Pokémon Essentials

Pokémon Essentials

Developer(s)	Maruno
Initial release	2007

Pokémon Essentials was a development tool for Pokémon fangames developed by Maruno and released in 2007, functioning as a free add-on for RPG Maker XP. It was notably used to create a number of Pokémon fangames before being taken offline alongside its Fandom wiki in 2018 following a copyright infringement claim by Nintendo. Its shutdown was controversial with fans, and was described as a major blow against the creation of fangames for the series. Still, unofficial forks have continued to exist, to keep Pokémon Essentials updated with elements introduced in later generations.

Development

Pokémon Essentials was first released in 2007 as an add-on to the RPG Maker XP engine, and contained full tilesets, maps, music and sprites from various 2D Pokémon video games, alongside custom programming that allowed custom Pokémon games to be created with little-to-no programming knowledge.

In 2018, Nintendo filed a copyright claim due to the included game assets, seeking to take down the tool and its associated wiki in order to erase any documentation on how to use the tool. Rock Paper Shotgun noted that it continued to circulate covertly, but that the takedown would still make the tool "far less accessible".

Reception

Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku noted in 2017 that the Essentials engine was crucial for the development of Pokémon fangames, allowing developers to focus on the plot of their games rather than having to program them from scratch. While she observed that it was becoming outdated due to the age of the RPG Maker XP software it relied on, she nevertheless stated that it had a positive role in introducing people to game development for the first time, as that version of RPG Maker was now cheaper than a single Pokémon game. She also highlighted that despite Nintendo's ongoing cease and desists of original Pokémon fangames created in the Essentials engine, such as Pokémon Uranium, unauthorized Chinese Pokémon clones using official assets were still proliferating on mobile platforms regardless.

Nick Santangelo of IGN called Nintendo's shutdown of the development tool a "major blow" against fan creators, noting high levels of negative fan reaction on social media. Kyle Orland of Ars Technica described it as marking a "new level of zealousness" in Nintendo's fight against fangame creators. Swapna Krishna of Engadget described the former tool as "a great way for fans and developers to engage with the franchise while also expressing their creativity and figuring out the ins and outs of game development", stating that, while it would likely continue to be distributed in an underground manner, the community had "lost a lot" following Nintendo's decision.

The removal of the tool caused a fan backlash on the Internet forum Resetera, with many asking why a small, not-for-profit tool that had existed for more than a decade already would damage the profits of such a major company, and questioning its effectiveness, despite acknowledging Nintendo's right to remove it.