23. Proposal, and Proposal
Taeyeon’s presentation for the Pantheon developers began.
“So….”
Baek Younghoon, who had already memorized the contents completely, focused on the reactions around him.
‘As expected…!’
There was not a single person looking away or dozing off.
It meant everyone was immersed.
‘It’s that excellent… Of course they would be.’
As if he had already expected it, Taeyeon continued answering calmly, just like his name. The sight made the others admire him as well,
and Baek Younghoon felt his shoulders naturally square with pride.
“…That is all. Thank you.”
With that, the presentation ended.
Baek Younghoon applauded harder than anyone.
Immediately afterward, work was distributed.
“While I’m away, I would like to be able to see the original artwork for ‘Gaia.’ Would that be possible?”
“Of course.”
The answer came from Lee Youngae, who was in charge of original artwork.
“Refer to the forms of modern cities, including Manhattan, but the appearance of the myths that reside in those cities has to be blended in. So that when someone sees it, they can say, ah, this is a district made with such-and-such mythology as its motif!”
“In short, you mean it has to be familiar but original.”
Everyone chuckled at the sight of Taeyeon silently giving a thumbs-up with an expressionless face.
“Please start with the player character and tutorial monster designs. You know what I mean, right? The ones we need to put a lot of power into.”
“Of course I know very well.”
Hong Minseok AD revealed his confidence.
“That’s my specialty. I’ll put so much power into the tutorial that when people see it, they’ll think, huh? Is this really an online game and not a console AAA game?”
“As expected, you understand my heart well.”
“Of course I do. This is all groundwork to turn the first teaser promotion into an issue, isn’t it?”
“That’s exactly it.”
“Just wait and see. I’m planning to make the designs solid and the modeling super high-poly, enough to make jaws drop.”
“As expected of Korea’s greatest art director. You saw straight through my heart.”
“If I’m going to work with Korea’s greatest producer, I should at least have that much sense. Wahaha!”
At the conversation between the two directors, Lee Youngae let out a sigh.
“You two are having such a cheerful conversation about tricking people with a tutorial.”
After finishing the meeting, he immediately held a Project D meeting.
While he was at it, he intended to present the amount of work they needed to handle during the two weeks he would be on vacation.
“Project D is not a game we’re making to earn big money. Strictly speaking, you could call it a kind of service for Disney fans.”
In any case, since it was a game, original content still had to be produced.
“But if we make maximum use of what already exists, it will reduce time and cost, so that will be better. More than anything, Disney will want that too.”
Because it was Disney.
No matter how good their relationship was, they would not want another company’s original content to interfere too much with their own content.
“They’re a company famous for having strong pride.”
Everyone nodded.
“Especially when it comes to character and object design, don’t try to give them originality if possible. If you find the design you want and request it from headquarters, you should be able to receive all the resources.”
They would make scenarios and storyboards, then use only the original resources they were provided to implement the rough form!
This time, Lee Youngae, who was participating in the meeting as Project D’s AD, asked,
“So it’s a kind of rough sketch?”
“Exactly. As expected of Korea’s greatest….”
“You said Korea’s greatest art director was my husband, didn’t you?”
“…The spouse of the art director even has the same sense as her husband.”
Lee Youngae chuckled, while the other members who did not know the situation wore puzzled expressions.
After ending the meeting, Taeyeon called only Lee Youngae AD aside and asked,
“The two of you have a lot of work. Isn’t it too hard?”
“It is a little overwhelming. My husband still finds it fun because it’s a game where he’s serving as art director and leading it from the beginning, but I’ve ended up taking on another Disney project…”
If someone quit to try doing different work, then ended up doing work from their previous company again, anyone would dislike it.
So he made one proposal.
“I’ll promise you one thing.”
“…?”
“After we finish Project D as quickly as possible, we’ll start Pandemonium. At that time, I’ll ask you, AD Lee Youngae, to be the art director.”
Her eyes sparkled.
“That sounds fun. Actually, the concepts I often handled at Blizzard were things like demons, monsters, and the like!”
“I’m asking because I know that too. AD Lee Youngae is a director specializing in demons, with the heart and appearance of an angel!”
