Recruiting Pokémon Mezzo - Latin America Region

[GoblinHandSam]

Pokémon Mezzo is a region based on Latin America that adds a twist or inversion to existing Pokémon game tropes.

Pitch​

You play as Celia, a 20 year old girl from a small town in the mountains who just started her year of field work to complete her Ph.D. in Pokémon Ecology. Mezzo is a standard Pokémon game with Pokémon from Gen1 to Gen9 and Fakemon. The evil team are a CIA stand-in, the gyms are replaced with corrupt oligarchs typical to Latin America, and the Elite Four are replaced with a coup battle. The story is divided into roughly 4 chapters with challenges and story somewhat nonlinear within each. The rating is intended for PG-13 or T.

Region Map - Labels are Vibes/Ideas​

Theses of the game​

1. Gotta Catch 'Em All​

This has not been the Pokémon tagline in 20 years but in Mezzo it is a principle goal.

• Story lines are locked behind acquiring Pokémon,
• Celia receives additional stipends for catching more Pokémon,
• Celia gets new TMs and HMs for catching new Pokémon to assist in her further research,
• There are NPCs on each route that tell you how many different Pokémon they've seen on the route to assist, etc.

2. People and Pokémon work together​

The world should be a Pokémon world, not a world with Pokémon in it. This has also somewhat gone away in recent Pokémon games. Pokémon are not pets, they are friends. This means Pokémon do things that tools and machines would do in our world.

• There are more field moves
• Field moves have more uses
• There are multiple versions of field moves so they are not made obsolete in your team,
• NPCs are seen using field moves and Pokémon in various locations.

2.1 Treating Pokémon Well​

Friendship of Pokémon is incredibly important and is visible on the info screen.

• Unhappy Pokémon are less likely to score critical hits, happy pokemon are more likely. (the actual equation is crit_chance_mod = 0.5 + 0.009*happiness which keeps baselines average happiness of wild Pokémon at a 1x crit rate)
• Each round a Pokémon spends in yellow health worsens happiness a bit and the game says this.
• Each round a Pokémon spends in red health worsens it even more and the game says this.
• All items that affect happiness now tell the player when it happens.
• There are 25 NPCs around the region with Pokémon of the 25 natures that offer "playdates" or "recooperation" or "vacations". Giving them your Pokémon for the day will increase happiness by a lot if it's the same nature, or a smaller but still substantial amount if they share a commonality
• Pokémon with very low friendship will stop listening to you using the same mechanics as not having enough badges

There is also a karma system which is based on your Pokémon happiness and other in game things.

• Wild Pokémon who attempt to flee but can't give bad karma if you defeat them
• Planting berries and watering them gives good karma
• Getting to friendship levels with NPCs gives good karma (in addition to their other stuff)
• Karma affects the critical capture rate, the chance of a shiny, and other things

3. Fun Inversions/Twists​

This is meant to be a Pokémon game, but with fun twists or inversions of tropes. The tropes are all present, but there is a hope to think of fun twists within the concept.

• You play as a named character
• Celia character is an adult instead of a child,
• Celia's father is present but not her mom
• Instead of being an only child who never talks to your family you have a sibling who you see all the time on your journey and other family in the region
• Your rival is your brother and is always available to talk to instead of appearing from nowhere,
• Instead of some gyms and gymleaders there are major bosses. Gyms in Pokemon are usually locations now (a public pool, a research lab, a dojo, etc.) that also function as an official gym but most of the major challenges in Mezzo are not referred to or thought of as Gyms. i.e. they are not official challenges of some organization.
• Bosses mostly have themes/gimmicks instead of types.

Current Status​

Two demos of the game exist: one with Gen4/Gen5 style graphics and another with Gen2 style graphics. Only one of these will be turned into a full game. Both have everything up to the first gym implemented.

There is a map of the hometown--Pueblo Rosa--along with all interiors and NPCs. Route 1--Mt. Pantiurqu--is mapped along with NPCs, wild Pokémon, and items. The first town--Amarello Town--is mapped along with interiors, NPCs, wild Pokémon, and major story events. The first "gym" is mapped along with all trainer battles.

Going forward, Pokémon Mezzo will be developed in Pokemon Studio.

Screenshots​

Gen2 Style​

Looking for​

• Pixel Artist
• Pokemon Studio Developer

If you come on as a Pixel Artist you can decide whether to go Gen4/Gen5 style or Gen2 style.
If you come on as a Pokemon Studio Developer we'll stick with Gen2 since it is where my abilities for pixel art are.