Dipomon

What are Dipomon?

As a zoology graduate, I have always been fascinated by living organisms — their diversity, adaptations, behavior, and natural beauty. When I first discovered Pokémon and Digimon franchises, I was naturally drawn to the idea of collecting unusual creatures with unique abilities, watching them grow or evolve, and seeing them form strong bonds with their human partners. This inspired me to create my own creature-based franchise called Dipomon ("DIgital POcket MONsters"), which builds on familiar creature-collecting ideas while adding its own focus on biology, ecology, adaptation, and original worldbuilding.

The Dipomon Universe

It all started with simple sketches of "alternative Pokémon" that I began drawing around 2004, just for fun. I liked the idea of a world inhabited by my own creatures so much that I began building an original universe with its own rules, gradually replacing Pokémon with Dipomon.

Ethical approach to Dipomon and their main characteristics

In my world, I changed several characteristics commonly associated with Pokémon and Digimon, but the most fundamental change was the ethical approach to battles between Dipomon. As a zoologist who loves nature and cannot bear to see animals suffer, I conceived these battles as a natural form of rivalry with an almost sporting character. During combat, Dipomon do not feel pain and cannot be injured or even killed. They can therefore test their strength against one another, gain experience, and develop their abilities without any suffering. This idea became one of the fundamental rules of the Dipomon world and influenced many of its other characteristics, such as:

Biological logic behind the fantasy – Rather than leaving the traits of Dipomon unexplained or "purely magical", I tried to build their anatomy, habitats, behavior, instincts, personalities, and ecological roles based on real biological and zoological principles, sometimes even down to the level of cells, proteins, and other internal processes.
Adaptations and transformations - The classic linear evolution system is replaced by a combination of adaptation and transformation. Over the course of their lives, young Dipomon can adapt into different subspecies, each of which may eventually transform into its own more advanced and powerful form.
Stages instead of "levels" - Stages represent experience, learned abilities, and overall development rather than raw power. A higher stage does not automatically guarantee victory.
Unique individual abilities – Every Dipomon has a measurable natural talent that can distinguish it from other members of the same species, alongside its own individual personality.
Strategic trainer battles – Trained battles of Dipomon resemble chess more than simple exchanges of attacks, emphasizing tactics, reactions, and cooperation between a Dipomon and its trainer.
An Alternate Earth and Its Technology – The world of Dipomon is an alternate version of Earth, familiar in many aspects of everyday life but strongly shaped by the existence of Dipomon. Its technology combines recognizable modern devices with more advanced systems in communication, public infrastructure, scientific research, healthcare, and technologies developed specifically around the study and care of Dipomon.

The Dipomon Franchise in Different Forms

Over time, what began as a simple concept grew into a broader franchise that took shape in several different forms. It started with simple drawings of alternative creatures, which gradually developed into original Dipomon designs and a comic set in their own world. The project later expanded into a novel, a large collection of pixel-art sprites implemented into an existing game, and finally an original card game with its own rules and mechanics.

The Comics

The first comprehensive form in which the world of Dipomons was established. In the spirit of Pokémon, it told the story of a young man who set out on an adventurous journey with his first Dipomon. The comic consisted of several episodes featuring various types of Dipomon that the main character encountered along the way.

The Novel

Spanning over 200 pages and 26 chapters, this novel tells the expansive and rich story of a young man who unexpectedly finds himself in an alternate world inhabited by Dipomon. The narrative faithfully describes and explains not only the characteristics of Dipomon, but also the functioning of the entire alternate world, the issue of travelling between worlds, and various ethical questions raised by the protagonist.

Despite the work’s scope, the story itself is still in its early stages and demonstrates the extent and depth to which the world of Dipomon has been conceived.

Sprites Used in a Modified Game

Despite having no programming experience at the time, I created over 450 Dipomon sprites and later implemented them into an existing game, where they replaced the original creatures and appeared directly during gameplay.

The Card Game

As a big fan of various card games, I’ve conceived and designed my own card game based on catching Dipomon in different environments, leveling them up, dice-based combat, and a final duel between trainers.

Note: The card illustrations are AI-generated but based on original hand-drawn artwork. They serve as placeholders, not as final illustrations.

Tools Used and Skills Developed

Working on this project gave me the opportunity to use various tools and develop several key skills, including:

Narrative Design and Storytelling - Dipomon is not my only narrative project, but it has contributed by far the most to my ability to tell stories, develop characters and relationships, and build a complex fictional world with its own rules, history, and internal logic.
Visual Design and Illustration – Designing Dipomon from initial sketches to finished digital artwork, creating 2D pixel-art sprites, and developing visual materials such as the Dipopedia interface and card game layouts using Krita, Figma, MS Paint and PowerPoint.
Game Modification and Content Implementation - I learned to use several specialized tools to implement my own creatures into an existing game, including their sprites, descriptions, abilities, evolution paths, sounds, map placement, and basic script adjustments.

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