Devlog 002: Checking In

Just wanted to check in and say I hope everyone is enjoying the app. It genuinely makes me happy every time I see someone building teams, checking weaknesses, or using the battle planner to prep for a run. Slatedex started as a tool for me, so knowing other players get real use out of it is still kind of surreal.

If something feels off or you wish a feature worked differently, seriously just tell me. Half the improvements in here came from people saying "hey, this is annoying" — that stuff is gold.

Outside of working on this thing, I've been playing a lot of Pokemon recently. And it's got me wondering how the new generation is going to be. Every time a new one gets close, I go through the same cycle: cautious optimism, wild speculation about the region and the starters, and then inevitably replaying old games while I wait.

No matter how the new one turns out, there's something special about that moment right before a generation kicks off everyone guessing types, regions, evolutions. It's half the fun.

All this Pokemon playing has also sent me straight down nostalgia lane. Emerald and HeartGold/SoulSilver are the games I keep coming back to. The Battle Frontier in Emerald is still one of the best post-game challenges Game Freak ever made, and HGSS had your starter following behind you on the overworld. I don't care how many features they add, nothing has topped that.

Those games are a huge part of why Slatedex exists in the first place. Planning a team around gym matchups and Elite Four lineups is exactly the kind of thing I wished I had a proper tool for back then — and it's why the builder already supports planning for those games specifically, curated gym presets and all.

That's it for this one, short and sweet. Keep building teams, tell me what's annoying, and if you've got a favorite Emerald or HGSS memory, send it my way. I could talk about those games for hours.