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Hello all! Flaze has kindly crafted this latest lesson for us all on fan regions. I hope you will all find it useful, especially paired with last month's lesson on building your own world, and mine next month on adapting the games!
Good day everyone, this is Flaze here with another Pokemon Academy article. It’s been a few months since I first talked about Plot Flow back in my first article and now I decided to kind of try a jab at it again with awards just finishing and all that.
Now today’s article will focus on…
BUILDING AN ORIGINAL REGION
Caps aside, unlike most other articles this one kind of has a specific focus to Pokemon in itself though it does count as some world building. I won’t try and make it too long as I’ll try to keep explanations about how to do this as simple and short as I can.
In this article I’ll be focusing on how to come up with a region of your own if you so wish to, how you should do it, its culture, Pokemon and such and of course the people in it.
Honestly, when I first thought about this article I realized that while it was more akin to Pokemon it really did feel like it was something that had been covered in the world building articles before. It’s not a world in itself, but it does base itself around that while being a bit simpler at the same time.
I know that it’s a bit unconventional but I won’t be referring to any famous articles or anything. Instead I’ll be referring to this really convenient list of things to do from ehow.
Anyways without further ado how about we get starter in creating our own region!
Design Your Region
Now first thing to do before actually creating a region is to make up the outline of it, I mean you can’t just throw things around as you want to…well you can but it’s better if you plan it out more. So you’ll have to create a layout of how large your region is as well as all the other geographic formations that surround it like islands and such.
To do this you should probably sketch the region out on paper, or you could use an application like Paint in order to create it. Now this is of course you decide to really create your own region, you could do as the games do and sort of copy and alter an already existing country or part of a country like it’s been done in the past, but all of that is up to you.
Once you have your layout you can get to work though. Now I’m sure you’re all daring to create your cities and routes and all of that, but before you create a city you have to take into account what makes up your region as a whole. Is it hot? Is it cold? Is it both? These are small things that have to be worked out.
Anyways, you have to work out each of the different geographical elements of your region you can now spread the cities out. Make sure to create cities that match well with the place that they’re located in and that they all kind follow after each other.
Now that you’ve thought up of your cities and spread them out it’s time to work on what connects those cities. The routes and other locations in the region are important obviously, especially since they’re supposed to give a feeling of what’s to come ahead. For example, if you think back to Mt. Chimney and Lavaridge Town you can say that going through the volcano helps to figure out how the city itself will feel once you arrive, this doesn’t happen with all of the cities but most of them do go along with the climate that surrounds the route around them.
Routes also help in showing how the weather changes from one city to another, since you could be going through a sunny and peaceful route and then suddenly have to go through rain.
Now that’s that for cities and routes, now let’s dive a little bit deeper as to how your region works. Now if you look at each of the past regions carefully you’d notice that the regions all follow a certain theme to them as you explore them further.
Kanto and Johto are very basic but they both put a focus on how different each part of the region is compared to the other and the different themes that each city has as well as their culture. Hoenn has an ongoing theme in how the region itself is divided, with one half of it being made up of ground and the other half being mostly water.
Then there’s Sinnoh that focuses on the myths and legends of its region by having multiple monuments spread around the region and even having some cities that revolve around their specific mythical landmark.
Then there’s Unova that kind of presented you with that feeling of intertwining between nature and technology. And I haven’t played XY yet so I don’t have anything to say about that cause I have bad luck.
Anyways this isn’t really necessary but it’ll make your region seem a lot better if it has a theme or culture that it revolves around, this’ll help explore the world in it more as a whole. Basing ourselves from this you also have to make it so that the people that live in it follow this culture or theme, pretty much like it happens in real life or in other games.
I would mention names, but I think naming a city, while tough mostly depends on the person. It’s not like the name of a city always matches the city itself this is true in real life too, though I would advise on trying to do so…it’s not necessary but it’ll be more interesting if the cities each have a name that kind of reflect the city as it is, but again this is up to the person.
And this being Pokemon, we have reached the most crucial part of a region. The Pokemon.
Now that you’ve got all your basics down it’s time to decide what Pokemon will live in your region. Now, when creating a new region a lot of people just kind of throw whatever Pokemon they want in, but you have to remember that the Pokemon you use have to match with the region and the place where they are being used. If your whole region is pretty sunny and all then you can’t expect to have ice types unless it’s in a specific spot where they appear, that’s what most of the games have done for this and is why regions tend to be so diverse so as to give each time a place to pop out.
Of course you could also go and create your own region from top to bottom and create your own Pokemon. But if that’s the case then you once again have to think of how to properly create them so that they fit the region as a whole. I could actually dwell on this but this article is about making a region…though if a certain head mod wouldn’t mind I could do an article on creating fakemon later on *whistles*
Anyway. I think this is about what you’d need to be honest, regarding the story behind your region, well I think that much like with the names for the cities and such it is up to you, that falls more on the line of plot and such.
I actually had my own fic with an original region a long while back, and while it was one of my most interesting ideas I can say that it isn’t really that easy to create your own region. It’s something that you have to have fun with, you can’t make one just cause you want a more interesting story but you actually have to work on it and think it out…I didn’t and my story died cause I only did it out of thinking that it would be cool.
So my biggest advice when it comes to creating your own region is to know what you’re doing and being willing to stick with it, don’t get lazy and be as creative as you possibly can with it. It might sound cheesy I know, but I think encouraging a writer on keeping up with an idea they have is one of the best advices I could give out.
