I want to design a Pokemon clone game, as Pokemon fan games have a tendency to get into legal trouble if they are good, but clone games are technically original games, as Pokemon, thankfully isn't the only JRPG monster catcher out there and a lot of them are very similar as far as game play (player can only keep a handful of monsters in his / her party, player has to travel to different regions to defeat leaders in a monster battle; in Pokemon, they're called "gym leaders," but it's the same concept, different name, in other monster catcher JRPG's, and the story is advanced when each new region is unlocked.)
I could just copy script from Pokemon Essentials to make the game function the way I want it to, but PKMNE was only intended for Pokemon fan games, and I wouldn't have all of the rights to my game if I used script from PKMNE. I want all of the rights to my game, so I want a system that is allowable for commercial use if I ever decide to maybe sell my game on the app store (not to say that I would because even though clones are technically legal, I imagine I would have to go through a lot of headache getting it licensed as an original game but maybe some day).
Anyway, here's what I think I need:
Battle screens:
I want something that shows the monster battler characters from kind of a side view instead of just showing the enemies, like the current RPG Maker XP does.
Storage and databases:
I want something that will give me more a "Pokemon-like" database for my actors, providing me room in my party for only about six or seven members and letting me put the rest of them in a PC to be withdrawn and used later.
Random encounters:
This shouldn't be too hard, but I want something that will allow the player character to get into a random battle with a monster when he / she steps on certain areas. I want each map to contain different monsters.
Battle sequences:
I also want the player to also be able to battle other monster catchers to win prize money.
Again, like I said, I could use PKMNE for all of these mechanics and more, but I don't want to use PKMNE because one day I may actually want to publish my game and make a little money off of it. If I ensure that it's a Pokemon clone and not something that violates trademarks or copyrights, it's my right to do so if I please as long as everything in the game belongs to me.
