Chapter 60: Chapter 61: Tutorial

As we delved into the actual development, the first thing to consider was, of course, the prologue.

In other words, the tutorial. Since the first impression of the game is determined at that moment, what’s been occupying my mind lately is how to direct and execute that scene.

Given the circumstances, it could be considered inevitable for me to reminisce about the Hell of War and the first time the four of them gathered.

“This place…”

A temple located quite far from the battlefield.

The Spartan who had just regained his senses and arrived here twisted his expression upon seeing the barbarian, the paladin, and the soldier who appeared right after him.

They were no different.

Well they were individuals who had just fought on opposite sides until yesterday, how could they converse and laugh now, considering the horrors of the war?

“There are scoundrels here,” the Spartan said, gripping his spear as if he was about to charge at any moment.

The paladin chuckled upon seeing the Spartan’s reaction. “Looks like they need some education. Beasts need it.”

“The brutes, I’ll kill them,” the barbarian declared, raising his axe.

The soldier watched them, taking a step forward.

It was for mediation, but it didn’t succeed.

“Stop it. You’re all here for the same purpose…”

“Waaah!”

It started with the Barbarian. In front of the temple made of red rocks, he swung his axe toward the Spartan closest to him.

Clang!

The Spartan’s shield blocked the axe blow.

His spear was now aimed at the barbarian’s throat.

“Where are you going!”

Thud!

The paladin’s sword blocked the spear.

Right from the beginning, it seemed like he was only targeting the Spartan, attacking him with a fierce look in his eyes.

The soldier, observing the three confrontations, drew his gun, chewing over what to do.

“Look here!”

That’s how the battle among the four began.

It felt like any one of them could die at any moment in the tense atmosphere.

From my perspective as an observer, it was quite tiresome.

But I couldn’t entirely blame them. They were people who had lived their entire lives on the battlefield, even in hell. They were people who had always been this way, even after coming to hell.

Humans, by nature, are controlled by inertia. Even if they recognized its alienation or horror, they couldn’t easily shed the violence that had taken control of their bodies.

A highly primitive way of resolving conflicts.

For them, it was, above all, a rational means of conflict resolution.

In reality, that fight did yield some results.

“…It seems like it won’t end,” the soldier, who had suggested mediation, spoke up again.

He had lost half of his head.

The paladin reluctantly accepted it.

“Oh Lord…”

One of his arms had been severed from the shoulder, he felt despair while looking at his intact self.

The barbarian said, “Gods, they’re either not here, or they are here but our enemies.”

His abdomen was covered in marks from spears and bullets.

He breathed heavily, but his eyes were as fierce as ever.

The Spartan, blood trickling from his waist, added, “Whatever it is, the answer must be in there.”

When he spoke, the three looked at the temple.

I also gazed at it.

The eerie temple seemed out of place with the surrounding landscape.

I didn’t know what it was, and neither did they.

However, one thing we could all instinctively feel was that whatever questions we had, the answers lay beyond it.

When the four of them realized this, they exchanged uncomfortable glances.

“Don’t stab in the back,” they seemed to silently say to each other.

It marked the start of an uneasy journey with unwanted companions.

They didn’t want to weaken themselves over trivial matters.

Having prepared themselves, they entered the temple together.

It was the moment when they welcomed a new space.

… A corpse army.

Who is this person…?

Do you know him?

They were amazed as they looked at the corpse at the entrance of the temple.

Spartan asked, and the soldier stared at him with a strange expression on his face.

…I’ve never actually met him. I just know his face.

Huh?

He was a warlord who lived hundreds of years before my time.

From the soldier’s words, I could also identify his identity.

If there was one clear characteristic… Yes.

He’s short. Is this guy a warlord?

…He was a figure so great that he’s considered a legend in history.

Napoleon Bonaparte.

The name of the corpse that was slowly turning black was like that.

It was natural for the soldier, who was a World War II soldier, to have feelings when he saw Napoleon, but how could I, an ordinary game director, understand those emotions?

