Interview With Yong-Hyun Park Of NAT Games, Developers Of Heroes Of Incredible Tales

I recently had the chance to conduct an email interview with NAT Games CEO Yong-Hyun Park to discuss his company's game Heroes of Incredible Tales, which recently saw an international release. We discussed what inspired him to move to mobile, what changes were made for the international release, and more.

Me: What inspired the move from open world PC MMORPGs like Lineage II and TERA to an instance-heavy mobile ARPG like HIT?

Park: I’ve developed two blockbuster MMORPGs for PC, Lineage 2 and TERA. Such games showcase my experience and strengths as a creator. The main development team has created some extremely high-polish content and cutting-edge graphics. Although I had an interest in mobile games for a long time, I wouldn’t have dared to jump into mobile even four to five years ago. At that time, the size and quality of mobile gaming development was too small even if you had an advantage. There were many people in small teams who could make sporty casual games better than I could. On the other hand, PC MMORPG development had grown to a massive scale. Although there were cost issues, the development time was significantly longer. A five to 10 year game was created. It was almost impossible to predict the era of games after making a game for five to 10 years.

As a result, there were two conditions that developed. The first was to be able to develop a mobile platform game that could scale, and the second was that the scope of PC MMORPG development had gotten too big.

What changes, if any, are being made to HIT’s international release?

In terms of game content, the Korean version was trimmed to a more sophisticated version for the global release. We especially focused on the balance in the early stages. Learning from the initial Korean release, we made an effort to improve on certain aspects of the game that we knew we wanted to improve.

Will the international release launch up to date or will it be a little behind the Korean release?

The global version will almost be equivalent to the latest Korean version. Since the features are first released in South Korea, there will be many tests but sometimes stability issues will occur. Of course, we will immediately try to resolve them. After these issues are resolved, modifications are made for the global market and then released about a month later. The global version is more robust and optimized for reliability compared to Korea’s version.

Where will the servers for the international release be located?

The Asian servers are located in Singapore, American servers in Virginia, and European servers in Frankfurt.

What will HIT’s cash shop be like?

This part is not very different from other games. It consists of jewels or weapons, armor, adventure points, and fun ‘HIT” products. You do not necessarily have to purchase the products from the store but if you do purchase them, I think it’ll make the game more enjoyable. Honestly it would also help us too (laughs).

Is gear equalized in the PvP arena?

In PVP, users will use leveled-up equipment that they acquire. Acquisition and growth of the equipment is one of the main aspects of “HIT.” Users will put in a lot of effort and time for this content. We think we should respect the efforts of these users. In addition, during PvP (when possible), players are matched according to their stats and similar abilities.

Are there plans to push HIT’s PvP arena mode as an eSport?

HIT’s synchronous PvP mode is excellent content for eSports. In Korea, we held a successful guild tournament in cooperation with smartphone maker Samsung that got an enthusiastic response.

I’ve seen videos of an Archer character. When might we see the Archer in the international release?

Since the production for the character has been completed, it is possible to release it at anytime. However, we’re trying determine when is the best time to release the character by monitoring players’ progress based on their progression with the other four first released characters.

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Heroes of Incredible Tales can be downloaded via the App Store and Google Play now.