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Epic quest: The making of Zenonia

When iPhone went role-playing

Epic quest: The making of Zenonia
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| Zenonia

Conventional wisdom is that mobile gaming is all about bite-sized chunks of casual entertainment. It's the whole 'waiting in a queue, killing time' philosophy.

This was also the case during the first six months of the App Store, but increasingly there's been an upsurge in demand for more hardcore fare that requires hours of dedicated playing.

One of the first titles to successfully meet this need was Korean publisher Gamevil's role-playing game Zenonia.

Originally released as a mobile game in Korea in 2008, it was released for iPhone in May 2009.

We caught up with Yong Hee Jung, head of Gamevil's game development department, who was also Zenonia's project manager, to find out more about the game and its transition to iPhone.

Pocket Gamer: What was the inspiration for the mobile version of Zenonia?

Yong Hee Jung: We wanted to create a mobile action role-playing game that could simulate the reality of the real world.

Most of the mobile games when we were creating Zenonia did not have real world elements such as day/night, hunger, and weight. Also players could not hear the sounds that their character makes when walking on snow and shallow water, or see heat waves in the hot desert. The goal was to enable players to experience these elements on the mobile platform.

What was the process for making the game and how long did it take?

Before we start making a game, we first carry out market and consumer research. Then we start on the game design and work on the actual development. The total time taken for Zenonia was about 18 months.

At what price was Zenonia released in Korea?

The game was released at 3,000 Won ($3), and users could purchase additional virtual items within the game.

The items were used to increase the strength of the characters, and were optional. For example, there were items which would let you light up dark dungeons, and items that would enable you to move faster when carrying a heavy sword.

We removed these micro-transaction features from the iPhone and iPod touch versions, replacing them with the use of the in-game currency.

What was the reaction to the game?

It was a big hit. People loved the feel of attacking the enemies, the detailed graphics, and realistic features. Importantly, the game also had a casual approach that everyone could easily engage with.

Why did you think such a role-playing game would also work well on iPhone?

The iPhone market is similar to the Korean mobile market in the sense that it's driven by user's feedback and word of mouth. RPGs tend to resonate faster within gaming communities since the hardcore gamers have stronger opinions. Also, every gaming platforms has successful RPGs, which the iPhone, at that point, was lacking.

We thought there was a market opportunity thanks to the iPhone's wide screen and hardware features so we gave it a shot.

What was the hardest thing to convert between the phone and iPhone version?

The controls. We benchmarked a lot of different controls from other iPhone games and figured out the virtual D-pads were different for all of them.

For this reason, the element of Zenonia we tested the most was the D-pad control. We wanted to make sure it had the right amount of sensitivity, was the right size, and was in the right position to meet the majority's needs.

Were there any other features you changed for the iPhone version?

The localisation of the game wasn't exactly the same, as we changed some of the game's humour. We also adjusted the difficulty level to make it a little easier so more people could enjoy the game

Were there any features that didn't make it into the game?

There were a lot of ideas and features that we had in mind originally. Some of these have been used in Zenonia 2.

For example, we removed network play from the first version, so that we could focus on providing a complete single player experience. Network features will be added in the sequel.

What were the biggest obstacles you had to overcome?

The first devices we developed for were Korean mobile phones. The biggest obstacle was the limited handset resources (or poor handset performance). We had to create the best experience within the given resources, and had to carry out enormous amounts of compression using our internal tools to enable all the animations, effects, and scripts efficiently.

What features of the game did you focus most attention on?

We spent the most amount of time on trying to provide the best experience for the player's thumb when they were attacking the enemies. This was done by balancing the right amount of vibration, with sound and visual effects.

The other focus were the reality systems previously mentioned, such as the day/night, hunger, and weight systems. This wasn't only a case of having a day and night cycle but using this in the game's design; for example introducing characters who only appeared at night.

Why do you think Zenonia has been so successful on the App Store?

We think it's because there wasn't anything similar available prior to its launch. Also, it provides a large amount of gameplay and replay.

Were there any surprises in terms of feedback received from players?

What was interesting was the feedback from the App Store was almost exactly the same as what we'd heard from our original Korean players. I guess we all feel the same no matter where we live.

One thing that did surprise us though was the number of people who wanted to play Zenonia on other gaming devices.

What parts of Zenonia are you most happy with?

We've been developing role-playing games for the past eight years now and we're happy this is the best RPG franchise we've created to-date. Luckily, we've got the name out early enough to establish loyal fans, so that we can continuously work on sequels.

How will Zenonia 2 improve on the original game?

There will be four different classes including a new ranged attack class. Each class will have a different feel when attacking, and also have different scenarios, whereas in the first game, everything was the same.

We've added more reality to the game too, and we've added player versus player network play, which was on the top of the users' wish list for Zenonia 2.

Thanks to Yong Hee Jung for his time.

Zenonia is available from the App Store [link], priced $2.99, €2.39 or £1.79.

Zenonia 2 was released in Korea in October 2009. The iPhone version is expected to released in early 2010.

And check out our other Making of interviews such as
Doodle Jump
Fieldrunners
Glyder
Pocket God
Real Racing
Rolando
Space Invaders Infinity Gene
Toy Bot Diaries
Zen Bound

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.