Pokemon has spent 20 years with us. It came to market Nintendo to save one of its worst economic crises and today is one of the most important franchises in the industry. At twenty principal deliveries are added over twenty spin-offs a collectible card game, eighteen films, several anime accumulating nearly two thousand episodes, a manga with more than seventy volumes and millions of products merchandising . But there are players who are left wanting more.
The mark Nintendo and The Pokemon Company has one of the most passionate communities and dedicated industry and are counted hundreds of players who have worked or are working on their own video games Pokémon, unofficial works and nonprofit known as fan games .
Just as if a group of friends dress up as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia and record a short home, these games are often experiments are mere entertainment or work homage but in some cases go far beyond and are born with the intention of enhance the work in which based , reaching thousands of players around the world.
it all starts at the beginning of 2000, when they arise unofficial first projects that in origin, were mere parodies or imitations of the popular franchise. Today, however, we find projects that have campuses hundreds of Pokémon created from scratch (these creatures, unofficial, known as Fakémon), delve into ideas Game itself Freak as megaevoluciones , unite all continents and Pokémon seen so far in the same project or as Pokémon Iberia, mix clichés and national humor with popular franchise.
from experiment to succeed, available to anyone
The reason that Wyatt Verchere , known online as “thesuzyrain” started developing Pokémon video games in his spare time was none other than “include your family and friends as coaches against those who fight in the game” and now, years later, he directed and designed Pokémon Zeta and Omicron two reputed fangames that accumulate nearly two million downloads. Not content with that and intend to go a step further and further refine the formula, he is working on Pokémon Insurgence .
In Spain, Pokémon Iberia represents the clichés and the country with humor
Wyatt leads a group of “ten people around the world”, from artists and musicians to responsible for the arrangements online one of the most ambitious to date unofficial games. Meanwhile, Nate “iamvishnhu” works individually with the timely help of a musician, in Pokémon Apex, dubbed by many as the “Pokémon adult” : A History deeper and adult, a difficulty much more pronounced, certain aura of terror and scenes full of secrets are just some of the interesting promises.
But how an unofficial video game Pokémon created? There is always the option of programming and designing from scratch, but the vast majority of projects with more monitoring in the community would not exist without two large pieces of software that make everything much easier and accessible; RPG Maker, in its various versions (XP and VX are the most used) is a program that allows you to create video games RPG 2D intuitively: thanks to use interface and about assets already created is may users without programming knowledge can create fully functional projects in a few days.
When the plugin Pokémon Essentials ( also known as Pokémon Starter Kit) comes into play is when everything becomes simpler still and begins to look like the popular Nintendo franchise: this package scripts and resources ( from designs of creatures and characters to statistical tables or the mechanics of the fighting in shifts) developed and compiled by the RPG Maker community added to the possibility of creating games like Pokémon without writing a single line of code. If you want to go beyond the programming language used by RPG Maker it is Ruby , syntactically similar to others like Visual Basic.
So, once the project is playable, can be downloaded and played on any PC (there’s also versions adapted to smartphone and even Game Boy Advance); because of the magnitude and the increase of development time, the bulk of the community begins his adventures in versions alpha or beta game, functioning as testers . Both Nate and Wyatt put versions alpha of their projects available to the time back community and tell the step of development in their official websites and Reddit.
Much more than a simple copy or homage
daily Nate usually consists of “designing tilesets (the small squares that together make up each of the scenarios of the franchise) and graphics, create maps, generating events (discussions and random encounters, for example) and search and resolution of bug “. Of course, the unofficial games always offer greater packaging sheet music, arguments and unpublished areas. However, major complications usually get when developers are facing the Creation of features never before seen in the franchise and therefore not replicable by plugin Essentials.
The most expensive is always working on features and new elements
for example, Wyatt intended to include several new weight in Pokémon Insurgence : the design and implementation of several additional megaevoluciones the Delta species, new type of Pokémon inherited from the card game, the ability to equip armor to increase join the Pokémon defense of our team or difficulty selector. In addition, like many others, the game will full functionality online expected in a videogame traditional Pokémon.
To go beyond basics and provide own the project entity, both claim that “ ends up becoming essential to have programming skills, pixel-art and animation , among other disciplines.” Interestingly, both took their first steps into the world of traditional programming working in different mods to Minecraft and now accumulate several years of experience in programming languages like Java, Ruby or C # . “The projects born around games that delude us are a great opportunity to get started in game development,” they say.
And, as countless players, both gave his first steps in the video game world hand to the classic Red and Blue Pokémon: Nate, for example, “playing Pokémon grew in his old Gameboy and eagerly awaits the arrival of Pokémon Sun and Moon.” For both, the link that millions of children create with the franchise and its creatures for the first time playing Pokémon is something that very few sagas can boast in the industry and one of the obvious reasons for their overwhelming success and longevity.
But if such is the popularity harvesting each installment of the franchise and if there are so many games developed by amateurs who are born to meet the needs of the public, why do not more games that try follow the trail of Pokémon? beyond the Spanish franchise Invizimals, the old Jade Cocoon or recent, and most popular, Yokai Watch, be counted on the fingers of one hand the comparable proposals . The creators of Insurgence and Apex believe that “Titanic of the franchise and its amazing popularity, achieved for two decades, make any attempt to enter the genre of collection and capture monsters end up being in vain.”
Perhaps for that sort of monopoly, the belief that Nintendo and Game Freak not take all the juice possible franchise it is quite widespread and functions as countless germ fangames ; side projects like Pokémon GO are a resounding success but, according to Wyatt and Nate, the main saga is too conservative : spent two decades with an almost invariable structure without innovations in the way of telling the story or the development of adventure and, above all, with the feeling that “Nintendo and Game Freak are determined not to make the game final Pokémon”, cutting content on purpose.
Zero economic benefits
Nintendo has always been especially wary with others have made use of their intellectual properties and obviously these projects developed by amateurs are considered unofficial and non-profit. Charging for access to these projects would fall into the illegal but also can not introduce any advertising or donations section on their websites. Any economic gain, nimia it was, and would violate the laws in trouble creators of these projects.
In an industry that requires so much dedication as the video game, it is not rare surprised to find dozens of people who invest years of his life developing projects it is impossible to draw any economic profitability; despite everything can seem a waste of time, Wyatt argues that “experience learning is exceptional “and also” hopes that some of the players from their fangames continue supporting their future projects , and payment “. Nate, meanwhile, thinks that “there is no better reward than a community as devoted as that found with Pokémon Apex”.
The same franchise that served, serve and will serve as a gateway to the games for millions of users, fulfills that function today in the field of design and game development. In the end, Pokémon is much more than a handful of games and objects of merchandising .
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