I first met CEO Jeong Seong-hwan eight years ago. He introduced himself then as the head of “GameTales,” a veteran with 22 years in the industry. It’s been a while, and interviews with developers come with the territory, so my memories are a bit jumbled—but a few scenes linger in my mind like stills. One of them is the impression he left.
That was my thought on the way home after meeting Jeong eight years ago. Four years later, when I met him again—by then a developer of 26 years—it was the same. Someone with plenty he wanted to do and who kept preparing for it, yet still hadn’t met what you’d call a stroke of “great fortune.” Someone who had built up mileage across all sorts of projects, and who was still dreaming.
And now, another four years on, the Jeong Seong-hwan I met again brought back something that wasn’t a dream but reality. Maybe it isn’t exactly what he first envisioned, but it’s a game that began with that dream and grew into this moment: The Starlight. Four years have changed a lot. Jeong has gone from a man chasing a dream to a man running in the real world. We didn’t meet in a tiny office in an old building this time, but started talking in a CEO’s suite in a proper tower. This interview, though, is less about The Starlight than about the man himself.
A Title Prepared For a Decade, and the Road to Development
“Development took three years. The planning dates back ten.” I remember it faintly. Years ago, Jeong introduced a console-based RPG in development called “Project TS.” It was a true JRPG-style orthodox RPG, centered on a narrative he had built up from a novel he himself had written, with various stories crossing over. For a long while after that, news fell silent, and I figured perhaps things hadn’t gone as hoped. But that project continued, and continued—and it’s what eventually led to The Starlight.
Jeong says development began in September 2022. With the game launching in September 2025, that makes it exactly three years, to the month. But as the older artifacts suggest, the conception itself is more than a decade old. He first designed it as a classical MMORPG, then changed course to an action RPG, and then—over seven years—shifted again into the K-MMORPG we’re familiar with today. He tinkered with all kinds of standalone builds and made demos on his own, but it wasn’t easy to seize the “chance” to fully set a project in motion.
Only once the current concept for The Starlight emerged did the foundation appear to turn the game into reality. It changed a lot from the earliest plans, and Jeong had to let go of some stubborn convictions. He did think of it as a compromise—but there was something even more important. “First, you have to keep the lights on. If you accept reality and buy yourself some breathing room, you can dream again.”
Even in lean times for the company, there were staff members who stayed. Some inevitably left for other jobs because of livelihood issues, but once the project kicked off, they came back. With colleagues who had worked together for close to twenty years like family, what we needed wasn’t a vague dream but a spark to turn into new momentum. The Starlight raised its sail, and with a favorable wind called Com2uS, the project quickly found its orbit.
Along the way, Jeong reconnected with AD Jung Joon-ho and director Nam Gu-min—old colleagues. Jeong, who had once worked with Jung at the same company, was put back in touch through SHIFT UP CEO Kim Hyung-tae; he also reached out again to Nam, with whom he had worked even earlier.
Three developers who shared Korea’s gaming heyday—call them “veterans,” if you will. A game that preserves the sensibilities of that era while marrying them with today’s tech and trends. That’s how The Starlight’s direction took shape.
“Fourth Generation” — No, It’s Not Provocation
“Who are we to dole out ‘first gen, second gen’ labels? It was just something that came up in conversation. Seeing 4th-generation idols succeed with a retro sensibility under a modern mask, we said, ‘What if we went for that vibe too?’ It kind of snowballed into a catchphrase.”
The term “4th generation” first popped up in small talk as they were charting the course. It surfaced in a chat with AD Jung Joon-ho about “4th-gen idols.” A cultural code that fuses retro sensibility with cutting-edge technology and new-era figures—this became the signpost for where The Starlight should head. Call it newtro.
Jeong added, “I actually think it’s closer to the vibe of the Reply series, but it’s similar either way.” The JRPG narrative sensibility that once defined a generation, the youthful freshness of homegrown MMORPGs, and today’s technology—together, they form a symphony. Beyond Jung and Nam, the lineup includes AD Yoon Il-hwan, sound director Jung Ji-hong, and Technical Art Director (TAD) Lee Jeong-pyo—musicians, so to speak, who can hold their own anywhere and have picked up instruments to complete this concerto. When I joked that the team sounded a bit like the Avengers, Jeong laughed and shook his head.
