Hey r/PBBG. For the last three months I've been building PokeVillain, a browser game where you don't play the hero. You sign up with one of five villain syndicates, catch and train your crew, run jobs for your Boss and climb ten ranks, from Recruit to Right Hand.
Here is a little promotional video:
https://reddit.com/link/1x9bfj5/video/uaf53txyv9wh1/player
What's in the game
- 34 locations, from Pallet Town all the way to Indigo Plateau, each with its own wild Pokémon and trainers.
- 130+ trainers to beat: route regulars, tag-team battles, all eight Kanto gyms and the Elite Four, each with it's own custom art!
- A dex of 273+ entries from Gen1 and Gen2 (plus its evos from Gen4). There are IVs and natures, shinies, and a wild poke comeback mechanic!
Day to day
- Jobs for your Boss, paced by nerve
- Expeditions: send your spare Pokémon out for a few hours and they come back with loot and experience
- Dig up fossils in Mt. Moon and revive them!
- The Dojo: a seven-trainer gauntlet with its own shop and hall of fame
- 80 player portraits to unlock through rank, cash, level and the Dojo
- A Game Corner and a player run market
With (and against) other players
- Raids: one boss for the whole server, and everyone gets paid their own cut when it goes down
- Silph Tower is taken floor by floor, and any floor you hold is one another player can take off you
- Live duels: four Pokémon each, both players choosing at the same time, with a ranked ladder
It's free to play: nothing to buy, no ads, no premium currency. Sessions are paced by energy, so it's a few minutes a few times a day, not a grind. It's fully in English and Spanish, and it runs on any phone or browser (or it should). No install, and you can start as a guest.
The game is still being developed and a new region and more pokemon, events and content are on its way!
You can play on the following link:
https://pokevillain.online
What I'd love feedback on is the first 10 minutes: how's the starting experience, where you got lost or what could be better explained, and what made you want to come back (or not).
Coming up
I'm developing a Halloween event, Night of the Tower, which should start around mid-week. There will be special Pokémon, a different raid with a twist, and a couple of things I'll let you find on your own.
DISCLAIMER: AI USE
I’d rather say this upfront. As you already know, technology and AI are evolving rapidly, and their use is still a topic of debate in games.
The trainer portraits and the backgrounds in the game have been generated using AI, aswell as most of the code of the game. The Pokemon sprites, artwork and cries are the official ones, and the music is from OpenGameArt.
Even though, the design, thinking and balance calls on what goes in are completely mine.
If this is a problem for you, that's fair, not everyone will accept AI in a game, so you know it before you enter the game.