The release of the new pokemon 'Let's Go' games have me feeling nostalgic. I got started on Red and Silver back in the late 90s, early 00s and have a pretty large, nostalgic blind spot for the first two generations. I like the new features in the latest generations and the mechanics cleanup, but I don't think I'll ever quite have same love for monsters #250 and up.

I made this after replaying Pokemon Fire Red. Not a big fan of the GBA Pokemons' environment graphics. I took some colour choices from Fire Red as a base and tried to make a more dynamic, alive town. I decided to rotate Pallet Town 90 degrees. So North is now on the left and instead of the top. I thought it would make things feel a little fresher and I found the original square design of the town works better for the square GB screen, but doesn't work so well for modern screen ratios.

I found myself thinking about the town history as I was pixelling. In my mind, the town existed long before the lab was setup. Tried to show that with how the road transitions from brick to pavement. It looks like Gary has been retconned into a nice guy in the newest pokemon. In my heart he's still a little dick, so I made his house the only one with a white picket fence because apparently those Ketchums are untrustworthy. The top part of the town is covered with Oak lab fencing which I imagine goes all the way up to Viridian town. Added some wild pokemon, too. I love that wild pokemon show up in hte overworld in the newest game.

I'm still going through the detailing process on tiles, but I wanted to get some thoughts on the concept. There are lots of tiles I could replace/rework like the lazy brick work on the lab that just copies the road. Not a fan of the water/beach. The squarish grass detail need more transition tiles. I like the trees but I think I need to make them more artificial. They still feel unpolished.

Hope you like.

And for those who want to compare to Fire Red. https://www.spriters-resource.com/game_boy_advance/pokemonfireredleafgreen/sheet/3771/

EDIT: Added grass transition tiles. Touched up tiles and colours. Reduced colour count a little. Still don't know how there are 80+ colours in there.

www.derekh.ca/pixel-art/personal.html