Chapter 56: Restart

Park Yoonsu originally had strong self-confidence and belief in his own success, so rather than feeling intimidated, he felt certain that he had arrived somewhere he could properly display his abilities and was steadily moving toward the high position destined for him.

Thanks to that, he was far more energetic than before and immersed himself in development.

As for Lee Suhyeon, he had flown over before the other team members, looked around LA, and realistically felt for himself that this place truly was the center of the world, incomparable to Korea.

Of course, what he saw was only an extremely small part of it, but as someone with a fair amount of experience in various things, he could glimpse the enormous whole to some extent from that small part.

Since he had always longed for success, he thought he was truly lucky to have reached this place and did his best.

Among them, Yoo Juyeon was the most intimidated, but even he had come here with the desire to challenge himself after his conversation with his father, so he tried not to let that momentum die.

Lastly, in Eunha’s case, she simply seemed endlessly happy. Before coming, she had also felt some fear, but once she arrived, it was a city like the ones in Hollywood movies, and when she heard that it was actually a neighborhood next to Hollywood, she even cheered without realizing it.

She also now had not just her own room, but her own home, and she had become free ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after being completely liberated from school. Moreover, the unbelievably good weather here made her feel endlessly cheerful.

“Huh? Really?”

Though afterward, when Hyein told her that even if she did not go to school, she still had to keep studying, Eunha did become slightly downcast.

Since the atmosphere in the development studio was not bad like this, development itself also continued smoothly.

Even after closing the Korean development studio, Insu had continued planning and designing on his own, so by the time they arrived here, he had enough work to distribute to the team members.

The planning could not yet be called completely finished, but the next stages were already being carried out at the same time.

Moreover, this work had many resources that could be reused, so instead of developing everything from scratch, there were many parts that only required slight modifications or improvements. Thanks to that, early development felt like it was progressing at a fairly rapid pace.

Even so, his plan to expand the development team did not change. No, if anything, adding people while they had this kind of leeway would make it easier to integrate them into the team.

At first, Seongcheol and Hyein thought of using a technical recruiting company, a tech recruiter. It was a good way to find people with specialized development skills, especially since Insu said he wanted someone specialized in networking, which was rare at the moment.

So they actually made an inquiry to Silicon Gateway Associates. But there was a problem.

“They’re too expensive!”

In the evening, when Insu heard the information his parents had gathered, he was startled. Their abilities and résumés certainly seemed good, but their annual salaries were something like fifty thousand dollars, and in serious cases, eighty thousand dollars.

“That’s what I thought too. So I talked to them a bit.”

Seongcheol had also been surprised by the much higher amount than expected, so instead of immediately placing a request, he looked around in various ways. And what he learned was that among developers, game developers were treated relatively low.

“They said game developers are around twenty-five thousand to thirty-five thousand.”

“…”

Although America’s game industry was the most developed in the world, America had not yet escaped the limitations of the era either.

This enormous industry still was not recognized as mainstream.

Because of that, games were regarded as a step below business software or system development, and game developers were viewed more as oddballs who did some coding and also touched art, rather than as proper developers.

Given that, game developers with experience and salaries like that listed through these specialized recruiting companies might have some experience, but there was a high chance they were only worth twenty-five thousand dollars.

Insu needed colleagues who truly loved games and saw their potential highly, not people who became game developers because they lacked ability.

And one more thing occurred to him belatedly. The current members of Insu’s development team were all young. Because of that, if the newly hired people were much older, managing the team would become slightly difficult. This was especially true when considering Insu, the team leader, and Eunha, the graphics lead.

But to put it another way, this meant he was asking for the extremely difficult condition of finding people who had high ability and potential while also being young. Yet Seongcheol and Hyein did not seem particularly troubled.

“Then, well… we have no choice but to use the same method we used in Korea.”

They already had experience, after all.

Starting the very next day, Seongcheol and Hyein began calling and faxing universities in LA and California. They would have preferred to go in person if possible, but compared to Korea, the area was far too large, and they still had not obtained driver’s licenses.

At least they were able to go directly to LACC, right next to Koreatown, and USC, which was still fairly close, to post job advertisements.

They also did not forget PC communication services. The services available here in LA included CyberCom, DataHorizon, and InfoNet Express. There were some differences from Korea, but functionally, they were similar. No, in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠case of DataHorizon, it had recently introduced a GUI and could also use a mouse, so it felt much more advanced.

Is it definitely different because this is America?

In the office on the second floor of the development studio, Seongcheol signed up for the services one by one and examined them.

If Insu had seen them, he probably would have felt they were similar to the internet portal sites that would appear later. Of course, they were much more primitive and limited, but they at least carried that sort of scent.

While Insu restarted the development studio and worked hard to expand the development team, Medieval Fantasy Nobility was released in Japan and America one after another.

The atmosphere in the Japanese market was similar to Korea. The game had built recognition through the hit of its predecessor, Fantasy World, and pouring marketing into the early stage was also a common strategy in the Japanese game market.

