up creepier or gorier than Pokémon.

I'm planning to also make some take influence from known mythical creatures like Chimeras.

 

[Ellie]

Always been fascinated by Pokemon sprites, which seem like the would be easier to work with as far as creating graphics goes. You could always use this to generate some ideas and then create your own based on it maybe?

https://pokemon.alexonsager.net/

 

[Xhukari]

Always been fascinated by Pokemon sprites, which seem like the would be easier to work with as far as creating graphics goes. You could always use this to generate some ideas and then create your own based on it maybe?

https://pokemon.alexonsager.net/

Oh that's a classic! Totally forgot about that, thanks.
This isn't my first rodeo with something Pokémon-esque... on more than one occasion I've started up a Gen 1 Remake. It's where I've lifted some of my ideas from!
___________________

I nailed out the types for the game today, spent a lot of time going back & forth on how to do the strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately decided to balance out the the types. You've essentially got 2 groups of types, the elemental and the force ones. Each group can make a chain for something akin to Rock, Paper, Scissors. Mundane doesn't impact the chart at all, with Mythic being the Dragon-type equivalent for this game... though less rare. I'm thinking of allowing more than 2 types per monster, but capped to 4. We'll see how the monster designing process will go!

Equivalents and possible theming

• Mundane: Normal / Typeless. Plain, bland appearance.
• Water: Water & Ice. Has fins, shells, frost.
• Earth: Ground & Rock. Had dust, rocks, sand, soil, etc.
• Fire: Fire. Has flames or lava spouting.
• Air: Flying & Electric. Has wings, beaks, clouds, storms.
• Nature: Poison, Bug & Grass. Has plants, trees, bug parts, etc.
• Martial: Fighting. Has martial arts gear, weapons, armour, anger.
• Tech: Steel & Electric. Has gears, cables, batteries, magnets, robotic.
• Occult: Ghost, Dark & Psychic. Has extra eyes, tentacles, horns, masks or appears undead.
• Mythic: Dragon & Fairy. Based on different mythical creatures, like Chimeras, Hydras, etc.

I know Electric is listed twice for equivalents, but they deal with it in different ways... Air is raw; lighting, thunder, etc. Tech has other forms of energy. I try to make the chart make sense as much as I could, but I really wanted to limit each type to 2 advantages and disadvantages, so it resulted in some weirder interactions, such as Nature being good against Martial.

My current plan is to move onto the stats, then the statuses, then the quirks... and then I should be able to start designing some mons! My current idea for statuses is to give each of them at least 1 status they're the main causers of (e.g., Fire has Burn, Martial has Bleed, etc).

 

[Xhukari]

Haven't been doing as much lately... just haven't been feeling too creative. Before that hit, I did get done with Stats and statuses though! Still gotta figure out how I'll do the damage calcs and the like; I took a look at Pokémon's on Bulbapedia... and it looks complex, haha. Me math no good! I like percentages, and modifiers, so I'll probably just decide something like, 200 in a stat @ lvl 100 is high, and then have anything less than that as a % of the skill's power value. Then add all same-type bonuses, weaknesses, level differences, etc on top as modifiers. But I'm just rambling...

Statuses!

• Freeze: Cannot act and their ATB is paused for 20 seconds. When targeted with Fire-type skills, reduce the duration by 10 seconds. (Water)
• Stun: Cancel any activation and reset the ATB to 0. ATB takes twice as long this time. (Earth)
• Burn: Lose 2.5% HP when targeted by an attack. Strength is halved. (Fire)
• Paralyze: Has a 50% chance to fail on activation, skipping the turn. (Air)
• Poison: Lose 1% HP every 2 seconds. Healing received is halved. (Nature)
• Bleed: Lose 5% HP when they use a skill. Intelligence is halved. (Martial)
• Sedate: Until they are targeted with an attack, they cannot act and their ATB is paused. Speed is halved. (Tech)
• Confuse: Randomly use an able skill on a random target. Lasts for 5 activations. (Occult)
• Petrify: Randomly disable an able skill until end of battle. If all skills are disabled, the monster becomes fully petrified; they cannot act and their ATB is paused. Lasts until they lose 10% HP, at which point all their skills are no longer disabled. When fully petrified, current statuses are paused and no new ones can be applied. (Mythic)

Any mention of health %, is of their maximum, not current. And unless mentioned, these statuses persist throughout and after the battle. No type carries a baked-in immunity to a status, and each one is 'home' to one type, who's skills are the most likely cause of that status. Values might need changing later, but this is the intent. I tried to somewhat balance the statuses, with no clear winner... excluding Petrify. That status will be rare, and even rarer will be skills that trigger Petrify more than once in a single activation.

