From Trash Game to Masterpiece, Part 2
The main auditorium of the Leon Play Headquarters.
It was 10:00 AM on the day of the massive Epic of Seven overhaul update. With the maintenance wrapping up, there were only thirty minutes left until the game servers officially opened.
"Final confirmation, everyone! Is the system fully operational?"
"Server allocation is perfect, sir!"
"The tangled NPC code in River Town has been completely resolved!"
"The overlapping audio bug in the Eterna boss room has also been fixed!!"
The preparations seemed mostly complete. The employees, who had been rushing around in a frenzy, finally began to settle into their seats. I glanced down at my wristwatch. It was 9:50 AM. Exactly ten minutes remained until the server launch.
The normalization process of Leonplay, which had stretched on for about three months, had been incredibly grueling. In an office thick with the scent of stale coffee, the employees had pulled countless all-nighters. The boundaries between day, night, weekends, and holidays had completely dissolved. For three months, time had been infinitely fractured into moments dedicated solely to planning and development.
The process of breathing new life into a game I had once dedicated my youth to—every single moment of it felt fresh and exhilarating. To be honest, I had completely lost track of time over those three months.
At 9:59 AM.
"Opening the servers!"
This was the most nerve-wracking moment of my life. In-game purchases had been transformed from a 'necessity' into a 'choice,' and a fortune had been spent tearing down and rebuilding the client from scratch. Along with adding new content, we had also executed a massive balance patch. While I couldn't confidently declare it a flawless game, I could proudly boast that it had been transformed into something worthy of being called a real game.
"Whew..."
Taking a deep breath, I turned my gaze to the giant monitor. Countless real-time metrics flickered across the screen. And then...
"Concurrent users have surpassed ten thousand!"
In the blink of an eye, the real-time concurrent player count blew past the 10,000 mark. It was an unprecedented upward trajectory.
"We've passed twenty thousand!"
"Thirty thousand!"
"Whoa! It's still climbing!"
The numbers showed no signs of stopping. The voices of the employees watching alongside me grew louder and more excited.
"Are the servers holding up?" I asked.
"The servers have plenty of headroom, sir!"
Of course they did. I had poured an absurd amount of money into expanding our server capacity.
"Concurrent users are at eighty thousand!!!"
The overhaul patch for Epic of Seven was a resounding success. The concurrent player count, which used to hover barely around a thousand on a good day, was now on the verge of hitting six figures.
"It's still rising past eighty thousand!"
"We've officially surpassed one hundred thousand concurrent users!!!"
One hundred thousand concurrent players in real-time. For a domestic PC game, this was a number that placed it in the ranks of mega-hits. It was incredibly rare for a mobile game to record this level of real-time concurrent users. Since Epic of Seven was designed to run seamlessly across multiple platforms, it was difficult to classify it strictly as a mobile game. Even so, there was no denying that this was a monumental record.
The main auditorium was instantly filled with deafening cheers. I had expected a crowd. After all, no matter where I went, people were talking about Epic of Seven. The marketing campaign I had designed, which focused on a narrative-driven approach, had yielded a ripple effect that far exceeded my wildest expectations. But an expectation was, in the end, just an expectation. The emotion of seeing what I had only pictured in my head materialize as reality right before my eyes was indescribable.
It brought a lump to my throat, more than I cared to admit.
"The reception is also the best we've ever seen, CEO. We actually did it!"
Kim Hyeonseo, the Marketing Team Leader, looked at me with an expression that suggested she might burst into tears at any moment. She had worked herself to the bone over the last three months as well. I would have to make sure she received a very generous performance bonus. I looked at her and spoke.
"This momentum will likely continue for the foreseeable future."
There was a reason I had scheduled the start date of the creative contest to align with the overhaul patch. For a while, every online community and internet broadcast would be buzzing with talk of Epic of Seven. Experts from various fields would at least dip their toes into E-O-Se for at least a week to prepare their contest submissions. And once that happened?
A massive wave of secondary content creation would be unleashed, treating E-O-Se like a viral challenge. This overwhelming positive feedback loop would drive a massive influx of new players. All Leonplay had to do was strictly adhere to our core philosophy of keeping it a 'real game.'
"Keep a close eye on user feedback, and let's prepare a commemorative appreciation reward for hitting one hundred thousand concurrent users. Shower them with gifts to the point of excess."
Her face flushed with emotion, she nodded vigorously. Haha. Epic of Seven had successfully made a spectacular comeback.
• Epic of Seven Reaches #1 in Sales on Both Major App Stores
• Unprecedented 100,000 Concurrent Users in Korean Mobile Gaming History: A New Benchmark?
• A Single User's Miracle: The Story Behind Epic of Seven's Resurgence... What's the Secret?
• Epic of Seven Reborn to Rave Reviews... Did Sincerity Over Profit Win Players' Hearts?
• Redefining the Value of Cultural Content: The Epic of Seven Creative Contest
"Hehe."
A sinister, half-crazed laugh escaped my lips. No matter how maniacally I grinned, the sheer ecstasy wrapping around my entire body refused to cool down. The entire internet was buzzing with praise for Epic of Seven. Moving my fingers restlessly, I monitored the reactions to the game as if trying to satisfy an insatiable hunger.
I grinned. I had staked everything on the quality of Epic of Seven's gameplay, and it seemed my gamble had paid off spectacularly.
Once all the elements that hindered gameplay were wiped away without a trace, the true value of Epic of Seven finally shone through.
It felt like my work here was mostly done. The spectacular revival of Epic of Seven, which had been my original goal, could safely be called a success at this point. The handover was complete, and the future direction of the game had been clearly established. It was time for me to return to my daily life.
Ding!
My phone buzzed loudly with a text message from Suhyeon.
Come to think of it, it had already been over three months since I last met Suhyeon. After meeting at the real estate office and having a meal together, we had only kept in touch occasionally. We had certainly confirmed our mutual feelings, but if someone were to ask if we were dating, I couldn't say yes. Once we both felt completely certain about our feelings, this ambiguous relationship would surely progress.
PD Hyeyeon? It was an unfamiliar name I had never heard before.
Na Honza Sanya was a variety show that laid bare the daily lives of single celebrities. It was a titan of the entertainment industry, having snatched the number one spot in viewership ratings within just five episodes of its premiere. It was famous for delivering unique entertainment by pulling back the veil on the private lives of celebrities.
The core appeal of this variety show was satisfying the public's curiosity and providing entertainment by showing the daily lives of well-known celebrities. But they wanted me to appear? Who would be curious about my daily life?
It seemed my fame had truly broken through the ceiling, seeing how I was getting casting offers from major variety shows. Then again, my actions lately had been rather unprecedented.
I chuckled. I had to admit it—I was definitely an attention seeker.
After all, I was already looking forward to it.