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[BGC] Representative of Next Stage, Kang Hyun-woo, "Next Stage Wants to Be Remembered as a Company That Makes Action Games Well"

  • Saturday, December 31, 2016, 11:15 pm
  • ACROFAN=Hyung-Keun Kim
  • hyungkeun.kim@acrofan.com
From November 17 to 20, an International Game Exhibition 'G-STAR' was successfully held in BEXCO, Busan Metropolitan City, with much attention from game industry officials around the world. Held in every November, 'G-STAR' has been a festival place for many people related to games by arranging a year, expressing gratitude to fans, and introducing new games and technologies that will be presented later.

The host city of 'G-STAR,' Busan is trying to show the appearance reflecting its name 'the city of game' on the basis of know-hows accumulated by hosting 'G-STAR' for many years after 2009. At the center of its movement, a lot of game businesses that are trying to realize dream at Busan are also joining.

Busan is continuing many activities with Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency for supporting the game businesses showing those active movements, and 'Busan Global Game Center (BGC),' opened in September 2015, became a facility for game industries in Busan. BGC is established for fostering game industry specialized to Busan and Gyeongnam area and supporting its inroads into global markets. With BGC as a launch pad, Busan City and Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency are creating new ecosystem for specialization, development and independence of region game industry through integrating game companies, attracting offshore companies, fostering startups, and training developers.

Hence, Acrofan met game industries entered in 'Busan Global Game Center (BGC)' and listened to stories of what dreams they are trying to realize in Busan.

 
▲ Acrofan heard the story about the games and goals from Kang Hyun-woo, a representative of Next Stage.

Next Stage is a game company established in the first half of 2015 and aims to develop a unique mobile game. Kang Hyun-woo, a representative of Next Stage, introduced the start of the company that he confirmed the commercial potential through the outsourcing of KakaoTalk game and winning the global game contest and decided to start the business in earnest.

"We've been thinking a lot about making games that are different from the existing games, and as a result, we launched a game called 'The Dice Is Cast' in May 2016. Now, we are developing a game called 'Ark,' a sequel. The direction that we pursue is a control-oriented action game that users can experience rather than automatic battle."

According to Kang Hyun-woo, 'The Dice Is Cast' is a game combining action genre and puzzle genre, and its feature is that users can enjoy board game that rolls a dice to move and combo action that requires control. Currently under development, 'Ark' is based on hunting action, and users can enjoy the fun of participating in hunting with their colleagues on mobile.

Next Stage is developing a game that provides fun not only through automatic hunting but also through manual hunting through enhanced action. Through 'a system that counterplots the sweep system,' in which users will get more rewards if they go into a dungeon and use acting power at one time, the game's biggest advantage is a system that users can receive satisfactory rewards even if they play once.

 
▲ Next Stage aims at control-oriented games.

For the future direction, he revealed that he would do his best to realize the goal of 'making a game similar to video game' after establishing the base of hunting action with 'Ark'. His idea is that he would like to develop a stylish action game and enter the video game market in the long run.

"We have been doing a lot of research since the beginning to realize a game similar to video games into a mobile game, and the games we have released are the outcomes of that research. In addition, I believe that the know-how we have accumulated would play a significant role in the way to our ultimate goal, the video game market."

However, Kang Hyun-woo selected the direction to develop gradually from the small things rather than showing great things from the beginning, and the team members are composed of development teams specialized in action games. So, he thinks it will be able to achieve the goal if the company continues development continuously.

He said that he received much help from 'BGC' in the development of Next Stage, and suggested to beginner developers who develop games in Busan that there will be no better environment than 'BGC'.

"Since we did not know the method although we were motivated, it would not have been easy to start a business, if we did not know ‘BGC’. In fact, starting with help for the office, we have gotten new information so far, and we could obtain more advanced development know-how through network with other developers.”

Finally, Kang Hyun-woo expressed his gratitude to users because he was able to support the development of Next Stage with the support from users. He said, "Next Stage wants to be remembered by users as a company that makes action games very well, and a company that works on various platforms, from mobile to video games. We’ll appreciate your future support.”

Meanwhile, under the support from Ministry of Culture and Busan City, Busan Global Game Center (BGC) fosters game industry specialized to Busan and Gyeongnam area and supports its inroads into global markets. At BGC in Busan Cultural Contents Complex (BCC), under the close cooperation, Busan City and Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency are creating new industry ecosystem for specialization, development and independence of region game industry through integrating game companies, attracting offshore companies, fostering startups, and training developers. For more information, refer to Naver Blog (blog.naver.com/busangamecenter) and Facebook (facebook.com/busanglobalgamecenter).

 
▲ He revealed his plan to develop stylish action games and enter the video game market.