It's also why Petrify is double-faceted with both a disabling element and the ATB pause; like all other statuses, there will be items available to cure the full petrification, however a harder to get item, will be one which cures the disabled effect. Which is something I plan to build the very last battle around... purposefully leaving your monsters partially disabled, then having skills to take advantage of that.

Stun might seem the weakest, as it is the most brief and with the least impact, but this will be balanced by a lot of Earth skills which cause it, and at higher likelihoods than other statuses get.

 

[Xhukari]

Quirks! I've got a whole list of 27 Quirks in my design doc. These are negative effects which each wild monster is randomly generated with; all of them are available to all monsters (55% get 1, 30% get 2, 15% get 3). I won't list the whole lot here, but here's some of my favourites...

• Hypochondriac: If 2 or more allies have a status, gain that status.
• Messy: The letters in the words of their menus are jumbled up. (Esnialstlesy lkie hwo tihs is witretn!)
• Predictable: Skills have 20% less Accuracy if it was used in the last activation.
• Arrogant: Will only learn the skills it wants to learn.
• Panicky: Will use a held consumable the moment they take damage regardless of what the item does.
• Frugal: Will not use or hold expensive items. (What counts as expensive is currently undecided, but I'll changed the description to that value when it's figured out.)

I went for a good mix of effects; I'm particularly a fan of the UI-changing ones (Messy, Indecisive, and Private). Some of the names for other ones include Selfish, Vengeful, Cowardly, Stubborn and Bland.

Pinnacle Monsters! My game's version of Shiny monsters... something I um'd and err'd over, but after the change to Quirk distribution, decided to go for! However these rare monsters do offer combat advantages over their non-Pinnacle variants. Not only do they get a colour swap, but they also have no Quirks and no Stat Penalty when generated!

I'm thinking that my Gym Leaders' signature monster will be a Pinnacle one, but we'll see. :grin:

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Just make all of the pokemon cute anime girls and be done with it.

 

[ZenVirZan]

Just make all of the pokemon cute anime girls and be done with it.

moemon represent :rock: :rock:

 

[Fayte]

I like this idea! I wish it wasn’t a gym chaser like the original Pokémon, but still seems like a cool idea. What type of names are they going to have? Are they going to end in “mon” like Digimon? Also, will they be able to talk or only repeatedly say their own name?

 

[Xhukari]

I like this idea! I wish it wasn’t a gym chaser like the original Pokémon, but still seems like a cool idea. What type of names are they going to have? Are they going to end in “mon” like Digimon? Also, will they be able to talk or only repeatedly say their own name?

Thanks! Not planning to have Gyms be a central element; more of a way to meter out level caps. I don't think they'll have a set naming convention; some may use mon, some will take parts of pre-existing words, some could be entirely made up. I'm not currently planning to have them make any noise in the game, but we'll see. But if they were to make sounds... it would be natural sounds, like grunts, roars, etc. :smile:

 

[ZenVirZan]

i like the gyms in the pokemon series, not for the gimmicks but because it provides a strong sense of progress and clear direction in a game that otherwise (to new players) would seem kinda directionless

 

[Fayte]

i like the gyms in the pokemon series, not for the gimmicks but because it provides a strong sense of progress and clear direction in a game that otherwise (to new players) would seem kinda directionless

In the Pokémon series yeah I suppose it’s fine they’ve been making the same game/story with new bells and whistles since red/blue/yellow. But this isn’t Pokémon so that’s why I said that.

 

[Xhukari]

So after some doubts and procrastination, I've returned to the project! However, with a change of goal (to be less of a Pokémon clone) some things needed a revision!

Type Effectiveness: The type chart is gone; monsters are no longer of a type (but attacks are). Each monster will now have their own % for each type. To reflect this change, the Types are in 3 sub-types... Elemental (Cold, Hot, Earth, Air), Physical (Crush, Pierce, Slash), and Conditional (Poison, Bleed, Burn). The primary source of the conditional damage types, are from their respective Status effects of Poisoned, Bleeding and Burnt.

