The meeting began immediately.
It was a session for the representatives of both sides to confirm what had already been discussed among the working-level staff and to fine-tune the detailed opinions.
Since most of the topics were business-related and not directly connected to games, Taeyeon simply sat quietly and listened attentively.
Still, he gained something.
He was able to grasp, at least to some extent, Chairman Yoo Jin-seong’s true intentions.
‘A collaboration, huh…’
Piecing together all the information that had come out so far, the gist was this:
A massive park resort would be built in Gwacheon’s Superland and the Seoul Grand Park site. Nexple would collaborate with Disney to develop part of the park using content jointly created by Nexple and Disney.
‘That much, I understand.’
The issue came afterward.
They planned to produce the content in the form of comics and TV animation and offer it as an original content series on Disney’s streaming brand.
‘This part is essentially Disney-led.’
While it was no match for Disney, Nexple did operate its own in-house video production team.
Nexple Creative.
It was the department responsible for all cinematic videos, including game teaser trailers. This was the very team that would take charge of the comic and TV animation collaborations.
‘The problem is the game…’
Disney had long since pulled out of the game development business. Of course, they continued to license their IPs to other game companies and share in the profits in various forms, but in-house development had been discontinued years ago.
‘Disney handles media, Nexple handles games…’
Now the picture the two giants were painting began to take shape.
Taeyeon’s expression grew more serious.
‘Perhaps the real job I’m being asked to do is…’
The first day of meetings concluded with the parties verifying and making minor revisions to their verbal agreements.
On the way back to the hotel, Chairman Yoo Jin-seong asked,
“Do you understand what you need to do?”
Taeyeon let out a sigh and asked,
“I think you’re expecting too much from me.”
“That might be true.”
“Can’t you just assign this to someone else? Honestly, it’s a lot of pressure.”
Yoo Jin-seong chuckled at Taeyeon’s frankness.
“I originally intended to give this to Director Son, but I changed my mind about a month ago.”
“During that dinner?”
“Yes. It wasn’t something you had to get involved in, but you came to me knowing it might hurt you, all for the sake of the other studio and subsidiary employees.”
“…”
“That’s when I thought: ‘Ah, this guy’s even better than I imagined. What a waste for CEO Kang Geon to let him go.’”
There was warmth in Chairman Yoo Jin-seong’s smile toward Taeyeon.
“I had Director Son in mind initially.”
“I figured as much.”
“I thought that matter was settled, but recently, he’s been saying different things. Like how he’s definitely gotten old, or that he just can’t keep up with the skills, passion, and sense of today’s developers…”
There was no need to name who he might’ve been referring to.
“Since you joined, you’ve gone through a lot, haven’t you? You got caught up in strange rumors, contributed immensely to the founding of Nexple Plus, drew everyone’s attention at the game show, the stock price kept rising, and the company’s image has improved…”
“I was just lucky.”
“The HR team leader told me you’ve been so effective as a final interviewer that a lot of top talent has been joining the company. They say interviews can’t even function properly without you now.”
“That just sort of happened…”
“Not just the business team — all the department heads have been praising you. Who the hell are you, really? It hasn’t even been a year since you joined, and you’re already at the center of power. What kind of magic are you working?”
“I’m not at the center of power, I swear. I just did my best when people asked for help…”
“I’m not scolding you. I’m complimenting you.”
Taeyeon closed his mouth, looking sheepish.
Chairman Yoo Jin-seong continued.
“Director Son’s gotten old. He’s one of those developers from the past. He could pull it off if I assigned this to him, but honestly, it would’ve been too much. I knew that, but I forced it on him anyway because it was my dream. Just one last favor. He accepted because he had no choice… and then you showed up. Talented across multiple areas, and with a decent personality to boot.”
Taeyeon felt his resolve beginning to waver.
“Watching how you’ve handled things lately, it’s like seeing a protagonist from a novel. I feel like you could succeed at anything I assign to you. So after a lot of thought, I decided to entrust you with this job.”
It was both an honor and a burden to be trusted like that.
Just an hour earlier—
– This young man here is the one I told you about previously.
In the conference room, Chairman Yoo Jin-seong had announced to everyone,
– He will serve as the CEO of ‘Nexple Entertainment,’ which will oversee all entertainment business operations within Nexple.
If that wasn’t a bombshell, what was?
How shocked he’d been.
– Shouldn’t you at least say hello?
His heart still felt like it might burst.
“You were planning to quit and start your own company after finishing those two projects, right?”
“…!”
Taeyeon flinched at the ambush.
“I felt like I’d really regret letting you go, so I set the stage and made you an offer you couldn’t refuse.”
