WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Game Director that Returned from Hell ◈
Chapter 13
──────
The question came back at once.
“Me? Do the modeling?”
“Yeah, you.”
“Why?”
Now that was a very MZ-generation question.
Just as the thought crossed my mind, she continued.
“I looked into game art jobs too. Isn’t my position supposed to be art direction? Drawing concept art, coming up with designs, and making sure the finished work fits together. Do I really need to do the modeling myself too...?”
She was right.
She clearly hadn’t skimped on her research. Her explanation covered the usual art production process in the industry.
But Han Seorim had overlooked something.
“Seorim.”
“Yes?”
“How many people work at our studio?”
“You and me.”
“And how many of us can do the art?”
“...Just me?”
“Right? We’re a tiny operation. A really tiny one.”
The design process Han Seorim had researched was the one used at established game companies.
Naturally, a small indie team like ours couldn’t afford to divide the work that way.
“Of course, I’m going to hire more people. The work involved in making a 3D game is on a completely different scale from a pixel-art indie game.”
Besides, we weren’t making some mediocre game with a few lumps of clay thrown together.
I planned to make it at least eight hours long. Each chapter would also have a different setting, so the modeling time would multiply with the number of chapters.
It was more work than Han Seorim could handle alone.
But that was a separate issue.
“For now, you need to take part in the modeling yourself. The same goes for the future. Can you properly assign work to someone else when you don’t understand that field yourself?”
Han Seorim closed her mouth.
A slight frown formed between her brows.
There was a reason I’d asked her that.
I knew the Han Seorim of the future.
“I’ve learned every part of the art production process, basically. I don’t like asking other people to do work I can’t do myself.”
That had been her answer in an article’s Q&A.
Han Seorim, the mother of [Lost Kingdom], had been an extreme perfectionist and control freak. She had taught herself every skill needed for game graphics and couldn’t rest until she could create exactly what she wanted.
Had she only developed that personality later?
‘No way.’
It was far more likely that she simply hadn’t figured out her own nature yet.
Her answer came right away.
“...You know me pretty well.”
“We’ve spent over half a year together.”
“That’s creepy.”
“...”
Haaah. Han Seorim let out a long sigh.
“You’re right. Now that I think about it, you’re right. I can’t ask someone else to do something I don’t understand.”
“Exactly...”
“I need to find fault with their work, but how can I do that if I don’t know what’s wrong with it? I forgot about that.”
Why was she so twisted?
“...Anyway, you understand what I’m saying, right?”
“Yes. I’ll learn.”
I was glad that had worked out.
Now, on to the next thing.
“And ask around your department for anyone who wants part-time work doing 3D modeling. Tell them the pay’s good.”
“Huh?”
“I told you. I’m getting you more people for the art.”
“You’re going to hire college students?”
“You’re a college student too. Besides, I’m not looking for people to do one job and leave.”
I planned to bring them in part-time, then offer them permanent positions depending on how they worked.
It was better to train talented people myself.
People who could work the way I wanted weren’t easy to find out in the world.
“Well... okay.”
“Okay, that settles that.”
Clap!
I clapped my hands lightly to move things along.
“We’re not starting work right away anyway. There are still ten days until we get the sales figures, and development won’t start until later than that.”
“So my jobs are learning modeling and finding people?”
“Right.”
“Got it.”
That brought our conversation to an end.
‘Now, then...’
It was about time I started planning too.
I headed straight home.
* * *
A week passed.
Then my mother’s voice reached me.
“Yeonho! Stop sleeping and get up!”
I opened my eyes at her call.
My eyelids were still heavy, and my whole body felt stiff.
Only after I saw what was in front of me did I realize I’d fallen asleep at my desk.
‘Oh.’
I’d fallen asleep while writing the design document.
The papers scattered across my desk contained reference material for the project I’d planned to make next.
A dark beach, a girl, and a turquoise butterfly. Together, they created a dreamy yet unsettling mood.
I’d spent so much time thinking about them that the scenes had apparently followed me into my dreams.
‘...Get it together.’
I rubbed my face to wake myself up.
When I went into the living room, my father was watching baseball.
Come to think of it, hadn’t the season started today?
His serious expression made me want to ask.
“Didn’t you say you were never watching baseball again?”
