The Runaway Guys Colosseum
Roles and Responsibilities
Independent Developer
Lead Artist
Usability Testing Researcher
Creative Researcher
Project Details
Genre: Boss Rush, Fangame
Engine: RPG Maker VX
Team Size: 1
Duration: 5 Months (Late 2022-2023)
Platforms: Windows
Project Description
The Runaway Guys Pokemon Colosseum is a “fangame” I developed in 2022-2023 for The Runaway Guys communities to celebrate their achievements and brands, based on the TRG Colosseum which is a charity event they hold every year to raise funds for a Direct Relief cause. The game was spurred on as a result of a birthday stream Tom Fawkes held where they discussed what type of Pokemon Trainers everyone in the group would be.
This game is a Pokemon Boss Gauntlet, much like the Elite Four in the regular games, except instead of only 4 bosses, there are 12 bosses. Players can choose and build any team they wish. The game contains all Pokemon up to generation 8, with only one of each Pokemon.
Development
Developed in RPG Maker XP using the Pokemon Essentials v.19.1 pack and the Elite Battle System DX plugin
Scripted in Ruby
Custom Sprites made in Aesprite
Utilized personal network to test the game for iterations to ensure difficult but fair gameplay progression
Postmortem / Retrospective
I believe my biggest achievement with this project was the amount of extremely valuable experience and practice I gained that I did not expect. From my research and playtesting, I learned how to game balance combat effectively and how The Pokemon Company balances their boss fights with scaling difficulties and synergy within their own teams to create exciting gameplay.
Above all, this game single-handedly tore down my art block and gave me the confidence that I needed to create my own art assets for future projects. Before this game, I never felt like I could create visually appealing art for games. This game needed custom art to represent real people and I didn’t have anyone else to help me, so I psyched myself up and jumped into it half expecting for everything to look horrible.
As I went down the list of people to turn into Pokemon Trainers, I found myself learning how the generation 5 Pokemon games pixel art was structured and found I was not only able to maintain the art style, but also somewhat make it my own and developed my pixel art style as a result. I was pleasantly surprised at what I was able to accomplish.
This image is all the art I created for the game. From left to right, my pixel art journey can be seen with the leftmost character (Emile aka Chuggaaconroy) being my first ever attempt, going all the way down to the right with each character ramping up in complexity. I am extremely proud of these sprites and of the game I created.
This game, once launched and with the help of Jonathan Wheeler (ProtonJon), was met with positive reviews from the community it was made for. From all the inside jokes to the gameplay, players found the game very fun! It of course wasn’t devoid of issues but I learned a lot from what the game was lacking and what can be done better for future projects.
This is my second entry of games I’ve created with The Runaway Guys as inspiration and for their amazing communities, and it definitely won’t be the last!