Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Boss Design (1)
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Let's turn back the clock to a time long ago, when the girl had just started her journey with the butterfly.
In a grim forest behind a beach, where not a single bright color existed.
There, the girl learned basic survival skills from the butterfly.
How to eat, how to conceal her presence, and sometimes, how to face an enemy.
[Those are demons. They’re the inhabitants of this hell. They were once human, but they’ve been worn down by an eternity of wandering. They hate all living things.]
What the butterfly called a demon was a charred black skeleton.
In game terms, you might call them skeletons.
Skeletons that wandered aimlessly, charging at any living thing they saw, only to collapse like corpses when their surroundings grew quiet again.
They were the first enemies the girl faced, and the first she defeated.
The girl gripped the butterfly, now transformed into a slingshot, and fired a stone, stunning the skeleton.
Just as she was getting used to it, the butterfly spoke.
[Do you understand? Hell is filled with truly terrifying things. And it’s a place where you become just like them. To avoid that fate, you must escape this place quickly.]
“How did they end up here?”
[...Come, let’s go to the cave.]
The butterfly didn't tell the girl everything.
It simply led her on, guiding her to a cave that served as an escape from the beach, and urged her to enter.
[Beyond this cave lies another hell. This is where it truly begins.]
The girl followed the butterfly's words.
Her attitude was one of submissiveness, as if it were the natural thing to do, rather than thinking for herself.
“Okay, let’s go.”
As if entranced, I followed the girl and the butterfly into the cave.
The place beyond that first hell.
The scenery is still vivid in my mind.
[This is the Hell of Heretics.]
Though it was called hell, it looked like heaven.
I was captivated by a sense of awe, at a sight that seemed to have crafted an impossible utopia.
My heart ached at the profound tranquility that permeated the entire hell, and more than that, my breath caught in my throat as I faced the existence of something truly untouchable.
[Do you see that colossal figure?]
Where the butterfly indicated, there was a ‘God.’
So enormous that its body pierced the heavens even while sitting on its throne.
All other information about it was impossible to perceive.
[It’s a god. Not some fake god invented for profit, but a true god that has existed in concepts since ancient times.]
I definitely saw it with my own eyes.
But I couldn't describe anything about it other than the fact that it was there.
It was as if the information etched onto my retinas never reached my brain.
The moment I looked away, the image of the god I had just seen would vanish from my mind.
The butterfly explained why.
[What does it look like to you?]
“...I don’t know.”
[Hehe, that’s because you have no religion.]
To summarize the lengthy explanation that followed, it was something that could not be defined because it existed only in concept.
The form of the god one imagines and believes in is its true form, but because I was an atheist, I could not define it.
That was the extent of the story.
The butterfly finished its explanation about the god and told the girl how to escape.
[This is a place for people who worshipped wicked faiths. It’s a place that makes them regret their beliefs under the god’s incessant gaze. Now, look over there. The heretics are praying to the god.]
As the butterfly said, somewhere in the pure white temple, figures as gaunt as famine victims were pleading with the high god in the sky.
“Please, please give us an answer...!”
Yet, the god remained silent.
With the conviction that this silence was their punishment.
[At first, they all run to escape the god’s gaze. The moment they realize it’s impossible, they rush at the god, but they can never reach it. The god does not permit heretics its spiritual or physical form. They grow afraid as they run endlessly towards a mirage they can never touch. It’s only then that they begin to regret. They give up everything and pray, just like that.]
As the butterfly described, the punished heretics were divided into several groups.
Those hiding in the temple, those praying at the altar, and the madmen charging toward the god.
[Let’s avoid them and reach the god. The throne where the god sits is the only exit from this hell.]
And so, the girl's adventure began.
She had two kinds of enemies.
“A sacrifice! A sacrificial lamb sent by the god!”
The heretics, committing sins to be forgiven.
And,
*CRASH!*
The god.
[The god dislikes foreign substances. That’s why it’s not pleased that you’re here. But it’s okay. You’re not a wicked heretic, so you can be granted the god’s spiritual and physical form. This is a test!]
The god would sometimes clench its fist and bring it crashing down on the girl.
The girl, under the butterfly's guidance, barely dodged such attacks while simultaneously fighting off the charging heretics.
She mostly hid or evaded, and in moments where she couldn't, the butterfly would transform into a sword or a club and place itself in her hand.