“Oh my~.”
She smiled as though she did not dislike it.
“AD Hong Minseok will handle Pantheon, the land of gods. AD Lee Youngae will handle Pandemonium, the land of demons. The two of you know each other extremely well, and the two games will also share a worldview and often crossover. I think it’s the best combination.”
“Now that I hear it, that’s true.”
“And one more thing. You know that I’m becoming the representative of Nexple Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Nexple Group, right?”
“Yes. I heard that too.”
“The chairman dreams of creating Korea’s Disney. I’ve thought about it a lot, and the most important thing as a foundational business is a content platform business.”
“A content… platform?”
“It’s a business that conveniently and cheaply services various content, such as comics, novels, broadcasts, animation… If I’ve said this much, you know what I’m trying to ask of you, right?”
“You’re trying to ask me to handle that content platform business? Hmm, I don’t know much about business…….”
“A business should be handled by a person suited to it. What I’m asking of you is to be the creative director of that content platform. As you have a lot of experience as a webtoon artist, you must also have many connections, right?”
“Ah…!”
“You just need to search for creators who can make good content in the novel and webtoon fields, and oversee the overall creative work.”
At that moment, AD Lee Youngae’s eyes sparkled.
“That sounds interesting. Actually, it’s something I’ve wanted to try.”
“I thought that would be the case.”
At Taeyeon’s composed appearance, Lee Youngae tilted her head.
“Actually, before making the proposal, I discussed it with AD Hong Minseok.”
“Ah….”
“He strongly recommended you. He said that even when you lived in the United States, you had experience creating and leading a creative community…….”
“You heard about <Forest of Creation>.”
“I even joined it. It had already long since surpassed the level of a small-scale community. It was quite large….”
Taeyeon cleared his throat and said,
“It was a decision I made after considering that experience.”
She smiled gently, then clapped her hands together.
“It seems I did well to come here after all.”
“…?”
“Because I can now fully unfold my abilities and dreams under an excellent leader.”
Taeyeon smiled softly.
“I’ll be counting on you for both Project D and the content platform.”
“I’ll work until my body breaks! Ah, by the way, has that platform’s name been decided?”
“Nothing has been decided yet.”
“Then shall I think about it? Including the logo design. And that platform will be serviced through smartphones, right?”
“We’ll have to include tablet PCs too. May I ask you to handle it?”
“There’s no need to even call it asking. That kind of thing is my specialty.”
The conclusion: pure innocence itself!
She looked extremely delicate, but she was a woman of iron, with firm resolve, outstanding ability, and above all, excellent communication skills and leadership that could guide a group.
Wasn’t it practically a national rule to make the most use possible of such talent?
“Then I’ll ask you to handle that as well. Ah, and I’ll make sure to compensate you sufficiently for it, so you can look forward to that!”
[Oppa! I’ve organized all my schedule! I’ll be waiting at home with dinner prepared, so let’s talk then.]
[I’ll have to leave work right on time. I’m looking forward to it.]
After finishing his chat with Yoona, he put away his phone along with the smile that kept leaking out, then knocked.
-Come in.
When he opened the door and entered, he saw Chairman Yoo Jinseong sitting there with a crumpled expression.
He closed the door, went in, sat on the sofa, and asked,
“What is it this time? Your expression doesn’t look good at all.”
“They’re telling me to attend a National Assembly audit.”
He had assumed it would be a business issue at worst… Taeyeon was startled and asked,
“For what reason?”
“They say it’s because of the probability-based item controversy… but that’s just the nominal reason. Whenever some big issue breaks out in the game industry, they always call me in and scold me as a way to humiliate me.”
Chairman Yoo Jinseong rose from his seat, took out two cans of beer from the mini-fridge, and tossed one to Taeyeon.
Then he cracked open the can he was holding and gulped it down.
“Is it all right to do that during work?”
“I’m doing it because I’m frustrated. Frustrated. People who don’t even treat the game industry properly rip money away like starving ghosts, and even when we do what they tell us, that still isn’t enough. What is this now… Are you going to do that again or not….”
