泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 _ Disney and Touch Touch

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Disney and Touch Touch

Inside Out, an American 3D computer-animated comedy film, has recently gotten good reviews from its Korean audiences. It's the movie that I want to watch on the weekend the most. The new Disney film topped other blockbusters with the largest number of viewers per day. It's been in one and a half year since an animated film Frozen was one top of the box office creating a huge sensation in the domestic market. Meanwhile, I deeply impressed by Disney's creative strategy. There are a lot of Disney animations which are well-known here in Korea. Almost anyone in their 20s and 30s probably knows at least a couple of the greatest hits such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Aladdin, and The Lion King, etc.

Do you remember a mobile-game Touch Touch? It's a spot-the-difference casual game which was released a long time ago. The game rules are very simple. A user has to find the differences between the two versions of the same pictures side by side. The rules are easy to understand and the interface is quite user-friendly and intuitive as well. Also, it has a stable system with putting fun factors into the game. Touch Touch helps a player only to stay focus on finding differences and make the user feel a sense of achievement when he/she completes a mission list, which easily shows the user fun. I guess that a considerable number of readers have probably played the game or other similar game at one time or another.

I used to see many female users playing various mobile games when I get to and from work. Most of them usually enjoy playing casual games. They played Anipang in the fall of 2013 and enjoyed Wind Runner for Kakao, I Love Coffee, Everybody's Marble, Candy Crush Saga, etc. since then. Candy Crush Soda Saga seemed the most popular for a while. There hasn't been a new one which was appealing to female casual-game users, however, Disney Catch Catch is slowly gaining popularity among women.

Disney Catch Catch helps users to play the game easily using quite familiar characters and animate scenes from Disney animations and familiar gameplay. It's pleasant to watch a lot of animated scenes from The Lion King, Aladdin, and Frozen, etc. and users can also expect to see more interesting Disney contents which would be added by its performance.

I think that it is necessary to adjust the difficulty of the game. But, while many developers seek the new, finding a point of difference from what we are familiar with made the spot-the-difference casual game pretty appealing. I expect to see many video games with a switch of ideas.

※ 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 _ Similar or identical

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Similar or identical

In addition to video games, I've been investing in films for the last couple of years. Examining a film scenario is the most important thing when an investor receives a proposal. The funding decision isn't only made by the screenplay, however, it's an essential part of the proposal review. I had enjoyed reading scenarios for a good while. Different stories, a lot of materials, diverse subjects, and different types of characters, etc. were new to me.

A year or so later, the novelty wore off while reading at least two to four scripts a week. When I finished reading more than one-hundred screenplays, various scenes from different scenarios started to be mixed up. I used to find what I read somewhere and the stories are mixed while I was reading a new script. Scenarios themselves are not the problem. Most people experience emotions more or less the same way and they naturally think alike when they create a story.

A lot of hard work of screenwriters, film directors, and film staffs is really what makes new movies possible over and over, yet there are films with similar stories and subjects. There are many movies with a sad love story of a terminally ill woman or man who instantly falls in love and dies of the disease. Including Love Story (1970 American film), The Letter (1997 South Korean film), and A Moment to Remember (2004 South Korean film), there are countless examples of similar stories.

Recently released video games are pretty similar in terms of genre, character, and gameplay. As a video-game user of twenty years experience, sometimes even a newly introduced game looks familiar and lacks the originality and creativity compared to the existing ones. When visiting online game communities, I have encountered comments more often denouncing video games that plagiarized or mimicked other works. A simply identical game to another thing has a problem. But I don't like to condemn it because the new one is similar to the existing one. Like a film, a video game also cannot be made in completely creative ways.

In the same way that we should not throw a stone at all racing games with similar factors, we should not criticize every action RPGs having the same or similar characteristics like life-size characters, fantasy-style images, and 3D quarter view. If we find a quote "You've got to go to Hawaii!" in a new gangster movie taking place in the 1980s, we naturally suppose that the film copied the famous scene of Friend, a 2001 South Korean action film. Likewise, imitative copy in the process of developing game would be condemned. But Virtual Fighter is not blamed for a fighting game which copied Street Fighter. I expect to see similar but new games beyond imitation.

※ 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 _ Is there a crisis of mobile game?

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Is there a crisis of mobile game?

Recently, I was asked to present on the subject of a crisis of the Korean mobile-game industry. I have mentioned the gaming-market crisis in my column over several times, however, I'd like to talk about it from an investor's point of view this time.

Speaking as the venture capitalist, a good investment target includes high-profitability industry, fast-growing industry, undervalued industry, and strategic-investment-partnership -based industry, etc.

There were massive investments in the local mobile-gaming industry around 2013 to 2014. But the result of the investment was not that good. Dozens of cases of investment failure brought about drastically reduced investment and investors maintain a wait-and-see attitude now.

The domestic mobile-gaming industry was increased unprecedently in history in 2013. It had made explosive growth of 190.6 percent since KakaoTalk Game Platform service was launched in 2012. But the growth has sharply declined as you can see from an estimated 4.2 percent in 2014 and the domestic mobile-game industry has become mature in a relatively short period time predicting 1.8 percent year-on-year growth in 2015.

Much anticipation had been building amongst local mobile-game developers in 2014 when many of them had received an investment proposal from Chinese companies obtained large-scale funding. Talking about conditions from Chinese investors, a good number of game makers expected domestic investment firms to invest two to three times the size of the existing company valuation. It threatened to dampen Korean domestic investment and Chinese companies attained predominance in the local game-investment field. But unlike the negotiation process of Korean companies, Chinese investors unilaterally terminated an agreement with frequency, which put many local game companies in an awkward position.

A small number of publishers are currently taking over the Korean mobile-game market allowing their cost to spend on strategic investments. Now, in a situation where domestic investment firms are unwilling to invest money in the gaming sector, a handful of strategic direct investors are of great importance supporting its industry. However, the currently unbalanced situation depending upon a few numbers of firms will be forced to deepen industrial polarization among game developers and distort our industrial habitat anytime.

The local mobile-game market is not attractive compared to two to three years ago. Growth has been drastically slowed and company valuation is too high from investor's viewpoint. Now, the whole sector depends on the minimum number and the market polarization is severe.

But the free play of market forces naturally creates new opportunities throughout the domestic mobile-game industry without mentioning a hackneyed axiom "Never let a good crisis go to waste". I hope that I'll be able to write how Korean mobile-game industry overcame the crisis at this time next year.

 

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

   (http://www.khgames.co.kr)

    Translation by Kim Ki-hui