Wanted: Developers

[Baka]

Well yeah, the point of this MMO was that it would be entirely f2p without any stuff to pay for. The game was made because people found it fun to do and that was all that mattered. =w=;

Yeah, but people are more willing to add for free/fun if a game already exists (Eg. Skyrim). So make the game, and make this a free unofficial mod. Hell, you could even kickstart it, and Ninty won't be able to do anything. 

[Tickles]

Explain your premise. Are you asking we make an entirely new game, or make the same game with kickstarter backers? Either way, there is a tiny problem. We lack programmers. Any people with even basic knowledge of programming haven't responded a to whether or not they wanted on board. There is a good chunk of code done in GO, and some people have glanced at it. I realize now that we need more capable people with knowledge in this language. I'm all for getting this on kickstarter, but people want to see that we have at least the basics before they will be willing to back this project. If we do kickstart it, get then funds, and hire capable people, this will no longer be f2p. We might as well just build an entirely new game from scratch simply to avoid copyright and law issues, and we were already pushing it with PU.

I'm not ready to give up on this project. It may have started as a hobby idea, but thousands of people believed in it at some point. It's that level of indifference that is killing this entire thing, and I for one am surprised. I wasn't part of PU in "the golden years," I started off as some noob who seen a game that was promised to be different, and I wanted to see it happen. This was a little over four years ago. I didn't see a hobby project, I seen passionate people willing to give up their time to make something big. And over these four years I seen that passion slowly disappear. Maybe I'm stupid and naive to still think this can be done. Maybe I should leave it behind as well if this is how everyone truly feels about the game. Maybe everyone should leave and move on from this since it was a hobby and we all wasted our time. We can put this as one of our sad memories. That, or some people need to wake the hell up, realize what got them into this in the first place, and want this to happen. Excuse me, I have some writing to do. I said I was going to take on programming, but I was brought on to write. By June 30th, I will have found some more writers, and we will have the beta story and some miniquests finished and ready to go. Now it's on the rest of you. What will you have by that time?

[Baka]

I'm so sorry if it sounded like I was suggesting to drop this project entirely.

I merely tried to suggest this:
1. Keep developing current code
2. Kickstart it as a different game (a Pokemon clone for PC and mobile platforms/whatever)
3. Use money to pay for additional programmers, and graphical art through websites like "fiver".
4. Sell the game or make it f2p/whatever. Premium accounts? You name it!
5. Develop an original Pokemon mod unofficially and release it for free. If it's open source anyway, it's a simple task.

Basically let other people do the job for you. I may be optimistic, but if the project is stalling anyway then it doesn't hurt to try right? 

[Tickles]

That sounds a lot better. Im not against most of these ideas. Im pushing for number 5, but I'm not against a pokemon clone. Could give an excuse to redefine the genre a bit.

[ArmandCool]

About 30th June. I could probably start working on pixel art again, but I really don't want to waste time. Probably no one doesn't want to. All I need is a guarantee that this game is worth working for. I've had a lot of hope at the beginning, as I've heard the PU creator was on vacation, I thought of working a few months until he comes back, but he didn't show any signs of activity since I joined. He does visit pretty often, but I think it's all because he got used to doing this. If you really think you can continue the programming development yourself or with the help of other people, tell me and I'll get right back to work.

[Roloc]

As I've said, I'm more then willing to continue making maps and balancing pokemon. I have already made quite a few maps as well as different inside buildings. IT was fun to me so I fell like I could continue making maps at a decent rate. Balancing is my passion though. I love it. Just don't want to waste my time either, so, yeah.

[The-Blades-slave]

I can help with the balancing of pokemon, Roloc. Been wanting to start battling again for a while, but the server's never up when I get on. Do you keep it down now, or am I just retarded and not seeing it?

[Roloc]

I updated it, and turned it on for about 5 days, even posted that I updated it. Not a single person logged on or commented about it. So I took it down. If anyone wants it up I can easily turn it back on. IT's fully updated to ORAS.

[weirddemon]

Programming languages are like language families. One you know one, it is much easier to get into the other. I remember GO is somewhat close to Java, and believe that with little effort programmers could adjust to it, thus I don't find the whole GO thing the problem. People seem to forget though that this project is mainly an experiment, a hobby project if you would like, to develop own programming capability and to build a community. It's hard to believe it is still being continued considering there is no monetary incentive to finish it, especially since Nintendo will probably kill it few days after official release.

At this point, not to offend anybody, but I believe the knowledge/art could have been used to make a new game outside the Pokemon franchise, and sell it on steam/mobile platforms.

This is somewhat true. Learning one language teaches you how to think like a programmer for the most part. However, that doesn't mean you can just pick any language for a game and expect to be as productive with it as another.

GO seems like an alright language so far, but it's still really knew. So finding GO developers is going to be hard. And learning a new language still takes a lot of time and energy. So a lot of developers aren't going to take the time to figure it out for something like this. Plus, since GO is so new, there's a lot less resources out there to help people who are learning the language. I don't think GO has even been fully documented yet.

The point I'm trying to make is that every programming language is not created equal. If they decided to make the game in C# with monogame (as an example), there would be a lot more people who could help and making the game would actually be quicker and more productive.

[Tickles]

Well, if anyone wishes to rewrite the code, I can see no problem there. The goal is a playable beta at the moment, so there isn't a lot that needs to be in. Major things are movement, battle system, pokemon spawns, and npc interaction. We have someone working on an editor in a commonly known engine, but they're still working out the kinks there.

[Declan_23]

Sup Baka? How's Japan?

There was a playable beta 5 years ago, before the switch to GO. Call me thick - but unless that code has been chucked out, wouldn't that be a better place to start than a half-written engine in a language nobody understands?

[TrainerX]

Sup Baka? How's Japan?

There was a playable beta 5 years ago, before the switch to GO. Call me thick - but unless that code has been chucked out, wouldn't that be a better place to start than a half-written engine in a language nobody understands?

This sounds like a good idea to me. If the engine is only half-written, and GO is such a poop language, they might as well switch back to C++(I think that's what they were using) and develop with that. I think they would make much better progress with a decent language.

[Roloc]

If I recall correctly, the reason they switched was because Mr Dark and Urmel ran into a complicated problem and couldn't get the code to work correctly.

Something along those lines anyway, someone that knows code would be able to explain this better then me.

[TrainerX]

If I recall correctly, the reason they switched was because Mr Dark and Urmel ran into a complicated problem and couldn't get the code to work correctly.

Something along those lines anyway, someone that knows code would be able to explain this better then me.

This probably wouldn't be the most appealing idea since they've already switched languages once, but maybe if they can't switch back to C++, they would be better off switching to a language with more documentation, like Python or something. I don't know how much work they would be undoing by switching again, as I don't know how much progress has been made since the switch to GO. It all depends on whether or not they would be able to make progress quickly enough to offset all of the work they would be undoing.

Who knows, maybe they can manage to make things work with GO. But even when the game is released, if it's as difficult to use this language as I'm being told, I think it could cause some serious issues down the line. It would really suck for both the devs and the players if some sort of game-breaking bug took forever to be patched because the code is so difficult to figure out.

[Roloc]

agreed, Thats why I was mentioning to everyone why they switched codes in the first place. Thats why its prolly not a good idea to switch back unless someone knows how to fix the error they kept running into.