Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

This page details development materials of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.

SpritesScratchpads edited from Diamond and Pearl? AudioVarious tracks and early versions of tracks from various points of development. Concept ArtA sketch is worth a thousand...Pokemon? Early UIBag, Pokegear, Pokedex... Dungeon Cut-insInvasion of the Ilex Forests!

Interesting Files#

Johto & Kanto Complete Map#

"poke_danzyon.xls" contains a map of Kanto and Johto with notes in Japanese underneath.

( ): Number of Blocks

Others:
  G/S DS: Alph, [Lake of] Rage, and [Mt.] Silver
  D/P: Lake(s), maps via distributions, etc.

Grayed out: MissingNo.

Things we'll need this time: Magnet Train, Shikoku, Viridian Forest, and Seafoam Islands

Unused Graphics#

To do: Add content here.

Kris#

A somewhat common topic when discussing the development of these games is "was Kris from Pokemon Crystal ever planned to be in the game?" The female protagonist ended up being a character named Lyra in the final games, with little resemblance to Kris, however, a small map icon seemingly for Kris (or a character that resembles her) was found in the final game's data, providing a strong indication that Kris had indeed been planned to appear in the games at one point in development. Now, with the full development repository leaked, can this question be answered more definitively? ...Yes, and no. No additional data regarding Kris was discovered in the repository. Instead, a couple more revisions of the map icon were found, with the final version of it being committed on September 3 2007, and lasting until the end of May 2008. However, Lyra was introduced into the game data in January 2008, meaning the icon stuck around for a few months as a leftover, not as any indication of Kris still being planned at that point. Furthermore, the prototype builds of the game compiled prior to the map icon being replaced with an icon for Lyra are actually hardcoded to always use Ethan's icon, so these icons most likely intended for Kris cannot be seen normally. The earliest version of it managed to survive in the final game due to being in an old, outdated PokéGear graphics file that was apparently accidentally compiled into the final game. The file that contains the Kris icon can be found at pokemon_gs/src/graphic and pmgs_conv/pgmap_gra in the repository.

r1214 (July 30 2007)	r1285 (August 2 2007)	r1712 (September 3 2007)

The earliest version is the smallest. A few days after the first icon was made, it was redrawn and given a white outline. Then a month later, the white outline was removed and it was made larger, to match up better with Ethan's icon.

r6380 (May 29 2008)	r12731 (November 30 2008)	r16083 (February 17 2009)	r18487 (March 29 2009)	r20298 (April 22 2009)

These are the revisions for Lyra's map icon. Not all of these are exactly unused in the prototype builds, but are provided here for completeness on the topic. The first icon ended up being used in the Pokedex in the final game. The second icon adjusts the colors a bit, and the third makes her hat slightly bigger. The fourth version adds her missing ribbon. Final changes the color of some shading on the hat.

Arceus Event#

The Sinjoh Ruins cutscene had several revisions since its inception.

VER20090509#

In this first revision, only three test images were used.

test_bg01	test_bg02	test_bg03

VER20090513#

The second revision introduces the “big” set of images (tagged in later revisions of ld_arceus.dat as “序章　ビッグバン” [Prologue: Big Bang] in code comments). However, these end up being unused, as the code still references the “test_bg” images instead.

big10	big11	big12	big13

VER20090520#

This revision removes the “test_bg” files from the set, and replaces big10 with a corrupted version that stays that way even in the final release (though it went unused).

big10

VER20090527#

This revision introduces two sets of images:

1) “arc” (tagged as “アルセウス・アップ” [Arceus' close-ups] in code comments).

arc01	arc02 (unused)	arc03	arc04

• At this point, these are rough sketches.
• arc02 is not used in the cutscene code in this revision.

2) “circle” (tagged as “アルセウス環” [Arceus' circles] in code comments).

circle01	circle02	circle03	circle04	circle05	circle06
circle07	circle08	circle09	circle10 (unused)	circle11 (unused)	circle12 (unused)

• These include a blurry version of Arceus' sprite, while the final release overlays the sprite at runtime.
• The shapes composing Arceus' diagram in this revision appear in a different order vs. the final: the bigger/outer circle appears first, then come the other circles inside, then the inner triangle, etc.
• Some of the “circle” images were updated later on and shown in a different order in the final release, but circle01, circle02, circle03 and circle11 remained and became unused.

Though this revision only includes the “arc”, “big” and “circle” sets, the code in ld_arceus.dat already includes comments and placeholders for the kind of pictures they wanted to add:

VER20090602#

This revision introduces a lot of stuff, looking more like the final version.

• This is the first revision that plays SEQ_GS_E_ARCEUS during the cutscene.
• arc00 is added to the “arc” set.

• big13 has Arceus' sprite removed, reaching its final design.

VER20090513-VER20090527	VER20090602-Final
big13	big13

• black and white are added (just 256×192 px images filled with black and white, respectively). These are used as transitions and for blending effects.
• circle01 has Arceus' sprite removed too, and its background color changed, but it goes unused from now onwards.

VER20090527	VER20090602-Final
circle01	circle01 (unused)

• circle02, circle03 and circle11 become unused from this revision onwards. The images are not modified.

• The rest of the “circle” images are updated and become their final versions, now reflecting the right order of apparition of each shape.

	VER20090527	VER20090602-Final
circle04
circle05
circle06
circle07
circle08
circle09
circle10
circle12

• The “egg” set is added, but egg01 is never used.

egg01 (unused)	egg02	egg03

• Stock images are added, particularly the sets “culture”, “disaster”, “micro”, “nature”, “scene” and “star”, as described in the previous build. Contrary to the images used in the final release, these do not seem to come from the Datacraft Sozaijiten catalogue. Most of the “nature” set is unused at this point (and stays like that).

culture

culture01 Skyscrapers at night.	culture02 A factory.	culture03 An engine.	culture04 A highway.
culture05 A railroad track.	culture06 A telephone pole.	culture07 A circuit board.	culture08 Bookshelves.

• Out of these, only culture01 remains in the final version, albeit unused. The rest of the images were replaced.

disaster

disaster01 An erupting volcano.	disaster02 An erupting volcano.	disaster03 Clouds and lightning.
disaster04 Lightning.	disaster05 A cyclone.

• Out of these, only disaster03 remains in the final version, albeit unused. The rest of the images were replaced.

micro

micro01 Blue cells under the microscope.	micro02 Red blood cells.

• All of these were eventually replaced.

nature

nature01 Underwater.	nature02 Under the sea.	nature03 A forest.	nature04 Sunlight filtering through a forest.
nature05 A stream.	nature06 A stream.	nature07 Some yellow flowers.	nature08 Some cherry blossoms.

• The images from nature03 to nature08 remain in the final version, albeit unused. The others were replaced.

scene

• All of these images were eventually replaced.

star

• All of these images were eventually replaced.