One-person development is difficult. This is because you have to create all parts of the game from planning to programming and art.

On the first day of the opening of the BIC (Busan Indie Connect Festival), Jang Won-sun, a developer of the one-person studio ‘Astaroid-J’, who is developing Ninjail Island, explained the difficulties they had experienced by developing one person. Jang Won-sun developed a lot of difficulties, but he explained that he could continue to develop the game thanks to the people who cheered around. **/Reporter Kim Seung-ju

Lecture: Jang Won-sun

Affiliation/position: Asteroid-J

Introduction of the presenter

I started from me and worked as a game planner. He has launched more than 13 kinds of mobile games and has been planning in the Black Desert of Pearl Abyss. He is currently developing pixel art by self-taught and developing one person.

Developer

Asteroid-Jay is a one-person development studio. With a joke, it consists of Jang Won-sun, who is in charge of planning, Jang Won-sun beta, and art. I am currently developing Ninjail Island.

The start was that he left Pearl Abyss in 2019 and developed a mobile game called When I’m Chi-Hun>, but he failed. The game failed to suffer economic difficulties, and it was difficult to find a job due to the shortage of employment. In order to find a breakthrough, we created about eight game prototypes and asked at the domestic and foreign community. I thought that I would like to make a ninja game that was the most responsive.

The concept is taken from a classic ninja game that fights a large number of opponents like Kaldon Johnwick. As it is being developed as an action game, the cyberpunk concept has been held to match the worldview and system. The title was named Ninja Ilson Island.

When the prototype was released, the response was good, with publishing offer overseas. On Facebook, a Turkish artist in Turkey sent several reference materials. There was also an interesting reaction, saying, Ninja doesn’t run like that, and there was an opinion that the protagonist had to run his arm back and run like the cartoon Naruto.

However, it was not easy to start the actual development. The burden has increased, and the process of implementing and deleting various systems to make the game well was repeated. When I tried to exhibit the work in the game competition, I was worried about changing the concept with Korean materials because of the No JAPAN movement.

Since then, I have been working with CFK and focused on development again. CFK’s development support allows you to put a cut scene in the game, and the entire scenario is completed for outsourcing the cut scene. The scenario also minimized the characters in line with the development of one person.

In-game graphics have been developed as pixel art. Due to lack of knowledge of pixel art, he has been daring attempts such as modifying the asset after sampling, creating a background with a 3D object and using various filters. It was a method of using it as a manner, but it was well received because of its unique graphic style. In addition, various parody and fun elements will be inserted in the game.

The difficulties of developing the game alone are as follows. Many variables continued to occur, such as bugs continuously occurring, a second child was born, or a part-time job to cover the development cost. Therefore, the 30-minute timer is set to handle one work in time, and various attempts are made.

The hardest thing was feedback scrambled. As various opinions came from various channels, conflicting feedback appeared. However, the advice to be faithful to the basics was the most helpful, and we are trying to be faithful. As I developed the game and exhibited the game at the event without giving up, the number of people who responded again again increased the expectations.

Jang Won-sun, a developer, said, There seems to be no advantage of one-person development. In addition, he said that he was alone, so there were many people around him who helped each time he was dead.