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AMA with Pokemon Academy Life team (Post 1.0.4) - The Pokémon Academy Life Community

The Pokémon Academy Life Community

The official discussion forum for Pokémon Academy Life
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 4:43 am

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 2:10 am 
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Joined: June 25, 2016
Posts: 203
Location: Canberra, Australia
Welcome back to another AMA with the team behind Pokemon Academy Life. We'll start with some short introductions for those participating in this AMA.


dmjh93: It's me the artist/writer. Been in development since the beginning and I personally re-hauled the dialogue because my standards are high. Check out my stream @ http://www.twitch.tv/dmjh93 and SMASH that like button.

Soundwave: I'm Jordan 'Soundwave' Hamburger. If you've been on these forums at all for the past couple of years you're likely familiar with me. I'm a writer for Pokemon Academy Life. I became a writer shortly after 1.0.3 released in 2017.

ScottpilgrimFMAB: Yo! The names Scott! I've been a writer for PAL for almost a year now. I'm a huge Otaku, and that's pretty much it.

Skye: Greetings and salutations. I'm Skye, one of the assistant writers for Pokemon Academy Life and the resident Englishman. For the latest demo, I was primarily responsible for the free exploration scenes with Gardenia and Sabrina. I also lent a hand with a few of the other free exploration scenes, such as Erika and Bianca. Outside of PAL, I create video reviews as Skye the English Gamer, participate in several Pokemon Tabletop United games, and never shut up about My Hero Academia.

Steve: Hey guys, my name is Steve, and I’m the lead programmer for PAL. My role is to support our designers and try to make their lives easier and maintain our repository, as well as create the more complex systems, like the battle system and catching system. I graduated college in 2017 and now work for a Fortune 500 company as a software engineer. I hope you enjoy our game!

Now let's get into some questions!

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SamRoch: How far is the game planning on going?

Soundwave: Three years of content. Yes, I'm aware we've done just over one week so far. No, we're not overly ambitious at all.

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@Treywizard: Are my Sinnoh boys available?

Soundwave: Yes, but you'll be waiting a while unfortunately. They're characters that will be introduced in the second year.

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@Sylphroid: Also, will Barry fine us at any point in the game? This is a very important question.

Soundwave: I'm sure he will!

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@Sylphroid: Will we be able to evolve pokemon like Sneasel or Electabuzz (Pokémon with awkward evolution requirements like trade, held items, stone, or happiness) down the line?

Soundwave: All Pokémon that have special requirements will be possible to evolve, don't worry.

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@Straub6122: Do you love me?

dmjh93: I love everyone. Except Hitler and bigots.

Soundwave: I love all our fans. Even the ones who think Serena isn't best girl.

ScottpilgrimFMAB: The only people I love are Maki from Love Live and Soundwave.

Skye: Sorry, but I could never love another human being as much as I love ham and cheese sandwiches.

Steve: No, I only love myself.

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@AngelMirandaHSR: Will we be able to get Pokémon such as Lapras, Milotic and Volcarona for our teams?

Soundwave: Who knows? You'll just have to wait and see. There are roughly 500 Pokémon total in PAL. Some of them are unobtainable by the player. Is your favourite among them?

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@KayleeSmerbeck: Will I be able to date Cheren?

Soundwave: Sorry, no yaoi. We've kinda gone into detail on this in the past. The people who want to date the boys are unfortunately the minority, and it'd add a lot of extra work for us. Plus I don't know how it is for the other writers, but I don't really feel I could do a yaoi story any justice.

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@jason_mulrooney: At any point are you gonna remove or even randomize the first Pokémon you're given? I'm enjoying the game but I don't like the idea 4 of my team are decided before I get to even capture one.

Soundwave: No, sorry. That's not really feasible for us. We'd have to put in a lot of dialogue alterations for the various Pokémon you can get. Pikachu isn't mandatory to use, at least. The others also aren't necessarily. You need to train them enough to pass your exams, but once they're good enough to pass you can stop using them until the next exam rolls around.

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@BlueKaiserr: Are there going to have battles where the results will change the story?

Soundwave: Absolutely 100% yes.

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@CometOfCrimson: What's your favourite theme (as in music)?

dmjh93: If you're talking about favorite GENRE of music, it's a tie between (old-school, NWA-era) hip-hop and video game OST's. If you're talking about my favorite Pokemon song, it's gotta be Gen 2 Goldenrod City. And if you disagree with me, you're a hater.

