Villain’s Programming - Chapter 281



Only Noblemtl

Episode 281: The Taoist Temple

Minmay asked.

– Ssabu, you’re not a web server, are you?

“It’s a web server. As expected from Minmay. You guessed it right.”

Dojun said in a tone that was surprising, but Minmay asked again in a bewildered voice.

– No, Ssabu! It’s not a socket server, it’s a web server! Ssabu knows best about the shortcomings of web servers.

“I know. But the web server is right for Dotop Electric. Minmay, what are the disadvantages of a web server?”

Minmay thought for a moment and then answered.

– First of all, it’s slow. It can be 10 times, sometimes even 100 times slower than a socket server. And it’s also incredibly heavy.

“That’s right. That’s why games that require fast synchronization shouldn’t use web servers.”

– That’s right! Why shouldn’t you use a web server? Are you trying to use a web server?

Minmay shouted loudly.

‘Yeah. That’s a normal reaction.’

Web server-based games were once a neglected game development method in Korea.

‘It had the advantage of being able to be developed quickly, but it didn’t require much technical skill, so web game developers were ignored. However, this technology has become a trend in the mobile game market.’

“Normally, yes. But we have to solve China’s network problems. If the network goes down like in Wangjayeongyo, we can’t let the game itself be unplayable.”

– That’s a physical thing. Even if you use a web server, nothing changes.

Dojun chuckled.

“That’s right! That’s why I’m going to make Dotapjeongi a client-based game that can be played even when the network is down.”

Minmay opened her eyes wide.

– What? That’s ridiculous. That would require the calculation to be done on the client side. No way? That’s it? That’s ridiculous! Then it would be vulnerable to hacking!

“That’s right. They’re vulnerable to hacking. They’ll definitely get hacked. But Minmay, what if hacking is useless? If they can’t get anything out of it, would they still hack?”

– Yes? What do you mean?

Dojun calmly explained to Minmay’s bewildered answer.

“Minmay, think back to Dotop Chronicle. What kind of game is it?”

– That’s… a game where you collect characters and clear stages.

“That’s right. It’s a game where you fight enemies with five characters. However, unlike other games, there are almost no parts that the user can control. All you do is occasionally use a special move. Do you understand what this means?”

Minmay was desperately worried.

‘Five characters? Almost no user interaction required?’

Minmay thought for a while and then opened her eyes wide.

– Are you saying that you’re going to check for hacking by verifying data after the battle, not during it?

“As expected of Minmay, you guessed right away. Clara stores all the data that occurred during battle. Which character attacked whom with which skill and how much damage was inflicted.”

– Oh! I see. We’re going to collect all that data and send it to the server after the battle ends. The server has all the information it needs to determine if the data is real or not. Oh my!

“That’s right. If you want to hack it, go ahead and try. If the server determines that the data is incorrect, they won’t give you any compensation and that’s the end of it.”

Minmay was impressed. What Dojun said seemed easy, but it was a kind of paradigm shift.

‘As expected, Sabuya. How did you come up with all these ideas? Besides, a web server is enough. You only need to contact the server when the battle starts and when the battle ends.’

Of course, at this time, the network conditions may be bad and connection may not be possible.

‘But that’s not a problem. It’s PVE anyway. Just show a message. Something like, “Check the network,” or “Wait a minute.”

Minmay is now the CEO of the company, but a few years ago, she was a great game developer. When Dojun gave her a hint, she began to think about what to do.

– But Ssabu. Even if PVE is like that, shouldn’t there be things like PVP and guilds?

Dojun chuckled. He knew he would say that.

“That’s right. Battles between users are definitely necessary. And a ranking system is also necessary, right?”

– Then what are you going to do about it?

“Minmay, that’s homework.”

– Yes? No, I’m not.

“Don’t try to eat it all for free, just look for it diligently. You can discuss it with your company’s developers. By the way, I have the answer.”

Minmay’s eyes lit up at Dojun’s words.

– Okay. It’s been a while since I’ve been on fire. Just wait a week, a week. I’ll figure it out.

“Don’t wait.”

Dojun stretched after hanging up the phone.

‘But was there JSON and Redis in 2012? What about node.js?’

Dojun, who had been thinking hard, shook his head.

‘Eight. Of course. And you can make it even without this much, right?’

While Dojun was thinking like this, JM-SOFT received a special order from Minmay. The night continued with sighs from countless developers at JM-SOFT.

And a week later, Minmay contacted Dojun as promised.

* * *

Liao Weisheng was shocked when he saw the results report of the ‘Prince’s Honor’.

‘No, your grades are pretty good, right?’

