The studio behind well-liked monster-taming MMO Temtem is once again rejecting the 'Pokemon killer' label that's being thrown onto it with its upcoming survival game, Temtem: Pioneers.
While Temtem was a more traditionally turn-based monster-tamer with online features, Temtem: Pioneers is actually taking a page from Palworld's playbook - it's a real-time action game with survival elements, base-building, resource management, lotsa crafting, and co-op.
But this is still a creature-collectathon with over 200 tems to tame, train, then control in real-time fights. Lo and behold, that designation meant plenty of people online dubbed Temtem: Pioneers a Pokemon killer, a tag that developer Crema wasn't too keen on.
"We've seen the 'Pokémon killer' label floating around again, and we want to say it loud and clear: that’s not us," the studio hit out in a recent tweet. "Temtem: Pioneers is yet another love letter to the monster-taming genre, not a replacement for any of them. We're happy to offer another great adventure alongside all the amazing games in the genre!"
Crema then says the in-development Temtem game is its next "project-made-in-earnest-with-love-and-care-and-not-trying-to-eliminate-or-substitue-any-other-games." Love all round.
The Pokemon killer label is so flippantly thrown at whatever new games let you capture creatures, but it's just because Pokemon itself has been virtually unchallenged at the top of its subgenre for so many decades. The hope is that these games, mainline Pokemon included, can eventually trade ideas back and forth rather than being pitted against each other, like how Temtem: Pioneers borrows from Palworld in some cool ways.
Temtem: Pioneers doesn't have a release date for now, but it'll hit Steam and the Epic Games Store when it's ready. In the meantime, the survival spin-off is absolutely crushing it on Kickstarter after it reached its initial funding goal in just eight hours. Over 2,000 backers have now pledged more than $200,000 with 25 days still to go.
