Chapter 68: Déjà Vu and the New Game Article
Chapter 68: Déjà Vu and the New Game Article
Moreover, if this person truly possessed abilities like John Carmack’s, then before long, he would create Doom and Quake and build his own empire.
In truth, Insu wanted him so badly that he felt tempted to poke at even a persimmon he could not eat, but he had no idea how to bring it up.
If I say the wrong thing, I’ll just ruin the relationship for no reason.
Insu suppressed his regret and decided to wait until an opportunity arose someday. Even if he could not use him as a team member, he at least wanted to establish some kind of relationship.
Honestly, for someone who had once dreamed of becoming a developer, John Carmack was as great as a historical figure, and Insu was his fan. Now that a genius who might rival him had appeared, it was only natural for him to be interested.
Afterward, Insu threw himself into development even more.
It was a delusion, but he wanted to see Raiden Cole play his game and be amazed by it.
While that was happening, time passed, and June arrived. The settlement payment from China came in, but as expected, the amount was not large. It had clearly sold well by Chinese market standards, but the standards themselves were different, so it could not be compared to markets like Japan or America.
It’s about the same level as Korea.
Honestly, it was a little disappointing, but it was within the expected range. Since entering the Chinese market had been more about building recognition than profit, he decided to be more or less satisfied.
But something feels kind of empty. Like I forgot something.
In truth, this had absolutely nothing to do with China. It was the sense of déjà vu he felt because of the “LA riots” that he vaguely remembered. He had heard before that something like that happened sometime in the 1990s, and he roughly knew that the timing was around now. But because this was a different world, he had relaxed, and because he had been busy adapting and developing games, he had almost forgotten it entirely.
(Translator’s Note: LA Riots — Refers to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a period of widespread civil unrest in Los Angeles triggered by the acquittal of police officers involved in the beating of Rodney King.)
And before he realized it, the date when that incident occurred had already long passed.
He might never remember it forever, or one day it might suddenly come to mind and he might feel relieved that it had passed safely.
Damn it. What is this?
In any case, even after a long while, Insu could not figure out the source of that feeling, so he had no choice but to let it pass with lingering discomfort.
[Richard Kingsley will change everything!!]
And because the American presidential election was approaching that very year, the noisy talk filling both television and radio helped him forget the rest of that discomfort.
It was not exactly a secret in the development office that Insu was using TLF to target not only Europe but China as well. Rather, they promoted it whenever they had the chance. Magazines containing such articles were stacked on one side, and Hyein had even put up posters.
This definitely raised the team members’ morale.
The previous game’s success gave some sense that the sequel’s success was also guaranteed to a certain degree, and the previous prototype had clearly shown strong potential.
Insu might have shrunk back a little while watching masterpieces of the era like Hollow Warfare, but to the team members, Parallel Soft was already a company that had released masterpieces and was now making another one.
As the person overseeing development, Insu could not help sensing that momentum.
Yeah, so what about John Carmack? The developers already in my office aren’t pushovers either!
Insu’s gaze especially landed on Brian Whitman and Park Yoonsu, who were both absorbed in development. Those two definitely seemed to have enough potential to become senior developers.
Brian had always seemed knowledgeable and capable, but recently, Park Yoonsu truly seemed to be gritting his teeth and catching up. Once, Insu was even startled to see him answer quite skillfully about networking, a field he had barely known before.
He definitely belongs in the genius category.
When Yoonsu first came to the development office, he had been relatively good, but he also showed off a bit too much and had subtle gaps that made him seem strangely clumsy. Gradually, those gaps were being filled, and especially after coming to America, his growth was visible to the eye.
Thanks to that, Insu’s development team continued steadily according to the planned schedule, and by July, they had secured enough resources to create an alpha version.
From the beginning, Parallel Soft had been a developer with a strong image of secrecy in the gaming industry.
Although they had created a tremendous hit, they hid behind their distributors and gave out no information. Since game companies usually needed large amounts of funding and tried to make their names known however they could, this was truly unusual.
For a long time, there had been no information about Parallel Soft: not its location, not its scale, not even who its main developer was.
But when they released the sequel, MFN, they suddenly revealed themselves in LA.
James Collins, a reporter for GameFront LA, was going through documents on his desk containing information about Parallel Soft.
The rivalry between MFN and Civilization was still ongoing.
Because of that, it continued to be mentioned not only among gamers, but also on PC communication networks and in magazines.
Recently, news that Parallel Soft had successfully entered Europe and China had also spread, drawing considerable attention.
GameFront had also written an article about it.
The response wasn’t bad, but…
James felt something was lacking. He thought they needed something after MFN.
It’s still a hot topic, but it’s already been well over half a year since the game was released.
As he counted the dates, he was newly surprised to realize that nearly ten months had already passed. Because the topic had continued to stay alive, it had not felt that way.
