The Final Stretch and the Mountain of Emails
“Oh no! Another bug! I have to fix it again.”
“Grrrrrrrrrrrr… gluglu, myghlu, waphakr, rryueh, ouga’nagl, phatagn…”
“This isn’t real. If this is real, why am I waking up at the company after sleeping? This isn’t real. If this is real, why am I—”
“Nya? Nyanyanya? Nyangnyang?”
“I’m too tired.”
As the deadline I arbitrarily set drew closer, the staff’s mental states grew increasingly unstable.
Among them, the one who looked the worst was Kim Min-ji, who had never once uttered the word “tired” in her mouth since her hire, and Cha Ju-hee, currently conversing with Som-mungchi in cat language.
‘I never thought the last bastion, Min-ji, would be like this.’
The only person in this company who remained sane was me and Daniel, who was sitting right next to me sipping coffee.
“Tsk. That’s why new hires suck. They have no stamina, no stamina at all.”
“If only you could say that to China.”
“What? Youhan! I can put up with anything else, but this I can’t! I’m a co-developer of Dot Hero, the game we created with you! I joined half a year earlier than these newbies! Respect me!”
“That’s true.”
It was indeed true. Everyone was suffering, yet Daniel was fine while the others looked like they were about to die. The half-year experience must have been huge.
When too tired to think clearly, I made a short break to brew coffee and placed it in front of the staff.
“Ueh?”
“Drink while working. Som-mungchi, let go of it. The kitten is rejecting it.”
“Nyananya…”
Surprisingly, the last cat sound came from Cha Ju-hee, not Som-mungchi.
With caffeine in their system, the hazy eyes of the staff gradually sharpened.
‘That’s why I can’t quit caffeine.’
Among them, sweet coffee mix had the downside of leaving a sticky taste in the mouth, but it was a company strategic asset because of the “caffeine + sugar” cheat code.
“See? Are you all feeling a bit more alert now?”
“…”
“If you’re just going to sit there in silence, don’t work.”
“Yes…”
“Since you’ve rested enough, it’s time to work.”
Only one step remained until development completion.
If we all just pushed a little harder together, everyone could relax.
‘The programming team will still have to suffer even after launch.’
It wasn’t for nothing that programmers earned more than designers. It was simply because the work volume was greater.
‘Well… designers have a lower ceiling but a higher peak.’
I prayed for a bright future for the programming team in front of the still-hanging art team when the art team finally achieved enlightenment.
“Ju-hee, how far have you gotten with the illustrations to upload to the in-game database?”
“Just a few left… maybe around ten?”
“Good. Once that’s finished, Ju-hee, you’re free.”
“R-really? F-for real?”
“Is it a bit much to play while everyone is working? Then how about learning some 3D modeling from me? Or coding?”
“No! I’ll finish the work quickly!”
It looked like I was favoring Cha Ju-hee, but it wasn’t.
In the early stages of development, the graphic designers’ workload was relatively lighter than Cha Ju-hee’s. It was only natural that Concept Art, the design for 3D modeling, was drawn by Cha Ju-hee, which meant less work for Steve and Min-ji until the concept art came out.
“Min-ji, is the background modeling all done?”
“Yes.”
“Forest, cave, city, desert, mountain, seabed, space, plain, swamp, ruins. All of them?”
“Yes.”
“As expected, your hands are fast. Then, can you help Steve with his work?”
“Understood.”
Although expressionless, after watching longer, a hint of fatigue was visible. Without a word, Min-ji handed the task to Steve.
“Steve, how much is left?”
“I gave Min-ji a third of what I had just now… so maybe only about thirteen types.”
“Good. Considering Steve’s speed, a week should be enough.”
“Hah, if you could just give me one more week…”
“One week.”
“T-two weeks! How is that impossible?”
“One week.”
“Ye-yes…”
“Okay. One week.”
One week later, the entire art team would be free.
“What about the programming team?”
There’s always one crying when someone else is smiling.
Two people with bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at their monitors. When I snuck up from behind, nothing particularly irritating in the code they were writing.
‘As expected, grinding overtime is the best way to farm experience.’
