"Pokemon Go" is set to be the first mobile game from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, working alongside co-developer Niantic Labs. One of the major aspecs of the game, according to an interview with Venture Beat, is that the game will reward players who actually go out of their homes and spend time exploring.
The core games in the "Pokemon" franchise were built around this concept as well. The story of these games involves a young child given a Pokemon and has to set out to explore the world to capture more Pokemon, defeat gym leaders and eventually become a true Pokemon master before he or she heads back home.
All of the core games are also on portable devices and strongly encourage trading or battling with other players from around the world, building a sense of community amongst the players.
"Pokemon Go" will embody this nature of the games by enhancing a player's experience with the game the more they go out and explore different areas.
"'Pokémon Go' contains that same mechanic as 'Ingress' of encouraging people to take a walk in the park and see some aspect of their city they haven't seen before, to go explore a nook or cranny in a part of the city they haven't been to before so they can get a new Pokémon, that will be at work," explained Niantic CEO John Hanke.
This system is being based on the same mechanic from Niantic Labs' previous mobile game, the aforementioned "Ingress." "Ingress" allowed players to build networks by traveling to different locations in the real world and doing so was one way of unlocking different rewards.
"Pokemon Go" is also set to feature different kinds of Pokemon attuned to different locations. People living in a city near a forest will naturally find Pokemon types that might live there such as grass type Pokemon. Those who live by the sea may encounter more water-type Pokemon and the only way to get other types is to trade with people living somewhere else.
"Pokemon Go" has no official release date yet but is scheduled to release this year.
