Pokémon GO

Pokémon GO is a free-to-play mobile application developed by Niantic for and  devices. The game was initially released on July 2016. In Pokémon GO, players catch various Pokémon, evolve them using candies, and power up them in order to battle. These Pokémon are mapped to locations in the real world using GPS technology. PokéStops located at various real-world landmarks aid in this by distributing items for use in catching and battling with Pokémon.

Game start
After the game is launched, the very first thing that is seen by player is white screen with logo of Niantic and The Pokémon Company. The loading screen (or splash screen) is the screen that the players see after the publisher information screen while logging into the game. The loading screen consists of a background image, a tip, and a loading bar. The background image is changed from time to time and may represent newly added game feature or ongoing event.

The tip is picked randomly out of the following:
 * A Curveball Throw will increase your chances of catching a Pokémon.
 * Collect your daily free Raid Pass by spinning the Photo Disc at any Gym.
 * Feeding a Golden Razz Berry to a Pokémon defending a Gym will fully heal that Pokémon.
 * Prepare a Battle Party in advance to lock in your strategy before challenging a Raid Boss.
 * Quickly discard your entire stock of any one item in your Item Bag by tapping the − button on the discard screen.
 * Switch out Pokémon during battle to utilize your Battle Party’s different Charged Attacks.

Once the loading bar fills, new players are presented with the Trainer setup while returning players are taken to the Map View.

Also, the App Icon changes based on the Event or Season.

Intro
Intro' is the part of the game, where Professor Willow introduces himself and shows the basic game mechanics and elements to beginner player.

Once player agrees to Terms of Service, Professor Willow appears on the screen and introduces himself, after that player can set their avatar's style and appearance. After finishing avatar customisation, Professor Willow appears again and prompts Trainer to select a Starter Pokémon.

After successful capture of Starter Pokémon, Professor Willow will ask player for their Trainer nickname which they have to set. Then, Professor Willow introduces PokéStops and gives suggestion to visit one.

After reaching Level 5 and tapping on Gym, Professor Willow introduces his assistants – Team Leaders, which introduce themselves and their respective Teams. Trainer has to choose Team, which they want to be affiliated with. After selecting Team, Trainer setup is considered done.

Once Trainer reaches further Levels, more Items and game features are unlocked. Each of these features are properly introduced to Trainer, including Trainer Battles, GO Battle League and battling Team GO Rocket members.

Map View
The Map View is essentially the main screen of the game; following the initial loading screen. Most of the game elements are accessible from this screen. The screen shows a map representing the trainer surroundings in the real world and game elements such as Pokémon, PokéStops, and Gyms. The Map View shows the Main Menu that allows trainer to enter such game elements, as collection of Pokémon and Pokémon Eggs, in-game Shop, Pokédex, Bag with Items, Battle page with access to Trainer Battles, GO Battle League and Battle Party. It also lets player to go to game settings screen, Tips, in-game News and Notifications,  ticketed events information.

Regions
Unlike most of Pokémon games, Pokémon GO is not a part of any particular generation (although in some communities it is considered to be a part of either Generation VII or VIII). When releasing new Pokémon to the gameplay, game publishers use term regions, as for example "Pokémon originally discovered in Hoenn region" or "Pokémon known from Johto region". In original Pokémon games, regions were organized areas of the Pokémon world known from previous games about Pokémon such as games from core series. In Pokémon GO there are currently ten regions referred, which are Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, Hisui and Paldea.

Events
There have been various events in game that had positive impact to the gameplay. During events certain features of the game were changed to grant players with extra bonuses such as double amount of gained candies, XP and stardust. First, historical event in Pokémon GO was Halloween event in 2016.

There were several reoccurring events that happened for seasonal occasions such as Eggstravaganza, Halloween or Holiday. There are also more frequent events such as Community Days and Nest migrations. Apart from seasonal events there were also unique events that happened just once.

Tips
There are few basic game Tips from Professor Willow available at any time from game Main Menu.

