Chapter 140
Chapter 140
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 140
Chapter Title: Malice (2)
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Though I grandly called it the developers' malice, they were essentially trap mechanics you could find in any game.
And there was an important point to consider when setting up these mechanics.
“It can’t be too excessive. Because we’re going for ‘lite,’ not ‘-like.’”
Why had we gone to the trouble of branding it as 'lite' and adjusting Hellic 4's difficulty all this time?
It was to compensate for the biggest weakness of the Souls-like genre: its lack of mass appeal.
The boss battles had already been balanced to a certain extent.
Therefore, the trap mechanics scattered throughout the maps leading to the bosses had to be the same.
They needed to be adjusted so they wouldn't cause an unreasonable amount of stress for the players.
To put it simply.
“There’s a difference between ‘unpleasantly spicy’ and ‘deliciously spicy,’ isn’t there?”
A delicious spiciness.
On a scale of 1 to 5, we were aiming for a level 2—a spiciness even those with a low tolerance for heat could handle.
Hellic 4 would be the national standard of spiciness, a comfortable, familiar heat.
“Any ideas?”
The moment I asked the planning team members.
A reaction so clear that even I, who was often told I was rather clueless, could understand it perfectly.
“So we can just say anything that sounds fun, right?”
More than ever before, the employees' faces were beaming with life.
I nodded.
“Anything is possible within the limits of our technology.”
The QA team will handle the difficulty verification, after all.
* * *
Rewind's QA department is peaceful again today.
“Aaaargh!!!”
—A peaceful scream rang out.
“Why is this popping out hereeeek!!!”
Team Leader Park Seong-cheol—the team's resident man of passion, captain of positivity, and indomitable spirit—cried out.
His mind had snapped from the stress.
It was inevitable. The QA team was currently playing a test version of the traps.
In other words, these were traps conceived by the planning team that had only passed the first meeting, with no difficulty adjustments whatsoever.
These traps were designed with only one intention.
—Pissed? So what if you’re pissed? What can you do about it?
A player could just quit the game at this point.
But the QA department could do nothing!
They couldn't even quit the game!
Because this was work!
Because they had to make a living!
“Kyaaaak!!!”
A clear scream and a clicking sound.
A hand holding a recorder slipped quietly out the door.
Of course, no one noticed. The QA department members began to vent.
“I think I’m going to die.”
“Check it. Check everything. Delete it all!!!”
Their complaints were understandable.
What were the two core points of a Souls-like game?
Exploration of the map and boss battles.
Yet, until now, the QA team had only focused on the difficulty of boss battles, so they hadn't been exposed to the stress of the exploration process.
The regular mobs were enemies that could be finished off in just one or two hits, and thanks to Yeon-ho’s development philosophy, there were no maze-like maps to begin with.
That situation had been turned on its head.
This was a version where they ignored the 'lite' characteristic of the genre and just threw in every trap mechanic that seemed fun. Naturally, the difficulty skyrocketed, and the stress-exposed employees were feeling utterly fed up.
The work began from there.
“…Phew, alright, let’s start the meeting.”
The QA department employees gathered around.
It was time to prepare the report.
They were to share their various assessments on traps that needed difficulty adjustments, traps that required removal, and the rewards for each trap.
“The collapsing floor trap should be more obvious. The player should at least be able to think something is suspicious, so they’ll know to be careful and avoid it next time.”
“The monster ambush trap was fine. The elite monster wasn’t that strong…”
“But wasn’t that one unpleasant? The part in Chapter 8.”
“…Ah, the three-legged octopus monster that swung its middle leg.”
“I heard it was Ji-seok’s idea.”
“What’s with that guy?”
“Oh, the poison pool was good. I searched for the path until the very end, couldn’t see it anywhere, and when I finally thought, ‘Is this really it?’ and stepped in, the path appeared. It was a real forehead-slapping moment.”
As they shared their impressions, the gloom lifted from the employees' faces.
Above all, they were people passionate about gameplay itself, so they set aside their personal feelings and began to focus on evaluating the game.
“This part isn’t spicy enough. I think we could raise the difficulty a little more…”
“Shouldn’t we lower the damage of the one that breaks through the wall? If you get hit wrong, it’s an instant-kill combo. That’s too hardcore.”
Team Leader Seong-cheol organized and recorded all of their conversations.
In the midst of it, someone spoke up.
“But just because the difficulty is right for us, does that mean it will be right for the players?”
It was an excellent point.
But Seong-cheol wasn't worried.
Neither were the other employees, besides the one who had spoken.
Everyone's gaze turned to one place.
There, blinking blankly, was the QA team's youngest member.
Seong-cheol said.
“It’s fine. We have Ji-woo.”
Han Ji-woo, the youngest member whose name sounded like he should be taming pocket monsters, had another nickname: ‘Scrub.’
He was the team member who had failed at most of the traps this time due to his disastrous gaming skills.
In other words, that also meant he had a talent for casual balancing.
‘If Ji-woo can somehow beat it.’
Then for the average person, it would probably be a deliciously spicy level.
The report was written without a hitch.
* * *
Several weeks had passed since we started using the QA department to adjust the trap difficulty.
In the process, some traps were deleted, and others were made more intense.
The part I intervened in most was the balancing of trap damage and rewards.