“They say this year will be different. They’ve got a different manager.”
“Hmm.”
It wouldn’t be different.
I recognized the game on TV.
It was the bottom of the third inning, and the Giants were leading 1 to 0. But they would eventually give up a hit that turned the game around and lose.
There was one reason I remembered this game.
That day, my father had been so crushed that he’d gotten drunk, clung to my mother, and cried.
Shouldn’t I make him stop watching now, to protect his dignity?
‘...No.’
There was no point saying anything when he wouldn’t listen.
If telling him to stop watching would have worked, that shameful episode from my previous life would never have happened.
Meanwhile, my mother spoke.
“Yeonho, come eat first. Goodness, what kind of child sleeps all day and gets up in the evening?”
“I’ve been busy studying.”
“You’ll ruin your health studying like that. You weren’t even like this when you were preparing for your college entrance exams. What’s gotten into you?”
Weren’t working adults supposed to be busier than students preparing for exams?
I swallowed the words, sat down at the table, and started eating.
“Are you going out again today?”
“Yes. I have club activities.”
“You’re working hard every evening.”
“I’ve got to make an effort.”
My sleep schedule was a mess.
It was bad enough to remind me of the time I’d spent developing games alone at the end of my previous life. My young body was the only reason I could keep going like this. Otherwise, I would have been carried off to the hospital at least once.
‘I need to look after my health too.’
But I had too much work right now.
All I could do was hope my youth would hold out.
“Oh, I won’t be coming home tonight.”
My father immediately asked, “Huh? You’re staying out overnight?”
“Yes. I’ve got plans.”
“With a girl?”
Well, she was a girl...
He’d even looked away from the baseball game to stare at me, his face full of hope.
It would be a pain if he found out.
“A junior from college. When would I have time to date?”
“Bah. You’re no fun.”
“A student should study.”
I suddenly remembered how I’d stayed unmarried until I was nearly forty.
At some point, my parents had given up on my marriage and started using the money they’d saved to travel overseas.
‘The looks they gave me back then...’
There was no way for me to know now how my parents had felt, sighing every time they looked at their son.
I simply found myself thinking.
‘Maybe I should consider marriage in this life, if only to make them happy.’
Of course, that would come after I’d established myself.
For now, I needed to focus on the work in front of me.
I quickly finished my meal and stood.
“I’m off, then.”
“You’re leaving already?”
“I’m busy.”
It was six in the evening.
At eleven tonight, James Han would hold his first stream and reveal the Easter egg.
* * *
When I entered the clubroom, Han Seorim was already there. She waved a hand in greeting.
“You’re here?”
“Yeah. What are you doing? Studying?”
“You told me to.”
Even as she answered, her eyes stayed fixed on her book.
A 3D modeling program was running on her monitor.
It was a curious sight.
“What are you staring at? You’re making my skin prickle.”
“You’re working harder than I expected.”
“Once I start something, I have to see it through.”
I’d more or less noticed that already.
Han Seorim was unusually competitive.
It went beyond hating to lose. She seemed to dislike showing any weakness at all.
Her perfectionism was welcome, but I needed to keep a close eye on her mental health.
‘I need to find out why she disappeared after making only Lost Kingdom.’
Considering her standing in the industry back then, her sudden departure couldn’t have been caused by a conflict with the industry or her company.
Even if she’d left that developer, she could have picked any company she wanted.
In that case, didn’t it make sense to think the problem lay with her?
I had to find out.
Han Seorim had to remain the art director for my games.
While I was thinking, she spoke.
“Oh, I found people who want the work.”
“You did?”
“A classmate and an upperclassman who tested the game before. They definitely have the skills, but would you like to give them a test?”
“I’m sure you know what you’re doing. Tell them I’ll arrange interviews separately.”
“Okay.”
Were they those people who’d made such a fuss?
As long as they did good work, I didn’t care.
“Oh, right. The stream’s at eleven tonight, isn’t it? Three in the afternoon over there?”
“Yeah. Everything’s ready, so we just need to run a test.”
“Use earphones, please. I need to concentrate.”
Click, click. With that, Han Seorim worked her mouse and drew a long stroke across her tablet.
Her practice model was the Jailer from Hellic.
It had looked like a lump of clay until the day before yesterday, but she’d apparently improved it that much in just two days.
