Chapter 42: Alpha Test
Chapter 42: Alpha Test
At first, he had only thought she had decent instincts and would therefore be somewhat helpful. Whether it was because the growth potential of youth was incredible or because her original talent had simply been high from the start, he didn’t know. But the stable development ability she was displaying while making games now was something he absolutely did not want to lose.
In any case, Eunha noona answered him, and since she showed no signs of wanting to quit, Insu was able to relax for the moment.
Afterward, the settlement payment from Japan also arrived. As expected, it had dropped significantly.
I kind of hoped the news from America would cause a reverse climb or something...
Now even the 30,000-copy barrier had broken, and sales had dropped to around 27,000 copies. Even so, it was still selling fairly well for now, but knowing it would continue declining in the future still left him feeling slightly deflated.
In truth, this was by no means a small amount either. In terms of money, it was close to 300 million won. It only felt disappointing because a huge amount had just come in from America, and because sales were declining.
“Please take care of this too.”
“Okay.”
His mother still looked burdened, but since she knew Insu had been busy and exhausted lately from developing the next project, she forced herself to smile and nodded. This money was also scheduled to be invested entirely into Gangnam real estate.
It might have been TMI, but Seongcheol and Hyein felt they were investing too heavily only in Gangnam, so they also looked into other regions. In particular, they examined the northern regions, where land prices were cheaper.
However, the outlook there was not particularly promising. Gaeseong and Pyongyang held fairly high value, but the international hub development they had discussed for years showed no signs of materializing, leaving them with little more status than satellite cities close to Seoul.
A large reason was that Free China already conducted direct trade through its own port cities and had no particular need to route commerce through Korea, while trade with Russia was also falling below expectations.
Moreover, the northern regions were fundamentally cold and not particularly comfortable places to live.
Seongcheol and Hyein’s judgment was that the low prices were not hiding future potential. Rather, those prices simply reflected their actual value.
And even if a war between Free China and Communist China occurred, as some far-right groups claimed, causing temporary wartime economic benefits, the north would more likely suffer falling land prices due to being close to China and Russia.
In any case, Insu left such complicated matters to his parents and focused on game development.
To be honest, it wasn’t as if he felt zero anxiety about leaving everything to them.
In his previous life, he remembered occasionally hearing stories about athletes or celebrities entrusting money management to family members, only for problems to occur later.
Even so, he still entrusted it to them partly because he believed they were not that kind of people, but also because after finding himself in a similar situation personally, he realized he truly did not have the spare capacity for it.
Especially in this era, the effort and time required just to confirm even one thing could not be compared to the information age. Trying to handle all of that would not only destroy his concentration, but there was also a literal physical limit to what he could do.
That was why Insu simply felt grateful to have trustworthy people around him and handed everything over completely.
And it wasn’t as if he had not calculated things at all. Nearly all of the company shares belonged to him anyway, and the investments were being made under the corporation’s name, so theoretically, there was very little room for problems to arise.
Continuing to doubt and obsess over things that can’t be helped would probably just be stupid.
After brushing aside the fleeting thoughts, Insu focused on development once more.
As time passed, the weather grew colder and winter vacation approached. Insu’s development team succeeded in creating the Alpha Version.
“The UI and UX adjustments are finished, right?”
(Translator’s Notes: UI (User Interface) — The visual layout and controls through which users interact with software or games.)
(Translator’s Notes: UX (User Experience) — The overall experience and usability a user has while interacting with software, websites, or games.)
“Yes.”
“And memory optimization is done too?”
“Yes!”
Holding a checklist, Insu confirmed each item one by one. After marking everything complete, he raised his head again and spoke.
“Yes. The Alpha Version is complete.”
“!!”
The development team members didn’t shout loudly, but they expressed their joy by raising their fists high or through their facial expressions. Somehow, they had managed to complete the Alpha Version before the year ended without falling far behind their intended schedule.
Unlike the others, Insu quietly waited for their excitement to settle. In truth, this was only the beginning. They were about to discover just how absurd an Alpha Version looked upon first launch, and just how much work still remained.
The endless game of whack-a-mole begins now.
Perhaps because of those thoughts, he automatically sighed as he launched the game.
Optimization seems decent for now.
Insu estimated the loading time from the Parallel Soft logo to the title screen and finally into the game itself. The loading felt slightly long, but for an Alpha Version, it was more than acceptable.
“--! -!”
After selecting a race and entering a name, an illustration appeared alongside majestic sound effects. It had a medieval atmosphere, but the art style itself actually resembled the painting styles popular during the Renaissance era.
Several illustrations depicted an old medieval-style castle and territory, as well as a noble coming of age, their parents dying, the funeral being held, and the noble becoming the new lord.
They were merely still images, but the dramatic contrast between light and shadow created a strong sense of narrative immersion.
Eunha noona’s skills really improved a lot.
Without realizing it, Insu glanced toward Eunha. Professional artists might still find flaws in it, but to ordinary gamers, it radiated a sufficiently convincing atmosphere.
And they had even implemented this on a 386 computer with only 256 colors.
After seeing the graphics of Legacy of Avalon 4 before, Eunha had been so shocked that she intensely focused on creating several illustrations, and at the time, Insu thought it was excessive.
