Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Remembering (2)
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The scenario writing for the prologue was finished.
I stared at the completed manuscript, lost in thought.
'How embarrassing.'
Reading it again, it was quite an embarrassing scenario.
It felt like rereading a diary from my middle school days.
Identity was a project that held deep meaning for me in many ways, but in another sense, it was also a project that embodied my past mistakes.
In fact, while making this game, I had made a mistake a director should never make.
'I made it for myself.'
A director shouldn't infuse a game with their personal beliefs.
The core premise of any commercial media must be 'fun'.
But Identity had failed to do that.
Back then, I was obsessed with the need to prove myself, so I poured my unfiltered subjectivity into the game.
It wasn't a conscious decision; rather, my subconscious expressions converged into that form.
Broadly speaking, it started with the protagonist, E-40's character.
E-40 doesn't compromise.
He's a character who fights against the whole world for the beliefs he desires and holds.
The kind of character who constantly shouts, 'You're the one who's wrong, not me.'
The enemies he faced in the game's world, and the world itself, were the same.
You must do this, you must do that.
It was a hostile manifestation of all the words I hated to hear.
Looking back, some of that hostility was born from my own narrow-mindedness.
Nevertheless, the reason the game succeeded was simple.
It was because the theme that ran through the game's overall flow and narrative resonated with a 'universal sensibility'.
Find your true self and walk the path you believe in.
Doesn't that sound nice?
I had created a world where one could find happiness through such a belief, so of course, it looked good on the surface.
I'd have to call it a coincidence.
Or it would be just as right to call it my cowardice.
After all, I had planted countless lies within that game to convince myself.
In any case, confronting this remnant of the past now only stirred up a deep sense of shame within me.
'...I have to fix it.'
It was an attempt that was only possible because it was an indie game.
Furthermore, I was now a person who understood that such stubbornness was nothing but narrow-mindedness.
I have no intention of repeating the past.
If I can move in a better direction, I must do so, no matter how arduous the path.
That's why I'm remaking this game, after all.
'First...'
I need to figure out how to transform this game from what I knew into a AAA title.
I revisited the past.
When I first conceived of Identity, I was alone.
The budget was around 600 million won, which meant I had to take several measures to efficiently allocate my limited development resources.
So, I chose a side-view perspective for the game and pixel art for the graphics.
It was the style typified by Maple Saga, which Jo A-yun liked.
I designed it for an 8 to 12-hour playtime, and the in-game story was conveyed solely through scripts and a few implemented motions.
These were elements that needed to be changed.
'For a AAA title, a shoulder view is the most suitable. It's the best perspective for console controllers.'
As numerous AAA games were released and development references accumulated, there was a trend for AAA titles to converge toward the shoulder-view format.
This was because it was the most common perspective for depicting expansive worlds.
Even setting that aside, the shoulder view was the perspective that Studio Rewind could currently execute best.
After all, hadn't we accumulated a great deal of internal data and references while making Hellic 2 and 3? And cartoon rendering actually looks a bit better in a shoulder view than a side view.
The decision about the perspective didn't require much thought.
A different concern loomed much larger.
'Next, the game's volume.'
It would have to be increased.
To be precise, I'd need to add cinematics, diversify the animations, and deepen the directing and combat elements.
I had to show something more than just simple gameplay, allowing users to find enjoyment in various aspects.
For this part, I could aim for diversity by adopting systems I had to give up on in the indie version of Identity due to resource constraints.
And one more thing.
'Above all, I need to aim for a more mainstream appeal.'
Identity is, at its core, an indie game.
Thus, the game was built with a distinctly indie sensibility, which for me at the time was not a choice but a necessity.
This was because I lacked the resources to outwardly express something more mainstream.
I no longer have that worry.
As I'm turning Identity into a AAA title, the narrative devices should also surpass those of an indie game.
'So, to summarize.'
Those were the three major elements that needed to be addressed.
So, conversely, what elements should be kept?
The answer was quite clear.
'The collection of faces and the expansion of abilities through them.'
One could call it a variation of the system I'd been showcasing in the Hellic series... but that would be getting the order of events wrong.
In my personal timeline, the system in Hellic was actually derived from Identity.
The system of tying a playable character's growth to items was an idea that first came to me when I was contemplating the essence of the game Identity.
The inspiration came from a video of face-changing I happened to see right when I started making Identity. It's a performance art where masks are changed in an instant.
From that, I tried to input ideas about emotions expressed through changing faces, and the various worlds that could be expressed through emotions, which led to this result.
Doesn't it make sense? In the world of Identity, the face a character possesses is directly linked to their identity.
Therefore, the changes resulting from swapping those faces had to be clearly manifested in the gameplay.
The main narrative is a journey of self-discovery, where the protagonist, E-40, sets out to find 'what he will become'.
A world with detachable faces was quite a fitting setting to express such a theme.
'I need to deepen the functional aspects of the faces. I can add the crafting-face function that I couldn't before.'
I continued to type, organizing my thoughts into words, one by one.
It was a document focused on outlining the general concept rather than the fine details.
In a word, a game design document.