Frankly, it wasn't an easy task.
The genre's identity was inherently tied to its difficulty, so how hard must it be to tone that down while preserving the genre's feel?
So, I focused on the essence of this genre.
—If you don't know, you get hit.
If you don't know the game, don't know the traps, don't know the monsters, you deserve to get hit and die.
That's one of the fun points, and also one of the genre's characteristics.
My job was to process that to fit our 'lite' concept and stay within the bounds of casual gameplay.
The conclusion I reached was this.
—You get hit, but you get hit gently.
The traps would hit just hard enough not to kill the character.
It would hurt like hell, but it wouldn't kill you.
In other words, as long as you reacted calmly, you could use a recovery item to return to normal and then try to overcome the trap again.
This was directly connected to the proposition of ‘player understanding.’
What is the difference between a game that is just difficult and one that is difficult but fun?
It’s the difference between understanding why you died and not understanding.
A game that just plasters jump scares everywhere is a failure.
This is because the player feels deep stress from not knowing what will pop out from where.
Conversely, consider a game that foreshadows its jump scares.
It provides the player with tension that falls short of stress.
A player who realizes there are signs of a failure pattern will examine the map more carefully and, upon sensing danger at a specific point, will take various precautions in advance.
Furthermore, the reward at the end of the trap was set to be sweet.
This was especially true for more difficult traps.
A prime example was the three treasure chests at the end of a side path along a cliff; two were mimics, and one was real.
Opening that chest would yield materials needed to unlock a specific weapon build.
There was one proposition I tried never to forget while continuing development.
“Every challenge in a game must have a corresponding reward.”
“But isn’t the reward too powerful?”
“It’s a dangerous trap, so it’s fine. And high-tier enhancement materials are items worth taking this level of risk for.”
The management of risk and return is a fundamental principle that runs through the very core of gaming.
The traps were adjusted accordingly, and the result after six rounds of QA was in.
[Deliciously spicy.]
We had achieved the desired level of heat.
Of course, I wasn't satisfied with that assessment alone.
The QA evaluation was, after all, just an assessment within a small group of a dozen or so people.
In other words, it was hard to say that it completely met the standard of casualness that the vast majority would feel.
Something was needed at times like this.
“Have the team members play the game a little.”
I relayed this during a Team 1 general meeting.
It was a so-called internal team QA, a decision I made because we needed statistics from a large number of people with varying gaming skills for this difficulty adjustment.
It wasn't just Team 1.
I also got help from Team 2, which had just finished planning and was preparing its development announcement.
By doing so, I was able to collect a lot of interesting footage.
“Ah, shit!”
Someone suddenly tensing up and entering combat mode at an unexpected trap.
“Gah! What is that!”
Someone feeling disgusted after being hit by the three-legged octopus whipping its middle leg around.
“…”
And even someone forgetting to speak, cautiously observing the map one step at a time.
‘This should be enough.’
I saw all the aspects of Souls-lite gameplay that I wanted.
I just needed to tweak the level design a bit more in detail.
The point of improvement found amidst the mannerism was thus excellently refined.
* * *
It was the one-year mark in development, and we had already finished our development announcement.
Internally, the graphics work was more than halfway done, and optimization tests for some features were underway. Development was now at a level where you could say it was fully on track.
It was springtime, so the work environment was pleasant too.
The food in Pangyo was still terrible, but as a substitute, the company cafeteria had gotten much bigger.
“A professional really knows how to cook.”
Yang Gil-sang shoveled bibimbap into his mouth with a happy expression.
In the company cafeteria, no less.
Why was this man in the company cafeteria instead of the snack shop?
What was there to say?
His mother's diner. It eventually went under.
With me and Yang Gil-sang as the only customers, it was only natural.
The cafeteria expanded around the same time, so it wasn't an inconvenience for me.
Suddenly, Yang Gil-sang asked.
“By the way, President, aren’t you having bibimbap?”
“I prefer noodles.”
“You’ll ruin your stomach like that.”
A life without even ramen? I might as well be dead.
I was lost in such idle thoughts.
“…By the way, President.”
“Yes.”
As I answered, Yang Gil-sang briefly put down his spoon.
“I think it’s about time you prepared for that thing.”
“That thing?”
“Yes, that thing. You know.”
I wondered where he’d picked up the habit of speaking without a subject.
Just as I was thinking that.
“Isn’t E3 coming up?”
“Ah.”
Right, there was that.
I had completely entrusted marketing to Yang Gil-sang and had been so engrossed in development that I’d missed it.
This coming June, E3 2018 will be held.
Realizing this, I opened my email.
And just as I expected, there was an email from Ayado Goro.
From just yesterday.
[This is Ayado Goro.
I heard that development is now on track. In relation to that…].
To summarize his long message, the conclusion was that we should participate in E3.
I pondered for a moment.
‘The games coming out at E3 this year…’
There are quite a few anticipated titles.
As always, there were some that actually achieved meaningful results, and others that only built up hype before crashing and burning spectacularly.
But it wasn't a shocking or devastating lineup.
In other words,
‘…It’s doable.’
There are no incredibly difficult opponents in terms of promotion.
And we aren't in a weight class so low that we'd get pushed aside or buried by other booths.
What I mean is, we can aim to be the star of this E3.