Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Sound Insertion (1)
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Of course, Han Seo-rim's design was different from the image of God I had in my mind.
Yes, how could one possibly give form to 'formlessness'?
I knew that.
And knowing that made it all the more astonishing.
Because the art perfectly reproduced the emotions I felt when I saw God.
“What do you think?”
Han Seo-rim asked with a bright smile.
I couldn't answer.
I was lost in thought.
‘So this is it.’
This was Han Seo-rim of Lost Kingdom's answer.
This was so clearly an 'expression' that even I, a layman in art, could tell.
An expression of formlessness.
Instead of drawing, Han Seo-rim had symbolized the concept through a method of assembly.
I was certain.
Certain that anyone playing a game like Hellic 2 would understand the purpose of this design.
Those who delved a little deeper would ponder the design's purpose, the symbolism of the divine beings that constituted each part, and those who went even further would contemplate the very nature of a god's form.
Just as I had when I saw God.
Of course, it was a line of thought bordering on over-immersion, but it was undoubtedly a healthy one. Worthy of aspiration, and profound.
“Confirm it as is?”
Suddenly, Han Seo-rim felt very distant.
Could I create a game worthy of this design?
Would I end up wasting such a great talent?
I barely managed to suppress my emotions.
And I answered.
“...Confirmed.”
I just have to make it. A game that lives up to its standard.
Recruiting Han Seo-rim was indeed my best decision.
* * *
A few hurdles remained.
To implement this, the concept art first had to be fully completed, and from there, it had to go through the process of being rendered in 3D.
This time, I stepped in myself.
Because seeing Han Seo-rim's design had sparked a few ideas.
“We’re going to add patterns. Gimmicks that function separately.”
“How so?”
“First, the trajectory of God’s attacks shouldn’t be visible. …Right, it would be best to express it as if a fist suddenly appeared right before your eyes.”
It was an idea taken from what I had actually seen.
The fist that God brought down had no process of being thrown.
There was only a prelude. And without a process, it led straight to a result.
To give an example of its implementation.
“God raises an arm high up. It freezes like that, then the ground shakes three times. Skip the animation of the fist falling and just create the motion of it hitting the ground.”
“Won’t that feel choppy?”
“It has to. That choppy feeling is the point.”
Of course, this would be confusing for the player.
Until they figured out the pattern, they would be crushed by a suddenly appearing fist without knowing why, which would lead to a sharp increase in game fatigue.
A countermeasure was needed.
This was easy.
“Make a red circle appear in the space where the fist will land. It’s best to let them know this spot is dangerous.”
“Huh?”
“But only show the marker during the three ground shakes. Any more than that would be too easy.”
There are elements that have a significant impact on a boss's lore in a game.
Design, narrative, and difficulty.
Think about it, if a boss that makes a grand, imposing entrance dies after a few sword swings, does it retain any dignity?
Could the player fully feel that pressure?
To use a blind date as an analogy.
The design is the boss's first impression.
The difficulty is the boss's conversational skill, wealth, and character.
Only when the two harmonize does it become a charming partner—that is, a boss.
“This is a pattern that will be used even before entering the boss room. It’ll appear continuously while progressing through the map, so pay special attention to it. Ah, of course, that doesn’t mean you can half-ass the other patterns.”
I dredged up my memories.
“How ridiculous would it be if God only used martial arts? Let's approach this in the most divine way possible. The main gimmick of the boss fight is a ‘test.’ God must use patterns that fit that theme.”
I listed the instructions.
“First, the mirror pattern. It will transform into the player's form and use the same skills the player uses. The boss's texture should be based on its original form. Only the silhouette needs to match the player's.”
God had exchanged a few blows in the form of the girl.
With the butterfly's help, the girl had managed to continue evading and successfully landed a hit on God.
“Second, the divine sword pattern. This one will have a long tell. Three ground shakes, dark clouds in the sky, and when that's over, four black swords will appear. The swords will swing a total of five times in a set sequence. They’ll have to get to the correct position in time with the rhythm, so be mindful of that.”
Of course, the swords the girl actually faced were far more vicious.
Furthermore, there was no regularity in their swings.
This was a gameplay compromise.
Besides, I later learned that each of those swords had its own symbolism... but that could be revealed through the narrative in the ending.
Or let the users speculate.
Anyway, next.
“Last, the divine punishment pattern. A pattern that appears only once, when the boss's health reaches 10%.”
Its importance lay in the unsettling silence.
The sound would be completely controlled in this part.
So that all focus could be on a single sound.
“At this point, the background will be completely erased. The surroundings will turn all white, with only shadows left on the floor. God will then send four phantoms. A madman swinging a cross, a woman staggering forward with a smile. A starving child crawling on the floor, a monster shooting thorns while strangling itself.”
It was a composition that symbolically represented the four hells that would follow in the chapter.
The way to overcome each phantom was to successfully strike it before being attacked.
“Express them all as black shadows, silhouettes only. And that’s all the patterns.”
After I laid out the instructions, Han Seo-rim narrowed her eyes and pressed her temples.
“That’s too much.”
“It’s not a lot. Three patterns is generous for a chapter boss. Besides, the design itself is a shadow on a white background, so the work time will be shorter. Am I wrong?”
“If we can just figure out the motion implementation... Yes.”
