fangame [HIATUS] Pokémon Xenogene - Dev topic

[mudkippi 2]

Oh wow the character's sprites look so so good. I have never seen a pokemon fan game with such beautiful sprites and character design. Can't wait to play it in the future.

[Zumi 2463]

15 hours ago, mudkippi said:

Oh wow the character's sprites look so so good. I have never seen a pokemon fan game with such beautiful sprites and character design. Can't wait to play it in the future.

Thank you very much!! I'm super glad to hear you're excited for the game ;v;

[Zumi 2463]

Hey! I'm looking for a few additional artists to help me out with the game!

The reason is that I realized there was some spritework left that still needs to be finished. It's not a whole lot, but a majority of the artists currently on the team have jam-packed schedules and can't help out at the moment, and I myself want to be able to focus on gameplay eventing, so I'd really appreciate the help of one or two extra artists!

 

It's not first come first serve, but the applications close as soon as I've found a few candidates that show enough promise. Thank you in advance if you decide to apply!

 

You can apply here:

https://goo.gl/forms/OW4GHnSaxorosSr72

[Zumi 2463]

Small update! Lillica town is now done with eventing in terms of story! For a bit more context, the starter room is now 100% functional, and has all the mons + additional dialogue in it and works as intended!

 

This means that I'm going to be able to start on story related eventing in Celandine next :^) It's going to be a lot of work because of how big the city is, but it's going to be worth the effort!

 

MAN it feels nice to have significant progress in such a short amount of time ;~; its been so long since something like that happened sdogoashgebndfgksh

[Zumi 2463]

'nother update!

This is both in regards to the game itself as well as the dev team! First of all, please welcome @TheLuca, @Winter and @Bazaro to the dev team as artists! I look forward to working with you guys!!

 

Also, eventing is going at a great pace; I finished setting all of the warps (map transfers, doors etc.) for V1, so now I can fully throw myself onto story eventing. Story eventing should be pretty straightforward, but it's still gonna be quite a bit of work. However, if I'm able to keep working on the game at the pace I'm doing right now, this all could be done near the end of April! Of course, no promises there as I don't want to get people's hopes up too soon, but I'll do my best!

 

 

[Commander 875]

4 hours ago, Zumi said:

this all could be done near the end of April! Of course, no promises there as I don't want to get people's hopes up too soon, but I'll do my best!

Due to the this thing we call the incomprehension of understanding the time needed to get these things done, she means late May or early July. Trust me, every dev goes through this phase not realizing it. And that's just completing the thing. There's also testing for bugs and then releases...

 

You know what I'm so confident this is false I'm gonna make a crazy promise. If this actually gets done by the end of April, I'll do a livestream of a couple hours of it probably with voice.

[Zumi 2463]

7 hours ago, Commander said:

Due to the this thing we call the incomprehension of understanding the time needed to get these things done, she means late May or early July. Trust me, every dev goes through this phase not realizing it. And that's just completing the thing. There's also testing for bugs and then releases...

 

You know what I'm so confident this is false I'm gonna make a crazy promise. If this actually gets done by the end of April, I'll do a livestream of a couple hours of it probably with voice.

LOL no i mean more in the sense of getting eventing done near the end of april, and starting alpha testing around that time

 

you are selling me short for the wrong reasons, not to mention i didnt promise anything so honestly your whole "im so confident this is false" is kinda uncalled for

[Zumi 2463]

hi!! it's been over a week since i last posted an update, but know that development is deffo still going on!

i'm done with almost done with story eventing for celandine!! so i've been making significant progress on the game. I'm going to get the story out of the way first before doing any NPC's & trainers, which will still take some time, but i'm making progress in pretty big leaps, and since i'll likely have 3 weeks off after next week, i'll have plenty of time to work on the game even more!!

 

i have been struggling a bit with my health lately but i'm not gonna let that knock me down. i'm really excited about how things are turning out and i'm gonna keep working on it as much as i can, so i hope you guys will enjoy it once the game's out! ;v;

[GenEric 315]

21 minutes ago, Zumi said:

hi!! it's been over a week since i last posted an update, but know that development is deffo still going on!

i'm done with almost done with story eventing for celandine!! so i've been making significant progress on the game. I'm going to get the story out of the way first before doing any NPC's & trainers, which will still take some time, but i'm making progress in pretty big leaps, and since i'll likely have 3 weeks off after next week, i'll have plenty of time to work on the game even more!!

