There were two ideas that helped define the early game experience and structure of the map in Princéton: Bluff Version. The first, that you should encounter 1-2 wild Pokemon on your journey from the starting area on the boardwalk into town, so as to give Princeton-Keldeo an opportunity to level up at least once (remember, bonus XP on Princeton for being a 'traded' pokemon), a kind of easy intro battle before the trainers, and a way to start the branching of choices (do I try to catch this pokemon? do I try and grind here? do I try and see all the wild encounters in this area? do I try to see them all and catch them all? do I find one and try to level it up to use in place of/alongside/as a lead to Princeton-Keldeo?). The second, that the Pokemon we encounter should be things Princeton can deal with, but not all in the same way.
The East Beach was originally going to be a late-game area, with a fight against Luce and the opportunity to see the east boardwalk; like a traditional Pokemon game where you often find yourself ending very close to where you began, in a circuitous route. About halfway through development, it changed to another optional way to progress into town at the beginning of the game, which meant the map itself went through many iterations of size, shape, and content until we ended up with what you see above you.
the Theme of the East Beach is "flying pokemon", which initially represents a threat to Princeton, who is a Water/Fighting type (flying having a type advantage against fighting.) This was inspired in part because I knew Luce was going to be there, and so wanted to include Drifloon as an available encounter. It also worked well as an opportunity to incentivize using one of Princeton's other moves: instead of Bubble/Bubblebeam or Double Kick, Princeton's special technique: Powder Snow.
Princeton, after all, isn't just a legendary pokemon horse and friend to people of good will everywhere; he's the Powdered Sugar Horse! Flying Pokemon give you the excuse, opportunity, and reason to start using Princeton's novelty iconic move. It doesn't OHKO everything right out the gate, but super effective feels good as a player and breaks the predicted monotony.
- Drifloon is a fan-favorite and beloved pokemon that makes sense because, as the sign says, Beware of loose balloons! I think they're a fun pokemon to have, and very on-flavor for America's Playground
- Murkrow is a suitable uncommon flying type that feels like a joy to encounter when you've been going back and forth through this grassy area. It's more common than a Clefairy, about as common as a Pikachu in Viridian Forest (though of course both of those numbers are out of scale given the size of this area). Having a "reward" pokemon for persistence in one area is a useful design principle, especially when it isn't something that just breaks a game and feels like a mandatory grind to get.
- Wingull is a concession that would have to show up in some numbers given that seagulls are totally a part of american beaches and an iconic seaside menace. It wouldn't be the beach if they weren't here.
- Farfetch'd is perennially underappreciated, largely due to being uncatchable in most generations. I quite like it, as a result, and it's a deeply unassuming pokemon. No one worries about fighting a Farfetch'd, and it's rare that someone would go out of their way to catch one and train it... unless, of course, they're that specific sort of person who would so such a thing*, or they've been tipped off. There's an in-game hint towards this that we'll get to when I talk about signposting, but if you haven't learned it from watching the FATT video, Farfetch'd here actually learns Cut at level 15. For most players, though, our absurd fowl friend exists just to be an easy target... and that's okay.