Chapter 35: Conceptualizing the Next Project

Rewinding time to the day Liberty Unnon's PV was released.

After leaving the team members behind and returning to my office, a chain of concerns began to form in my mind.

The reason was the butterfly effect that had appeared after the regression.

The plans I had laid out so far were based on memories from before the regression, but the butterfly effect caused by Girls Memorial's massive success had thrown all the future schedules into disarray.

I should have prepared for this when Inmila was released early.

The biggest problem at this point was that it was impossible to gauge how quickly upcoming games would be released.

Girls Memorial's genre was a social game.

Moreover, it was an early-stage social game consisting only of story, PVP, and various small-scale content.

We were maintaining popularity thanks to the outstanding Art Director Ye-rin and the story's tour de force, but flip that around, and it meant we could topple from first place at any time if a game surpassing our tour de force was released early.

The one silver lining was that I was aware of the existence of a competitor likely to topple us.

"Grand Arc Phantasm," nicknamed GAP, is set to release next year.

That very game, infamous in Japan as the root cause of various gacha game regulation bills and dubbed the "Demon of Gacha."

If I didn't know the future, we'd be caught completely off guard, but at this point, we could prepare sufficiently.

The only thing I could do in this situation was one thing:

The next project.

Although it felt a bit early, given that Girls Memorial hadn't even reached its first anniversary, it seemed necessary to start conceptualizing now.

For that, I first... contacted Seol.

Collaboration with the Creative Director was essential for conceptualizing the next project.

After contacting her and waiting briefly, I soon heard a knock followed by Seol's voice.

"D-Director, are you in...?"

"It's open, come in."

"Y-Yes...!"

The door opened cautiously, and Seol entered the office, bowing her head.

"D-Did you call for me?"

"Yeah. I have something to discuss. Have a seat."

"Okay..."

At those words, Seol carefully sat down on the sofa.

I took a drink from the fridge and handed it to her, asking:

"How's the planning team these days? Are you busy?"

"The planning team...?"

"Yeah."

Seol thought for a moment before answering with a smile.

"N-Not particularly busy. The main story that's about to be updated is in its final stages, and we just have the event story for the summer peak season update left..."

"I see."

If the planning team had been busy, I would have had to conceptualize alone...

That's a relief, at least.

"The reason I called you, Seol, is..."

I laid out the entire plan to Seol, who had taken on a serious expression at my words.

Of course, I left out anything related to my memories from before the regression.

Seol's eyes widened slightly, seemingly surprised by my story.

"S-So what you're saying is... you called me to conceptualize the next project?"

"That's right."

"But isn't it a bit early to be thinking about the next project already...? Girls Memorial hasn't even reached its first anniversary yet..."

I shook my head at her words.

"You're right, Seol. The timing is a bit early. Originally, I was planning to start conceptualizing slowly after the first anniversary."

"I see..."

"But it seems that because Girls Memorial was such a huge success, competitor games are starting to release much faster."

"Ah..."

"Still, for now, we're just conceptualizing."

"O-Okay. Then what should I do...?"

After pondering Seol's question for a moment, I spoke up.

"Do you have any urgent tasks left to handle right now?"

"A-Almost none. The main story and event story are mostly just waiting for final approval, and there aren't any specific content plans right now..."

"Is that so? Then..."

It took half a day to organize the scattered settings for the next project concept in my head and write them into a proposal.

Another half a day to organize various materials needed for the concept.

One day should be plenty.

"Come to the conference room at 2 PM tomorrow. Finish up anything you need to do before then."

Seol nodded readily at my words and said:

"I'll do that."

*

The next afternoon.

I arrived about 20 minutes earlier than my appointment with Seol and started setting up the conference room.

I set out drinks for during the meeting, made two copies of the proposal containing the conceptualized main story and settings.

Connected a USB drive with helpful materials to the conference room PC, ready to be displayed on the beam projector.

After finishing all the other annoying tasks, it was soon time for our appointment.

Three minutes before the appointed time of 2 PM.

Seol opened the conference room door with an apologetic expression.

"I-I'm sorry...! I had more things to approve today than usual, so I was finishing those up first..."

"It's not even appointment time yet, don't worry. You didn't make any mistakes rushing, did you?"

Seol shook her head and replied:

"I checked everything as thoroughly as possible..."

"Good, that's a relief. Have a seat."

