It worked. Quite a few sites ran the Temtem Pansun pictures, and while they warned readers that the pictures could be fake, the pictures still went wide. People started dissecting the designs, attempting to work out how closely they resembled Game Freak's iconic creatures. Others analyzed the strangely inconsistent Japanese. All of the time, Spagna was having a laugh.

Soon enough, the Italian came forward and took responsibility for this all by uploading a series of new pictures that proved he faked it. "Originally I did not think that it could have much significance, I saw it burst also on Youtube, Twitter, fan art, memes, even rule 34," he wrote in a post, translated from Italian on Facebook. "And I could not believe it." While it was all in good fun, Spagna apologized to those who fell for it.

"I congratulate those who were not convinced [...] But in general already the fact that I had all this reach gets me understand that maybe I managed to cheap Temtem Pansun make something really persuasive," he wrote. This wasn't the story's end. That same year, Crema, a team of Spanish developers launched a Kickstarter to get Temtem, a promising-looking monster-collecting MMO. Added a 6,000 tier that would make it possible for a backer. "Send us sketches and work together with our art group to make a Temtem and assist us emphasise its name," the description.