Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Building an IP
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The basic concept presentation was over.
Though I had started with a bold declaration of my ambitions, there wasn't much to do right away.
Aside from Han Seo-rim, who would be drawing the concept art, the rest of the team had to be put on standby. The reason was simple.
“You two are on standby until Seo-rim’s design is confirmed. A-yun, you need to focus on studying first. It’s too early to start making music when the game’s framework isn’t even laid out.”
Graphic design could only begin once the concept art and design document were ready.
Sound directing could wait until after the modeling and initial testing were complete.
I had listened to a few pieces the young Jo A-yun had composed before recruiting her.
While she certainly knew how to capture emotional moments and key points, her fundamentals seemed far too weak.
To bring out the “rich sound” that I knew was one of Jo A-yun’s greatest strengths, she needed to gain more experience.
*I deliberately set a generous timeline. Even if we face trial and error, we have to move forward with certainty.*
Studio Rewind was a small company now making its second game.
Since the team members weren't very experienced, we needed to handle tasks sequentially.
Just then, Jo A-yun asked.
“St-study…?”
“You’ll be studying for your high school equivalency exam and studying music at the same time. I’ll be especially careful about choosing your music teacher, so don’t worry.”
“Ah, y-yes…!”
Jo A-yun nodded her head.
Her expression was still lively, so it was a relief to see she was willing to follow along.
In any case, with that, the team management was done for now.
“Yeon-ho, Yeon-ho, so what about food?”
“Senior, Senior, let’s get meat!”
“…Alright, let’s go eat.”
First, let’s get something to eat.
After all, this is all to make a living.
* * *
Three days passed.
Today was A-yun’s first day back at the office since the initial meeting.
There was only one reason she came in, even though there was nothing specific for her to do yet.
“I’m leaving!”
It was for her high school equivalency tutoring.
As she called out with her backpack on, her mother replied, her voice thick with emotion.
“A-yun, you study hard, okay? And listen to your president!”
“Jeez, I know.”
Did she think she was a little kid? Of course she knew that.
Grumbling under her breath, A-yun left the house.
“You can do it, sweetie!”
Her mother’s shout followed her from behind.
A-yun felt a slight pang in her heart.
That cheerful voice stirred a sliver of guilt within her.
A-yun remembered how her mother had always been considerate, even when she had been cooped up in her room doing nothing but playing games.
*Mom, I’ll definitely pass the exam!*
I have to do my best, for Mom’s sake!
A-yun’s determination flared.
And so, she set off.
Her steps were still timid from her life as a shut-in, but A-yun somehow managed to navigate through the crowds and arrive at the office.
It felt like she had overcome a major challenge.
“Oh, A-yun, you’re here. Hello.”
Seo-rim, who had been tapping away at her computer, greeted her.
A-yun replied, “Hello…!” and glanced around.
It was because Yeon-ho and the others weren’t there.
As if sensing her thoughts, Seo-rim explained.
“Everyone else has the day off. My senior has a full day of lectures, and the other two haven’t been called in since it’s not time for them to work yet. It’s just noisy when those people are around anyway.”
A-yun deeply sympathized with Seo-rim’s words.
Suddenly, she recalled a day so terrifying it gave her goosebumps.
- Yuni-yuni-A-yuni! Look at unni!
- Hahaha! Oh my god! Her face is turning red!
- Yuni-yuni, why do you keep glancing at Yeon-ho like that?
- Gasp! Could this be…!
- N-No! The-The president is an old man…!
- A-yun…?
They would make a fuss if she so much as glanced at Yeon-ho. If Seo-rim tried to stop them, they would gasp, “Gasp! She’s running interference!” and make an even bigger fuss. And when Seo-rim finally clenched her fists, they would run to Yeon-ho and make a fuss to him.
For A-yun, who preferred quiet environments, those two were an exhausting breed of people who chattered so much it made her ears ring.
She wholeheartedly wished to avoid them as much as possible.
Anyway, that was that.
“S-So, is it just the two of us today…?”
When A-yun asked, Seo-rim nodded.
“Yeah, I was just getting some work done since I came in to tutor you anyway.”
*So Yeon-ho isn’t coming.*
A brief wave of disappointment washed over her, but A-yun quickly pushed the feeling away.
Turning her head, she saw the drawing Seo-rim was working on.
The art style of the half-finished piece on the monitor was very familiar.
A-yun’s eyes narrowed.
*It’s the same art style as the picture the president sent me.*
That’s right. The art from the scammer ‘YeonhoKingWangJjang’ was Seo-rim’s!
A small sense of betrayal welled up.
It was at that moment.
“Alright, shall we start studying now?”
“Ye-Yes…!”
Seo-rim stood up and led A-yun to the conference table.
A-yun belatedly snapped out of her thoughts and sat down in a chair.
*I have to work hard!*
Yeon-ho is helping me, Seo-rim is helping me, and Mom is cheering for me!
I can’t just live as a jobless shut-in forever!
A-yun opened her bag and took out a pink panda pencil case.
“P-Please take good care of me!”
She took out a mechanical pencil and held it tight.
However, that motivation didn’t last long.
“These are the things we’ll be learning starting today.”
THUD!
A-yun’s body froze at the sound.
She couldn’t believe her ears.
When the books were placed on the table, it wasn’t a soft ‘thump’ or a crisp ‘tap’, but a heavy ‘THUD!’.
Her blinking eyes stared blankly at the thickness of the books.
Piled there were over five books, each thick enough to be used as a weapon.