There was only one thing I could be sure of.

Why is such a great hero here?

The Paladin’s sarcastic question became the answer.

The soldier handed his gun to Napoleon.

Then, half of the soldier’s head flew off, and Napoleon opened his eyes.

The soldier had moved his body.

He clenched and unclenched his fist and said.

There must have been a chosen one in this temple.

His gaze turned towards the dark temple.

The gazes of the others followed him.

There must have been others with the same question as us.

To put it simply, it meant that there were others like him who had their minds transferred to weapons, and they all rushed towards the answer beyond that.

A clue had been found, and their choice was clear.

Whatever it is, it must be beyond that.

The four of them walked towards the inside of the temple.

It was the first meeting with an hero.

In any case, in my role as an observer, this was the prologue chapter.

The series of events had been structured to fit the tutorial, a game-like composition.

I gave directions for the staging.

“4 phases for the tutorial battle?”

Han Seorim asked with a worried expression.

“Why tire them out with a fight right from the start? What if all the players get scared and run away?”

She seemed to have done some research, judging from her well-reasoned statement.

However, I couldn’t let Han Seorim, who had never played a game until she met me, beat me with her ideas.

Originally, Han Seorim had a low understanding of the genre.

“Why do battles have to be tiring? It should be fun, right? This is an action game, after all.”

The tutorial is essentially an introduction chapter that says, “This is the core idea of our game.”

It’s a taste of what the player will enjoy.

So, as the player who will play this game, I need to enjoy the action in the tutorial.

“It’s not just 4 phases. We’re going to go through the phases of the Soldier, Spartan, Barbarian, and Paladin. We’ll experience each weapon while they fight each other. The key is to smoothly transition the perspective with cinematic scenes as each phase changes. It’s an opportunity for players to find the weapon that suits their taste.”

Of course, it doesn’t end there.

“After the fight is over like that, your four characters will merge.”

“Yes?”

“They all die. Well, let’s make it so they can’t move their corpses anymore.”

From there, we’ll need to give a different variation from the actual events.

“The only relatively intact one is the Spartan’s body. The remaining three reach out their tentacles from their weapons to claim that body.”

“Ugh…”

“Four cursed weapons fighting over one body. The cinematic direction…”

Several angles came to mind, and soon, a convincing one surfaced.

“…Alright, I think it would be good to have the camera rotate 360 degrees around the playable character. The rising and writhing bodies, four mouths spewing different words, visually showing that there are four souls in one body.”

This can smoothly incorporate the process of controlling four weapons with a single playable character.

Next, we can talk about parts replacement through corpses.

As soon as you enter the temple with a single body, you’ll come across Napoleon’s corpse.

From there, looting the corpse, pressing the interact button will make the tentacles reach out to envelop Napoleon’s body.

You can then consume the entire corpse and store only the head in the inventory.

You can change it in the parts exchange tab.

The tutorial will show all the essential growth systems and end.

As I finished speaking, Han Seorim made a thoughtful noise.

“There’s a lot of cinematics involved.”

“That’s right.”

“And a lot of directing.”

“Exactly. Especially, we need to pay attention to the interaction animations. The process should be exciting from the beginning.”

That’s why cinematics are crucial in gacha games.

“Do you roughly understand?”

When I asked, Han Seorim replied, “I understand.”

“But?”

“Will the Art Team agree with this?”

She said something strange.

“Players don’t care about the developer’s circumstances.”

Do the best you can, and the end of the fun you can feel.

What players want is only that.

***

If you were to name the liveliest people at Studio Rewind, it would be these two.

Kim Hyeji and Jo Yumi.

They were the senior graphic designers of the art team and were among the early members of Rewind.

Even though the number of Rewind employees had exceeded 50, their presence was still unique within the company.

It was inevitable since the two of them, who were initially selective about people and didn’t socialize easily, seemed to get along well wherever they went, receiving praise and compliments.

For example:

“Senior designers are so kind, aren’t they?”

