Gaming developer Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer has 19 years of experience at Nintendo and Riot Games and is currently the head of Teamfight Tactics. He now explains how he, as a gaming developer, sees Palworld and the possible impact on gaming. He also gives one to the Twitch streamer Asmongold.
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Palworld: Here you will find a super fast ground mount
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Games build on what already exists – that in itself is good and important
This is what he says to Palworld: In a video from January 28th, Mortdog explains in detail how he sees Palworld and game design.
Games would consist of a variety of shifts that individual employees or teams work on:
It has always been the case that successful games have taken over existing parts of their own games or from others. Further Zelda parts from Nintendo have repeatedly taken over existing, functioning parts of older Zelda titles and only partially and selectively changed individual elements.
Other gaming companies copied current trend games like Street Fighter 2 in the 90s. And the “good clones”, like Mortal Kombat, have become their own, strong brands.
This is all completely normal and healthy. Gaming development is hard. The goal is to develop good games. Anything that serves this purpose and represents an abbreviation is essentially good.
Palworld’s success could set a dangerous trend
This is how he sees Palworld: Regarding Palworld, Mortdog says that it is a really good game, but that it has taken large parts, around 70%, from existing games and then just added something on top.
The problem is that Palworld is so extremely successful that it could now serve as a model for further copies of this working method.
Studios would always go where the money was. And because a game that largely uses existing parts is so successful, it could become a norm for games to take working concepts from other games and just add a part on top.
Reskins with existing source code as a difference to clones
This scares him: Mortdog makes a clear difference whether you copy a game and start the product from scratch, or whether you have existing code and change it.
The introduction to Palworld seems suspiciously like the introduction to the Palworld developers’ last game, Craftopia.
If you do the work “from scratch” it is difficult and real work, even if it is a copy:
“But if you have the source code and just put a new skin on it, it’s pretty darn easy. And what I’m saying is: That looked pretty darn easy now. That’s a bit gross. If you just say: Thank you Nintendo for this, this belongs now and I’ll put something on top – that’s a bit strange.”
However, Mortdog admits that what Palworld has packed on top is “really, really good”. Palworld is fun and a good game.
The worst thing about this development is “Reskins”: studios would take over 90% of existing games and only change 10% (the characters) in the hope of being successful. You could buy a reskin of a Unity game for $55 on Fiverr.
No good games could come out if you only invested $55.
He calls this widespread dislike of other people’s systems “a bit disgusting” and weird. If Palworld were to establish a trend here, it would scare him.
Palworld could establish a trend, like cosmetic items back then
What does he say to Asmongold: Asmongold tweeted on January 24th that all the criticism of Palworld didn’t matter. The artist’s opinion doesn’t count. The only thing that matters is a good game.
Mortdog talks about the statement of a certain “bald streamer” and says: You have to be careful. Asmongold warned many years ago, in 2006, about the first microtransactions in gaming, the $25 horse armor in Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion. This has established a very negative trend in gaming: microtransactions.
Here too, the industry followed the money.
Mortdog fears that while Palworld is a good, fun game, it could also establish a negative trend in gaming that scares him.
What does Asmongold say about this? Asmongold went off on a tangent with a “rant” against people who are angry about Palworld. He said that no one cares about complaints like copyrights or artists’ opinions, it’s just about a good game.
The main thing that seems to hit Mortdog’s criticism is that the developer still has a full head of hair at the age of 40, while he himself is described as “bald”. That is simply unfair.
Asmongold struggles with Mortdog’s criticism of the game. He doesn’t know about that either. The criticism is very good and fair. Ultimately, the customer is always right. If people bought a game, then there would certainly be copies of the concepts in the future.
More on the topic: Twitch streamer explains why Palworld is such a hit: Aimed at normal people, not crazy freaks