We make Pokémon Reborn. Ask Us Anything.

[Amethyst]

I have a question. How do you guys connect to each others knowing that every moderator, designer, and administrator needs to be in one place?

Well, site staff (mods/admins) aren't actually involved with game development themselves, though there is a small amount of crossover (basically Dan and I by now). And... the only one who really does that much designing is me. But I think I get your meaning, details aside.

Dropbox has been absolutely invaluable for this. There's a handful of us (basically Dan Inuki and I) who have access to an automatically-syncing project through db so we can edit whatever and reload and it's on each other's computers instantly. Then the animation team + Jan works separately and they submit their files through db's file request system, so they go right into the project folder too. Finally, the scripting team uses Tortoise subversioning hosted with Rioux which allows us very rigid control over local/shared copies of the script files + documentation, including the ability to roll back to previous versions when necessary.

When using Fly will we be able to go only to pokecenters? Or to every route/important place like in ORAS?

Only Pokemon Centers. We old fashioned.

Upon completing this game, what do you hope your biggest accomplishment will be?

What I mean by that is, does the finished game itself represent the biggest victory, or are you more motivated by personal development, or the fact you've built an entire online community around the game, etc?

Also, bonus question for Ame: words words physics surf item economics words?

Mm.. I think, in terms of what the 'biggest victory' is, it'll be the fact that I managed to actually 1) finish something, and 2) create something that a really large number of people really like.

Historically I've never really been good at finishing things. That's the popular habit, in fact. I've been messing around with RPG Maker since I was 11, and I used to frequent a lot of RM communities where many people would post about their projects and then in month or two the creators would lose motivation and abandon them. I wasn't an exception to that. Before I started Reborn, I had sort of 'retired' myself from the whole game development thing. So when I went back to it, I started Reborn with the expectation that I would get bored of and drop it within a month. Obviously that didn't happen. When it is finally done, it's going to be pretty big to me to show that I actually came through on something. And it'll happen-- even if it takes a while.

As for the second part, that's mostly just a matter of proving to myself that most-- or at least, enough-- of my principles and ideas are effective enough to make something a success. That's huge to me. Whenever I watch or play something, I'm analyzing the plot structure, the design choices, so on- identifying what's good, why it's good, what can be improved. As such, I tend to be very critical of things like games and writing. However, it's not like I'm a published author or anything, so what I say about writing has no real weight. The same went for the video games side of things-- until this took off. The fact that I can do this well enough is sort of validation to the previously unjustified confidence I had in terms of my thoughts on design and structure.

Are there any regrets in the story plot?

aha, haha. ha.

So, following after the above: When I actually sit down and write something, be that a short story or a plot for a game, or whatever, I'm very methodical about it. I have pretty strong ideas about purpose, structure, character development and so on. I start with an outline, a central purpose, and I build everything out from there. This is the case for Starlight. I believe quite firmly this works, and creates stories that are both engaging, and technically satisfying.

The thing about Reborn, is that was all thrown out the window from the start.

Remember that this game was based off of our online league. I think I said this in an earlier reply, the gym leaders for the online league were written to be one dimensional. Furthermore, most of their stories didn't connect at all and many of them had no development whatsoever. These characters were not meant to be part of a game. They do not fit together. I've done my best to string them along and tie them up into a singular story, but because they are made from this lackluster source, the story and characters come out (in my opinion) as very disjointed and flat.

So that's my regret-- that the story isn't structured more clearly, and the characters aren't more interesting. Of course it had to be that way, because that was the point of the game. And I probably only got away with it because the canon games are still less interesting than that. But in the end, this is nothing. I know I can, and will, do so much better.

And if you'll allow me to toot my own horn for a minute more, because I haven't done that enough, I already have done better. Even though most of it is still in my head, and coming out slowly in the form of concept art every couple months... I don't care much for most of Reborn's characters, save one or two. And that's understandable I think, because like I said, most of the characters in Reborn weren't written to be likable. In contrast, however, I am absolutely in love with every single major character in Starlight. Maybe that's just because I'm in the honeymoon phase with it still, or maybe it's because most of them haven't made it to a tangible form for me to criticize yet (...though one of them never will, and that's the way she likes it...), but I cannot wait until I can finally play them from my hand.

