1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 26



Only Noblemtl

Episode 26 – Digital Canvas

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Director Park Joo-bong, Deputy Manager Lee Myeong-han, and even the president of Myeongseong Planning bowed their heads and apologized.

I didn’t want to let people know that I was the chairman’s son because I thought it would be just like this. I didn’t realize that it would interfere with the progress of the work.

If I had known this would happen, I would have just parachuted down from the beginning. I’m not some secret royal inspector, and I was too naive. I should be more careful next time.

“No. You could have just revealed it from the beginning. I was short-sighted too.”

“No. What are you talking about? It’s all my fault.”

“I hope you will be more careful in the future. I don’t think we should be treated differently because the CEO is young, dresses differently, and is part of a new company.”

“You are absolutely right. I will correct that, Your Majesty.”

“I’m sorry, but please call me CEO, not Master. I’m also a client of Myeongseong Planning.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Okay, sir.”

“Then, is it okay if we wrap up yesterday’s work and stop talking about work now?”

“Yes, then we have a new person in charge now.”

“No. There is no need to change. I will just continue with these people.”

“yes?”

At my words, Manager Park Joo-bong was more surprised than the CEO of Myeongseong Planning.

“I’m really okay. I believe that since this happened, you will work harder in the future.”

Manager Park had a look on his face like he was saying, ‘I’m not okay.’

“Let’s put aside the past and work together. I’m counting on you, Manager.”

“Oh, yes. Please take care of it, sir.”

I shook hands with Manager Park Joo-bong and Assistant Manager Lee Myeong-han.

‘Please save me, sir!’

‘I can’t do anything about this. I’ve done enough!’

The exchange of glances between Director Park Joo-bong and President Myeongseong Planning seemed to have a speech bubble attached to it.

I’m not trying to bully you on purpose. Now that this has happened, I’m going to work harder than anyone else.

The problem is that I become too much of a yes-man. This doesn’t really matter to me because I know exactly what I want to do with and I have clear ideas.

“Then, can I meet Art Team Manager Choi now?”

“I’ll bring it right now!”

Manager Park Joo-bong came out like the wind and brought a man.

He had a visual that looked extraordinary at first glance, wearing checkered pants and a bun. He seemed to be in his late twenties, maybe thirty at most. He looked much younger than I thought.

“This is Art Team Manager Choi Han-il. I heard you were looking for me.”

“Hello. My name is Seo Nam-jun, the CEO of the game development company Starbeat.”

The two of us looked at each other for a moment. By now everyone in the company should know who I am. But he didn’t seem nervous or even aware of my reaction.

It was a completely different story from Manager Park Joo-bong, who had ignored me because I was young and the company was nothing special, but changed completely after finding out who I was. I liked that attitude.

“I have a video game for Gemix that I’m developing right now, so I need packaging design, advertising design, and a company logo.”

I showed him the package of game ROM packs and computer magazines I had brought.

“How long do you need it?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you much time.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve never seen a client who gives me enough time. How long do you need it for?”

“I want to release it within this year, but considering the production schedule, I would like to finish it within ten days if possible. The sooner the better.”

“Ten days? It would take a week just to get a draft… but how could it not be possible? Chief Choi?”

Manager Park Joo-bong was so surprised that he was about to say no, but then he looked at my face, turned to Manager Choi, and asked.

“We should have prepared in advance, but since the game development was urgent, it was delayed a bit. Since we are preparing in a hurry, we will provide you with ample project costs.”

“Thank you for your kind words, but the money doesn’t come into my pocket. Unlike some people, Myeongseong Planning isn’t my personal company.”

“No! Hey, Manager Choi!”

Manager Park was surprised by Manager Choi’s words and was nervous as he watched me.

Wow, Manager Choi. He speaks without hesitation and is full of substance.

“I’m sorry, sir. Chief Choi is a bit of a talker. But that doesn’t mean anything different or anything.”

