PokéSpawn

About a month ago I talked about how Pokémon were caught; all of the information in that post dealt with what happened client side when a Pokémon was encountered. So now, what happens server side?

When you send the server your location, it pulls information from around the web to find out what it's like where you are. The main factors that contribute to Pokémon spawning are weather, temperature, time, date, altitude, and of course location. Once all of these attributes have been discovered by the server, it searches through the database of Pokémon to find which ones are suitible for your location.

Once the server determines which Pokémon can spawn, it needs to decide which ones will spawn. Pokémon have a couple of characteristics to determine if they'll spawn, rarity and urban tendency. Rarity is self explanatory, Ratatta is more common than Charmander is more common than Charizard. Urban tendency is a new attribute that describes the tendency of a Pokémon to spawn near urban areas. What does this mean for the players? As you walk around, the world is populated with Pokémarts and Pokécenters. As more people join more houses appear. City centers will develop, and Pokémon will slowly retreat to areas with less raucus. To catch rare and unique Pokémon you'll have to explore the natural world around you -- not neighborhoods and city centers.

Another Posting Schedule

As much as I love to post twice a week on this blog, I'm running out of material. I've already discussed much of the planned material, and I don't want to get ahead of myself. The pace of development is quickening, so the more time I spend on the project the faster it gets to you.

Also, a new website is being developed for the game which will be more suited to host forums, images, videos and news. This site will most likely debut with our first alpha, which we want to be completed in about 3 weeks.

With that said, I will begin to post once a week, on Fridays.

Will it Work?

I've received a lot of questions about this games compatibility with devices besides the iPhone, especially the iPod Touch. I don't want to promise anything too quickly. There are plans to make the game compatible with the iPod Touch, albeit in a bastardized form. Since the game will rely heavily on GPS location, devices without that function can't explore places without WiFi signals. Places with an abundance of WiFi hot spots will allow the iPod Touch to mimic the GPS functionality and play the exploration portion of the game.

In a more general sense, if you own a GPS-less device you'll be able to participate in other aspects of the game, playing the "stock market", until you have enough money to purchase a choice baby Pokémon from a breeder, or open up a breeding center on your own. While this clearly isn't the full game, it's not a crippling disadvantage. Since the Pokémon in every area will be unique, most people will encounter the same Pokémon repetitively -- you have to travel to catch unique and interesting creatures. Having the inability to explore simply means you'll have to complete the "goal" of becoming a Pokémaster or Gym Leader through controlling money and owning businesses until you can trade for a lineup of Pokémon you find desirable. With all of the above in mind, it's important to remember that the competitive aspect of game play will remain wholly intact for GPS-less phones. As long as you're able to connect to the Internet you can battle anyone else online in friendly or competitive (for cash and experience) match.

Now Hiring!

Alpha 1:

• Pokémon Display
• Pokémart Display
• Pokémon Class

Alpha2:

• Proliferation of Pokémon (Original 150)
• True Spawning (Based on Locational Factors)
• Searching Algorithm (for Pokémon)
• Introduction of Pack

Alpha3:

• Pokémon Capturing
• Pokémon Battling

Alpha4:

• Functional Pokémart code

Additional things to consider:

• Using moves outside of battle
• “Special” events
• Farming
• Gyms
• Home Location Implementation

Above is a basic road map for the planned Alpha releases. We're officially open for business here at Mobile Pokedex, now able to accept coders from around the Internet to help with the code. If you would like to help with the game, you must have knowledge of either C or Java. If you want an idea of the difficulty level of coding, I would direct you to Bulbapedia to search through their articles about how Pokémon leveling, capturing and battling has functioned in the Generation IV games.

The work done in Objective-C is entirely client side code. The work you'll need to do will be mostly networking and GUI construction. The work done in Java will be all server side code. The server side code is a lot heavier than the client code, and will require coding a lot of algorithms, working with mySQL storage and doing a lot of networking.

If you want to help with the project, you can find my email address in the About Me section. Shoot me an email with a little bit about what you know (a miniature resume, if you will) and I'll be sure to respond!

I Like the Way You Move

As posted previously, catching a Pokémon in game, requires you traveling within range of that Pokémon's location in real life. The range is planned to be 50 feet, or about 15 meters. Once you're within range of the targeted Pokémon, the "Battle" icon will light up and you can engage the Pokémon.

Let's say, for kicks, that you're trying to capture a Ponyta. Ponyta's clearly run faster than you. Seriously, it's a pony on fire -- you have no chance. UNLESS you use a Pokémon outside of battle to catch up. If you can't seem to make a Pokémon sit still, try binding it! If you want a bit of a longer range, try using Vine Whip.

These moves aren't exclusively for capturing Pokémon either. They can be used to access your home when you're not there, or stores you've recently visited. There are plans to make teleportation give you access to your home wherever you're located. Fly will give you the last places you visited and allow you to reenter that place from wherever you wish. The way this works is that you don't get actually flown or teleported to the area near the store, you just get to enter that store. The same applies to your home.

All of the moves in this post are just Bulbasaur's moves, so they'll be a little different in the game. If you have any ideas for moves that could be used outside of battle in an interesting way, comment away!

Adapted Posting Schedule

On April 6th and April 10th I will not be in town to make posts. I'll try and write a few ahead of time, but no guarantees. Keep an eye out for Friday's post, though!

Farming

In a previous post I mentioned two end game professions, breeding and gym leading. There have to be ways to make money when you're a low level character, though. The answer to this need is berry farming. Since berry farming is available to all players of all levels, it's not techinically a profession, and as such functions differently. The key difference between berry farming and other professions is that you don't have to open up a store to retail your goods.

In previous games, berries needed to be planted in "loamy soil". As we all know, the real world is not nearly as restrictive as the Pokémon World -- so you're allowed to plant berry trees wherever you like. From a player's view, you plant a berry, return to water it, and over a given amount of time a tree will grow. Once a tree is grown you have two options, harvesting the berries, or letting the tree die. If the berries are harvested, the tree withers away and another one will need to be planted. If the tree is left to wither away on it's own, it will drop it's berries to the ground. If the conditions are right, new trees will spring up in the vicinity bearing the berries of the recently deceased tree.

The speed of growth, seed spread and prime conditions are all predetermined berry traits. When a berry is planted, the server is queried and the areas conditions are pulled from around the web. Once a tree dies, a few GPS points from around the tree will be chosen and checked for growth conditions. What this means is that in areas with great growing climates, wild crops of berries can be found. Don't worry though -- berry trees won't grow near areas of urban development.

So how do you make money from all of this? It's possible to grow berries right outside your own home that aren't native to your area. All it takes is a little watering and close care. Once you've harvested your crop, you're able to sell your wares through the Pokémon world equivalent of eBay.