Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Crafting the Prologue
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With development now in full swing, the first thing I had to consider was, of course, the prologue.
In other words, the tutorial. Since a game’s first impression is decided then and there, my mind had lately been consumed with how to direct and structure that opening sequence.
Given the circumstances, it was perhaps inevitable that I would find myself reminiscing about the Hell of War, about the time those four first gathered.
—This place is…
A temple, situated quite far from the battlefield.
The Spartan, the first to regain his senses and arrive, scowled at the Barbarian, Paladin, and Soldier who appeared after him.
They all felt the same way.
After all, no matter how sick they were of the battlefield’s horrors, how could they possibly greet with a smile the very enemies they had been fighting until yesterday?
—What a bunch of vermin.
The Spartan spoke.
He held his spear aloft, ready to charge at any moment.
The Paladin looked at the Spartan and scoffed.
—It seems beheading you wasn’t enough. I suppose beasts need to be taught a lesson.
—I’ll kill you, foreigner.
The Barbarian raised his axe.
The Soldier watched them for a moment before taking a step forward.
He intended to mediate, but he didn’t succeed.
—Stop this. We’re all here for the same…
—Uwoooaargh—!
The Barbarian made the first move.
In front of the temple built of red rock, he swung his axe at the nearest person, the Spartan.
*Clang!*
The Spartan’s shield blocked the descending axe.
His spear was already shooting toward the Barbarian’s neck.
“You dare!”
*Thud!*
The Paladin’s sword blocked the spear.
He attacked the Spartan with gleaming eyes, as if he had been his sole target from the start.
The Soldier watched the three-way standoff, gritted his teeth, and drew his gun.
—Hey!
And so, a skirmish broke out between the four.
The atmosphere was so tense it felt like someone would drop dead at any moment.
From my perspective as an observer, it was all so tiresome.
However, I couldn't say I didn't understand their position. Hadn't they spent their entire lives on the battlefield?
They were men who knew only violence as a means of resolving conflict, and they had continued that way even after coming to hell.
Humans are, by nature, governed by inertia.
Even if they recognized how alien and horrifying it was, the violence that had already taken root in their bodies could not be easily shed.
An extremely primitive method of resolution.
Yet, for them, it must have been the most rational means of settling their dispute.
In fact, that fight did yield a certain outcome.
—…This will never end.
Once again, it was the Soldier who called for a truce.
Half of his head was blown off.
The Paladin reluctantly agreed.
—Oh, Lord…
He felt a sense of despair at his own state, perfectly fine despite having an arm severed at the shoulder.
The Barbarian spoke.
—No god. If there is, he’s the enemy.
His stomach was riddled with holes from a spear or a gun.
Though he was gasping for breath, his eyes were sharp.
The Spartan, blood streaming from his waist, said,
—…Whatever the case, the answer must be in there.
At his words, the three men looked toward the temple.
I, too, looked at it.
The ominous temple was steeped in an incongruous aura that clashed with the surrounding landscape.
I didn’t know what it was, and neither did they.
But one thing we could all sense for certain was that whatever questions we had, the answers lay beyond it.
The moment they realized this, the four men exchanged uncomfortable glances.
—Don’t even think about stabbing me in the back.
Thus began their uneasy alliance.
It must have stemmed from a desire not to waste energy on a pointless fight.
They each readied themselves and entered the temple together.
That was the moment they encountered a new space.
—…A corpse.
—This person is…
—Do you know him?
The Soldier expressed his surprise at the corpse near the temple entrance.
The Spartan questioned him, and the Soldier stared back with a strangely grim expression.
—…I’ve never met him in person. But I know his face.
—Hm?
—He was a warlord who lived several hundred years before my time.
The Soldier’s words told me who it was as well.
His most prominent feature was… yes.
—Short. This guy, a warlord?
—…He’s one of the greatest figures in history.
Napoleon Bonaparte.
That was the name of the corpse, which was slowly beginning to blacken.
I had no way of knowing what the Soldier felt as he looked upon him.
It was only natural.
How could an ordinary game director like me possibly fathom the emotions a soldier from World War II would feel upon seeing Napoleon?