Also, another good TTar explanation, if anyone's interested: TTar could've used a ton of Superpowers when it fought Amaria's team, so it's Attack was super depleted by the time it struck Amaria.

I like this one.

EDIT: Rip, ninja'd again.

I figure that you have to have some sort of plan for the ending, but how much of this plot was the same from the start? Did it end up taking any surprising directions from the viewpoint of what it started out as? Can you share some of the more interesting what-might-have-beens(assuming they exist) and/or why they weren't?

Edit: Oh, that's quite a bit like HakuTaku's. Hmm.

If this game had been a book, who would you have made the main character(s) whose thoughts and/or actions we would follow? Please ignore this if its too...anything. I feel like it may be inappropriate to ask, but can't decide. >_>

I didn't plan out the plot until I started making E3, realized I probably wasn't getting bored of this any time soon, and needed a direction to take it. So... it wasn't really from the start, but everything to the end was planned out at that point.

Details and order of events were revised periodically. I also made a few rewrites to add content, such as the entire excursion with Adrienn and Ditto-Arceus. I can't think of anything significant that was removed, but I'm sure something was. Oh, like there was originally going to be a gang sidequest where you and your chosen gang got arrested and you had to break out of jail (beneath the police station) together. That was something that was scrapped in favor of the 7th street events, which were also last-minute additions.

For many of the reasons above, I don't think this would make a good book. If it were a book we'd have to have a non-silent protagonist. That protagonist's development would have to inform the events and actions included.

[Gaunt]

What part(s) of the game changed the most during the development?

What was the worst bug you encountered while making the game?

[Foamy]

Thank you for the insightful answers!

If the characters could be more thoroughly developed, and the protagonist allowed to more adequately articulate his/her/xyr thoughts, how would you improve upon the plot? How would the general storyline of the game change if you could flesh out these characters in full, rather than simply base them on one-dimensional counterparts? (Please forgive me for asking such an open-ended question)

[Jessen]

Ame, I have a couple of questions here for you that you might like.

What was the inspiration for you starting a pokemon game rather than another game type entirely? There are a lot of franchises and game types out there and to know you specificly chose pokemon from some source of inspiration, to me, makes it a much more worthwhile project.

Have you guys ever gotten little pieces of help from the community, such as a slight bug fix a player might have made on their own if they've got the power to?

Also, what kind of advice would you give to someone who tinkers around with Reborn to see what makes it tick and do things such as add features that you might not have put in originally?

[Dragon116]

What part(s) of the game changed the most during the development?

What was the worst bug you encountered while making the game?

I'm going to take a guess at that second question and say Sucker Punch is broken.

[vszarpellon01]

I'm going to take a guess at that second question and say Sucker Punch is broken.

What's up with Sucker Punch?

[Marcello]

I'm going to take a guess at that second question and say Sucker Punch is broken.

I don't like tooting my own horn either, and I'll probably eat my words later when I realised I dun goofed, but as things stand... Not in E16 >:]

[ArthurZH]

Asking stuff!!

Do you plan on anything for Post-Game Reborn, or will it 'end' at the E4/Champion?

Are we given the option to rebattle leaders after we've kicked the crap out of them beaten them?

What does Ame have against Gen 1 water types?

Are you planning to bring in other legendaries other than Arceus into the plot? If no, will they be available pre or post E4, and will you throw them in plot-wise or just randomly put them in a corner?

((If it's too much to reveal, just casually say #spoiler and not say anymore! Don't spoil the game!))

PS: This game is awesome balls btw

[Amethyst]

What part(s) of the game changed the most during the development?

What was the worst bug you encountered while making the game?

Like, pre-release?

