1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 89



Only Noblemtl

Episode 89 – Elegant Sadness

I decided to add one female character to , increasing the number of playable characters to four.

It’s common for games to undergo modifications for various reasons during the development process. This is especially true when developing mobile games.

In my experience, in those cases it’s often not fun, but rather just for the sake of making more money, which often has a negative impact on the game.

But this time it’s different. No matter how much Myeongseong Capital was concerned, I wouldn’t have increased the number of characters if it seemed like it would reduce the fun of the game.

Technically, it may seem like we’re just adding a new character, but in reality, increasing the number of characters is never a simple task.

Increasing the number of playable characters is completely different from adding a mid-boss because the stage feels a bit boring.

This is a serious matter that could easily destroy the game balance that has been maintained so far.

already has well-made characters with the classic three elements of balance, speed, and power. If a character with an ambiguous concept is added, the balance that was worked so hard to maintain could be disrupted.

Still, the reason I decided to expand the character was because I felt it needed a stronger personality.

The three male characters appearing in are quite similar in composition to . Balance – speed – power is the most classic composition in this type of action game, so it can’t be helped, but it was still disappointing.

So I tried to differentiate them as much as possible by giving each character their own unique traits and stories. Kim Do-kwon was defined as a character with a sense of chivalry, and New York was defined as a character with a sense of romance and freedom.

In particular, Hong Gong-woo was on my mind. I focused on power and set him up as a wrestler with a large body, which gave him a similar feel to Mike Haggar, the muscular character in .

They tried to differentiate themselves by making them wear Chinese shirts without revealing their upper bodies like Hager and by giving them wrestling techniques, but they couldn’t avoid giving off similar impressions because of their common characteristics of power, size, and muscularity.

What if we add one more female character here?

Then, it will be possible to increase board sales by making the game available for up to 4 players, and we can add our own unique personality with a character structure different from that of .

Since Final Fight hadn’t even been released yet, no one had pointed out the similarities between Fist of Jongno and Final Fight. But it was an important issue to me.

While paying homage to the classic retro games that made my childhood shine, I felt obligated to go one step further.

This was my own pride and a courtesy to my own memories.

I gathered the character managers from the art team and the development team and held a meeting to develop female characters.

“First of all, what kind of person is this person? Let’s start by determining the concept and identity of this character.”

Whether it’s a character or a worldview, it’s important to first establish the concept. Once you have a clear concept, you can just flesh out the rest.

You can’t just bring in any concept that seems attractive. Since the world of has already been created, the female character also had to be someone who fits that.

“How about a school girl wearing a white blouse and carrying a school bag? I think it would fit well with that era.”

“How about wearing a wedding dress instead? With the concept of being the fiancee of the deceased Kim Do-kwon’s friend.”

“I think the fiancée concept is fine. But let’s think about the wedding dress a little more. It seems like it would be a bit too much to fight in that. What kind of person is she? Throw some more light on it.”

“Hmm… wouldn’t an image like a haenyeo be okay? Unique?”

“A haenyeo? It seems unique, but… Since the setting is Gyeongseong, wouldn’t a more urban image suit her?”

“Wouldn’t a job like nursing be good? I think the outfit would be simpler than a wedding dress.”

“If we go a little more ordinary, there are also female workers. It was the 30s, so there were many women working in textile factories.”

“The game’s main character is a female office worker. That makes sense, but it doesn’t seem to fit the game. I think a more glamorous job would be better.”

“It’s a glamorous job. Then how about being a singer?”

“Were there singers at this time? Wasn’t it a time when people were singing pansori and changga?”

“What are you talking about? In the 30s, there was pansori, but it was a time when Western culture was quite popular. It was fashionable to wear Western-style suits and dance in dance halls. Kim Do-kwon, New York, and Hong Gong-woo all came out dressed in Western clothes, right?”

“So, wouldn’t it be better for female characters to have more traditional images? When you think of Korean women, doesn’t the white jeogori come to mind first?”

“I think there’s something more important than that. All the male characters come out wearing nice suits, but the female characters come out wearing boring white vests? It can make it seem like everyone else is gone and they’re all alone in a different world.”

“I think so too. This isn’t about picking the most representative image of the era, but rather creating a female character that best suits . When I imagine all four of them on the same screen, I don’t think a white top would suit them.”

People continued to give their opinions and discuss what was better.

I just created an atmosphere where people could easily talk and watched as much as possible. Then, when opinions converged in a certain direction and I also thought the same, I decided on that and moved on to the next step.

“I think the same. is set in the modern Gyeongseong of the 30s. The female character should be a very cool and modern character that fits the game concept. If possible, she should have a fancy job. I think the concept of her being the fiancee of the deceased Kim Do-kwon’s friend is also good.”

“Then I think it would be best to go for the most glamorous singer job. Then any costume can be considered a stage costume, right?”

