The year 2021 continues to remain an important year for Pokemon as a franchise and for fans across the world as fans continue to celebrate Pokemon's 25th anniversary. With a myriad of events, merchandise, and future games announced, fans have done their fair share of giving their love to the franchise that many have had fond memories growing up with.
Among the many Pokemon fan games that many talented fans created, most if not all have used existing assets from Nintendo as a source for their games. While nothing short of impressive, once in a while a fan will recreate iconic locations within the Pokemon games utilizing engines such as Unity, with this recreation following suit. What's intriguing about this recreation of Pokemon Red and Blue is that the developer behind the recreation is employed by id Software, a company known for developing titles the exact opposite of Pokemon.
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Mark Diaz, a game programmer from id Software who worked on 2016's DOOM, Quake: Champions, and DOOM Eternal, recently unveiled his latest project. It wasn't something relating to id Software, but rather a fun passion project recreating Pallet Town and the connecting Route 1 from Pokemon Red and Blue. Using the modular assets from Unity asset creator Kenney, Diaz's Pallet Town is set in the soft afternoon, utilizing light sources to give a sense of warmth to the surrounding environment. The colorful cartoony assets bear a similar resemblance to other titles such as Minecraft, giving the Pokemon starting town a new fresh appearance.
One faithful recreation that Diaz chose to opt for was the classic top-down perspective that older Pokemon games were known for. This perspective has recently gone under scrutiny for some fans of the series since the announcement of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, claiming that the graphics are a step down from the previous entries rather than a recreation of the classic Pokemon Diamond and Pearl titles.
Although there's no inclusion of actual Pokemon to catch and battle, Diaz stresses that the passion project is nothing more than just that, a passion project for a game he has grown up with, tweeting that the creative outlet is comparable to the "video game equivalent to a crayon drawing I'd hang on my refrigerator." As a programmer for a fellow multi-million dollar company, Diaz understands the possible repercussions for furthering the project as it would tread on the intellectual properties of Nintendo, a company that has historically protected them to the fullest extent.