Then, Han Seo-rim and I looked at the dramatic duo.
“Hic…”
“Ugh…”
I could see it.
Them trembling at the mountain of work ahead.
Of course, I had no intention of cutting them any slack.
“You’ll do it, right?”
“…”
Chapter 1 design, complete.
* * *
It was the middle of July.
In other words, it was summer vacation, and I had more free time.
Of course, that meant more time to invest in work, not more time to rest.
At this point, a certain fact came back to me.
The profession of a developer is one that has a very poor relationship with the thing called sleep.
This was especially true for a small-scale production house like Studio Rewind.
‘How much have I slept recently?’
A sense of crisis prompted me to reflect.
The conclusion was that the total amount of sleep I’d gotten over the past week was around 25 hours.
The question of why I was only thinking about this now was meaningless.
The question itself was the answer.
This was a signal.
My body was telling me that if I didn't rest now, I would reach a truly irreversible point.
“Hoo…”
I let out a long sigh and rubbed my face.
My head was throbbing, and my eyes were dry.
It seemed I had pushed my young body a little too hard and hit my limit.
But…
‘I can’t afford to lose any more time.’
I had to finish developing the prototype by the end of this week, at the very least.
Only then could I check the overall view and adjust the details.
It was also important to catch as many of the minor bugs as possible, and above all, I had to secure time for Jo A-yun to dedicate to sound directing.
It wasn't an unrealistic timeline, either.
‘It’s in the final stages.’
The game's prototype was nearing completion.
I had confirmed that the major functions were all working smoothly, and now all that was left was to fix the large bugs we had found.
*Beep—*
It was tedious, grinding work.
Unfortunately, there was no one to suffer with me.
I was the only one left in the office.
This was because I had adjusted the art team's work schedule after all the design work was finished.
If you work them to the bone, you have to let them rest so they can tackle the next task properly.
Well, another reason was that they wouldn't have been much help anyway.
The rest of the staff were all programming illiterates.
It made me resolve something.
‘I need to look for a programmer after G-STAR.’
My original plan was to hire one only after this development cycle was over, but seeing my body send these signals, I needed to move up the timeline.
I refuse to die from overwork like in my past life.
It was feasible, even considering the budget.
Right now, we were handling multiple tasks simultaneously for the demo version release, but it would be different later.
I would focus solely on planning until the modeling for the remaining chapters was roughly finished.
If I hired someone when serious programming was needed, I could run the studio with minimal cost and distributed labor.
The matter of selecting a candidate was something to worry about again, but…
‘…I’ll think about that when the time comes.’
Anyway,
‘Bugs, please just go away now.’
And so, I finished coding.
As the game's volume grew, the time it took to fix bugs stretched into an eternity.
My body went limp at the thought that I could finally catch my breath.
Today was Sunday.
A look at the clock showed it was four in the afternoon.
‘Should I try a solo playthrough?’
The estimated playtime for the demo version was 30 minutes.
The plan was a 5-minute tutorial in the prologue map, teaching the basic game rules in a scaled-down Chapter 1 map, and then offering a taste of the boss patterns.
Even if we went to the exhibition, we wouldn't get a very large booth, so I had opted for a method that would increase turnover rate.
I made my decision.
‘I’ll just do it until dinner.’
I set my mind to it and launched the prototype.
Five hours passed.
…Things in this world really don't go as planned.
“Ah.”
Alice had grown to three meters tall again.
* * *
The development process was fraught with all sorts of hardships and adversities that weighed down on me.
The nightmare of the three-meter Alice, in particular, was so tedious it literally appeared in my dreams.
Even when I found a problem, another one would pop up somewhere else, and when I finally fixed that, Alice would grow again, as if something was leaking from somewhere.
I had solved every problem I found, but… well, honestly, I couldn't shake the feeling that this issue would pop up again.
…I’ll just think about that when it happens.
“Everyone got the gist of it?”
The art team's playtest was over.
The dramatic duo were simply overjoyed to have played the game they created in the flesh, but Han Seo-rim was not.
“Hmm… This needs revision.”
“Seo-rim…?”
“How? For what reason? But why?”
The dramatic duo questioned her, denying reality, but they couldn't break Han Seo-rim's will.
“Hm? It’s a bit messy, isn’t it? The map and the boss design.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
“…”
The two looked like prisoners who had just been sentenced to death.
They looked like they were about to hang themselves.
Fortunately, Han Seo-rim stopped that from happening.
“It’s nothing major. We just need to change the UI design and touch up the map’s saturation. What are you so scared about?”
“R-Right…?”
“What a relief…”
The two readily agreed.
I, too, agreed, though it pained my heart.
“Then let’s proceed with that.”
Even moving the UI position by a single centimeter was a task in programming terms. I felt like the three-meter Alice would pop up again, but I couldn't compromise on quality.
It was a burden I had to bear.
“Everyone, dismiss and get to work.”
Five days passed like that.
That was the time it took to revise the prototype.
Thankfully, the three-meter Alice only appeared once.
“Good work, everyone!”
“It’s over! It’s finally over!”
Now, only one thing remained.
I took out my phone and sent a text to Jo A-yun.
[A-yun, time to come to work.]
Sound.
It was time to add sound to the game.
Sound Insertion (1)