Hound13's open-world action RPG, 'Dragon Sword: Awakening,' is set to launch on the 23rd. Known previously as 'Dragon Sword,' the title gained popularity for its unique action system—which allows players to continuously switch characters to chain combos—set within an open world infused with classic fantasy sensibilities. Although the transition from a live-service game to a package game was announced somewhat abruptly in April, followed by a Steam launch announcement in July, the game surpassed 300k Steam wishlists in less than three months and ranked in the Top 50 most-played games at the Steam Next Fest in June.

However, the path to Dragon Sword: Awakening has not been smooth. Originally, Webzen took on publishing duties in January to launch the live service as 'Dragon Sword,' but in February, Webzen failed to pay the remaining Minimum Guarantee (MG) owed to Hound13. Consequently, Hound13 announced the termination of the publishing contract, while Webzen warned of strict countermeasures and full refunds, leaving operations in turmoil. Although Webzen eventually paid the MG, negotiations failed, leading to the announcement of the re-release as a single-player package game, 'Dragon Sword: Awakening.' The situation remains unstable, with Webzen filing for an injunction to prohibit self-publishing and Hound13 responding by asserting that the publishing contract was terminated properly.

Despite this chaos, Hound13 has kept its promise to release a demo in June and is now moving toward its July launch. We spoke with CEO Park Jung-sik and PD Jang Yun-jin to hear about their hard work and what they hope to showcase through Dragon Sword: Awakening.

A Tight Schedule and a Desperate Situation: Achieving the July Launch Promise Through Selection and Focus

Q. When you decided on a Steam launch, you announced a June demo and a July release, and you are on track. It was a tight schedule; how was it possible?

PD Jang Yun-jin = Honestly, I had many concerns about whether this would be possible while transitioning to Steam. Since company circumstances made advertising impossible, we set a guideline that we absolutely had to participate in Steam Next Fest. To maximize the effect at launch, we set a goal to open within four weeks after the festival.

As you can see if you play it, we were barely able to include any new systems. Because time was so tight, we had to quickly identify and focus on what was truly possible within that timeframe. We set the baseline at refining the basics required for a package game, such as controller support and balance renewals, and had no choice but to exclude new elements.

We also judged that we could shorten the period by converting the game using server code rather than building a new client. Although many people have left, the server and backend developers stayed during that work and provided a lot of help with the client conversion. The front-end team also suffered a lot because the period was very tight afterward.

CEO Park Jung-sik = When we decided to launch on Steam, we received advice from acquaintances who had experience launching games on Steam. Since we hadn't released a game on Steam, everything was vague, including how to prepare and what to do before launch. Many people gave us generous advice and help on how to prepare for the entire process and what to do to make the game known to users.

Based on that advice, I discussed with the PD and TD to set a detailed schedule for Steam Next Fest, the demo, and the launch timeline. It was very tight, but I'm glad we managed to keep it well.

Q. Despite the tight schedule, you have been preparing for a global launch; what areas did you focus on?

PD Jang Yun-jin = The point was to do what we could even without a budget. First, following the guidelines the CEO received from various acquaintances, we focused on Discord and Steam Next Fest, and the PM and I worried a lot about how to plan this. We also received a lot of help from AI in that regard.

We first set targets, but because conditions were poor, we had no choice but to run several AIs based on the data we had collected so far. As a result, we got reports that 100k Steam wishlists would be difficult, and that gathering 1k people on Discord would be a success for our size. So, we decided internally to aim for 100k Steam wishlists and 1k Discord members, focus only on YouTube, and not operate X or other SNS as we lacked the capacity.

YouTube was also so tight that we even debated whether to revive the existing Hound13 channel, which had at least a few subscribers, or start a new one. However, as originally thought, we decided it was right to open a new channel to focus on the new game. To activate that channel, we even made a roadmap three weeks before opening the YouTube channel, setting a goal to post new videos every two weeks and deciding what to post and when.

So, while releasing the PV, we had to fill in the gaps, and we decided that communication was necessary, so we somehow carved out time to start live streams. Actually, I have more to say about the live streams, including what happened before, but regardless, it was my first time, so I was really scared. So, at first, I turned on a hand-cam. Then, as I got a little used to it, I organized what to show every two weeks and conducted live streams.