Gamers and other reporters were probably the same. Or perhaps even if they had noticed, they had no reason to work hard looking elsewhere while this topic still produced effective results.
We need coverage after all.
And the reason people were not actively trying to cover Parallel Soft was probably also because the company’s previous behavior had left a strong impression.
If there was no shortage of article material, it was only natural that people would not want to pursue something with a high chance of rejection.
But James sensed that the attention drawn by the MFN versus Civilization rivalry was gradually reaching its final stage. When he calmly examined Parallel Soft again, he felt that it might become a good article subject.
And if it’s been ten months, there’s a pretty high chance they’re already deep into developing their next title.
Since game developers employed plenty of developers, if they did not keep running, they could go bankrupt from labor costs, like tuna that would steam to death from their own body heat if they stopped swimming. Naturally, they had to keep making the next title.
Their next title!
It was a word James himself had thought of, but he immediately felt interest flare up. After thinking for a moment, he found Parallel Soft’s contact information right away.
They had once been a secluded company, but now they had openly appeared in the middle of LA, so finding their contact information was not difficult.
“Hello? Is this Parallel Soft? Yes. This is James Collins from GameFront LA.”
James’s heart pounded as he entered the building with the Parallel Soft sign. It was partly because of the developer’s reputation, but also because he felt he was stepping inside and examining a place that had once been secretive.
In truth, that was simply the image. Quite a few people had visited Parallel Soft already, including magazine reporters.
Since Seongcheol and Hyein did not particularly need to attract investment, they did not actively promote themselves, but there was also no reason to reject magazine companies that came to them. Even the magazines stacked inside the development office contained relatively recent news about TLF’s European and Chinese releases.
James paused briefly in front of the stairs, glanced around, and walked toward the room on the first floor labeled [Development Office].
Oh…!
He had no intention of interfering, and since he had not received permission, he could not interview the developers. He only intended to peek in slightly. There, he saw around ten people sitting in front of computers and working hard on something.
As James moved on in satisfaction, inside the development office, at the computer farthest in, Insu, hidden behind a large monitor, suddenly lifted his head. After confirming there was nothing in particular, he turned his gaze back to the monitor.
“Reporter James?”
Seongcheol had been told a reporter was coming, and since the appointed time had arrived, he came downstairs wondering if the man had not arrived yet. In the first-floor hallway, he found an unfamiliar man looking around.
“Ah! Are you the president?”
“Ah, no. I’m Executive Director Kim Seongcheol. The representative director is my wife.”
After hearing Seongcheol’s answer, James realized that his previous guess, made after seeing Parallel Soft’s fax, that the representative might be a woman, had been correct.
“I couldn’t hold back my curiosity… The heat in the development office was impressive.”
Seongcheol inwardly flinched when James said he had seen the development office, but he relaxed after seeing that James only looked impressed and showed no sign of anything strange.
It seemed he had not properly seen Insu. Then again, even when Seongcheol went downstairs sometimes, Insu was hidden behind the computer and monitor, making him hard to see. And since Insu had grown quite a bit now, when he was hidden like that, he could easily be mistaken for a small-framed person or a woman.
He’s more or less grown out of being a little kid now.
Some children still looked very young at that age, but fortunately, Insu was not one of them.
“This way.”
In any case, the two moved to the reception room on the second floor and began the interview.
“TLF2, you say?”
After they talked about various things for quite a while, James asked what he was most curious about. Since Seongcheol had no particular reason to hide it, he readily answered.
“Yes. We plan to produce the alpha version soon.”
“So development has progressed quite far. The genre is…?”
“Yes. As the name TLF suggests, it is an RPG.”
Since this was news gamers would love, James’s expression brightened, and he wrote it down.
“You’ll be able to experience improved art and sound compared to the previous game.”
“I see…”
Naturally, James also asked for information about the game. However, Seongcheol answered somewhat vaguely.
This could not be helped.
If all information was released before launch, interest could decline, and competitors might steal ideas. Also, since the game was still in development, there was a high chance things could change. If gamers built up expectations and later discovered that a system was not included, they would feel deceived.
Even so, games could only succeed by attracting people’s interest, so companies often forced themselves to release information. But Parallel Soft had already established a position where it did not need to push itself too hard.
“We are doing our best to inherit the previous game while also giving players a sense of freshness.”
“What about the volume?”
“Those who played the previous game will not be disappointed.”
Seongcheol answered exactly by the book, but that did not mean there was no information inside his answers. As a reporter, James was able to catch those things.
And as time passed, the next month, GameFront LA published an article about Parallel Soft’s new title, TLF2.
“Hey! Did you see this?!”
Eric Lopez was a Hispanic boy living in LA who loved games. While reading the newly released gaming magazine at home, his eyes widened, and he shouted to the friend spending time with him.
“What is it?”
His friend Malik was Black. Although their skin colors were different, they had become best friends because of their shared hobby.
“TLF2 is coming out!”
“Huh?! Seriously?”