When Super Mario Maker came out, it was a game, for its time, created a lot of buzz, and that was electrifying to gamers and social media for its idea of easily creating levels, sharing them with people worldwide and tackling brilliantly made and insanely fun levels.
Eventually people would ask for another beloved Nintendo franchise to get its own level editor game. One people thought would have the potential to be an amazing game if it were to exist. That being 2D Zelda.
There is one Nintendo franchise to turn into another level editor, that I don’t see a lot of people bring up as an idea, and I don’t believe people think it will work, even though I imagine if done right and executed with some creativity, it can be a really great builder game: Pokémon Maker!
I’m sure people reading this article so far, don’t see how an official game company would properly make a level editor Pokémon game for Nintendo.
And the Pokémon Company who oversees the franchise's not simply gonna be like, “Here’s Pokémon Maker. Start creating your own Pokémon game.” Just a game where you do just that, wouldn’t align with the company’s vision for the franchise. But also, how would you incorporate things like storytelling and monster catching and collecting into a Pokémon builder game? I have an idea how to accomplish that.
The idea I have for Pokémon Maker, is the player gets tasked with creating a Battle Frontier to attract trainers from afar to visit and compete in. In this foundation, the person playing the builder can decide what buildings, plants and other objects they want to drag-and-drop into the game. You can even make your own mazes and puzzles with certain objects!
The game would be top-down Pokémon, and players can decide between four different styles for their frontier! That being the visuals of gen I, II, III, V and VI. Man, that sounds like a lot of styles to put into a builder. I honestly can’t see Pokémon including all of them in a Pokémon Maker. I mean, I wouldn’t mind if they got rid of gen I, but I can see other people wanting that style in!
Depending on the style you choose, the game will have different game mechanics! For example, gen II will have Atk. and Sp. Atk split, but no abilities, while gen VI will have the abilities, and Mega Evolution as well.
And you could have Pokémon in certain styles that were not previously in those generations of Pokémon. Think of like Metagross in gen II, Talonflame in gen V, Milotic in gen I and others in other differing styles.
The game maker itself doesn’t have to be one where you make just Battle Frontiers. You can create something short and sweet like a gym!
I have an answer for that - the player can place snacks wherever in the frontier to attract wild Pokémon. Different snacks attract different Pokémon. And like any Pokémon game, you battle and catch them.
This is where I have to be creative and practical for an official Pokémon builder game. It wouldn’t feel like a Pokémon game if you hired characters to play the bad guys for people visiting your Battle Frontier, huh?
How about by placing certain Pokémon and buildings you can attract certain new existing characters to the Battle Frontier? You, the player, can come up with ways to interact with their stories, help them, and/or develop them as characters. It can feel like you’re creating an environment (as in the Battle Frontier) and story fit for a great adventure!
If you’re still unclear how my idea would work, here’s a couple of examples from a couple of characters I quickly thought up. They might not be the best ideas for characters, but I hope by reading about them you see potential how a story in a Pokémon maker game would work:
Steve: Hot-blooded trainer who uses fire-type Pokémon. He’s a trainer who enjoys Pokémon battles and is enthusiastic about them. He wants to become a stronger trainer. His problem is he thinks he has no limit to becoming a better trainer - it is pride on his part. You can bring him to your Battle Frontier if you place enough Water-Type Pokémon for him to want to surpass in strength. The idea is to want to battle him to show that trainers aren’t limitless, and the joys of competing.
Robert: A character who’s a teen and has just become a trainer. He doesn’t know what he wants to do as a vocation someday. The player can place buildings, Pokémon, and whatnot in an attempt to inspire the character and find whatever great thing he wants to accomplish.
I don’t know how you would be able to connect a series of stories together and feel like a coherent theme for a plot, rather than a series of side quests.
If the developers of Pokémon Maker were to come up with a way to make storytelling work and make it feel like the players apart of and interact with it, it would have to be creative. But if they were able to pull it off, it would be one of the most pleasantly-surprising, amazing and innovative ideas to ever be in a video game!
Each Battle Frontier that’s shared by someone will have three things:
A difficulty level that’s determined depending on how many times players lost.
A symbol indicating if you can bring your own Pokémon with you or have to raise a new team of them.
A sign telling players what level of Pokémon they should bring with them.
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