In the case of Discord, we were advised that it was necessary to build a core overseas user base, but honestly, it wasn't easy to gather members compared to the number of wishlists or YouTube subscribers. So, I worried a lot about what else to do, and I talked to the artists to release original artwork or illustrations worked on for the story only there. And we are also taking measures such as actively responding to various inquiries with the PM.

For Steam, we are posting in the direction of announcing summarized content from live broadcasts or AMAs. Actually, these are things we couldn't practice when we first developed Dragon Sword, but while doing this, I really felt a connection with the users.

Q. After that, the response continued, with 300k Steam wishlists and a Top 50 ranking for most-played games during Steam Next Fest. Did you expect this response? Also, there must have been a lot of user feedback; what part did you look at most carefully?

PD Jang Yun-jin = Even when we surpassed 100,000, the period was so tight that I wondered if it would be possible, so I was happy that it was achieved. So we reset the goal to 300k internally, and I was speechless when we achieved that too. It wasn't just about feeling good; it gave me hope that I could realize this dream of moving forward.

At the same time, as I mentioned earlier, I started to feel the fun of communicating with users, so I replied to various inquiries and feedback, but the Steam community doesn't show them in order, so they got mixed up. So, after 100, it was difficult to answer directly.

For feedback, we categorized it into four types: things we can do immediately, things we can do in the long term, impossible things, and things that need consideration. Then we did the things we could do immediately. First of all, there were many opinions about the controls such as jumping, dashing, and dodging since the Webzen version, so we worked on that part first. Next was the controller controls; actually, we were aware that it was insufficient from the time the trial version was released. However, we were chased by the deadline for Steam Next Fest, so we couldn't help it. So, we received very low evaluations regarding the controller controls, and we are continuing to develop this part. It's just a pity that we couldn't refine the controller support more and show it to you then.

Besides this, an unexpected opinion was that foreign users reacted relatively sensitively to screen flashes or flashing effects. So we fixed this part. Also, in some European language regions, we were able to receive feedback on parts where key compatibility was not good or key settings were difficult because the keyboard layout was different.

Q. Looking at YouTube, etc., there is interest not only in Korea but also overseas; which regions showed the most reaction? Also, are there any impressive differences in the reactions of each region?

PD Jang Yun-jin = To summarize, we secured the most wishlists in North America, and there was the most feedback. Other than that, it was China, Japan, Brazil, and Korea. Looking at the evaluations, the US is generally favorable, but China and Asia had many reviews analyzing and comparing it with similar types of games that exist in live services, even if they are not packages.

One thing that remains in my memory was the evaluation from Japan. The number of evaluations in Japan is actually very small, but it was impressive that most of the people who left them were negative. However, those evaluations were almost consistent. I heard that in Japan, whether or not controller support is provided greatly influences the first impression, and we received a lot of criticism about that part in the trial version. I realized that this part is a critical part when targeting the Japanese market. Also, I heard a lot that it was very regrettable that there was no Japanese dubbing, and although we actually want to do this, it is difficult to give a definite answer as to when it will be because of our situation.

Q. Besides controller support, what are some other regrettable parts and parts you are paying attention to?

PD Jang Yun-jin = Actually, the reason we set the trial version length so short was that, based on that time, there were many parts of the subsequent content that did not support controllers. So we blocked the content until controller support was provided, but as a result, it was very regrettable that we had no choice but to show it to users in fragments even though we had prepared enough content and refined it to some extent.

CEO Park Jung-sik = To name one more thing, we are paying a lot of attention to localization. Since we couldn't use the parts we did with Webzen, we had to start over from the beginning. So, first, we worked on English, Japanese, and Chinese with AI. After that, we judged that we could increase it a bit more, so we went up to 10 language support, but after receiving feedback that the nuances were awkward or idioms were strange in the demo, we requested proofreading for each language. We are now in the final stages, and we plan to support up to 10 languages at the time of launch.

PD Jang Yun-jin = There is a backstory; actually, the person in charge of localization was originally a planner. For three months, they have been dedicated to it, using AI like Claude and ChatGPT extensively. As know-how accumulated while doing that, we judged that we could add more languages, and many overseas users on Discord or Steam requested to add their own languages. Emotionally, I want to add them all, but as our situation is our situation, that was impossible. So, we had no choice but to select and focus while looking at the proportion of Steam wishlists.