“It’s okay. It’s not like I said anything wrong. I didn’t do anything wrong either. I only thought about my own situation and didn’t think about Manager Choi’s position, who had to do the work. I’m sorry.”

When I apologized, Manager Choi Han-il made a subtle expression and said.

“Now that I’ve said this, can I ask you one more thing?”

“Okay, go ahead.”

“I don’t know about the company logo, but for a case this size, ten days isn’t exactly too short for a magazine ad. And all the urgent work is done right now. However.”

“but?”

“The product has to be solid. Advertising is never the art of creating something out of nothing. It’s about making it easy to understand how great a great product is. But if you don’t have anything to show off, it’s hard no matter how much time and money you have.”

“So, are you saying that if the game I make is good, ten days is enough, but if the game is not good, even a month is not enough?”

“So to speak, yes.”

An advertiser who says that what’s really important in front of a client is the product you made, even though he knows that the client is the owner’s family.

This guy really has no ordinary guts. Manager Park was looking at me with a soul-less face.

“If you think about it the other way around, it means that Manager Choi’s skills are that certain.”

“I have quick hands.”

“Okay. Do you play video games by any chance?”

“I sometimes go to the arcade. I find computer graphics interesting because they are completely different from traditional art styles.”

“Then the story will be quick. Manager Park, do you have any MSX computers in your company?”

“There are a couple of computers, but···.”

It was before computers were used for office work in companies. Furthermore, MSX was a computer specialized for home use and gaming rather than business use, so it was rare to find one in the office.

“Just wait a moment. I’ll show you right now.”

I went back to the car with Manager Mo and took the MSX computer out of the trunk. I brought it just in case, but it was a good thing I did.

“See for yourself and judge for yourself. This is the game I created, .”

Manager Choi Han-il straightened his posture and sat down in front of the computer. As the title screen appeared, Manager Choi’s face began to change.

***

“I heard the story. Congratulations, Manager Choi. It looks like you’ve got it right.”

“Hey, if I just do this job well, my life will be on a highway, right? Huh? Aren’t you going to give up on advertising work where you get pushed around here and there all the time and get paid a small fee?”

“How on earth do you know the chairman’s son? Are you his senior or junior at school?”

Before Seo Nam-joon visited Myeongseong Planning again, word quickly spread throughout Myeongseong Planning that the eldest son of Myeongseong Group wanted to work with Art Team Manager Choi Han-il.

People came and went and said something to Manager Choi. Some were jealous, some were secretly jealous using advice as an excuse, and some were just pretending to be friendly.

Choi Han-il, who was treated like a half-assed person not only in the art team but also in the company, felt uncomfortable when people suddenly congratulated him and pretended to be friendly.

He couldn’t understand why the chairman’s son, who had no relationship with him, was suddenly looking for him, but he couldn’t stand people talking about things that didn’t even happen.

What was especially hard to bear were the seniors who told me to leave the advertising company quickly and get the chairman’s son’s seal of approval, under the guise of advice from Choi Han-il.

Although the work was hard, Choi Han-il loved his job. He felt rewarded by the advertising work that made advertising pages and TV screens look cool and beautiful, catching people’s eyes and making them open their wallets.

What made work difficult was not the work itself, but the relationships that arose at work.

Clients who asked us to advertise products that were no better than others, products that were almost exact copies of foreign brands. And while doing so, they meddled here and there, telling us to reduce this, increase that, use a different color, etc., without any sense, and their meddling was unbelievable.

There were even cases where they wanted the ads for the original products they copied to be copied as advertisements.

“Nimir, we’re not like that. We’re always being told to follow a certain beat. Why did I start advertising? What sin did I commit in my past life?”

“We, the lower-ranking people, just do whatever the affiliate leaders tell us to do.”

The seniors also had no pride in advertising. Even though Myungsung Group had risen to 20th place in the business world, they thought of themselves as servants who were just behind Myungsung Group affiliates.

Many of my seniors wanted to leave the advertising company and go to a major affiliate, and when that happened, I congratulated them and envied them, calling them “promotions.”