She was doing fine on her own. I should let her work as she pleased.
I turned on my computer.
A message from James Han was waiting.
[hey, i’m ready.]
He really was impatient.
[ok.]
I typed my reply and gave him a few things to watch out for.
Then we ran the test.
Since I was in Korea, the connection wasn’t great. Fortunately, we were still able to test the stream without any problems.
By the time we’d finished the rehearsal, it was already ten at night.
“Seorim, let’s call it a day. We should watch the stream.”
“Huh? What? It’s already ten?”
Her surprised expression told me she really hadn’t noticed the time passing.
I had to give her credit for her concentration.
* * *
In a house in California, James felt his heart pounding with excitement.
‘Today’s my debut!’
Just thinking about it made him grin.
Meeting Yeonho had been a miracle for James.
Through meeting and talking with him, James had discovered just how wide the world could be.
He calmed his excitement and went over the instructions one last time.
‘Only swear as an exclamation or a scream. When responding to chat, pick comments that are easiest to build a conversation around. Hide every chatter’s username. Ignore swearing and insults completely. Don’t even react.’
They were rules for how to behave on stream.
Yeonho had placed special emphasis on the last point: ignoring swearing and insults.
[The internet is full of all kinds of weirdos. Some of them will insult you just because they want to see you get upset. Don’t give them an opening.]
‘Got it.’
James used his mouse to open the streaming program.
He’d bought the equipment with the money Yeonho had sent him.
By now, he was fairly used to operating it.
It didn’t take long to start the stream.
Beep.
The chat window appeared.
『XX : Oh!
XX : You’re James? You’re Asian?
XX : Whatever, just show us the Easter egg!』
The messages appearing right away showed that all the promotion he’d done on the community forums had worked.
The thought that all these people were watching him filled James with delight.
His heart beat faster.
His mind seemed to be going a little blank.
It felt like he was on drugs.
‘Oh, calm down.’
Yeonho had warned him about this too.
[Remember, a star and a clown aren’t all that different at heart. What separates them is whether they let the audience take control of the show. Which one you become is up to you.]
James thought about it.
Should he give up control and focus on pleasing those people?
Or should he take charge and make those people look up to him?
‘Is that even worth thinking about?’
The answer was already clear.
『XX : Hey! Hurry up and start!』
The moment that impatient message appeared, James lightly tapped the microphone.
Tap.
The chat heated up.
At that moment, a smile stretched so wide it seemed ready to split his face.
“Hold on a little. We need a bigger audience before we start, don’t we?”
James Han. In just a few years, he would rise to the top of game streaming, the greatest gamer of his generation.
He was a born star.
One whose light no one could dare steal.
* * *
[All right, slowpokes! It’s time for the Easter egg reveal you’ve been waiting for!]
James spoke playfully from the monitor.
‘About 1,200 viewers. He drew a bigger crowd than I expected.’
There had been a point to spending a full ten days on marketing.
Then again, he was still the only person who’d cleared the Easter egg challenge. It made sense that people would be excited enough to gather for his stream.
“Wow, that chat’s pretty vicious.”
Han Seorim was right.
The viewers were worked up, and their messages were getting quite nasty.
There was swearing demanding that he reveal it already, personal attacks, and even racist insults aimed at the person on camera.
Fortunately, James wasn’t shaken.
‘Because I warned him? No. Even without my help, he would’ve found his feet soon enough.’
That was the kind of person James Han was.
Everyone who remembered his earliest streams had praised his “talent from birth.” He was a natural star with an overwhelming presence.
In fact, his ability to lead a show had been so impressive that he’d once taken control of a network talk show from a host who’d spent a lifetime in the business.
[Then let’s start with a countdown! Ten! Nine!]
Just a few words from him changed the mood in the chat.
Numbers streamed down faster than the eye could follow.
[...Three! Two!]
And then...
[One! Now, the Easter egg is a weapon! And that weapon is...!]
The Easter egg was revealed.
[Cancer Bat! A bat made from the Giant’s bones and flesh!]
The weapon’s stats appeared on the game screen.
At that moment, countless question marks filled the chat.
『XX : ?
XX : What?
XX : What the hell is this...!
XX : This thing’s insane!』
Everyone was confused.
