Well, it's been two long years since the last update. Soon has finally arrived.
I just wish the announcement was a little different.
Friday the 9th September 2005, the Pokemod had been in development limbo for some time. The promised early HL2 SDK didn't eventuate and HL2's release was pushed further and further back... but I digress.
Sometime earlier (one month? two?) the team, both old and new, had the first of many meetings to lay a new Path for the pokemod. For the most part, these early meetings were succesful.
Fast forward to mid 2006. Some of the driving forces behind the revival attempt 6 months earlier "disappeared". In an unfortunate coincidence, 2006 was a busy year for most of the remaining core team, myself included. We continued to miss our own internal deadlines time and time again. Due to conflicting schedules and poor overall focus, we spent more time reviewing past decisions then developing content.
We stumbled on through to early 2007 and things started to look a little brighter. Less busy schedules lead to some progress, just not enough. The two biggest unresolved issues were the scope of the mod and the overall concept. Back in 1998/1999 when the pokemod was envisioned (under different leadership) it was no more then 3D online pokemon. Back in 1998/1999 when pokemon was limited to two black and white 8bit gameboy games.
Nintendo made the leap to online play with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl released earlier this year and with the Wii iteration of Stadium on the horizon. Back in the day there were 151 Pokemon... now we're up to 493. I must admit I personaly haven't played Diamond or Pearl, I had to look the total up.
Simply put, we're no longer in a position to keep up with Nintendo, let alone innovate. If all you can hope for is an incomplete carbon copy with a couple of gimmicks, really, what's the point?
It might surprise you to hear that the core team that first developed the HL1 proof of concept battle demo (over 5 years ago, all the way back on 20th July 2002!) are still in close contact and don't be too surprised if you run into the team again. Sadly, I can't see any possible way that this would involve the Pokemod.
To all the fans we've accumulated over the years, I'm sorry. We set our sights just a little too high.
Regards,
Fake Alkazar1; fan, coder, team lead.