Because I sketch stuff out before mapping it, most things haven't really changed -that- much... And even post-release the layouts of maps rarely change even if the visuals do like in Mosswater/the Slums/Julia's Gym. But if it's like within an episode cycle the only thing that really changed a lot was probably Azurine Island. I had to sketch it out like five different times before I settled on something I liked.

And then I started mapping it, the different islets were originally connected by shallow points in the water. However I added that little floaty plant stuff for decoration and realized I liked the look of that better, especially because that allowed me to get a bit more subtle and make some interesting twisting pathways and such, so I basically redid the entire map one more time without a sketch to use those instead.

"Worst bug" could mean a lot of different things. Most problematic? Hardest to fix? Idk. Sucker Punch has been annoying but I don't think I'd call it either of those. The bug that's hardest to fix is probably one that's been around since Episode 1 and that still no one has been able to reproduce, where the game crashes if you're running in LoDo when a Pokemon's poison wears off. It's always these conditions, but it only happens rarely. I am very upset by it.

Right now the worst bug in terms of most problematic might be an issue with the doubles AI that I'm not even sure is a bug so much it just being made badly in the first place. Currently in doubles, the AI only looks at about half of the Pokemon's moves, and at half of the targets available to it. I don't see any real rhyme or reason to this; it's just not made to do better. That's something we intend to fix for 16 though.

If the characters could be more thoroughly developed, and the protagonist allowed to more adequately articulate his/her/xyr thoughts, how would you improve upon the plot? How would the general storyline of the game change if you could flesh out these characters in full, rather than simply base them on one-dimensional counterparts? (Please forgive me for asking such an open-ended question)

It's hard to say without having a specific purpose for writing it that way. As a general method, we start with the purpose and how the protagonist is going to develop. Then every other character is written as an accessory to that development in some way. The plot is what moves them to develop from point A to B. It sounds hollow phrased like that, but that's a basic structure. Then the details are filled in according to the purpose and what metaphors suit it. I'm not really going to give a concrete example here because that takes quite a bit of time to feel all of that out, I'd be writing an entire other story from the ground up and we're not about that life right now. But that's the general idea.

What was the inspiration for you starting a pokemon game rather than another game type entirely? There are a lot of franchises and game types out there and to know you specificly chose pokemon from some source of inspiration, to me, makes it a much more worthwhile project.

Have you guys ever gotten little pieces of help from the community, such as a slight bug fix a player might have made on their own if they've got the power to?

Also, what kind of advice would you give to someone who tinkers around with Reborn to see what makes it tick and do things such as add features that you might not have put in originally?

I touched on this before, but I didn't really set out to do this. We had the Reborn League, and a user was like "I'm gonna make a game based on the League!!" and I was like, knock yourself out because I tried romhacking once before and gave it up after changing a trainer's roster caused evolution to stop working entirely. And then he mentioned that he was going to use the engine Pokemon Raptor, an RMXP game, used. A lot of excited question marks and a few google searches later I found Pokemon Essentials, and already having been very familiar with RPG Maker from my younger days, tried it out right away and released Episode 1 two weeks later. Like I said before, I expected that I'd get bored of it quickly. It wasn't like I set out to make a Pokemon game. Someone else was going to, and then I realized I could make it better. So I did.

But like, I've been interested in game development since I was like, 6. My best friend and made a regular hobby out of drawing fakemon and custom zelda dungeon maps. When I was 8, I got my first bit of training on an actual development engine (making a frogger clone) and then I started using Game Maker at home when I was 10 and RPG Maker when I was 11. Particularly with RPG Maker I've focused on a lot of different projects in the past (none of which were remarkable due to age and inexperience), so it's not like Pokemon was my first choice (partly because I didn't think it was practical in RM, and maybe at the time it wasn't). In fact when I was younger, the thing I most wanted to make was a tactical RPG. And hey! I'll be doing that soon.

