#regius

I want to draw some of my character designs before I get too deep into it, but I can go over the broad strokes!

So, these things:

They are all members of an extremely old species of artificial beings. I'm talking geologically old, several extinction events ago, way before humans evolved. Their name, if they had one, is lost to time. I just call them "Regi people" or "protonids" (proto hominids).

The one thing all members of their species have in common is that they are created beings, and can only be brought into existence by the hands of another of their kind. They are designed with intention, forged from inanimate materials, and imbued with life in a process that isn't well understood. They behave in machine-like ways, often focused on some specific task or role. Regi people are designed with some specific purpose that represents the will of their creator. This purpose can be as specific as "build a wall" or "guard this temple", or it can be as broad and open-ended as "create" or simply "live".

The Regi people developed a culture of curiosity and creativity. Since they had no physical needs, they could devote themselves entirely to learning about their world and reshaping it as they saw fit. The Regi people valued their creations, and strove to broaden their capability to exercise their own will on the world. Through shared knowledge, cooperation, and a great deal of patience, they moved mountains, created mega-structures, and even waged wars over conflicting ideals.

For reasons that have also been lost to time, the great Regi civilization that shaped the planet fell into decline and disappeared, with most evidence of its existence eroded away over the millennia. The only reasons we know of them at all are geographic features with no natural explanation, scant ruins that have survived untouched, and of course, the few remaining members of their species. The Regis pictured above are not your average Regi people. They were built to last, with cutting-edge techniques that make them nigh-indestructible. And so they remain, carrying on the legacy of a people that no longer exist.

I better cut it there before I ramble for too long. There's a lot to dig into here! Feel free to ask for elaboration on any point, and I'll make another post about it!

It's been a while since my last update, but don't take that to mean I've been on hiatus: the exact opposite is true. I've been making lots of progress on this game lately, focusing on filling out the map with fun stuff for the player to do. It's really starting to shape up, but there's also a lot to do before it's ready for a first release.

Since I've already given some looks at important areas of the game like Arid Island and Kapok Island, I think it's about time I showed the third major island on your journey.

Igneous Island

Besides a rest stop for weary travelers, there's not a whole lot happening on the outskirts of this sleepy little island. Who would want to live at the foot of an active volcano, after all? If you venture up the side of the mountain, that's where you'll find the real action.

The path up the volcano is rugged and a favorite training spot for serious trainers. If you make it all the way up, you'll even find entry to the caldera, where ancient ruins still stand among the molten lava. Overall, this is a tough area that requires some real determination to make it through!

For this update, I'd like to highlight a really unique pokemon family that I came up with for the game. It has some of my favorite character design work I've ever done, and I'm really happy with the way its members are related.

Let me start by sharing their pokedex entries:

Limpacle, the water-type barnacle pokemon. Magmacle, the fire-type barnacle pokemon. And finally, the mighty Terrisla, the ground/dragon-type island pokemon.

The idea for these pokemon had been developing in my mind for a long time. I wanted to do something with the idea of island formation. When underwater volcanoes release molten lava into the cold ocean, the material solidifies into solid rock. Poetically, the combination of water and fire creates earth.

I tried for a long time to figure out how I could capture this idea with a unique type of pokemon evolution: perhaps two pokemon can combine into one? I also had to take into account the limitations of what I could mechanically accomplish in my rom hack. In theory any modification is possible, but it would be easiest to stick with what the game engine can already handle. My solution ended up being a good compromise between unique and easy to implement, and I'm quite proud of it.

The Limpacle, Magmacle, and Terrisla family is an example of convergent evolution, something unseen in any official pokemon game. Either Limpacle or Magmacle can evolve into Terrisla. They evolve using evolutionary stones, the opposite of what you might expect: the water-type Limpacle evolves with a Fire Stone, and the fire-type Magmacle evolves with a Water Stone. This is how I was able to preserve my idea of Terrisla evolving from the combination of water and fire.

There is another very unique aspect of this evolutionary family: Terrisla gets a different ability depending on its pre-evolved form. These two abilities are also brand new, and I invented them so that Terrisla could carry an elemental "fingerprint" from its pre-evolution.

Terrisla that evolved from Limpacle will acquire Cistern, which boosts the power of all water-type attacks by 50%.

Terrisla that evolved from Magmacle will acquire Caldera, which boosts the power of all fire-type attacks by 50%.

That's not all that Terrisla will carry over from its earlier life. As a ground/dragon pokemon, Terrisla can learn some powerful moves, but it does not naturally get any water or fire attacks. However, its pre-evolutions do! A Terrisla that evolved from a Limpacle, for example, might still have some of its pre-evolved form's water-type moves, like whirlpool or water spout. A Terrisla that evolved from a Magmacle, on the other hand, might retain some fire-type moves like fire spin and eruption.

