Map Map is a cozy game where players survey a land in search of lost treasure. The indie game’s central mechanic revolves around examining a map and pinning locations of interest as accurately as possible. Map Map provides players with measuring tools used by actual cartographers, which they can use to reach new areas. If any of this sounds familiar to players who have completed some recent quests in Genshin Impact, Map Map‘s creators don’t believe that’s a coincidence.
German developer Pipapo Games recently shared a video on social media that puts Map Map and Genshin Impact side-by-side, highlighting how the two titles approach the same gameplay idea. In early April, the more mainstream RPG introduced a series of surveying quests where players must find the correct coordinates on a map. Genshin Impact judges how closely players calibrate the intended location; the closer a user gets, the better their score.
Map Map hasn’t been released yet, but it has been in development for a few years, and a demo was released in 2025. That demo made a splash: It was nominated for a number of game development awards, and featured in a Wholesome Games Direct. That visibility, combined with the similarities in the mapping animations, led Pipapo Games to suspect that Genshin Impact developer Mihoyo might’ve been inspired by their project.
Mihoyo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an email to Polygon, a representative from Pipapo Games expressed that the studio could not brush off all the similarities it noticed.
“While maps in video games are by far nothing new and taking inspiration from other games is a normal part of development, we were definitely surprised to see our entire core game loop represented in this Genshin Impact event,” the rep said. “While they very well might have arrived at the same concept completely unrelated to Map Map, their implementation feels a little too close to be coincidental. In addition to the core game loop, they also included design decisions like using the world outline for orientation, having landmarks that automatically get marked on your map and feature a suspiciously similar camera sequence when revealing the results.
“Hearing about Mihoyo taking heavy inspiration from other indie games for their event game modes, only solidifies our suspicions.”
In response to commenters in a Reddit thread levying the accusations, a Pipapo developer claimed the studio is not seeking “beef” with anyone over the similarities; mostly, the team sounds surprised. After being told by a commenter that the studio should interpret this turn of events as a compliment, the Pipapo dev agreed that the similarities gave them a newfound sense of confidence.
The developer claims that “a few of the publishers we talked to in the past were unsure if our game idea was casual enough to reach a broad audience.”
Even Genshin fans are encouraging Pipapo to approach the scenario as a marketing opportunity. After all, the similarities could be another case of two developers independently arriving at the same idea. And even if the limited-time event took inspiration from Map Map, proving that could be difficult. It could be more productive to use the occasion to amp up Map Map‘s visibility instead, as some users suggested in the replies to the comparison video. Making too much of a fuss might also open the door for people to point out the ways Map Map itself takes inspiration from games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, among others.
“I loved that event,” one Genshin Impact player remarked. “If your game is that but without the predatory gambling/live service and more depth/content you’ve guaranteed a sale.”
The Pipapo developers also reiterated to Polygon that the studio did not see the resemblances as a negative.
“We are first and foremost happy to see that so many players enjoyed the concept in Genshin Impact, which makes us hopeful for our upcoming release.”
Update (Apr. 16): This article has been edited to include new comments from Pipapo.
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