Palworld struggled to find a dev with shooter experience in Japan before stumbling on a self-taught hobbyist who worked at a convenience store

nanoUFO@sh.itjust.worksmod to Games@sh.itjust.works – 227 points –
Palworld struggled to find a dev with shooter experience in Japan before stumbling on a self-taught hobbyist who worked at a convenience store
pcgamer.com
21

yet places like ubi and ea can’t seem to make a fun game with their billions.

Two words: Management Interference. They are giant companies, with fucking money-men running them.

It's literally the same as Boeing. The only difference is people's lives don't depend on video games.

But in both cases you have a C-Suite that does not give a shit about anything but money. They will cut any corner, piss off any customer, piss off multitudes of employees. They. Do. Not. Give. A. Damn.

As long as their pocketbooks get fatter, they could give a shit what happens.

Like Bobby Kotick, they will all have Golden Parachutes, so it won't affect them.

I find it so weird, too, because I always assumed those AAA games failed to be fun, because they include a multitude of different gameplay mechanics, to differentiate themselves from the indies which generally focus on making very few gameplay mechanics extra fun.

But Palworld does exactly the AAA thing, mixing all kinds of genres, with the respective gameplay mechanics to boot, and none of those are individually extraordinary.

I guess, humor and not taking yourself too serious go a very long way. Maybe it's also a matter of things not being as balanced/polished as in AAA games, so anything you unlock could be ridiculously overpowered, which makes it more fun to explore.

I think their main problem is some suits interfering. Anthem was probably at some point a fun idea/concept. And then some guy was like: yeah but what if it would really drag on and we try to do a destiny, because he heard they make money.
I assume the developers qnd artists know what makes a game fun, they are just not allowed to make a fun game.

Convenience store workers know a thing or two about guns particularly what it's like to be shot at. At least, in America. Probably not so much in Japan. Or anywhere else.

Definitely not in Japan. Outside the army and police, guns in Japan are an extreme rarity. The best you'll be able to find is airsoft enthusiasts.

Anyway actual shooting and video games are very different things. Counter Strike is tremendously successful but the animations of gun handling are (where?) hilariously wrong.

I'd like to clear up some myths. Not sure why stuff keeps getting perpetuated

Man why are those images so big lemmy, anyway he has a history with crypto and their last game Craftopia is still in early access. It now has mixed reviews because people are making the assumption that they aren't going to be working on both games. I personally don't see the appeal of palworld, looks like just a mishmash of mechanics.

I don't see the appeal either but this is sometimes what works and pushes a field forward : remixing ideas and techniques into something that feels new. Not that it's what happened with palworld since any description of this game must rely on references to other games instead of allowing it to exist on its own.

(Also I'm not talking about the creative drought and inability to create something on their own, which they showcase through their products in terms of art direction... Just that some games were considered innovative because they merged the right ideas together, this applies to other art fields too but it's too late for me to think up an example)

It's actually very close to ark with vague boss progression and automated base mechanics added. Also much easier to capture things than taming dinos, they don't die AFAIK, and you can carry 5, so basically better QOL and less bad feels overall. Nothing particularly groundbreaking but incredibly satisfying.

Oh and fast travel points make exploring very simple.

I'm curious about where this image is from. Wikipedia sources do not name Takuro Mizobe, and I'm struggling to properly translate the Japanese copy of corporate.coincheck.com

Further, they seem to be a subsidiary of Monex Group, which has a fairly decent reputation as a financial services corp.

TinEye turns up no results for this image, so I'd really love to know where it came from.

EDIT: Even further, are we sure there aren't a bunch of people that are named Takuro Mizobe in Japan, and these are both separate, different people who happen to have the same name?

https://jp.linkedin.com/in/takuro-mizobe

Because here's a LinkedIn profile of a Takuro Mizobe who seems to work in financial services but does not seem to be affiliated with Palworld.

Takuro's own JP Twitter bio (urokuta_ja) claims involvement with both Pocketpair's games and Coincheck.

Thank you!

For the link and for using Nitter to do it.

Although it's still interesting that on Wikipedia he is not listed as a founder. They reference two other people, but not Mizobe.

Although it's still interesting that on Wikipedia he is not listed as a founder.

You know you can fix that right?

No I can't, Wikipedia only uses news articles as sources.

Not only is it not a news article, the person the Wikipedia entry is on is the source of the info, which is a big no-no on Wikipedia.

So no, I can't, because I understand how Wikipedia works. If there is a news article referencing him being a founder, that's a different story, but this is his personal Twitter.

the more you know!