“Oh, that’s a good trick, isn’t it?”

“You can’t wear a wedding dress, but what if you wear a veil instead of a hat on your head? Would that be too hard to draw?”

“Well, it might be difficult, but it’s a good idea, so let’s give it a try.”

As the meeting progressed, the female character’s story was gradually revealed.

She is a charming jazz singer and also the fiancée of Kim Do-kwon’s dead friend. Her backstory is that she sets out to avenge her fiancé.

After the identity was determined, the discussion about clothing followed.

As with all characters, it’s important for female characters to have an impressive appearance, especially in fighting/action games.

If we were to pick the female characters who left the strongest impression in fighting/action games, we would have to pick Chun-Li from Street Fighter 2 and Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury.

Chun-Li stands out with her pigtailed hair, spiked bracelets, and thighs that are much thicker than those of a man.

On the other hand, Mai Shiranui seduces gamers with her sultry sensuality that barely covers her body.

Chun-Li is a woman, but her thigh muscles are emphasized to look stronger than those of a man, while Mai, on the other hand, pushes sexiness to the limit.

Both of them designed female fighting characters in their own way, creating legendary characters.

So then what about us?

What is our individuality?

I thought of the scenario for . Every story begins with the incomprehensible death of a man.

The death of a healthy, promising man. The involvement of the Japanese Yakuza. Unacceptable friends.

There is patriotism here, but more than that, there is a strong sense of personal resentment. And what if it were your fiancé? Even though he may be modern in style, would his feelings be the same?

How will this death be accepted and expressed in Korean sentiments towards the enemy?

After much thought, I arrived at one keyword.

“We go elegantly. Wearing long dresses and high heels that we wear on stage. I think it would be better to condense the sadness more strongly in our hearts rather than express it outwardly.”

“Elegant sadness… It might not be easy to express, but it’s a cool concept, isn’t it?”

“Please proceed with the design to match that feeling. Keep the elegant curves but not too much exposure.”

“All right.”

“But even so, she’s a character who fights. Wouldn’t it be a bit odd to fight while wearing a long dress? How about tearing one side of your skirt while you fight? With your own hand?”

“That sounds like a good idea. Instead of exposing it blatantly, let’s just peek through the ripped dress on one leg.”

“Elegant yet feminine? Sounds like a great idea.”

“With a cotton swab, a torn dress… she’ll be a character that takes twice as much work to draw.”

“It will definitely be a character that will be loved twice as much.”

AD Choi Han-il was slightly worried.

It’s not that it wasn’t true, but it was actually a difficult character to express on screen.

Video games aren’t just about drawing cool pictures. They have to draw pixels on the screen and make them move so they look like real, living, breathing people.

This doesn’t just mean the head, body, and limbs. It also includes things like hair and collars. The reason Mario wears a hat is because at the time it was difficult to express hair on screen.

How about drawing an elegant female fighter character on screen wearing a translucent veil and with her legs occasionally visible through the gaps in her torn clothes?

First of all, if it was a Jemix, it would not have been possible to even start with the concept. But we had an A1 board with two 16-bit CPUs. In addition, Myeongseong Capital will provide financial services that can lower the high price barrier.

In this situation, rather than worrying about how to reduce the game’s capacity, it was time to focus all our efforts on how to make the best game possible.

“The character’s name is…, how about Suzy? She has a real name, and Suzy is her pseudonym as a singer.”

Thus, the character of Suzy was created, an elegant incarnation of revenge who carries sadness in her heart.

Kim Do-kwon, New York, Hong Gong-woo, and even Suzy.

now features a total of four playable characters.

I had the concept, style, and even the name figured out, but the most important thing was the fighting style and ability.

Since she is a woman and has an elegant feel, she is bound to fall behind the other three in terms of power and speed.

Speed ​​is between Kim Do-kwon and New York. Power is set slightly lower than New York.

“If this is the case, then there needs to be some compensation on the other side. In particular, it will be quite difficult for Suzy to play the game alone.”

“Instead of being weaker than others, I’d like to give it the widest attack range. And I’d like to make sure that its signature attack has destructive power that’s not inferior to that of other characters.”

In order to expand the attack range, it was impossible to do it with bare hands. So the idea was to give Suzy a tool.

“Swords and axes don’t seem like a good idea for bare-handed fighting. Guns are even weirder. What would be better?”

“Um… Since you’re a singer, how about a microphone? If you look at old microphones, they’re almost as heavy as a fist, right?”

“If you’re going to use a microphone, what do you need? A microphone stand? Wouldn’t that be better?”

AD Choi Han-il drew a picture of Suzy holding a long microphone stand. However, no matter how he looked at it, it looked awkward.

“This doesn’t seem right···.”

AD Choi Han-il drew various tools as they came to mind. Then he found one that fit perfectly.

