Chapter 16
Chapter 16
“Ah. So you decided to go with this name?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
[The Land Of Fantasy]
Insu did not just want to depict specific events in a particular world. He wanted to embody the very concept of fantasy itself. Because of that, he spent a long time thinking about the title.
Honestly, he worried that it might seem too arrogant. But he could not come up with a better title, and when he considered the scale of his vision, he felt this much boldness was necessary.
Compared to all the thought Insu put into it, Eunha’s reaction was simply that it sounded plausible enough. Then again, unless someone was a developer, most people probably did not attach that much meaning to a game title.
“Can’t I continue from the save I was playing before?”
“Uh... sorry. Since the version changed, it could trigger bugs if we’re not careful.”
“Mhm. No, it’s okay. I was just asking.”
Repeating the early parts was becoming slightly tedious for Eunha, but because this game did not follow a fixed story path, she was soon able to continue as if embarking on a completely new adventure again.
This time, let’s head south.
Still, even though it felt like a new adventure, this was already the third test session, so it naturally lacked the same freshness as the first time. It was fortunate enough that the game remained fairly enjoyable.
Of course, that was by Eunha’s standards as someone who originally had little interest in games. Later that evening, Seongcheol ignored even the exhaustion from overtime work and immediately became immersed in the game the moment he joined testing.
For Insu, who struggled desperately to find testers, having a player this passionate about testing was an enormous relief.
“This is the beta version, right?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Then it should be close to release now?”
“That’s right.”
Before even hearing Insu’s answer, Seongcheol had already fallen into thought. Through Hyein’s connections, they had managed to establish a link to a distributor, but that connection alone was not enough to guarantee favorable conditions.
When relying on connections, both sides needed to benefit. People who tried to take advantage of others one-sidedly would eventually become isolated as word spread.
Which meant they needed to convince the other side that this opportunity would benefit them as well. And to do that, they had to demonstrate the game’s commercial potential.
Since the beta version was already highly polished, Seongcheol briefly considered simply taking it over immediately to show them. Both he and Insu desperately wanted to reveal this game to the world as soon as possible.
But after thinking about it again, he realized he was being too hasty.
They already had enough disadvantages as it was. The fact that this was a first project and that the developer was only six years old naturally damaged credibility.
And if they brought an unfinished version only for some critical bug to appear at the wrong moment, even if the contract itself did not collapse, the distributor could drastically slash the profit ratio.
It’s still better to bring them the final version after testing is completely finished.
Fortunately, Seongcheol managed not to reveal his impatience in front of his son.
Besides, the game itself was simply too fun. The colors, art, and sound alone were thrilling, but the gameplay was even more impressive.
Especially the combat. Compared to the absurdly simplistic RPGs he played before, this had an entirely different level of depth. He genuinely could not understand how anyone came up with ideas like this.
Of course, it was less that Insu invented these concepts and more that he borrowed them from the future. Some of Insu’s own ideas were mixed in, but objectively speaking, the entire foundation was built by the countless game developers of his previous life.
Originally, these systems evolved gradually over more than twenty years, from the early 1990s through the 2010s, refined little by little through countless games and developers. Experiencing that result immediately in the late 1980s without any of the intermediate stages naturally felt miraculous.
And if Seongcheol knew that even this was only a temporary combat system Insu implemented because technological limitations prevented real-time systems, he probably would have become convinced once again that his son was a god of games.
Seongcheol kept glancing at the clock. He hated seeing the remaining time disappear.
Ha. But I still have to go to work.
Actually, because of his job, he had recently drifted away from games somewhat. But this game instantly made him feel like he had returned to the days when he was completely obsessed with gaming.
Insu felt grateful seeing his father like this. Watching him become so immersed gave him confidence, and despite being busy with real life, Seongcheol still spent large amounts of time every day testing even fairly deep portions of the game.
Honestly, if it were not for his father, it would not merely mean losing one tester. The overall quality of testing would have dropped dramatically. During small-scale development like this, having someone like him was truly invaluable.
So testing continued. But strangely enough, bugs were not appearing very often in this beta version.
And that’s exactly why I’m nervous. Damn it.
Bug hunting was not something where he could just celebrate because no bugs appeared. The delusion that he might secretly be a coding genius capable of writing perfect code had shattered long ago during his early days learning programming.
And to make excuses for himself, compared to earlier games, this one had considerably more complex systems, so naturally the probability of bugs was much higher.
There’s definitely something hidden somewhere.
Of course, if bugs existed but were so minor and deeply hidden that no one could ever find them, then it did not really matter. But since a catastrophic bug could easily be sitting only one step away, he could not relax and instead searched even more obsessively.
Maybe because it’s been so long since I made some of these systems and I’ve forgotten parts of them... but this is actually more fun than before.
During beta testing, Insu himself spent much more time actively playing.
(Translator’s Note: Beta Test — External testing process involving ordinary gamers to identify problems, gather feedback, and evaluate game stability before release.)
Up until alpha testing, he had been too busy fixing bugs found by Dad and Eunha noona while polishing other systems. But now, since bugs were appearing less frequently, he finally had enough time, while also feeling desperate to uncover anything still hidden.
And after sitting down and truly playing the game for long stretches, he found it more enjoyable than expected.
