The Pokémon Academy Life Community

I am sure that everyone realizes that this game is a colossal undertaking, and will require the blood sweat and tears of those involved in order to get it done. You have probably already thought about this idea but I thought that I would bring it up anyways. I think that it would be easier for the developers to split each grade year into its own game.

Some of the Pros of this being that there will be, in theory, less work for the development team since they will not have to worry about trying to stuff everything into a single game, which means that they can instead give each arc of the story the attention it deserves, and it will be less likely that they will have to cut content. Plus it will give them some breathing room since the fans something to occupy their time which will give the team some breathing room to either continue working on the next installment or to sit back and figure out where they want to go from there.

On the other hand the The main concern with this method is that depending on the software that they are using to make the game they may not have a way to transfer the save data from one installment to the next. This is very important since I can confidently say that most people want to be able to use the saves that they put so much time and effort into.

There is however a visual novel series that has a way that it gets around this problem, the series I am talking about is "Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!" or Majikoi. In the 2nd installment of the game, "Majikoi S" you have the option to start the main route of "Majikoi S" in which it follows a path in which you did not get into a relationship with any of the girls from the 1st game, this allows you to pursue a relationship with the girls that are in "Majikoi S". The other routes are short routes that just focus on the continuation of the relationship with one of the girls from the original Majikoi during the timeline of Majikoi S, and not much else.

I that "if" they did make it into episodes, that it would make more sense for them to follow Majikoi S' example, since it would reduce their workload, and lets be honest, these are already bending over backwards for us with all the content that they are promising us, and we have to remember that they are doing this without pay, so I feel like this may be a way for them to cut corners without cutting content.

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Sefi's current Pokémon: Sierra (Staraptor), Naya (Empoleon), Nicklas (Ferrothorn), Wendy (Togekiss), Hank (Excadrill), Damian (Bisharp), Molly (Skarmory), Rheese (Rhyperior), Heatran

Yes I am sorry, I didn't realize that I had posted this in the wrong section until after I already posted the whole thing.

Is it easier to move a boulder by yourself or is it easier to break it in smaller and then move it? I hope it makes sense I am not really good at making my thoughts coherent. I am worried that this will make me sound arrogant, but I do have some experience doing video game design, in fact it is what my degree is in, and I have tried to make my own visual novel, I wasn't able to get support or help so the visual novel didn't go anywhere, but I am trying to provide what little knowledge I have about the subject. Anyways the point of making episodic games is to break what would be one large game into several shorter games so you can release the games more frequently, however this does not always work as intended.

Also I stated that less content would need to be cut, not no content would be, cut, there are so many games that had to cut out content that was originally promised, because of limited time, resources, or because those features caused run time errors that they were unable to they were removed just because it was deemed easier, the best example of this would be Peter Molyneux and Fable, he promised so much but he was ultimately unable to deliver the game he promised.

I guess I didn't explain enough about the main routes in Majikoi which I mentioned briefly, yes they do ultimately lead to a romantic relationship, with the exception of the true route and the male friend routes, but until then it mostly covers the main character spending time with his friends and his eccentric classmates and teachers. By the time you diverge from the common route to a character specific route you are already well acquainted with your fellow classmates and friends.

I do recommend Majikoi, both the original and S are already translated, and A-1, the first of five fan disks, is still being translated. Be warned however it is an h visual novel, but it is primarily a comedy that has a really good story, and considering that the game is over 50 hrs long, I would say that it would at least be a good series to use as a reference since it manages to successfully pull of some comedic scenes and more serious emotional scenes. I am a big fan of this series but I understand it is not for everyone.

Sorry about pretty much advertising a different visual novel, but I do believe that it does some things that that might also work in this visual novel.