“Some kindly call us that, but I think we’re closer to The Expendables. It feels like a last stand made by seniors who have no backs to the wall—though of course, that doesn’t mean it really is the last time.”
Their long résumés were then layered over the narrative backdrop of Golden Narcissus, a novel Jeong wrote himself. A universe woven together from genre novels he penned—Legend of the Lecher (색마전설), Silent Tale (사일런트 테일), Holy Knight (홀리 나이트), and Golden Narcissus. The name The Starlight comes from the finale of Golden Narcissus, in which magic scatters across the sky like starlight.
The development process ran on “rigorous division of labor.” With veterans who all knew their craft, “respect” sat at the center of the project. They respected one another’s domains and let each person’s hue infuse the work. AD Jung led illustration and title design; AD Yoon handled character outfits and avatar design. Director Nam focused solely on BGM, while director Jung Ji-hong handled only the sound effects.
Meanwhile, Jeong focused on conceiving the concept and content—and on binding all of it into one. Each person’s color would be fully present, yet it still had to cohere into a single game.
At this point, I had to ask: the original novel that underpins the game must be quite old—can we still find it? Jeong answered that he has “recalled every copy for now.” It’s an old novel, he laughed, so old it even has the kind of groan-worthy wordplay you’d see on Humor No. 1, and he’s slowly revising it to fit modern sensibilities.
The Starlight launches with three chapters available. Even with just those three, the game’s volume is anything but small. More chapters will follow, and beyond the five launch characters, many more will be added. AD Jung has already prepared original art for more than twenty characters. The live service will grow through major updates every six months, and they’re even eyeing transmedia possibilities based on the IP. In that sense, The Starlight’s launch isn’t the end of development but more of a “checkpoint.”
From a Middle-School Judo-club Kid to a Studio Head
If we rewind briefly to the very start of this interview, my first act in the CEO’s office was… an arm-wrestling match with Jeong. He has a habit of tossing out challenges to big or tough-looking folks he meets in the industry, and I wasn’t spared. I won’t discuss the result, but for his age, Jeong’s grip strength is impressive.
From there, we moved into his childhood. In middle school, Jeong trained with the school’s judo club—for one reason: he wanted to buy a game console. Back then, student-athletes could get their school fees refunded, and that amount was close to 150,000 won in those days. For the late ’80s, that was a lot of money. He used it to buy a Famicom, and compared to his peers, he got a head start in gaming.
But when his family fell on hard times, he had to enter the job market. He worked at a computer shop in Daegu, where he learned to assemble PCs and to program, then parlayed that experience into an award at a Daejeon Expo contest, which opened the door to the game industry. Culled from those days, Jeong still assembles all the company’s computers himself. “We’ve got more than seventy employees—think how much we save on assembly fees!” he joked, as he showed me the server room PCs he’d built with his own hands.
After building up two decades of industry experience, Jeong founded GameTales in 2013 and returned to the wild. Until The Starlight began development in 2022, GameTales released several titles, including Legion Warfare, but none really found the spotlight. The process, however, tempered him. “There were good reactions and not-so-good ones, but I was satisfied simply that many people cared enough to leave opinions. With our earlier games, we didn’t even get comments.”
Some who had walked the road with him stayed by his side; some left, promising to reunite; and a few kept that promise and returned. One longtime colleague even came back despite Jeong’s warning—“Times are tight, I can’t take care of you the way I’d like; it’ll be well below your current pay”—and accepted a pay cut to return. Asked why he’d do that, the colleague replied, “Even if it’s a little tough, I’d rather develop in peace of mind.”
To Jeong, they are colleagues and family. It’s too soon to declare certainties, but if success comes, he wants to share every bit of it with them. I saw genuine intent in his eyes. His goal is to give back enough to make all the hardship feel worth it.
Jeong thinks of The Starlight as if it might be his last. Not that he’ll never develop another game—but that he treated it like a final chance and poured in everything he had. Now that the game is out, the dream we spoke of at the outset is, to a point, realized.
And yet, as I said at the beginning, he’s a man of many dreams. When I asked about the future of GameTales, Jeong said: “If The Starlight performs, I want to make a new game. From the very beginning, with this same team we’re with now.”
