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The field of UX is one that has been becoming more and more important in modern game design, and can really make or break your game. It spans a large list of things about your game but really comes down to how smooth things feel to the player, and it's our job as designers to notice and care...

Once you've beaten your first Pokemon game, you know how hard it needs to be to keep you engaged. Some people are fine with how they are, others need an extra kick to keep them going. Difficulty is a very preference based topic, and everyone is going to have a different idea, so let's hear it...

What if we had pokemon, but with TWO screens???? The jump to Sinnoh in gen 4 made a lot of technological advances for the game that showed in it's performance and the design alike, fine tuning a lot of existing things as well. The birth region of many great things now standard in the pokemon...

It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. What connects you from your goals better than the very route you take? Home to new pokemon and various scenes memorable to your adventure, routes play a huge part in the pokemon world. Discuss what can make a route design unique and...

A force lurks just out of your reach, plotting something out of your control and you can only deal with the breadcrumbs they leave behind along your journey. The evil team that plagues each region of the pokemon world plays a big part of both the hero's story as well as a gameplay variety tool...

Now I've got Trainer Classes slated for an upcoming weekly discussion, but i had a stray thought that I wanted to talk about on the side that we may have discussed in discord a while back. So what if trainers had additional power ups depending on their class? Say you've got a bug catcher, well...

So you beat the game, congrats! But now what? This may seem like such a far feature for a fan game, the game itself is hard enough to make let alone more of it. However, it sure is fun to think about, right? Besides we've all got dreams of what this glorious post game in our head is so might as...

Now we might be overly familiar with this generation for fan game reasons, let's talk about the root of the era: Hoenn. Gen 3 took a big leap for the series of Pokemon, adding a lot of new mechanics and diversity in the way we see the game. Take some time this week to show what about this region...

Cities (and towns, etc) play a one of the biggest roles in pokemon for how little we consider them. They are your hub for the adventure, or your next destination as you travel, but they always have something unique about them. Some of these locations even have rich lore behind them and the...

To go along with our current Pixel Slam Jam, this week we'll be taking a look at unique battle styles and their role in games! The most well known and fleshed out are obviously Singles and Doubles so if possible let's stay away from those ones and look at some newer ones that have been...

A test of strength, a test of knowledge, anything that sets up a challenge for you to prove your worth to get into the pokemon league. Gyms have been a staple since day one, and only recently have we seen them start to deviate in main series games. They provide a lot for the player experience...

In a world, slightly to the west of Kanto, things had to change. Lots of things. Some things changed for the better, some changed just because they could. Love it or not, Johto made a lot of changes to the Pokemon world as we knew it, and opened up a whole realm of possibility with it's...

Are you really playing pokemon if you don't have a rival? Every game has one (or two or three or whatever) and they usually play a big part to show the player growth along a journey, and they help show that the world is not static but growing with you. Rivals come in all kinds of shapes, edge...

Soft skills are character traits and interpersonal skills that characterize a person's relationships with other people and work ethic. It might be a given to communicate when you're working with a team, and that being organized can make everyone's life a lot easier. How often do you talk about...

We all knew it was coming, it's time to talk about HMs. Love them or hate them, they're a very important part of the pokemon world and we as fan game designers really like to mess with them. Be it removing them entirely, or just replacing how they are used in the games, we have a lot of agency...

Each region is unique and brings something new to the table for the world of Pokemon, and what better way start discuss this than from starting from the beginning. Of course Kanto sets up a lot of things that will be continued on through the rest of the series, but there are plenty of things...

Recently I've figured out that one of my pet peeves with Pokemon games is how they go about telling you "you aren't ready to go this way yet". It's neat to design your maps in a way that intersects itself, but it comes at the cost of showing the player they cannot go that way until you say they...

So pokemon isn't really known for it's overworld mechanics, usually forms of HM puzzles, or bike tricks. Every once in a while, however, we get something cool that is unique to an area and gives it a little more life. Think of it like a gym puzzle but more than just for a gym. This is something...

To start off, it's only right if we start from the starters! Every fan game has them, and it's one of the most exciting things about playing each others creations. It's a very big moment for each player and it can add a lot to experience in a lot of different ways. Discuss how the options you...