泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ Character development and player development

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

Character development and player development

 

Do you remember Street Fighter, the iconic '90s fighting video game? What about Super Mario a little bit to the past? If not, what about Tekken (Iron Fist) or Onimusha (literally 'Oni Warrior')? You would know StarCraft at least.

The reason why I mention video games of the past all of a sudden is to talk about auto-combat games which can be found easily in the recent mobile gaming market.

I don't want to criticize the auto-battle games like Monster Taming, the most representative auto-combat game. A gamer usually is required two things when he/she play a character-based video game which has developed steadily since the establishment of the video game.

One is character development. The character-based games usually, aside from genre characteristics, lead the players to develop a character through various factors. The character can be upgraded step by step through quests when the level requirement is met: character level-up, character replacement, or strengthening and replacing weapons and types of equipment. Particularly emphasizing these factors, Monster Taming-style auto combat RPG games lead players to focus on developing a character itself, which make them spend less time to directly play the game. Lots of Monster Taming-like games have been released because the intention of the game designing has been successful in today's mobile environments and some of them achieved good performance.

The other is player development. Fighting games: Street Fighter, Super Mario, and Tekken, which I mentioned in the beginning, as well as action-RPGs and RTS games in the past basically expected player's skill, so-called control, from gamers. Even an ultimate character often couldn't beat a weak monster due to a player's lack of control skill, however, Lim Yo-hwan, the Terran Emperor, on the contrary, greatly defeated the lurker with a very weak marine.

I don't want to talk about where you need to focus on for better planning. It is possible to prioritize one of the two for fun for users or put both of them into a game for balanced planning. But, with highlighting qualities of mobile device, a factory approach to make a game just focusing on character build-up seems less than desirable.

A market without various forms can never grow beyond the limits of the distorted market and unbalanced development. We already saw the declined Hong Kong film market due to mass production of film noir in the '90s. So, in that sense, I'm pretty glad to see a recent big-hit game Blade where properly requires player's control skill and development. I hope that many domestic mobile games in various styles will be released in the future.

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ It's time for a game designer to impress users

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

It's time for a game designer to impress users

 

Some time ago, I wrote about "Are video games art?" Apart from the artistic value of a video game which I strongly claimed, I'll talk about some others. In recent years, I have had many chances to talk with game developers. There were some great game designers who I, as a former game designer, wanted to follow their examples and some of them were honestly less than worthy designers. I don't think that I am better enough at a game design to evaluate their qualification and skills. I only want to talk about the basic elements of a game designer.

The element of a video game is divided into game design and game graphics. Unlike the others, game design is a combination of various factors. It needs to include a story that a game designer wants to tell a player and show a theme of a game. But most game designs are still at a low point showing needs of playing and it just covers some elements for game production and game service.

At first, I believed that it perhaps stemmed from a domestic game player's lack of interest in a story and strong interest in playing the game, which led designers to focus on the market demands. But I concluded, after talking with many domestic game designers, that a number of designers lack the humanistic discipline to apply it in a game.

A video game story is basically similar to literature. There should be a well-organized narrative; the introduction, the development of the theme, conversion, and summing up, and a clear message. Plus, the element of gameplay should be designed to send the message. It's impossible for a game designer who lacks the humanistic discipline to meet the requirements. Western literature is basically founded on Christian culture and humanism led by Greek and Roman culture. The number of designers who read the Old Testament and read Greek and Roman mythology carefully was less than half of the designers whom I met. Only a few people read The Lord of the Rings, a classic fantasy, and Romance of the three kingdoms, Legend of Chu an Han, and Water Margin—these are Chinese novels. Principles of Economics—it's for managing virtual goods within a game—caused the number to diminish more and, including Mise-en-scène and symbolism for game-screen direction, the number can be disastrous.

The gaming industry is now the leading content industry in Korea and is the most recognized field than any other content in the global market. It's time to discuss on not excellent techniques of game-making but qualitative sides of the game content as Korea raises its status in the world and continues to upgrade its industrial base.

I still remember that I so moved to play Final Fantasy series and I was very surprised playing Warcraft series thanks to its imaginary world-building. It's not easy to deny that the domestic game-making techniques are truly world class. Nevertheless, I don't remember when I was inspired by a local video game since The War of Genesis. Now it's time for Korean game designers to effort to impress users more than just fun. To do that, I believe that they should start to study humanities. I expect to see many game designers who give fantastic impressions to gamers all over the world.

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ A good player is not always a good coach

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

A good player is not always a good coach

 

A long time ago, I read an article in which Cho Hun-hyun, the South Korean 9-dan professional Go player, mentioned Lee Chang-ho, the South Korean professional Go player of 9-dan rank. Summarizing the story, I don't exactly remember the specifics, Cho thought that Lee was a fool or a rare genius when he saw the little student.

I meet many video game developers because of my job. As an ex-game developer, the time with them is very enjoyable. But some project managers or team managers used to make me get a wry smile. Because they were sure that they can run an ideal company if they become CEO. It might be a wrong assessment like the first Korean 9 dan player Cho; I don't mean that I'm at the same level as one of the greatest players of all-time. But, in most cases, they say that they would not do such a thing if they were the incumbent CEO pointing out his/her mistakes. The undeniable fact is that a president often makes mistakes. I don't want to say that there are many representative directors who repeat the mistakes. I exactly try to get across that most working-level game developers consider game development equal to game studio management.

You can just think, for simplicity, about a video-game company that it makes and publishes a game and it is the only job to show its ability to make a good game. But this is completely wrong. This would be nothing short of saying, "An excellent film director can be a great head of a film studio." or "An outstanding player can be a great coach and owner." Guus Hiddink, who led South Korea to a historic 4th-place finish in 2002 World Cup, was not popular when he was a soccer player. Many great game producers and project managers romanticize the future concentrating all their energy on making good games and some establish their own game studio based on past success at their former workplace, however, not all of them have been successful.

What makes the difference? We need to know the difference between the production system and management system to answer the question. Making a game is a process of controlling "now" as manufacturing a product. It's the process of focusing on managing production schedule, handling "now" continually to achieve goals for each step, and setting a business plan for the current plan to go off well. In addition, it is necessary to control quality and compensate for the defect and enhance step-by-step output. Running a business, on the other hand, is the process of predicting and preparing for the future. A business owner needs to overcome a financial problem in the future with an accurate prediction, predict the future market to provide effective solutions, and share values and vision with all employees to bring them together.

As previously mentioned, I'm ineligible for evaluating the potential ability of competent working-level staff as the next CEO. I simply think that I, as a venture capitalist, won't make an investment in the company in which a president doesn't recognize the difference. A good player can't always be a good coach and an able factory manager can't make a book on success as a good CEO. Likewise, there is no guarantee of success of a great game producer and project manager as a great president. While chatting on, I got to know that many game developers long for running their own business because they want to make a game as they wish or accomplish various personal goals. I don't think that is wrong. I just want them to completely recognize the difference between production and management and thoroughly prepare in advance before establishing a business. I hope to see a lot of good CEOs from talented game developers like Sun Dong-yol, a former excellent baseball player who became a great coach later.

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui