Chapter 126: Gothic, Gore
Chapter 126: Gothic, Gore
“What do you want to eat?”
After getting into the car, Insu reflexively thought of meat at Eunha’s question, but then he remembered that she had recently been eating greens at the office because she said she was gaining weight. In the end, they decided to go eat tacos.
In 1996, tacos, which could be called Mexican food, had just begun shifting from truck food into a popular franchise item, and restaurants had appeared all over LA.
A little while later, they entered a nearby taco place. Insu received an ordinary taco with a moderate amount of meat, while Eunha brought over a large bowl filled generously with vegetables.
“But Noona, you haven’t really gained weight.”
“...I gained a little.”
Eunha answered while listlessly poking at her salad. They made small talk for a while, and then, as if she found it annoying to keep circling around the topic, Eunha went straight to the point.
“I heard you’re creating a new development team this time?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“Then why didn’t you call me?”
“Huh?”
But the conversation went in a direction slightly different from what Insu had feared.
In truth, Insu had worried too much. The company had kept raising her salary according to the results she showed, and she had received enough performance bonuses as well.
Moreover, Parallel Soft had continued succeeding, and recently it had become a company achieving incredible results not only with WET but also with TLF Online. As a founding member who was being properly treated in a company like that, she had no reason to go elsewhere.
Rather, Eunha had felt disappointed and uneasy because he had not called her into the new project.
“No, that’s because, like I said before, TLF Online has to keep making content, so the graphics team is absolutely necessary. That’s all. And the game we’ll be developing this time has a somewhat different atmosphere from before.”
In truth, Insu would also be more comfortable if Eunha were there. She would manage the graphics team on her own, and since she had a lot of game development experience, even if she struggled a little because the concept was different, she could more than cover it in other areas.
However, if he pulled her out of the TLF Online team, it would cause problems for TLF Online, which had only just made a successful start and was gaining momentum. It would be like taking a stone from the lower wall to support the upper one.
“Mmm.”
Eunha did not understand all of Insu’s calculations, but at any rate, she understood that it was not because she was no longer needed, so her expression relaxed.
She had become somewhat confident over the years, but more than that, she highly valued Insu’s ability.
She thought she was certainly a capable graphic designer, but she also thought it would be difficult to achieve this level of results somewhere without Insu.
“But what’s the concept of the new project?”
“Ah. For now, it’s the kind where lots of zombies and grotesque monsters appear, and you massacre them wildly. Something cruel and gory.”
“Ah. Like Slayer?”
“That’s right.”
If it was that kind of direction, then it certainly did not suit Eunha herself very well. Honestly, even the TLF series was not quite to her taste. The medieval style was not bad, but rather than monsters, magic, and sword fights, she preferred nobles, romance, and things like that. Otherwise, she liked cute things.
“But I think it’ll be hard to find someone good at drawing that gory kind of thing.”
“Yeah. It is.”
In reality, Insu was having some difficulty finding a graphic designer. Since Slayer had become enormously popular, it might seem like a gore-style art style should also have a certain popularity, but reality was not like that.
Even the people who consumed it tended to belong to a relatively minor niche. The styles most popular in America at the time were either SF’s mechanical and futuristic style or the cartoonish, casual style influenced by Japan.
Parallel Soft could be said to belong to the latter side as well.
“Should I introduce someone to you?”
“Huh? Really?”
When Insu grumbled a little, Eunha said something unexpected.
“Yeah. Really. There’s a gathering I attend.”
Eunha had come to America at a young age and experienced considerable difficulty adapting. But after she eventually learned English and adapted to society here, she became fairly active socially.
She went to places like GDC, the Game Developers Conference, and the recently established E3, met other developers, and since Parallel Soft specialized in the internet field, Eunha also took interest in that side. As she visited various communities there, she came to know quite a few other graphic designers.
(Translator’s Notes: GDC — Game Developers Conference. A major professional conference for game developers, first held in the late 1980s and later becoming one of the industry’s most important events.)
“Oh...”
Insu found her story interesting and was impressed again. In his case, because of his age, it was difficult for him to engage in outside activities, so he had no choice but to live in hiding. But in Eunha’s case, not long after coming to America, she could drive a car, and she had also become an adult, so she had been able to be active in her own way.
“But the person I’ll introduce doesn’t have an especially impressive career. No, to be precise, he has a separate main job, so he doesn’t have experience in games.”
“What does he do?”
“Animator.”
He was a man named Lewis McClean, thirty-four years old, and apparently had a decent amount of experience in the animation industry.
“He’s participated in two TV series, and although it was outsourcing work, he also worked on something for LumenFrame.”
“Huh? If it’s LumenFrame, do you mean Cute Monsters?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“Wow!”
Cute Monsters was the world’s first full 3D feature-length animated film, released in 1995. It occupied a similar position to Toy Story in Insu’s world.
Having participated in that did not simply mean he had been involved in a famous project. It meant he had some level of understanding of computer graphics.
“He’s not just someone who knows how to use a computer.”
“Then?”