After that, the first localized content was released in the trial version, and immediately after, a translation team from Brazil contacted us on Discord to help with localization. And among those who contacted us saying they were fans of the CEO in China, there was also a team that helped with Chinese localization proofreading. Besides this, we found translators or acquaintances in the industry in Korea and requested them, and we also delivered the launch build to them in advance and received feedback.

Q. You demonstrated various things related to combat control improvement through a live stream on the 16th; what are the parts that have changed compared to the trial version?

PD Jang Yun-jin = The biggest difference is lock-on, but besides that, we also improved targeting and tracking for basic attacks when not locked on. There was a lot of user feedback that many attacks missed into thin air. So, besides lock-on, we had to refine the mechanism of finding and attacking targets itself. We set it up to track and attack if the target is within a certain angle. We also added a function that compensates even if the aim is not accurate to make it easier to use ranged attack characters. We judged that it is necessary to provide these parts as options to satisfy both core and light players. And although lock-on might not be necessary usually, I thought it was necessary for smooth progress when doing the Tower of Trials or other content.

Another piece of feedback that has been coming for a long time was that there is no 'hit' feeling. Previously, monsters had almost no hit reaction unless their super armor was destroyed. So there were many reactions that they hit the air because there was no reaction even though they hit the enemy. So after the demo, we added vibration to the controller, and for powerful attacks or axes, we added hit-stop. We wanted to add more of that feeling of hitting and being hit, where the target and character are slightly stiff.

And after the demo, we also subdivided mouse sensitivity adjustment, vibration intensity adjustment, and horizontal/vertical sensitivity. Actually, since our game is not a FPS, I thought just one mouse sensitivity adjustment would be enough, but to support controllers, that kind of generalization didn't work. So we created options so that users can adjust one by one and enjoy it comfortably with their own settings.

Package Game Transformation, Potential as an Open World Fantasy Action RPG Adjusted Accordingly

Q. Lute and Celis gained popularity as their designs were remodeled; what points did you focus on during the remodeling?

PD Jang Yun-jin = As for graphics, only Lute and Celis have been renewed, but originally, I wanted to change Castella, Johnny, and Aria as well. However, when I tried to replace the modeling of the main characters, the amount of resources was truly enormous. Just the spine images for the parts where Lute is included were over 150. The development team, including the CEO, was full of desire to change Johnny, Castella, and Aria as well, but in the end, we only worked on those two to meet the schedule. The CEO and the artists had a strong need to change at least Lute even if it really didn't work out. Next was Celis, and Celis was also an opinion that everyone should change.

CEO Park Jung-sik = Internally, there were opinions that some major characters were too 'old, classic' since the Webzen version days. I wanted to change that, but during the live service days, the next update schedule was so tight that we couldn't execute it. Then, as we decided to release it as a package on Steam this time, the art team finally had some free time to work on it. So, greedily, I wanted to change all the main characters, but I couldn't.

The renewal direction for Lute and Celis was to keep the tone since each has a clear story and background setting, but to reinforce a sophisticated feeling. We had to add a slightly subculture-style face to match the recent trend, but we had to balance it so that it wouldn't feel out of place with the existing characters. So the artists and 3D modelers paid a lot of attention. It wasn't just a simple modeling replacement, but since cutscenes, content sources, etc., had to be changed to match this, it took quite a while even though we only changed two.

As an aside, personally, it was regrettable that Johnny could not be modified. There were things I wanted to change, such as his beard or various other things, and I want to show those parts later as costumes.

Q. Having shown it to users twice, through the live version and the package trial version, what strategy did you come up with to emphasize more?

PD Jang Yun-jin = Since the combat system of Dragon Sword: Awakening requires linkage between characters, many attempts are needed. It's not like other collection-type RPGs where there are separate ultimate skills, but it's a method of continuously driving combos by checking the status effects or activation conditions of two combat skills and tag attacks and QTEs and then matching them perfectly. It's not just two or three flashy skill linkages, but a feeling of continuously rotating the cycle and swirling.

