Hello Azurite fans! It's me Sleepy from the Azurite Team. It's been almost three years since our last update! Sorry about that, we do get quite busy and interest in a fan project can seem to be quite random at times. I've mentioned this before many times, but I'll double down here as well. Major updates moving forward are all being pushed to near game release to build hype when we are very close. That means you won't be seeing more Pokémon announcements or even features until we are polished and ready to ship. This is just because these games can take a long time, we are entirely working on this in our free time and it is a very ambitious project. Not to say we are super far off from that time though. We are running a recruitment drive to hopefully get more talented individuals interested in helping us finish the game! I'll touch back on that later, where you'll get an awesome look at the screenshots too! For now, lets talk about probably our last new Pokémon announcement for a while: Nyashi
Nyashi was actually designed all the way back in 2018! It's crazy to see how long this project has really been running. We've been meaning to reveal her for some time now, and she even showed up in halloween promo art we ran not too long ago that we'll post here as well.
Thanks to our amazing artist Gio for this super cute rendition of Nyashi and Jade! If you couldn't already tell, Nyashi is a zombie cat based on the chinese jiāngshī, also known as a Chinese hopping vampire. Since her conception, there have actually been TWO Fighting/Ghost types introduced in the main series. However, Nyashi is a Ghost/Fighting type. Totally unique right? That was her original intention was to fit this niche, and we still think she fits it quite well being a Pokémon you'll find a bit earlier on your playthrough. Nyashi is a bit more frail but tries to make up for it using its new ability Life Blood, which will make all draining moves like Drain Punch heal 100% of the damage it does. We hope this will help her last a little longer, and she learns quite a few new moves that we haven't yet revealed that will also benefit this. Of course, you could just opt for Tough Claws and get more raw damage done as well. Up to you.
We hope you like Nyashi! We have a bit of a progress update here for you, and then we'll cover what we're looking for in our latest recruitment drive.
The game moves ahead steadily as always. We go through some less active moments throughout development, but our programmers are committed and a lot of our assets are actually complete. We're mostly looking for people to help us polish up a lot of our art assets, finish up a lot of our towns sprite wise and help add more stuff to bring the game to life. As we continue scripting and eventing the game we also want more people involved that can help make the story pop. We believe we've got a really cool story to tell, but the delivery is the most important part. Of course many people are just excited to get their hands on the Pokémon and test out all these crazy new mechanics. And let me tell you we've got a lot of mechanics goin on.
Our roughly estimate the game could be anywhere from 40-70% done. I say that cause honestly we have a ton of art assets done, but a ton of art assets to do. We have a ton of programming done, but a ton of programming yet to do. We have absolutely made significant progress even though we've upgraded our essentials engine to the latest numerous times (we probably aren't going to do that anymore just because of how extreme a process it is for a game with as many features as our own). But we are doing our best to capture everything we think would make people happy as long as it fits in the theme and possibility of the game and its engine.
We are still working on what may be the most ambitious online system for a fan game ever conceived. And it's going quite well! We can't make any definite promises however much we may feel confident. However! Battling, trading, wonder trades, even gifting things and trading various others like items and such. Even Discord integration and having VIVID (Our discord bot who also has story in the game) in your own Discord servers will potentially be possible so you may pull up game information, your own trainer card, or even check GTS on the fly. This may sound like a lot which is why I want to ensure you we have nearly an entire section of the team dedicated to just the online. And we'll cover what that entails if you're interested in our recruitment post. Think you can help out? It'd be much appreciated. And that brings us to our recruitment!
Here's some links to where we've posted some adverts: Relic Castle - PokeCommunity
We are going to hopefully drive interest in support by doing this, and we hope you continue to support us as we continue to develop the game! Here's an echo of the recruitment post:
• Project Title: Pokémon Azurite
• Kit used: Pokémon Essentials (currently v20.1)
• Project description: Azurite is an ambitious fangame project made with love and has been in development for several years.
It aims to stay close to the classic Pokémon formula by sending the player on a journey through the region of Kuria to discover new Pokémon species, tackle the Gym Challenge and thwart an evil team’s plans. There will be innovations and twists along the way to break away from the expected clichés.
We have a great team of talented developers to work together and make the game come to life. Progress has been slow but steady and we hope to accelerate it with our first public recruitment post.
• Features:
- 151 Fakemon in addition to many official Pokémon
- 5 new types: Mystic, Sound, Light, Cosmic and Crystal
- Crystallization, an all-new type of evolution
- New Mega Evolutions
- Kurian Regional Forms
- New moves, abilities and items
- Custom Soundtrack (you can find some tracks on YouTube)
- Custom Tiles and Sprites
- A custom-built, in-depth Online System
- Animated Sprites
- Following Pokémon
- Custom UI
You can find more info on features, as well as character bios, artwork and much more on our website.
• Screenshots:
• Looking to recruit:
Sprite Artist(s) for Tiles, Trainer sprites, Pokémon Overworld sprites and item icons
(this is the highest priority position for us at the moment)
Animator for sprites and moves
Programmer for online api development
-c# or ruby experience
-docker (plus)
-database (sql)
-any level of exp
Work with those who are currently in the software field and use best practices and up-to-date technologies such as docker, blazor, and gRPC.
UI Designer
Expert Mapper/Eventer
• Method of Contact: DM Sleepy#7777 on Discord with examples of your work / The Application form on the website
• Additional Information: If you want to help with Azurite and join our team of passionate developers, please feel free to apply! We are all working on Azurite in our free time and considering the ambitious scope of the game, it is definitely a long-term project. Please note that due to the non-profit nature of this fan-made project, no financial compensation can be provided.
If you or someone you know would be a good fit, please send them our way! The more helpful hands we get the faster we finish the game! And we would LOVE to finally get this game into the hands of the people! So stay tuned, hopefully we get lots of talented people and the road to release updates will start coming out sooner rather than later!
Thanks everyone! See you next time!
~Sleepy from the Azurite Team
