1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 131



Only Noblemtl

Episode 131 – New Seeds

The Bosin Pavilion bell, announcing the year 1990, rang thirty-three times.

CES is really just around the corner now.

The company is busier than ever in preparation for CES.

But no matter how busy you are, there are things you absolutely must do.

It has been exactly one year since Manager Song Mi-sun, Manager Park Chung-shin, and Assistant Manager Oh Sang-hyeok were dispatched to our company.

The initially promised period was one year.

Now you have to decide whether to go back or stay.

“Have you made up your mind?”

“What decision do I have to make? I’m already in a state where I can’t go back to a big company.”

During the interview, Manager Park Chung-shin answered in one word.

Other people’s answers were similar.

They’ve already gotten a taste of the explosive growth of gaming startups.

The work environments of gaming startups and large corporations are already completely different, but in the 80s, the gap was even wider.

It was obvious what kind of life would unfold if I returned to a large corporation.

We have to go back to wearing suits and going to work, with much less authority, communication that has to go through multiple layers, and a rigid, hierarchical structure.

In the past, we thought the ways of big business were natural, but once you breathe the air of freedom, it’s hard to go back to the old ways.

The stability of a large company is what overcomes all of this. But even that doesn’t seem to be a big merit when you directly experience a company that is growing rapidly and expanding globally.

All three decided to remain in Starbeat.

Instead of extending the period of dispatch, become a full-time employee of Starbeat.

“I was a little worried that the three of you would be missing, but now we’ve become a complete team. I’ll be asking for your continued support in the future.”

“I’ve worked so hard since I came here. I can’t just dip my toes in and leave. And I’m so curious about where our company will go in the future. That’s why I can’t leave.”

“That’s really good. That ‘our company’. It’s the same thing, but it sounds different than before. And I think the same as Manager Song. I’m really curious about how far our company will go.”

I smiled and nodded at Manager Song’s words.

If a large number of people from the support department who have been providing solid support to our company, which is already short on people, leave, the company will immediately fall into chaos.

A company needs people to make the company run properly.

Fortunately, Starbeat started 1990 off on a high note by hiring three temporary workers as full-time employees.

The development team worked even harder than when the game was released to ensure that the game was presented at CES with the highest quality.

While I was also in charge of directing Dark Moon and Modern Fighters, I also adapted Fist of Jongno for North America.

There wasn’t much to change about the game content, and a lot of the work was just converting the text to English.

Still, because it was an arcade game, there wasn’t that much text.

If it were an RPG or adventure game, there would be a lot of dialogue and it would have to be translated separately.

If we look back at the games we’ve developed so far, they’re all in the action, shooting, sports, and platform game genres, so they’re games that you can enjoy even if you don’t know what they’re talking about.

I guess it couldn’t be helped since we started with 8-bit games.

After the development of and is finished, we will need to diversify the genres in the future.

Arcade games would continue to dominate the market until the early to mid 90s, with fighting action games like Modern Fighters in particular leading the pack.

However, no matter how much took the era by storm and became a trend, genre diversification was absolutely necessary in the 16-bit era.

First of all, we will develop console games, and on consoles, RPGs are very important, as well as the action genre.

In platform games, action games, and shooting games where you run around and jump around like Mario, control is very important.

To be good at the game, you need to have good pad control and reflexes. Sometimes, you need to memorize the entire map to clear it reliably.

However, there are many people in the world who like games but are bad at game controls.

Even if it’s not necessarily because of the controls, there are many people who prefer games that require a lot of time spent sitting down, like RPGs or simulations.

Basically, console games have a completely different gaming environment from arcade games.

Consoles are played at home, so they can be played at a much more leisurely pace than in an arcade. This environment naturally led to games of different styles and genres than those in an arcade.

The center of it all is definitely RPG.

Legendary RPG game series such as The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest have contributed greatly to Nintendo’s creation of an impregnable console empire.

There’s even a saying that the reason Sega was eventually pushed out by Nintendo was because they didn’t have any RPG games that were as strong as that.

Besides, there are other reasons why we need to diversify our genres.

In the 90s, PC gaming really came alive.

In PC games that are played primarily with a keyboard and mouse rather than a gamepad, genres such as RPGs, simulations, and real-time strategy simulations are very popular.