 

i have been struggling a bit with my health lately but i'm not gonna let that knock me down. i'm really excited about how things are turning out and i'm gonna keep working on it as much as i can, so i hope you guys will enjoy it once the game's out! ;v;

take ur time dude

dont strain yourself :>

[BRS swag 130]

1 hour ago, Zumi said:

hi!! it's been over a week since i last posted an update, but know that development is deffo still going on!

i'm done with almost done with story eventing for celandine!! so i've been making significant progress on the game. I'm going to get the story out of the way first before doing any NPC's & trainers, which will still take some time, but i'm making progress in pretty big leaps, and since i'll likely have 3 weeks off after next week, i'll have plenty of time to work on the game even more!!

 

i have been struggling a bit with my health lately but i'm not gonna let that knock me down. i'm really excited about how things are turning out and i'm gonna keep working on it as much as i can, so i hope you guys will enjoy it once the game's out! ;v;

Great. Nice to know the development is happening well. Don't let your health fail you. How long will the episode be, assuming you will release it soon in the future? Also, take care.

[Zumi 2463]

20 minutes ago, BRS swag said:

Great. Nice to know the development is happening well. Don't let your health fail you. How long will the episode be, assuming you will release it soon in the future? Also, take care.

 

It's up to the 2nd gym! Kinda needed to get it going up to that point to get the setting established, y'feel?

Also I will, no worries c:

[guidy 13]

Love to see the progress that you're making. Keep up the good work, I'm still excited for this all.
Can't wait to see what story you have planned for us!

[Zumi 2463]

so! i initially wanted to post this yesterday, but well, the forum was under maintenance so i couldn't really post anything, which was rather unfortunate.

 

i hate to admit it, but as a lot of people probably already expected, i could not finish story eventing before the end of the month.  This wasn't really because i got lazy, but rather that i ended up suffering from a burnout for a short while from overworking myself.... oops?????

 

i took a short break though!!! and now i'm back and with a lot more energy than before!! i'm going to finish up the remainder of my smaller art commissions i still had open (which should be done today), then I'll be able to start eventing again. I hope to get a decent chunk of work done during the upcoming week, which is the last one of my break, but I'm not gonna push myself to the point of getting another burnout. 

 

i'll be honest, i really do feel kinda bad for taking so long on a singular demo. however, this is still a project i'm doing mostly for myself, because i want to write and tell a story!

While the progress of actually getting the game finished is slow, not all the time I've spent on the game has been actually working on the game itself. I've also spent quite some time planning ahead as of where the rest of the game will go storywise! That encompasses fleshing out ideas and characters, so I know exactly what i want to happen in the game in the future. V1 development for me has been, like.... 80% preparation & writing?? And about 20% of the time has actually been spent on creating the game, so mapping, eventing, etc.

 

However, of course there's been moments where I just got lazy and stopped working on the game for a while. That, or I ended up getting blocked from working on things, like being busy due to commission work, streaming, school, or some kind of health issue (both mentally and physically), so all in all there's a lot of factors that just slowed down the game's development process. I know at this point this all sounds a bit desperate since I constantly have to explain myself as of why the process got delayed again, but I still really want to bring out a demo eventually! I put too much effort into this project already to just drop it, so I will keep working on it.

 

I hope you guys still look forward to the game despite all of this!!

[Twilightwing 11]

A pokemon fan game that looks this good would be hard to not play besides make it more exciting after the wait

[guidy 13]

Still looking forward nevertheless, don't worry, we'll play as the demo is released and we'll just wait eagerly for that moment to come

[Phi-Bi 48]

For a polished aesthetics with custom graphics, 2 years or more is considered as "standard" in fan-game community. First demo usually takes the longest time to develop anyway. Legend of Arena and Phoenix Rising are two examples of how time and dedication are important for fan-game development. As long as you enjoy the process and keep to interact with the community, there will be always people who wait patiently~

[Zumi 2463]

Thank you very much for the kind responses!! ;v; I'm happy that everyone's understanding of how long it's taking to create the first demo, so I'll do my best to live up to people's expectations for how long it's taking.

 

On a slightly related note, TODAY IS CRUNCH DAY SO HHHOOOOOORHHHHHGH im gonna fuckin. knock celandine out of the fucking park today and finish story eventing for that city HHHH

there's some roundabout work i have to do because i realized something during the last time i was working on it, but it won't be too much effort, plus it's gonna cause less lag in the end as well, so it's a you win some you lose some situation i guess???? but that's aside the point

 

ah, yes. another thing. as a thank you for being patient with me and horribly chaotic planning, i shall tell you one thing;

 

some graphical things will not be entirely as you expect them at first. but what? that's up to you to figure out :^)

 

i promise you it's a positive thing though! but i'll leave the rest up to you guys' imagination.