News
Despite social media channels, creators of the game inform players about updates and news about events and releases of new Pokémon within the game itself with News feature.

It has been introduced to the game after main release of Johto-region Pokémon in February, 2017 and its functionality was simple banner with short description available one at the time.

It was later reworked to display more than one news update at time in early February, 2018 and it is split into two tabs – News and Notifications. The second one displays notifications similar to entries in Journal, however they are not action of the Trainer themselves but Trainer's Friends and Pokémon deployed in Gyms.

Augmented reality
Augmented reality is a core aspect of Pokémon GO that helps the game to connect and interact with player's world. With augmented reality, game places Pokémon into player's surrounding environment.

Augmented reality requires camera permission granted to Pokémon GO app and it also uses the gyroscope sensors to asses position of player's mobile device.

If player's mobile device does not have gyroscope or it is working faulty, augmented reality can be still accessed, however the experience of it is reduced with the Pokémon appearing in static position and only its background is using feed from camera.

AR Plus also named Niantic AR, is an enhanced version of game's augmented reality feature in which Pokémon appear anchored to a Trainer's real-world environment.

While playing the game on Android device, AR Plus feature requires Google Play Services for AR (previously named AR Core) installed.

Warnings
After player logs in to the game, there is a warning screen displayed with an icon and one of few warning notices.

Speed limit
As of December 2016, there are 3 distinct ways that Niantic posts limits on how fast Trainer may travel:
 * If Trainer exceeds the speed limit, it zeroes out any progress that they have made in the last time window. This speed limit is 17.8 km per hour.
 * The max distance per minute Trainer may travel is 175m. This translates to a top sustained speed of 10.46 km per hour.
 * Any disruption to the game may discard any progress Trainer has made in the last time window. Disruptions include losing GPS signal, getting a phone call, switching apps, the game crashing, losing wireless connection, and other disruptions. However, in case of switching apps and getting phone calls, this progress loss might be prevented with Adventure Sync feature activated.

Screen top notices
Most of errors and issues in Pokémon GO are displayed with a significant error message at the top of the screen. These error notices are displayed as red bars with short white text in it. They also include error code in round brackets.

Common error messages are:
 * Error. (0)
 * Network error. (2)
 * No Internet Connection. (10)
 * GPS signal not found. (11)

At sometimes, these error messages happen to be problematic in terms of using any user interface elements, such as buttons, that are located at the top of the screen, as they are being covered by the error message and thus inaccessible.

With ''No Internet Connection. (10)'' error, player cannot use any element of the game, as the whole game interaction is frozen until the game reconnects with network. In case of ''GPS signal not found. (11)'' error, most of user interface is still available for player, but elements that appear on the map, including Pokémon, PokéStops, Gyms and Team GO Rocket Balloons cannot be accessed as game cannot assess player's current location.

Easter Eggs
In Pokémon GO, there are a plenty of Easter Eggs referring to the Pokémon games from main series.

Game accessories

 * Pokémon GO Plus – small device that allows players to capture Pokémon while on the move without having to interact with their phone. The device connects to the player's smartphone wirelessly using Bluetooth LE. The device notifies the player about events in the game — such as nearby Pokémon.
 * Poké Ball Plus – small device that operates similarly to the Pokémon GO Plus. It is also controller for the Pokémon Let's Go games.
 * Pokémon GO Plus+ – unreleased version of Pokémon GO Plus with similar features. Additionally it will gather and transfer sleep data to the Pokémon Sleep app.

Game connectivity
Pokémon GO can be connected to other Pokémon related games, including:
 * Pokémon Let's Go – Pokémon captured in Pokémon GO can be one-way transferred to Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu! or Let's Go Eevee! with additional Trainer XP and Mystery Box unlocked in Pokémon GO.
 * Pokémon HOME – Pokémon captured in Pokémon GO can be one-way transferred to Pokémon HOME.
 * Pokémon Sleep – it currently unknown what connection if any will be supported between Pokémon GO and Pokémon Sleep, however both of these game apps will be sharing connectivity with Pokémon GO Plus+.