The way the girl fought was, well, like a madman being wielded by a demonic sword from a comic.
In any case, what mattered was that the girl reached the god and faced its final trial there.
The god silently shrank its body.
To about the size of a two-story building.
[The god is questioning your worthiness. Let’s fight.]
The girl fought alongside the butterfly.
She dodged, blocked, and countered an onslaught that was incomprehensible even to a god's eyes, and in the end, she earned the god's permission.
The god, which had been staring silently at the exhausted and staggering girl, opened a path for her.
It was a pure white door.
[Let’s go, to the next hell.]
And so the girl walked on.
***
The demo's scaled-down map and the modeling for the heretics were now complete.
I finally placed Alice and the butterfly into the Hell of Heretics.
First, I set up the basic control mechanics, the patterns for the heretics who would serve as monsters, and the farming routes for various items.
Aside from bugs that arose from interactions, there was nothing particularly difficult.
From a game design perspective, the mechanics of the Hell of Heretics were quite easy to translate.
‘Hell of Alice’ is a game that needs to linearly show the process of the girl traversing hell.
As such, what I was focusing on were the expression of various characteristics and the systemic details I had envisioned in the planning stage.
‘Hellic 2 is an adventure game.’
But the foundation of the ‘Hellic’ IP is horror.
I had to add horror gimmicks to the adventure.
‘I’ll make the stealth missions, which weren't in the previous game, a main feature. The incomprehensible enemy will be the god before reaching the boss room, and the jump scare elements can be incorporated into the god. It can be expressed through things like the god’s fist attacks.’
Besides that, there was the matter of weapon properties and combinations.
This could be woven into the game more smoothly than in the previous title.
I could just integrate everything into the butterfly.
‘I just need to implement growth stats for the butterfly. Alice is fine with just her body.’
I borrowed the idea from a skill growth system.
I would implement a mind map-style skill tree.
Users could choose their own path of growth, opting for a ranged build using the slingshot, a blunt-force build using the club, or a slashing build using blades, among others.
Unlocking higher-tier weapons in a build would be done through farmed materials.
‘As for switching between each form... hotkeys 1, 2, 3, and 4.’
The weapon transformation animations were implemented quite smoothly and beautifully.
Of course, due to the limitations of the era and manpower, the effects weren't quite up to my standards, but that couldn't be helped.
In any case, after all that, only one thing remained.
‘Implementing the boss.’
The boss's model hadn't been created yet.
No, it wasn't even past the concept art stage.
So for now, the boss was roughly represented by a block of polygons.
I lifted my head and looked toward the art team's area.
It was 9 PM, and Han Seo-rim was alone, reworking the concept art over and over.
“Hooo...”
A sigh escaped her every ten minutes.
Her hair was a mess from how much she had run her hands through it.
A sense of guilt washed over me.
The reason she was struggling so much was ultimately because of the design for the ‘god’ that I had instructed.
-Represent a human form without being intuitive, while still clearly giving the impression of a god.
It was my attempt at a compromise, knowing it was impossible to perfectly replicate the form of the god I had seen.
After all, if it was a form that couldn't be perceived even when looking right at it, modeling or even imagining it would be impossible.
But I knew.
‘Just do whatever’ is the hardest instruction of all.
The true meaning of those words is synonymous with ‘Satisfy me with your judgment alone.’
The reason I didn't retract my words was simple.
‘She can grow more. She needs to develop her intuition. This will be experience for her as an art director.’
It was a conviction I could hold because it was Han Seo-rim, and because I knew her future.
The lead director of [Lost Kingdom] once said in an interview:
-I don't give specific design instructions. I always use sensory expressions with my Art Director. She produces the most beautiful designs from free association.
Han Seo-rim's greatest strength comes from her creative thinking, which is different from others.
In ten years, that creativity would reach a level where she could complete designs that no one else could match, based on instinct alone.
There was something I knew now.
Han Seo-rim had entered the game industry much later than this.
If that's the case, by starting to polish the diamond in the rough that was Han Seo-rim from now, wouldn't she become even more exceptional than she was then?
She could do it.
That's why I gave her the task.
However,
“...Seo-rim.”
I still had to manage her.
“Huh? Ah... yes.”
Han Seo-rim turned to look at me, staggering slightly.
Her gaze wandered. The dark circles under her eyes were prominent.
She was overdoing it.
