22. Passing On Know-How
The day after he stepped down from the position of Monster Eater’s general director, Taeyeon declared that he was taking vacation.
“Not more, not less, I’ll rest for exactly two weeks and come back, so I’ll leave things in your hands until then.”
Hong Minseok and Lee Youngae, the AD couple who knew the truth, sent him meaningful looks.
Taeyeon deliberately pretended not to know and looked away.
A few days before his vacation.
“Let’s go to New York.”
Taeyeon proposed a vacation to Yoona.
Perhaps because she had heard something unexpected, Yoona’s eyes widened.
“New York? So suddenly?”
“Don’t you want to?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t want to, but it’s so sudden…”
Soon, her large eyes began to sparkle.
“What is it? What’s going on all of a sudden? Aren’t you busy? Can you go to New York? Do you have time?”
A barrage of questions!
Taeyeon responded calmly without getting flustered.
“You know Monster Eater, right?”
“Yeah. It’s the Japanese game you’re in charge of, Oppa. I’ve tried it too.”
“Huh? Really? When?”
“Because you said you were in charge of it, I tried it a while ago… with help from Manager Oppa. But why?”
“I’m planning to step down from the general director position for that game soon.”
“Huh, why? Isn’t that game doing really well right now?”
“I have to make my own game now too.”
“Ah…”
“It’s a decision I made because I want to quickly unload one big burden and focus more on my team members and on you, Yoona.”
“…”
Yoona, who had been silently looking at Taeyeon, asked another question.
“I’m fine with it, but… will you be okay, Oppa?”
“With what?”
“Can you handle it? The moment we appear side by side at the airport, dating articles will explode.”
“Ah…”
Now that he thought about it, Yoona was not a celebrity, but she was a national hero with a presence greater than a superstar.
She was someone who still received enormous attention and love from the whole country, to the point that her nickname during her active days as a player had been the nation’s little sister.
And what if that kind of person appeared at the airport affectionately with some man?
It would turn the Republic of Korea upside down.
But Taeyeon had been prepared for this part from the beginning.
“I’m actually worried that you’ll suffer because of me.”
“What kind of suffering?”
“Why does she have to date such a shabby-looking guy of all people? Does Kim Yoona have no eyes? She should date me instead! What if you hear things like that…?”
Before he could even finish speaking, laughter burst out.
“Oppa, you’re really good at self-deprecating jokes. What is that? Ahaha!”
It had not been something he said to make her laugh in particular…
Still, since Yoona was enjoying it, he decided to end the words he had started as a joke.
“If I can have a dating scandal with you, it would be a tremendous honor. I’m thinking of clipping the articles and passing them down to our children later as a family heirloom.”
It was not as though they could leave for New York right away.
“I need at least a week of leeway. I have to organize my schedule.”
I hadn’t thought of that.
So Taeyeon canceled his vacation on the spot and decided to go to work while waiting for Yoona’s schedule to be arranged.
Once he actually went to work, there were many things he had to organize before leaving.
“PD-nim, when will the scenario come out? We need at least character concept settings before we can start the art work.”
“We also need map settings. We need that before we can do level work.”
“What about items?”
At present, Pantheon had only one official scenario writer, Baek Younghoon, whom they had brought over from “Bless.”
Bae Suhyeon, who had been a children’s book author, was in charge of Project D, and even aside from that, she lacked both experience and ability to use right now.
The problem was Baek Younghoon.
“Younghoon-ssi, I think you’ll have to do a scenario presentation. Will that be possible?”
“Uh, um…”
All game work begins with the scenario writer.
The scenario has to create the concepts and settings for characters, the world, maps, items, story, and so on before the other planning teams can work on systems, content, and the like. Only once planning documents come out from the planning team can art and programming begin their work.
In short, it would not be wrong to say that the scenario planner is at the center of game planning. The problem was that Baek Younghoon did not have this level of experience.
“Have you made a presentation before?”
“In college…”
Of course, what a game company required was different from a college presentation.
“For now, prepare the presentation document within two days.”
“Within three days?”
His face went pale.
‘As expected, that would be difficult.’
After thinking about it for a moment, he asked,
“I’ll give you four days.”
“If, if it’s until then, somehow…….”
That still seemed overwhelming, but Baek Younghoon accepted anyway.
‘I can’t leave it only to Baek Younghoon-ssi.’
It seemed he would have to prepare a separate presentation document and presentation himself too.
If a situation came where they could not use Baek Younghoon, then he would have to step in.
Fortunately, there were materials he had organized during the Nexple presentation.
[Use this.]
He shared all the documents with Baek Younghoon, and he himself also began making a presentation document based on them.
In one day, a fairly decent document was completed.
‘It’s such familiar work that this much is nothing.’
The problem was Baek Younghoon.
Could he meet the presentation quality within four days?
‘Honestly, going out there and getting smashed would be a good experience too, but….’
The problem was that Baek Younghoon was still a novice scenario planner.
And the Pantheon workers he had selected were all extraordinary people. Merciless criticism would fly at him, and Baek Younghoon, exposed directly to that bombardment, would receive a shock so great that it would be difficult to recover from.
‘That much is nothing, but the problem is that if that happens, people won’t be able to work for two weeks.’
Hurt feelings?
He could get a little hurt!
If they cared for him from the side, he would recover quickly, and if they taught him, he would grow. Baek Younghoon was a talented person, so he would follow along well.
But the work period that meaninglessly slipped away could not be recovered.
‘So I have to do it.’
Four days passed like that.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes. Um, but…?”