Widgets
In Pokémon GO, some widgets are available

Third-party software
According to Pokémon GO Terms of Service, using third-party apps or software that would change the gameplay are strictly prohibited and may cause player to get banned – Violating the Terms of Service

If any third-party software that tries to alter the game client is detected, the warning will be displayed to inform player about consequences.

Niantic uses a Three-Strike Discipline Policy to maintain friendly and fair gameplay experience for all players.

According to the Three-Strike Discipline Policy, there are three degrees of the penalty for Terms of Service offendants, such as cheaters, spoofers and exploiters.
 * First strike: Warning
 * Second strike: Temporal Account Suspension
 * Third strike: Permanent Account Termination

Device compatibility
There are few technical requirements that devices have to met to be compatible with the game.

Devices with Android
Following requirements apply to all smartphones, "phablets" and tablets running on Android operating system:
 * Android 5 or later;
 * Preferred resolution of 720×1280 pixels (not optimized for tablet);
 * Strong internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G);
 * GPS and Location Services.
 * AR+ support for various devices that are running Android 8.0 or later. See Supported Devices | ARCore | Developers for more info.

Rooted devices are not supported.

Devices with iOS
Following requirements apply to iPhones and iPads running on iOS:
 * iPhone 5s or later,
 * The iPhone 5c, although newer than the iPhone 5s, is not supported;
 * iOS 10 or later,
 * Devices need to be capable of running iOS 11 as this is the preferred OS version;
 * Strong internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G);
 * GPS and Location Services.
 * AR+ support for iPhone SE or later and iPad 5th generation or later. See: iOS - Augmented Reality - Apple for more info.

Jailbroken devices are not supported.

Apple Watch
On September 7, 2016, John Hanke revealed the Pokémon GO Apple Watch app for watchOS 3 at Apple's fall keynote event. Pokémon GO was also available for Apple Watch of Series 2 and later, that are running on watchOS. On June 1, 2019, Niantic announced that it will be discontinuing support for Apple Watch devices after July. All the supporting code for the Apple Watch was removed in version 0.147.0. Niantic's decision to drop support comes ahead of the expected unveiling of watchOS 6.

Niantic's recommendations
As it is stated on official support page for the game, for an optimal Pokémon GO experience, it is recommended to use phones with 2GB or more of RAM.

If the device is experiencing issues such as frequent crashing or lagging while playing Pokémon GO, these are recommended troubleshooting steps:
 * Closing other open applications while playing Pokémon GO
 * Making sure that the device is running the latest operating system

Development and release
The game first announcement is date for September, 2015, then the game was released in July, 2016 and is under ongoing development up to day. It is developed by Niantic, Inc.  known for creating Ingress, the augmented reality mobile game that utilizes GPS technology to fuel a sci-fi story encompassing the entire world. Furthermore, Junichi Masuda of Game Freak Inc., the game director of the Pokémon video game series, is also contributing to the project. Niantic, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo Co. Ltd. all contribute to the Pokémon GO project.

Updates
Just like many other online games these days, Pokémon GO, since the release of the game had numerous updates both client side - updates of game client on players' mobile devices and server side - updates of available content such as Pokémon, events and eggs.

Technical issues
In game there were and still are several glitches, bug and issues. Most of them have gone down in history but there are also several known issues, that the game creators are currently working on.

Game promotion
Pokémon GO has been promoted in several ways with different media, including: Pokémon GO official social media channels, official sponsor- and partnerships with different brands and even posters and banners around cities that would promote events and new features to the game.

Sponsorship
Pokémon GO has made a couple of partnership deals with various brands across last four years. The most notable brands that were in such sponsorship with Pokémon GO, were:, , and. Partner brands would differ across different countries and regions of the world.

Promotional pictures
Most common way of promoting and advertising of Pokémon GO new features and events are promo banners and feature previews that are mainly published on game's official social media channels – Facebook official fanpage and Twitter official account, and also official game blog.

Official download

 * Google Play Store
 * iTunes App Store