Development:Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

This page details development materials of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.

This page or section details content from the October 2024 Game Freak Leak. Check the October 2024 Game Freak Leak category for more pages also sourced from this material.

To do: more... More early sprites. The entire soundtrack in dppt instruments. gym leader teams with different moves. Should content found in builds be put on a Prototype page, and content only found in the development assets be put here, on the Development page?

On October 12, 2024, development files for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver were leaked online.

Sub-Pages

Sprites Scratchpads edited from Diamond and Pearl?

Audio Various tracks and early versions of tracks from various points of development.

Concept Art A sketch is worth a thousand...Pokemon?

Early UI Bag, Pokegear, Pokedex...

Dungeon Cut-ins Invasion 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.

	G/S DS	D/P
Total Number of Blocks	198	170
Number of Towns	6 (7)	7 (9)
[Number of] Cities	14 (54)	11 (34)
Number of Routes	48 (128)	31 (99)
Others	3 (9)	13 (28)

( ): Number of Blocks

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

D01	Diglett Hole	D11	Seafoam Islands	D21	Tower 1 Kansai D9	D31	Whirl Island 4	D41	Mt. Silver Cave
D02	Mt. Moon	D12	Pokémon Mansion	D22	National Park	D32	Haunted House	D42	Dark Cave
D03	Cerulean Cave	D13	Tower 1 Kansai D1	D23	Radio Tower	D33	Blackthorn Frozen Cave	D43	Champion Road
D04	Underground Path (Routes 5–6)	D14	Castle 1 Kansai D2	D24	Ruins of Alph	D34	Mt. Silver Cave	D44	Dragon's Den
D05	Rock Tunnel	D15	Sprout Tower	D25	Union Cave	D35	Rocket Hideout	D45	Tohjo Falls
D06	Power Plant	D16	Tower 1 Kansai D4	D26	Slowpoke Well	D36	Ilex Forest	D46	Viridian Forest
D07	Pokémon Tower	D17	Bell Tower	D27	Olivine Lighthouse	D37	Underground Path (Goldenrod)	D47	Safari Zone
D08	Underground Path (Routes 7–8)	D18	Burned Tower	D28	Whirl Island 1	D38	Mt. Mortar	D48	Gate to Shikoku
D09	Silph Co.	D19	Tower 1 Kansai D7	D29	Whirl Island 2	D39	Ice Path	D49	Pokéathlon
D10	Pal Park	D20	Tower 1 Kansai D8	D30	Whirl Island 3	D40	Whirl Islands	D50	Route 47 Cave
								P01	Harbour - S.S. Aqua

Grayed out: MissingNo.

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

D01_02	Diglett Hole 2	32	4
D42_02	Dark Cave 2	20	6
D42_03	Dark Cave 3	19	10
D39_02	Ice Path 2	21	4

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:

Japanese comment	Translation	Notes
ビッグバン	Big Bang	Already present.
アルセウス・アップ	Arceus' close-ups	Already present.
文明	Civilization	Files use the “culture” name, which is another translation for the Japanese word. Included in final cutscene.
自然（水中、森林、川、花）	Nature (underwater, forests, rivers and flowers)	Later revisions include all the mentioned elements, but the cutscene from the final release only shows one picture of a forest.
高層ビル	Skyscrapers	Included in final cutscene.
工場	Factory	Later revisions include a picture of a factory, but the final release includes none.
エンジン	Engine	Later revisions include a picture of an engine, but the final release includes a picture of some gears instead.
ハイウエイ	Highway	Included in final cutscene.
線路	Railroad track	Included in final cutscene.
電柱	Telephone pole	Later revisions include this, but the final cutscene shows transmission towers instead.
基盤	Circuit board	Included in final cutscene.
本棚	Bookshelf	Later revisions include a picture of a library, but the final includes a close-up of books instead.
仮Ｄ432	Provisional D432	Seems to be a placeholder for frame 432. Each line in ld_arceus.dat has a comment with a number, seemingly counting the amount of frames each command takes. “仮Ｄ432” comes just before the line that reaches 432.

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.