Palworld publishing lead is "more determined than ever" to make things "a little less sh*t" for cool devs struggling to find funding: "The West continues to stumble"

Palworld's publishing and communications lead John 'Bucky' Buckley is already at the head of Pocketpair Publishing, the studio's division focused on funding smaller games from indie creators, but he's now even "more determined" to help out cool developers struggling to find funding in a shaky industry.

Buckley said as much looking back at the Game Developers Conference 2026, where he acknowledges that he's perhaps been blind to "many of the problems facing the games industry in the West" since Pocketpair is based in Tokyo, Japan.

"I go to events like GDC and it's a crash course in the hardships and struggles devs there are facing," Buckley tweets. "I'm not talking about massive 5,000-person studios, I'm talking about the boots on the ground making cool little games in their own way…and no one will back them. There are so so so so so many incredible games in development that I know you guys, the gamers, would love…and most won't ever see the light of day because they can't find funding."

"It breaks my heart," he adds. "I mean there's a volume of games you simply can't imagine out there that need help. More than any one company can realistically support."

Stories of mass layoffs and studio closures have been sadly all too common in recent years, but Buckley reckons the industry has actually been going "from strength to strength in Asia" while "the West continues to stumble."

As for solutions, indie funds like the ones set up by the makers of Among Us or Palworld certainly help somewhat, but they're not enough to plug up all the various leaks sprouting out in the industry. "I don't know what the solution is and I don't know how to help," Buckley goes on, "but I return to Japan now more determined than ever to find some way to make things just a little less shit for the developers out there who just wanna make cool games."

Pocketpair lead says "apologies to all the professional Palworld haters," but "it's not really our problem" – the studio is going to continue "doing what the players want."