Happy New Year Everyone!

As I write this I've just finished pushing one of the more painful commits in my coding career: changing the copyright text in Pokémon Master Version from ©2020-2024 to ©2020-2025.

Changing this number has become something of a ritual these past few years. When I started this project back in 2020, I really didn't think it would take this long to complete. While I haven't worked on it consistently or exclusively through these four years, I still thought I'd have it out and be onto something else long before now. My time certainly hasn't been idle, though: since starting development on this game I've...

• Participated in a game jam
• Completed tons of sprites and foundational code for my upcoming project, Clown World
• Been promoted at my day job
• Moved homes several times

...and somewhere in there I got engaged to my longtime girlfriend, Grace (whom some of you may remember from the OneShot episodes of LakenDaCoda's streams).

I'm not making this post to gloat about achievements or excuse my lack of progress. Truth be told I was feeling quite disappointed in my inability to release this game by the end of the year, and changing this copyright text served as a painful reminder that I still haven't delivered what I'd hoped to years ago. I wanted to take this time to reflect on how busy this development cycle has been—as well as to acknowledge that my life will always be busy and I should strive to push myself further despite that.

The fact is: this ROM hack is nearing completion, and I want to get it out there for everyone to enjoy. There are a few key items left before I can release it:

• Completing the Safari Zone battle engine
• Adding a few odds and ends to the region (locations for new TMs, held items, hidden content, etc.)
• Implementing trading in the most compatible way possible (ideally works with Gen 1/2 games and doesn't explode if connected to Stadium 2)
• Delivering a brand new postgame experience!

That's really all there is left aside from writing up documentation for the game. The entire main storyline is entirely playable if you're careful not to interact much with Safari Zone battles. In theory, if I completed those first two points, I could release an early version for people to get their hands on, but I would only do that if I could guarantee with 100% certainty that I wouldn't be making any further changes that could jeopardize the compatibility of save files with future updates.

I'm nothing if not detail-oriented. I started this hack because I didn't see anything out there that created quite the "Gen 1 in Gen 2" experience I was looking to play. I want to capture my original vision as accurately as possible, and that requires a great bit of detail in the implementation. If getting it just right takes time, then I'll gladly change a 4 to a 5 just as I did a 3 to a 4, a 2 to a 3, and a 1 to a 2.

Honestly, after sitting with it a bit, the 5 doesn't look half bad... probably because Game Freak drew it :)

Wishing everyone a great start to an amazing year!

- Nick