“Yes, they are. They are so energetic that being around them gives me energy too.”

In modern terms, they were like human vitamins.

They were treated as such, the duo known for their cheerful personas, but today they had unusually gloomy expressions on their faces.

The reason was the start of the graphic team’s work from today.

The rare duo’s melancholy was matched only by Myungkyu.

“Myungkyu, Myungkyu oppa, is the bed in the sleep room okay?”

“Hey Myungkyu, is late-night snacks okay? Where are they?”

Inside the programming team’s partition, behind Myungkyu, the team leader, there were always two chairs.

They were the chairs brought by Hyeji and Yumi, and when the two of them came to find Myungkyu, those chairs were moved to the team leader’s position.

“Oh, what if I die?”

“What if you work yourself to death? Will Myungkyu, Myungkyu oppa be sad for me?”

“Well, that’s… “

Myungkyu’s eyes rolled around.

The two of them poked Myungkyu’s waist or shook his collar and giggled.

The scheduled all-nighter, a daunting amount of work.

The only way to relieve it was with such playful responses.

Finally, Myungkyu closed his eyes tightly and said, “I’ll take responsibility…!”

“Oh, responsibility for both of us? Isn’t that unfair?”

“Oops…!”

“Gotcha.”

Yumi poked Myungkyu’s cheek with her index finger.

Myungkyu turned as red as a persimmon.

“Hahaha!”

Hyeji burst into laughter.

With that, the shadows above the two’s faces disappeared.

“Myungkyu, Myungkyu oppa, if you act so timid, will you be taken by your future wife?”

“Be careful, Myungkyu, Myungkyu oppa~. Roar!”

Having teased Myungkyu to the end, the two regained their energy and left.

“Well, then we’re going!”

“Myungkyu, Myungkyu oppa, see you tomorrow~.”

“Okay… “

Leaving Myungkyu, who was already exhausted, behind, they arrived at their seats.

Only then did silence fill the air.

Outside the window, it was already quite dark.

Hyeji put on a headband and pushed her bangs back.

Yumi wore glasses and covered herself with a blanket over her shoulders.

Others were sitting on their chairs, holding tablet pens, and their eyes devoid of spirit.

Swish, swish…

The two began their work.

At that moment, there was nothing in the two’s demeanor that resembled their usual selves.

The reason for that was the question that came first.

“What is graphic modelling?”

If you ask, the world will answer.

“It’s the tedious grunt work.”

The kind of grunt work where you have to grind out the labour just to complete one thing.

It was somewhat true.

But for skilled professionals like the two of them, the meaning was slightly different.

The meaning of the work didn’t end as simple grunt work.

There was another reason they had to put in so much effort.

“This is a bit ambiguous.”

To put it simply, it was a desire for creativity, or rather, an obsession with perfection.

That’s why Yeonho kept the two of them in their positions as senior designers, aside from their early membership and graphic design experience. Regardless of the reason, even as the company grew, there were certain details that the two of them possessed that couldn’t be replaced.

Well, if not for that, perfectionist Seorim wouldn’t have called them in the first place.

The abilities of the two of them were being put to use without a doubt today as well.

“Hyeji, Hyeji, how about this butt shape?”

“It’s good… Unnie, Unnie, how about these thigh muscles?”

“Great.”

Even one task was not done carelessly.

No, their pride didn’t allow them to do things carelessly.

The desire to project beyond completion, the identity of a creator had to be embedded in the work for their conscience to be satisfied.

In the eyes of the world, there were two things they would call these two.

“They’re amazing.”

One was a craftsman.

The other one was…

“As expected, men focus on the lower body.”

…Detail fetishists.

“Okay, let’s move on to the next one.”

Satisfied smiles appeared on the corners of their mouths.

This was how Hyeji and Yumi created Hellic’s modelling.

Swish, swish…

Somewhere in Pangyo, the headquarters of Rewind, the company was once again shining like a star on /RomanceMTL