Link to original post: [drupal=1611]The Custom Pokemon Shop: A Retrospective[/drupal]
(You can visit The Custom Pokemon Shop here.)
A year.
Sometimes we forget just how long a year is; just how much can happen in that time. When I look back to a year ago today, I can hardly comprehend how far I’ve progressed here on SWF. I actually joined over a thirteen months ago, but it is May 18th, 2008 that made me who I am in real life and on SWF.
Through my passion for spriting, which started with Sonic sprites after reading the Sonic sprite comic, InSONICnia, I somehow stumbled upon the whole scene of Pokemon spriting. I started doing fusions about two and a half years ago, but I really slowed down shortly after the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
I initially joined SmashBoards to discuss Brawl; yes, the stereotypical Brawl noob ‘08er. I believed items were competitive, banning of stages was just a john, and that people who went back to Melee were fools. If I recall correctly, I joined SmashBoards both to discuss Brawl AND to flame the hell out of any “tourney***s”, as I had deemed them. Until looking back recently, though, I never realized just how quickly my attitude changed. I joined on April 7th, 2008. For best reference, you can search my posts in the General Brawl Discussion. On April 16th, I made what I believe is my first post advocating Melee. Afterwards, my love for Brawl died slowly, and what I originally came to SmashBoards to advocate and discuss…that use of the forum faded away.
About a month later, in May, I began visiting the Poke Center, where I ran into someone who had AMAZING ideas, by the name of Spire III. Shortly after, I began to think about starting a Pokemon Sprite Shop akin to the ones I had seen on other forums, by posting all of the sprites I had made a year or more ago, and maybe even taking requests, as I had made a lot of sprites by random choosing since I couldn’t think of any others to do after a couple key ones. I didn’t act on it for a while, though, until this topic. Spire just discovered Pokemon fusing (yes, I kid you not; Gengacross was his first sprite, unless I am mistaken), and that made him think of starting a shop – so I quickly mentioned that I had thought of it myself, and we decided to co-own a shop, which I created an hour or so later.
When I created the shop, I figured it would be a formal shop, just handing out sprites, maybe get a few pages.
However, I would not be writing this if that happened. Our shop not only became popular, but it now has a whopping 620+ pages. I’ve made 353 sprites during my time at The Custom Pokemon Shop – most of which were requested, some of them merely side-projects. Countless hours of my summer went into that shop.
I wouldn’t take it back for the world, not ever. More valuable than a sticky thread, more valuable than hundreds of pages and posts…are the friendships I’ve made in the past year; whether it is a more firm relationship or a light one, I’ve met many people throughout my year as a member of The Custom Pokemon Shop.
I’ve gotten the chance to work with Spire III. He’s a brilliant guy, truly. He’s got more talent with art than I’ve ever seen, to the point of even creating an amazing texture hack for Stack Smash – the SA-X texture for Samus was created by him, and he’s created others not officially published by Stack Smash. Truly, he is the one that encouraged me; every so often I would post up a sprite and out of the blue he’d really compliment it and enjoy it, and that made me feel a whole lot better.
I haven’t interacted with Bowser King as much, but I think he made a big difference. Surely someone would’ve come along eventually asking to join, but he kicked it off. We now have 6 members, despite Spire and I starting it up together, in our minds – or at least mine – as a shop between the two of us. He’s a really cool guy too, and I’m glad he’s been with us in the shop.
SkylerOcon was the first of many regulars to post in the shop – but he’s the first of them that still visits us. He’s a cool guy too, even cool enough to become a mod (congrats once again on that, even though it’s been a while). And of course, the biggest contribution he’s ever made is the best sprite in our shop, Jigglyoclefairyman! It’s definitely our official mascot.
Of course, Xace (XACE-K) and Koarin (The wrath of Koarin). They’ve both been very active regulars (probably the most active) in our shop, and they first posted very early on in its life. I’m really glad they’ve stuck with us so long – hell, at this point, they and some of the other regulars are practically members of the shop in their own way.