'I won't set a long development period. The core framework is already complete, and it's a proven design.'
On a quiet day in January, as if opening a time capsule, I began to bring the memories of the past into the present, one by one.
* * *
February began.
The members of Development Team 1, who had been taking turns on vacation, all returned to their desks, and the first meeting of 2015 was held.
The chatter of the boisterous duo was what really made me feel like everyone was back.
"Long time no see, everyone!"
"Seo-rim, Seo-rim, hello!"
"Yeah, hello."
"What did you do on your vacation? Did you go anywhere fun?"
"Me? I just... rested a bit before coming back."
"You should've gone abroad! Japan was so much fun this time! Right, Myeong-gyu?"
"Uh-huh..."
Go Myeong-gyu grinned foolishly.
I hadn't seen him for a while, and it seemed he'd gone to Japan with those two.
"You went all the way to Japan? Wow..."
Yang Gil-sang looked at Myeong-gyu with envy.
Strictly speaking, he wasn't part of Development Team 1, so he didn't get a vacation this time.
I'll have to give him time off later.
"That's enough chatter. I'll announce the new project now."
I brought the room to order.
Then, *click!* I advanced the slide on the beam projector.
A familiar yet strange name appeared on the screen.
[Identity]
"This is the game we'll be making from now on."
"Huh? It's not Hellic?"
"Nope. We need to create a new IP."
Everyone except Han Seo-rim looked bewildered.
They also seemed a little nervous.
Which was good.
They'd need that kind of tension to commit fully.
"The genre is action-adventure, with more focus on adventure this time. We'll be using cartoon rendering for the art style."
I went over the details one by one.
It was reassuring to see everyone turn serious as soon as we started talking about work.
After talking for quite some time.
"This isn't Hellic. There's no guarantee we can bring over the fans from our previous game. In fact, it's better to think of this as building from the ground up."
So we have to be meticulous.
We have to be thorough, and even more special.
"Let's work hard. I'm counting on you all again."
And with that, the first meeting came to a close.
* * *
As always, development began with implementing the game design document.
Separate from the art and sound, this meant checking the core game systems using stick figures.
The core of the combat system is face-changing.
It's about swapping faces like masks to manifest corresponding abilities in the character.
The effect of 'Smile', the first face you acquire and the core of the game, was just that.
'Change and ascension.'
'Smile' can become anything, and it can turn anything into 'Smile'.
In other words, that was the reason the protagonist was special within the game.
In terms of combat, there wasn't much to demonstrate.
It was just a matter of embedding attributes and traits into each face, then combining and testing them.
In truth, in this remake of Identity, there was something more important than combat.
"Please be thorough with testing the crafting system."
The crafting system.
The very thing I couldn't implement in the past due to resource issues.
In this game, the protagonist has to craft their own weapons and potions.
This is because, according to the lore, he is a criminal in possession of 'Smile', which is considered a 'highest-grade crime'.
In the past, it was difficult to express this, so I implemented shops as a gameplay convenience. But there's no need for that now, is there?
I could add more 'adventure' elements beyond combat by implementing a system where players craft their own potions, weapons, and armor, and gather the materials for them.
I assigned this task to my direct planning team, which had now grown to six members.
"Kang Ji-seok, please create variations for the gathering materials. Park Ho-su, you're on level design. Yeong-hyeon..."
Gathering and crafting are tasks that require precise settings.
Drawing from my past experience making online games, even a 1% difference in drop rates could cause inflation within the game's economy.
Above all, this was an area where mistakes could not be afforded.
"Cross-verification will continue until the game's release. And please keep rebalancing the list and quantities of items needed for crafting."
The role of Park Ho-su, the level designer, is quite significant, as it involves deciding how many high-grade crafting materials are on the map and how and where to place them.
Of course, I would handle the overall coordination, but it was time to start pushing the individual capabilities of the planning team members.
"Next..."
After giving my instructions, I returned to my own work.
The death of Miso, which would be part of the tutorial.
I had to adapt the scenario for the game.
'I should aim for about ten minutes of content. It's needed to explain the in-game systems.'
By having the player live with Miso—gathering, cooking, and hunting—I can explain all the basic systems.
The key is how to present it without being boring.
As expected, there was only one answer.
'Character appeal.'
In other words, I need to quickly establish the character's charm.
It's not just about providing a purpose for repetitive tasks like fetch quests.
Narratively, using the character's charm is the most effective way to make the player empathize with E-40's journey of growing close to Miso, falling for her, and grieving her death.
I thought for a moment.
It was about the various considerations I had when first creating Miso in the past.
How to create a vibrant, charming character.
How to create a cheerful character befitting the identity of 'Smile'.
After mulling it over several times, I made a decision.
I would base her on a real person I knew.
'Back then...'
My hands paused for a moment.
Only after thinking back did I remember who I had based her on.
"President...! I'm here...!"
I turned my head at the sudden voice.
Jo A-yun had arrived at work after her classes.
What a stunning coincidence.
Yes, that's right.
—I'm strong and mighty—!!!
The inspiration for Miso in Identity was the Jo A-yun of my past life.
Remembering (2)