--

Many people in the community have helped a lot. Even aside from things in the Public Dev forum I've had users PM me bits and pieces here and there. Smeargletail, who's on the animation team now, was one such example. Before there was an animation team, he took on the job of occasionally scanning through the image files looking for out-of-line pixels, among other things, and also did all of the custom egg appearances pretty much on his own. I didn't ask him to do those things, he just did, and it was great. Obviously that's a dramatic example, but the point is, yeah, the community's helped a ton.

--

Advice? I dunno. Maybe just to document the changes you make so that when you do get it done you're able to reproduce it or change things that conflict later. Poor documentation in the beginning cost me a fair bit of time on the project. Aside from that, I don't think there's much to say. Knock ya self out.

What's up with Sucker Punch?

ahahah...

So sucker punch wasn't implemented in the first place, so we implemented that and since then it's been broken in different ways every release. like. we fix one problem with it and i'm so sure it's good now and then some other crash message springs up on a different case handler that I swear I tested.

But in the dev version it's good now!

Right..?

r.. r-right?? Q~Q

Do you plan on anything for Post-Game Reborn, or will it 'end' at the E4/Champion?

Are we given the option to rebattle leaders after we've kicked the crap out of them beaten them?

What does Ame have against Gen 1 water types?

Are you planning to bring in other legendaries other than Arceus into the plot? If no, will they be available pre or post E4, and will you throw them in plot-wise or just randomly put them in a corner?

There should be a fair amount of post-game content. I mean there's like, what, 40 legendaries? Yikes...

What kind of post-game would it be if that wasn't the case?

Nothing! Water is one of my favorite types and I really like a lot of the Gen 1 waters! I already explained why they're so far back though; just because of (sometimes previous) competitive viability.

*except that Golduck is just boring.

What, Mewtwo isn't good enough for you???

Tbh, like, honestly, like, to be honest, like, to tell the truth... I don't really like legendaries. At all. That might be why the plot is so less focused around them than many other fangames.

That said, contrary to what I promised in the past, you can probably expect to see at least one more before the end of the story.

[Alchemia Chan]

Will the player ever get an Honorary Reborn Pokeball like the ones beside the names of subforums and the Game icon once we reach post-game?

[Foamy]

Will the player ever get an Honorary Reborn Pokeball like the ones beside the names of subforums and the Game icon once we reach post-game?

I've wondered about a Reborn Ball, too. There's an icon for it; it'd be a shame to not implement it.

That said, contrary to what I promised in the past, you can probably expect to see at least one more before the end of the story.

Ooh, now this is the kind of answer I like! It gives us new information, but it's vague and open-ended enough to generate pages upon pages of speculation.

It makes us think, makes us ask questions. Will this legendary be involved in the main plot? Will it just be another boss battle like Mewtwo? Will it actually be catchable? There are so many things to discuss!

[Xiri]

Might be a confusing question but... how attached do you feel to Pokemon on a scale from 1 to 10?

[Samtale]

Many people in the community have helped a lot. Even aside from things in the Public Dev forum I've had users PM me bits and pieces here and there. Smeargletail, who's on the animation team now, was one such example. Before there was an animation team, he took on the job of occasionally scanning through the image files looking for out-of-line pixels, among other things, and also did all of the custom egg appearances pretty much on his own. I didn't ask him to do those things, he just did, and it was great. Obviously that's a dramatic example, but the point is, yeah, the community's helped a ton.

I didn't do any eggs weren't those all yours? I only made one that was 1x into 2x or am I just reading it wrong

Edited December 21, 2015 by smeargletail

[Amethyst]

Wait, really? Well, that's embarassing. Was it the other person with the smeargle avatar? I know I get you two mixed up all the time... Nefalem, I think?

Even so, both of you have been extremely helpful. You did the other things like with the chrysolia background and error checking on icons, yeah? And you also both were active in the shiny project iirc...

Will the player ever get an Honorary Reborn Pokeball like the ones beside the names of subforums and the Game icon once we reach post-game?

It's not really a goal or priority so I don't have any plans for it, but if a good effect is hammered out, I'm not opposed. . There were some ideas tossed around before, but I didn't really like the sound of them... Unfortunately I can't remember the details. >~<

Might be a confusing question but... how attached do you feel to Pokemon on a scale from 1 to 10?