After hearing all of Eunha’s story, Insu wanted to meet him, but held back. Inside the company, his prestige could have an effect, but if he met him separately outside, no matter how much he claimed to be Parallel Soft’s main developer and the creator of the TLF series, he would only invite suspicion.
So Insu decided to have Eunha tell him to come in for an interview.
Lewis had been troubled lately. The situation at Neon Howl Studio, where he worked, was not good.
Should I change jobs?
There were a few works he had made there, and he had received some recognition too. He felt he might soon be able to lead a project as the main person, so he had held on and worked hard to help, but the place was still chaotic.
“Haa.”
His chest felt heavy. If he moved, he would have to start over from the beginning. Of course, his career there would be acknowledged to some extent, but the subjective evaluations and atmosphere he had received there were hard to express on paper.
Moreover, the industry had been unsettled lately, which weighed on his mind.
After the success of Cute Monsters last year, the industry received a considerable shock, and as the transition from traditional manual work to digital began, many animation companies were failing to adapt and collapsing.
In truth, Lewis was fairly skilled with computers, so this transition was likely to help him instead. But seeing the industry itself shake and familiar things collapse made him feel something close to skepticism about animation production itself.
No, perhaps this was because he had already been interested in another field for some time.
Lewis was interested in games. It had not always been that way. About seven or eight years ago, he had encountered an adventure game and been deeply shocked.
To be honest, from his perspective as an animator, earlier PC games had been far too disappointing in terms of graphics. But that adventure game showed illustrations of astonishing quality even with insufficient computer performance.
On top of that, since he had been eager to create his own work at the time, he thought that with games, he might be able to create what he wanted even by himself.
After that, he studied not only computer graphics but also coding and began making his own game.
And because he thought of it as his own, he freely revealed his tastes while working on it.
It was fun. He enjoyed it enough to sit in front of the computer and develop it even after coming home late from work. He worked on it in bits and pieces for several years and eventually managed to create a roughly playable version, about an alpha version. The problem was that it was not very fun.
The art came out fairly well to his satisfaction, but he did not know whether his talent as a game developer simply was not that high, or whether he still lacked knowledge and experience. Either way, the game was just dull. He had even thought of changing careers to become a game developer if it worked out, so it was disappointing.
But he had not given up yet. He continued studying development, playing other games, and even attending developer conferences to build knowledge and experience. During that process, he met Eunha.
“Who is this?”
[Lewis? It’s me. Eunha. Do you remember me?]
“Huh? Ah! Eunha!”
It was a sudden phone call. He wondered who it was, then realized it was the young Asian woman he had met at a conference before. They had gotten along fairly well in conversation and had met several times afterward to talk about game development.
She had said she would invite him to a gathering of game developers sometime, so Lewis continued the call with slight anticipation, wondering if this was about that.
But what she said next was similar yet somewhat different.
[Lewis. You said before that you wanted to work at a game company. Is that still true?]
“Huh?”
He seemed to recall saying that. But at the time, he had said it rather lightly. The company’s situation had not been very good back then either, so he had been thinking about changing jobs, but he had not seriously been talking about switching industries. It had only been something along the lines of wanting to try game development someday.
But now that he looked back on it, it had become a little more sincere.
“Yeah. If it’s a good company, I’d like to try working there.”
[Oh? Really? Then how about Parallel Soft?]
“Huh?! Seriously?!”
After that, Lewis heard from her that Parallel Soft was recruiting for a new team, and that they were looking for someone who could work on the monster and gory concept art he had shown her before.
Since Lewis was very interested in games, he naturally knew about Parallel Soft. Once the thought that he might be able to enter that company occurred to him, his wavering heart tilted sharply in that direction.
A few days later, he went to Parallel Soft and had an interview.
“Welcome.”
When the woman in her thirties who was the CEO saw his drawings and frowned, he flinched, thinking he had failed. But contrary to his expectations, he passed the interview and was able to join the company.
From Hyein’s perspective, the gory art style was not to her taste, and on top of that, the fact that her still-young son had to make a game with this kind of art made her unable to maintain the poker face she had built up over time. However, the ability of this man named Lewis seemed certain.
He was not simply good at drawing. He had personally done computer graphics work to create a game, and the pixel characters and backgrounds he showed in his portfolio also captured the feeling quite well while considering the characteristics of games and the gamers’ perspective.
That was how Lewis finally met Insu, the team leader.
“I heard about you from Eunha noona.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Like anyone who met Insu, Lewis was quite flustered as he shook his hand.
Since Insu was already used to this reaction, he ignored it and first examined Lewis’s portfolio. He started with the self-made game Lewis had created.
Oh! The atmosphere is pretty good.
Adventure games were not to his taste, but the illustration of a huge zombie-like monster bursting out from a pile of corpses and tearing a person apart was exactly the kind of concept art he had been looking for.
If things went well, he might even be able to use it as it was.
However, the game itself was full of bugs and not fun at all. It was exactly the kind of game made by someone who had played an adventure game once, been deeply impressed by it, and somehow tried to imitate it.
Still, the unique atmosphere and provocative imagery might attract at least some people’s interest.
There were also pixel effects and visual effects in the portfolio, and those were also quite to his liking.