Chapter 99: Expansion of the IP?
Chapter 99: Expansion of the IP?
This game’s dungeons tended to be quite difficult. Moreover, recruiting and raising characters involved a high degree of randomness, so matching specs was not easy. Because of that, if players fought in the orthodox way, enduring while exchanging attacks, the dungeons they could reach became limited.
So the more veteran a player became, the more common it was to roughly compensate for defense through other means and raise attack power to the extreme. Eric was a veteran, and this current run was also built extremely solidly. That was why he could melt his opponent the moment he took a turn.
But it feels like Versus Mode will diverge from regular play in terms of strategy.
He had won, but that was only because neither side was used to it yet and because he had swept the opponent away in an instant. Unlike the simple computer AI, human players were highly likely to use TLF2’s various magic, skills, and units to counter this attack-focused, precarious strategy.
Even Eric immediately thought of several methods, such as ignoring the Summoner and assassinating the opposing buffer first.
Anyway, it’s fun.
It was disappointing that he did not gain any experience or items, but after always beating up only the computer, competing against another player brought far greater tension and satisfaction from victory.
He did not know how long he would keep enjoying it, but for a while, he felt he would be completely absorbed in this Versus Mode.
The release of TLF2’s CD package was successful. They would only know the exact sales once the settlement arrived later, but for now, store reactions were good, and the direct responses from gamers visible through PC communication services were also positive.
And we can roughly tell from the number of users connected to the Versus Mode server too.
Insu was greatly encouraged by this result.
Of course, it was good that it sold a lot and earned money, but more importantly, he judged that this confirmed the potential demand and possibilities for online games.
In particular, the previous multiplayer mode had benefits for singleplayer gameplay, such as allowing players to clear difficult dungeons together. In contrast, the newly added Versus Mode offered no benefit at all. It only allowed players to compete with other people online, yet the response was this heated. That proved the interest and enjoyment produced by online play itself could draw this level of attention.
Insu was confidently developing TLF Online based on memories from his previous life, but no one could completely predict the results of anything before opening the lid.
However, the success of this CD package soothed some of that anxiety and gave him more confidence in the MMORPG currently in development.
While the CD version of TLF2 was drawing such strong responses, Chrono Sigil, which had previously bought usage rights to the TLF IP, released a new expansion pack.
[The Land Of Fantasy]
“The title is very direct.”
“Right?”
Insu held the card pack Seongcheol had bought and examined it from different angles. It came in a paper box, and on it was a beautiful illustration that looked as though it had been painted in oils, making it hard to believe it was based on a game IP.
It seemed to reinterpret the title and world screen of the TLF series, but instead of the excitement of a PC game, it carried a much darker and more dreamlike feeling.
Then he opened the pack and examined the cards inside. First, the illustrations with Chrono Sigil’s unique depth caught his eye.
Honestly, the art style was so different that he wondered whether there was any point in buying the IP, but once he actually saw the images, they felt completely different while still somehow retaining something of the original.
Is it because the compositions are similar?
And even if the drawings were different, the settings, characters, and story were clearly those of the TLF series.
The land cards featured TLF’s world and dungeons, while the creature cards depicted various races and monsters from TLF in oil painting, watercolor, pen drawing, and other styles.
The magic and Great Magic had also been reinterpreted according to Chrono Sigil’s unique rules and turned into cards. They were surprisingly convincing, which was moving in its own way.
However, because this kind of card game was so unfamiliar to him, it did not make him want to actually play.
If it were something like Shadowverse or Hearthstone, maybe, but this is too complicated.
For an offline card game, its rules were so complex that magical effects changed and activated every turn, counters were applied according to priority, and it became hard to tell whether one was playing a game or coding.
His father seemed fairly interested, but it was only interest. Right now, even his father did not know how to play it.
“It does seem well made, at least.”
“Right?”
Immediately after this expansion pack came out, Insu and Parallel Soft’s reaction was only about that much.
But the market began responding not long after.
“Wow. It sucked up all the floating traffic.”
He was talking about PC communication services. The internet was currently growing at a tremendous speed, but PC communication still maintained dominance. It seemed WET would need to wait a bit longer before reaching its prime.
At the moment, PC communication seemed to have been conquered by Chrono Sigil.
Since this thing called a TCG was an offline game, one might think it would be enjoyed by people with no interest in computers or online services. But in the end, TCGs were also newly released games, and most people who challenged themselves with new things were in their late teens to twenties.
And as mentioned before, people in that age range were interested in new things, so many of them also had interest in online services such as PC communication.
Moreover, this era was not an age of information overload like Insu’s previous life. It was a time when people actively searched for information. For games like TCGs, which had strong competitive elements and a high level of difficulty, many people roamed PC communication services trying to find ways to win.
In other words, a powerful community had already formed inside PC communication services.
And since a new expansion pack had come out after quite a while, and that expansion pack was based on a famous PC game IP, it would have been stranger if things had not become noisy.
“If it’s this lively, sales probably won’t be low.”
A month later, Insu was able to obtain rough information through a magazine.
“One hundred thousand packs?!”
Since each pack contained fifteen cards, that meant 1.5 million cards had been sold. This was definitely a success. Previously, they had barely sold 150,000 cards across several months, but now they had sold ten times that in just one month.
