泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Dreaming of making Legend Heroes in the gaming world

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Dreaming of making Legend Heroes in the gaming world

 

March 3, 2016, when I'm writing this column, is a very meaningful day for me. It's a general back-to-school day for students and entrance-into-a school day for new students. Plus, it's the beginning of spring and my niece's birthday. Above all things, Legend Hero, a domestic Tokusatsu (special filming)—a Japanese term for live-action film or television drama that makes heavy use of special effects—which hasn't been produced for a long time, premiered on Mar. 3. Some readers might think about what the big deal is. However, I like Tokusatsu a whole lot. In particular, till quite recently before I become so busy, I used to look forward to Kamen Rider Series every year. Of course, besides the home-grown special filming, there are other reasons that Legend Heroes is very meaningful to me.

 

In 2008, a promotion video clip was shown online about a new Tokusatsu in the making. The video made me get excited because it showed better-than-expected local special effects. I eagerly looked forward to domestic special filming on par with Japanese Tokusatsu, however, the project was suspended because of its funding failure. It was SF X Fantasy Rayforce. And, recently, the project that was forgotten for almost a decade appeared in front of me who is not a viewer but an investor. A team planned the project in the past was trying to attracting investment for a new project named Legend Hero which I noted in the beginning. While I listened to a detailed explanation, I had a gut feeling that this would be good because of its higher-quality planning and meticulous preparation. But insiders of my company was not happy with the project. Because home-made special effects movies have never made any good performances and never been a highly profitable business. Some raised a question about a story of Records of the Three Kingdoms saying that it seems too difficult for children. The others examined the business potential worrying about the disruption of the project due to a lack of 7 billion won worth of funds. I had persuaded them persistently for about six months explaining various secondary markets earnings and toy-market expansion, and, to demonstrate the teammates' ability, showing a video clip made by the team compared to recent Japanese ones. I finally won their approval in reward for my effort; they may have given up their right to oppose. Luckily, I funded the project in May last year.

 

The much-troubled Legend Heroes was aired today. I do not know the result. Viewer reactions are yet to be known. However, I believe that the team's endeavor and patience will pay off. I think the chemistry between the investor and the project is very important. I could accept suffering and kept trying to progress investment since it was my home ground. I have seen many times discontinued game development projects due to a lack of funds since last year. Despite previous failures, developers would require the knowhow to make a video game. I expect that those hidden treasures can see the light of the world again.

 

 

※ 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 love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Waiting for rosy future of small and medium-sized game developers

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Waiting for rosy future of small and medium-sized game developers

 

I often look at mobile-game charts because of the nature of the job of an investor specializing in content including video games. Of course, I mostly examine top-grossing games rather than all subcategories. The everyday routine helps me to have strengths to confirm a considerable change in the industry very rapidly. But there is also a big drawback. It is easy to become insensitive the gradual change in trend. You probably don't notice minimal weight changes of a person whom you see every day, however, you can easily perceive the change of someone whom you haven't seen for a long time. Looking back on the previous year, I took a closer look at changes in the game rankings for the year at the end of last year. And I could identify the overall flow of the one-year variations. I'd like to talk about what I felt while looking at the changes in the sales ranking.

 

The salient point is a significant drop of 『For Kakao』 games. In January 2015, 『For Kakao』 games dominated high ranks of various game charts. However, current top-ranked 『For Kakao』 games, even though they are still not a few, have mostly serviced for a long time and the number has drastically decreased. And the majority of the games ranked high on the list now are not 『For Kakao』 games.

 

The next thing is that most upper-ranked games are being serviced by large-sized publishers. At this time last year, there were top-ranked games which were released directly by small and medium-sized developers. However, presently, apart from some foreign-developer-made games, it's hard to find high-ranked games made by domestic game studios. Fortunately for us, a few long-lasting local games remain among the top games.

 

This shows that the market continues to be upgraded based on its user data and massive marketing data. Furthermore, the influence of Kakao game platform has been reduced, which made the small and medium-sized game developers became harder to have good performance in the market with huge advertising costs. Also, the enormous costs are lowering the profitability of big publishers. In most industrial areas, rising distribution expenses including advertising costs tend to trigger large-scale distributors' direct manufacturing. In the gaming industry, like the others, big-sized publishers have a high possibility to change the way they do business, for example, direct development and having its affiliates. Or they can choose an area of concentration focusing on servicing of a few big games. Under these circumstances, smaller businesses would gradually lose their place. And this can also enable a vicious circle of cautious corporate investment and challenging production environment for smaller developers.

 

Like other megabusiness-centered industries in the past, the gaming industry would reduce challenges and streamline bulky organizations, and develop new growth engines investing in potential start-up companies. However, there will be difficult times for small and medium-sized game makers ahead for a while. It's time for them to need tenacity.

 

※ 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 love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Celebrating the launch of Entertainment Convergence Forum

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Celebrating the launch of Entertainment Convergence Forum

 

Recently Korea Mobile Game Association (KMGA)-affiliated Entertainment Convergence Forum has launched. Kim Jung-hwan, a CEO of a crowdfunding site UCANSTART, is in charge of the Forum. And to assist in the task of producing inter-industrial synergy, the forum has set up an advisory group of influential content-related organizations and companies including such as SBS Contents Hub (former SBSi), Licensing Executive Society International (LESI), Korea Contents Business Center (KCBC), a character licensor, a webtoon agency, a venture capital firm specializing in content, etc.

 

We've already lived in a world of convergence. We use various electronic products which are applied technological convergence and existing technologies connect us into something that is much more integrated and unified. A car, which can be considered as the final boss of mechanical engineering in our daily lives, has long been controlled by a computer. Plus, a videotape, an analog magnetic tape used for storing video and sound, is now a thing of the past from Reply TV Series because of old media's digitalizing. Besides, without information and communications technology, we cannot enjoy various video contents at our home, and without wireless data technology, numerous commuters on the subway probably don't know what to do in their spare time. It's not easy for us to see a person reading a comic book as much as a person using a beeper while most people read webtoons on their smartphones.

 

Also, the present government's economic policy, which is called "Creative Economy", is likely to look for an answer by convergence. The government is expanding its investment for the new industrial convergence and creating convergence industrial complexes by regions. Now we should support the development of industrial or technological convergence that could feed the nation in the future.

 

However, the gaming industry has always been the first to the convergence. A video game, which was originally based on combination of image, sound, and programming techniques, are now blending a variety of technologies—input interface, communications, image processing, game engine, game mechanics, stereophonic sound, AI (artificial intelligence), display, VR (virtual reality), and AR (augmented reality)—and various contents—text-based storytelling contents, graphics, music—into one. It's not easy to imagine the next step of technological convergence in the gaming industry. Just two decades ago, few predicted that tens of thousands of players spend their time online simultaneously playing an MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game). Likewise, ten short years before, hardly anyone expected almost everybody on the subway would play games on their smartphones.

 

People whose basic needs—shelter, clothing, food and so forth—are met naturally find something to entertain themselves. There are many other forms of entertainment available: fishing, music, and film, etc. Among them, a video game is one of the leading content convergence in the entertainment industry. So in that sense, I hope that the Entertainment Convergence Forum will contribute greatly to the development of the gaming industry.

 

 

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

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui