Each indie game development team has various reasons for being created, but surprisingly, many of them are friends gathering and starting with the words, “Let’s make a game too!” Most of the time, there are many cases where I have never even touched the engine, let alone a proper game, but I thought, ‘Can I still do it?’ It starts with passion. Developers who started in this direction [인디言]I’ve often introduced them in , but ‘Project Unknown’, a developer for Shutter, and ‘Pepperstones’, a loner developer, are also developers with such a behind-the-scenes story.
And here, the team that jumped into game development with a ‘childish idea’ Unpaved Road is also such a developer. No one had ever been in a game-related profession, but it was created by a reunion of high school friends who played games together following school. The game they are developing with their heads together is the text RPG Malion, which has created a unique worldview by adding mana and philosophers to the unique background of the ‘Stone Age’.
What direction is the game ‘Malion’ made by Team Unpaved Road? Game Mecca met Oh Ji-heon, CEO of Team Unpaved Road, to hear the story.
Text RPG + Tabletop RPG = Malion
The title ‘Malion’ is a word that begins and ends the game. In fact, the first game they planned was an action-adventure genre game that was distinctly different from ‘Malion’. However, it was judged that a low-quality game would come out even if a team made an unpaved road without a graphic designer, and the project was discontinued. However, in terms of the game story, there were many fun elements that were a waste to throw away. Among them, the most important item called ‘Diary of a Pioneer’ was used as a concept, and the game is Malion.
Team Unpaved Road, while thinking regarding how to effectively convey the contents of this diary, came up with text RPG as a genre that they might easily develop. Here, TRPG elements were added to reinforce the game. “If we appropriately fuse TRPG elements, in which the immersive development of a text RPG diverges with luck and variable rewards, it seems that each player will be able to see different choices and results, and we wanted to give freshness with the pleasure that comes from this result.” That is what CEO Oh said.
Team Unpaved Road added another difference to bring out Malion’s unique personality. First of all, we started a new approach by removing status and introducing a token system. The token is an element that symbolizes the player’s mindset and consists of courage, wisdom, charm, and grace. When you start the game, you start with all the tokens one by one, and since it is a multi-ending game, they plan to create a system in which the tokens at the time of completion are linked to the next episode.
Here, a gut system that can assist the token system was introduced. This is a kind of auxiliary function added to induce difficulties that block progress due to lack of tokens when playing in the normal way. Representative Oh said, “At the time of the existing design, there was a lack of goods with tokens alone, which hindered smooth game progress.” We introduced the guts system,” he said. In addition, he emphasized the importance of the guts system, saying, “Moreover, it also serves as a preventive measure to prevent cases where you are very lucky and try to play normally, but things do not go as planned.”
Regarding the reason for introducing the token and guts system, CEO Oh said, “In TRPG, an event occurs, and as the event progresses, dice are rolled that are calibrated with stats for tasks such as combat or exploration, and each time you level up, your stats increase. It proceeds in such a way that technology is strengthened. However, as the game progresses, it was judged that being able to choose between dice alone might be an unpleasant factor for users. Therefore, by introducing a system called ‘token’ and ‘guts’, we tried to alleviate the player’s discomfort by providing a range of free choices and the need for appropriate luck.”
But above all else, Malion’s personality is the story that differentiates it from a text RPG. He added flesh to the question, “What would a place with a mysterious substance called mana look like in the unique background of the Stone Age?” To this, he gradually established his worldview by adding the thought, “Wouldn’t there have been at least one person with excellent research and philosophy like Aristotle or Plato in the Stone Age?” Therefore, in Malion, you cannot see a civilized society dominated by knights armed with iron equipment, alchemists and wizards, which are common in other fantasy worlds. The world you can encounter in the game is just a promiscuous and chaotic, early tribal society.
The team’s unpaved road started with a ‘childish idea’
Team Dirt Road began as a friendly gathering at school where they played games together in the evening. None of them had ever dealt with a game engine, but thanks to their high school being a meister high school, they were able to handle programming languages at least. Since we usually enjoyed playing various games together, I thought, ‘Can we do this?’ It is said that the team was formed with the thought that it would feel somewhat reckless and childish.
Currently, Team Unpaved Road is passionately developing games, either moving their main job to game development or working concurrently. You may be concerned that the quality of the game is lowered due to the lack of actual production time, but the team Unpaved Road continues to collaborate by sharing their experiences. For reference, the team name ‘Unpaved Road’ is a name that represents the current situation, such as running on a bumpy and unmaintained unpaved road, and further implies the meaning of ‘Let’s run on a paved road’ or ‘Let’s become a paved road’ by making constant efforts. It was adopted in the double meaning of doing.
Representative Oh said that Unpaved Road is a team that is constantly exploring and challenging the artistry and possibilities of games. He said, “I came to realize following reading Richard Wagner’s Theory of Comprehensive Art. According to Wagner’s philosophy that all genres of art, such as music, art, and literature, must harmonize with each other, I thought that games are the ultimate art.” It is the ideology and philosophy for the game that is pursued.”
Of course, the development process is not always smooth. This is because there is currently no one on the team capable of designing. I am somehow doing the visual elements myself, but it is a difficult situation because I have never done it before. Oh said that he has plans to hire a designer, but the team is small, so it is still too early to fully hire them. However, he added that he did not intend to finish the game immaturely.
Taking the first step on a grand journey
‘Malion’ is being envisioned with a total of 7 chapters, and various routes will appear in the later stages of the story. The intended play time per chapter is regarding 1 hour, and the final play time of the main story is expected to be regarding 7-8 hours. With regarding 800 A4 pages of text written up to the fully finished 2 chapters, the number of planned endings is said to be at least 20, suggesting the vastness of the story.
Malion is expected to be released according to the schedule announced in crowd funding. Currently, Team Dirt Road is thinking of early access as up to chapter 4, and currently developing chapter 3. In the early access version, not only the scenario, but also various contents not seen in the demo will be presented, and feedback will be received through the stove indie demo. The official release is scheduled for December of this year, and it is planned to be released as a complete game without DLC.
Concluding the interview, CEO Oh quoted the words of Confucius, “If three people go on the road, there must be my teacher. Among them, you must select the good ones and follow them, and select the bad ones and correct your mistakes.” Through this, he said, “There will definitely be something to learn from our precious users.” I promise to take a friendly move,” and asked for a lot of interest in Malion.
