Just a few years in the past, Naver Webtoon grew to become fairly lively in eager to gamify their webcomic IPs – we had beforehand maintained a superb relationship with them creating different video games for them — so that they proposed to us three selections, and certainly one of them was “All of Us Are Useless.”
For these unfamiliar, that exact webcomic was printed on-line between 2009 to 2011. On the time, the Korean webcomic market was nonetheless exploding, and since zombie content material was nonetheless considerably unfamiliar in Korea, it gained numerous enthusiastic followers. Quick-forward to 2021 and zombie-related content material has poured out as a result of unfold of streaming and OTT. In opposition to this backdrop is once we have been in a position to make the daring choice to develop a non-mainstream style recreation, a visible novel utilizing the “All of Us Are Useless” IP.
After I was provided the IP, it was when the journey group had simply shaped at IkinaGames. Fortunately, each the producer and director loved studying the webcomic “All of Us Are Useless,” in order that made the choice simpler (to pitch). I simply wished to watch out as a result of it was my first problem on this style, and I set the objective as small as doable with out making any main adjustments to the unique story and commenced improvement with a 10-month schedule.
Consulting with Joo Dong-geun, the writer of “All of Us Are Useless,” the one request he had was he didn’t need the end-result to be considerably subdued or too romantic. The webcomic itself utilized a mixture of portray and life like types, and we agreed to place that environment and the seriousness of the story into the sport. That’s how the present graphics model was established after a number of iterations.
Later in improvement, Joo Dong-geun grew to become far more open about our model of the eventualities within the recreation and the extra parts we added. He additionally performed early builds and inspired our group all through improvement. As we neared the tip of manufacturing, he stated he wished to be useful, and helped promote our recreation by means of his social media community.
By early January 2022, we had gone by means of two prototypes, established the gameability with alpha builds, and by the point the state of affairs was written as much as chapter 2. After which increase. The Netflix sequence “All of Us Are Useless” was launched. We had no thought in regards to the movie till it was introduced. Nevertheless, after the discharge, the sequence grew to become a world hit that far exceeded expectations — and I fell right into a panic. We have been all of a sudden beneath stress to alter the route of the challenge, which was initially being developed as a small challenge, to now grow to be a recreation that may face up to the load of worldwide IP.
The basics of visible novel and story-oriented video games couldn’t be modified, so we targeted on strengthening the spine of the sport by refreshing character profiles and reinforcing episodes extra dramatically to arrange the eventualities extra intently. You could discover that once you begin enjoying, in case you have a look at the story till Chapter 2, it flows equally to the unique webtoon after which unfolds utterly otherwise beginning with Chapter 3.
I feel, in some instances, this added stress introduced a optimistic impact to improvement. The variety of eventualities elevated and the graphics, variety of characters, variations, results, and even the illustrations began to exceeded our preliminary expectations. The artwork group grew to become actually motivated to create extra belongings they usually began so as to add new character expressions and variations. Because of this, there are actually greater than 10 variations for every character’s stance within the recreation. They even voluntarily went by means of the difficulty of manufacturing a scene like animation sprites in a number of frames, saying the scenes wanted to be extra dynamic.
Wanting again, I’d say there have been two major issues I encountered whereas making a recreation from a webtoon. The primary was altering the storytelling strategy of a webcomic to recreation narrative methods. The unique comedian, which was serialized weekly, composes a narrative with a really brief breath however with impression, and doesn’t put a lot weight on long-term narratives. Visible novels are inclined to tackle a stronger sense of immersion, offering catharsis by regularly constructing narratives after which bursting by means of the conflict of characters.
To alter the sort of state of affairs, the character’s previous and profile have been added with settings that weren’t within the authentic, and every story needed to be produced with care to alter the construction itself, comparable to assembly characters who weren’t within the authentic webcomic.
The second was to contemplate a number of eventualities by contemplating individuals who had already recognized the unique webcomic and those that didn’t, who in our case, have been individuals who watched solely the Netflix sequence. That model solely shared the names of the characters from the unique comics and had utterly totally different tales and characters. So, we aimed to create our personal storyline whereas taking the fundamentals of the unique webtoon.
For instance, whereas sustaining the unique major occasion setting of the characters gathering on the rooftop of the varsity, the method of every character reaching the roof was a very totally different. I wished to make it doable for individuals who watched dramas to take pleasure in different factors of view, and for individuals who don’t know IP to be immersed within the scene as properly.
There’s numerous prejudice in regards to the visible novel type, particularly in Korea. It’s a market the place the likes and dislikes of the style are very clear. Creating a visible novel outdoors of what was anticipated (e.g. romance) was a problem I set for myself. In addition to, there’s a horde of zombies and but it’s not an motion recreation, however a visible novel. Now come to think about it… maybe sure. Perhaps the challenge itself was a problem from the very starting.
Many gamers who’ve skilled the sport stated that the story and graphics have been of top quality. We hope that “All of Us Are Useless” will probably be open to the potential for different visible novels. I need to present the worldwide market that this recreation, this story, is feasible with an IP like “All of Us Are Useless.”
You may play All of Us Are Useless on Xbox beginning as we speak.
All of Us Are Useless…
IKINA GAMES
$19.99
All of Us are Useless – The Visible Novel
An interactive, visible novel primarily based on the hit webcomic sequence.
◆ Story
Summer season. July. Zombie virus breaks out in Hyosan Excessive. Associates and academics grow to be contaminated, and plenty of cannot deliver themselves to take down the contaminated. They have been mates and academics, in spite of everything. Quickly, the whole faculty is infested with zombies with no method of escape.
Expertise the struggles of unusual college students as they juggle extraordinary challenges. Be a part of the jocks as they face overwhelming odds whereas preventing for his or her survival. Be cautious of the phobia that lies inside the faculty for zombies weren’t the worst of their troubles. See how every one survives in their very own, distinctive method.
◆ All of Us are Useless: The Visible Novel
– Based mostly on the hit webcomic of which the live-action drama sequence ‘All of Us are Useless’ is predicated on. Uncover wholly new content material untold in different variations!
– All new occasions, endings, and extra! Watch the place your selections take you and see how they unfold.
◆ Artworks
– All new character artworks are made to replicate each character’s particular person character.
– Persistent paintings. Any encounters or occasions that have an effect on the character persist within the paintings, even because the story progresses!
◆ Excessive High quality Illustrated Occasions
– 100+ high-quality illustrations for max drama.
– Animated occasions!
◆ Totally voiced in Korean
– 12+ hours of totally voiced eventualities.
– Voice-over
Lee Bohee, Park Seongyeong, Ryu Seung Gon, Lee Kyung Tae, Music Harim, Mun Yujeong, Kim Na Yul, Website positioning Da Hye, Kang Si Hyun, Ahn Hyomin, Kim Younger Solar, Kim Hye Sung, Jang Mi, Choi Seunghun, Jang Ye Na, Shin Beomsik, Park MinGI, Bang SiU, Kim Jin Hong, Lee Eun Jo, Jung Eui Jin, Lee Myounghwa, Sung Ye Received, Jung Ui Taek