There was only one thing I knew for certain.
—Why would such a great hero be here?
The Paladin’s almost sarcastic question became an answer of sorts.
The Soldier placed his own gun in Napoleon’s hand.
At that moment, the Soldier’s body, with half its head missing, collapsed, and Napoleon’s eyes opened.
The Soldier had transferred his body.
He clenched and unclenched his new fists, then spoke.
—It means there were others before us. In this temple.
His gaze turned toward the dark depths of the temple.
The others followed his line of sight.
—It means there were others who had the same questions we do.
To put it plainly, it meant there were others whose spirits had been transferred into weapons like them, and all of them had charged toward the answer that lay beyond.
A clue had been found, and their choice was clear.
—It means something has to be in there.
The four of them walked deeper into the temple.
That was their first encounter with a hero.
In any case, from my perspective as an observer, it was the prologue chapter.
That series of events, when processed for a game, had the perfect structure for a tutorial.
* * *
I gave my instructions regarding the direction.
“A four-phase tutorial battle?”
Han Seo-rim asked again, her face etched with worry.
“Aren’t you worried about player fatigue if you throw a four-phase fight at them right from the start? What if they all get overwhelmed and quit?”
Her reasoning showed she’d done her homework.
However, Han Seo-rim, who had never even touched a game before meeting me, couldn’t win an argument against me with that.
In the first place, her understanding of the genre was low.
“Why would a fight be tiring? It’ll be fun. This is an action game.”
A tutorial is an introductory chapter, a way of saying, ‘This is our game’s main course.’
It’s a tasting of the menu they’ll be enjoying throughout the entire game.
So, for *Hellic 3*, where action is the main dish, the tutorial must emphasize the action.
“It’s not just a four-phase fight. We’ll progress through phases for the Soldier, Spartan, Barbarian, and Paladin. They’ll get to experience each weapon while fighting each other. The key is to insert cinematics between phases to smoothly transition the perspective. It’s a chance for players to find a weapon that suits their taste.”
Of course, it didn’t end there.
“After the fight ends, the four of them will take each other out.”
“What?”
“They all die. Hmm, yes. Let’s make it so their bodies are too damaged to move.”
From there, I would have to add a twist, deviating from the actual events.
“The Spartan’s body is the most intact. The other three will extend tentacles from their weapons to claim that body.”
“Ew…”
“Four demonic swords fighting over a single body. The cinematic direction for that part…”
Several compositions came to mind, and soon, a plausible one emerged.
“…Yes, a 360-degree rotating camera angle around the playable character would be good. A body surging with grotesque colors, four mouths sprouting out and spewing different words—a visual representation of four souls inhabiting one body.”
It would be a natural way to integrate the process of wielding four different weapons with a single playable character.
Next was the matter of swapping parts via corpses.
Upon entering the temple in that single body, they would encounter Napoleon’s corpse.
By looting the body and pressing the interaction button, tentacles would emerge and wrap around Napoleon.
The body would be swallowed whole, and only the head would be stored in the inventory.
The player could then swap it in the part-exchange tab.
The tutorial would conclude after showcasing all the core growth systems.
After I finished speaking, Han Seo-rim hummed thoughtfully.
“So there will be a lot of cinematics.”
“That’s right.”
“And a lot of special effects and animations.”
“Exactly. We need to pay special attention to the interaction motions. The reward process has to be exciting from the very beginning.”
That’s why presentation is so important in gacha games.
“You get the gist?”
I asked, and Han Seo-rim replied.
“I get it.”
“But?”
“Will the modeling team be on board with this?”
What a strange thing to say.
“Players don’t care about a developer’s circumstances.”
The best we can do, the peak of fun they can experience.
That’s the only thing players want.
* * *
If you were to name the most energetic people at Studio Rewind, two would come to mind.
Kim Hye-ji and Jeon Yu-mi.
They were the senior graphic designers of the art team and two of Rewind’s founding members.
Even though Rewind’s staff had grown to well over fifty people, the presence of these two was still unrivaled within the company.
It was only natural. Since the pair never shied away from making friends, they fit in everywhere and were showered with praise.
