I'm one of the developers on PokéForce, an open-world Pokémon MMO. We started in October 2023 and there are 25 of us on it now.

This is a minute of real gameplay from the current build. No mockups, no concept art.

A few things it shows: a fully custom Johto map, hands-on catching in the overworld, and life skills like farming, foraging and mining that sit alongside battling rather than behind it. There's also trading, job boards and a class system that changes what your character is good at.

We're pre-alpha with no release date. What we do have is monthly public tests, and the next one is Wednesday 3 September. Anyone can join. From September onward your progress carries between tests, so it's a reasonable point to start.

https://pokeforce.org/

Happy to answer anything in the comments.

Next public test opens Thursday 30 July, 11:00 AM PDT / 6:00 PM UTC / 7:00 PM BST and runs to Monday 3 August, 5:00 PM PDT.

First open build since the Spring Demo, and it's a hard reset. Nothing carries across. Everyone starts on the same empty economy.

New since the Spring Demo

• A new battle engine, rewritten from scratch, with Gen-5 style move animations
• A minimap and a full-scale map. We heard you about finding your way, and about finding grass
• The Johto Trading System, our player marketplace, with a branch in every major city
• Idle Station Jobs, crafting and smelting orders that keep running while you're logged out
• A full stat sheet on your Trainer Profile: encounters, captures, shinies, PvP records, every tree you've ever felled

Also in

Gyms and badges. PvP with optional item and PokéYen stakes. Guilds and multi-channel chat. Clue scrolls, a job board, and life skills across foraging, woodcutting, mining, farming, crafting and smithing.

Plus a Johto redrawn from scratch and then extended well past the original, into custom regions that aren't in the games at all. Knowing the region by heart won't help as much as you'd think.

Full breakdown: https://pokeforce.org/news/upcoming-july-30th-public-test-ms3hk6qs

Not in yet

Fishing, cooking, construction, archaeology, player health, and viewing other players' profiles.

Joining

Download the client now rather than on the day, so you're playing at 11:00 instead of watching a progress bar. Open to everyone, no whitelist.

Bugs, balance gripes and ideas all go on our Discord, separate channel for each.

We'll be in the comments.