Chapter 48
The response wasn't just explosive on Bluebird; the community's reaction was equally mind-blowing.
No, "explosive" doesn't even begin to describe it.
[Username: Anonymous]
[Title: Holy shit, just... wow...]
[Screenshot of Young Henrietta trailer capture]
What the hell did you create, Enson GT...
You're gonna give us that young Henrietta skin, right????
I'm counting on you????
[Comment section][Sorted by views]
- Oh man, you bunch of pedos lolololol
- But honestly, it's kinda hot...
[Username: Random Nick]
[Title: The trailer quality is insane lololol]
Honestly, I thought Girls Memorial's trailer quality was already off the charts, you know?
But that idea got shattered when I saw the Grand Arc Phantasm trailer
And now it's been blown away again by Last Arcadia ㄷㄷㄷ
Why the hell are these guys having a strongman competition with trailer quality? ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
[Comment section][Sorted by newest]
- Come to think of it, Wak's trailer was pretty mind-blowing too
ㄴ For real, their quality was insane as well
- It's a weeb renaissance
[Username: Anonymous]
[Title: The singer for the Reverse Arcadia trailer OST is apparently Ishika Kei?]
[Screenshot of Bluebird keyword capture for Ishida Kei]
The Japanese crowd is going nuts right now lololololol
She was on hiatus, but suddenly a new song drops for some unheard-of weeb mobile game trailer.
Now everyone's asking what the hell is going on lololol
[Comment section][Sorted by views]
- But how did they even manage to get Ishika Kei?
- They must be swimming in cash lolololololol
- I can't believe it's actually the real Ishida Kei ㄷㄷㄷ
[Username: GOAT]
[Title: Enson GT, these bastards added to their lineup again lolol]
General Director: Former Main Director of Blood Alliance 2, the pillar of ND Soft.
Art Director: Also a former ND Soft Art Director.
Sound Director: Former SBC Music Director
Technical Director: From a major corporation
Creative Director: From a major corporation
OST Singer: Ishida Kei <-(NEW)
Are they actually insane? lolololololololololol
[Comment section][Sorted by newest]
- Look at that lineup lolol It's awe-inspiring
- Who would even think this is a mobile game developer's lineup? lolololololol
The response and interest were truly overwhelming.
Especially using Ishida Kei as the vocalist was a major factor.
Not just gamers, but Ishida Kei's fanbase was spreading the word too.
I couldn't help but smile at the additional advertising happening without spending a dime.
***
Time flew by quickly after the successful trailer release.
The weather transitioned from mild autumn to the dead of winter,
And our project was progressing just as rapidly.
The art team would hand over 3D models and effects, then the dev team would implement them in the client,
The planning team would pass over UI/UX blueprints and class balance data, which the dev team would again implement in the client,
Once implementation was done, the QA team would test endlessly.
Then when the art team sent over housing and underground city open world dormitory modeling, the dev team would once again implement it in the client.
In this hamster wheel of work, Reverse Arcadia was slowly coming to completion.
Time passed, and it was February 2015.
Only after the Lunar New Year holiday did Reverse Arcadia's beta version finally come together.
The development period alone was a whopping 25 months.
Compared to Girls Memorial, which had a relatively simple structure and was completed in a year, this took nearly twice as long to develop.
Despite having 1.5 to 2 times more team members than back then.
Now all that remained was to apply the feedback from the closed beta before launch, but...
The road ahead looked rough, but I tried to ignore it as I called all the team leaders to the conference room.
Ye-rin, Ye-na, Yu-mi, Seol, Tae-seon, and Chae-young gathered in the conference room.
After looking them over, I cautiously asked,
"Raise your hand if you've worked overtime more than four days this week."
Two hands went up.
It was Yu-mi and Tae-seon.
"You two, go home on time today. Making you work any more overtime would weigh on my conscience."
Yu-mi and Tae-seon, who were about to rejoice at being freed from overtime, quickly glanced around and asked me,
"B-but... Wouldn't it be better if we stayed together...?"
"It's fine, go home. We'll take care of things here."