Now that the controls have been fixed a lot, but during the live service and trial version, it overlapped with the fact that the controls were not very good, so there were some people who left if they couldn't adapt at the beginning. However, more than 80% of users who played for more than an hour remained. So, at launch, we intend to appeal to the action created by this unique QTE tag combo and move in a direction that conveys that fun to users better.

Q. As it changed to a package game, it felt like the density of treasure chests in the field increased from the trial version stage. Did you change the density of gimmicks or other elements, and what other adjustments did you make to fit the package game?

PD Jang Yun-jin = The CEO is a treasure chest fanatic, so we put them in almost every area where we thought we could place more treasure chests. You will be able to find them whenever you go to a high place. Besides this, there are many places I added secretly without the CEO knowing. For example, I don't remember exactly where, but I put a treasure chest inside a large hollow log. Since that's a place only Tarte can enter, you change to Tarte and enter at that time.

Anyway, treasure chests have increased like that, and since there has been constant user feedback, we have also raised the stamina limit quite a bit. So we can go further, higher, and deeper. Hidden elements have increased as much. We were able to include shipwrecks in the deep sea, as well as hidden dungeons, named bosses, and unexpected missions. We also increased the density one step further by adding 60-70 more regional requests.

Q. As you are switching to a package game, homework or farming content with live service in mind will need adjustment; how is this proceeding? Also, options like critical hit resistance seem quite unnecessary; is there a reason you included such options?

PD Jang Yun-jin = First of all, while renewing, we removed many parts that had time limits, and we also removed many things in terms of balance. We removed daily missions and such elements, and only world bosses or unexpected missions are reset once a day.

Actually, the critical hit resistance option for equipment has been inquired about for a long time, so I will take this opportunity to say that it is an option necessary to stably clear high-difficulty content. In this game, critical hits explode well if there is a level difference, but if there is no critical hit resistance or critical damage reduction option at this time, it comes in really painfully.

Currently, we see the end content as Nightmare difficulty subjugation, high floors of the Tower of Trials, and raids. In the Tower of Trials and Nightmare difficulty subjugation, there is a high probability that monster attacks will come in as critical hits, and raid bosses have a 300% critical hit multiplier. Actually, most of our team members don't wear critical hit resistance or damage reduction option items because they say 'just avoid it,' but we recommend equipping critical hit resistance options for stable clearing.

Actually, we made it so that most content can be cleared with the initial members, Lute, Castella, and Aria. However, since Steam achievements and such are also elements that stimulate users' sense of achievement, we prepared several high-difficulty contents in connection with them. Unlike the front levels, those tasks have dedicated patterns, so you will need to try several times and become proficient. Of course, the Tower of Trials also gets harder as you go up. Accordingly, we also tried to capture the fun of strategy by trying various equipment settings.

Actually, during the Webzen version, bleed and attack power increase were also discarded options, but this time we increased the figures 3-4 times compared to before. In this way, we are adjusting it in a form where a specific option does not become a 'dud' and settings are matched more diversely. We are also devising various ways to reduce the burden of equipment farming, such as reducing the consumption of resources for sub-option rerolls and making it easier to obtain the process frame for creating equipment by specifying the main option. We also increased the amount of materials obtained when disassembling equipment compared to before.

As it changes from a live service game to a package game, this part is actually very worrying, but in internal tests, it doesn't seem to act as core as I thought, so we have taken measures like this and plan to adjust it while receiving feedback after opening.

Q. As you started to make changes such as removing character grades while switching from live service to a package game system, how do you intend to catch the balance accordingly?

PD Jang Yun-jin = Actually, previously there was a difference in existing stats, but we averaged this part first. However, we couldn't touch the action part because we lacked time. The basic 4-star also had some weak parts there.

Still, we intend to supplement this part through dedicated Karma. We are thinking about designing 2 types of dedicated Karma for each character, so that the character role changes according to the Karma. For example, if Lute receives a new dedicated Karma, he can focus more on the healer role, or Aria can change the existing explosion-based to air-based so that she can be put into an air combo pot, making it possible to utilize it more diversely.

Some characters like Alex are a bit difficult logically, but in such cases, I think we can supplement it by creating new usage points. These parts are also parts that need to be continuously refined.