Do you see what this means for Terrisla? Essentially, despite no visual difference, Terrisla has two forms! One of which is water-aspected, and one that is fire-aspected. Your Terrisla can be offensively considered a water- or fire-type pokemon, depending on what it evolved from. Crucially, it cannot be both at once! If you wish to train this magnificent beast, you'll have to decide which moves you want it to have, and train your Limpacle or Magmacle to learn them.

Pictured: an early sketch of Limpacle from 2017, demonstrating its cowardly disposition.

Training this family is no easy feat. Limpacle can be found on the ocean floor, and Magmacle can be found in volcanic areas, but neither of them are particularly common. Furthermore, their stats are a bit underwhelming. But treat them with lots of care, and they will eventually learn powerful moves. When you're ready, evolve into the massive Terrisla, a beastly pokemon with pseudo-legendary stats. Very few will be able to oppose you!

Designing these pokemon was a delight, and I'm very happy with the results. Making them functional in a modified pokemon emerald rom took some extra work to accommodate their unique characteristics (such as ensuring Terrisla gets the right ability upon evolution, and making Terrisla only produce eggs of its pre-evolved form). I hope Terrisla will offer a suitable challenge for players to face in battle, and an even more rewarding challenge to raise for yourself. I'm looking forward to getting one during my playtesting, but the rest of you will have to wait!

As you may know, I've been working on a pokemon fangame for a while. I want to try posting progress about it more often, because I'm nearing the later stages of the project where the bulk of the hard work is already finished, and I have plenty of neat things I can share. Now is the time when I really need motivation to finish up the home stretch, so I hope you'll all enjoy what I've done so far!

I've already posted some of my progress on the game's maps here and here, and if you want to see every post I've made about the project, you can check out the regius tag. But I've never given a proper overview of what the game is all about, so that's what I'll do in this post.

Title

The game is called REGIUS. I'm still deciding how to format the title, and if it should have a descriptive tagline like "Regius: A Pokemon Adventure" or something like that. But one thing I have come up with is a banger logo and title screen to go with it:

I had more ambitious plans for the title screen graphics and created this version as a placeholder, but I'm pretty satisfied with it so I think it will stick around for a while.

So what's it about?

From the title screen, you can see that Regigigas will play some kind of important role, and in fact this is a game that primarily features the whole Regi family (except for the two newest gen 8 members, RIP regieleki and regidrago).

Furthermore, this is a game that takes place almost entirely on the ocean! You'll be exploring the Regius Archipelago, a series of islands connected by open sea. Here are some examples of the types of locales you might expect to see:

Hidden deep in each island, you'll find ruins from an ancient civilization, and a member of the Regi family sealed away. To unlock the secrets of the islands, you'll have to journey to each one and capture Regirock, Regice, and Registeel, and then the path will open to your final goal, Regigigas.

Unlike most other games, the map of this region is very well-connected, with every island joined by a large central stretch of ocean. Your exploration will be self-guided, and you'll be rewarded for checking out every corner of the archipelago, so decide for yourself how you would like to progress through the game!

New Pokemon

Of course, one of the most important features of this game is the set of brand new pokemon! The Regius Archipelago is home to a number of unique species not found anywhere else. In total there are roughly 50 new pokemon I've developed that can be obtained in this game, so look forward to befriending some new creatures when the game finally becomes available to play!

Development Details

This game is being developed using the pokeemerald decompilation project, meaning all my work is based on modifying the source code of Pokemon Emerald. It's a rom hack that will be playable on any GBA emulator (or hardware, if you can get it to run!). It's a lot of work to make a whole new region like this, but it's my preferred way of making a pokemon fangame! I like using the same game engine and graphics as official titles, it makes my game feel authentic.

Development Goals

Now that you have an idea of what the game is going to be like, let me talk about the project's current status. My goal is to get an alpha version of the game ready to release as soon as possible. This will have a full region ready to explore, every obtainable new pokemon, and the Regis all waiting to be discovered. At the moment, I am still working on filling out every map area with objects and scripts, the stuff that the player actually interacts with.

This alpha version, of course, will not be the final version of the game. It will provide you with a fun world to explore and lots of pokemon to train, but I have much more planned! Eventually, the game will have a bigger story, where the player will race against a nefarious band of pirates intending to capture the Regis and upset the balance of the islands. I would also like to remake the whole project in pokeemerald expansion, a large community mod of pokeemerald that includes lots of updated features, like a modern battle system and all official pokemon through gen 8. But that's a long way off, and I'm trying to stay focused on my current goals for now. Just remember there's a bright future to look forward to!