Development History - Benitex/Pokemon-Burning-Scales GitHub Wiki

Pokémon Burning Scales began its development process between October and November 2020, with the idea of creating a short fan game with few maps, but with lively NPCs and complex stories. The game told the origin story of Nathan, a character from a tabletop RPG I played with my friends before development started.

Thus, development began in RPG Maker XP and Pokémon Essentials v17.2. As time passed, it became necessary to update to v18.1 to add more up-to-date scripts. A few months passed, and the first demo of the game was released, titled Pokémon Adventures Volcarona. The game was not available to the public, and the graphic style followed Generation 3 standards. The demo featured only an initial version of Nimbasa City, including the park, the restaurant, the Nimbasa College of Philosophy, and the Musical Theater (without the full tournament).

In February 2021, the second demo of Pokémon Adventures Volcarona was released, adding a series of new content, with Join Avenue and Route 4 being the main changes, considerably increasing the range of available Pokémon. Character portraits were also added to dialogues, and a series of bug fixes were implemented.

In July 2021, the third demo was released, bringing a series of very important changes for the continuation of the project, which was now renamed Pokémon Burning Scales. The use of GitHub was initiated, and the project was updated to Pokémon Essentials v19. This update brought several quality-of-life changes, new overworld sprites for all characters, new exterior sprites following the Generation 4 style, and a new quest management system.

In September 2021, the 4th demo of Pokémon Burning Scales was released, adding new interior sprites following the pattern of the previous demo, new menus, EBDX, a difficulty system, and alternative game modes.

The 5th demo was released on April 14, 2022, introducing 10 new quests in the new Castelia City, as well as continuing the main quest with the confrontation against the bikers on Route 4. The demo brought many new features to the story, characters, and world-building of the Unova region. It also introduced type balancing changes (which were subsequently reverted), new Pokémon graphics, and new attack animations.

The 6th demo was the last version released before the official launch, coming out in January 2024. It focused on the exploration of the Desert Resort, including two new caves and the first floors of the Relic Castle. Maps for the election clubs were also added, along with city-wide consequences depending on which club won.

The game was officially released in September 2025 on Relic Castle and PokeCommunity. The main modifications were the addition of the English translation, maps for the Sewers, the lower floors of the Relic Castle, and the Relic Passage. Animated battle sprites and various side quests were also added.

Previous versions

Before being released as Pokémon Burning Scales, there were two demos when the game was called Pokémon Adventures Volcarona. You can play them and see how different they look (there are many bugs that were fixed in later versions).

Pokémon Adventures Volcarona Demo 2.1

Made with Pokémon Essentials v18.1, this version also included the first version of Route 4. Download

Pokémon Adventures Volcarona Demo 1

The first demo, made with Pokémon Essentials v18.1, with third-generation-style graphics. It only included the city of Nimbasa. Download