Only then did they smile, thank us, and leave the conference room.
Watching them, I felt they had changed a lot since they first joined.
"Alright, everyone knows the CBT starts at 2 PM today, right?"
The team members nodded at my question.
"We'll need to monitor until at least dawn and write up reports, so finish your work by the end of the day, grab what you need, and meet back here in the conference room. Got it?"
With a chorus of "Yes," the team members left the conference room, and I returned to my office.
***
After regular work hours ended, I had a quick dinner alone in the cafeteria before heading back up.
I wasn't the only one; quite a few people were eating alone in the cafeteria.
I didn't want to eat dinner with the team members before overtime anyway.
I looked around the studio office, now half-dark with most of the team gone, before entering my personal office.
What did I need to bring to the conference room again...?
A lap blanket, tumbler, heat packs, and several caffeinated drinks I'd bought at the convenience store to stay awake.
After packing everything into a shopping bag, I first grabbed five laptops and headed to the conference room.
Usually, Yu-mi would have done this, but she had gone home...
With my hands full, I knocked on the conference room door. Ye-rin, who had arrived earlier, opened it and took the laptops from me.
"You should have called, I could have helped you bring them from your office."
"It's fine, it's not that much."
Ye-rin skillfully set up the laptops I had handed her in the conference room.
At her seat, there was a lap blanket along with a small operator doll.
"Where are the others?"
"Chae-young said she'd come up from the recording studio right on time... Ye-na went home for a bit. Seol said she's on her way up after dinner."
"I see. Well, wait here for a moment. I'll go grab some things from my office."
"Alright."
Leaving Ye-rin to set up the conference room, I returned to my office to fetch the items I had prepared.
"Senior, you really pack a lot for overtime too, huh..."
"The conference room gets chilly late at night. Even with the heater on, it doesn't help much."
"That's true. I wonder if it's a construction flaw... Want a heat pack?"
"No, I brought my own."
As Ye-rin and I were chatting, the other team members soon entered the conference room.
Seeing everyone come in with their own lap blankets made it feel almost like a high school classroom.
After confirming everyone was ready, I briefly greeted them before getting down to business.
"Alright, I'll assign the sites each of you will monitor. First, Ye-rin."
"Yes?"
"Ye-rin, you'll handle the portal sites. News related to our game will be posted there, so focus on that."
"Ah, okay."
"Seol and Ye-na, you'll take care of Bluebird. You'll need to cover both Korea and Japan, so Ye-na, you handle Korea, and Seol, you take Japan. Is that alright?"
"Y-yes...!"
"That's fine!"
"Chae-young, you'll monitor our country's streaming sites. For Korea, focus on Forest, and for Japan, mainly NicoNico Live."
"Okay~"
"Good, then get started. If you have any questions, feel free to come ask me."
And so the monitoring began.
Soon, the only sounds in the conference room were laptop coolers whirring and occasional mouse clicks.
Alright, time for me to start too.
The sites I was in charge of were the Reverse Arcadia gallery and the Girls Memorial gallery.
I decided to handle these myself since they were known as the most anonymous and harsh communities in Korea.
Besides, while everyone was familiar with subculture, they weren't used to community culture, so it couldn't be helped.
First, I entered the Reverse Arcadia gallery and saw various posts:
[General] This game requires more thinking than I expected
[General] Still, the gacha isn't that different from Girls Memorial?
[Guide] 6-star character landmines, human rights summary...tip
[General] Check out these Resistance compilations ㄷㄷㄷㄷ
[Guide] Collection of all settings revealed so far...zip
[General] Japanese players' reactions after gacha disasters are hilarious lolololol
[General] The 3D modeling quality is insane when you zoom in ㄷㄷㄷ
[Guide] Current in-game character 3D modeling panty collection...jpg
Just like with Girls Memorial, there were hardly any negative reactions, and most were positive.
Though seeing posts like "3D modeling panty collection" screenshots did make me a bit dizzy.
As I was engrossed in monitoring, time flew by, and it was just past 9 PM.
"Should we take a short break?"