Pocketpair’s earlier projects were powered by Unity before Palworld moved away from it.
Unity is a widely used game engine known for supporting 2D and 3D development across many platforms. Pocketpair used it for earlier projects, including the open-world survival crafting game Craftopia. As Palworld’s scope expanded, the team decided Unity was less suitable for the heavier open-world experience they wanted to build.
The developers therefore moved Palworld to Unreal Engine 4 during development. This was an engine change, not a change in developer or publisher: Pocketpair remained responsible for the game. Palworld was later listed as using Unreal Engine 5, reflecting the project’s continuing technical development.
A common mix-up is choosing Unreal Engine as the earlier engine. Unreal was the engine selected for Palworld after the move; Unity was the technology associated with Pocketpair’s earlier projects. Craftopia is the neighbouring fact most often connected with this development history.