Choi Han-il would feel irritated whenever he heard such stories. While drinking, he would snap at his seniors and colleagues, saying, “Why don’t you have pride in your work?”

I once said to a client who brought in a foreign advertisement, “We want to try our own idea,” and was then excluded from the project.

Han-il Choi felt increasingly alone at the company. But now his colleagues were looking at him with eyes that said, “You used to say things like ‘the pride of an advertiser’, but you can’t do anything about it after all.”

When Manager Park came to call him, Choi Han-il felt that what was coming had come.

‘Okay, let’s see who he is. Do you think I’ll treat you like a slacker just because you’re the chairman’s son? Even if I get kicked out of the company, there’s nothing I can do. I’ll go back to my hometown, help out on the farm, and draw pictures at night.’

In front of the chairman’s son, whom he was meeting for the first time, Choi Han-il deliberately acted much stronger than usual.

“I only thought about my own situation. I’m sorry.”

However, Seo Nam-joon was different from what he thought. He turned the whole company upside down in one day, so I thought he was just some arrogant, reckless rascal.

He had a young face that made him look like he was only about twenty, but his speech and attitude didn’t show it at all. He looked much more mature than Manager Park, who was constantly looking around and not knowing what to do.

I could sense Seo Nam-joon’s extensive knowledge and strong pride in what he does, especially video games. He spread out dozens of game packages and magazines on his desk and clearly explained what he wanted.

“These are the current game packages. This is a pirated version made in Korea, and this is an original made in Japan. You can see the huge difference in quality at a glance, right? The package is an important means of conveying the game’s feel to the customer, but it’s embarrassing to even compare it to Japan. The video game market is still very small, so proper companies and personnel haven’t been able to come together. I want to completely change that.”

In Seo Nam-joon’s eyes, you could sense a sincere passion for video games. And also, an endless pride and affection for the games he created.

After setting up the computer in the conference room, Choi Han-il sat down in front of it. As the meeting progressed, his willingness to do whatever he wanted had already softened considerably.

And the moment the title screen appeared, even the last remaining sense of rejection from Choi Han-il was shattered.

“ah···.”

The clear moon rose in the night sky and stars twinkled. Short and concise subtitles explaining the background story passed by, and an apartment in Harlem, New York appeared under the night sky with beautiful and harmonious graphics I had never seen before.

It was different from the games he used to play at the arcade, like Donkey Kong or Galaga. It felt like the latest games he saw in Japanese game magazines. There weren’t many colors, but it didn’t feel monotonous.

Choi Han-il first realized that the background of a computer game could become a digital canvas. was a video work that was in perfect harmony within the moving screen.

As you go up the stage, the stage gets wider and the enemies become more diverse. The various characters, sometimes comical and sometimes scary, catch your eye. There is not a single place where even the movement of dogs and cats is roughly made.

The apartments also didn’t just expand upward and sideways. The rooftop pattern details changed, the brick colors and patterns changed, and the window shapes changed. Even though they seemed to have similar compositions, the overall impression changed.

Choi Han-il felt like he was walking around an apartment in Harlem, New York, in a game.

“Ah, hurry up! Not there, up! The police are coming, right now!”

Manager Park, who was watching the game from behind, seemed frustrated at some point and started to give advice on the game. It was Manager Park Joo-bong who clearly had no future, but he had forgotten everything and was completely absorbed in .

“What do you think? Is this a game that appeals to Manager Choi?”

Choi Han-il came to his senses at Seo Nam-joon’s question. I thought it had been about 5 minutes, but when he looked at his watch, 40 minutes had already passed.

He didn’t want to admit it, but the moment he saw the New York apartment, he fell in love with Fire Escape.

It was unlike any game he had ever seen before. Not only was it fun, it was also the first game that satisfied his eyes just by looking at it.

This was not the time to be showing off your unnecessary pride.

“I think it will take about three days.”

Choi Han-il answered without realizing it. The thought of quitting the company if things got any worse disappeared. Instead, a project arose that he wanted to devote all his energy to.