Maybe like an 8, but a good 4 of those points are from Reborn itself. I really love Pokemon as a concept, and I like so many of the Pokemon themselves as well as ideas within the world. But, I have a hard time with the media. I don't like the battle system of the main series so I don't enjoy it that much, and I can't respect the anime after hearing some things about its director.

[Gaunt]

If you had the power to influence the development of the next game from the main series what would you add (or take away) to (in your opinion) improve it?

[Kurotsune]

If you had the power to influence the development of the next game from the main series what would you add (or take away) to (in your opinion) improve it?

Add a Fox Type.

Then remove every other type.

I'd probably revitalize the combat. I get the tried-and-true formulaic aspect of pokémon is one of it's pulling points; You can go back at any time after playing one game and more or less still know how to play it, or learn it quickly and intuitively.

However, I feel like this medium lacks strategic depth; You can argue competitive, and yes, competitive is strategically superior to the games, but the thing is, it shouldn't be for a game whose main focus is PvE, single-player content. The fun and challenge from pokémon should come from the game itself; I shouldn't have to seek a third party to truly enjoy the full potential of a game's combat system, especially when that's only one part (albeit a big part) of it.

Meanwhile, how much of that strategic depth could be achieved by changing the combat from turn-based to a more action based battle system, with a higher focus on mobility, usage of terrain, dodging attacks, alongside things like type advantage?

A rock type might be stronger than an electric type, but if the electric type can dodge every single attack - Say, a level 100 Pikachu, fully trained for speed and with agility (getting like 500 speed or so) versus an Onix trained for defense? The Onix is considerably bigger, has sweeping moves and stronger attacks, but it's also considerably slower. Isn't it more consistent to imagine a faster pokémon would be better at dodging said attacks, and whittling Onix down slowly - Or using terrain to it's advantage by finding and striking out of cover, given that it's considerably easier to find a place for a Pikachu to hide in or behind than it is for an Onix - than it simply getting one hit in, getting smacked, and getting knocked out?

Pokémon would work a lot better than it currently does in a medium that gives you more strategic diversity than simply moves and stats. Pokémon Reborn tries to medicate this through field effects, and while it works to a certain extent, I can say from firsthand experience you can disregard the system entirely and still breeze through the system if you have a simple enough understanding of the mechanics and teambuilding.

It'd also be more interesting if more pokémon had unique moves - And I don't mean moves like Dragon Ascent, which are simply existing moves given a new type, a new animation and a new name. I mean each pokémon having an aspect truly unique to it and it alone, and it making all pokémon being more unique.

Yes, that'd be pretty difficult to make for all thousands and thousands of pokémon we have, but given that the total amount of combinations you'd get from pokémon types is circa 324, do we really need that many?

So, yes. Size down, make each character more unique through something other than design and name, and make combat a bit more active and more rewarding strategically.

Now excuse me while I get myself some fireproof clothing and extinguishers.

[Foamy]

Now excuse me while I get myself some fireproof clothing and extinguishers.

Nah, I agree with ya. I've actually shared this mindset for a while. Nearly 20 years later, and Pokémon's combat still follows a formula that was designed with an archaic handheld game system in mind.

Pokémon are wonderful and diverse creatures, but the current game mechanics oversimplify them and detract from their diversity by reducing them to a series of stats, types, and moves.

[Gaunt]

Now excuse me while I get myself some fireproof clothing and extinguishers.

I agree too (for the most part)

Now to the question: have you ever ragequit during a playtrough/development process?

[Kurotsune]

I agree too (for the most part)

Now to the question: have you ever ragequit during a playtrough/development process?

I've never ragequit, but I've found it impossible to play through reborn after I started working on it for whatever reason.

After you've seen each segment individually a thousand times, you just don't have any more joy in seeing it in the actual game

[Marcello]

If you had the power to influence the development of the next game from the main series what would you add (or take away) to (in your opinion) improve it?