In Korea, the standard PC for educational purposes was selected as 16-bit XT, and computers are also rapidly moving to 16-bit. When I went to Seun, there were piles of unsold 8-bit computers.

From now on, computer academies will increase dramatically across the country, and in these academies, countless children will open their eyes to a new world of computer games, contrary to what the world had expected.

Even students who do not have a console at home or do not visit arcades often inevitably become connected to games through computer education.

Naturally, the number of gamers also increases dramatically.

This phenomenon doesn’t just mean that we’re getting more new customers.

As the number of people exposed to new technologies such as games, computers, and programming increases explosively, this means that the number of potential developers is also increasing.

I’m just pretending to be a genius developer because I’ve gone back in time, but good developers never suddenly emerge from a harsh environment.

Everything needs the support of the times and environment.

In the future, our company will need many more good developers. The 90s will be a great opportunity for Starbeat in many ways.

As I was organizing my thoughts for the future, a question suddenly occurred to me.

“But, do RPGs have to be developed only for consoles? Is it impossible to make RPG games for arcades?”

It will still be some time before our console games come out, and in the meantime we need to make full use of the A1 board.

If they can make an RPG game that can be played in an arcade, it’s like killing two birds with one stone, as it not only provides the funds to invest in the console, but also secures more game titles to release along with the console.

Although it’s a busy time preparing for CES, it’s always good to plant seeds for the future so that they can bear fruit when needed.

I was lost in thought for a moment.

Of course, regular RPG games, especially Japanese turn-based RPG games, are not suitable for arcades.

Arcade owners get sick of seeing a master go all the way with just one coin, so they can’t just sit back and watch a turn-based game play out over and over again.

A game like that won’t sell in any country.

But what if it’s an action RPG?

What if it was an action-oriented RPG game where you went into an underground dungeon with a sword, made your way through a maze, and just stabbed and slashed all kinds of monsters?

Wouldn’t that be a bit different?

What if you could level up by gaining experience, become more powerful with weapons and armor obtained by killing monsters or opening chests, and fight with simple skills to defeat multiple monsters?

I thought that if it was an action-oriented RPG with hitting, breaking, growing, farming items, and exploring dungeons, it would have a good chance of success as an arcade game.

Of course, the key will be how well the game balance is maintained.

“Let’s keep everything simple and minimal. A knight with a sword or spear, an archer with a bow, and a magician. There are only three characters like this.”

A game where the feeling of action changes depending on your occupation, the weapon you use, and your skills.

The skill tree should never be complicated. This is a game that is meant to be played in an arcade, where fast progression is paramount.

“Or, another way is to combine the skill tree with the weapon. Depending on which weapon you obtain, which skills you can use will be determined. As the character levels up, the skills will naturally be upgraded.”

To minimize disruption to the flow, it would also be better to minimize the number of choices gamers have to make.

In that case, it might be a good idea to just embed the skill tree into the weapon. I’m currently aiming for a simple action RPG style.

In games like this, controls are relatively less important than in other action games, although not as much as in turn-based RPGs.

There is no risk of falling to your death from a single wrong jump like in platform games, and since skills are activated with the press of a button, there is no need to input complex skill commands.

The idea is to create a game that is fun enough just by running dungeons and swinging a sword.

Since this is a game where you explore a maze-like dungeon, get treasures, and become stronger, the dungeon maze should not be too difficult so that it is fun to explore.

“Hmm, but the key to an arcade game is to make people play it multiple times. If the map is too simple, they’ll memorize it quickly. If they figure out where all the items they want are, they’ll obviously only take the optimal route…”

I don’t know why new ideas come to me in the middle of such a busy schedule, but when the spark of thought is flying like this, I can’t stop. I can’t stop.

You have to think things through without any doubts. Then, take a step back and review it again from the beginning.

The current A1 board specs are a bit tight, but I can make the action RPG game I’ve envisioned.

But the problem is that because I tried to make it as concise as possible and focus on action, it ended up being too monotonous.

Kids will try to get the most out of the game by playing it for as long as possible with just 100 won.

No matter what game they play, gamers always end up looking for the shortest route, the most efficient route, which compresses the game down to a few builds.

It’s a bit unfortunate from a developer’s perspective, but gamers don’t really care about the developer’s intentions.

