A number of years in the past, Naver Webtoon grew to become fairly lively in eager to gamify their webcomic IPs – we had beforehand maintained a superb relationship with them growing different video games for them — in order that they proposed to us three selections, and one in every of them was “All of Us Are Useless.”
For these unfamiliar, that exact 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 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. In opposition to this backdrop is once we had been in a position to make the daring determination to develop a non-mainstream style sport, 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 needed to watch out as a result of it was my first problem on this style, and I set the objective as small as doable with out making any main adjustments to the unique story and started improvement with a 10-month schedule.
Consulting with Joo Dong-geun, the creator 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 life like kinds, and we agreed to place that environment 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 grew to become rather more open about our model of the eventualities within the sport 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 stated he needed to be useful, and helped promote our sport by means of his social media community.
By early January 2022, we had gone by means of 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 concerning the movie till it was introduced. Nevertheless, 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 instantly beneath strain to vary the route of the venture, which was initially being developed as a small venture, to now turn out to be a sport that may stand up to the burden of world IP.
The basics of visible novel and story-oriented video games couldn’t be modified, so we targeted on strengthening the spine of the sport by refreshing character profiles and reinforcing episodes extra dramatically to arrange the eventualities extra carefully. You could discover that if you begin taking part in, should you take a look at the story till Chapter 2, it flows equally to the unique webtoon after which unfolds utterly in a different way beginning with Chapter 3.
I feel, 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 grew to become actually motivated to create extra property and so they began so as to add new character expressions and variations. Because of this, there are actually greater than 10 variations for every character’s stance within the sport. They even voluntarily went by means of the difficulty of manufacturing a scene like animation sprites in a number of frames, saying the scenes wanted to be extra dynamic.
Trying 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 brief breath however with influence, 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 progressively constructing narratives after which bursting by means of the conflict of characters.
To alter this sort of state of affairs, 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 vary the construction itself, resembling assembly characters who weren’t within the authentic webcomic.
The second was to think about a number of eventualities by contemplating individuals who had already recognized the unique webcomic and people who 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 utterly 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 varsity, the method of every character reaching the roof was a totally totally different. I needed to make it doable for individuals who watched dramas to take pleasure in different factors of view, and for individuals who don’t know IP to be immersed within the scene as properly.
There may be a whole lot of prejudice concerning 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. 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 venture 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 opportunity of different visible novels. I wish to present the worldwide market that this sport, 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 at the 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 time. July. Zombie virus breaks out in Hyosan Excessive. Mates and academics turn out to be contaminated, and lots of cannot deliver themselves to take down the contaminated. They had been associates and academics, in spite of everything. Quickly, all the college is infested with zombies with no manner of escape.
Expertise the struggles of peculiar college students as they juggle extraordinary challenges. Be part of the jocks as they face overwhelming odds whereas preventing for his or her survival. Be cautious of the phobia that lies inside the college 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
– 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 diversifications!
– 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 art work. Any encounters or occasions that have an effect on the character persist within the art work, even because the story progresses!
◆ Excessive High quality Illustrated Occasions
– 100+ high-quality illustrations for optimum drama.
– Animated occasions!
◆ Totally 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, 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