Overview
Created using RPG Maker XP and the Pokémon Essentials add-on, this project is a full singleplayer custom campaign that can be played on PC and is made to resemble official titles as accurately as possible in terms of world design, gameplay and visuals.
I’m not even that big of a Pokémon fan, and I mainly used this project to dive into general storytelling and worldbuilding.
Key features
New region
The game takes place entirely on a new custom region. I designed all routes, towns, history, characters and more.
30+ hour campaign
My most content-heavy project to date, the main story alone (stop Team Rocket and defeat the Elite Four) and all optional side content together will demand some playtime.
Fan-made content
The project is made to resemble official Pokémon titles as closely as possible.
Improvements
While I’m proud of what’s currently included in the game, there are enough identifiable key points I wish I could’ve done better.
- Overall plot progression and limited early-game navigation.
- The game too strictly follows the (outdated) design guidelines of the older generation handheld Pokémon titles and could learn something from modern titles regarding player freedom to go anywhere and tackle the map in whatever order the player wants.
- Insufficient interesting characters.
- Outside of the player character, gym leaders and a few others there aren’t enough diverse and interesting people that are encountered during the game.
- Inconsistent background audio.
- Background music and ambience sound too high-quality compared to the visual style and should be replaced with tracks exclusively from other handheld titles.
While the base game is finished I’ve recently (2025) picked up the project again to add a completely new post-game region that remedies my above gripes with the game.
