Hey everyone!
I’m Manu, a professional software developer working on Pokémon World-Champion, an unofficial Pokémon fan game built from scratch in Godot 4.7.
The game is already playable and has a substantial technical and gameplay foundation. I work on it every day, major additions arrive quickly, and the project is actively moving from functional systems toward polished content.
I’m not looking for people to turn a loose idea into a game. The core design is already deep, documented, and working well. What I need now are collaborators who want to help build, refine, and expand it.
This is a completely non-commercial hobby project. The game will remain free, there are no real-money purchases, and nobody involved is being paid, including me.
Important: this project uses generative AI
Please read this before reaching out.
Pokémon Arena is developed with the help of generative AI. This includes code, design work, and some visual elements such as the title screen. Everything is reviewed, edited, assembled, and tuned by hand, but AI tools are a regular part of the workflow.
Anyone joining should be comfortable with that and willing to work with AI tools themselves. That doesn’t mean you have to generate everything. It means AI-assisted work is welcome here, and you shouldn’t have a problem with it being part of the project or your own contributions.
If that’s not for you, no hard feelings at all. I’d just rather be upfront about it than have anyone find out later.
What is Pokémon World-Champion?
Pokémon Arena is a 2D pixel-art tactical roguelike built around team composition and handcrafted trainer battles.
Battles take place on tile-based arenas. Both trainers bring up to four Pokémon, with two active Pokémon on each side and up to two waiting on the bench. Positioning, movement, range, formations, battlefield hazards, team synergy, and turn order all matter.
The combat system combines familiar Pokémon concepts with much more tactical freedom:
- A dynamic initiative queue
- Separate action points and movement points
- Movement before and after actions
- Direct attacks, area attacks, support moves, and reactions
- HP and a protective armor layer
- Move cooldowns and resource management
- Status effects and hard or soft battlefield control
- Persistent ground effects and field reactions
- Pokémon-specific traits and tactical roles
- Trainer abilities
- Initiative manipulation
- Animated attacks, cries, effects, and combat feedback
Current development state
The project is playable and already includes:
- A working turn-based battle engine with tile-based movement, targeting, ranges, and areas of effect
- Action points, independent movement points, and initiative manipulation
- Armor, HP, damage, restoration, and status systems
- Move cooldowns, reactions, and battlefield effects
- Trainer abilities and enemy AI foundations
- Team selection and battle preparation
- Battle HUD, action bar, targeting previews, and detailed tooltips
- Pokémon animations, cries, emotes, move effects, and sound effects
- A playable hub, Pokémon Box, and team management
- Pokémon details, traits, roles, moves, and rarities
- Stage selection and run setup
- Save/load, localization, menus, input handling, and audio settings
- Weather, wind, lighting, shadows, and environmental effects
- A growing roster of Pokémon and large move catalogs across multiple types
- Automated tests for major gameplay and interface systems
Some of the technical and presentation work can be seen here:
Who I’m looking for
Godot Developer
I’m looking for a developer who wants to work on a real, structured codebase rather than a prototype.
Possible areas include:
- Gameplay systems and battle mechanics
- Content implementation: Pokémon, moves, opponents, arenas, and stages
- UI and menu implementation
- Tools and content pipelines
- Tests and bug fixing
What you should bring:
- Experience with Godot 4 and GDScript (or solid programming experience and the willingness to learn Godot)
- Comfort with statically typed, component-based code
- Willingness to work with AI coding assistants as part of your workflow
- Willingness to follow a spec-first workflow: features are documented before they’re implemented
Please note: the project documentation and code comments are currently written in German. Code identifiers are in English. Being able to read German (or being comfortable working through it with translation tools) is a big plus.
Pixel Artist
I’m looking for a pixel artist who wants to help shape a consistent visual identity for the game.
Possible contributions include:
- Arena and hub environment art
- Tilesets, terrain, and foliage
- Buildings, decorations, and props
- Trainer sprites and animations
- Items, icons, and UI elements
You don’t need to cover all of these. Focusing on one area is completely fine.
AI tools may be part of the art pipeline, for example for references, drafts, or base material that is then cleaned up and refined by hand. You should be open to working that way. Handmade work is just as welcome and will be credited as such.
Beginners who want to improve alongside an active project are welcome.
About the collaboration
- Completely unpaid and non-commercial
- Flexible hobby-level commitment, no fixed weekly hours
- Beginners welcome, no traditional portfolio required
- Focused or short-term contributions are welcome
- Real life always comes first
- Friendly and constructive feedback
- Credit for contributed work
- Communication and organization through Discord
This is not intended to feel like a second job. At the same time, communication and reliability are appreciated, especially when working on systems or assets that other parts of the project depend on.
Interested?
Reply here or join the Discord:
https://discord.gg/ZRhY8qAKy5
Feel free to share examples of your work: code, a GitHub profile, sprites, a small project, anything that shows how you work.
Thanks for reading!
Pokémon World-Champion is an unofficial, non-commercial fan project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., or The Pokémon Company.