Gauntlets: This game's gym-equivalent has received a change as well! No longer based on a Type, they are now based on a Status effect. But more importantly, so they ring true to their namesake, the entirety of a Gauntlet must be finished without leaving; doing so will reset it. So you best come prepared! The Status effects have also seen some changes.

Combat System: Your team now consists of a total of 3 monsters, and the old ATB and Energy systems have been merged together into Stamina. Everything you do, will cost different amounts of Stamina (including item use), however you cannot do any actions until your Stamina is at least 50%. Agility now replaces the old Speed stat; how much stamina you gain per second, is based on your Agility.

Skills: Instead of being bound to 4 skills per monster, you now have a total of 8 slots. Some will be passives, rarely a skill will take more than 1 slot. Instead of learning skills (now called Abilities) permanently as you level or from item use, they are instead added to your monster's ability pool. Their slots can be customised from their available ability pool when you meditate at pre-determined locations.

You: You now have to catch your first ever monster by yourself; you do not get given a 'starter' monster. You are always considered at level cap, your skills are an average all-rounder. However the abilities (active and passives) are determined by the weapons you equip, additionally these can skew your all-rounder stats to something more specific... such as equipping a shield will boost your defensive stats of Defence and Ward. You can only ever fight when you have no monsters in your team, or when they have all Fallen (0 HP). You no longer 'teleport' back to the healing place when all your monsters have Fallen; only when you do.

Variance: Monsters will now have their stats varied differently; 1-2 stats will be stronger, 1-2 stats will be weaker. The affected stats are increased/decreased by 10% each, these won't overlap. But additionally, you and monsters now have a Height value which ranges between 80-120% (scaling you or the monsters up & down respectively), but this also modifies your stats... below 100%, Intelligence, Ward and Agility are buffed, above 100% Vitality, Strength and Defence are buffed. E.g., 80% Height will have +10% Intelligence, Ward and Agility. but at 90% Height, that would be +5% instead. You and the monsters have their heights randomised. Pinnacle monsters maintain having no weakened stats.

 

[Fayte]

I'm not sure how I feel about not getting to choose a starter or the main character fighting the monsters (or whatever you're going to call them) themselves, but everything else seems great!

 

[Xhukari]

I'm not sure how I feel about not getting to choose a starter or the main character fighting the monsters (or whatever you're going to call them) themselves, but everything else seems great!

Hey, thanks! Yeah that's fair, my inspiration for the whole 'catch your first monster' is that I really liked the Safari part of some Pokémon games, and figured that you had to specifically catch your first mon (instead of it just given to you) can help create a stronger bond?

The you-fighting aspect might be expanded or reduced (if reduced, it will closer mirror the Safari system)... it all depends how it feels in gameplay, I guess! :smile:

 

[Xhukari]

I need something akin to evolutions for this game, as it essentially allows you to stretch a singular idea into more monsters; I counted the separate evolution-lines within Kanto, and got to about 80~... which means evolutions helped to halve the amount of distinct monster ideas needed in half!

Before I made the change away from monsters being of a type, I had the Type-shift idea as my version, but now that won't work... so back to the drawing board. I've toyed with what is a superficial change from evolutions, and framing as maturation -- young, teen, adult.

Briefly toyed with an idea similar to digi-evolution / mega-evolution which is a temporary in-battle change, but disliked that. The idea I keep coming back to is fusions -- but only allowing some monsters to fuse with specific others, so it's not a wild mess.

I've also toyed with going for more of a 'frankenstein monster' / FMA approach, where you make new monsters from a sum of parts. This idea has a nice tie-in with the tools that you'll get as you progress, as you could use the Hatchet (Cut HM equivalent) to get bark, vines, etc, the Pickaxe (Rock Smash HM equivalent) to get ores and minerals, etc...

But the biggest issue with that, is that it is somewhat at odds with the current plan I have for the world-building; you fight monsters until they're weak, capture their souls, which through a ritual you bind them to your own soul, and tap into your lifeforce to summon them to fight for you (trainers will be called Soul Binders, or Binders). But with the whole frankenstein idea, you'll be spending all this effort to create life, just to kill it and bind its soul to your's?

 

[Fayte]

Killing and Frankensteining sounds cruel and unusual, to be honest haha. Maybe make everything “evolve” using a “soul stone” of some sort? So you can manually evolve at your own will.