This game was not his ultimate goal, but it did contain many systems he dreamed about since his previous life. Systems he always wanted to create someday but never managed to before dying.
Actually spending such a long period of time implementing them at last moved him deeply.
Afterward, Insu spent another month completing both beta testing and the RC stage.
(Translator’s Notes: RC / Release Candidate — Final-stage software build intended for release unless critical bugs are discovered during testing.)
Was this what they called a gold master?
(Translator’s Notes: Gold Master — The finalized master build of a game prepared for manufacturing, distribution, or platform submission.)
Insu deliberately stared at the game copied onto floppy disks and fell into thought. It was enormous, six entire disks.
The game’s 8.1MB size was split across six 1.44MB floppy disks.
Considering that many popular RPGs of this era were not even 500KB in size, this was an absolutely monstrous scale.
Of course, those games were designed for 286 systems or even older hardware, so the difference in capacity was natural. But even by 386 standards, The Land Of Fantasy was still unusually large.
Even during the 386 era, many games still fit entirely onto a single floppy disk.
Well, by the 386 era, hard disks are basically standard anyway, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Still, it was not entirely problem-free. Hard disks in this era usually only held between 20MB and 40MB, meaning on a 20MB drive, this game alone would consume nearly half the available space.
No, actually more than half once it’s decompressed. Around thirteen megabytes.
Insu suddenly remembered how, in his previous life, smartphone games grew so large that installing a new game often required deleting older games or apps first.
But there was nothing he could do about it now. It was far too late to cut down the volume of the game. All he could do was hope players found it fun enough to tolerate the inconvenience.
Even though the gold master was complete, they could not immediately visit the distributor because they still had to wait for Dad’s day off.
But Insu did not feel anxious at all.
“There’s no way they’d reject this game, right?”
“True.”
Eunha nodded while looking over the disks containing the game. By now, after playing the games on Insu’s computer, she fully understood how advanced the game they created actually was.
The only thing disappointing to Insu was the fact that he could not personally handle negotiations.
It was not that he had confidence in his negotiating skills, but since it was his game, he believed he could explain it better and make discussions about future vision more persuasive. More than anything, he simply wanted to be the one personally selling his own game.
“Wouldn’t your dad handle it well too?”
“Mm. That’s true.”
Even though Seongcheol was not a developer, he was the most dedicated tester and genuinely loved games. In some ways, he might actually explain the game better from a gamer’s perspective than Insu could as a developer.
To begin with, even though the connection came through Mom’s network, Dad stepped forward not only because he was the representative director, but also because, unlike Mom, he possessed a much deeper understanding of games.
Then, two days later, Seongcheol took paid leave from work and visited Hyun Soft.
It’s smaller than I expected.
The building he found after getting off the bus and checking the directions was only three stories tall and fairly compact.
Considering it was supposedly one of the top three distributors in the country, the size really showed how tiny the Korean software market still was.
“How may I help you?”
Still, once he entered, there was a proper reception desk and employees waiting to greet him. Apparently, despite first impressions, it was not actually such a small company.
“I have an appointment with Manager Cheon Wooil.”
“Ah, yes. One moment please.”
A few minutes after the receptionist made a call, a large man descended the stairs.
“Are you Mr. Kim Seongcheol?”
“Ah, yes. You must be Manager Cheon Wooil.”
“Yes, yes. Please come this way.”
Since the other man’s attitude did not seem bad, Seongcheol relaxed slightly. Manager Cheon Wooil led him into an office.
Well, I guess you can’t really run a game inside a reception room.
“Please, sit here.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Manager Cheon Wooil dragged over a chair with slightly exaggerated politeness, and Seongcheol smiled as he sat down.
It was probably an attempt to soften the stiffness that could arise from bringing him into a somewhat rigid office instead of a comfortable reception room with soft sofas.
“These days, computer adoption rates are steadily increasing. And hardware performance keeps improving too. When the 386 first came out, I was genuinely shocked. But I never expected someone in Korea to already bring in a game designed for 386 specifications.”
“Haha.”
That compliment was probably also intended to ease the atmosphere. But since Seongcheol had not made the game himself and could not reveal the real developer, all he could do was respond with an awkward laugh.
“Well then, shall we take a look at what kind of game this is? Ms. Mijin praised it as something incredible, so my expectations are quite high.”
“Ah, yes.”
After receiving the six floppy disks, Manager Cheon Wooil looked slightly surprised. The size was substantial.
For a brief moment, suspicion crossed his mind that perhaps the code was simply a mess filled with redundancy and unnecessary duplication. But he did not show it outwardly.
Well, I’ll know once I try it.
He simply smiled and installed the game onto the office computer.
Soon, the office filled with the rattling sounds of the disk drive reading and writing data. Both men had too many thoughts in their heads to speak.
A while later, installation finished, and Cheon Wooil immediately launched the game.
“Then let me take a look.”
“Ah, yes.”
[Parallel Soft]
The logo looked fairly convincing at first glance. Even something that small mattered, since it created the very first impression.
Then the title screen appeared.
Oh...
[The Land Of Fantasy]
He was not entirely sure about the title itself, but the design, colors, and softly beginning melody were all extremely high quality.
This feels like something you’d only see on consoles.