[TLF is supposedly a popular RPG, and I guess the worldbuilding and setting are pretty good.]
[I tried this because I heard it was coming out as a TCG, and it’s ridiculously fun.]
[Since it was an external IP, I felt iffy at first, but it doesn’t feel awkward. Well-made expansion pack.]
[This was my first time trying a TCG, and it’s seriously fun. Since I can’t use a computer at school anyway, I’ll probably play this at school.]
[Is Fallen Angel a card too?]
[Looking for people to play with.]
As he quietly read through the posts, he saw that some people had entered TCGs because of TLF, while others seemed to have been TCG fans who became interested in TLF after trying the expansion pack.
It was exactly as he had hoped. Insu unconsciously raised the corners of his mouth. If Chrono Sigil ended up occupying the position of Magic: The Gathering from his previous life, it seemed it could draw in a considerable number of users.
Insu hoped Chrono Sigil would work even harder.
He hoped it would help TLF Online succeed when it released within the year.
Meanwhile, Astrium Studio, the developer of Chrono Sigil, was in a completely festive mood.
“Excellent. Absolutely excellent!”
In particular, Elliot, the president, lifted his beer glass with a bright expression, as if all his previous worries had been washed away.
In truth, he had felt a great psychological burden over abandoning his initial strategy and bringing in an external IP. But once the result turned into a huge success, the black stain that had weighed on him vanished in an instant and was overwritten by the experience of success.
“Mara! You really worked hard.”
“Ahaha. It was nothing.”
Looking at it now, unlike his initial anxiety about using an external IP, the graphics team had done excellent work. They preserved TLF’s flavor while cleanly integrating it with the existing Chrono Sigil style.
“Kevin! You also worked really hard.”
The rules designer, Kevin Dunn, had put his head together directly with Elliot to reinterpret TLF’s setting and skills as a PC game according to Chrono Sigil’s rules. At the time, Elliot had felt awkward about it, but the market and gamers responded with nothing but high praise, so all the dissatisfaction he had felt toward Kevin during development melted away.
“You worked hard too, Elliot.”
In truth, Kevin had nearly suffered a nervous breakdown because of Elliot’s blank expression and irritation back then, but success wiped it all away. If the response had only been lukewarm, he might have quit and walked out.
Since they had achieved such dramatic success, Elliot and his team at Astrium Studio naturally erased their resistance toward external IPs and came to value TLF very highly.
However, in truth, it was impossible to know exactly how much of Chrono Sigil’s success this time belonged to TLF.
It certainly had a positive effect, but considering Magic: The Gathering from another world, it was also possible that Magic: The Gathering’s own appeal had simply exploded slightly later.
Of course, even if the TLF IP played a major role, this kind of popularity would have been difficult to achieve if Chrono Sigil itself lacked ability and fun, so it could not be said that people were simply underestimating Chrono Sigil even now.
But it did mean they might have overvalued TLF more than necessary, when it may have only acted as a foothold or catalyst.
Still, people had no choice but to judge based on experience, and no one in this world except Insu knew just how powerful Magic: The Gathering’s original popularity had been. Because of that, Elliot and his company would likely continue relying on TLF and Parallel Soft to some extent in the future.
“Ow.”
Insu woke up unconsciously in the early dawn. A tingling pain like electricity ran through his calves, and his muscles ached.
But instead of being particularly surprised, he only made a slightly annoyed expression. It had become familiar to him lately.
It was growing pains.
Now that he was twelve years old, hormonal changes had brought him into a rapid growth period. Until last year, he had barely been hovering around 150 centimeters.
But around December, he began growing rapidly, and now that March was almost over, he had already passed 157 centimeters.
At this height, he could more or less be said to have reached adults’ eye level. He had almost caught up with his mother’s height, and whenever Eunha noona encountered him standing these days, she would make an expression of disbelief.
That made sense. Compared to when she had first met him as a middle school student, Eunha noona had barely changed, while Insu had only reached around her navel at first. Now their eye level had become completely the same.
Thinking of her expression put Insu in a pleasant mood, making him forget the pain and lie back down to sleep again.
The next morning, his mother noticed Insu coming out of his room while preparing breakfast.
“Good morning. Hm? I think our son grew taller again.”
Of course, he could not have grown enough in a single day for it to be visibly obvious. She said it because she knew her son had been suffering from growing pains lately.
“Yes. Did you sleep well? My legs hurt again last night, so I woke up.”
“Oh, dear.”
His mother was busy managing the company, but she always tried to prepare breakfast herself. That was because the social atmosphere and perceptions still differed from the twenty-first century.
And in truth, Parallel Soft was not yet a very large company, so the president’s workload was not overwhelmingly heavy. Moreover, since it was a development company, watching the employees, including her son, work as if being squeezed dry every day made it difficult for her to think of her own work as exhausting.
“What’s your father doing? Could you go call him?”
“Yes.”
Since the table was almost fully set but his father still had not come out, Insu followed his mother’s order and went to find him. He found his father absorbed in the computer in one corner of the master bedroom.
“Dad. Mom says it’s time to eat.”
“Huh? Oh. Just a moment.”
When Insu went beside him, he saw that his father was checking a newly added board on WET.
Just as Insu was suffering from growing pains due to his sudden growth lately, or perhaps even more than that, the internet was growing at a tremendous pace.