Seok-ho, who was once a total newbie upon hire, now looked like a proper programmer, possibly because of the slight neck stiffness.
“If you get stuck, come to me.”
“…”
“Good.”
While the staff fought this hard, I had to push myself too.
Tap tap tap.
Fingers dancing on the keyboard with slow yet fast precision.
Contrary to what the old saying goes about not working well if typing is fast, coding doesn’t mean faster typing is better.
Faster is good, but slower is acceptable.
As long as it’s certain, you won’t have to do it twice. This was the conclusion I reached after grinding the field for fourteen years, or fifteen with regression added.
‘Well, bugs still come out, but…’
There’s no such thing as a fatal error-free day.
The sun rises and sets.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Som-mungchi and I arrive together, Som-mungchi and I leave together.
After repeating this a few times,
“Everyone worked hard.”
“Waaaaaaa!”
The game was complete.
*
“From tomorrow, there will be a paid one-week vacation.”
“Ooooooooo!”
“Since you’ve worked hard for a while, please don’t come near the company during vacation. Oh, and when you return from vacation, you must come to the office in Pangyo.”
“Ooooooooo!”
The staff, flushed with excitement, eagerly divided their vacation plans.
“What will Min-ji do during vacation? I’ll just sleep without any worries. Wake up, eat breakfast, sleep, eat lunch, sleep, eat dinner, sleep. Doesn’t that sound too lazy?”
“Very wise. I should reference Ju-hee’s vacation plan too.”
“Right? Heehee. It’s so nice~”
The vacation plans of Cha Ju-hee and Min-ji, who had grown close as fellow women, were pure sleep.
“Jaemin! What do you plan to do during vacation?”
“Ah… I-I want to play some games…”
“Oh! As expected of you! I’ll have to play Eternal Tale, which I’ve been unable to play for a while!”
“S-Seokho, I thought you’d be traveling…”
“Haha. With the vacation season over, there’s no one to go with! Oh! What about Steve? What do you plan?”
“I’ll watch my backlog of novels or movies. There’ve been so many new creatures lately.”
The male staff also had their own plans.
“Hey, boss. I’m going to the USA for a week. I need to see my parents’ faces.”
“Buy me a ticket?”
“Nope. I’m rich now.”
True, Daniel, who received 15% of Dot Hero’s sales, didn’t lack money for a plane ticket. In fact, if one checked his personal account, he might even have more than me.
‘How much is in my account? Around ten million won?’
Not a large amount, but if living expenses ran short, I could hold a shareholder meeting (one person) to receive dividends. In reality, my account would never run dry.
“Youhan, what will you do during vacation?”
“Me? I’m not taking vacation.”
“What?”
Vacation was full of things to do.
“I have to get reviews for uploading the game to Storm, coordinate the contract with Storm, and write images or descriptions for the store page once uploaded.”
“Wait… if there’s that much work, why are we getting vacation?”
“Because I can do it alone. It’s not that hard, so I just told you to rest.”
“Youhan…”
Daniel looked at me with touched eyes.
The surrounding staff, hearing the story, had teary eyes.
“What’s the mood?”
“Director… we didn’t even know and made an anti-overtime faction… We weren’t the only ones working overtime, and Director always worked with us…”
“It’s possible.”
“Is there anything we can help with?”
Cha Ju-hee’s heart was wonderful, but there was truly nothing to help with.
“Then cancel vacation and help?”
“I’ll quit work now!”
She disappeared instantly after the joke. The other staff, catching on, slowly moved toward the door.
“It was a joke. Go rest well.”
“Everyone worked hard!”
Since all the staff had left, I should head home too today.
“Som-mungchi. Come here. Let’s go home.”
“Nya!”
*
Uploading Dot Hero to Apple’s App Store was like heaven compared to receiving reviews on Storm.
[Transfer complete]
Just like now, sending the play videos, a one-page document explaining the game, and a demo build that the editor can play directly via email ends the procedure.
Once Storm reviews and approves, they’ll send the electronic contract.
‘It’ll take about three days.’
Print the PDF file sent by email, sign it manually on the contract, and send via fax. In this era, it’s the most convenient method compared to future smartphone electronic signatures.
“Nyat.”