“…”
“So, what’s your answer?”
Chairman Yoo posed his question with meaning.
“Are you in, or not?”
To be honest, it was practically a rhetorical question.
“I’ll do my best.”
Before breakfast began, Taeyeon gave his answer. Chairman Yoo Jin-seong smiled as if he expected it and said,
“Let’s finish eating quickly and get ready for the meeting.”
2 p.m.
A new meeting resumed at Disney headquarters. This time, CEO Ellen also attended, and for the first time, she posed a question directly to Taeyeon.
“This is something I really wanted to ask the person involved… How did you manage to turn around Crying Soft, a globally renowned game developer?”
Though the question came out of nowhere, Taeyeon did his best to respond calmly. Since his English wasn’t fluent, all the Disney executives were listening through wireless interpretation devices.
After his explanation, Ellen responded with clear admiration.
“Incredible. A bold yet efficient negotiation strategy. How did you come up with that?”
“I’ve been familiar with Producer Takizawa Satoshi for a long time. I was a big fan of the games he created.”
“Ah, so it was a masterful persuasion strategy built on a solid understanding of the counterpart!”
“You could say that.”
Taeyeon sensed what Ellen was really curious about.
‘She wants to know how exactly the game collaboration worked.’
Once she understood that, she could better assess Taeyeon’s nature as a developer and decide whether he was someone she could truly trust and work with.
It wasn’t something worth hiding, and even knowing the know-how wouldn’t be enough to steal and replicate it, so Taeyeon didn’t hesitate to explain.
All the executives, not just Ellen, listened with rapt attention. As he wrapped up his account, Taeyeon added one last thing.
“My strongest skill is in mercenary strategy. But the moment someone tries to control me from above, I become nothing more than a competent developer — no more, no less. If there’s another developer above me, I won’t work.”
Big companies meddle a lot.
Disney, more than most.
To the extent that many companies who tried to make games using Disney IP ended up swearing never to collaborate with them again.
Taeyeon had said this fully aware of that reputation.
Understanding the underlying message, Ellen smiled and replied,
“Noted.”
A presentation was held by the chief designer from Disney Parks & Resorts.
It was a session to showcase visual concepts and the progress of the project.
‘They’re trying to introduce some changes…’
But it wasn’t anything groundbreaking like Tokyo DisneySea.
A Cinderella Castle was being built in the center, with Main Street stretching from the entrance — the major elements were no different from any other Disney park.
‘With this, there’s no real reason for people to come to Disney Korea.’
Having spent over a decade planning and realizing all kinds of maps, Taeyeon could clearly see their intentions.
They wanted to preserve the original feel as much as possible, while still introducing changes within that framework.
The problem was, to the general public — especially investors — it wouldn’t look all that different.
‘This issue lies in the planning.’
Everyone seemed to have a different vision, and none of it was concrete. Naturally — most of the people here weren’t experts.
That meant the working-level staff needed to present a clear and compelling concept, but perhaps because it was still early in development, even they seemed uncertain.
‘Park design really isn’t easy.’
As the park layout appeared on the roll screen, Taeyeon began sketching something with the notebook and pen he had prepared. Chairman Yoo Jin-seong, watching from beside him, gave a subtle smile.
“This is all we’ve prepared. If you have any feedback, please share it.”
At Ellen’s words, all eyes turned to Taeyeon. Everyone knew — he’d been sketching something based on the park layout.
Taeyeon sensed the attention but kept focusing on his drawing.
Only after finishing did he rise, hand over the sketch and the USB he had prepared the night before to the engineer handling the presentation, and move to the front of the screen.
Soon, the sketch appeared on screen.
Though rough, the form and intent were clear.
“This isn’t a real park, but as a game developer, I’ve designed and implemented countless maps over the years. I’d like to share my opinion based on that experience. Please pardon the roughness.”
Then Taeyeon launched into his explanation.
“First, take a look at the drawing. What do you see?”
“Two large circles.”
That was CEO Ellen’s response.
Leaning forward, eyes shining, she was visibly intrigued.
“There’s writing too, right? What does it say?”
“Hero Union, Villain Empire.”
“All stories begin and end with the conflict between good and evil. My concept starts with characters of differing natures being divided into two factions, each establishing their own territory accordingly. Naturally, events would follow that theme, and we’d end up with at least two major landmarks.”
Taeyeon gestured to the engineer to bring up the next slide.
What appeared was the presentation he had worked on overnight.
The first tab showed three theme park-style maps he had created in the past, along with images of Disney’s heroic characters and themed buildings.
