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[noumenus]

Not sure if this has already been done before but I had an idea for game that produces procedural monsters so that you always find something new. I have always been a fan of the old gen 1 and 2 pokemon games and dragon quest monsters, but I always wished I could keep discovering new monsters. So I am working on a game that attempts to do just that.

 

 

Here are several of what seems like hundreds of what my generator can concoct. Right now all you can do is swipe through two random monsters at a time and also "evolve" them. I have spent hours just looking through all the interesting variation the game can produce but I don't want to give too much away.

I spent quite some time tweeking the generator to produce mostly good looking monsters and now I think I have it pretty good so I can now actually start working on a game lol. 

[Pezomi]

I really like the idea of generating monsters. Because like you, I wish I could just keep catching different pokemon when playing those games. The only worry I would have would be if it makes a difference. I assume the looks of a monster would help determine the monster's 'type' if there is one and the monster's 'moveset' if they have one. A common concern with random generation would be quantity over quality. Pokemon does a great job of making each pokemon special. I say that not to discourage you, but just something to keep in mind.

I really like the look of these monsters though, great job!    I've seen a lot of different attempts at people making their own pokemon-creatures, but this is probably the best attempt I've seen. The influence of pokemon is there, without it being a ripoff. I'm looking forward to how this progresses.

Best of luck!   

[Octopus Tophat]

I literally had this exact idea recently. But now I don't have to make it to see if it works. 
Hope it works out for you!

[noumenus]

@Octopus Tophat
Thanks I hope so too.

@Pezomi
Thank you. The move sets will be determined based on type. Right now I plan to make a large pool of moves for each type and each monster will randomly choose a handful from the large pool giving enough variation to monsters of the same type.

[tjpalmer]

I agree it's a fun idea. Another thing I've imagined is actual AI machine learning training of monster behavior. And actual exchange of monsters with other people, maybe with bitcoin-like technology. Does that encourage unethical behavior toward animals?

[noumenus]

I agree it's a fun idea. Another thing I've imagined is actual AI machine learning training of monster behavior. And actual exchange of monsters with other people, maybe with bitcoin-like technology. Does that encourage unethical behavior toward animals?

That is what I was thinking. the first mile stone is creating a large pool of moves the monsters can learn at random, then I want to make a system where certain moves have a higher chance of getting learned based on how the monster fights and other factors.


   
working on fighting screen hud and overworld sprite movement, etc. Monsters that have their original wild names are displayed in bold. Ooooooh

[archgame]

This sounds like it could turn into something really cool. Have you thought about making other aspects of the game procedural? i.e. dungeons, gyms, towns, (not sure how closely you are following the old gen 1 and 2 games? Have you thought about platforms or game engines at all too?

[gimymblert]

holy shit a block chain pokemon with mining new species, mind = blewn

[bdsowers]

I like your generator! It seems to be producing a lot of interesting results.

Can you drive it to produce similar creatures with gradual additions (ie: evolving a monster)?

The only thing I don't like here - and it's a problem I have with most RPGs that include the first-person battles - is that you're probably not going to have robust animations. Everything will feel super static. Can you compensate for that in some way?

[tjpalmer]

I also think intraspecies variety could be really nice. Lo-res pixels might make that hard. Don't know. Oh, and you're welcome, Jimbert. (I'm not much expert on the details of such algorithms myself. I'd just like to imagine something could work.) Anyway, back to noumenus, I don't want to be too annoying with all the feature request list. It's just a topic I've thought about off and on for some 15 years but have never actually worked on. But I also know everyone has their own ideas, and constraining scope is super important. Still, I'm glad to hear of the learning plans.

[noumenus]

@Archgame
I plan to make everything procedural, different game every time you play. I also have a cool idea for the story in which this would make sense. I want it to be a pretty different, I am also drawing inspiration from dragon quest monsters, which is pretty different from pokemon. I want to look up some other games of its kind to better create something unique.

@Gimym JIMBERT
I will look into this

@bdsowers
Thank you!
I have them doing very basic evolutions the image below if that is what you are asking

As far as animations go, it may feel static, but the thing I liked about the older games is that because so much less is presented on the screen it lead more to filling the blanks with my imagination. Even though epic battle weren't visual going on in my gameboy it's what I always imagined just with two sprites and a text box.

@tjpalmer
I do want to push the random monsters in variety before the game is finished, so all sorts of possibilities could arise. Don't worry, I don't mind the ideas. I have a bunch myself but nothing is set in stone until I code it and it ends up working. Right now I'm just going to get the things I know I can do first and then experiment with other features

[gimymblert]

that's looking good

[noumenus]

Been working on screen menus, dialogue boxes, text rolls, etc. Didn't realize how much is involved in making a simple turn based battle system that needs clever way of referencing stats from a large pool of characters and moves. I don't even have a working fighting system in place yet but I have it all set up were I can start to implement it.

[tjpalmer]

I think the evolution stuff looks good, by the way. Nice introduction of details that were missing in earlier stages, but it still looks fitting.

[noumenus]

@Gimym JIMBERT
thanks!

@tjpalmer
Thanks, it works for now, but eventually I would like to make the evolutions a bit more diverse instead of just getting bigger.



So I was trying to come up with a simple battle system that was different than the pokemon system and have decided to use a card battling system. So instead of learning moves as the monsters level up, they get cards and each monster has their own deck of about 24(this may change) cards. So they can learn up 24ish moves and can only access four at a time and random cards are drawn throughout battle.

[Derek]

Differentiating the game from Pokemon sounds like a good idea and building a deck for each monster sounds really fun. I like the new font, too.

[noumenus]

Thanks, In order for it all to makes sense in universe, I came up with the idea that each monster is tied to a spell book and the moves or cards are a pages in that spell book. So as you play the game you are a sort of wizard writing monster spell books.

Okay so I have made the card battle system and it works with a few minor bugs. Write now all you do is walk around a barren land with rocks and encounter wild monsters to fight. You keep doing so until your monster dies, which then resets the game. Before, all you did was scrub through different random monsters so now it's technically a game! Which calls for a celebration.

[noumenus]

Now that I have a simple battle system in place, I'm coming back to the character generator and trying to find ways of making the characters look more interesting. I want the characters to have back sprites and the regular sprites at an angle facing the player so I am experimenting with a 3d solution. So I just have to build the character once and rotate it for various views. I may even be able to create overworld sprites with this method as well.


I also did a thing where it spits out a gallery of monsters so I can see a wide variety without having to scroll through one at a time. They all look very similar now, but I just started with the 3d generator and I plan on making them more unique as before and then some.

[tjpalmer]

I think 3D is a great idea. What kind of rendering are you doing here?

[tupperwarespoon]

Looks awesome, definitely not enough games using the pokemon formula.

I feel like the monsters have a lot of character, which is awesome for things procedurally generated. I agree about letting your imagination fill in the blanks for the art, I remember being a little let down by some of the anims in later versions of pokemon.

Have you given any thought to breeding? A lot of people are crazy about it in the new versions, another thing to flesh out the endgame a bit.