From the Mobile to the Game Table
Pokemon Go is a mobile game that was immensely successful worldwide. Many children, young people and adults gathered in different public places and participated in the countless activities organized by the game. Everything was good news until the Covid-19 pandemic restricted the mobility of people and the game, although it made some changes to adapt to the contingency of countries with restricted mobility, it was no longer the same.
That's when the idea of making an adaptation of the famous mobile game to the game board arose from a casual chat.
With the help, guidelines and sponsorship of friends, this project is carried out with the simple intention of entertaining us, but along the way (which took just over a year) important lessons were obtained, which finally gave rise to the Kunigo collaborative project.
Request:
Create an adaptation of the famous Pokemon GO game to be played by children inside their homes in the context of the global pandemic. One of the fundamental requirements was to make a multiplayer game with at least 6 players, in which it could also be enjoyed with only two participants. Another important thing was that the experience of catching Pokemon, evolving them and making them fight to obtain prizes was enjoyed, so that it was the closest thing to the mobile game.
Development:
To make this game, the latest data published (as of December 2020) by Nintendo of each of the different characters was used and they were taken to a proportional scale in which the differences in power statistics were maintained. In this stage, Excel was used to create, store, and convert each of the data used. With the help of Exel's own formulas and the development of specific macros for this task, an interdependent automated calculation system was implemented with more than 18 individual parameters which were later stored and processed to be used in Photoshop. With Inkscape each of the tiles used to generate each of the different Pokemon cards were generated, and with Photoshop the individual cards were generated in batches from a spreadsheet generated in Excel. On the other hand, the Tiled program was used to generate each of the tiles used to make up the map from the Pokemon video game material available on the internet. Finally, with Publisher we worked on the process of sizing and printing each component of the game. Each part of the board was printed on cardboard and laminated to increase its rigidity and durability. The dice used were blank and custom dice (because the necessary dice are not available on the market). Each card was protected with standard sleeves of distinct colors depending on its function. For each avatar different miniatures of Pokémon bought in the market were used.
Result:
The game was tested and used by children from the age of ten to adults over the age of thirty. Each game lasted around 2 hours and depending on the agreed level of difficulty it could be doubled. The learning curve can be a little difficult at first, but the rules are few and easy to understand for anyone with even a little knowledge of the franchise. In general, the game had excellent acceptance among the participants and left its creator very satisfied both for the gameplay and for the work itself created.
Disclaimer:
Because the game uses characters and resources that are trademarks of Nintendo, The Pokemon Company and Niantic, it was finally decided to make the game non-profit and just for fun for both its creator and its participants. No copy of the game has ever been commercialized without the authorization of the trademark owners or profit of any kind has been made.