Until recently, the gamer community was full of all kinds of harsh criticism about ‘Prince Youngyo’, and in fact, countless users left.

However, there were still about 100,000 users who continued to enjoy the game.

‘Ha, this was really unexpected.’

Liao Weisheng immediately reported the cause to the chief secretary. The answer was simple.

‘The game is that fun? You solve the network problem by only playing in places with WIFI, and you only play on high-performance smartphones?’

Liao Weisheng rejoined the gaming community.

– Prince Youngyo is a god! The game is so much fun.

– That’s right. At first, I blamed the game company, but as I played, I changed my mind. Why is it the game company’s fault that the network is slow? It’s the telecommunications company’s problem. Besides, you can just connect to WIFI.

– It’s the beggars who are the problem. Don’t play games. They play fine on iPhones and Gamnias.

In the past, I thought these were articles mocking the Prince’s Love, so I glanced at them and didn’t read them. But now that I look at them, they weren’t mocking, they were praising.

‘Is this game that fun?’

Even though he was the head of a game company, Liao Weicheng didn’t know that ‘Honor of the King’ was that fun. He was too old to enjoy the genre called AOS.

‘But it’s true that gamers like Prince Youngyo.’

Liao Weisheng opened the message window he shared with ‘Bruce’.

[Just release the game as is. You don’t need to fix network issues.]

[Huh? The report says that doing that will ruin the game?]

[It’s okay. It’ll be resolved soon. And don’t forget our purpose.]

‘Does this mean you don’t have to deal with network issues? Because you’re confident in the game?’

Liao Weicheng made a dumbfounded expression.

“Who the hell is this guy Bruce? Who the hell is he to send me this game?”

A game of this caliber would be a success even if given to any company, not just 100 Cent.

‘That’s not the only thing I don’t understand.’

It was clear that Bruce was a Chinese person associated with the ‘Triad’ because he had a phone call with me once. He spoke perfect local Chinese.

Liao Weisheng recalled the first time he came into contact with the ‘Triad’.

‘You knew me well. You knew that I hated Ma Huateng, and you knew that I wanted to kill that man named Huang Dujun.’

When he met the Triad, Liao Weicheng was obsessed with ‘revenge’. He was willing to do anything as long as he could get revenge.

‘So I accepted the Triad’s offer, drugged Ma Huateng, and caused a traffic accident. And then I was able to become the representative of Baeksent.’

Liao Weisheng did not regret the action. He was just curious about who Bruce was, how he got this source, and what he should do next.

‘More than anything, how are we going to catch Hwang Do-jun?’

Liao Weisheng thought about it for a long time and finally sent a message to Bruce.

[I want to meet you.]

The reply came right away.

[Not now. We will meet when the time comes.]

[… Okay, I see. But, I heard that JM-SOFT is releasing a game. Can I just sit still?]

[Please promote Prince Youngyo more. No other game can beat Prince Youngyo. By the way, what happened to what I said?]

[I said that was the most important thing. Once that is resolved, we can meet.]

Liao Weisheng’s eyes widened at Bruce’s words.

[Are you talking about the meeting with Vice President Xi Jinping?]

* * *

– Ssabu, I found the answer. Using TCP sockets and NODE.JS. Main logic is web, and user-to-user content like PVP is TCP, right?

Minmay found the answer.

‘Fortunately, NODE.JS existed even during this time. And JSON, too.’

It was good that Minmay had found the answer, but the problem was time. ‘Prince Youngyo’ had already been released and was starting to settle in the market.

‘The population is really a gangster. If it were Korea, they would have shut down the server, but since the population is large, they have the capacity to provide the service. The user base is small, but the loyalty is high. If it continues like this, it might be able to run for a long time.’

We had to release ‘Dotap Electric’ as soon as possible.

‘Of course, we can’t just develop the Dotap Electric.’

Thinking back to his previous life as Prince Yeongyo, Dojun felt that he needed a fundamental solution.

Dojun immediately called Riot Games and told them to create a mobile version of LoL. All mobile technology was to be provided by Black Cat Studio.

– I think there will be no problem in development to that extent. But, sir. What should we name the mobile version of LOL? Should we just go with LOL?

Dojun answered while recalling his past life.

“Yes, that’s basically it, but let’s add one more sub name.”

– Do you have a name in mind?

“Legend of league: WILD RIFT. How about this?”

– WILD RIFT. It’s just right, isn’t it?

Dojun had Riot develop WILD RIFT like that. While he was preparing for the future, he received a call from Minmay.

‘Come and develop it together?’