I understand if you think my idea was stupid, and that I am an idiot for posting this in the wrong part of the forum, I am sorry for bothering you

The essays! @_@

@lonefool That's a lot of derogatory words, you shouldn't say that. You're quite brave for making this thread, and it's okay if you posted in the wrong section, it happens. ^^

Now, before this thread gets locked, I wish to state my opinion on the topic, if you don't mind.
As @Forgotten Felix stated beforehand, they would have to work on 3 projects then. Sure, you would get focus on other characters, and you can get a glimpse on their perspective, but they would have to create different scenarios, and considering they currently only have one writer, the idea seems highly unlikely.
I'm sure they would've considered it if they had more writers.

And for several shorter games, that would be a lot of work. If you look it at my perspective, not everyone would bother downloading 7 episodes, so making it onto one would much more convenient for us. That's just in my perspective through.

And yes, the transferring part is the main problem. That's just going to become an inconvenience for them and it would just take longer for a release, which wouldn't sit well with some of the players.

Thank you for your input, @lonefool! ^^
I'll definitely check out Majikoi and hopefully my opinion wasn't a bother to you.

I didn't realize I was being hurtful towards other people, I have Aspergers I don't always realize how I come across. I also have difficulty summing up what I am trying to say so sorry about the essays.

My reasoning for making it episodic is that there would still be the same amount of scenarios as if they had made it in one whole game, but some would be able to be more streamlined. I this may not make sense, but the the main reason I am trying to champion this idea is because for me it really seemed to work in a series of games I played. It seems like nobody else has played that game on this forum, so I understand that I it is difficult to see why it might work, especially since the only reasons that I am giving have been vague at best.

I mentioned that the way Majikoi S gets around the lack of a transferable save system by having simplified routes that are a continuation of the main routes from previous game. These while I say they are simplified I mean in comparison to the common route, which is much longer. The "simplified" route still covers the day to interactions, it just streamlines it to the scenes that involve the main character the and character whose route you chose, as well as their close friends. The other routes are full sized routes.

For example if they used this same set up in this game, if you you chose the route that was a continuation of the Serena route it would focus more on the student counsel, and the classes you shared, and the interactions with your friends. While I understand this pretty much sounds exactly like the regular game the difference would be that it not cover events that didn't involve Serena. This may sound like a bad thing to a lot of you, but from my experience, if a route goes on for too long it becomes harder to keep it interesting story wise.

I feel like if they don't use this method then there will probably be people who will would push for break up scenarios or cheating scenarios, so they can pursue a character that comes in a later in game year, and this would would drastically increase the workload.

Haha you're too hard on yourself man, you come across just fine. Just because an idea isn't accepted doesn't mean it was a waste of time. ^^

It's a noteworthy suggestion, but we have no plans to split the game up into separate installments.

One main issue is that we don't want to deal with complicated save files across separate games. It'll be awkward to have three games, but having a player who's unable to access Year 2 and 3 if he/she hasn't completed Year 1. Many games allow a player to jump into an "expansion" without completing the original game. We can't do that here as that defeats the whole purpose of a story.

Yes, there's a lot of material going into this project. But in a more blunt/not-so-graceful way of putting it, we're not promising anything. This is a straightforward project done in a "for fun" manner by people who have their own lives outside of working on this game. Rest assured we do intend on finishing the project, even if it takes a few years (hopefully not, but if it does, then it does).

TL;DR - making separate installments will complicate the process even more. One big simple game = easiest way.

First thank you Soundwave, I appreciate that.

I feel silly because I actually just spent three hours putting together a response, and when I finally sent it displayed your message, so in all honestly just deleted it.

I know you made a decision, and I am happy that you actual even considered my idea.

I guess the only positive I could mention would be that breaking the game into parts could make the coding somewhat easier to manage since the code from the from one game couldn't interfere with coding from another, cause damn there are a lot of variables you guys are adding to your game.

Keep up the good work

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Sefi's current Pokémon: Sierra (Staraptor), Naya (Empoleon), Nicklas (Ferrothorn), Wendy (Togekiss), Hank (Excadrill), Damian (Bisharp), Molly (Skarmory), Rheese (Rhyperior), Heatran