Of course they were.
[Surprised? I nearly died laughing when I first saw this stat too!]
『cancer bat
atk : 30
temper : random』
The Easter egg weapon, the Cancer Bat, had a property called “random.”
I’d made it as a tribute to the hardcore players who completed that brutal challenge.
It was a joke weapon that threw away all efficiency and did nothing but drive the difficulty through the roof.
[The random property does one thing! Equip the bat, and its property changes at random every fifteen seconds! You can tell which property it has by the weapon’s color! How’s that? Awesome, right? With this one weapon, you won’t need anything else to finish a playthrough!]
James spoke excitedly.
But the players’ reactions were divided.
The casual players who’d wanted an overpowered item clashed with the hardcore players who were drooling over the weapon’s unusual gimmick.
“Isn’t this bad?”
Han Seorim’s voice was full of concern.
Yes, if the long-awaited Easter egg turned out to be something they couldn’t use even if it was handed to them, the casual players who made up most of the audience would be disappointed.
But that was fine.
“Don’t focus on the weapon itself.”
“What?”
“What’s our goal? Promotion, right?”
“Well... yes?”
“Then focus on the promotion that’s about to happen.”
I’d considered the divided reaction to the weapon back when I made it.
That was why I’d hoped the Easter egg would stay hidden for a few years. It was also why I’d chosen a live stream to reveal it under these circumstances.
“Watch closely. We’re going to make a star. And we’re going to make the games that star plays.”
James spoke.
[Okay, okay! That’s enough admiring it. Now for the main event!]
He reset his run.
[Today’s challenge is... a Hellic speedrun using only this weapon!]
A timer started running on the screen.
Before anyone could object, James began playing.
About ten minutes later...
“Holy crap. What is that?”
『XX : What the...』
Both Han Seorim and the chat were stunned.
With a weapon that changed properties every fifteen seconds, James was tearing through every enemy attack pattern and advancing without hesitation.
That shouldn’t have been possible.
Hellic’s balance had been designed so carefully around matching properties that players couldn’t progress without doing so.
In other words, if your weapon changed properties every fifteen seconds, you had no choice but to run from the monsters until you got the property you needed.
“How can he do that...?”
James did run away when he encountered enemies that didn’t match his weapon’s property.
It was just that, the moment the property he wanted appeared, he killed every enemy before those fifteen seconds were up.
There was only one reason he could do that.
‘He breaks the game down frame by frame as he plays.’
Overwhelming skill that made game mechanics useless.
That was the weapon of James Han, known as every developer’s enemy.
“That settles it.”
“Settles what?”
“The promotion.”
I pointed at the chat.
Han Seorim immediately picked up on the mood, now filled with shock and cheers.
“This is...”
I nodded.
“Yeah.”
This marketing strategy was about creating an idol.
Show the very limits of what was possible in this game, then make people admire James, the one behind that display, and long for the spotlight shining on him.
Make them think...
‘I want to be like that too!’
That was how people worked.
Even if they didn’t have a model’s figure, they wanted to wear the same clothes.
Even if they didn’t have a celebrity’s face, they wanted to copy the same hairstyle.
This was an extension of that.
『XX : ...Looks pretty fun, doesn’t it?』
If James’s play was dazzling enough to leave people spellbound, those who wanted to imitate him would buy the game.
Somewhere between jealousy and awe, that was how admiration was born.
* * *
Three days after James’s stream, a video pieced together from his gameplay set North American communities on fire before making its way back to Korean communities.
There were reports that it had spread to a few other countries too, but I couldn’t confirm those yet.
One thing mattered.
Today was the day we got our sales figures.
[34, hellic]
And the marketing had worked.
The sales were incredible.
[143,179]
About 140,000 copies in total.
At $4.99 per copy, I calculated the net sales revenue after platform fees and taxes.
I tapped the numbers into a calculator and showed Han Seorim.
She went blank.
“...Am I seeing that right?”
“Yeah, you are.”
To round it down to the leading figure on the calculator...
“We made 300 million won.”
A net profit of 300 million won.
That was Hellic’s first month of sales.
Staffing Up
Footnotes:
“MZ generation” is a Korean label combining millennials and Gen Z, often associated with younger workers who question workplace conventions rather than simply following orders.
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