“What is it?”
“….”
Baek Younghoon, who had been hesitating, shook his head.
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“Just say it. I won’t scold you.”
Baek Younghoon, who was fumbling for words, spoke carefully.
“There are some parts that are a little lacking…”
“Were you unable to finish writing the document?”
“That’s not it…”
“Then that’s fine. Go ahead. Let’s see it first.”
“…Yes.”
Baek Younghoon’s first scenario presentation began.
“Ahem!”
Baek Younghoon cleared his throat and announced the start of the presentation.
“I, I will now begin the Pantheon scenario presentation.”
The presentation document he had spent four days carefully creating appeared on the projector.
“I will start with the worldview. In, in the beginning, there was good and evil….”
From the very beginning, a sigh escaped on its own.
‘That damn “beginning”….’
Why did every MMORPG game worldview seem to start the same way?
‘Let’s watch for now.’
The content could be corrected.
But…
“…And so, good and evil…”
That damn story of the beginning continued without ending.
Perhaps because Yoo Taeyeon had only been quietly listening, Baek Younghoon regained his confidence and was pouring out a passionate speech.
“…And that is how the full-fledged main scenario begins. Ah, one moment. I’ll drink some water….”
Ahem!
After wetting his throat and clearing it, he moved on to the next document.
“Oh dear.”
He ended up sighing without realizing it.
But it could not be helped.
Following the battlefield section, this PPT was also packed full of text.
There were only one or two reference images pulled from the internet attached to it.
“Then I will continue…….”
“Wait a moment.”
He could not listen to any more.
Taeyeon stepped in for real.
“Go to the next slide.”
Only then did Baek Younghoon realize that something had gone wrong and suddenly became timid.
He watched Taeyeon’s reaction and did as he was told.
“Next slide.”
Rustle.
“Keep going.”
Rustle, rustle.
It was all text.
“Whew. At this rate, it’s hard to tell whether this is a game presentation or a novel reading session.”
“…”
Baek Younghoon’s face turned red.
Taeyeon stared at him for a moment and said,
“Shall I tell you one surprising secret?”
“…?”
“Developers don’t really read scenario documents. They’re busy handling their own work.”
“…!”
“At the beginning, they try hard to understand them. But when revisions and setting additions continue and the volume increases rapidly, they give up on understanding after that. Then what should you do?”
Baek Younghoon rolled his eyes and answered timidly.
“Surely… I have to keep giving presentations like this?”
“Of course.”
“Uh, until when?”
“Until the scenario is confirmed.”
“…!”
“And until all the developers understand the scenario.”
“…”
“Later, each team and part will ask you to present the parts related to their own work. You have to handle all of that too.”
Nothing is ever decided all at once.
Revision, revision, revision….
This was an industry where you could not relax even at the very end.
Even the global hit game Monster Eater constantly had various problems popping up, so Taeyeon had to properly play the role of fire-extinguishing squad leader.
“…”
Tsk.
Seeing Baek Younghoon lose his fighting spirit, Taeyeon clicked his tongue.
Then he took off his suit jacket, draped it over a chair, rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt to his wrists, and said,
“Sit down and watch what I do.”
“……?”
“I’ll teach you exactly what a scenario planner’s presentation is.”
Baek Younghoon sat down with a face full of expectation.
As he was preparing to take notes, he thought of a good idea and hurriedly asked,
“PD-nim! May I record a video of you giving the presentation?”
“You want to record a video?”
“I want to watch and learn! There’s a limit to writing everything down, after all…”
That’s not a bad idea.
Taeyeon nodded.
“Go ahead.”
Only after receiving the sign that filming had started did Taeyeon begin the presentation.
“Hello. I am Yoo Taeyeon, general producer of Universe Studio. I will now begin the scenario presentation.”
‘Ah, I forgot to greet them and introduce myself!’
The document that unfolded afterward was not flashy, but the content was well compressed.
“I’ll skip over the mythology part. It isn’t important content. When you have time later, please refer to the shared document.”
And he focused on the things that were truly important for the practical work of each part.
Images, graphs, tables, and so on…
He mobilized various visual materials and explained it in an easy-to-understand way.
‘Ah…!’
Just watching it naturally brought admiration.
He was clearly guiding all the workers on what content they needed to know for certain and how they should work.
‘So this is why he said it’s different from a school presentation!’
It was literally a presentation for internal developers.
‘But not just anyone can follow this. This is only possible if you have a grasp of every kind of work as if it were your own specialty.’
He even clearly explained to the programmers what kind of collaboration was needed.
“…That concludes the Pantheon scenario presentation.”
Baek Younghoon clapped as though his hands might break.
Then he shouted with a face full of excitement.
“That was truly incredible! I could clearly understand what I need to do from now on and how the development process will run!”
“This isn’t a presentation meant to teach complete outsiders what our game is. It’s a presentation meant to support the work of workers who each have separate areas of expertise. You have to clearly recognize that first before you begin.”
Taeyeon diligently passed on his know-how.
The video recording was still continuing, but Baek Younghoon seemed to have forgotten that, throwing himself into asking questions and writing down the answers.
But the conversation could not continue to the end.
“I think it would be better to stop here for now.”
“Huh? Ah, I still have more things I want to ask…”
Instead of answering, Taeyeon pointed outside the meeting room.
Beyond the transparent glass outer wall, countless people had gathered and were watching.
Taeyeon spoke with an embarrassed face.
“It seems my voice was louder than I thought. Let’s continue the conversation in the cafeteria.”
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