What you need to know
- An unofficial Pokémon VR game is available on the Oculus Quest.
- The game is currently in an alpha preview and has to be sideloaded.
- The game features all Pokémon through generation 7.
An unofficial Pokémon VR game is now available for the Oculus Quest. The game features all Pokémon through generation 7. The game is in an alpha preview, so its early stages. It can also only be sideloaded at the moment. Many fan games like this are shut down quickly by Nintendo, which the developers of the game realize is a possibility.
I spoke with one of the people behind Pokémon VR to find out more about the development process, and what they'll do if Nintendo shuts them down. According to this person, this game took four months to reach its current form. It has more than 791 Pokémon, with every Pokémon included from Gen 1 through Gen 7.
If Nintendo forces the developers to stop making the game, Pokémon VR has a plan B, stating, "If Nintendo forces us to shut down, we will comply with [them]. Our plan B is to reskin all the characters/creatures/maps and rework the branding. We also think that setting up a Kickstarter project to help us remake the whole game could be a solution as you can imagine; it takes a lot of time/effort to create such a project."
Spending four months on a project that will likely be stopped or require a massive retooling may seem like a large amount of effort for a short life, but it's built out of passion. The person I spoke with said it's here, "Simply because I'm a Pokémon fan and I have professional development skills. I also love VR, and after a three-week stay in Tokyo, I got this PokemonVR idea. Three months later, I finalized the local mode, and I was alone in the game, that's why I thought I had to share this unique experience with other fans like me."
You can jump on the Pokémon VR discord to find out more about the game.
