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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: The Reason I Made Games Alone
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"Korean games? I just don't get why they're so popular."
Eight trillion won in annual exports, the goose that lays the golden eggs, the star performer of the content industry's export market.
These were all praises heaped upon the Korean gaming industry.
Gacha, random boxes, VIP systems, and so on...
Thanks to the second IT boom brought on by smartphones, the Korean gaming industry enjoyed another golden age.
Games are a disease? Games create delinquents?
No matter what others said, the industry made enough money to laugh it all off. The party seemed like it would never end.
But...
[Export Star Korean Games Losing Ground to Chinese Games. A Dutiful Son No More? ... GameMecha / 2019.7.15]
[Gaming Powerhouse Korea: The Wingless Fall of its Game Companies ... IT Gyeore / 2020.01.03]
[With Both Quality and Sales Declining, Where Do Korean Games Go From Here? ... NewsGamer / 2019.11.19]
Revenue models that were no different from gambling.
They brought the Korean gaming industry the blessing of immense wealth, but also the curse of complacency.
The rise of Chinese games, and the traditional powerhouses of the US and Japan, whose titles ranked among the Games of the Year annually...
To sum up the situation in one sentence...
"The Korean gaming industry has lost its way."
However, no one could bring themselves to abandon this structure that raked in so much money for so little investment.
It was a standoff where everyone knew the problems, but no one dared to make a change.
In this chaotic world, I had a slightly different thought.
'Someone has to create a new current in this market.'
Changing the flow of a market worth hundreds of trillions.
Anyone else would call it crazy, but if it were me... no, perhaps only I could do it.
Because I have an even crazier ability: 'God Game Maker.'
****
Name: Jo Hyunsoo. Age: 34. Gender: Male. Appearance: Average.
Gwajang and game scenario planner at NB Soft, a leading company in the Korean gaming industry, ranked third with a market cap of ten trillion won.
These are the words that define me.
You might think that's a decent life, right?
No, it's not decent at all.
'To be precise, I'm in a pretty shitty situation.'
Inside a stuffy conference room with walls covered entirely in gray.
A middle-aged man, his face beet red, was unleashing his fury on me.
"Gwajang Jo Hyunsoo! Did I, or did I not, tell you not to write the scenario like this piece of crap!"
"I'm sorry, sir."
His name was Oh Gwangseok, the PD in charge of 'Phoenix,' the MMORPG team I belonged to.
'...The build evaluation must have been really bad.'
The reason he was so angry was simple.
During last week's FGT (Focus Group Test: a game testing phase for a specific target audience, often conducted with internal employees), the business department and executives gave negative feedback, and the higher-ups must have chewed him out for it.
"PD-nim... but could I get a look at the business department's document to see what specific parts of the scenario in the build were problematic? This was the scenario that Pateujang Go Yeongmi and you already approved..."
I wrote the scenario for this build, but its flow and direction were crafted exactly as the PD wanted.
'Planner, my ass. I'm a ghostwriter, a damn ghostwriter...'
Game Scenario Planner, or Writer.
A job title that sounds like a gathering of story experts in a global corporation-like atmosphere, pouring out novel ideas.
But in reality, it's no different from being a ghostwriter for a PD who's a complete amateur when it comes to stories.
What did he tell me for the last build...?
Wasn't it something about writing a story that blended the political elements of *Game of Thrones* and *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* with the mainstream appeal of Disney?
'...If I could do that, I'd be writing *Game of Thrones*, not working at this company.'
Anyway... here I was, getting chewed out for writing exactly what this bastard told me to write.
"Gwajang Jo, do I look like a pushover to you? If I say it's weird, it's weird! What's with the backtalk? And you think you can just look at the business department's documents whenever you want? This is confidential! Confidential!"
"No... but I need to know what the feedback was so I can make improvements..."
"Shut uuuuup!"
Oh Gwangseok just yelled without explaining exactly what was wrong.
Given his reaction... I could guess what kind of feedback he'd received, nine times out of ten.
'He must have gotten feedback that the story he insisted on including was bad.'
He was probably too embarrassed to admit that the part he insisted on was criticized, but since he got chewed out by the higher-ups, he's taking his anger out on me.
The shitty bastard...
Just like that, Oh Gwangseok was the type of person to use his subordinates as human shields for his own mistakes.
"I'm sorry. If you provide specific feedback, PD-nim, I'll be sure to fix it properly."
"Right! Yeah! Let's just make sure we do a good job on our own so we don't get chewed out like this for the next build!"
In the end, I gave up on questioning him and offered an apology of resignation.
The frustrating time was over, and I was able to escape as the next person in line for a scolding entered the conference room.
"Haaah..."
As I returned to my desk in the corner of the office with a sigh, the company messenger blinked.
[Daeri Heo Yuri: Gwajang-nim, what did the PD say?]
[Me: What do you think... I got totally reamed.]
The message was from Daeri Heo Yuri of the graphics department.
We were pretty close since she was the one who often drew the concept art based on my plans.
Of course... the foundation of this closeness stemmed from our mutual animosity toward one person: Oh Gwangseok.
[Daeri Heo Yuri: Ugh, that psycho bastard... You did exactly what he told you to, so why is he bitching again?]
