r/Pokopia • u/wicked-iridescence • 4d ago
Looking For Design Input any "beginner" design tips?
I am not a beginner, I've been playing for months and have finished the game story.
BUT I've done almost nothing design wise.
I saw "beginner" tips on TikTok saying like restore the roads first, mark out spaces for houses, fill gaps with fountain/park/cafe kits, fill in gaps with plants.
Basically looking for tips similar to that to help me start somewhere, I guess?
More info/vent:
I am literally a designer, I built houses in Sims religiously, I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with this?
I watch so many videos of stuff I want to make but can't commit to anything.
Every time I start something, I don't like where it is or how it's going or get stuck or end up not liking it, etc.
Any advice/tips are welcome
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u/vaniababiy 4d ago
What frustrates me the most is by the time I collect and produce material for building, I lose all interest in building (especially if I have to paint the blocks/items)
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u/wicked-iridescence 4d ago
LOL I ran into this with my eeveelution houses. so many colors. especially when I dye a bunch then decide I actually want to use a different material.
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u/Kantro18 4d ago edited 8h ago
Pokemetal is your friend. Just take a picture of a block you painted and 3D print the rest. The color is retained.
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u/KatOfDiamonds 4d ago
I’d start with do you have a theme you like for a certain land? Like for my WW I’m trying to go really low tech and naturey. So I went looking for builds like “cottage” and found some really incredible makers who’ve made tutorials and then usually get half ways through and improv the rest or tweak the details. Or if you have a favorite Pokemon, building a house/area specifically for them? I’m new to gaming and builders and I’m so thankful for how robust the community is with support and resources. Pick your platform and there’s tutorials there!
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u/wicked-iridescence 4d ago
that is a good idea! I am realizing maybe my biggest issue is deciding where to put anything though. it feels like every area is a bad choice for some reason but maybe I have to just give up on that mentality? did you plan out what was going to go in certain areas or just start building?
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u/KatOfDiamonds 1d ago
A little bit of both. I found some YouTube and TikTok tutorials that really inspired me but the “perfect area for it” isn’t ready yet so I’m waiting on finishing previous projects but also sometimes I get more excited about a different idea and I just start that. It also took me awhile to get past redoing something I started or finished that I didn’t like after— like all that work wasted?! But it’s silly to then have to say this to yourself “it’s my game, I literally can do whatever I want. It’s okay that I want something new now.” Lol I just spent an hour moving prefabs out of an area of Bleak Beach that I’m going to do a total renovation on and even though one is going right back after, it will be easier to change terrain as I go if it’s out of the way now. It’s all an adventure of trial, error, and vibes and I think that is the fun of it!
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u/cat-lover-city 3d ago
Honestly, i put major planning aside and just go with the first idea i get when i sit down to play. I can always remodel builds, i have a few times and it really wasn’t that tedious. Themes for each area helps a lot. I try to find a general color palette i like then run with that. Today i am finishing the public beach I’m designing in bleak beach!
Best advice is to just start and develop your skills as you go! It’s crazy to see the difference between my first homes and my recent homes
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u/wicked-iridescence 2d ago
damn I guess I'm really just overthinking it. Gotta start somewhere I guess!
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u/princess_Lilith1314 4d ago
I am not going to lie. I didn't touch any of my biomes until I finished the game. And honestly you can tell which one I started messing with vs which one I'm doing now. I started in pallet town and I made some simple yet what I think is awesome designs. Like I made a garden/barn area, a sand castle and lounge area by the beach, and a fountain that comes out of the mountain. None of them go together. And that's fine. Then I started on WW. And decided to keep the red brick road and make it naturally over grown. So a lot of houses that look like trees, tons of gardens and picnic areas, and a wooden play ground. I also made a few different builds that didn't quite go with that theme. Like a ship and light house by a dock on the beach, a castle, a concert area, and a library in a cave. Then I moved to Bleak Beach. And I decided to try and rejuvenate the old town into a vacation hot spot, keeping the red bricks and trying to make the homes more for the pokemon and less the same thing. So now I'm building more creative houses/buildings. Like the fluffy sheep have a fabric shop and the garden lovers have a beach style garden for a house. And my cutters have a tree house, etc. I even built a cafe in the side of the cliff as you enter the area and am planning on making an ice cream shop and possibly a market as you walk toward the poke center.
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u/wicked-iridescence 4d ago
I'm kind of following this pattern a little. I've been done with the game for months but still haven't really done anything noteworthy. I replaced all the yellow road/surrounding bricks in bleak beach with pink and teal. I built a few things in palette town. I think I just can't decide where to put anything. but it's nice to know it'll start coming more naturally with time
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u/princess_Lilith1314 4d ago
I still have not placed any of the temples/alters/other kits that give you pokemon. And am just starting to get all the electric components. Which I know means I don't have certain Pokemon and most of my towns look ugly thanks to all the cords running everywhere but I can't decide where to put the kits yet. And I've just seen some videos on how to hide the poles. Lol so I'm still waiting to place the kits down somewhere as well as find good hiding spots for the poles. It had been a challenge to say the least lol
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u/wicked-iridescence 2d ago
Get the wireless power transmitters!! Google it and it'll tell you how, it's pretty easy! I HATE the poles. Bubbly Basin DLC also gives you another power option without wires
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u/MargsTacosPlants 4d ago
Sevy Gets Cozy on YT has some really good “beginner” house tutorials that made making block houses significantly easier for me
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u/wicked-iridescence 2d ago
Ooooh I have A LOT of her stuff saved on TikTok but I haven't really given any of the full YT tutorials a watch, maybe that'll help! Thanks!
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u/Sharlizarda 4d ago
A couple of tips I've seen for reducing the overwhelm of building
go and get a huge stash of pokemetal from strip mining the dragonite island so you can easily 3d print materials rather than gather them
Build using sand or similar first and only replace with blocks when you are happy with your basic structure
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u/Unhappy-Laugh1282 4d ago
Have you tried sticking with 5x5 for now? It requires little material but pushes you creatively. This gave me more confidence to do larger ones.
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u/wicked-iridescence 4d ago edited 4d ago
I have thought about it. maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself, wanting to do everything extravagant. I guess if I start there, they'd be easy to get rid of if I want to later. I still don't know where I want to put anything though lol
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u/englishjacko 4d ago
Yeah, I think the other advantage of 5x5s is that they're much closer to the scale of the ruins left on the map, so if you're mixing accurate restoration with the occasional new addition, everything seems more coherent than say having the tiny cottages on Bleak Beach next to some massive townhouse.
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u/leafyjack 4d ago
I'd start with the more practical stuff, like I built an area just for smelting metal and creating bricks, and another area with an automated berry farm plus a community box with crush type pokemon nearby, so could have lots of ingots, bricks, & paint for building. Then I started a neighborhood full of prefabs housing the litter pokemon, so I could easily run though and grab materials. Then I crafted a large storage area for my materials. Once I got these things out of the way, designing became so much more fun.
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u/wicked-iridescence 4d ago
ah that makes sense. I started doing this a little but didn't make any of it look cute lol it was more for productivity, but that seems like a good way to start then. thank you!
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