Prerelease:Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire/Early Development
This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
Contents
1999-2000
Early Plans
After development wrapped on Gold and Silver, the franchise was booming with popularity and Nintendo encouraged them to make a third generation but this temporarily led to Game Freak not having resources to not develop spin-off games for the time being[1]. Tsunekazu Ishihara didn't intend to create any more Pokémon games after Gold and Silver came out because he felt like he wanted to do something different in the new millenium[2], but still ended up joining the development team as an executive producer.
There were 10 developers this time around before eventually growing to around 30 near the end of the game's development, making it a big step up from their previous project.
Same Tricks, New Game
One of the biggest goals in development was to make Ruby and Sapphire feel "new", because fans didn't feel like not much changed from Gold and Silver in comparison to Red and Blue. One plausible assumption was due to too many familiar Pokémon from Generation I appearing in Generation II, so it was decided to implement brand new designs. Much of the new Pokémon that were conceptualized were of Types that hadn't been done much.
New Pokémon designs like Taillow were made to replace Pidgey whilst Wurmple was made to replace Caterpie. Their evolution lines were made slightly different in order to branch into natural evolution more, such as Wurmple evolving into a Cascoon or Silicoon much like a caterpillar resting into a cocoon in real life.
They also decided to take the theme of "cooperation" rather than competition this time around to take advantage of the Game Boy Advance's 4-player capability. Contests were decided early in development.
Conceptualizing Hoenn
Kyushu was chosen as a region to base on because Junichi Masuda originally lived there and wanted to work in his memories based on his summers spent there into the game. That setting allowed the developers to take advantage of the Game Boy Advance's graphics by experimenting with a slightly more diverse range of scenery in several areas. The developers wanted to closely base parts on specific regions of Kyushu but they didn't want to take it too far due to the game going into another direction.
He also wanted to include some elements from Okinawa, but it wouldn't geographically fit into the map so it ended up getting condensed, hence why most of the architecture in eastern Hoenn is different. He didn't want to use Okinawan music either, because it would have felt too much like the real-life location.
The region name Hoenn is derived from the kanji En (縁), which means "bonds", and Yutakana (豊かな), which means "bountiful", representing the link between humans and Pokemon, thus forming Hōen (豊縁). It was decided a little later in development.
They wanted to make it separate from Kanto and Johto, thus being viewed as "separate worlds".
Designing Pokemon
There were eight designers, who drew sketches of Pokémon designs on paper either by inspiration or via demand from the planning team. Many adjustments were made to several designs due to art styles that look completely different from Ken Sugimori's trademark style. This resulted in different drafts but they were redesigned in his style to "unify" the designs. They would also go through multiple last-minute changes during late development of the game. Unlike previous games, they didn't want to limit their creativity for the sake of merchandising by simplifying their designs so they expanded designs in detail while not being too distracting.
The team wanted to go for a wider variety of designs this time around, mainly focusing more on tough-looking, monstrous Pokémon because fans thought that the designs in Gold and Silver were "too babyish" and they wanted to return to the coolness of monster designs of Red and Blue. They also wanted to try out designs that hadn't been done before, such as Blaziken being described as a "humanoid" Pokémon design and weaken the idea of "what cannot be a Pokémon".
One design that never made the cut was a "sea-slug Pokémon".[3] It is heavily speculated to be Shellos and Gastrodon because they are both based off sea slugs. They would appear in Diamond and Pearl.
2001
March
Official Announcement
A mainline Pokémon title for the Game Boy Advance was officially announced at an event by Tsunekazu Ishihara, tentatively titled "Pokemon GBA" and slated for a "2002 release". New designs were teased, which were of Brendan, Azurill, Wailmer, and Kecleon.[4] He wasn't optimistic at the time of the announcement, but believed that he could be able to overcome challenges during development.[5]
Corocoro March 2001
More information about the new Pokemon were revealed in an issue of CoroCoro.
June
Early Anime Production Art
This production art of Ash and May dates back to June 1, 2001, sixteen months before the anime aired in Japan. Though it shows that the series was being developed, it signifies that May's design was likely finalized at that point.
circa. Summer-Winter
Decline Concerns
Months after the release of Gold and Silver in Japan and eventually in America, Pokemania started to slowly decline which took a toll on the developers working hard on creating the game. Not only that, but they also had more titles planned due to game acting as a "starting point" towards them. Junichi Masuda even developed stomach pain from the stress, resulting in a hospital trip.
Despite all the negativity, they still worked hard on developing the games and did their best to bring popularity back up to speed.
Concept Art
Few pieces of concept art were drawn up, likely were dated around this time. They would be showcased at the Game On! artshow.
An earlier design of Blaziken, which shares many design elements with Latias in the final. It's possible that the Torchic line may have been planned just after this point of conceptulization. Notably, the concept art pieces feature an unnamed girl that bears loose resemblance to May, around the outfit in the second piece and long hair.
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| The first design of Blaziken. | A slightly later piece of concept art, featuring a later design for the human. |
November
Finalized Model Sheet Designs
Model sheets of Volbeat, Wynaut and Duskull dating to early November 2001, showing their designs were finalized then before their appearance in Camp Pikachu, months later.
Unknown
Other Early Designs
An early design of Torchic, having a different shape from it's later design in March 2002.
An early concept design of Treecko, looking more gecko-like.
Concept art of Groudon.
