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Last Updated 26.02.2021
...THE PROJECT
My
deep interest in Pokémon started when I was 12, in 1997, with the brother of one of my sister's
old friends. At the time he was a fan of Pokémon. My unfortunate first
experience of the franchise was the bad press it had received on international news media
back when the "Electric Soldier Porygon" episode of the Pokémon anime caused Japanese children to have seizures. After tentatively sketching Pikachu,
Charmander and Zubat based on his descriptions, curiosity drove me to watch the
anime dub once it started broadcasting in the UK. I was hooked.
After flicking through my latest
copy of "Nintendo World" a now out-of-print unofficial games magazine
which featured a ‘design a game’
section, I struck upon an idea which many Pokémon fans had
thought of over the years. A 3D, free-roaming action RPG version of the Pokémon
games with real time battling, similar mechanics to those of the N64 Zelda
adventures.
And
so,
I
created an idea sheet of a game I dubbed "Pokémon: Dimension 3"
I forgot to post the game design and instead
it was forgotten under a pile of books for the next year and
a half. But I'm thankful that happened - had I
sent the design off, Rebirth may never have been born at all!
In recent years, The Pokémon
Company have explored a number concepts from my
dream Pokémon game through many iterations of
their games. In the early 2020s, they took their first step into action RPG
territory.
A year or two later, I was browsing
the virtual creature raising site Neopets when I came
across a fan site called
Pokémon
Houla (now
defunct). I was captivated by the
level of creativity in the project, not to mention the idea of having a
'home' on the internet. Houla, along
with Neuto
(now defunct),
were the two sites that introduced me to the idea of fan projects.
I started small at first, by making up my
own pokémon designs inspired by the ones I had seen on Houla and Neuto. The
defining moment of inspiration came from the anime itself which, at the
time, was in its third season and suffering from plot that was simply
written to introduce a new Pokémon every episode.
It was then I decided I wanted to write Pokémon fan fiction, but set in the universe that the Pokémon
anime had already created, instead of an alternate universe like some fanfic
authors chose to do. There were a lot of unfinished concepts in the anime
continuity waiting to be explored, but
otherwise left overlooked due to the anime's aim to follow the plots of the
games closely (something they have pulled away from a little, in more recent
years).
I also wanted to write for some of the characters I adored so much in the animation,
exploring their personalities further. In Jessie, James and Meowth's case, give them
a vision outside of the repetitive Pika-chasing that the anime writers had given
them.
The concept page for my old Pokémon game
idea became the starting point for what was to become 'Pokémon Rebirth', with
the male protagonist 'Caley Wilson' taking the spotlight. As with the Houla and
Neuto sites, I also wanted to try my hand at creating my own region of the
Pokémon world. I decided to base my region on Britain which, back then, had not
been officially covered. The region of Tatto was born.
Caley
was originally invented as an alternative take on Ash's role. I wanted him to be skilled, even
powerful, but not the solution to every problem. He was destined to be a lone
traveller throughout the entire story, but after a short time of planning, I
decided that would have cut down
opportunities for character development.
James was my first choice for other
members of Caley's travelling crew, as I liked the character a lot at the time. Adam followed soon after.
He was brought in to give contrast to the situation
by being everything James could not stand - annoying, insulting and
disrespectful. Following a short period of development for the story, Denise and
Rose surfaced after conversations with two avid Rebirth fans of the time.
Early art of
Rebirth's
original trio
of travellers.
In November 2001,
Pokémon Rebirth's website was launched on the
now-ceased Geocities. I
would attempt to release every episode of 'Ultimatum' - back then existing as
Rebirth's only story and bearing the same title as the site - to a themed banner and
music track on the main page. As time passed and more stories set in the Rebirth Universe
were made, this stopped being possible to do. But it
was a fun way to promote the current work and gain visitor intrigue.
Early on, I
greatly emphasized fan input with Rebirth, wanting to develop a real sense of
community. And while I do still love group participation, the increase many fan
submitted characters and ideas caused me to edge dangerously close to the 'write
plot for the sake of a new character' attitude I had been frowning at the anime
for.
Because of
this, I began to decrease the focus on creating/accepting totally
new content just for the sake of it. Fan designed Pokémon and characters that existed without reason were
pared down and archived. Since a huge amount of plot had already been written in Tatto,
and Galar did not yet exist, I was not able to archive the region in favour of
another one. Tatto
remained as a nostalgic reminder of those fan submission-fuelled days.
Copyright
issues have always been a sticking point between fans and project creators. And
I also went through some serious doubts over whether to continue Rebirth for that
very reason. In the latter part of Ultimatum's existence, I
even tried to convert the project into one that didn't rely on the Pokémon
universe to exist. While this was neither a success nor a failure, Pokémon
concepts were wound too closely into Rebirth for it to be able to continue
without them.
In the late
2010s, it was becoming clear that I would not be able to complete the series arc
I had hoped to, due to time constraints, and the scale of the ideas I had
planned. With that in mind, I had to make the difficult decision to bring the
Rebirth project to some kind of conclusion.
...THE CREATOR
Gemma
Bright
Location: United Kingdom
E-Mail:
gemma.bright(@)gmail.com
Twitter:
@nilostudo
Deviantart: caat
Tumblr: scribghetti-junction
First Game(s):
Stadium, Yellow
First Starter:
Pikachu (Yellow),
Squirtle (Blue)
Fave Game(s):
Silver, Colosseum/Gale of Darkness, Pokemon XY
Fave Movie(s):
Spell of the Unown, The Power of Us, Rise of Darkrai
Fave Series:
Orange Islands, Master Quest, Battle Dimension, Chronicles, XY&Z
Fave Soundtrack(s):
Mewtwo Strikes Back (Dub Ver.), Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of
the Sea, Mystery Dungeon, BW
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