Designer Denies Faking Comparisons Between Palworld & Pokémon

• Controversy over Pocketpair’s Palworld copying Pokémon models.
• Social media user Byo compared monsters between both games.
• Accusations of Byo fabricating or editing models for comparison.
• Byo only scaled models for comparison, not altered designs.
• Despite similarities, no definitive proof of Pocketpair stealing assets.

The Ongoing Palworld and Pokémon Controversy

The recent controversy surrounding Pocketpair’s monster-taming survival game, Palworld, continues to gain traction. The game has been accused of copying models from Game Freak’s RPG Pokémon.

A user on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has gone viral for comparing the monster characters between the two games. The similarities were striking enough to convince fans that Palworld's characters were more than just look-alikes. They might have been directly taken from Pokémon games.

However, there's some misinformation circulating around their comparisons.

Comparing Models and Monster Characters

Byo, the user who started the comparison, has posted several videos directly comparing the models of different Pokémon with Palworld’s characters, "Pals". At first glance, the side-by-side comparison seems quite damning. Not only do the designs appear heavily inspired by Pokémon characters, but some aspects of the modeling looked almost identical to Game Freak’s creatures.

However, in the days following the viral comparisons, accusations started to surface implying that Byo had fabricated or edited the models to fit the narrative.

The Issue of Scaling

The specific issue raised here is that Byo scaled Pokémon and Palworld models to be comparable in size for the comparisons. In a statement, Byo claims this is the only editing they did, rather than any tampering with the models to make similarities more stark.

Byo said, "I didn’t edit the models in a way that would modify their meshes, proportions, or other fundamental features (other than their size), but I did scale them uniformly. So, for example, I might scale one model up by three-fold in the x, y, and z dimensions to show them at the same scale. The models are all from different games and potentially made in different 3D modeling software suites, so they tend to load in at really different scales."

A Necessary Step for Comparison

Scaling is not the same as altering character models and designs to look alike. It's akin to comparing a Pikachu action figure with the Pikachu Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. You’d need to scale them to comparable sizes in order to do a proper side-by-side comparison.

However, as tensions rise around the Palworld and Pokémon communities, some accounts are trying to frame this as modifying models to look more similar, rather than as a necessary step for reasonable comparison. This even extends to claims that Byo “admitted” to altering models, though the cited tweets only show them stating they altered scale, but not the models themselves.

Discussion and Awareness

Even if the Pals and Pokémon look similar, is this definitive proof that Pocketpair stole Game Freak’s assets? Byo says no, but the frequency with which proportions between games line up invites discussion and awareness.

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