Mewter is a prime example of improvement. His sprites have always been good, but he’s gone from a sort of average spriter to an AMAZING one. He can make custom sprites like crazy, from scratch. I didn’t know him well before he joined, but I’m really glad he joined.
Meta-Kirby…well, we had a lot of scuffles in the past. His record has not been perfect, by far. But – his initial dedication to the shop was amazing, causing us to let him into the shop despite not entirely wanting to let in another member to keep the members fairly limited. His dedication has not waned, and after one final blowout, we became really good friends. He’s an awesome guy, and I would not take back the decision to let him into the shop in a million years.
Zrky is currently the final member of our shop. He started out as a regular, back from page 30. He ended up becoming a temporary member to help us out with requests, and when Spire shortly stopped fulfilling requests, we decided to make him a permanent one, and he’s remained one, and I’m really glad we did.
Zook. He’s well-known for his awesome requests, and is another regular of our shop. He’s a funny and cool guy, and has recently become a moderator of the Poke Center, which is great. I’m really glad he’s stuck with us too, TCPS just wouldn’t be that without Zook. =P
Thanks to all of the moderators who have gone to our shop as well…for example, Umbreon closed the shop once just because we seemed stressed out, to try and relax us – which worked. Azua closed our shop after Meta-Kirby and I got into a…rather shallow and extended argument. We deserved the close, of course. But she gave us a second chance, and I am so grateful for that.
Most of all…thank you to ALL of the requesters. Seriously. We would not exist today if it were not for you. Just because you weren’t specifically mentioned here, don’t take offense! There are a few of you, like Lord Bowser, MorphedChaos, Stealth Raptor, and Darkslash that are also regulars that I just didn’t call out specifically – and even if you only requested once, you guys are still supporting the shop. Thank you ALL, so very much.
Thanks to everyone that I’ve mentioned…for one hell of a year at The Custom Pokemon Shop.
“This is where our diligence has led…”
(You can visit The Custom Pokemon Shop here.)
A year.
Sometimes we forget just how long a year is; just how much can happen in that time. When I look back to a year ago today, I can hardly comprehend how far I’ve progressed here on SWF. I actually joined over a thirteen months ago, but it is May 18th, 2008 that made me who I am in real life and on SWF.
Through my passion for spriting, which started with Sonic sprites after reading the Sonic sprite comic, InSONICnia, I somehow stumbled upon the whole scene of Pokemon spriting. I started doing fusions about two and a half years ago, but I really slowed down shortly after the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
I initially joined SmashBoards to discuss Brawl; yes, the stereotypical Brawl noob ‘08er. I believed items were competitive, banning of stages was just a john, and that people who went back to Melee were fools. If I recall correctly, I joined SmashBoards both to discuss Brawl AND to flame the hell out of any “tourney***s”, as I had deemed them. Until looking back recently, though, I never realized just how quickly my attitude changed. I joined on April 7th, 2008. For best reference, you can search my posts in the General Brawl Discussion. On April 16th, I made what I believe is my first post advocating Melee. Afterwards, my love for Brawl died slowly, and what I originally came to SmashBoards to advocate and discuss…that use of the forum faded away.
About a month later, in May, I began visiting the Poke Center, where I ran into someone who had AMAZING ideas, by the name of Spire III. Shortly after, I began to think about starting a Pokemon Sprite Shop akin to the ones I had seen on other forums, by posting all of the sprites I had made a year or more ago, and maybe even taking requests, as I had made a lot of sprites by random choosing since I couldn’t think of any others to do after a couple key ones. I didn’t act on it for a while, though, until this topic. Spire just discovered Pokemon fusing (yes, I kid you not; Gengacross was his first sprite, unless I am mistaken), and that made him think of starting a shop – so I quickly mentioned that I had thought of it myself, and we decided to co-own a shop, which I created an hour or so later.
