Chapter 59: An Unexpected Variable
Chapter 59: An Unexpected Variable
Insu had especially high expectations for Brian Whitman. That was because he was a talented person with network knowledge, which was truly rare in this era.
Of course, Yoonsu also knew a certain amount, since he had once made and operated a MUD, but he had not developed the MUD server itself. He had merely modified the settings of an existing server he had luckily obtained, so his knowledge was not that deep.
At this time, many people made MUDs that way. No, it would be more accurate to say that independently developing the server itself was rare.
In any case, Insu had finished planning by now and had completed a large portion of the design as well, so he was able to organize the systems that needed implementation and distribute them.
Before throwing those systems at the team wholesale, Insu thought for a moment.
When he first created the development team in Korea, he had broken the systems down again to the lower level and divided the work in detail, even down to what specific code needed to be implemented.
For example, it was like cutting up a large chunk of meat before giving it to them, or like a mother bird roughly digesting food and then spitting it back up for her chicks.
But after the team members gained a certain amount of experience and career history, he had roughly broken the work apart and tossed it to them to tear into on their own. The team members had wandered for a while, but in the end, they adapted and safely finished development.
But these people are new hires who just came in.
Although he had selected talented people in his own way, they were still only young people in their early twenties with almost no experience. So he wondered whether he needed to tear the work apart again like he was raising baby birds.
But when he thought about it again, this was exactly why development studios had seniors.
And in his development team, even if they were not quite enough to be called seniors, half the total members were people who had developed one game from start to finish.
This was not because Insu found it bothersome, but for efficiency.
Though it’s also bothersome.
And the team was currently divided between the people who had followed him from Korea and the newly hired members. On top of that, there was a language barrier, so he needed to pay attention to integrating the team.
If he tossed this kind of work to them here, the new hires would have to solve it by asking someone, and the veterans had the ability to answer. It seemed this could become an opportunity to establish proper relationships and build teamwork.
“Make as much use of the seniors as possible. It’s only natural for new hires to have things they don’t know. The seniors were all like that once too.”
Insu even said this to encourage situations where they asked and answered questions. Of course, he planned to keep watching them in the future as well.
Like this, Parallel Soft’s newly reopened development studio in America initially ran with some creaking. There was no major friction, but there were naturally parts that did not mesh easily with each other, so they had to go through the process of adjusting.
But whether it was thanks to Insu’s leadership or because they had somehow chosen the right people, they adapted to one another somehow, and from November onward, the development studio began operating in earnest.
“Hyun Soft sent the money.”
“Oh! How much?”
His mother had called him through the intercom, so he went upstairs and heard that the first settlement payment after the release of Medieval Fantasy Nobility had come in.
Previously, she would have told him separately after work, but now his mother and father were also almost always at the company, and unlike in Korea, Insu had more leeway because the number of team members had doubled.
“See for yourself.”
Insu received the bankbook. The game had been released in September, but now that the money had to be remitted overseas from Korea to America, a delay occurred.
Since no one was in Korea now, it could not be helped. This was not yet an era with internet banking, so they could not use the incoming money, let alone check whether it had been deposited.
[Deposit – HYUNDAI SOFT CO., LTD Amount: USD 53,605.33]
Fifty thousand?
America only received transfers in dollars, so Hyun Soft had no choice but to exchange the money before sending it. Since the current exchange rate was about 720 won, it was roughly more than thirty-eight million won.
Then that means it sold around eight thousand copies?
That was the value he calculated backward after applying the settlement ratio. In truth, after seeing money on a completely different scale several times because of the huge success in America and Japan, the amount itself did not move him much. But when he converted it into sales volume, it became quite interesting.
For now, it was almost four times the first-month sales of the previous work.
Of course, that did not mean he could expect this work to become four times as successful. Unlike the previous work, this one had started with recognition, had received stronger marketing support, and above all, the rapid growth of Korea’s computer game market was probably the biggest factor.
Even so, he was happy all the same. Selling as many as eight thousand copies in Korea in the first month at this time was truly record-breaking.
“We’ll use this for operating expenses.”
“Yes.”
It was an awkward amount to invest somewhere, and the operating costs of the development studio had now greatly increased. Although everyone was a newcomer and their salaries were on the low side, the basic labor cost difference between Korea and America was large from the start, so it could not be helped.
To be honest, it was not that he felt no sense of waste at all, but since he was about to take on the difficult challenge of creating the first MMORPG, he needed to secure both the environment and the talent.
By the time they began MMORPG development, they would likely need to recruit more people again. At this time, gathering close to twenty people in Korea with the required level of talent would have been difficult.
No, it would probably have been almost impossible.
The three people who had followed him to America were all fairly skilled, but that was because Seongcheol and Insu had carefully chosen them, and they had also been quite lucky.
That was how large the environmental gap between America and Korea was right now.
Using Romance of the Three Kingdoms as an example, even Tao Qian had some talented people under him, but even if one scraped all of them together, there were only a few. So if one wanted to accomplish a large project like unifying the Three Kingdoms, one had to go to a major country like Wei, Shu, or Wu, where the talent pool was rich.
(Translator’s Note: Romance of the Three Kingdoms — A classic Chinese historical epic novel depicting the wars and rivalries of the Three Kingdoms era)
(Translator’s Note: Tao Qian — A warlord and governor during the late Eastern Han dynasty in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, known for yielding Xuzhou to Liu Bei.)
(Translator’s Note: Wei, Shu, and Wu — The three rival states of China’s Three Kingdoms period, frequently associated with large-scale warfare, political rivalry, and the competition for talented strategists and generals.)