As Seol sat in the assigned seat, I handed her the proposal I had prepared earlier.

"This is the main story and settings I've put together for the next project. Take a look and let me know if you have any feedback."

Seol nodded and started reading the proposal.

I waited patiently, watching Seol read the proposal carefully with a serious expression.

How much time had passed?

Having finished reading the proposal and setting it down on the desk, Seol looked at me and asked:

"Um... Director, can I ask a few questions...?"

"Of course. Ask anything you want to know."

At those words, Seol seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking up.

"Looking at the story, I see the World Tree that appeared in Girls Memorial shows up here too... Is this a shared universe?"

"Rather than a shared universe, it's more of a parallel world. Centered around the World Tree."

"Ah, I see what you mean. The story seems good so far? There are a few settings that need to be fleshed out, but..."

"Really?"

"Yes, the main framework seems fine, so I think we can go with this story. But the problem is the game genre... it's blank?"

"That's... because I haven't decided yet."

Seol looked surprised at those words, but it couldn't be helped.

Even after pondering all night, I couldn't reach a conclusion.

In the case of Girls Memorial, there wasn't much of an issue since we aimed for a CCG social game from the start.

But the next project needed to be conceptualized with a genre that had proper gameplay content to keep Grand Arc Phantasm in check when it releases next year.

So I kept thinking about the genre, but...

First, rhythm games and action-adventure were out.

Rhythm games were already a bloody red ocean, and it didn't fit this game's story.

The action-adventure genre was still too much, even if smartphone performance had improved dramatically compared to then.

It was also out of the question with our current development team's manpower.

That left casual, puzzle, or raising simulation... but these weren't the answer either.

Raising simulations were a dead end at this point, with most systems tied up in patents by Japanese companies, and casual or puzzle genres didn't match our current game users' preferences.

In the end, each had its drawbacks, so I couldn't choose and the genre was left blank,

After hearing all this, Seol hesitated as if she had something to say, then spoke up.

"U-Um... Director?"

"Yeah?"

"If the genre isn't decided yet... h-how about this?"

Seol handed me her smartphone with a slightly excited expression.

Taking Seol's smartphone, I saw a game main title screen with cute cats and comically deformed goblins drawn on it.

Cats & Oni.

It was a casual tower defense mobile game that once enjoyed overwhelming popularity.

It was certainly a mega-hit in the early smartphone days, and some people still play it, but...

"Why this...?"

"I-I was thinking maybe we could make the next project's genre tower defense, like Cats & Oni..."

Tower defense, huh...

Hearing Seol's suggestion, it started to sound quite plausible.

Why didn't I think of this?

Depending on the development direction, we could make the game either casual or strategic, and above all, the genre itself was inherently fun with a solid fan base.

However, looking at Seol, it seemed like she had more to say, so I decided to give her a little opening.

"Tower defense... It's certainly a genre I hadn't considered. But just looking at Cats & Oni, doesn't it seem too casual? Might be difficult, no?"

At my negative opinion, Seol frowned slightly and countered:

"Th-That's because Cats & Oni is inherently a casual game..."

"Is that so?"

"But I don't think the tower defense genre can only be made casually. For example, unlike Cats & Oni, if we allow players to freely place units on the map and diversify the directions enemies come from—"

As if she had been harboring resentment over the lack of a proper tower defense game since Cats & Oni,

Seol's explanation continued without pause.

As it went on for over a minute and approached two minutes, I had to cut her off.

"Wait, wait. Seol. Calm down a bit."

"Ah, yes...? Okay."

"So... these are the three things you mentioned, right?"

Free placement of player units on the map,

Diversification of characters by adding RPG elements,

Strengthening strategic elements with special enemies and object variables.

Seol nodded readily at my words.

"Th-That's right... I thought we needed to break the classic tower defense mold."

"Hmm... not bad?"

We'd have to consider the details while drafting the proposal, but it could serve as a milestone for the development direction.

I was starting to get a sense of how we should make the game.

"I think this is enough for the concept... You did a great job today."

"N-No... if anything, you did the hard work today, Director... listening to my rambling..."

"What rambling? You were a big help."

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. Thanks to you, I've got a sense of what direction we should take with the next project."

Seol's expression showed a hint of expectation at those words.

For her sake, I took the pen beside me and filled in the blank genre field.

[Game Genre: Tower Defense RPG]