Just a few years in the past, Naver Webtoon grew to become fairly lively in desirous to gamify their webcomic IPs – we had beforehand maintained a very good relationship with them growing different video games for them — in order that they proposed to us three selections, and one in all them was “All of Us Are Useless.”
For these unfamiliar, that individual webcomic was revealed 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 a number of enthusiastic followers. Quick-forward to 2021 and zombie-related content material has poured out because of the unfold of streaming and OTT. Towards this backdrop is once we had been in a position to make the daring resolution to develop a non-mainstream style sport, a visible novel utilizing the “All of Us Are Useless” IP.
After I was provided the IP, it was when the journey workforce 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 needed to watch out as a result of it was my first problem on this style, and I set the aim as small as potential with out making any main adjustments to the unique story and commenced growth 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 sensible types, and we agreed to place that ambiance and the seriousness of the story into the sport. That’s how the present graphics fashion was established after a number of iterations.
Later in growth, Joo Dong-geun grew to become far more open about our model of the situations within the sport and the extra components we added. He additionally performed early builds and inspired our workforce all through growth. As we neared the top of manufacturing, he stated he needed to be useful, and helped promote our sport via his social media community.
By early January 2022, we had gone via two prototypes, established the gameability with alpha builds, and by the point the situation was written as much as chapter 2. After which growth. The Netflix sequence “All of Us Are Useless” was launched. We had no concept concerning the movie till it was introduced. Nonetheless, after the discharge, the sequence grew to become a world hit that far exceeded expectations — and I fell right into a panic. We had been abruptly below stress to alter the route of the undertaking, which was initially being developed as a small undertaking, to now turn out to be a sport that may face up to the burden of world IP.
The basics of visible novel and story-oriented video games couldn’t be modified, so we centered on strengthening the spine of the sport by refreshing character profiles and reinforcing episodes extra dramatically to arrange the situations extra carefully. You could discover that once you begin enjoying, when you have a look at the story till Chapter 2, it flows equally to the unique webtoon after which unfolds fully in another way beginning with Chapter 3.
I believe, in some circumstances, this added stress introduced a optimistic impact to growth. The variety of situations elevated and the graphics, variety of characters, variations, results, and even the illustrations began to exceeded our preliminary expectations. The artwork workforce grew to become actually motivated to create further belongings and so they began so as to add new character expressions and variations. Because of this, there at the moment are greater than 10 variations for every character’s stance within the sport. They even voluntarily went via 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 fundamental issues I encountered whereas making a sport from a webtoon. The primary was altering the storytelling strategy of a webcomic to sport narrative methods. The unique comedian, which was serialized weekly, composes a narrative with a really quick breath however with impression, and doesn’t put a lot weight on long-term narratives. Visible novels are likely to tackle a stronger sense of immersion, offering catharsis by step by step constructing narratives after which bursting via the conflict of characters.
To alter such a situation, the character’s previous and profile had 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 situations by contemplating individuals who had already recognized the unique webcomic and those that didn’t, who in our case, had been individuals who watched solely the Netflix sequence. That model solely shared the names of the characters from the unique comics and had fully 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 fundamental occasion setting of the characters gathering on the rooftop of the college, the method of every character reaching the roof was a very totally different. I needed to make it potential for individuals who watched dramas to get pleasure from different factors of view, and for individuals who don’t know IP to be immersed within the scene as nicely.
There’s a number of prejudice concerning 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. Apart from, there’s a horde of zombies and but it’s not an motion sport, however a visible novel. Now come to consider it… maybe sure. Perhaps the undertaking itself was a problem from the very starting.
Many gamers who’ve skilled the sport stated that the story and graphics had been of top quality. We hope that “All of Us Are Useless” shall be open to the potential for different visible novels. I need to present the worldwide market that this sport, this story, is feasible with an IP like “All of Us Are Useless.”
You may play All of Us Are Useless on Xbox beginning right this moment.
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. Buddies and academics turn out to be contaminated, and plenty of cannot carry themselves to take down the contaminated. They had been buddies and academics, in spite of everything. Quickly, your entire faculty is infested with zombies with no manner of escape.
Expertise the struggles of strange college students as they juggle extraordinary challenges. Be a part of the jocks as they face overwhelming odds whereas combating 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 each one survives in their very own, distinctive manner.
◆ All of Us are Useless: The Visible Novel
– Primarily based on the hit webcomic of which the live-action drama sequence ‘All of Us are Useless’ relies on. Uncover wholly new content material untold in different diversifications!
– All new occasions, endings, and extra! Watch the place your choices take you and see how they unfold.
◆ Artworks
– All new character artworks are made to replicate each character’s particular person persona.
– 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!
◆ Absolutely voiced in Korean
– 12+ hours of absolutely voiced situations.
– Voice-over
Lee Bohee, Park Seongyeong, Ryu Seung Gon, Lee Kyung Tae, Tune Harim, Mun Yujeong, Kim Na Yul, Web optimization 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 Gained, Jung Ui Taek