After gulping down another can of beer, he burst into curses.
“I’m seriously about to get depression because of this. I have no one on my side. Users do what users do, the government does what the government does, developers do what developers do….”
After downing all the remaining beer, he let out a thick burp. Then he muttered weakly.
“Everyone is dying to tear me apart. I have no one on my side.”
“…….”
“Hey, I’m struggling this much, and you’re not going to offer me some comfort or anything?”
Taeyeon shrugged his shoulders.
“For now, all I can say is that you should endure it just a little longer.”
“If I endure it, will anything change?”
“It will. Nexple Entertainment will grow much larger than the main company and become the Asian Disney you want, Chairman.”
“……!”
His eyes flashed.
“You can make that happen?”
“If you firmly support me from behind, Chairman.”
“…….”
Crunch!
He roughly crumpled the can and threw it into the trash can.
“You’re asking me to push Nexple Entertainment hard, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll do that for you. In exchange, you have to do one favor for me too.”
“What is it?”
“You know our company’s representative cash-cow games, right?”
“Moonlight Story, Battle City, and Atlancia Chronicles, aren’t they?”
Nexple serviced countless games, but among them, there were three games that boasted especially overwhelming user numbers and revenue.
Moonlight Story, which was writing the myth of MMORPGs with cute and charming dot graphics, a vast scenario, and fun, flashy combat.
Battle City, where many users proceed with survival on the stage of cities with various concepts.
Atlancia Chronicles, an orthodox MMORPG ambitiously created to stand against Blizzard’s masterpiece, World of Warcraft.
Those three games were collectively called the <Nexple Big Three>.
They were tremendously filial games.
But if there was a problem….
“You know that because those things take turns causing accidents, I keep getting called to National Assembly audits, right?”
“I know well.”
What on earth was he trying to say?
‘This feels ominous somehow….’
It was certain that he was trying to entrust him with work, but he could not guess the contents.
‘I don’t want to do more work here….’
Still, the promise of full-scale investment was attached as a condition….
But the words that followed were something he had never expected… something that easily exceeded the scale he had predicted.
“You, take over one of the things Youngsang was doing.”
“…Pardon?”
“You become the live division head.”
“….”
“As soon as you come back from vacation, receive the handover.”
“…”
“You’re not answering. Don’t want to?”
“Ah, no. It’s just such a sudden proposal….”
Chairman Yoo Jinseong grinned.
“If you’re going to help me, you have to do at least this much.”
“….”
“Cleanly organize the live team development organization like you did with Monster Eater. Watching you, it seemed you’ve almost mastered that area. I’m entrusting it to you because I don’t think there’ll be much problem even if the scale gets bigger.”
Then he handed over a white envelope.
“Use it to supplement your travel expenses. I originally withdrew it to use myself, but I no longer have anywhere to go, so I’m giving it to you.”
“…Thank you.”
He checked the time and rose from his seat.
“I have dinner plans, so I’ll be going now.”
“After your trip ends and you come back, clear about a day. Let’s have a drink.”
“Yes.”
As he left the office, Taeyeon muttered,
“That damned live division head position just never lets go.”
The reason he had not answered was not because the proposal was sudden.
It was because he had a history of receiving the same proposal countless times from various places.
He had refused out of respect and loyalty toward CEO Kang Geon, but inwardly, he was also tired of it.
‘Because I wanted to make my own game.’
And yet, in the end, he had accepted.
It was not anywhere else, but none other than the live division head position at Nexple, Korea’s greatest game company.
‘It’s nice to get ahead, but with work piling up like this….’
He had been happy about letting go of Monster Eater, only for an even bigger task to come crashing in.
‘Since it’s turned out this way, there’s nothing I can do about it.’
Taeyeon sighed and checked the envelope, then was startled.
It was filled with dollars of every denomination.
It looked difficult even to count how much money it was.
“……!”
Taeyeon, startled, looked back at the firmly closed office door.
“…Now that I’ve accepted even this, it’ll be hard to back out anymore.”
If someone was taking care of him and supporting him like this, staying still would not be manly.
‘I’ll have to steel myself when I come back.’
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