“It was an umbrella! It’s what we were looking for.”

The pretty umbrella was an item that completed the elegant style of Suzy’s character, and was also used for striking.

Instead of hitting enemies with her fists, Suzy uses an umbrella. She hits with her legs like everyone else, but she can hit with her punches from farther away than other characters by using an umbrella.

Also, by adding the setting that there is a blade hidden at the tip of the umbrella, the signature attack became the umbrella stab. It was cool to look at, and it also had the destructive power that is appropriate for a signature attack.

“It’s finished now!”

I printed out concept art of Kim Do-kwon, New York, Hong Gong-woo, and Su-ji in large prints and hung them in the hallways of my company.

The images of modern boys and girls with different personalities living in Gyeongseong in the 30s were really cool.

In particular, Suzy’s appearance on stage, wearing a white veil, holding an umbrella, and singing with her legs slightly exposed through a torn dress, was full of deep sensitivity to action games.

“Wow, this is truly a masterpiece. It would be a shame to keep it just for us.”

“Right? I was just thinking about that.”

It felt like a shame to just use the concept art of four people who look so full as internal concept art, so I decided to use it as an advertisement.

It felt like a teaser ad before it was released in arcades.

We decided to advertise in computer magazines as a matter of course, as well as in major daily newspapers.

“Do you really intend to do it this way?”

“Yes, this time I’ll try to make it as curious as possible.”

When Mr. Park of Myeongseong Planning heard my advertising plan, he tried to say something but stopped. It was hard to understand, but he seemed to just accept it. He had never failed in advertising in my way before.

As we pass through the middle of a hot summer, the teaser advertisement for has been released.

***

Ha Bo-ram, a second-year middle school student, was attending a new computer academy during summer vacation. He dreamed of becoming a game developer like Seo Nam-joon, whom he had seen in the magazine .

So I told my parents that I wanted to go to a computer academy, and my parents happily dropped me out of the local computer academy because I said I wanted to go to any academy.

“what’s this···?”

Ha Bo-ram, who had a color MSX computer at home, excitedly ran to the academy to get the latest 16-bit computer.

But as soon as I saw the computer, I was disappointed. The IBM-compatible 16-bit XT computer had a black-and-white screen. It was all green with white letters.

“They said it was 16 bits… It’s completely fake.”

Ha Bo-ram, who was used to colorful color screens, was disappointed. The GW-BASIC language he learned at school was not very interesting either. It was similar to the MSX BASIC he had at home, but also vaguely different.

“When will I ever learn something like this and make a game….”

Although you need to be good at BASIC to be able to properly handle higher-level computer languages, Ha Bo-ram, who thought he would learn a language for game development right away, was doubly disappointed.

Still, the computer academy wasn’t necessarily bad, because there were a lot of friends there who liked games.

“Boram, after school today, shall we go to the bookstore? Check out the August issue of ?”

“I wonder?”

was a magazine that Ha Bo-ram also collected every month without fail. After school, the two ran to the local bookstore.

“Oh, it came out!”

The two soon found the August issue of lying neatly on the counter. Ha Bo-ram opened the magazine and skimmed through the contents. Then, her hand stopped in the middle.

“What is this···?”

“wow···!”

There was a picture of a man in a striped suit, his hair neatly tidied with pomade, holding a bowler hat in his hand and bowing slightly in greeting. His demeanor was polite, but his eyes were fierce, like those of a tiger.

[Kim Do-kwon, the hero of Gyeongseong]

There was no explanation below the picture other than those five letters.

“Hey, there’s one behind you too, lol.”

The wonderful picture continued for four pages.

[ Romantic Fist, New York ]

[ The Greatest Man in the World, Hong Gong-woo ]

And on the fourth page, Ha Bo-ram and her friend couldn’t take their eyes off it.

A woman wearing a fascinating dress on stage was singing while wearing a white veil. Her eyes looked somewhat sad. Her beautiful curved legs were slightly visible through the long, vertically torn dress.

[ Jazz singer, Suzy ]

“Hey, Boram. What is jazz?”

“I don’t know either···.”

Boram barely managed to answer her friend’s question. She couldn’t take her eyes off the picture.

“Hey, I think this is a Starbeat game! Is there a new game coming out?”

“Really? Is there an interview?”

Boram quickly flipped through the magazine. Starbeat always told us about the preparation process before releasing a new work.

But this time, no articles could be found.

“Miss, when is it coming out? Is it coming out as a Jamix? Or is it a Gembo? This looks like it’s not a joke.”

“I know···.”

Unlike her friend who was already excited, Ha Bo-ram couldn’t take her eyes off Su-ji’s picture.

It felt a little different than when I discovered a game that seemed fun. I was definitely excited, but more than that, my heart was pounding and I felt a little nervous.

Ha Bo-ram later realized that that was what it felt like to discover your first love.