Soundwave: I definitely love the opening theme, it's hype as hell. I love Whitney's route music, Serena's is beautiful and serene (no pun intended). And I'm also a big fan of the Viridian City remix that plays during most of the elective classes. But my #1 pick for favourite music featured in the game is POKEMON SENTAI!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhrdU0J-Aus

ScottpilgrimFMAB: In PAL? Or in Pokemon in general? If it's PAL, definitely the Littleroot theme used for Brendan. Pokemon in general, Goldenrod City all the way.

Steve: I really like the theme for the intro credits.

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@CometOfCrimson: What made you enter the world of visual novels?

dmjh93: First visual novel I ever played was Fate/stay Night, and that made me realize how much more fun it was to read a book while having music and sound effects playing at the same time.

Soundwave: Well personally I just like the genre (Danganronpa 2 is one of my favourite games of all time) and I saw this on Steam Train and thought it looked awesome. I went back and forth for a year as to whether I wanted to help the game's progress or just be a fan, but I'm glad I jumped on the team. Since VisualJae isn't participating in this AMA, I'll answer for him too, as he's the one who came up with the concept. He's a big Pokémon fan and noticed there were no Pokemon visual novels. He thought he should fix that. The rest is history.

ScottpilgrimFMAB: I've been playing VNs for a long time. I think my first one was the original Go Go Nippon? I've always been interested in how a VN can tell a story with static art and writing alone. And to be able to choose your path is even more fun because it means you'll have a different way to play than someone else! VNs are underestimated IMO.

Skye: Aside from dabbling in the social links and confidants of Persona and interacting and romancing with the crew in Mass Effect, I was mostly alien to the whole concept of 'games with lots of words in them' outside of text adventure games from my youth. When a friend of mine introduced me to Katawa Shouju, I fell in love and wanted to take my hobby of writing towards this new avenue. It's refreshing to help shape video games in a way that I feel naturally suited to.

Steve: I’ll be honest, I’ve never played a visual novel before this, nor have I worked on one. It’s a bit of an enigma how I found myself here, considering I don’t play Pokémon either.

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@ZephGammaPix: Why don't you guys open up a Patreon? That way you can support yourselves and might be able to hire writers.

Soundwave: We'd love to, but the minute we start making any kind of money, Nintendo brings the hammer down on us. Making money off their property is a no-no. If you want to support the game, consider donating to the lead writer/artist dmjh93 on Twitch and letting him know you love the work he does on the game.

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PrimeName: What version of the game do you think will be the finished version of the game?

dmjh93: Whenever we (and the fans) are happy with how it ends.

Soundwave: If we're on 1.04 right now, then... Uh, I dunno. We'll release the game in bits and pieces I think. Ideally only like 10 more releases at max until we're done!

ScottpilgrimFMAB: To be honest, it's hard to figure out. It all depends on how many more versions we release. If all goes well, maybe we finish the game at 2.0? Sounds reasonable?

Skye: The version with the most stuff in it.

Steve: Really complicated question. I hope the next release won’t be a demo and instead will be a fully playable story. No, it won’t be the final version of the game, but it won’t be a demo either. Saves should transfer from there on and the game will pick up.

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PrimeName: What paths/content are you looking forward to writing?

dmjh93: Leaf, Cynthia, Lance, Skyla, and stuff related to my OC. No spoilers though, cause I ain't about that.

Soundwave: The later routes in the character scenes when drama starts to pick up and the looooooove starts to bloom.

ScottpilgrimFMAB: Writing Brendan and May is a lot of fun. It may be kinda tough due to peoples expectations, but even so, I love me a good challenge!

Skye: Some of the characters that are set to appear in Year 2 and Year 3 of the game have piqued my interest, and I'm hoping that I can weave together an interesting route for them (especially as the dynamic can shift with Red now acting as more of a senior or mentor to some of them.) Aside from that, would it be vain of me to say I can't wait to write more for Sabrina? Yes? Well, too bad, I'm still saying it.

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PrimeName: Will the Electives have their own special scenes or will they mostly just share the same schedule? (Quizzes and the like)

Soundwave: While all electives have the same base and format, we definitely want to do some elective exclusive events at some stage, like a field trip relevant to the elective in question.

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copacetik: I posted this as a forum topic but would love to hear input from the game devs, is there considered to be a true or canon type combination for the player to choose at the beginning of the game?

dmjh93: Perhaps. I don't think anyone on the team has given it much thought, but maybe it's something to think about.

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motork: At the start will you be able to alter your starter Pokémon or are you hard set on Charmander?

Soundwave: For ease of coding, you're stuck with Charmander. Just like the Red in Pokemon Origins!