“Hero Union and Villain Empire will each have four or five themed zones.”
Though hastily put together in one night, Taeyeon’s decade of experience and dozens of maps gave the presentation surprising quality and plausibility.
The visuals, story, and setting concepts were clear — and the idea of using them for diverse themed events had everyone engrossed.
“This opens up new possibilities for things like villain parades and hero parades.”
“It could create a sense of a military show of force.”
“Exactly. It would raise anticipation for parades. And most importantly, it adds story and context, which means you can run more immersive events. Ultimately…”
Taeyeon grinned.
“We can turn the theme park itself into the stage for a grand story.”
“Oh, that’s a fun idea. Are you suggesting a branching scenario system?”
“We could first test it out by launching scenario-based events as a kind of trial bed — updating them regularly, not just seasonally, and checking reactions each time.”
It would go beyond just watching from the sidelines — guests would participate directly in the story.
“Really brilliant idea.”
Taeyeon offered even more ideas, all of which were met with enthusiasm.
“This is more of a thought than a suggestion, but what if some of the nine large zones were designed as instanced spaces?”
“I’d like to hear more.”
“Spaces that can easily be altered depending on the event — like being destroyed during a battle event, then rebuilt into a different form for another use…”
“Ah, for that part…”
The meeting ran far over time.
Like a planning session at the company, Taeyeon threw out ideas without filtering them by feasibility.
The park & resort design team recorded everything, responding on the spot when possible.
The problem was, things kept heating up, and the discussion remained so interesting that it kept going.
Even when people briefly left for the restroom, the meeting continued without pause.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to reach a conclusion today. How about we each review this and regroup to finalize things later?”
Only when CEO Ellen stepped in was the meeting finally wrapped up. But that was just for the executives — Taeyeon and the theme park designers agreed to move locations and continue their brainstorming session.
Two days later, the second presentation was held by the chief designer of Parks & Resorts.
It was time to present the ideas they had organized with Taeyeon up until the previous day.
“In the past, we’ve run various events to reduce wait time boredom, but this time we plan to integrate AR and VR tech into the experience from the ground up, so guests can constantly enjoy activities. This idea is being actively embraced.”
Unlike the first presentation, the content was now more concrete. This made it easier for non-experts to understand the proposals.
Ideas flowed freely — introducing playing systems using advanced visual and game technologies, securing space and support infrastructure, and developing interactive event concepts.
After the designer’s presentation, Taeyeon also stepped forward.
“Yesterday, we discussed a game idea. I’d like to share a brief opinion. The genre is a VR RPG for consoles.”
The story was simple.
Disasters strike the animated world, and the protagonist travels through various realms to stop them.
“We’d recreate iconic scenes as VR experiences. Even after finishing the main story, additional content will be delivered through paid DLCs, allowing continuous enjoyment. That’s the core idea behind the collaboration game I envisioned.”
Taeyeon used the video and image materials he had prepared to illustrate the concept of the game he wanted to make.
The response was just as positive as with the theme park ideas.
CEO Ellen’s face was lit up with joy.
“An idea that’s both brilliant and refreshing. We get to stick to our company’s direction for content creation, while offering amazing new experiences through original characters — I love it.”
“I do too.”
There were no objections. Taeyeon’s clear and concise presentation, and his ideas, landed perfectly.
“Once we return to Korea, I’ll immediately form a task force to work with Chief Designer Edmund to convert the park proposal into a 3D map using the Unique Engine. For the game, we’ll build a planning document based on today’s ideas, create a storyboard, and formally request the necessary support.”
“Very neat. I love it.”
Beginning with Ellen, everyone present applauded enthusiastically.
Taeyeon gave a calm nod and returned to his seat.
The next day, Taeyeon visited Disneyland Anaheim with the Parks & Resorts team. Among the group was Chief Designer Edmund, who had worked with him on the new idea proposals.
Edmund acted as a guide, showing Taeyeon around the park, and introduced the operations, management, and event staff along with their duties.
It only took two days to take in all that information — too short, but with limited time, they had to prepare for the return trip.
“Once the reports are submitted, you’ll likely need to present this a few more times to people like New World Vice Chairman Kim Jong-hak and other key figures. Make sure you’re ready.”
“Understood.”
“And…”
Chairman Yoo Jin-seong gave a wide grin.
He clapped Taeyeon on the shoulder and said,
“Really well done. You’ve gone above and beyond expectations — thank you.”
Only then did Taeyeon breathe a sigh of relief, releasing some of the tension that had gripped him.
And so, the business trip to the U.S. came to an end.
Leave a Reply