 

ALRIGHT TIME TO FUCKIN GET TO WORK AND kinda perish midway probably

but let's do this!!!!!!!

[Candy 1688]

Chillax fam, es not like we yer bosses or something asking yaw for you to finish a project by a dedline or somethin'

Donut think of it like a job, because (and this prolly yaw already know) art is about putting effort but also having fun in the process~

We'll wait to play when yaw feel like it's ready so don't perish midway pl0x

[GenEric 315]

chill gurl

have fun

dont worry about it gettin done~

[ShadeStrider 392]

A Fangame to surpass Pokemon Desolation... I hope.

[BRS swag 130]

If that can happen, WOW, coz desolation is my fav game of all pokemon games.

[Zumi 2463]

On 5/14/2018 at 5:05 PM, ShadeStrider said:

A Fangame to surpass Pokemon Desolation... I hope.

 

On 5/14/2018 at 6:06 PM, BRS swag said:

If that can happen, WOW, coz desolation is my fav game of all pokemon games.

 

I don't think it'd be fair/polite to compare Desolation to Xenogene, just as how it wouldn't be fair to compare Reborn to Rejuvenation! I think Xenogene and Desolation will be pretty different from each other, plus I don't even have the demo out so there's not even anything you could vaguely compare it with, anyways.

 

Each game is unique and has its own pros and cons, and shine in departments where others don't, yet are still different enough in many places that it'd be strange to compare them, especially when stories can differ so much.

[ShadeStrider 392]

18 minutes ago, Zumi said:

 

 

I don't think it'd be fair/polite to compare Desolation to Xenogene, just as how it wouldn't be fair to compare Reborn to Rejuvenation! I think Xenogene and Desolation will be pretty different from each other, plus I don't even have the demo out so there's not even anything you could vaguely compare it with, anyways.

 

Each game is unique and has its own pros and cons, and shine in departments where others don't, yet are still different enough in many places that it'd be strange to compare them, especially when stories can differ so much.

I know it's not fair to compare them, I just wanted to make an unfunny "Weapon to Surpass Metal Gear" reference.

[AsNKrysis 7]

The 4th gen graphics are going to be Hell for my crappy laptop.

 

But fuck it, the teleporting everything that will be all over my screen will be worth it

 

I'm playing this regardless when it comes out.

[Zumi 2463]

So... Hey all. I am the bearer of some unfortunate news, at least for those who have been following the development of the game all this time. After weighing my options and assessing my current situation, I've made a choice that might not be fun to hear about, but...

 

I have chosen to put the work on Xenogene to a halt and put the project on an indefinite hiatus.

 

Why?!

My interests have shifted over the course of time, and my motivation to work on the project has been low, even though I was super excited about it a few months ago. This is not the result of a short bust of demotivation though; I've had multiple moments where I've thought about doing this, even before I got to eventing. If I were to force myself to work on the game while being incredibly unmotivated to do so and simply forcing myself, I'd produce a game that would not meet my own standards -- or anyone else's for that matter. I also have school, commissions and a different project I've recently started working on that require my attention, so I'd much rather be focusing on that without having to worry about that I'm not working on this game.

 

A different project?

Yeah... I've started on something else. It's a webcomic I've been working on and preparing for lately, something I currently have way more interest in and motivation for than Xenogene. This is because of multiple reasons, but the biggest reason is that I won't have to rely on an existing concept and/or franchise to tell a story. With this comic, I can finally create something completely original. ...Not that I necessarily need the Pokemon universe to tell the story of Xenogene, as I could probably tell it in a different context too, but the Pokemon universe just happened to be a good one to tell it in.

 

However, the urge to create something entirely original has been creeping up on me for the past year or so, and it's reached a point where I can't really ignore it anymore, hence why I've decided to stop with Xenogene for the time being. 

 

I know I've spent a lot of time and effort on this game -- not just me, but the development team members too -- and it's been a real struggle to make this decision to put it on hiatus to begin with. However, keep in mind the game is not cancelled! I'm still going to keep all of the files as, in case the motivation returns to work on the game, I'll be able to pick up where I left off. ...If I'm entirely honest, I really hope the motivation will return someday, just so I know the amount of time spent on the project won't have gone to waste, but only time can tell if that's what's going to happen.

 

I hope you guys understand the reasoning behind this decision... And thank you for following and having supported the development of Xenogene all this time. 

May we meet again someday!

 

Much love and thank you,

Zumi