Her pupils quaked! A-yun’s gaze shifted to Seo-rim.
Seo-rim smiled her characteristically brilliant and pretty smile and said.
“It’s not much, right? You’ll be able to memorize it all in no time. Basically, there are five subjects: Korean, English, Math, plus electives. I picked the two easiest electives, so don’t feel pressured.”
It was a lot, and she didn’t think she could memorize it.
And she felt very pressured.
“Don’t worry, I’m only making you do what I’ve done myself. Still, I figured it’s been a while since you’ve studied, so I brought the workbooks I used in elementary school… but would this be too easy?”
*No. Absolutely not.*
*But unni, you did this stuff in elementary school?*
Should she applaud?
Or should she cry over the fact that she was the one looking at these books now?
A-yun had no idea.
“Exams are no big deal. The equivalency exam even more so. You just have to cram it all into your head. Studying is just a game where the person who memorizes more wins.”
There are moments in life.
Moments when you instinctively think, *Ah, I’m screwed.*
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get a top grade.”
A-yun thought.
*Should I just go home?*
Of course, it was only a thought.
A-yun wasn’t brave enough to defy Seo-rim, who seemed to be the strongest person in the office.
“Then shall we start with this?”
Without a shred of mercy, Seo-rim began the lesson immediately.
Trembling, A-yun strained to listen to Seo-rim’s voice.
Ten minutes passed.
“Hm? You don’t know this? This too? And this? …You don’t know this either?”
That was how long it took for Seo-rim to grasp A-yun’s level.
“…How can you not know this? Is that even possible…?”
Seo-rim was aghast, and A-yun shrank in her seat.
It couldn’t be helped.
If this situation were a game, it would be like this:
“Uhm, A-yun. How far did you get in your studies in middle school…?”
Seo-rim, born with an intelligence of 100 and having followed an elite path through high-level dungeons her whole life, simply could not understand A-yun, who was born with an intelligence of 30 and had never even bothered with leveling up!
“W-Well, uh…”
“Well?”
“…I-I can do multiplication. A-And division, too…”
The conclusion was clear.
“Ah, I see…?”
They had a very, very long way to go.
* * *
*Clack, clack.*
At home, in my room.
I stared blankly at the game, lost in thought.
I was thinking about the game design.
*Let’s be meticulous.*
Since I had set a generous deadline, I planned to nail down the design phase from the very beginning.
Naturally, there were more things to consider than before.
Among them, one concern took top priority.
*I need to start building a proper IP.*
That was the reason I had named the game we were about to make ‘Hell of Alice’ with the subtitle ‘Hellic 2’.
The power of an IP is immense.
The unified brand recognition from a consistent title, and the customer loyalty and sales power that stem from it, are something a game company can never afford to ignore.
Studio Rewind is the company I will have to lead for the rest of my life.
And it’s a company I created to challenge the AAA market, moving beyond indie games.
I needed to lay a proper foundation, and to do that, I had to start thinking about the IP from this point on.
And so, I came to a conclusion.
*It needs a unique identity.*
There needed to be an image that customers would associate with the name Studio Rewind, and an image of the game they would recall when they thought of the ‘Hellic’ IP.
In other words, users had to form a consistent perception of the game and the developer.
This was a critical issue.
Only then could I build a customer base loyal to the Hellic IP itself.
There was a prime example.
‘Biohazard,’ which I had benchmarked for this project and also for the Cancer Giant’s creation in Hellic 1, consistently shared the traits of ‘survival horror action’ and ‘enemies mutated by biochemical agents’ throughout its series.
As another example, ‘The Adventure of Link’ series uses the same protagonist and heroine throughout the series within the JRPG category to create a consistent narrative.
But this was where Hellic ran into a problem.
It was a problem that would permanently affect every game I made.
*The settings for each game are too different to be tied together as an IP. The genres are different. The protagonists are different, too.*
Since each of the Hells I was drawing from operated under completely different rules, the games made by processing them were bound to have different genres.
A lack of consistency.
So, what should I do?
What kind of consistency should I embed in the games to tie them together as an IP?
This was a concern I’d had even before starting on Hellic 2, and only today was I able to decide on a definite answer.
[YOU DIED]
The screen of the game I was playing turned gray.
As the protagonist died, red text appeared.
The name of the game was Evil’s Soul.
My inspiration came from this.
*‘Like’.*
Sometimes, a unique system and a game’s reputation can combine to form a new genre.
Roguelike, a genre that branched off from the classic game ‘Rogue’ based on a few of its rules.
Roguelite, a simplified version of that genre that uses only some of its characteristics.
And this game, Flare Soft’s Soullike, whose notorious difficulty was so distinctive it became defined as a new genre.
A unique system-based identity can become a genre in itself.
For the ever-changing Hellic to be tied together as an IP, establishing a genre like this would be the most ideal path.
*It doesn’t have to be special.*
There’s no need to get bogged down in being revolutionary.
In other words, it doesn’t have to be something brand new that has never existed before.
It’s about twisting and piecing together what already exists.
That alone allows for endless variations of a genre.
There is only one thing that matters.
*Intensity.*
The characteristic has to be delivered so intensely that players naturally feel it without me having to spell it out for them.
And I have to make them perceive that this feeling can only be found in ‘Hellic,’ and most distinctly in ‘Hellic’.
There were no major issues.
As they say, every cloud has a silver lining.
As it happened, there was a system from the previous game that I could use.
*Back then, it was a system I had no choice but to adopt due to volume issues…*
But if you package it well enough, even a mistake can look intentional.
Promotion.