CEO Park Jung-sik = First, in terms of figures, we averaged it as much as possible so that there is no difference in existing star grades. Other than that numerical averaging, since Dragon Sword has not been a structure where one character carries everything alone from before, we focused more on linkage.

For example, if you ask who is better between Teresia or Roxy when considering simple performance among bleed pot characters, you will choose Teresia 100%. She also stuns and bleeds well, and her attack range is wide. However, Teresia cannot ride a mount in giant boss battles. Teresia alone cannot put 100% of the bleed on the boss. So, linkage must continue, such as Teresia dealing as the main and switching to Roxy during cooldown or Roxy holding on during boss mounts.

In addition to this, it has been common from before for 4-stars to go with 5-stars by supplementing Castella, who has super armor breaking and stun skills. It was Dragon Sword's action philosophy to not look at each character only by individual performance, but to have each role and continuously continue the linkage of action while performing it.

Calien, who was officially released as playable this time, is a dealer who deals really big damage in a wide area, but there is a gap because the casting time is a bit long. If Calsion fills those parts, it becomes really powerful. Calsion has been so powerful from before that we went through some adjustments, such as lowering the super armor breaking efficiency.

Since Calsion came up, the previous 4-star characters had low specs, and most of the actions were in the form of spreading enemies, so mob gathering was really not done compared to 5-stars. Calsion gathered really well, but most 5-star characters were in the form of gathering enemies. So, now that there are no star grades, we changed the previous 4-star characters to gather mobs little by little.

Q. As the previous work Hundred Soul also had costumes as a major BM and released costumes with various concepts, this Dragon Sword is also expected; are there any other costumes prepared besides swimsuits?

PD Jang Yun-jin = First, there are 5 types of hero quest costumes, and we made plans to sell 2 existing swimsuit costumes, but the reaction was so good that we are preparing one more. Other than that, nothing is confirmed yet. The art team is actively giving opinions, such as releasing a Bunny Girl next because the costume reaction is good.

CEO Park Jung-sik = Besides what was previously released, there were quite a lot of costume preparation works in the past, and I think we can bring those and produce them. Also, there are original drawings containing the past appearance in character concept work, and we intend to judge this after the official launch and showcase it if there is an opportunity.

Q. Before the launch, you released a preview of the Teresia hero request; I wonder if it was a choice to show the impact of the story that was lacking in Dragon Sword so far. Also, do you plan to showcase that appearance of Teresia as a costume?

CEO Park Jung-sik = Originally, it was prepared as a future update during the Webzen version days, and so it was a work that was completed in advance. It wasn't made separately for the Steam version.

Actually, besides the server or backend developers I mentioned earlier, many quest developers left, so we couldn't significantly reinforce the story part. It was to the extent of refining the finish of the insufficient parts or reinforcing what was visually lacking. Looking at the current build, there are no major changes, and we are preparing update stories.

PD Jang Yun-jin = Actually, in the case of the main quest, the issue of progress being cut off due to level problems at some point every time was much bigger than anything else. There were also occasional issues where progress was impossible. So we did work to increase stability and made sure that quests were not interrupted due to level or such problems in the middle. Other than that, we had no choice but to prepare focusing on what we had been preparing for a long time and continuing what we intended to do. In other words, the stories of Dana, Calien, and Teresia have been added, and it would be to the extent of adding bond requests.

As an aside, after uploading this Teresia video, the scenario planner protested a lot. Saying it was too strong a spoiler. However, I persuaded them that we are not in a position to be picky, and that we have to show something impactful. You will probably be able to meet the circumstances of why Teresia makes such a choice and what happened before that in the hero request.

CEO Park Jung-sik = And you asked about the Teresia costume, it is being prepared as DLC. When making hero requests, the keynote was to let costumes that can well express another side of that hero appear in the quest. We thought it would be good to release it as a costume, not just using it once. So, costumes that appear in hero requests in the future will be released as costumes that can actually be used.

Teresia's case is a representative case, and there is an anecdote when working on it. Originally, because Teresia was wearing a hood, her face was not well visible, but when we made it more visible, the default expressions were much more desolate than I thought. So we had to continue various works, such as modifying expressions here and there.

