When it comes to Pokemon spin-offs, none are more beloved than the Mystery Dungeon games. Bringing monster collection and the charm of the larger series to the random environments and natural replayability of Mystery Dungeon titles, Spike Chunsoft hit it out of the gate with the debut games Red and Blue Rescue Team. Having recently revisited those titles in 2020 with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, fans of the series have been patiently waiting for the next game to get the same series. Four years later they’re still waiting.

Explorers of Sky, the enhanced version of Explorers of Time and Darkness before it, is renowned as the peak of the series in terms of both content and storytelling. For those wanting to re-experience this stellar title in a new light there’s some good news, though not from Spike Chunsoft or the Pokemon Company.

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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers DreamNexus (shortened to DNX) is a fan-made ROM hacking project for Rescue Team DX that’s attempting to bring an enhanced Explorers title to the Switch, using the DreamNexus editor by techtinks. The first trailer for the project released yesterday, with a demo containing Chapter 1 planned to launch later this year. In the trailer you can see parts of the game's opening including a new starter selection with fourth generation Pokemon, the Beach Cave dungeon, and a brief glimpse of Treasure Town and its inhabitants.

Those interested in following the project can do so by joining the Project Explorers Discord or following the SwitchEOS Twitter account.

Project Discord Server

 

[Maximumbeans]

Worry not, I'll be the one to let Nintendo know.

Thank god. Go, you absolute hero of men, go! Before anybody else threatens the dormant properties of a multi-decabillion company!

 

[DoomedHologram]

Again with the announcement of something before it's complete/released. Goodbye. I understand it's hard to keep stuff to yourself sometimes, especially when excited about your project, but everyone should know by now what happens with these situations. Oh well.

 

[4d1xlaan]

this is rage bait

 

[Bladexdsl]

for those saying nintendo won't do anything because it's a rom hack. heh go google what happened to the botw randomiser

 

[Crystal_tofu]

When will people learn... If you are making an ambitious pokemon fan game, DONT ANNOUNCE IT BEFORE YOU FULLY RELEASE IT!!!!
And not only that, they plan to release a DEMO! They are to get DMCA'd before their game fully release

that's fairly common with pokemon fan projects especially the more ambitious rom hacks, an example off the top of my head is pokemon Z, a 3DS rom hack that was announced a year ago, out of nowhere on the project EXR channel which is still kinda dead and the only way you'll have any questions answered is through their discord, that's another issue with ambitious pokemon projects is lack of transparency.

 

[SDA]

Thank god. Go, you absolute hero of men, go! Before anybody else threatens the dormant properties of a multi-decabillion company!

I said it the other way.

I will let Nintendo know there's someone modding this game and they will take action.

And no one will be able to do anything about it, let alone you!

 

[Maximumbeans]

I said it the other way.

I will let Nintendo know there's someone modding this game and they will take action.

And no one will be able to do anything about it, let alone you!

Yes, I’ll just have to stand by and weep as your money and fame starts to roll in.

 

[Eddypikachu]

So stupid, huge announcement trailer and the first chapter isnt even finished...

 

[cearp]

Well I guess it's better than "looking for modders" lol

 

[ZeroFX]

Inb4 DMCA

 

[xdarkx]

Every time a group announces their fan project to the public instead of releasing their finished project is like telling big gaming companies to DMCA them.

 

[CeeDee]

Imagine pouring your effort into a passionate fan project, only for the only thing people talk about is how Nintendo will DMCA it

 

[DuoForce]

I can't wait for this to be taken down. Fans begin to seethe while the rom hackers still don't realize it's idiotic to announce rom hacks rather than releasing them as shadow drops among completion

 

[urbanman2004]

DMCA Takedown and copyright strike incoming in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

 

[Jayro]

The worst thing people can do when they make no tendo fan games is project a release date. Don't do that. Just drop it one day at random so the Internet can gooble it up.

 

[pedro702]

My problem with this announcement is that they only show three custom backgrounds and one new Pokémon model. And the very first chapter is still in development? What?

This feels very dangerous to be emotionally invested in right now. The chances of either developer abandonment or a wild C&D are very high at this point in time. They could have at least waited for the first chapter to be completed.

pretty sure the project will be dropped long before reaching midway, most of the fan projects that are full game mods never even reach half of the progression.

 

[seseiSeki]

Depends. Nintendo can't do jack shit if you only provide material that's not protected by copyright. So, in this case you'd have to ensure that all newly added assets can be retreived from existing games (even if there's code to convert them to the correct format).

I know, almost nobody in this community is going the extra mile, but then I don't want to hear any whining when Nintendo sends their Ninjas...

The chances to get stopped by Nintendo are the lowest if you make a hack that's neither a remake nor gains too much attention. (Which would be the exact opposite of this one) Or you just release your hack, mod or fan game at an unfortunate time, that happens to be a timeframe where Nintendo planned to release a new game from that IP.
Remember Pokémon Prism? That was also just a hack, but it got too much attention and Nintendo stopped the project.
They took down other hacks already as well.

 

[Clydefrosch]

how to get your project ended in 1 easy step:
Create and publish a freaking somewhat professional looking trailer!!!!!

once it gets on a few gaming outlet sites, the letter will come flying

 

[Scarlet]

how to get your project ended in 1 easy step:
Create and publish a freaking nearly professional looking trailer!!!!!

For how professional the trailer was, I'm absolutely shocked nobody in this thread has commented on the Windows activation watermark on the gameplay parts of it LOL

 

[Dark_Ansem]

I see. They got bored of it and want a DCMA to stop working while looking cool.