RayquazaMaster's avatar

RayquazaMaster

Too Shrexy for my shirt.
287 Watchers
2.3K
Deviations
113.2K
Pageviews

Mostly as a result of direly underestimating how long it would take for me to write out the entirety of the storyline of Pokemon Summer and Winter (also a handful of other factors including getting distracted by the Scarlet and Violet DLC so I'll willingly take the blame instead of pinning it fully on stuff not fully under control), you've probably noticed that the first bit of DLC for Pokemon Summer and Winter, the Isle of Beginnings and Ends, has not begun its uploads yet despite an estimated beginning point in October. Well, I have good news regarding that. I'm at this point roughly halfway through drawing out the Dex itself, and things such as new moves and abilities for it are very much finalized, so I can say with a decent degree of confidence the uploads for it will begin by the end of the month. Initially I had not actually intended for the uploads to all be at once, but some things did result in me needing to rethink that. There's a goodly chance that when DLC 2 comes around after this I'll be uploading the work for it piece by piece rather than in one large load, but it does hinge on a few factors including finding time to actually color and scan individual pages- as you might expect it's kind of a bit more convenient to do all of that and especially the scanning in one or two sittings than it is each time I finish the line art. We'll see, though. In any case, you can expect the uploads to begin relatively soon. Unlike the canon DLCs, with mine being entire subregions or minor regions rather than just new areas, I have over fifty new Fakemon planned for both DLCs, with the makings of a small Dex in and of itself- starters, early route birds and mammals, fossils, all the essentials. Frankly this is what I'd hoped for from the canon DLCs both for SWSH and SV, particularly considering these seem to be replacing the tradition of "third" games, but of course we can't exactly expect GameFreak to put genuine effort into what they do it seems. There will, as with canon DLCs, be a brief storyline to both of mine, and with this first one although I have not put much of it to writing yet I do have it moderately solid in my mind, as well as a fair chunk of the second. I expect the storylines will not take anywhere near as long to write as the one for the main game. I also expect I will not, most likely, be doing DLCs for future projects of mine without decent justification, because good lord this is amounting to a lot. There are a lot of concepts for Fakemon that are at least partly making it into these which I wanted to use in Norica itself but couldn't, albeit with a good number of tweaks to them in order to have them better fit the locations for the DLC, but even so it does leave something of a bitter taste in my mouth, like I could at least in theory be doing more justice to these locations by making them full scale regions. But with this being in the future by a fair bit, there's not much point in me dwelling much on this one way or the other right now.

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

Sorry uploading Team Frost took as long as it did. Things got a lot more busy than they had been and I also hurt my back so it got a bit delayed. However all this remains to be done for the main game of Pokemon Summer and Winter is writing out the story synopsis (in the way I did for Daydream and Nightmare- I'll be using that method going forward rather than only touching on the climax). This should also make clearer a lot of things I've alluded to in the information on a number of key characters (such as Snorri, Baldur/Kvasir, and Jack). This could take a bit (I mean I'm literally typing up the full story of a hypothetical game for crying out loud) but it will be coming very soon and once it is finished I'll be proceeding into the first DLC- Pokemon Summer and Winter: The Isle of Ends and Beginnings. I actually will be starting with the map and a brief bit on what kicks off the storyline there rather than the usual but the starters will be following that shortly and then will be the rest of the Pokemon for the subregion as well as everything else. Oh, did I say starters? Yes, both of the DLCs will have new starter Pokemon!

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

Norica update

3 min read

I've finished coloring and scanning all of the important characters in the main storyline of Pokemon Summer and Winter, and will soon upload them. I can't give a precise guarantee on when but it seems most likely that I'll be uploading them on Monday since this weekend is Pokemon Go Fest so prior to then I won't have a whole lot of time. I do want to say also though that something was up with my scanner's colors and it for some reason scanned everything as noticeably paler than it actually was drawn, pale skin on a few characters nearly appearing to be actually white for example. It might take a little bit more time to see if I can either fix that in the files themselves or solve the problem on the scanner and scan the pictures again.


But while this is the end of Norica, it's not actually the end of Summer and Winter! Before I progress to my next project I've got some DLC to bring to this one. This DLC takes place entirely in the "postgame" so to speak but will include new Pokemon, new characters, expanding upon established ones, and two new regions (though perhaps due to their small size subregions might be more apt). Included in this there might even be some familiar features and the return of an older battle mechanic.


Work on Pokemon Summer and Winter: Isle of Beginnings and Ends will start shortly after the uploads of what's left of Norica, and most likely be uploaded in October.


Work on Pokemon Summer and Winter: Celestial Mysteries will start immediately afterwards, and most likely be uploaded in December.


This has been by far my longest running single Fakemon project, even if that's been for some reasons other than simply devotion to this particular project (more work and real life obligations for instance, as well as the pandemic, mental health issues, and a number of other things). My project after this will almost certainly not be nearly as long running but in part because of how long I've been working on Pokemon Summer and Winter I've become extremely attached to this project (and will frankly be extremely pissed if the next region in the canon games is based on Scandinavia for exactly that reason, lol). So because of that, I'd like to extend my thanks to anyone who's stuck with me for this journey through Norica, and I hope you'll join me on the upcoming journeys to Lifembla and Tähtila!