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motork: Will Whitney and other gym leader females be romanceable or will you only be set on the girls like Dawn, Leaf, etc.

ScottpilgrimFMAB: Well, not every single girl will be datable, but I can say that not all girls are off the table. For example, Whitney is for sure dateable.

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motork: Will different paths give you different encounters for Pokémon?

Soundwave: Wild Pokémon won't change, but there are certain Pokemon you can only get by completing a character's social link or whatever. There will definitely be some
Pokemon you can only get on some routes.

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Tzunamy: Aside from meeting certain people, will certain combinations of electives trigger other events much later in the game?

ScottpilgrimFMAB: Maybe. I would love for it to be the case.

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vesel: Is picking the same classes as who you wanna date a plus? Like Fighting and Fire for May? And if I want to date her, do I need to pick both for extra scenes? Do all special classes work like that?

ScottpilgrimFMAB: In the future, there will probably be scenes where during an elective class, your choice may give you points with a classmate, so I would say it gives you a small advantage. All electives will probably have random unique scenes, so to see all scenes, you'll need to see all electives.

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Tzunamy: What kinds of unique challenges come with fueling a passion project that is not monetized? How do you generally deal with them?

dmjh93: Well, it certainly makes it harder for me to put down my pen and work on something, essentially for free. When I'm working on PAL, I'm literally losing money by the hour, but I get by when I see the fan enthusiasm and reaction with every bit of news that gets leaked.

Soundwave: Well for me personally, I do full-time study and have a job on the side, combine that with doing the things one typically does in their free time (Watch TV, play video games) it can be hard to find any specific time to work on the game. Sometimes you feel like it and sometimes you just don't! It's a pretty tricky situation, but there are a few things that motivate me, like getting to see the stuff I wrote actually being in the game, and wanting to get content out to you guys. Everyone on the team could go a bit faster but it's important to take the time not to get burnt out.

ScottpilgrimFMAB: Dealing with the chance that this could all be shut down in an instant kills, haha. Because we aren't paid, we can only really work on PAL when we have time. We love it, though! Even if we aren't being paid, it's still a lot of fun to do!

Skye: I'm a simple person. I like to write. This project lets lots of people read what I write. Therefore, I write a lot for this project. Money doesn't really enter the equation at all for me.

Steve: Spending money. Currently I pay for the repository we are using to store code and it’s kinda hard to justify. The way I deal with it? I know how painful it can be without one and sometimes money comes second.

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Izuki: Can we just have options to tell Lance how little his opinions mean to us?

Skye: My recommendation to have Red kick him down a flight of stairs, throw pretzels at him and call him "a poor man's Vegeta cosplayer" was sadly declined.

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OlGreenNipples: Who is this "god" they (mostly Red) keep mentioning in frustration in the visual novel? I recognise and accept the only true god; Arceus. Will this be edited in future releases to be more Pokémon relatable?

Soundwave: Fun fact, in a scene I wrote I used "Arceus" in place of God, but the director didn't like that and took it out. I think we could reference Arceus more for sure, but I guess we don't wanna go overboard and replace entirely common expressions with Pokémon related ones.

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Owlephant: I hope it will never happen, but are you afraid of Nintendo knocking down the project? What will you do if it's the case?

Soundwave: If it happens, it happens. It'd suck but there's nothing we can do about it. No point in worrying about it.

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Owlephant: Will traits or relationship points significantly affect the plot or will it just make some (secondary) "secret" scenes happen?

Skye: While I can't speak for the main plot, we are looking into opportunities to change up certain scenes based on who you've chosen to spend your time with (sort of how scenes in the demo play out a bit differently depending on who your roommate is.) For instance, there may be a school prom scene, which will change based on who you're in a relationship (if any), or there may be a school trip scene, where the characters most friendly with you will sit beside you on the trip. We'll have to see how things flow further down the line.

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Puppetsama: Will I be able to change roommates? Are you hardstuck for the three years you're there are is their room for shifting? (I can imagine cucking Brenden and being stuck with him for three years wouldn't go well more than likely.)

Soundwave: To be honest, we still haven't decided. We all agree it'd be great and it'd be realistic if you could change every year, but we're not sure if it's worth the writing headaches and if statements in the second and third years as a result. File it under a 'nice to have'.

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Puppetsama: Are dating relationships going to be breakable? Like maybe I thought Gardenia was kinda cute so I romanced her, but then Crystal shows up and claims best girl throne.

