Okay... So, there are no excuses to why I've been away so long. And the fact that I
have been away for this long means the people who used to be on this site probably aren't anymore. Most likely, everyone who's read this story is gone. But I'm gonna make this post anyways, see if anyone sees it.
So, let's start by being blunt. Yes, I have strayed pretty far away from this story in particular. I've been working with my cowriter on planning and setting up later stories in the series. I've been all over the place, from Phase One stories, to Phase Three, to Phase Four, back to Phase Two, to Phase One again. I just sort of put down what comes to mind and work off it.
Now, to the point. In the past few months, particularly since July after I was hit by a car
(I won't go into details about that. I'll just say I'm still recovering, I'm back to work, and I'm fine. So don't worry), I've had to focus my attention on other things, and occupy myself with other things during the month I spent in rehab. Some things really inspired me, and no small part of my cowriter pestering me to keep my fan games on the down low to avoid copyright strikes from Nintendo. But I have chosen to start moving my series away from Pokemon and work on building an original universe for myself, with my own creatures and characters, entirely separate from the IP. As such, there will be some pretty major changes to the series. Particularly, it won't be based on the lore of Pokemon games or other media in the franchise. So a lot of world history will be different. In the ways that they
did affect my series, there will be changes there. Particularly the stories based on the Mystery Dungeon Explorers games, which is really tough for me to move away from, since they're some of my favorite games, period.
What this
will bring is more freedom for me to make something entirely my own, and do what I want with it, without the restrictions or rules laid out by Pokemon. To the next point, the series itself won't...change much. All the characters I've had (that I created, not game characters), will still be there. Their roles will still be the same. People like Vincent, James, Lucas, etc, will still be doing what they're doing. But their species, and the world they're in will be different. Realms will still be prominent, but the major ones explored in the series (the main games world and the PMD2 world) will be revised heavily. I already have a basic map drawn of the main realm, Terra. Still adding locations. But the main ones seen in this story and most later stories I've planned are laid out and set. You can expect more or less the same story I've been writing, just detached from Pokemon. And as the series progressed, it's been slowly getting further from the franchise anyways. I've already been making my own worlds, and I will continue using these worlds the way they are.
So we can expect a lot of changes to the series, but the core, what makes it what it is (and it's
not Pokemon), will be the same. Just...better. Since it'll be an original series. Furthermore, the series will very likely be relegated to being almost entirely games. RPGs. I already have some experience with this, as we've seen with my fan game,
The Messanger's Shadow. I can continue things like this, with original species and original sprite work. I already have four species designed, which I've shown here before, as fakemon. Those will be brought to the new series, given the name
espers. I still have to flesh out many of the basics of the world. But I promise, I will try my best to make updates whenever possible. I just have to find another forum category to post to for this. If anyone can give pointers to where, that'd be cool.
We won't be getting any games anytime
soon. But any species I start working on, I'll make an effort to keep updated here, and things pertaining to them. This will take a lot of work. There is an entire world,
universe, to build from the ground up. I already have some pretty good foundations in place and am working frequently with my cowriter to establish world lore, history, cultures, species, geography, etc. And I already have an artist willing to help me make the espers. I have a whole list of planned species, with names. They just need to have their details ironed out. And more will be regularly added as I come up with them.
As for this current story, it will pretty much be on hold, indefinitely. It will remain here, since people seem to still be interested in reading it. But just know it probably won't be finished in its current state. Fortunately, most of what happens in it
will be brought to the original series, with modifications to detach from the Pokemon lore. As for the first game of the new series, it will be based around Lucas and a new character set in Terra, and will establish the new world and new species. This is to be the introductory game, with the second game establishing the Dusk Realm, where Vincent goes to take on the Temporal Task. Both these games will involve parts of this story. Vincent will remain a major character. But the focus, at least early on, will be shifted to Lucas and the new character, and building this world. While the second game will revolve around Melissa and Silva early on, to build the Dusk Realm.
A note directly from my cowriter to you guys on this subject:
As someone who reads a lot of fanfiction, a lot of it good, but rarely ever finished, I fully understand and empathize with your disappointment that TMoT will probably never be finished. But at least it's not fully dead. We'll finish this. Eventually. It's not dead. It won't be dead like so many others. But it will take time.
I realize plenty of fanfiction writers say this, and then disappear for good. We won't do that. It could take us years, but we've invested far too much time and effort into this universe to abandon it now. You will eventually see results, either in the form of a game, or a written story, whichever we make first. Changing to a fully original universe requires us to build a whole new setting around our stories. While a lot of the groundwork has already been laid out, we need time to plan. Revised history and geography for the new worlds, new background events, in-universe politics, technological development and fantasy elements such as magic, revised narrative themes and plotlines for stories based more heavily on Pokemon, and numerous other things I can't name off the top of my head. We take immersion and details in our lore quite seriously and plan to take our time, and do it right.
There is a lot of work to do in the future. And I'm hoping once tax returns come in (hopefully in a couple days) and I can get parts of my computer fixed, since it's starting to die, I can more heavily work on this and really kick things off. So look forward to that. And so long as you keep in touch with these posts, I'll keep in touch with you guys and keep you informed with the progress. Once I have enough put together to make a substantial post, I will start a new thread in another category, I'll link it here, and I'll see you guys over there.
Till then! Later.