Update #1 - Welcome!

This blog is being used to document my work. It will be updated regularly (although I'm shooting for about once per week).

I've been working on a 3D Pokemon Game in UDK for about a week now. This is something that I've been wanting to do for a while, mostly as a learning experience. I'm a programmer, but I've never made a game before, let alone done 3D design work and texturing. I'm literally learning as I go. As I learn new things, I might revisit a part of the project and update it to be better. This is a solo effort, because, as I said, it is a learning experience. Realistically, I know this will take a long time to finish, and due to Copyright reasons, the game will never see the day.

The reason I chose Pokemon is fourfold:
    1) I'm a fan. I know the game/cartoon fairly well from my childhood (at least the first generation ones ca. 1998-2000). I can draw from that experience so that the game can be much richer in story and gameplay, as opposed to me coming up with a new IP. I'm many things, but a good writer is not one of them (which begs the question, why am I blogging?).
    2) The Pokemon universe is HUGE: 150 (maybe Mew, as well) individual creatures to craft, dozens of NPCs to create, and each one is distinct in its form and function. This will force me to learn to animate humans, serpents, aquatic creatures, quadrupeds, insects, flying creatures, and even giant spheres (how does a Voltorb walk?), not to mention the OOP nightmare of programming them all.
    3) There are soooo many FPS games nowadays. I could follow suit and make one myself, and it would probably be much easier, but why not take the opportunity to be different?
    4) Nintendo/Gamefreak are really dragging their feet in making a game like this.

This game is not just a direct translation of Red/Blue to a 3D platform. It combines parts of the first games, parts of the cartoon, and lots of elements of open-world RPGs. I'm designing it as an open-world first-person RPG, and with that in mind, the core gameplay dynamics and story will have to change. How? I'm not too sure of that yet. But I'll let you know.

This is not meant to be super-realistic. It's still Pokemon, so I will try to maintain some of the core visual aesthetics of the world, while bringing them into the third dimension.

You're welcome to leave comments and suggestions. Videos will come after some more progress has been made. Hope you enjoy!

Currently Done:
- Large Scale Landscape (map)
- Streaming the map

In Progress:
- Pokemon Center (rough)
- Ash's house (rough)
- Rock Tunnel mesh (~40% done)

Still To Do:
- Craft smaller geographical features (hills, lakes, ponds)
- Water materials (Ocean and freshwater)
- Rock Tunnel map
- Mt. Moon mesh
- Mt. Moon map
- Safari Zone mesh
- Safari Zone map
- Create city meshes for distance viewing
- Create geographical meshes (cave/tunnel entrances)
- Create all 150 Pokemon
- Create foliage
- Create NPCs (Joy, Jenny, Gyms leaders, Rocket/Giovanni, trainers, townspeople)
- Create miscellaneous meshes (furniture, PCs, items, badges, etc...)
- Create buildings
- Program actor classes
- Populate maps with foliage, trainers, and Pokemon spawn points.
- Implement core game logic
- Improve materials/textures
- Add blocking volumes for map barriers
- Build large distance meshes (bridges, SS Anne, Viridian Forest)
- Implement Pokedex
- Map lighting
- Local climates
- Soundtrack
- Dialogue
- Write story
- More that currently slips my sleep-deprived mind...

Ash's House

Cinnabar Island, in game.

Kanto overview

Pokemon Center

Rock Tunnel