She's as serious about work as I am, so she never does anything half-heartedly.
‘I need to regulate this.’
This was different from when I developed alone.
I couldn't expect all my team members to keep up with my pace.
Most importantly, it would be foolish to risk breaking the current Han Seo-rim by clinging to her potential.
“Let’s call it a day and go home. Get some sleep.”
“What? I just need to finish this...”
“I’m turning off the power.”
A look of complaint spread across Han Seo-rim’s face.
I asked her.
“Are you even attending your university classes properly?”
“...Yes.”
“Your answer was slow. And I heard from Yu-mi and Hye-ji. They said your attendance is borderline.”
It was something I'd heard after assigning her the boss design.
Her perfectionism must have flared up.
After almost a year of seeing each other every day, I was starting to understand her a little.
“...I’m still fine.”
Her tone was defiant.
I said.
“Resting is part of the job. Especially for you.”
I stood up and walked over to Han Seo-rim.
The drawing she was working on was visible on her monitor.
The basic structure was there, but it was covered in marks of constant revision.
In other words, signs of struggle and uncertainty.
I pointed at it.
“It’s getting worse with every revision. You’re not thinking while you draw right now, are you?”
Han Seo-rim's lips formed a straight line.
A silent affirmation.
It wasn't an uncommon occurrence.
Creative work, unlike general office work, has an inverse relationship between the time spent on physical creation and the time spent on conceptualization.
The ideal is a long period of conceptualization followed by a short period of physical creation.
That's how more intuitive details come to life.
Of course, revision and improvement are different matters, but putting that aside, the point was that, based on this, Han Seo-rim was currently on a downward spiral.
I spoke a little harshly.
“You don’t have a concrete image in your head. That means you haven’t decided on a clear direction. As a result, you probably thought that if you just kept trying, you’d stumble upon something eventually. You’ve been pouring in your time and energy, and when you still didn't get good results, you got anxious. And that anxiety led to more overwork.”
“...”
“You know it's a vicious cycle. You know, but you can't fix it. Am I wrong?”
Han Seo-rim’s expression soured.
For a moment, I even heard the faint sound of her grinding her teeth.
Only then did Han Seo-rim cover her face.
The words that came from her lips were tinged with melancholy.
“...I guess I haven't been resting. Lately.”
“I know because I’ve been there. When this happens, you need to sleep.”
“Even when I lie down to sleep, I think about it. That if I just keep trying, it'll work out.”
“That's because you're buried in it. If you don't get a change of scenery, you can't see the whole picture.”
“Is that really it?”
Han Seo-rim stared at the monitor with hollow eyes.
Soon, a hollow laugh escaped her.
“Ah, this looks really weird.”
“But you don’t know what’s weird about it, do you?”
“No. Wait, is that right?”
Han Seo-rim, speaking as if confused, continued with something close to a complaint.
“It’s all your fault, sir. For giving me something like this.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. That just makes it more pathetic.”
She was right.
The proud Han Seo-rim would interpret my apology as, ‘I see I gave you something too difficult.’
In fact, in most similar cases, words were often interpreted that way.
“...Like I said, I gave it to you because I judged you could do it.”
“I know.”
“Right now, your condition is just bad because you’re not resting.”
“I told you I don’t need your comfort.”
Han Seo-rim suddenly dropped her forehead onto the desk with a thud.
She seemed dejected.
Ah, what was I supposed to do in times like this?
I thought for a moment and came up with an answer.
-Team Leader! Let's stop and go for a drink!
I could give her another task.
No, in Han Seo-rim's case, I needed to get her eyes off her work.
“Seo-rim.”
“Why do you keep calling me...”
“What are you doing tomorrow?”
“Work...”
“Forget it, let’s meet outside. Come wander around with me for a bit and rest.”
Han Seo-rim’s head turned.
With her head still on the desk, she squinted her eyes and glared at me.
Hmm, I could see what she was thinking.
“I’m not asking you on a date. I’m helping you out because it seems like you can’t rest on your own.”
“Isn’t that what a date proposal is?”
“Let’s just call it corporate welfare.”
Han Seo-rim was silent for a moment.
Finally, she gave her answer.
“What nonsense.”
The crooked smile she wore while grumbling was an affirmation.
“Go home and sleep. I’ll see you around lunchtime tomorrow.”
Managing employees is quite difficult.