Of course, cool illustrations were nice, but perfect graphics were impossible anyway. Insu believed it was enough as long as the visuals helped gamers immerse themselves. Excessive quality also consumed too many resources and could even negatively affect gameplay smoothness.
However, now that he saw it implemented directly in-game, it genuinely felt worth the development time and resource allocation they had invested.
Afterward, Insu gathered troops and recruited talented individuals.
Talented individuals themselves were fairly common in this game. They could be obtained from local nobles, wanderers, and adventurers. Wanderers were practically always present in places like taverns, and adventurers were likewise common if a territory contained dungeons, monsters, or other attractions.
The truly rare thing was capable talent.
Well, at the beginning, you use whatever you can get.
And if possible, local nobles were easier to use. Not because of personal preferences like Eunha noona’s fantasy about nobility, but because systemically, their minimum capability level was high and their betrayal rate was relatively low.
This setting was not because nobles were inherently superior, but because people with roots in a region found it difficult to betray their ruler easily, and because wealth and high status naturally came with higher baseline education.
Insu used a 4 Drone Strategy. The moment he gathered a small force, he immediately attacked the neighboring territory. He wanted rapid expansion, but he also enjoyed barely holding off computer attacks in slightly disadvantageous situations after enemies invaded while weakened from war.
Ah. First bug discovered.
While moving his army, he noticed they were moving strangely fast. Most likely, they had either miscalculated the coefficient for the movement-speed bonus applied to smaller troop counts or messed up the code path.
Insu immediately wrote it down in his notes and resumed playing.
The battle animations definitely improved a lot too.
It wasn’t that they had inserted cutscenes. Even character movement during gameplay itself was generally referred to as animation.
The Land Of Fantasy’s character animations had already been decent, but perhaps because Eunha noona had studied extensively during that time, the added detail made combat feel far more dynamic.
Someone might ask how tiny characters moving around could possibly feel dynamic, but this was not yet an era where entire screens were filled with highly dynamic 3D character graphics. As long as gamers could immerse themselves, that alone was enough to create intensity.
Here, the details seemed to play the role of enhancing that immersion.
Since it was the early game, combat itself was simple. He ignored growth entirely and instead mass-produced basic troops, so opponents attempting balanced development were crushed almost instantly.
“Oh...”
Upon victory, an illustration appeared together with effects. It still carried a medieval atmosphere: a knight in armor staring into the distance while standing upon a battlefield covered in corpses after a fierce battle.
The complex atmosphere made it perfect for savoring the afterglow of victory.
Could this be Suhyeon’s work?
He didn’t particularly notice any quality difference. However, it felt slightly more masculine somehow, so it probably wasn’t something Eunha noona had conceptualized alone.
Perhaps one side had drawn it while incorporating the other’s feedback. In any case, he was satisfied.
The sound was also surprisingly good. Rather than the stereotypical image of musicians becoming inspired, immersing themselves, and refining their work over long periods, these tracks felt more like they had squeezed Yoo Juyeon dry and then roughly cleaned up the integration process afterward, leaving Insu slightly worried about the quality. Yet hearing it directly in-game, he was genuinely satisfied.
He’s definitely much better at this than I am, at least.
Insu prided himself on making The Land Of Fantasy well, but among all its aspects, the sound had remained one of his regrets. This time, however, he felt the project could receive praise in that area as well.
Ah... another bug.
This time, the sound effects suddenly played incorrectly. Apparently, the audio channels had not been organized properly.
Need to note this too.
He played for quite a long time after that, and it was definitely fun. Despite being constantly interrupted by bugs and errors, frequently freezing and crashing, it still felt enjoyable enough to keep playing.
Maybe it’s because I didn’t make this one alone?
Just like with The Land Of Fantasy, Insu had handled all the planning himself. So he already understood the systems and developer intentions behind everything, yet it still felt fun.
Perhaps it was because, even if he understood the intent, he didn’t know every implementation detail, and because he hadn’t developed it alone, parts of it still felt unfamiliar. Or perhaps when he had developed alone before, the suffering of development itself had smothered the enjoyment.
Thinking that, Insu chuckled quietly to himself before immersing himself in the game once more.
The other team members also enjoyed the game just as much. Just like during the prototype stage, there was the thrill of playing a game they themselves had helped create, and now that the completion level was far higher than before, they also felt proud, making the experience even more enjoyable.
It’s a masterpiece!
Yoonsu felt even greater emotion than when he first played The Land Of Fantasy. However, this was hardly an objective evaluation and was heavily mixed with personal feelings.
Still, as he played a game of a quality he never could have created alone, he once again felt glad that he had joined Parallel Soft.
Yoonsu naturally had a strong ego, so rather than leading development himself, joining a company and developing under a team leader had initially felt somewhat awkward. Of course, he gradually adapted over time, but today’s experience felt as though it completely blew away even the lingering discomfort he still had.
Since the maps were randomly generated, everyone inside the development studio guided their own territories through entirely different worlds, each developing their domains toward their own goals.
Korea’s first game magazine, Game Heaven, launched precisely when gamer demand was exploding. By satisfying frustrations gamers previously felt while reading foreign magazines through Korean-language articles and by efficiently gathering information about both domestic and overseas games, it rapidly grew into a success.