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

Been a while I guess. Executive dysfunction and artist's block are a hell of a combination. Plus I'm teaching a lot more classes this semester than I generally have been so there's been an issue with actually having time for everything I want/need to do.


Uh, in any case, I'm intending to try and, at the very least, upload the remainder of Norica before the release of Scarlet and Violet. I can come very close to guaranteeing the upload of Megas and Dual Forms by then (this is in part because a couple of them overlap with stuff that SV seems to be adding and I just want to be completely positive I get it up first because it's way too late to change it), and right before the Dual Forms there will be some form of blurb explaining them and their functioning. Important characters I can't fully guarantee will be up by then but I'm going to put in some genuine effort for that. The story synopsis will be done akin to how I did it for Daydream and Nightmare and will be once the important characters have been uploaded, it might be a bit different though because for at least certain parts I do have dialogue and specific interactions in mind. The "postgame" material however is a bit more difficult to give a timeframe on the uploads of.


Firstly the "postgame" so to speak is really more DLC. It'll be introducing two more subregions with about a combined 130 Fakemon plus regional variants, eight additional Gym Leaders, and two new plot lines revolving around new legendaries. As you very likely can imagine, this is going to sort of be a lot. Unfortunately there also is a bit of an issue with those because of the release of Scarlet and Violet, in that some of the Pokemon introduced (namely evolutions of existing ones) may require retooling some new forms. As with the similar overlap in Norica proper these were conceptualized before these introductions became confirmed through leaks and the sort, but unlike with Norica (as an example and a slight spoiler, a new Girafarig form) these are not too far along to change. I may or may not end up changing them as a result though I very much do not want to have to. Secondly there's the fact that a lot of the "DLC" regions still is very much in the planning phase, namely the second of the two. This isn't just the region (more accurately subregion) itself but also things such as the Fakemon introduced and some of the major characters, and even a core to the storyline still needs to be settled upon. This is likely to take a while still.


Another thing to be updated that isn't necessarily directly related to the material introduced in Summer and Winter is moves, abilities, and items. This would be in response to introductions and changes made in Scarlet and Violet- while my projects do and always will use essentially a "National Dex" format to use Smogon terminology (i.e. all moves, Pokemon, etc. are present), moves or abilities getting buffs or nerfs would require me to modify variants of them that I have introduced. An example of this would be Regenerator getting nerfed to 25% recovery instead of the prior 33%; while I do not have a variant ability of this sort and don't especially intend to make one due to the broken nature of it if I had an ability that inflicted 33% damage on opponents when they switch out that would in turn need to be nerfed to 25%. I absolutely do not like needing to do this type of thing, it's easy enough to do with abilities or moves that are being introduced in my current project (I can easily enough just tweak an ability variant to match what it is a variant of) but it's a pain to need to go back and edit through those introduced in past projects as well. Another similar issue is names and effects of new moves and abilities. The best example of this just was leaked today, it's a new ability called Opportunist which copies boosts the opponent has to its stats. Previously, an ability I had on my Kalosian Croagunk line that made all moves to hit paralyzed targets critical hits had the name Opportunist, and my Curiosity ability on the Will-o-Wimp and Orangartan lines has the same effect in terms of copying stat boosts. This isn't exactly hard work to go back and solve but it is tedious needing to either come up with new names or replace an ability entirely with a newly introduced one.


EDIT: Actually on a related note to this I've been strongly considering adding a document with the ability changes that would apply in my projects, and likely also beginning to include them in posts with Fakemon that have those abilities, i.e. if I post a Pokemon with Run Away as an ability I would mark that with a + and then further down list that its effects now protect the Pokemon from all forms of trapping. Please let me know if there would be any interest in this, it would likely help me keep things a little more in order as well actually.


If I had to give a timeframe by which Summer and Winter will be completed as an entire project, my absolute best estimate would be the beginning of summer of 2023. I by no means want it to have to take that long, and when my school goes on Thanksgiving break (thank god it's a private school I teach at so Thanksgiving break is longer than just a four day weekend) I intend to do as much of Norica proper as I possibly can, but while finishing all of that by the end of November and having it all uploaded is certainly feasible completely finishing both parts of the postgame DLC by even the year's end is likely just too much of a task for reaching that deadline to be remotely possible. In a way I am rather proud to have a Fakemon project that has had this much effort and thought put into it, my trip to Denmark and Sweden in 2019 wasn't intended as a research trip but it did end up used in part for inspiration for certain aspects of Summer and Winter and now over three years later I'm still putting together this labor. At the same time though I do genuinely dislike having to keep fans waiting like this for my new material. While my Instagram routinely has concept art updates (not daily but relatively close to it) it still isn't the same as actually seeing frequent uploads of actual new content. I don't want to be like Chris Chan in that regard of supposedly working on my content and then only doing rare actual uploads plus occasional sketches and concept art (I don't want to be like Chris Chan in many, many other regards as well but that much is obvious and likely goes without saying).