To be honest, if America was Wei, then calling Korea Tao Qian was probably already giving it too much credit.
At most, it’d be around Yan Baihu or Wang Lang’s level.
(Translator’s Note: Yan Baihu — A regional warlord from the late Eastern Han period who controlled parts of Jiangdong before being defeated during Sun Ce’s rise to power in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.)
(Translator’s Note: Wang Lang — A scholar-official and warlord of the late Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms period who later served the state of Wei; often remembered in popular culture for his debates and political reputation.)
Moreover, Insu was aiming for the first MMORPG. And being first meant that it required a lot of cutting-edge technology that had not yet become popularized. The place where such technology existed, and where at least some people had learned it, was probably America.
Among those places, LA was likely the core area, since it was the heart of American popular culture such as film, music, and TV, was filled with major computer companies, and was close to Silicon Valley.
Not long afterward, the American settlement payment came in.
“Maybe it’s because we’re in America, but this is fast.”
“It’s probably because it isn’t an overseas remittance.”
[Deposit – Velocity Entertainment CO., LTD Amount: USD 890,468.04]
As expected, the unit was different. But Insu’s expression was not very bright.
“Eight hundred ninety thousand dollars? Is that good for the first month?”
“For now, it does seem higher than TLF’s release month.”
The problem was that the situation was different from back then. If they calculated backward according to the increased ratio, it meant roughly sixty thousand copies had been sold. Looking at that alone, it could be called a start similar to the previous work, which had been a massive hit.
But unlike with TLF, their recognition had risen greatly, and they had announced the release date in magazines ahead of time, creating the same effect as pouring a tremendous amount of early marketing into it. Yet despite that, its start was the same as the previous work, which had begun from complete obscurity. That was not exactly a good sign.
“So the genre really is the problem?”
“Yes. I expected it to some degree, but I guess that’s really the case.”
Of course, it had only just begun, so it was far too early to draw conclusions. Still, he felt he needed to prepare himself to some extent.
That said, it was absolutely not a failed indicator. It was just that the previous work had succeeded too much, and the reactions he had seen through PC communication and other channels were quite good, so his expectations had risen quite a lot. Even if the flow continued like this, it could still be called a successful work.
Perhaps because of this subtle start, Insu became even more curious about people’s reactions. So on the way home from work, he often stopped by bookstores and waited for game magazines to come out. As soon as the new issue of GameFront LA was released, he immediately picked it up.
“Did you come to buy that magazine?”
Of course, he had not come to the bookstore alone. He had come with his mother. Although LA was a major city in a developed country, it was not safe enough for an eight-year-old child to walk around alone.
“Yes. Is there anything you want to buy, Mom?”
“Not really. Then let’s go back.”
“Yes.”
After returning home, Insu lay on his bed and opened the magazine. He had already become used to the house in America, so it was simply comfortable now. After all, outside might be different, but inside the house, there was no difference between Seoul and LA.
Although he had bought the magazine to find reactions to his own game, he originally read game magazines often to follow trends in the game industry and simply liked games themselves, so he did not flip through it hurriedly. He read slowly.
It still really is the early days, huh?
The console side had become fairly flashy, but PC games still had new releases with 16-color EGA graphics that smelled strongly of the classics.
Looking at it this way, the games he made could certainly be called ahead of their time.
“Huh?”
As his chest swelled slightly and he turned the pages one by one, he discovered a game that instantly caught his interest.
First, the fact that the graphics were 256-color VGA caught his eye, and so did the genre, which was the same turn-based strategy simulation as Insu’s recently released game.
This…
On top of that, the random map generation system, the multiple civilizations starting from ancient times, and the sophisticated system where they developed through complex tech trees and competed against each other reminded him of a famous game from his previous life.
(Translator’s Notes: Tech Tree — A progression structure in strategy games where players unlock more advanced units, buildings, or technologies by meeting prerequisite conditions.)
It’s Civilization, isn’t it?
Moreover, this game had the exact same name: Civilization. Then again, with this kind of subject and content, it would probably have been difficult to find and attach a different title.
However, Sid Meier’s name was not there.
“Edwin Stonebrook?”
He seemed to be someone who had already made simulation-type games before, and since he had quite a bit of name value, this Civilization seemed to be attracting considerable attention from the start.
Insu felt slightly intimidated.
That was because Civilization was a game that had become legendary in his previous life, and Insu himself had enjoyed it quite a lot.
The direction is a bit different from my game, though.
Honestly, he did not think Medieval Fantasy Nobility, or MFN, was inferior at all. Rather, he thought it had many better points, such as combat, strategy, and magnificent art.
But Civilization’s name value was so huge, and since doubts had arisen about MFN’s first report card, he could not help worrying.
But Insu was not the only one worrying like this.
“For now, it seems to be getting good reviews, but…”
Edwin Stonebrook was reading the magazine article while nearly tearing at his reddish-brown beard with one hand.
“Damn it. They should’ve just made an RPG. Why did they have to make a strategy game too?”
He was talking about Parallel Soft. Edwin had first risen to prominence with Ocean Pirate, a simulation game where the player became a pirate and roamed the seas. Later, he earned the nickname master of simulation with Camp Ground, a game about running a military base.
To cement this reputation, he had ambitiously developed Civilization, but then Parallel Soft, a company that appeared like a comet, had released a turn-based strategy simulation one step ahead of him.
Moreover, unfairly enough, they had drawn tremendous attention through media play even before release.
Ah, damn. Should I have delayed the release date a little?
But operating a development studio meant money went out with every breath, and since he had received a great deal of investment to expand the studio, he had no room to hold out.
And when he obtained and played the game released by Parallel Soft, it was quite threatening.