Hi everyone! Here is a project I've been working on every now and then in the past years. It's my first experiment and it's still growing.
It's a customizable monster catching&training game based on GPS for Android, a free app you can find on Google Play.
It works with any fanmade data pack containing all the data for a set group of monster, and the main one fans have spent time on is the Pokémon data pack, which is why I'm here.
It's very light and doesn't use internet connection at all (after you've downloaded a data pack), which is good news for the battery since gps alone already drains a lot.
You can find communities of players for the game on Reddit and Discord, more than 10.000 downloads, 4.2 rate on google play, and lots of users played it for hundreds of hours already, catching hundreds of monsters near their homes and sharing their stories online (which made me really happy).
Just a quick note: this game was not created as a competitor for Pokémon GO at all, since concept and development started in 2014 and way before GO announcement, and as you can see below, the mechanics are a lot different and more inspired by pokémon games and anime.
But even if I see them as different games, people like to compare them, so here are some reviews the game has received in just the last two months:
Game screens
Route photos
The basic idea is that through the game, the entire real world is composed of regions and routes, and every route is a habitat for a different family of monsters.
The common sense for most mechanics was inspired by the pokémon anime, more than the games.
Also, this is a game to be played while you're outside, in a matter of seconds. You won't find the depth of canonical pokémon games, because it would take too long to play, and because it must remain generic enough to be adaptable to non-pokémon sets.
An important keyword is, EXPLORE. This game's goal is to encourage you exploring, going around outside and discovering new places and things.
A brief summary of pokémon-like mechanics:
- Levels between 1 and 100, and level ups by battling and earning exp
- 8 gym leaders + Elite 4 + Champion to beat in each region
- Type advantages
- Different personalities
- Rare legendaries and shinies
- Walk with eggs, warm them with warm monsters, and then hatch them
- NPC Trainers that become stronger every time you beat them
- Music changes when the route changes
- Evolutions through levels, evolution items, happiness, trades
- Different forms depending on item held, hour, season, etc.
- Bluetooth trades to exchange monsters with other players
- Manageable boxes
- Nicknames
- Trainer card with your data
- TMs to be learned (though moves are always just generic typed moves)
- Gyms can be confronted in any order and the leaders use different teams depending on your current state
- Some mechanics specifically oriented toward obsessed shiny hunters
Here is the link to the page on google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tankenka.gms
Requires android 3.0 or higher.
Details on the game's mechanics (NON-UPDATED stuff here, read the in-game guide instead):
I consider this a prototype anyway, and I dream of turning it into a more professional and complete game in the future, if I get to find skilled people to work with.
I really hope you have fun with it.
As I said ANY set of monsters can be made into a data pack for the game. If you want your set of fakémon, or digimon, or monster hunter monsters, or characters from fire emblem or undertale, animals, bugs, dinosaurs, you can do it, any large set of creatures is perfect for it, and I will gladly help you create it.
I think the Fakémon option is particularly interesting, because they can also be used to promote an artist work or a fangame. Also for a generic fakémon data pack, with artworks made by lots of different artists, I can add some content in the Dex screen so that the name of the author can be found, along with a link to their website/gallery.
Ask away if you have doubts or difficulties. Thank you!