No matter how many different adventure elements developers put into the game, how deep the story is, and how many creepy mysteries they create, there are still many gamers who are only interested in quickly creating a powerful character and pushing through to the end.

Besides, this game wasn’t made to have a variety of fun things to do in the first place.

Because of this, there was concern that the game would become overly simple, which might sparkle at first but quickly lose popularity.

No matter how cool the action may seem in an action RPG, the root of all RPGs is ultimately new adventure and growth.

RPG games, where the pattern is quickly figured out and new adventures disappear, can easily become boring because of the peripheral pleasure they provide.

How to solve this···.

“I guess I’ll go randomly.”

As the game is centered around a dungeon, there are several large and small mazes within the game.

Create dungeon mazes that aren’t too difficult, but create doors that must be passed through in each maze.

However, where you go when you pass through this door is random.

The gamer enters the same door, but when they exit, they are taken to a different dungeon than before.

The locations of powerful monsters and treasure chests that drop important items are also random. Of course, they are not completely random, but rather, they are created by creating multiple points and dropping them from one of them.

Dungeons are simple, but they randomly change the way you connect them, and the locations of important items essential for growth are also randomized.

Even if you randomly apply just this much, the combinations will be so diverse that it is very difficult for gamers to figure out the pattern.

So, no matter how good a person is at the game, a significant portion of it has to depend on the ‘luck’ of the day.

Even if you have a preferred build, you will face unexpected obstacles in obtaining it and reaching the ending.

On a good day, you might get a powerful longsword right from the start, while on a bad day, you might have to fight your way through with just a dagger.

By randomizing dungeons and item locations, gamers will have a new adventure every time they play.

This will be an important gameplay element of the game, but it seems like it will be quite divisive among gamers.

I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined myself in an arcade, playing a dungeon-themed action RPG game.

The viewpoint would probably be a top or quarter view.

At the beginning, the protagonist enters a dungeon wearing only a rusty sword and tattered leather armor, and a panoramic view of the endless escapes from a world of adventure and magic filled with all kinds of monsters and treasures passes by.

I think the action and direction can be done sufficiently with current technology. The key is how to arrange and connect the dungeons, random elements, and growth elements.

I’ll have to work on more specific details, but I think that with this system, it’s possible to create an RPG that would be fun to play in an arcade.

We were thinking about diversifying game genres for the future of the company and ended up here.

Since there is only a system and no story or main character, I quickly organized the planning document under the tentative title of ‘Arcade Dungeon Action RPG’.

Coming up with new game ideas is always exciting.

What would happen if you released an action RPG into an arcade?

It could be a huge storm, or it could just be a meaningful experiment.

Either way, it seemed interesting.

After that, we need to strengthen the connection with consoles, so that the console port version has more RPG characteristics than the arcade version, and the content is also richer.

It’s clearly the same game, but it’s a different game. It could also be a game that breathes new life into the concept of porting from arcades to consoles.

“Sir, could you please take a look at this?”

While I was organizing my files, AD Choi Han-il came to see me.

I saved the file to a new project folder and stood up.

It still takes time for new seeds to sprout.

Right now, we need to take over the stage called America.

I checked out the AD and CES booth design, and the project also went into its final stages of pickling.

In order to build the game cabinet to take to CES, we received help from Lee Ki-cheol and Myeongseong Electronics, as well as engineers from Seunsangga for quick production.

The last few days have been an all-out war.

The developers, including myself, had to stay up for several nights to complete QA work on the demo versions of and .

Eyes wide open, hazy and exhausted, we left for Las Vegas a few days before CES to prepare our booth.

“Get a good night’s sleep now. You might have to stay up for a few more nights when you get there.”

“I used to think CES was a place to compete on technological prowess, but it wasn’t. CES was a battle of physical strength.”

When I was handing out eye masks to people on the plane, Captain Ko said with dark circles under his eyes:

“That’s why I booked all the seats in business class. I’m going to sleep comfortably here.”

“I don’t know if this is good or bad.”

“You don’t know that, so you’re not tired yet. Since you can sleep, it’s definitely a good thing.”

“Then let’s all meet in America.”

The excitement and nervousness of attending CES was short-lived, and as soon as we took off, we all fell into a deep sleep.

Now is the time to dream a new dream beyond Japan, called America.