“Now you’re going home? What?”
“Nyat?!”
“Why are you surprised? We’ve submitted the review, now we need to sign the server contract.”
The second task was the server contract for multi-player support.
‘Thank goodness for A-Cloud.’
Even if I earned a lot during Black Monday, I wasn’t in a position to rent an entire server room or build a data center. So I had to rent servers, and A-Cloud, which Amazing Zone was offering, slashed the rental costs dramatically.
[ID: [email protected]]
[PW:*******************]
I signed up for a member account on the Amazing Zone website with my email.
“The card number is…”
I went to the my page, registered the corporate card for server rental payment, and entered the management console to select the countries for the servers.
All across the United States.
East and west Japan (including Korea).
Major European countries like the UK and Germany.
Some countries without language support were included, but since small numbers might play the game, I rented the servers anyway.
‘In the end, I only pay for usage.’
The revolutionary reason for A-Cloud was that it only charged based on actual usage. If renting a server computer meant paying for a full day no matter how much you used, this pricing made perfect sense.
‘Blessings from the generous A-Cloud, small studio developers are still weeping today…’
I created the servers (EC2) and connected the game and servers.
‘This part I’m a bit unsure about…’
I knew how, but not as well as experts. It wasn’t for nothing that game companies hired server specialists, whether hardware or software.
‘Let’s just try it. There’s still a bit of time.’
I uploaded the pre-made server build for the dedicated server. To check if it worked, I tried connecting, but it didn’t.
“Um? Why?”
“Nyaa?”
“Ah! I forgot to set the firewall!”
Laughing awkwardly at the rookie mistake, I opened the ports and set the port key.
Finally, linking matchmaking would complete multi-player support. This wasn’t something I could do immediately; I had to wait for our game to pass Storm’s review.
“Ugh—”
I stretched my stiff neck and arms, yawned, and checked again that the servers were open.
“We have to pass the review quickly. Right?”
“Nya!”
*
“Hah… I’m dead.”
Even today, with dozens of review requests in my email, Senior Editor Hans Müller’s face was full of fatigue.
‘Reject. Pass. Pass. Pass. Reject.’
He skimmed the play videos, felt what kind of game it was, checked the document for more details, played the demo, and decided if it was worth putting on Storm.
Hans tried to approach it as purely professional as possible, but he sometimes slammed the gavel on annoying emails.
“You are definitely rejected. This one-page proposal is too half-hearted.”
With such confidence, a game that boasted empty space was rejected after only one page. He let out a deep sigh.
Fundamentally, Storm’s reviews weren’t strict; as long as the basics were followed, it was fine. But there were too many that didn’t even follow the basics.
Hans continued processing the reviews in order and entered the email titled [Anomaly Control Department By PlayForge].
Hans’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at the play video.
‘Hmm. There are some decent ones even among the garbage.’
Hans’s pupils trembled uncontrollably at the massive amount of proposal from PlayForge.
‘T-this is too much…!’
But he couldn’t ignore it, so Hans began reading the proposal and gradually fell into ACD.
‘Weird… First time seeing this genre. S○P? A game inspired by here? Hmm. Any copyright issues?’
If there were issues, he would have slammed the gavel no matter how well-made the game. Luckily, there were none. Instead, he showed excessive respect for S○P in the credits because he was inspired by it.
Finally, the next step was playing the demo version to check if the game matched the play video and proposal.
Hans started the game with a light heart.
He intended to check quickly and close it, but…
“Hans.”
“…”
“Hans!”
“…”
“Hans Müller!”
“Who is it?! Don’t interrupt when I’m reviewing—Steve?”
Hans, who had gotten angry thinking it was a subordinate, was shocked to realize the one interrupting him was a rare superior in the company, and moreover the CEO at the top of the pyramid, Steve Newman.
“S-Steve. Sorry. I must have mistaken—”
“It’s fine. More importantly, this guy isn’t going home yet? What time is it?”
Hans came to his senses and checked the time.
‘It’s already seven?’
He started the game right after lunch, so he had been playing without blinking for six hours from his seat.
“S-Steve. You should check this.”
“Hm?”
“It’s a pretty good game. No, a great game submitted for review.”