I immediately knew why Dojun Minmay had asked me to do that.

Dojun knew best what kind of game ‘Dotop Chronicle’ was. He could release ‘Dotop Chronicle’ as soon as possible only if he worked alongside the developer to develop it.

“Minmay. Make a hotel reservation for me. I’ll need a long-term stay of about a month.”

When Dojun directly joined the development, the development speed of ‘Dotop Electric’ became incredibly fast.

‘But the problem is NODE.JS.’

In the past, node.js was used a lot to build web servers, but not now.

‘If you want to do node.js, you need javascript.’

During that time, Dojun had not been directly involved in game development. As the CEO, he had too many things to do.

Even when I happened to get involved in game development, the language I mainly used was C/C++.

Of course, Dojun knew some Javascript. It was a basic language to learn for web programming.

‘But this is my first time using it in a game, so I’m not sure if I can do it right.’

Dojun looked into JAVASCRIPT while studying NODE.JS.

But then it happened.

Dojun opened his eyes wide. An unexpected message appeared.

‘This is an opportunity!’

Dojun started learning JAVASCRIPT like crazy. In fact, JAVASCRIPT was easy to learn. However, it was a language that was easy to learn, but very difficult to use.

It was a language designed to somehow function even when problems arise.

Dojun searched the Internet and started to learn about potential problematic JAVASCRIPT cases.

It was about three days later.

“ah!”

After a long time, a new language has been added.

‘With this level of skill, you might be able to analyze the NODE.JS source code.’

Dojun started analyzing NODE.JS.

Dojun was even more excited and coding. Since JM-SOFT’s major shareholder was coding without even going home, there was no way the developers under him could go home. JM-SOFT was on the verge of collapse.

When a message appeared before Dojun’s eyes, the Dotap Electric Power was completed.

‘Dotapjeongi’ was released one month after ‘Wangjayeongyo’.

[JM-SOFT Dotop Electric. Released.]

When Dotap Chronicle was released, the Chinese gaming community was once again on fire.

– No? Are these graphics real? Are they game graphics from 10 years ago?

– The graphics aren’t the problem. The game is auto, auto. No? Is a game just about pressing buttons when a special move comes out?

Gamers criticized ‘Dotapjeongi’.

After a day, Minmay asked with a worried expression.

“Ssabu… Is this okay?”

Minmay was very worried because all the games released by JM-SOFT so far had been well-received by gamers and had been a great success.

Dojun chuckled.

“Minmay, look at this graph. DAU has increased, right?”

DAU (Daily Active Users) refers to the number of users who access the game during the day.

“Oh… Is that so? Why is it like this?”

“The reviews are bad, but the number of users has increased. What does this mean?”

“Quietly… Are there a lot of users who only play games?”

“That’s right. That’s what I thought too. We’ll know for sure in a few more days.”

Dojun’s words were true. Even after a week, DAU continued to grow without any decline. In addition, the user reviews gradually changed.

– Hey. This game is a god game. My smartphone is the cheapest one. There are no games that run on it. But Dotop Jeonki runs on it.

– I also think it’s a great game. It’s okay to play it on the subway or bus.

– You said there was nothing to control in other games, right? But I disagree. I play this game because there is nothing to control. And even if you don’t control the game, you still have to do things like ‘deck’ composition and ‘strengthening’, so there’s a lot to do.

– I’m a character! There are quite a few characters from games released by JM-SOFT in Dotap Electric. There’s a lot of fun in raising these characters!

Dojun chuckled while reading the comments.

‘It’s just as I thought. Auto works.’

In the past, there were many gamers who hated ‘auto’, or automatic battle, but not anymore. Rather, users were evaluating it as ‘fresh content’.

‘Dotapjeongi’ surpassed ‘Wangjayeongyo’ in all indicators within a week of its release.

And after a month of release, ‘Dotopjeongi’ became a paid game.

Minmay immediately contacted Dojun in Korea.

– Fight! This is crazy.

“What’s so crazy?”

– I’m crazy! Look at this. This is how much I made in a day!

Minmay showed the number on the messenger. Dojun clicked his tongue when he saw it.

“15 million yuan?”

– yes!

15 million yuan was nearly 3 billion won in Korean currency. It was a jackpot.

“You worked hard, Minmay!”

– It’s hard. It’s all thanks to Sabu. Sabu! When are you coming back to China? All the developers want to see Sabu.

Dojun chuckled. He thought of the developers he had stayed up all night with while developing in China for a month.

“Okay, I’ll be there soon. Let’s have a party to finish things off with the developers.”

But then it happened.

An urgent message appeared in the message window before my eyes.