Q. Acquiring 'Karma', which is like an artifact, as well as heroes is also an important point; how have these two changed to be acquired in-game?

PD Jang Yun-jin = It is a form of acquiring while naturally following the game. To be more specific, heroes can be acquired by clearing quests, or through rewards obtained from hero requests or invitation exchanges. All of this can be obtained through in-game play.

General Karma can be acquired from world bosses, and dedicated Karma can be exchanged for Karma by refining rewards obtained while clearing each floor of the Tower of Trials. In the case of Karma, actually, we worried a lot about the form of obtaining it as an in-game reward, not a draw, even before the live service launch. We judged that it could induce more participation in high-difficulty content like raids, and it was not suitable for a billing model compared to characters. I thought that user accessibility would increase as the burden decreased.

However, in the end, it was released as a draw according to the live service game type, but even then, the balance team continued to have the opinion that the position should be changed to an in-game reward that encourages content participation, not BM. So, while switching to a package game this time, we applied the plan we had been thinking about.

Unlike the past when dedicated Karma was only for 5-stars, this time we prepared it for all characters. It provides an experience of gaining a sense of achievement by overcoming hardships to users who want to play characters differently. Before that dedicated Karma, it was a way to present each stage by setting Karma from world bosses first.

We tested by putting Karma placement here and there, including treasure chests, but when we put it in treasure chests, the randomness was too strong, so it was difficult to gauge the tempo. Sometimes it became easy, sometimes not, so it wasn't consistent. But if we put it in raid bosses, it became a paradoxical situation where we had to run that raid first to get raid equipment. So we thought it was appropriate to distribute it to world bosses and make them challenge it. Even if it's not the desired Karma, I thought we could lower the hurdle by disassembling it to get exchange materials and exchanging it for something else.

Dragon Sword: Awakening, which will prove its sincerity with the launch on the 23rd, with problems not yet resolved

Q. As it is in a state where traffic control with Webzen has not been done yet, I think users will also be confused. I am curious about how you plan to respond in the future.

CEO Park Jung-sik = To tell you only the situation so far, Webzen has filed an injunction to prohibit self-publishing. And we have discussed with lawyers and explained it in relation to that, and we are waiting for the court's judgment. There is no clear date for when it will come out.

Looking back on the past while preparing for legal response, I wondered if Webzen really had the heart to service Dragon Sword normally as a publisher. This is because marketing only conducted basic UA a few weeks before launch, and for agendas such as developer live streams, opening separate YouTube channels, or operating Discord for overseas launch that we requested, they responded by saying it was difficult due to policy or that it was canceled for reasons that are difficult to reveal.

Even at a temporary shareholder meeting, Webzen, which was a publisher and the second-largest shareholder, answered that it was considering suspending the 'Dragon Sword' service and full refund due to MG non-payment. And they presented additional investment conditions, and as I mentioned in writing before, this included a request for management rights at the face value level and a request for us to persuade other shareholders about this matter. That was not something we could do alone.

Since funds were exhausted due to MG non-payment and we couldn't continue the game service, we had to find other ways, so we eventually terminated the publishing contract according to the procedures set in the contract with Webzen, and sent content-certified mail and official written documents related to this several times. In relation to that, Webzen warned of full refund measures and strict response, and then proceeded with an injunction for self-publishing after paying the MG late.

Actually, I think it has become difficult to solve it through conversation now. Webzen also said through the media that they would solve it through conversation, but in the end, it came to an injunction like this. Since it is difficult to proceed with negotiations, I think there is no other fundamental means than responding and refuting legally as much as possible now.

This Steam launch is a really important situation to respond well to this matter. Not only in terms of financial situation but also in terms of employee morale or physical strength. And it is also a really important point in time to keep the game for a long time.

Q. Looking back, it seems that there were no online showcases or developer live streams that a game of a certain scale recently does, but only developer notes were uploaded, and then they started live streams from the time of the Steam launch decision.

PD Jang Yun-jin = We tried to do a live stream before and after the launch in the Webzen version, but Webzen said it was difficult to proceed at first. Still, I told them several times that it was necessary and made suggestions, but they postponed it for various reasons. Then we decided to do it after the live service, but two weeks after the live service, we received a notice that they would cancel the developer live stream without even revealing the reason.

