A number of years in the past, Naver Webtoon turned fairly lively in desirous to gamify their webcomic IPs – we had beforehand maintained relationship with them creating different video games for them — in order that they proposed to us three decisions, and considered 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 a whole lot 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 after we had been in a position to make the daring resolution to develop a non-mainstream style recreation, a visible novel utilizing the “All of Us Are Useless” IP.
Once I was provided the IP, it was when the journey group had simply fashioned 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 aim as small as doable with out making any main modifications 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 real looking 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 improvement, Joo Dong-geun turned way more open about our model of the eventualities within the recreation and the extra components we added. He additionally performed early builds and inspired our group all through improvement. As we neared the top of manufacturing, he mentioned he wished to be useful, and helped promote our recreation by his social media community.
By early January 2022, we had gone by 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 growth. 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 turned a world hit that far exceeded expectations — and I fell right into a panic. We had been instantly beneath strain to vary the route of the mission, which was initially being developed as a small mission, to now turn into a recreation that may stand up to the burden of worldwide 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 prepare the eventualities extra intently. You might discover that while you begin taking part in, in case you take a look at the story till Chapter 2, it flows equally to the unique webtoon after which unfolds fully in a different way beginning with Chapter 3.
I believe, in some circumstances, this added strain introduced a constructive 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 turned actually motivated to create further property they usually began so as to add new character expressions and variations. Due to this, there are actually greater than 10 variations for every character’s stance within the recreation. They even voluntarily went by 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 most important issues I encountered whereas making a recreation from a webtoon. The primary was altering the storytelling strategy of a webcomic to recreation narrative strategies. The unique comedian, which was serialized weekly, composes a narrative with a really brief breath however with influence, 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 the conflict of characters.
To alter the sort of state of affairs, the character’s previous and profile had been added with settings that weren’t within the unique, and every story needed to be produced with care to vary the construction itself, corresponding to assembly characters who weren’t within the unique webcomic.
The second was to think about a number of eventualities 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 most important occasion setting of the characters gathering on the rooftop of the varsity, the method of every character reaching the roof was a totally totally different. I wished to make it doable 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 effectively.
There may be a whole lot of prejudice in regards to the visible novel kind, 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. Moreover, there’s a horde of zombies and but it’s not an motion recreation, however a visible novel. Now come to consider it… maybe sure. Possibly the mission itself was a problem from the very starting.
Many gamers who’ve skilled the sport mentioned 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 wish to present the worldwide market that this recreation, this story, is feasible with an IP like “All of Us Are Useless.”
You possibly can play All of Us Are Useless on Xbox beginning in the present day.
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. Mates and academics turn into contaminated, and lots of cannot convey themselves to take down the contaminated. They had been mates and academics, in spite of everything. Quickly, the whole college is infested with zombies with no means of escape.
Expertise the struggles of extraordinary college students as they juggle extraordinary challenges. Be part of the jocks as they face overwhelming odds whereas combating for his or her survival. Be cautious of the fear that lies throughout the college for zombies weren’t the worst of their troubles. See how each one survives in their very own, distinctive means.
◆ 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’ relies 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 mirror 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!
◆ Absolutely 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, Search engine 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 Received, Jung Ui Taek
