Quick History

Pokemon came out about when I was a senior in high school, and though I played a bit with my younger brother it was the butt of most high school jokes. Yes we could sing the theme song (I still can if you are ever want to hear it), yes we were dragged to see the Pokemon Movie in the theaters with our kid brothers (I didn't cry... much), yes we played Pokemon Monolopoly at nasium during Holiday breaks (still my favorite adaptation of Monolpoly) but Pokemon was just down right uncool.

 Well I got older and Pokemon didn't go away, in fact its user base grew and a strange phenomena happened, it became nostalgic for many of the younger generation much like Castlevania, Metroid, and the like are nostolgic for me. I meet 22 year olds who openly love Pokemon because it is old school. Pokemon is now cool... how the heck did that happen?

So Pokemon is cool, great. But I remember being in High School and giving the game the benefit of the doubt, and cool factor aside the mechanics still stunk on ice. I always liked the premise of Pokemon, collect, train, and show prowess on the battle field, but the further you get into the game the more you realize how broken the mechanics are. Evolution really doesn't mean anything game wise (except in a few cases). Skill overlap is unruly, and strategic choice is almost all but absent from the game. Pokemon is nothing more than a grind fest when all is said and done.

I would sit down and play Pokemon Stadium with my brother and we would set the levels of our Pokemon to 100. And I started to notice that a level 100 pickachu was just as powerful as a level 100 Richu( is that the upgraded form of pickachu?) Evolution didn't matter, most skills you got at level 1 could scale just as well as others, and 50% of all the skills were usless. I'm looking at your harden. Most battles lasted 3 hits and then our pokemon would die, so you better not waste a skill like growl because, well, it just sucked.

So for a very very long time I have wanted to see a game that takes some of the good intentions of Pokemon and improve upon them. I have had many ideas and hopes for such a game, but have never seen them come about.

Well, I am no longer in High School, I have quite a bit of expertise and experience under my belt in graphics/game design. And by thunder (don't know what that means) I am going to make a game that I would have loved to play, and I can still play with my kid brother... who ironically now stand one foot taller than me and is 21...

I am not trying to make a Pokemon remake/tribute game. In fact besides enslaved animals dueling for the ... enjoyment... of their masters, Duel Beasts will not try to be a Pokemon game. I have taken away all the grinding of Pokemon, all the useless decisions, and the lack of consequences and have designed a game that will be strategic, quick to pick up and put down, and hopefully require more activity between the ears.

So in short, was Duel Beasts inspired by Pokemon? Yes but not as many will assume. It is inspired by the shortfalls of Pokemon and not by my love for the grinding nature of a foregone age... that... is... still in full swing. ;)