>>3917377225 y/o here
Started with Yellow, and may be biased, so take it with a grain of Smelling Salts.
What made Pokemon, and other games from the 90s really appealing is their simplicity. Devs cover the major aspect, while we, as players fill out the missing pieces with our imagination and creativity, so
LESSON 1: Make sure your customers have unrestricted freedom in creativity and imagination.
What makes Pokemon in particular so much more appealing than other games in its time is the sense of not knowing what Pokemon will be encountered, minimal cutscenes, and only give out bare minimum of information, leaving curious and intelligent players figure it out for themselves, so
LESSON 2: Don't insult your customer's intelligence by giving them obvious pointers. I became the Indigo League Champion after just 2 months of playing Yellow.
What appeals to me personally is that I like collecting, and I like to collect strong and "cool" Pokemon like Lucario, Blaziken, Scizor, Volcarona, Galvantula, etc. This might differ from people to people. The main focus of Pokemon in particular is Pokemon themselves. It is the main course. Every minigame, postgame facilities, storyline, and characters are number 2 and below, so
LESSON 3: Make sure you dedicate a good portion of time for the main thing of your game. It's the thing that you want to be the most appealing. I got captivated when they introduce mega evolution, even more when Lucario got it. It looks fucking awesome and it's extremely broken in game.
Lastly, don't forget to get on with the times. Take reference of a gameplay feature a popular JRPG has, and if possible, insert it in the game. Remember that above all, people play games to release stress and have a good time, so
LESSON 4: Make the game as if you're designing the perfect game for yourself.
A game made with passion will almost always be on equal footing with a game made only with money.