Good day everyone, this is Flaze here with another Pokemon Academy article. It’s been a few months since I first talked about Plot Flow back in my first article and now I decided to kind of try a jab at it again with awards just finishing and all that.
Now today’s article will focus on…
BUILDING AN ORIGINAL REGION
Caps aside, unlike most other articles this one kind of has a specific focus to Pokemon in itself though it does count as some world building. I won’t try and make it too long as I’ll try to keep explanations about how to do this as simple and short as I can.
In this article I’ll be focusing on how to come up with a region of your own if you so wish to, how you should do it, its culture, Pokemon and such and of course the people in it.
Honestly, when I first thought about this article I realized that while it was more akin to Pokemon it really did feel like it was something that had been covered in the world building articles before. It’s not a world in itself, but it does base itself around that while being a bit simpler at the same time.
I know that it’s a bit unconventional but I won’t be referring to any famous articles or anything. Instead I’ll be referring to this really convenient list of things to do from ehow.
Anyways without further ado how about we get starter in creating our own region!
Design Your Region
Now first thing to do before actually creating a region is to make up the outline of it, I mean you can’t just throw things around as you want to…well you can but it’s better if you plan it out more. So you’ll have to create a layout of how large your region is as well as all the other geographic formations that surround it like islands and such.
To do this you should probably sketch the region out on paper, or you could use an application like Paint in order to create it. Now this is of course you decide to really create your own region, you could do as the games do and sort of copy and alter an already existing country or part of a country like it’s been done in the past, but all of that is up to you.
Once you have your layout you can get to work though. Now I’m sure you’re all daring to create your cities and routes and all of that, but before you create a city you have to take into account what makes up your region as a whole. Is it hot? Is it cold? Is it both? These are small things that have to be worked out.
Anyways, you have to work out each of the different geographical elements of your region you can now spread the cities out. Make sure to create cities that match well with the place that they’re located in and that they all kind follow after each other.
Now that you’ve thought up of your cities and spread them out it’s time to work on what connects those cities. The routes and other locations in the region are important obviously, especially since they’re supposed to give a feeling of what’s to come ahead. For example, if you think back to Mt. Chimney and Lavaridge Town you can say that going through the volcano helps to figure out how the city itself will feel once you arrive, this doesn’t happen with all of the cities but most of them do go along with the climate that surrounds the route around them.
Routes also help in showing how the weather changes from one city to another, since you could be going through a sunny and peaceful route and then suddenly have to go through rain.
Now that’s that for cities and routes, now let’s dive a little bit deeper as to how your region works. Now if you look at each of the past regions carefully you’d notice that the regions all follow a certain theme to them as you explore them further.
Kanto and Johto are very basic but they both put a focus on how different each part of the region is compared to the other and the different themes that each city has as well as their culture. Hoenn has an ongoing theme in how the region itself is divided, with one half of it being made up of ground and the other half being mostly water.
Then there’s Sinnoh that focuses on the myths and legends of its region by having multiple monuments spread around the region and even having some cities that revolve around their specific mythical landmark.
Then there’s Unova that kind of presented you with that feeling of intertwining between nature and technology. And I haven’t played XY yet so I don’t have anything to say about that cause I have bad luck.
Anyways this isn’t really necessary but it’ll make your region seem a lot better if it has a theme or culture that it revolves around, this’ll help explore the world in it more as a whole. Basing ourselves from this you also have to make it so that the people that live in it follow this culture or theme, pretty much like it happens in real life or in other games.
I would mention names, but I think naming a city, while tough mostly depends on the person. It’s not like the name of a city always matches the city itself this is true in real life too, though I would advise on trying to do so…it’s not necessary but it’ll be more interesting if the cities each have a name that kind of reflect the city as it is, but again this is up to the person.
And this being Pokemon, we have reached the most crucial part of a region. The Pokemon.
Now that you’ve got all your basics down it’s time to decide what Pokemon will live in your region. Now, when creating a new region a lot of people just kind of throw whatever Pokemon they want in, but you have to remember that the Pokemon you use have to match with the region and the place where they are being used. If your whole region is pretty sunny and all then you can’t expect to have ice types unless it’s in a specific spot where they appear, that’s what most of the games have done for this and is why regions tend to be so diverse so as to give each time a place to pop out.
Of course you could also go and create your own region from top to bottom and create your own Pokemon. But if that’s the case then you once again have to think of how to properly create them so that they fit the region as a whole. I could actually dwell on this but this article is about making a region…though if a certain head mod wouldn’t mind I could do an article on creating fakemon later on *whistles*
Anyway. I think this is about what you’d need to be honest, regarding the story behind your region, well I think that much like with the names for the cities and such it is up to you, that falls more on the line of plot and such.
I actually had my own fic with an original region a long while back, and while it was one of my most interesting ideas I can say that it isn’t really that easy to create your own region. It’s something that you have to have fun with, you can’t make one just cause you want a more interesting story but you actually have to work on it and think it out…I didn’t and my story died cause I only did it out of thinking that it would be cool.
So my biggest advice when it comes to creating your own region is to know what you’re doing and being willing to stick with it, don’t get lazy and be as creative as you possibly can with it. It might sound cheesy I know, but I think encouraging a writer on keeping up with an idea they have is one of the best advices I could give out.
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