Skye: Well, you have no need to worry because Gardenia will always sit proudly upon the best girl throne. No bias. In earnest, as romance is typically reserved for the end of a character's route, it's not something to concern for a while, but we'll be looking into options, based on what variables we have to juggle, what player behavior we want to encourage or discourage, all that malarkey.

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IcyOne980: For our class type Pokémon are they required for our graduation evaluation?

Soundwave: Yes.

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IcyOne980: Are there gonna be any Legendary Pokémon in game? As in sprite wise since it would be a little weird for a more realistic Pokémon world to have Legendaries show up.

Soundwave: I think people would be a bit disappointed if absolutely no legendary Pokémon appeared at all, right?

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IcyOne980: It was mentioned somewhere earlier that som Gen 7 characters would make cameos. What course would these people take like Kiawe, Lana, and others?

ScottpilgrimFMAB: The plan for now is for them to show up in the future. Which ones and when is something we can't reveal.

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IcyOne980: How many events does each character have for free time? And what happens if we max out their friendship and we hang out with them?

ScottpilgrimFMAB: This varies. We don't have a set number. Think of it like Persona, but without the limit of 10 scenes. If you choose to hang out with someone who's already been maxed, only time will tell what happens.

Soundwave: I'd prefer it to have a set number but it's not the case! As for your second question, who knows? If you're completed Hilda's route and dating her, maybe you go on a nice date or something.

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Aerik: How did you decide which Pokémon would be available for each elective? Were any of them particularly hard to choose or debated at length in the team?

dmjh93: Half of them were for personal reasons, and half of them were based on which were popular with the overall fanbase. In fact, you can catch a Voltorb in the wild just because Electrode is my favorite Pokemon.

Soundwave: Yeah, we just kinda rolled with what we were given. There was a bit of a kerfuffle regarding Elekid or Electrike being the Electric elective Pokémon. A year or so ago we held a poll and people had to submit their Top 5 Pokemon of each type, and this helped us decide what Pokémon (500ish) would actually be in the game. So that gave a pool to choose from, I guess.

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chrisboba: Can we date the teachers?

Soundwave: As nice as this would be, nope. We already have enough possible girls for you to date.

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chrisboba: Am I cucking Brendan if I go for May or is he cucking me?

Soundwave: The mystery of May's route is something we'll never reveal until the game gets there. People are unsure if we're actually stealing her or if they're breaking up or what. You'll have to wait and see. Maybe it ends in a bit of ménage à trois, who knows!

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chrisboba: If I take a photo with The Flash will Superman get jealous?

Soundwave: Nope, Superman is a kind boi.

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BirbJohnson: Will a Hex Maniac and/or Phoebe ever become students here?

Soundwave: Who knows? Maybe when you're able to venture out and start battling people you'll run into some familiar trainer types.

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Aerik: If I remember correctly, students can join two clubs (and Red has to join Battle Club). Do any other students join two clubs?

Soundwave: Well, this topic has actually been brought up on certain paths already. I believe there are a couple of characters who have stated their intentions to join two clubs.

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blitzzard: Will we get a system, where you can earn money for stuff like Pokeballs/Evolutionary items/TMs?

dmjh93: Yes. I don't know about Evolutionary Items, but items like Pokeballs, potions, the good stuff, yes.

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blitzzard: Are you planning on giving us Pokemon eggs too?

dmjh93: Yes.

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blitzzard: Will the next couple of weeks (in-game time) be going a lot quicker than the first? Like going to classes and clubs be just a few lines of dialogue repeating each day?

dmjh93: Classes and clubs will transition to be mostly mundane, except for maybe sporadic scenes where something interesting happens (Kind of like IRL classes). In terms of story, I don't see things slowing down anytime soon.

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Shade: Do you plan to add a "CG gallery" in the future ? I feel like it would be a nice thing to be able to keep a trace on what we unlocked. Same thing about a completion checker for routes.

ScottpilgrimFMAB: I really do want a Gallery Mode too! But it's all up to dmjh93. It's his art. If he says no, it won't happen. When it comes to character completion checker, there may be one in the future. We are only in Beta after all.

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Wschmidth: What are the biggest difficulties that have come with using Ren'Py? I only have limited experience with the engine, but I can only imagine stuff like battles causing huge problems for the team.

ScottpilgrimFMAB: Ren'Py is definitely not built for something like PAL. The code and stuff itself isn't difficult, but we owe that to Steve and the director for making it easy for us. We run into errors a lot. Some that are completely random, some that make no sense, it can be really weird.

Steve: As someone who’s primarily trained in Unity and Unreal, sometimes I feel like I did when I was learning C for the first time. Writing clean code for an engine that isn’t meant to have different systems is a real chore to be honest.

