I'm starting a new article called Featured Game of The Month to get things lively and bright here at BYOND Anime. The whole idea of this article is to put the spotlight on promising up and coming anime games. The article will basically contain a brief overview of the game, followed by an interview with one of the team members.


This month's Featured Game is Pokemon Z. Pokemon Z is a turn-based Pokemon game in Open Testing that indeed has a promising future. On Monday, Lead Pixel Artist, Zete, took the time out to have an interview with me. In this interview we'll take a look into the unique aspects of Pokemon Z and it's development

__________________________________________________

Dougie: I'm here with Zete. Lead Pixel Artist and Owner of Pokemon Z

Dougie: Thanks for taking the time out for this interview.

Zete: Yeah, sure.

Dougie: Well, lets jump right into then. Can you give us an indepth explaination on the unique and special aspects in Pokemon Z?

Zete: Sure, but I don't really think about my game of anything special. But if you want to look at the unique aspects of the game; it's the only turn-based Pokemon game ever produced, the mechanics have been shifted to conform to the gameplay and value fairness and balanced gameplay, since we didn't think that dragon dancing 50 times and then dragon clawing the other guy in the face was any fun at all.

Zete: Personally I feel the best part of the game is being able to grab 2 other friends, and setting off on a small journey to level up and learn new ways to take down your enemies as a group. Most people feel that the game is really entertaining, even in the alpha stages and that really motivates me and the team to keep working more and more everyday.

Dougie: What sparked the idea to make this Turn Based?

Zete: Well I've always wanted to make a Pokemon game, since I had been a long-time fan since my early childhood. At first I was thinking of a "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon" styled game, but that had been done before, and I'm not a fan of doing the same concept that's been done before.

Zete: I've always loved turn based strategy RPGs, such as Disgaea, Fire Emblem, Shining Force, Advance Wars, Ogre Battles, and more recently a mmorpg called Dofus which heavenly influenced the game's battle style. So I thought I'd combine my two loves to form something innovative and original, something that the Byond games seem to be lacking in it's ranks at this point in time.

Dougie: Can you explain how players go about choosing pokemon and how deep is the selection at the game's current stage?

Zete: Well it's pretty simple, in the pokemon selection screen you're told to choose one of the many baby Pokemon eggs listed. We got majority of the baby Pokemons there, we're missing about 4, in which case we didn't feel the need to release one of them, Wynaut, as it proved to be uber once evolved. That doesn't mean you won't be able to choose any other Pokemon throughout the game.

Dougie: That aside. Will you be allowed to play with other Pokemon without having to recreate?

Zete: Well as I stated above, you will be able to play as any other Pokemon, bar Legends, but essentially you will have to start from Lv1 all over again. Instead of "PC Storages" like in the original Pokemon games, we'll probably put each Pokemon on their own character slot.

Dougie: From Pokemon selection, to party play. Something when i played, i really took a liking to. Can you tell us what the party system now consists of in this stage and what do you have planned for it in the near future?

Zete: Well at this point in time the Party system is simple, create and invite, battle and share experience. Your HP is showed on the left hand side, and on the right hand side during battles, on the left hand side the red pokeball is the leader, and the blue pokeballs are the members while on the right hand side the blue pokemons are your partners and the red Pokemons are the enemies.

Zete: I wanted party play in the future to be something people were inclined to do to beat certain hidden Pokemon and bosses, as they would originally be too tough for a single Pokemon to handle. By doing this I'd take away exp penalties, or any type of division of exp and rather do an overall party level type of system, so if your parties total level was in 9 levels range, you'd gain full amount of experience.

Zete: I honestly encourage player interaction and party involvement, as it will definetly enrich the players gaming experience, along with easing it up a bit. Keep in mind guys, no one said this game was going to be a walk in the park.

Dougie: Speaking of bosses and quests. Can you get into those systems alittle? How deep are quests? What are some of the rewards for defeating a boss and finishing up a quest currently?

Zete: Bosses will be available in every map at the end of their own respective little maze, and quests will range from two categories; storyline quests and pokemon assistance quests. The storyline quests haven't been developed much at the moment, since at the moment we obviously have bigger priorities to take care of, but we've implemented the NPCs who will hold them thus far into the game production.

Zete: As for how deep the quests are, let's just say that the title wasn't just thrown into place without a reason, think hard on which Pokemon take on shapes of letters and always like to stirr up trouble and you'll have the basis of our storyline. Some of the rewards will vary, from feeding a hungry Snorlax and receiving some berries, to defeating a rampaging Beedrill and receiving a key item allowing you to progress in the game, and let's not overlook the experience gains - I always liked seeing my level go up after finishing a hard hour-long quest line.

Dougie: I'd like to hear more on the battle system and PVP. Mind getting into that?

Zete: Well the battle system is simple, at least to most players. You have your standard movement points, to move around the field which are generated out of the pokemons base speed, the standard 6 power points you get in the begining of every turn to attack with, some HP to survive and voula! the battle system in a nutshell. As simple as this sounds, alot of work went into creating this system.

Zete: I really couldn't have made this project come alive without my programmer, and good friend Kentaro. He's a great guy always on top of things, he doesn't mind spending hours working on the game, and it's thanks to his vicious working hours that we managed to release the game in only 3-4 months, rather than waiting a year like most games around here.

Zete: As for PvP, balancing this feature out has proven to be quite troublesome, but we're getting there. The best part of it in my opinion, is that you gain experience for defeating another player, which is based of his overall level. But we're not satisfied with just casual competitive play, we're looking to expand on this and move onto much bigger things, who knows maybe in the future one of the most praised features of the game will be the tournament system we have planned to develope, with it's own set of medals and ribbon awards.

Dougie: Awesome. I applaud Kentaro for his programming. As well as yourself for the great game designing and art work.

Zete: Thank you very much.

Dougie: Speaking of Art Work.

Dougie: I have to say; it's some of the best BYOND has seen. Can you go into the type of style of art work you went for in Pokemon Z?

Zete: Ah well, I get praised very often for the art that is true, but in a grand scale my work is but mediocre compared to some really great pixel artists such as Elk, or Snake from Pixel Joint and Pixelation. As I developed my style pixelling in the past five years, It's become pretty unique you could say, cartoony more than anything. If you look into my past works, like Naruto X, you'll see that there is a resamblence in the shading and outline style, not so much the palettes as I wanted to do something brighter for a Pokemon game.

Zete: I thought to myself; staying true to the Pokemon styled pixel art would have been nice, but why not create my own environment? And from there Pokemon Z got the "look" which will hopefully stay consistent through out it's production.

Dougie: Pokemon Z sure has a bright future here on BYOND. Can you let us fans in on some future planned content releases?

Zete: Well at the moment we're focusing on finishing up the Pokedex, and attacks. The map itself is also something we're working on - but probably won't be done for a LONG time (for those of you who have bothered to click on the map button in the interface will realize why) but despite that, we're hoping to get the content amounts up in time.

Zete: Future updates will hopefully contain systems which will make the game more enjoayble, and aid the players on their journey. If it seems like the game might be taking a bit too long to release new updates, remember that the actual developing staff is but two guys, who also have life matters to take into hand and can't always work on the game 24/7. Having said that, the game updates almost everyday with bug fixes, new attacks and eventually once a week, a brand new map for players to explore and enjoy.

_______________________________________

Be sure to check the game out and keep close eye on its growth.

Thanks for reading! Next issue should be a big one. Till' then. Stay Safe. Peace.