A Palworld developer says he’s been inspired to do more to assist smaller companies because he was “in the same position” before his game broke through.
The Palworld community manager John Buckley reported on his experiences at Gamescom, saying “I spoke with a lot of indie developers this year and heard about their struggles and worries.”
As Buckley pointed out, the difficulties developers face are not unique to Palworld, but Pocketpair developed a future-proof strategy that shielded them from future problems.
“We were in the same position only a year ago until Palworld changed our lives,” Buckley notes. “I’d like to do something to help more indie devs out because I really do think the best games are coming from the indie space.”
Palworld Could Help Indie Games, Buckley
Despite not knowing what that help might look like, meeting so many developers at Gamescom “has ignited my passion for helping.”
Palworld was launched by Pocketpair earlier this year, and with concurrent player totals of 2.1 million, it was the second most played game on Steam until Black Myth: Wukong overtook it earlier this month. The studio’s CEO Takuro Mizobe previously revealed that Palworld’s revenue totaled “tens of billions of yen, if not more.” This level of success had the potential to transform the studio’s fortunes.
Mizobe says he’s trying to keep the studio’s budget expectations under control since that’s at least US$70 million, enough to allow the studio’s next game to achieve AAA status.
This month, Buckley told players, “You won’t regret” investing your money in more indie games instead of the latest AAA battlepass, saying he is a longstanding supporter of the independent community.
Pocketpair developed and published the action-adventure, survival, and monster-taming game Palworld. The game takes place in an open world where players are forced to battle and capture Pals, which they use to build bases, traverse, and fight in battle.
