Just a few years in the past, Naver Webtoon turned fairly energetic in desirous to gamify their webcomic IPs – we had beforehand maintained a great relationship with them creating 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 Dead.”
For these unfamiliar, that individual webcomic was revealed on-line between 2009 to 2011. At the time, the Korean webcomic market was nonetheless exploding, and since zombie content material was nonetheless considerably unfamiliar in Korea, it gained numerous enthusiastic followers. Fast-forward to 2021 and zombie-related content material has poured out because of the unfold of streaming and OTT. Against this backdrop is after we have been capable of make the daring choice to develop a non-mainstream style recreation, a visible novel utilizing the “All of Us Are Dead” IP.
When I used to be supplied the IP, it was when the journey workforce had simply fashioned at IkinaGames. Thankfully, each the producer and director loved studying the webcomic “All of Us Are Dead,” 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 purpose as small as potential with out making any main modifications to the unique story and commenced growth with a 10-month schedule.
Consulting with Joo Dong-geun, the creator of “All of Us Are Dead,” 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 lifelike types, and we agreed to place that environment and the seriousness of the story into the sport. That’s how the present graphics model was established after a number of iterations.
Later in growth, Joo Dong-geun turned rather more open about our model of the situations within the recreation 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 recreation 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 situation was written as much as chapter 2. And then growth. The Netflix sequence “All of Us Are Dead” was launched. We had no thought concerning the movie till it was introduced. However, after the discharge, the sequence turned a worldwide hit that far exceeded expectations — and I fell right into a panic. We have been immediately below stress to alter the course of the undertaking, which was initially being developed as a small undertaking, to now develop into a recreation that may face up to the load of world IP.
The fundamentals 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 situations extra intently. You might discover that once you begin enjoying, in the event you take 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 turned actually motivated to create further property and so they began so as to add new character expressions and variations. Thanks to this, there at the moment are greater than 10 variations for every character’s stance within the recreation. 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.
Looking again, I’d say there have been two principal issues I encountered whereas making a recreation from a webtoon. The first was altering the storytelling strategy of a webcomic to recreation narrative strategies. The authentic comedian, which was serialized weekly, composes a narrative with a really quick breath however with influence, and doesn’t put a lot weight on long-term narratives. Visual novels are likely to tackle a stronger sense of immersion, offering catharsis by regularly constructing narratives after which bursting by means of the conflict of characters.
To change one of these situation, the character’s previous and profile have been added with settings that weren’t within the authentic, and every story needed to be produced with care to alter the construction itself, equivalent 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 identified the unique webcomic and those that didn’t, who in our case, have 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 principal occasion setting of the characters gathering on the rooftop of the college, the method of every character reaching the roof was a totally 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 effectively.
There is numerous 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. Besides, there’s a horde of zombies and but it’s not an motion recreation, however a visible novel. Now come to think about it… maybe sure. Maybe the undertaking itself was a problem from the very starting.
Many gamers who’ve skilled the sport stated that the story and graphics have been of top of the range. We hope that “All of Us Are Dead” will likely be open to the potential for different visible novels. I need to present the worldwide market that this recreation, this story, is feasible with an IP like “All of Us Are Dead.”
You can play All of Us Are Dead on Xbox beginning at this time.
All of Us Are Dead…
IKINA GAMES
$19.99
All of Us are Dead – The Visual Novel
An interactive, visible novel based mostly on the hit webcomic sequence.
◆ Story
Summer. July. Zombie virus breaks out in Hyosan High. Friends and academics develop into contaminated, and plenty of cannot deliver themselves to take down the contaminated. They have been buddies and academics, in spite of everything. Soon, your entire faculty is infested with zombies with no approach of escape.
Experience the struggles of extraordinary college students as they juggle extraordinary challenges. Join 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 approach.
◆ All of Us are Dead: The Visual Novel
– Based on the hit webcomic of which the live-action drama sequence ‘All of Us are Dead’ is predicated on. Discover 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 mirror 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!
◆ High Quality Illustrated Events
– 100+ high-quality illustrations for max drama.
– Animated occasions!
◆ Fully voiced in Korean
– 12+ hours of absolutely voiced situations.
– Voice-over
Lee Bohee, Park Seongyeong, Ryu Seung Gon, Lee Kyung Tae, Song Harim, Mun Yujeong, Kim Na Yul, Seo Da Hye, Kang Si Hyun, Ahn Hyomin, Kim Young Sun, 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 Won, Jung Ui Taek