For example:
—Aren’t the senior designers so nice?
—Right? They’re so full of energy that just being around them makes me feel energized too.
In today’s terms, you could call them human vitamins.
That was the reputation of the duo, often called the “Hyper Combo,” but today, for a rare change, both of them wore gloomy expressions.
The reason was the art team’s work, which was set to begin today.
The one on the receiving end of their rare melancholy was, as usual, Myeong-gyu.
“Myeong-gyu, Myeong-gyu, is the bed in the nap room comfy?”
“Myeong-gyu, Myeong-gyu, I’m craving a late-night snack. Where’s the good stuff?”
Inside the programming team’s partitioned area, behind the team leader Myeong-gyu’s desk, there were always two chairs.
Hye-ji and Yu-mi had brought them over, and whenever they came to see Myeong-gyu, like today, the chairs were moved right up to his desk.
“Ah, what if I just die?”
“If I die from overwork, will Myeong-gyu, Myeong-gyu be sad?”
“W-Well…”
Myeong-gyu’s eyes spun.
The two poked his sides and tugged at his collar, grinning.
A scheduled all-nighter, a terrifying workload.
This kind of fresh reaction was their only solace.
Finally, Myeong-gyu shut his eyes tight and said,
“I-I’ll take responsibility…!”
“Oh? You’ll take responsibility for both of us? Isn’t that two-timing?”
“Aah…!”
“Just kidding.”
*Poke.* Yu-mi poked Myeong-gyu’s cheek with her index finger.
Myeong-gyu turned as red as a ripe persimmon.
“Bwahaha!”
Hye-ji burst out laughing.
The gloom that had clouded their faces was now gone.
“Myeong-gyu, Myeong-gyu, if you keep being so shy, your future wife is going to walk all over you.”
“You’d better watch out, Myeong-gyu, Myeong-gyu~. Roar!”
After teasing Myeong-gyu to their hearts’ content, the two regained their spirits and left.
“We’re heading out now!”
“See you tomorrow, Myeong-gyu, Myeong-gyu~.”
“Uh-huh…”
Leaving behind a drained and limp Myeong-gyu, they arrived at their desks.
Only then did silence fall.
Outside the window, it was already pitch black.
Hye-ji put on a headband, pushing her bangs back.
Yu-mi put on her glasses and draped a blanket over her shoulders.
What they had in common was their posture—crouched on their chairs—the tablet pens in their hands, and their vacant, soul-drained eyes.
*Scratch, scratch—*
The two began to work.
In that moment, not a trace of their usual demeanor could be found.
The reason for this could be traced back to a fundamental question.
—What is graphic modeling?
If you were to ask the world, it would answer:
—It’s a tedious grind.
A grind where you have to pour in sheer labor just to complete a single asset.
That was true, to an extent.
But for these two seasoned industry professionals, the meaning was slightly different.
Their work wasn’t just a simple grind.
There was another reason they had to pour in so much labor.
“Tsk… this is a bit tricky.”
In short, it was creative desire. In other words, an obsession with perfection.
That was why Yeon-ho insisted on keeping the two as senior designers, why he held onto them.
Beyond being founding members or experienced graphic designers, the two possessed a level of detail that couldn't be replaced, even as the company grew.
Indeed, if they hadn't, the perfectionist Seo-rim wouldn't have scouted them in the first place.
And today, their skills were on full display.
“Hye-ji, Hye-ji, how’s the shape of this butt?”
“Perfect… Yu-mi, Yu-mi, what about these thigh muscles?”
“To die for.”
They never did anything half-assed.
No, their pride wouldn’t allow them to.
It was the projection of a desire that went beyond mere completion; their creative identity had to be infused into their work before they were satisfied.
The world had two names for people like them.
“This is awesome.”
One was an artisan.
The other was…
““It’s all about the lower body on a man.””
…a detail pervert.
“Okay, let’s move on to the next one.”
A satisfied smile graced both their lips.
This was the process behind the creation of *Hellic’s* highly acclaimed models.
*Scratch, scratch—*
Somewhere in Pangyo, Rewind’s office building was once again shining, a star upon the earth.