If it is impossible for any reason, they should tell us the next alternative, but Webzen did not give an alternative after rejecting the proposal. Since overseas service was clearly mentioned, we had to make Discord and do it, but there was no clear talk about that either. I suggested that we should open a separate YouTube channel if we keep overseas launch in mind, but Webzen refused, saying it was not possible due to policy.

Thinking about it now, if the launch is not far away, the measures we are taking now should have been basically carried out. But in a situation where that was aborted and they didn't even present an alternative, I wondered if they were looking at the same goal as us. Honestly, our personnel has been reduced from about 150 to 46 including the CEO, and two people are managing Discord, Steam, and YouTube. Can Webzen, which is bigger and has more experience than us, really not do the work that we, who are in difficult conditions, are somehow doing with only motivation? I can't help but think this.

CEO Park Jung-sik = Regarding marketing, I inquired and suggested if we could proceed more actively, but in the end, it could not proceed. It was a method of proceeding mainly with classic UA such as bus wrapping a few weeks before launch. We did not proceed with marketing of the type such as streamer marketing.

Besides what we suggested, we were not shared information about the domestic promotion and marketing plans that Webzen proceeded with and plans after launch at that time, and we knew about them afterward. Since overseas launch was also something we had been discussing for a long time, we had to prepare step by step, but the talk about MG non-payment came out at the time of discussing this.

Q. Thinking about it, the launch timing was also one day apart from a large competing work.

CEO Park Jung-sik = The launch timing might not be just because of that, but there were many users who said they knew it opened only after the situation broke out. Actually, we should have actively informed the game from earlier and promoted the action, which is a strength, more, but it seems it didn't go well, so it's just regrettable.

Q. After such hardships, you finally communicated directly with users for the first time as 'Dragon Sword Awakening'; I am curious about your feelings and future communication plans.

PD Jang Yun-jin = At first, I was a bit nervous, but as I did it, I enjoyed it. I wanted to do well, but it was a bit regrettable that I couldn't. As we prepared for the global launch, many foreign users watched it, and I really regretted not being able to speak English at that time. However, I thought I should do my best in the given situation.

We didn't even have broadcasting equipment, so we bought a ₩50k chroma key in a hurry and set it up while struggling with team members, and at first, there were really many trials and errors. First, Discord had a good response, so we tried to transmit to Discord as well as YouTube and Steam at the same time, but Discord's transmission speed was slow. So we gave up after doing it at first, and in the second broadcast, there was a transmission screen lag problem. Needless to say about microphone echo or delay. No one in the company had done a broadcast, and since it was my first time, I had a lot of trouble.

After broadcasting like that, I thought streamers were really great. It was 10 times more exhausting than working normally. The energy consumption is no joke, and I respected everyone who has been doing this. Of course, we were exhausted because we were in a difficult situation, but I think it's more draining than that difficult work.

Q. Since the live story came up, what is your broadcast pledge after launch for the fans who have watched over you?

PD Jang Yun-jin = Actually, I can do a broadcast after launch, but I haven't even thought about what to do specifically. Because normal launch is the priority situation.

I can do a broadcast, and there are team members who like dancing, so I think I can do something. But on the other hand, I'm cautious about saying it because I wonder if this is an advertisement for sales promotion. I wonder if you might accept it that way if I say it at an interview seat.

However, since the question came in like this, if we sell 500k copies, I will do a broadcast while cosplaying as Johnny. Actually, the character I like is Johnny. He is a cheerful and hearty man. If you are a man, you should show it boldly once. I am usually a person who is blank without thoughts, so it will work out somehow.

Q. You are about to launch Dragon Sword: Awakening soon; please say a word to the users who have been waiting.

PD Jang Yun-jin = We have come to the last stage while suffering in various ways, and I hope that many people will enjoy it well when it is launched.

CEO Park Jung-sik = As we turned to a package game after preparing it as a live service, draw game, there are some lacking parts. However, we have been consistently pursuing and working hard on the essential fun of the game, especially action, from before until now. I hope you enjoy this part well. Thank you to everyone who has supported and cheered for us, and we will do our best to refine it until the moment of launch.