post on Relic Castle forums: https://reliccastle.com/threads/4635/
Here's the thing: I'm mainly an artist, but I have plenty of level and design ideas and I'm decent at handling key points and progression of stories. I can somewhat mix soundtracks I find online on free music sites, but I'm probably the most dreadful at coding - even with Python being the only language I received some official education in. It holds me back so much that I can't show off assets I create or make them look nice together. Focusing on things I'm poor at takes a lot of my time and it's highly unnecessary - because I'm not even learning much since all I can do is scramble pieces of open-source code together or blatantly write random things and pray for it to work. The one-dev life isn't for me. If you're interested in helping me, please read on.
About ZER0
ZER0 was first intended to be a regular RPG style game, but I realized I suck at Ruby and RPG Maker even more than I do at Python and Renpy. Does this mean it's set to be a visual novel? Well, not really, it was more of a forced decision on my end. Although, with the features I ultimately planned, VN style definitely turns out to be more convenient. It is supposed to be smaller in scale compared to core games, featuring 4/5 towns, with heavy story and exploration/discovery focus, while leaving out the League as the end goal.Plot
(click on this imgur link for higher resolution versions: https://imgur.com/a/5Oy7Drp)
What Makes ZER0 Stand Out?
Have you heard of many Pokémon Visual Novels? Me neither! I only played Academy Life... What about a fangame which focuses on Mewtwo's creation? While I intend ZER0 to feature classic RPG elements such as world exploration, solving puzzles, combat and collecting, it won't be in the way you know!- Think of location preview from FRLG and HGSS, and now imagine it in full art, several for every spot of interest!
- Subtle puzzles have been the core of every Pokémon game so far - now experience it via a point-and-click system!
- Battles will feature full animated art of select Pokémon fit for life in an in-universe Guyana and every fight is meant to be challenging!
- Professor Oak and his PokéDex are years away - fill out your personal handbook with sketches of Pokémon and field data you obtain by observing different behaviours (no more just throwing Pokéballs!)
- Four new towns/villages and new environments modelled after the Guyanese culture and nature!
Payment
ZER0 is a tribute to a copyrighted franchise and will be free to download and play forever. I won't promise you payment because there will definitely be none. There will be no donations either. The reason I'm doing this is out of sole appreciation and love for Pokémon.Current Progress
I left a few screenshots above and here's a link to the current full overview of the game in video shape.That's riiight... There isn't much of the actual game to see which is a huge shame since I have materials ranging to the start of April 2021.
Slots to Fill
I definitely need someone or even multiple people, in order to make equal distribution of work possible, to handle programming (scripting new features [point-and-click system; handbook system; Pokémon discovery system etc.], transferring existing Pokémon RPG elements [battle system; inventory system; navigation system etc.]). It'd probably be a good idea to gather a second artist (Sugimori style character and Pokémon spriting [multiple VN style expressions and front/back battle sprites respectively], backgrounds) and a writer (fleshing out the plot, polishing characters). To ensure combat is truly a challenging experience, I need someone proficient in competitive Pokémon (balancing of a custom ability and new forms; ability to create teams with difficulty ranging from mediocre to hard by effectively combining species, abilities, held items, moves, values). A sound designer (proposing effects which work well together, looping) is welcome - but I believe I won't pull for composing of an original soundtrack. There will definitely be a need for proofreaders and testers, but this is currently in the backseat.To sum up, I'm looking for a:
- Programmer
- Artist
- Writer: AceGamerAndy
- Competitive Player
- Sound Designer: Zufaix
- (Proofreader)
- (Tester): Rashi
Contact
I use Discord regularly. That's where I have a communication channel organized, along with Google Drive to share files in real-time.Credits
-TOOLS-RenPy
MediBang Paint Pro
Blender
Audacity
spacetornado Renamer
VSDC Free Audio Converter
FontForge
Atom
-RESOURCES-
Lemma Soft Forums [\code]
Jackster Productions [fonts]
https://github.com/msikma/pokesprite [ripping and editing graphics]
The VG Resource; SexeiAlexy; Hanternos [ripping soundtrack]
Jim Hall; Mello C; Siddhartha Corsus; Rolemusic; sawsquarenoise; Komiku; KidNNasty; Starbox; Monplaisir; ermine [soundtrack]