When I created the shop, I figured it would be a formal shop, just handing out sprites, maybe get a few pages.
However, I would not be writing this if that happened. Our shop not only became popular, but it now has a whopping 620+ pages. I’ve made 353 sprites during my time at The Custom Pokemon Shop – most of which were requested, some of them merely side-projects. Countless hours of my summer went into that shop.
I wouldn’t take it back for the world, not ever. More valuable than a sticky thread, more valuable than hundreds of pages and posts…are the friendships I’ve made in the past year; whether it is a more firm relationship or a light one, I’ve met many people throughout my year as a member of The Custom Pokemon Shop.
I’ve gotten the chance to work with Spire III. He’s a brilliant guy, truly. He’s got more talent with art than I’ve ever seen, to the point of even creating an amazing texture hack for Stack Smash – the SA-X texture for Samus was created by him, and he’s created others not officially published by Stack Smash. Truly, he is the one that encouraged me; every so often I would post up a sprite and out of the blue he’d really compliment it and enjoy it, and that made me feel a whole lot better.
I haven’t interacted with Bowser King as much, but I think he made a big difference. Surely someone would’ve come along eventually asking to join, but he kicked it off. We now have 6 members, despite Spire and I starting it up together, in our minds – or at least mine – as a shop between the two of us. He’s a really cool guy too, and I’m glad he’s been with us in the shop.
SkylerOcon was the first of many regulars to post in the shop – but he’s the first of them that still visits us. He’s a cool guy too, even cool enough to become a mod (congrats once again on that, even though it’s been a while). And of course, the biggest contribution he’s ever made is the best sprite in our shop, Jigglyoclefairyman! It’s definitely our official mascot.
Of course, Xace (XACE-K) and Koarin (The wrath of Koarin). They’ve both been very active regulars (probably the most active) in our shop, and they first posted very early on in its life. I’m really glad they’ve stuck with us so long – hell, at this point, they and some of the other regulars are practically members of the shop in their own way.
Mewter is a prime example of improvement. His sprites have always been good, but he’s gone from a sort of average spriter to an AMAZING one. He can make custom sprites like crazy, from scratch. I didn’t know him well before he joined, but I’m really glad he joined.
Meta-Kirby…well, we had a lot of scuffles in the past. His record has not been perfect, by far. But – his initial dedication to the shop was amazing, causing us to let him into the shop despite not entirely wanting to let in another member to keep the members fairly limited. His dedication has not waned, and after one final blowout, we became really good friends. He’s an awesome guy, and I would not take back the decision to let him into the shop in a million years.
Zrky is currently the final member of our shop. He started out as a regular, back from page 30. He ended up becoming a temporary member to help us out with requests, and when Spire shortly stopped fulfilling requests, we decided to make him a permanent one, and he’s remained one, and I’m really glad we did.
Zook. He’s well-known for his awesome requests, and is another regular of our shop. He’s a funny and cool guy, and has recently become a moderator of the Poke Center, which is great. I’m really glad he’s stuck with us too, TCPS just wouldn’t be that without Zook. =P
Thanks to all of the moderators who have gone to our shop as well…for example, Umbreon closed the shop once just because we seemed stressed out, to try and relax us – which worked. Azua closed our shop after Meta-Kirby and I got into a…rather shallow and extended argument. We deserved the close, of course. But she gave us a second chance, and I am so grateful for that.
Most of all…thank you to ALL of the requesters. Seriously. We would not exist today if it were not for you. Just because you weren’t specifically mentioned here, don’t take offense! There are a few of you, like Lord Bowser, MorphedChaos, Stealth Raptor, and Darkslash that are also regulars that I just didn’t call out specifically – and even if you only requested once, you guys are still supporting the shop. Thank you ALL, so very much.
Thanks to everyone that I’ve mentioned…for one hell of a year at The Custom Pokemon Shop.
“This is where our diligence has led…”
waiting for my next idea for a request to come along
