Recruiting Pokémon Nebula: A Cosmic Horror Inspired Fangame

[JoelMatthews]

Pokémon from other dimensions -- and Pokémon from beyond the stars?!

Victory and Louise are young officers in training and co-valedictorians at Officer Colette's academy. Upon graduation, the two are given their first Pokémon and sent out as partners to take on cases. They're few and far between at first, giving them enough free time to train their Pokémon and collect Gym Badges along the way, but something more sinister begins developing as time goes on... seemingly unrelated cases all begin to point in the same direction... what are the goals of the sinister crime organizations along the way? Who are these cryptic figures and what do they want? Why are they targeting the Space Station of Borealis City?!

Collect Pokémon of the brand new Space-type and catch over a hundred new Pokémon! Explore the Coriolis region in style, and even visit the cosmos?! Maybe you'll find brand new undiscovered Pokémon along the way...

​

FEATURES:

• Made in Pokémon Essentials (with EBS)
• Over 200+ Pokémon, new and old
• A brand new type in a brand new region
• Type combinations that have never been seen before
• An interesting plot with several sidequests

Luckily, the dev team has seen some new additions and progress has been going a LOT better -- but there's still room if you want in! (Italicized jobs are the MOST desired, but the following is a list of roles we are POTENTIALLY ACCEPTING):​

HELP WANTED:

• Critique and Ideas
• Balancers and Stat Help
• Sound Artists (for cries primarily)
• Scripters
• Beta Testers
• M A P P E R S

CURRENT TEAM:

• Joel (That's me!) - Head of Development (Spriting, Writing, Scripting)
• Ashe - Writing and Moderating
• Kyri - Spriting
• Jonathan - Spriting
• Kooks - Stats and Balancing
• Vendily - Scripting

If you're interested, have any questions, or just would like to be kept posted on the project, please message me on my Discord at eldritch hamster#8346 or just join the server, linked below! I am willing to help you on your projects if you help on mine. This game is still pretty heavily in Beta, so there aren't really any screenshots at the moment... but right now, we have all the writing finished and the PokéDex is almost finalized. Thank you for taking the time to read and have a wonderful day!!!​

[JOIN THE DISCORD SERVER! <3]​

[Read the PokeCommunity post here]​

 

[Involuntary Twitch]

Cool concept. I love fakemon games so much, even though they take more time to develop given all of the additional work that goes into creating concepts, designs, and sprites as well as developing the rest of the gameplay, story, writing, new mechanics etc. It does seem like you've got a good attitude and an established team, which bodes well for your success. If you produce a beta (1-3 gyms or so), I'd definitely play it.

The one thing I'm the most curious about is the "Cosmic Horror" element. I've long been a fan of that sort of genre (films like Annihilation, games like Call of Cthulhu, etc) but I wonder how you'll implement that in a Pokemon game. Will there be a sanity meter that gradually decreases the more horrifying things the player encounters? Will the initially cute and fuzzy Pokemon begin to degenerate into horrific, biologically-impossible nightmare creatures the deeper you go? Is there a dark conspiracy that underpins the Coriolis region, heralded by a cult that worships the endless void of space? So many possibilities, especially if you utilize the format and cliches of a regular Pokemon game to subvert people's expectations. I think it's an idea with lots of potential.

...Or maybe there's just a Legendary that's based on Cthulhu, and you can put him in a ball and nickname him Mr. Squigly. That's fun, too.

 

[Dragonite]

The one thing I'm the most curious about is the "Cosmic Horror" element. I've long been a fan of that sort of genre (films like Annihilation, games like Call of Cthulhu, etc) but I wonder how you'll implement that in a Pokemon game. Will there be a sanity meter that gradually decreases the more horrifying things the player encounters? Will the initially cute and fuzzy Pokemon begin to degenerate into horrific, biologically-impossible nightmare creatures the deeper you go? Is there a dark conspiracy that underpins the Coriolis region, heralded by a cult that worships the endless void of space?

Probably the most inexpensive way to do this - although it might also come off as a bit heavy-handed - is to have the encounters / encounter rates themselves change over time.

1. In Act 1, you see mostly cute stuff like Pikachu and Skitty, with an occasional oddity like Paras or Drifloon
2. In Act 2, weirder stuff starts to come out. Seedot and Chimecho are showing up in places where they weren't before.
3. In Act 3, it all goes to seed. Cofagrigus and Spiritomb run rampant, but if you're lucky you'll see something semi-cute like a Murkrow or Cubone?

Oh crap, I thought I was in the Sandbox thread. Don't mind me, carry on. [shuffles away awkwardly]

 

[JoelMatthews]

The one thing I'm the most curious about is the "Cosmic Horror" element.

Good question! I've seen this question a lot, and I've had people wondering about a sanity meter. The answer is no, unfortunately, but there WILL be elements of horror that do not exactly translate into gameplay mechanics. (Except maybe some Poké mon that are spoilery to talk about... Shhh :3c) But to answer your question, the plot does revolve around a deranged cult-like team, and their actions begin as just minor amusing nuisances and wind up into uncanny territory by the later half of the game...

And yes, you can catch a Cthulhu legendary and nickname him Mr. Squigly. That can happen too.

Oh crap, I thought I was in the Sandbox thread. Don't mind me, carry on. [shuffles away awkwardly]

Haha no worries ^^ But I do appreciate your input! Especially since something like what you mention does happen in the game. Opening portals to alternate universes tends to introduce... invasive species...

 

[JoelMatthews]

Just bumping so I don't fall into The Archive. Currently we're most in need of Mappers, but people who are good at giving Pokemon good stats and movesets would be very appreciated.

And just as a fun little update, check this out!

Spoiler: PKMN Selection Screen

 

[JoelMatthews]

Not a lot of progress in the coding front has been made, unfortunately, due to class resuming for a lot of our members and other personal reasons. But what we HAVE managed to do is 100% FINALIZE THE POKEDEX! Everyone who will be in is IN! :D