The year 2024 has so far produced two breakout hits with very different outlooks, but both share some elements in common: Arrowhead's Helldivers 2 is a current favorite, and just prior to that PocketPair's Palworld was a huge success. The two may not seem to have much crossover, but both are built on popular genres, extraction shooters and survival games played multiplayer with irreverence, and the sense of community that both have fostered seems to be key to their appeal.

Takuro Mizobe, CEO of Pocket Pair and creator of Pal World, was interviewed by Bloomberg to discuss some of the reasons why the game has become such a hit. 35-year-old Mizobe said of the current environment, "Games should not only be played but also watched and enjoyed, While Pokémon is the most often cited inspiration, Mizobe said the game's design was inspired by several titles, including "ARK: Survival Evolved," "Factorio," and "RimWorld. RimWorld". And once the foundation is laid, the next step is to add personality, like a dead pulse.

"In Pal World, the corpses of defeated pals remain in the game for no reason," Mizobe said. 'Usually, when a monster or enemy is defeated, its corpse either disappears or is looted.' My colleagues were against leaving useless corpses in the game, but I pushed it through because I knew players would find a way to play with it and talk about it."[5

Mizobe seems keenly aware that Palworld's success, at least since the game was first released, has come from being a conversation starter. From the first trailer, the game was labeled "Pokémon with guns," and even though the game itself bears no resemblance to the Pokémon title, the superficial similarity combined with Pal's corporeal cacophony gave the game a strange quality that delighted players greatly.

The quirky art style is part of the charm, and Mizobe attributes it to switching technologies during development; Palworld began with anime-style creature assets from the Unity store, then switched to Epic's Unreal Engine and transitioned to a more pseudo-photorealistic style. Finding common ground was one of the most challenging aspects of the game's development, Mizobe said, but it was worth it to wow players. [Mizobe returns to the multiplayer at the end, which he believes is not only the glue that ties all of the above together, but is also essential for a game that wants to recreate the viral appeal that made everyone play "Palworld" for the first few weeks of its release.

"Games are most fun when played with friends," Mizobe says. A game without a multiplayer mode just doesn't feel right in this day and age."

Palworld is currently looking for beta testers for future content, but PocketPair is careful to scrub away as much of the player's expectations as possible. the odd element that Mizobe flagged certainly remains: the developers themselves inadvertently bug Apologizing for fixing it, or having players infinitely mount and butcher the same helpless creature to take its parts (of course, its corpse remains in the game), Palworld draws inspiration from many comparisons, but Mizobe has a point: the game's "game is not a game, it's a game, and it's a game.