UNITY FOCUS | BUILD UNITYFOCUS Making the switch to the web As Unity continues to expand its global reach, Thomas Grové talks to Korean games maker GPM Studio about switching to the ever popular development solution… INTERVIEW: LUKE PARK, CEO, GPM STUDIO

What made you decide to start into Korean and also used our know- visualised Bible on tablets, instead of GPMStudio? how to open www.unity3dkorea.com reading a physical Bible, but it’s going I’ve always wanted to develop my own for developers in Korea. to need a lot of people’s interest and games with new content and investment to complete. concepts, so after I had been in the What‘s your favourite part about game industry for a few years I decided using Unity? What regions are you targeting for to open GPM. From a management perspective, my your games? Are you considering favourite part is that it makes the any platforms other than Web? Can you tell me about the history of process of making games fun for our All the games from GPM contain global Gga Ggung’s development? developers. Because of Unity’s ease of contents, so the world is our target We started to develop GG in 2007 with use, all of our developers are able to market. After the web, we’re planning on the open source Ogre engine. The participate in discussing the engine targeting mobile platforms like the iPad biggest disadvantage of using Ogre and making the game, not just the and then consoles like the Nintendo Wii. was that it is not established and hard programmers, which is normally the to find developers who can develop case in South Korea. Do you have any advice for smaller with it. In 2008 we changed to the developers to get their games noticed? Gamebryo engine, which is the most What’s unique about Gga Ggung? The most difficult thing will be funding he Korean game market is known popular engine in Korea, so it was easy Why do you think it will be successful? projects and finding experienced, for its downloadable PC games, to find developers who have a lot of First of all, our theme of ‘hide and seek’ skilled developers. Developers need to Tbut Korean game developers are experience with it — but it has many is easy to understand and appeals to a find new contents and share a vision increasingly adopting Unity to take disadvantages, too. global audience. When you combine with others. Creating new contents advantage of browser embedded We used it for a year and a half before this with the fact that we’re able to put and opening new markets is the only gaming and streaming content. it became apparent that Gamebryo such a high quality multiplayer game way to become a global business. Just The first well known example of this wasn’t going to work out. Luckily we on the web, it really opens up our don’t give up; challenge. was when the developers of the found out about the Unity engine from market potential. Cartoon Network MMO Fusion Fall the GPM Community Site; after a week GG’s website and in-game lobby Do you see any changes happening decided to change gears mid of investigation I could tell that there system also allows GG to grow an in development trends in Korea? production and drop Gamebryo after was a new world of hope for GG. organic game community; this is very Most of the games have been user testing revealed that the large powerful as it can help the popularity downloadable and service based download was a major barrier for its How long did it take to convert Gga of the game for a long time. online games. We ignored web browser target audience. Ggung from Gamebryo to Unity? Furthermore, because of GG’s based games in the past, because they Nurien Software, creators of the It took us four months, and in that time family-friendly nature, it appeals to a were simple, small and light games. stylish dance party and social we were able to add new features, too. lot more female users than the average However, Unity’s impressive 3D Web networking online game MStar, also In the end, I don’t think it really game in Korea. Finally, our character capabilities are beginning to catch the decided to make the switch — increased our production time at all. customisation opens up the potential attention of Korean developers. The converting its Unreal 3 game to Unity to do various marketing things like interest in web-based games is for its upcoming launch in key What are some of the benefits of expose new fashion brands. growing and there is a range of international markets. using Unity versus other engines? support from the government to help The most recent Korean dev team to The licensing costs, multi-platform You have two other announced Korean companies become global. finish converting its game was GPM deployment, it’s easy to learn, and you Unity games (TalkTing and Bible Studio, who made the decision to can create the same gameplay features Online), is there anything you’d like Do you think there are barriers adopt Unity studio wide for all current as you can in other engines with ten- to share about those projects? between Asian and Western gaming? and upcoming projects. I recently met to-20 per cent of the code. TalkTing is in the visual novel genre I think that in the Asian market, with its CEO to find out more. As for the game itself, our users which is very popular in the Asian developers think more about business benefit by not having to download market, especially in Japan. It’s a game and making a profit from games rather graphics card drivers or Active X, and where people create their own love- than giving fun and joy to people. This Unity’s web player penetration and story and make a profit by sharing their mindset is different between the two. streaming capabilities means there’s user generated content with others. no need for a lengthy install process. Bible Online is the huge project. Anything else you’d like to say? There are a lot of developers who have Korea is a small country, but the best What was the hardest part about developed a game with a Bible country of IT and semi-conductor converting your project to Unity? concept but they didn’t really succeed technologies in the world. GPM Studio is When we started, the manual wasn’t in because they just made a game with a game developer in Korea with young Korean, and we couldn’t find much Bible content. Bible Online is not a professionals who love challenges. information about developing with game; it’s more of a visualised Bible We know what it is to enjoy games. Unity on Korean forums either. So, made with game technology which we With the support of our users, and the using Unity’s English website was the hope will appeal to both Christians developer community, we aspire to most difficult part. Because of this, we and non-Christians. I totally think that become a global company that can started to translate the documentation people will be interacting with this change the world.

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