Put it on hold and pour it's resources into a Pokemon Conquest 2. Because while I love the main series games a lot, I loved Conquest SO much. It was my favourite game for a very long while.

have you ever ragequit during a playtrough/development process?

I think the closest you could say I come to a 'ragequit' in the development process is if I'm struggling to fix something and I run out of ideas, I'll often just go to sleep to clear my head. Although I think that's less ragequitting and more the fact that I work on Reborn really late at night (I seem to have made a habit of STARTING my bugfixing at midnight. Whoops :x) and if I get too tired my productivity is completely shot.

With regards to playthroughs, I struggled way more than I'd like to admit with PULSE Swalot. Was getting ready to throw in the towel before I decided to change the field on a whim, and that really worked out for me.

[Samtale]

will there be more easter eggs like the attack on titan refrence or anything along those lines. Also Ame I think theres exactley 54 legendary pokemon if I counted right including phione and volcanion.

Edited December 23, 2015 by smeargletail

[Amethyst]

If you had the power to influence the development of the next game from the main series what would you add (or take away) to (in your opinion) improve it?

Pretty much everything Kuro said I agree with entirely, and that would also be my priority... Slight exception being that I don't think we need to 'size down' so much as ensure that there's strategic diversity enough to ensure that everything has its applications. There may only be x amount of type combinations, but there's a lot more factors than just that, so I think it's possible (but would take a LOT of design and balancing work)

but really, fox type best type

Now to the question: have you ever ragequit during a playtrough/development process?

I don't remember about past development stuff because lolmymemoryisbad but as far as things I can remember I had had it up to here with making the background graphics for "that one field" because it took me like eight hours and then I realized I hadn't properly checked the spacing and it was unusable in-game. So I ended up having to remake it, which I went through like 4 or 5 more concepts of before settling on one, all of which also took quite a while.

In playthroughs... I don't remember my most recent one that well; maybe Inuki or Dan do since they watched a lot of them, but I think I had a lot of trouble with (pre-Mirror Field) Serra. I didn't really ragequit, but I lost a lot. I was like, "let me remake and balance this gym already!!" and inuki was like "no, you will suffer with the rest of us, you are not allowed to make any changes until after you beat her"

:c

will there be more easter eggs like the attack on titan refrence or anything along those lines.

Probably. I never know what to make NPCs say. But, I'm trying not to do too many because the number of references in the game has been a point of criticism in the past.

[Gaunt]

I think I had a lot of trouble with (pre-Mirror Field) Serra. I didn't really ragequit, but I lost a lot. I was like, "let me remake and balance this gym already!!" and inuki was like "no, you will suffer with the rest of us, you are not allowed to make any changes until after you beat her"

:c

Aha...now we really know why she was nerfed...nah i know that many people had problems with her but raging against Serra and losing to her n^100000 times was one of my favorite moments in Reborn but hey i'm going to do a mono Steel so there's always Charlotte.

Next question (i wonder if i'm ever going to stop): looking back to previous episodes is there a part of the plot that you would retcon?

[Deleted User]

If you had the power to influence the development of the next game from the main series what would you add (or take away) to (in your opinion) improve it?

As a former Dev, and not Reborn related per se:

Make the game more difficult and revisit an older region or two. That nostalgia is really what keeps me in pokemon at all, so I'd love to look at old things through a new lens. Much like Gold and Silver did with Kanto.

[Kurotsune]

Aha...now we really know why she was nerfed...nah i know that many people had problems with her but raging against Serra and losing to her n^100000 times was one of my favorite moments in Reborn but hey i'm going to do a mono Steel so there's always Charlotte.

Next question (i wonder if i'm ever going to stop): looking back to previous episodes is there a part of the plot that you would retcon?

I don't really remember any plot point that I particularly disliked from previous episodes; I'd probably change Terra's magic matrix dreamland for something else because I think it's silly, but eh, holywood software engineering is hardly a sin at this point.