However, in Korea, there were almost no developers that had achieved huge success like Parallel Soft, so it felt as though the game monopolized the spotlight entirely. In comparison, Japan, befitting a gaming powerhouse, had many other popular works as well, so the atmosphere was more like it was drawing a moderate amount of attention.

Of course, it was somewhat different for fans deeply absorbed in Fantasy World’s unique gameplay.

Fans both raved and viewed it with concern. But even those negative gazes were ultimately interest and curiosity, so they led to sales.

A strategy simulation, huh…

Eighteen-year-old Ichikawa Yuma looked down at the packages of Pride of Nobility: Medieval Fantasy War Chronicles stacked in the store with troubled eyes.

Medieval Fantasy War Chronicles was the Japanese title of Medieval Fantasy Nobility.

Ichikawa was also a fan of Fantasy World. But he had a fairly neutral stance, and since he was a hardcore gamer, he also had a good understanding of the turn-based strategy simulation genre.

In his view, RPGs and turn-based strategy were completely different genres.

Even if it’s Parallel Soft, can a company that made RPGs suddenly create a deep strategy game like Cold War?

He held the same doubt many gamers did. Cold War was a game released in this world in 1985, and as the title suggested, it was based on the Cold War. Rather than fighting directly, the player became either America or the Soviet Union and expanded influence around the world through proxy wars, economic aid, sports, scientific competition, and other means.

However, one could not simply charge ahead recklessly, because if tensions rose too high, nuclear war would break out and the game would end.

There had been a similar game under a different title in Insu’s previous life as well, but perhaps because the Cold War remained fiercely ongoing in this world, this version had become a much bigger hit than the one in Insu’s world.

If it’s fantasy, will it feel similar to Lords of Glory?

This was a game released last year. Despite being made for fairly low specifications, it featured clean graphics, included undead and dragons to bring out the fantasy feel, and visually expressed the expansion of territory through war quite well.

However, the game was extremely simple. Producing units, moving them, battling, and occupying cities were everything, and even the battles immediately displayed only the results without any kind of presentation.

This was not only true of Lords of Glory. Most strategy games released around this time were similar. The fact that they contained depth within such simplicity was impressive, but unless one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠carefully savored them, it was hard to understand their enjoyment, so preferences tended to be divided.

Ichikawa suspected that this Medieval Fantasy War Chronicles might have mixed role-playing into a strategy game and ended up neither one nor the other. But at the same time, he could hardly endure his curiosity.

Ah, I still have to try it once.

In the end, like other gamers, he picked up a package of Medieval Fantasy War Chronicles.

After returning home, he carefully removed the wrapping and opened the package. Inside the box that popped open were as many as eight diskettes.

That’s a lot of capacity.

Most turn-based strategy simulations he had played used only one diskette. So he could not help wondering what they had used so much capacity for.

“Oh!”

After installation, when he passed the title screen and saw the illustration shown at the start of play, he let out an exclamation like everyone else. There was clearly a quality difference compared to the turn-based strategy games he had played before. Even the sound went beyond simple sound effects and felt like actual music.

Here, it definitely felt like Parallel Soft.

It definitely has RPG elements.

Of course, factions in other strategy games also grew, but compared to games that expressed this through actual increases in supplies and troops, this game quantified and developed ambiguous concepts such as technology and magic, which gave it a distinctly RPG-like feeling.

And the commanders in the commander system outright had experience points and levels.

It was not as detailed as an RPG, and the highest level was only ten, but a level was still a level.

The system is complex.

There were many things here and there. But it did not feel crude.

Rather, it felt as though those systems properly implemented medieval fantasy, and that instantly drew ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠him in.

As expected of Parallel Soft.

He also enjoyed the war system, which resembled what he had seen in Fantasy World. Insu thought he had simplified warfare as much as possible, but in turn-based strategy games of this era, many battles completely omitted presentation, just as Insu had initially imagined. Because of that, this turn-based combat system gave players enough immersion to feel as though they were actually waging war.

There were definitely games that implemented grid-based battles, but their level was still crude, so they actually lacked detail compared to this game’s combat system.

Forgetting the doubts he first had, he found himself already becoming a lord in a medieval fantasy world and struggling desperately to survive.

To be honest, it did not burst with dopamine like Fantasy World did, but it had the kind of addictiveness that constantly made him think about the next turn and made it hard to stop playing.

Like that, gamers, including Ichikawa, became quietly and certainly absorbed in Medieval Fantasy War Chronicles, even if not as fanatically as they had with Fantasy World.

Four days after its Japanese release, it launched in America on the thirteenth. There, it used the same title as in Korea, Medieval Fantasy Nobility.

Since magazine articles had already raised expectations heavily, and the release date fell within October as previously announced, the game became quite hot from the start, unlike the American market where flames usually caught more slowly.

As soon as the game came out, Eric Johnson immediately ran to the game specialty store near his house and bought a package.