[Me: Well... PDs are all like that. We just do what we're told.]
[Daeri Heo Yuri: Still, though. Gwajang-nim Jo Hyunsoo, you're a veteran who's written webtoons and novels. If he just left you alone, you'd do a great job, but he keeps trying to micromanage and ruins it. Storytelling is a professional field, too...]
Just as Daeri Heo Yuri said, I had worked as a writer before coming to this industry.
While I hadn't hit the jackpot, I had achieved decent success back then and was on a roll, living a not-so-bad life.
The one and only reason I quit the job I was good at to come to the gaming industry was this.
To create a masterpiece game with an amazing story.
That was my lifelong dream.
But...
'I came here because I love games, but I can't even get close to the kind of game I want to make.'
Legend of Heroes, The War of Genesis, Final Fantasy, and so on...
Games with powerful IPs that transcended their time and are still talked about today.
Many factors contributed to them achieving the status of 'masterpieces,' but at their core, they all had a 'story' that resonated deeply with people.
Having spent my childhood with such games, I thought that when I grew up, I too would live my life making them.
But reality was not so kind.
[The war between the Celestial and Demonic races has begun. The goddess Ghana Chocolate selects five heroes to form the final suicide squad...]
[Master! Let's journey to another world with me, a beautiful girl, where the more you undress, the higher your defense becomes!]
Mass-produced mobile games, so cliché you've seen them all before... with no thought, no distinguishing features.
Of course, mobile gacha games have become the mainstream, and I have no intention of lumping them all together and criticizing them.
Because even within those limited frameworks, there are still games and developers who think critically and present decent stories and direction.
However...
'The problem is my company... my company...'
In my case, the company's organizational culture itself was the problem.
A top-down command system that would put most large corporations to shame.
Simply put, NB Soft had a rigid culture where you had to do whatever the higher-ups told you to do, no questions asked.
- Hey! Who cares about the story in a game! Just do as you're told! -
Perhaps it was because of this atmosphere.
The vast majority of the company's projects were ones that didn't need even an ounce of story.
Naturally, scenario planners were treated like leftovers.
In this environment, even planners who started out full of passion quickly lost their motivation and ended up doing only what they were told.
Because the reality was that no matter what, no matter how great a thing you made, 'in the end,' you'd have to do it the way the PD wanted.
'This is depressing, heh...'
While I was lost in these depressing thoughts, the messenger blinked again.
[Daeri Heo Yuri: Gwajang-nim, to commemorate you getting chewed out today, we're all going for drinks after work. Want to come?]
[Me: No thanks~ I have something I need to do at home.]
[Daeri Heo Yuri: Kiyah, our Gwajang-nim Jo is so popular~ Sooo busy. A girlfriend?]
[Me: Girlfriend, my ass... Don't tease a single guy and just have fun. It's Monday, so don't drink too much.]
A little past 7:10, the team members filed out of the office in a group.
It was just after the build had been completed.
This short period was the only time they could leave work on the dot, so everyone was trying to enjoy it to the fullest.
'I should go too.'
I glanced over at PD Oh Gwangseok, then stealthily slipped out of the office.
As always, I boarded the subway, barely supporting my exhausted body, and got off at the station near my home.
Trudging along with zombie-like steps for a while, I stopped at a crosswalk and stared blankly at the road.
Seeing the young people drinking and chatting across the street, I felt a wave of depression for no reason.
'Am I just going to waste away at this company until I'm old and dead?'
I'm already thirty-four.
I spent my twenties—a time when others were dating, drinking, and having fun—completely immersed in my life as a writer and a company employee.
It was tough, but back then, I thought that one day I'd be able to create the so-called 'masterpiece' game I always wanted to make. Or at the very least, I thought I'd be part of a similar project.
But, at least in the Korean gaming industry, no such project existed.
'I wanted to make a game that could truly move people.'
I wanted to start my own company, but if I did that, I'd default on my housing loan and end up on the streets.
A sense of hopelessness, of having no way out no matter which way I looked, weighed heavily on my shoulders.
It felt as if the world was laughing at my dream of making a 'masterpiece game.'
As I stood there waiting for the signal, lost in such thoughts.
'What is that?'
An out-of-place object caught my eye.
A flashing, rectangular object lying in the middle of the crosswalk.
As if possessed, I snatched it up while crossing the street when the light turned green.
'This is... a game CD, isn't it?'
A worn, tacky CD case... reminiscent of games from the mid-to-late '90s.
[God Game Maker! - Do you want to create a masterpiece that will be remembered for all time?]
[A full-fledged game development simulation! You too can become a genius developer!]
These phrases were written on the front and back, respectively.
When I opened it, I found a pristine CD inside, without a single scratch.
'How strange.'
For such a perfect object to be lying in the middle of a crosswalk... Gripped by a strange feeling, I headed home.
Then, after changing my clothes, I turned on my computer and sat at my desk.
'Should I work on my personal project... or...'
As I was about to start working, my eyes kept drifting to the CD on my desk.
[Do you want to create a masterpiece that will be remembered for all time?]
A phrase that dug deep into my heart, as if it knew exactly what I was thirsting for.
It felt as if playing this game could really turn me into the developer of a masterpiece.
Little did I know at the time.
That this ridiculous thought would become reality...