In fact I actually had been considering starting a Patreon or Ko-Fi for anyone who's interested in supporting my Fakemon work. I'm at most on the fence about this because I feel as though my uploads aren't nearly routine enough or of high enough quality to make this reasonable and I don't know of any real perks that I could actually offer to make Patreon support worthwhile for supporters (feet pics? kidding) but with as many people now using those as there are including many other Fakemon creators who don't precisely do daily uploads it's nonetheless something that's been on my mind as a possible option. Do let me know if this is an idea you're interested in or would want to support, because as I said I'm at most iffy about it myself but want to leave the possibility open for those who genuinely enjoy my work if they themselves would want something like it.


For the time being that should be about it. I'll be doing as best I can to make my uploads more frequent and to speed up the completion of this project without needing to rush it, and as I said I'm almost certainly going to be able to have the Mega Evolutions and Dual Forms up by the release of Scarlet and Violet a week from Friday. The new games might actually not even cut all that much into my work on the art, I've discovered when it comes to playing on my Switch I actually more often prefer to play it when I'm out at for example a coffee shop and on top of that open-world games are never able to actually hold my attention simply because of not having a singular clear-cut path to follow, so if so then that'll likely help at least a little in speeding up progress. We'll see though.

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

Been a while

4 min read

Sorry about the endless delays with my uploads and frankly updates in general, I've kind of just had a lot of things constantly going on leading to something of a lack of motivation. Going to go over a few updates now though.


Regarding Norica, while I've got the entire Dex uploaded by now, the Megas are still going to be a bit away, for two main reasons. The first is that I've got a new battle mechanic in the region that, though not replacing Megas, does take precedent over them (you likely noticed I didn't make Megas for any of the Pokemon of Norica). This mechanic will be uploaded first, followed by the Megas. From then progress will be as per usual, with the important trainers and so forth, but there also will be some extra things following the actual completion of Norica before moving on to my next project.


Pokemon Summer and Winter will have, in essence, DLC as Sword and Shield did. Substantially more fleshed out though than Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra. The Pokemon Summer and Winter "DLC" will have additional gym leaders, small PokeDexes worth of new Pokemon, and effectively two full subregions rather than the glorified additional Wild Areas of SWSH. Both of these will essentially be "postgame" content for Summer and Winter, and will include four new gyms a piece plus their own stories with their own legendaries that stem off of the main story of Summer and Winter.


There will, due to the sheer number of new Pokemon and forms from this, not be any new hybrid Pokemon for the Norica region. There will be Celestial Mutations, but only in one of the DLC subregions due to story relevance.


With the upcoming release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and more information finally being revealed about these games, I feel there are a handful of things I ought to touch on regarding my projects:


•The Paldea Region and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet being open world does NOT mean I will be including open world aspects in my own projects. To be frank this is predominantly because I simply do not like open world games and cannot get actual enjoyment out of them since all that ever happens for me is I get distracted and lost and never am able to actual reach any final goal in the game. There are other reasons though that are less petty and pertain more to the actual process of making my projects. While I certainly have considered regions with multiple potential starting towns and different starters in each, in every single case I've decided that the variability is just too much to account for in being one person making these projects. I would need for example to figure out level scaling for the gym leaders for each possible permutation of the player's progress (I know this is not present in Scarlet and Violet but that frankly is just a bad decision on GameFreak's part as per usual), and to actually incorporate nearly any way of telling the story when the entire progression is variable would be a nightmare.


•After an extremely long time of consideration I've decided to finally fully announce that Pokemon Divergence and the Chikai Region are no longer canon to my projects. This has been a very long time coming due to Alola being based on Hawaii just as Chikai was, not to mention multiple strong similarities between the Fakemon I made for the project and the canon ones released in Alola, and truthfully I've essentially had my mind made up on it for a while now, but I've decided to finally get around to an announcement of that and what precisely it entails. While as a whole the project no longer is canon to my projects otherwise, I am likely to be reviving Fakemon from it into other regions, or at least the Fakemon in it that are not too intrinsically connected to the Hawaii themed setting. This also may happen, to an extent, with human characters I introduced. Some gym leaders for instance may appear again repurposed with some alterations to them. The Mega Evolutions introduced in that project will remain canon, albeit without a "true" canon region to call home, but I won't be remaking them for another region, unless I happen to decide I'm unsatisfied with one of the designs enough to want to do it over. New abilities and moves introduced also will remain canon, as will any items introduced that did not connect directly to the region's story and plot.


For the time being I'd say that's about it, not much else to share really. My updates hopefully will be less woefully infrequent going forward.

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Featured

Norica update by RayquazaMaster, journal

Upcoming updates by RayquazaMaster, journal

Been a while by RayquazaMaster, journal

Pokemon Ultra Sun Egglocke: Eggs needed! by RayquazaMaster, journal

Yumera Region update by RayquazaMaster, journal