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TheNegativeTwo: What is the best way the fanbase can speed up development? Is it mostly that it's time consuming to write everything, or would more programming or art help, or something else to that effect?

ScottpilgrimFMAB: To be honest, there are a two things that slow down development. 1 - Writers. We need just a FEW more writers, and we're golden. I'd say two. Our lead artist is super busy and has been considering giving the lead writer job to someone better than him, so if we can find that person, things would be swell. 2 - Code. There's a LOT to code. Sadly, we can't give this kind of job away to anyone. We want our scenes to be exactly how we envisioned them, so we code them ourselves. Now how can YOU help? In a few ways! Polish your writing skills and apply if you have time! Remember, grammar is the most important. And if you don't have the time for it, then you won't be much help. Another way is to support our lead writer on Twitch - twitch.tv/dmjh93. He's a cool guy. He deserves more viewers! And lastly, keep enjoying what we make and be patient! PAL will be done when it's done, and knowing you guys will be patient makes us feel even better about this project because we're working hard for such wonderful people!


EDIT: Writing applications are CLOSED.

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@rhtp19: Will there be move tutors/move deleters or teachable TMs in future updates?

Steve: At some point I believe there will be. Need to write an item management system first before I can give definites though.

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@CometOfCrimson: I'm sorry if this has already been answered but is there anything we can do to help with ideas for the game?

Steve: Don’t take this the wrong way, but ideas are a dime a dozen and worthless on their own. If you want to help, either brush up on Python skills or learn how to write.

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Tzunamy: Is it planned to have most early-game Pokémon (Charmander, Pikachu, etc) come with a full toolkit of moves to use or go up against?

Steve: I’m hoping that I will be able to provide players with a great move set if they are worthy. Those who are willing to put in the effort will be rewarded.

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TheNegativeTwo: How accurate is the combat going to be compared to the video games?

Steve: I’d say 90%. We’re cutting out EVs and IVs and some moves will have to work a little differently, but such is life, you feel?

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Puppetsama: Do stat-lowering moves work yet? I was scary-faced but still went first, so I wasn't sure if my Charmander was god's gift to going fast or what.

Steve: Yes, stat lowering moves are working.

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Aerik: You've already revealed you plan to have a 1.0.5 demo. Do you intend to just continuously expand the game, or at some point will you hunker down and aim to a finish it all at once?

Steve: Currently there is no plan for a 1.0.5 demo, but we do have a release schedule in the works. Hoping we can elaborate on that further down the line.

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Aerik: How will searching for wild Pokémon work in the free time system? It appeared that doing so didn't consume any time, and I at least never encountered one in the demo.

Steve: That was meant to be in the demo, but I cut it last second to make some adjustments since some things weren’t working as I intended. It will take time in future releases and play out similar to the catching demo.

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Laughing Skull: How do you plan on handling levelling and stat gains? Will a Pokemon's stats be fixed every level or will they differ from playthrough to playthrough?

Steve: All Pokémon will have the same experience curve. They have all the same base stats from the original games. Since there are no EVs and IVs, a lvl 10 Charmander will be identical across all games.

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chrisboba: How will you handle "grinding"? Does going to the gym allow you to search for battles until you decide to leave or is it one encounter per visit? Same question, but for catching/battling Pokemon in the wild.

Steve: It’s one encounter per visit currently. I believe we will be offering other avenues to train as well, such as main story events. Take advantage of this but don’t neglect free time.

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Thanks for all your questions!


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:22 pm 
Offline
Poké Fan

Joined: June 6, 2017
Posts: 58
Location: Canberra, Australia
I wish I had access to strikethrough text so much; I could meme this way harder. Memes aside, I think I've put off putting a writing commission in for far too long. If grammar is the main issue, I feel oddly confident as to my ability to help this project. My plethora of them unfinished vn's be damned. As much as I wholeheartedly support waiting for the dev team, not trying to help feels.... wrong. Like, if I can help I should help.

Anyhow, needless commitments aside; real happy with the AMA. Think you answered everything you could as well as you could.

_________________
#BrendanProtectionFront


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 12:54 pm 
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Staff Writer
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Joined: June 25, 2016
Posts: 203
Location: Canberra, Australia
Okay sorry for the sudden notice but it has been decided that writing applications are closed. This is an order from above that 5 is enough. Sorry to any who were planning on applying.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:53 pm 
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Delinquent
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Joined: November 28, 2017
Posts: 25

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I'd like an order of Personal Space, please.


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