Ok everybody, sorry I couldn't update last week because of very poor internet connections more than likely connected to when the fires started out. Either they were burning up the lines or people were calling to report the fires that it was jamming up the lines. Regardless, here is the update for today, a little bit more to make up for last week's lack in activity. I'll do it in two parts.
In GameYour Partner, CharmanderObviously, this will be your partner Pokémon throughout the game. But because a personality test would be far too hard to do, where I would have to make the game (literally) over 200 times to get every possible combination, the Pokémon you will play as and your partner will always be Squirtle and Charmander. I do apologize for that, but this is only a very small-scale development team; we can only do so much. But we do hope the story of the game itself will be more than enough to make up for this error. Either way, take note of the slight modifications I made to Whiscash Pond than the last screenshot. You'll notice it's actually changed a little bit...
Get There FirstIn this screenshot, you will notice that your partner, Charmander, is encouraging you to get down to the Pelipper Post Office right away for jobs before the other reasue teams get there. Exactly what the reason is for that, you will have to wait for next week's update or the following to find out (depending on how I am able to work with the game mechanics).
Team A.C.T.Yes, in the start of the game, you will get to see the Gold Ranked Team A.C.T. (as named in the anime special, but never in the game itself). You can try engaging in some chat with them, but you'll notice that they are busy with some other important matters that must be discussed. They won't notice that you're there, so it's best to just head down to the Pelipper Post Office for now.
That's... the update for the in-game section. Yeah, not much, but better than nothing. Now for part two.
Game MechanicsNow it may not seem like much when it comes to the in-game portion, but this is an extremly important aspect! Overall, if I didn't do any game mechanics (right now consisting of just sprite rips, crafting, and importing) there would be no Pokémon appearing in this game at all. I will give you an insight look of what goes on behind the scenes that keep me busy most of this time.
Squirtle Hero Character Graphics 1Squirtle Hero Character Graphics 2This is the sort of thing I am working with most of the time; sprites. This is the defult sprite sized standard importation sheet I use to get a majority of the sprites in. The first one are the sprites you will see the most through the game, as they are the walking animations for the overworld. In towns, dungeons, and anywhere else is where you will see these. The second sheet are extras that will be seen during cut scene animation sequences by using a feature of "Change Event Graphic". These are used to give the game more in-depth personality so they respond to certain things in a more... how to put it... appealing fashion. Things will seem a little less dull if I use these kind of sprites. For the most part, only characters with a more important role to the story will receive a second sheet of extra emotions. Most anyone else will only get the walking sprites.
Also, be sure to remember that there are 493 Pokémon in total so that is a shit load of sprites to be working on. Even if the process of importing them is easy, it takes a lot of time to do. Most of my time revolves around getting these sheets imported properly. As of now, these are the Pokémon I have imported in Pok?Dex order.
- Bulbasaur
- Ivysaur
- Venasaur
- Charmander (Has extra sheet)
- Charmeleon
- Charizard
- Squirtle (Has extra sheet)
- Wartortle
- Blastoise
- Caterpie
- Metapod
- Butterfree
- Pikachu (Male and Female)
- Wigglytuff
- Alakazam (has extra sheet)
- Bellsprout
- Gengar
- Kangaskhan (has extra sheet)
- Granbull
- Tyranitar
- Grovyle
- Lobre
- Shiftry
- Pelipper
- Makuhita
- Gulpin
- Whiscash
- Kecleon (Green and purple, both with an extra sheet)
- Latias
- Rayquaza
- Turtwig
- Grotle
- Torterra
- Buizel
- Riolu
- Lucario
- Uxie
- Mesprit
- Azelf
- Dialga
- Palkia
- Giratina
- Darkrai (has an extra sheet)
I often jump around, sometimes importing my favorite Pokémon first before other ones. But these are what I have right now imported, and I have a LOT more to do. I primarly use a place called The Spriters Resource to get my PMD sprites, but sometimes they don't have the sprites I need right now, such as Tyranitar, Granbull, and Lombre. So that is when I resort to obtaining them myself by becoming my own sprite ripper. I am able to obtain any Pokémon between 1 and 491 (Shaymin and Arceus do not appear in the PMD games) at will, but does require even more work on top of importing them. The process is easy, but awfully slow.
Sometimes, I may even come across a point where I will need a particular sprite for something, but a problem arises because that sprite does not exist at all in the PMD games, so ripping them would be impossible. That's when I have to resort to making them myself. One way or another, I must get that sprite... am I am a rather good spriter as well. Allow me to give you some examples.
Riolu Extras In The MakingThis is the kind of thing I work with when I'm try to get certain types of sprites. As of now, I'm in need of sprites of Riolu sleeping while actually laying down, rather than in a sitting position. That, and I need the process of when it wakes up from the laying down state. In order to do that, I look at other sprites of similar creations and start to make mine based off of those. Right here, I based the Riolu waking up process after Meowth. The Squirtles are there to remind me what sort of sprites I need to make for Riolu. And the Charmander is there as what my next goal is going to be for crafting these Riolu sprites.
There is one other type of sprites I will need... these are the character portrates you see during the PMD games. Just like before, I may have a need for certain portrates that don't exist, so I again have to make them myself. Here's some more examples.
Riolu Portrate BlueprintsI do try to keep my little spriting workspace very clean and organized, but I also keep some bulk of past made portrates there just incase I could use them for something else. But often times, I do dismantle the portrates of certain aspects (like seperate the heads, the aura ears, and then edit behind them where a white space may be left behind) and then re-assemble them with new edits to make entirely new emotions. Once I get the sprites edited to such a fashion as they are difficult to tell if they're even fan-made, I then put them within the frames and adjust the background of the frames to match the situation the sprite picture has been edited for. Here are some finished results for Riolu (and more to come as I make them).
Riolu Portrates: Finished ResultsIn the end, it will help make Rescue Team Adventures to stand out even a little bit more by being crafty and using our own talents to make it more unique. Only in RTA will you find certain sprites, portrates, and even some soundtracks that you will not find in any other game.
And lastly... you may notice that I'm focusing on Riolu quite a bit right now, no? Well, he's going to have a very important role in this game, but what his role is you will have to wait a little bit to find out!