The Busan international game show "G-Star 2022," which opened on the 17th with the slogan "Life is a Game," wrapped up its four-day amazing schedule very successfully.
Despite the global economic recession, "G-Star 2022," which was held in a large exhibition hall of 2,947 booths divided into BTC and B2B halls, was a huge success with a total of 987 games and related companies from 43 countries around the world.
During G-Star 2022, SayArt met and interviewed Lee Gwang Jae, CEO of FOWGAMES, a Korean game developer that is writing a success story in the global mobile game industry.
In fact, Lee is a rising star recognized by the global mobile game industry. In May 2020, he released his own company's first game, "Kingdom", and in just 5 days, broke through the competition with the global blockbuster and made history by breaking into the top 10 in Google Play Store revenue. And he is having a busy day for the global launch of “PristonTale M”, the second game he recently created to write another myth in the global mobile industry.
The name of the game developer, he leads is "FOWGAMES". This company was founded by LEE, who has over 13 years of experience in the game industry, in 2019 by gathering key developers of "DK Online" and "Seven Knights".
In an interview with Sayart, he told many interesting stories, such aswhy his team developed the game engine, why his team chose the MMORPG genre, and more.
The following is a summary of the interview with SayArt.
Maria: Hello. This is SayArt Maria Kim. Today, I met a real special person at G-STAR 2022. He is the man who successfully led two top 10 games on Google in three years.
This is a person we seldom have a chance to meet. I was lucky enough to meet CEO Lee Gwang Jae, here today.
I would like to hear from him his business.
Hello. Briefly introduce yourself to SayArt readers.
Lee: Hello. I am Lee Gwang Jae. I am the CEO of FOWGAMES, a game developer. I founded the company in 2019 and developed the mobile MMORPG game "KINGDOM" as the company's first title. Also, I developed a mobile game “PristonTale M” and launched it in the domestic market last September.
▲ Lee Gwang Jae, CEO of FOWGAMES. Photo by Chloe Kim 2022chloe.k@gmail.com
Maria: I'd love to hear the stories about those games. I think the results of those games are amazing achievements made by independent game developers. I've heard that both games were great. I heard that both "KINGDOM" and "PRISTONTALE M", which were ranked in the top 10 of Google, used game engines developed by your company.
I wonder what kind of competitiveness was there.
Lee: A well-chosen game genre to develop was the key to our success. Actually, The reason why our company first developed an MMORPG game is that, first, this genre has the most impact on the domestic market, and secondly, we were able to do it best.
We eventually developed "KINGDOM". However, I was very worried about how to target overseas markets with our games. And I thought a lot about how making our game work well because the mobile environment was different in each country.
In particular, MMORPG games require many users to compete and cooperate with each other at the same time and space, so our team had to think a lot about optimizing the game engine.
At the time, I thought that our game couldn’t be successful overseas if we didn’t succeed in optimizing the game engine. This is because domestic users enjoy mobile games on PC, but overseas users do not. In fact, the penetration rate of PCs in overseas markets is low, so there are significantly fewer users who enjoy mobile games on PCs like in Korea.
So I decided to develop a game, optimized for mobile. This is why our team developed the game engine itself.
I think our company is able to service "KINGDOM" to 170 countries around the world because it had its own game engine. In the early days of Kingdom launch, it achieved great results by ranking second in sales in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
Maria: Wow, that's great. I think your company is the pride of Korea. I think that your company has proven its development capabilities through the Kingdom. Now you are preparing for the global launch of PRISTONTALELL.
Please explain to users the competitiveness or characteristics of this game.
Lee: The biggest feature of our game is that there is no separate loading time when the user starts the game. This means you can immediately focus on the game.
One of the characteristics of K-MMORPG games is that users feel tired of the billing system. So, when we launched our game in the domestic market, we made a bold attempt to reduce the user's billing fatigue.
In conclusion, We were right. Although users' billing was lowered, the dropout rate of users was low. I think that's a very meaningful result.
So, when servicing games in overseas markets, we made it possible for users to enjoy them without or with a small charge like in Korea. Our business model would be of great interest to users as well.
Maria: It seems to have been a very drastic choice. Listening to your story, I feel like a game maniac before you were the CEO of a game company. Is it because of your various ideas or passions related to your game business?
Lee: It might be. I think that most game developer's founders are greedy to make their own games, but don't worry too much about how their games will feel to users.
I don’t stop at the imagination in my head, and I pay directly to play games not only for the genre of the game I want to develop, but also for similar genres. This is because it is most important to understand the user's thoughts in game development.
We were able to develop "PRISTONTALE M" from the user's point of view, based on numerous experiences of playing other companies' games. This way or my business philosophy will not change in the future. Because we tried it ourselves, we were able to know the various thoughts of users. The decision to lower the bill came from this experience.
Maria : The more listening, the more impressed. To summarize your story, you played several games as a user yourself, thought about the development direction from the user's point of view, developed two games, and in the end achieved amazing results.
What do you want to say to users who have not yet experienced your game?
Lee: All of the small problems have been solved. Now, we are going to start the update. The time is probably around December. Please pay attention to our large-scale content updates.
In this update, we plan to add stability and various fun elements to the game as much as possible. In the case of the KINGDOM, although it has been a little over two years since service, it has been updated every week without a break in the meantime.
We will continue to update our game on a weekly basis. Through this, we will make sure that users feel that our game is alive. In addition, we will do our best for the stability of the game and try to supplement various fun elements. You just enjoy our game.
Maria: When is the global launch?
Lee: It will probably be around the first half of next year.
Maria: I think you can look forward to it. Everyone, I hope that you will give a lot of love to Korea's proud game developer.
Finally, please say hello.
Lee: Thank you. Our team will do our best to provide the global service of our game, the service we are currently doing in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and the service that all users can be 100% satisfied with.
Maria: thank you Thank you very much for agreeing to the interview. The protagonist of today'sinterview was Lee Gwang Jae, CEO of FOWGAMES, a proud Korean game developer.
I hope you all give strong support to LEE. thank you!
Sayart.net Maria Kim, sayart2022@gmail.com
The Busan international game show "G-Star 2022," which opened on the 17th with the slogan "Life is a Game," wrapped up its four-day amazing schedule very successfully.
Despite the global economic recession, "G-Star 2022," which was held in a large exhibition hall of 2,947 booths divided into BTC and B2B halls, was a huge success with a total of 987 games and related companies from 43 countries around the world.
During G-Star 2022, SayArt met and interviewed Lee Gwang Jae, CEO of FOWGAMES, a Korean game developer that is writing a success story in the global mobile game industry.
In fact, Lee is a rising star recognized by the global mobile game industry. In May 2020, he released his own company's first game, "Kingdom", and in just 5 days, broke through the competition with the global blockbuster and made history by breaking into the top 10 in Google Play Store revenue. And he is having a busy day for the global launch of “PristonTale M”, the second game he recently created to write another myth in the global mobile industry.
The name of the game developer, he leads is "FOWGAMES". This company was founded by LEE, who has over 13 years of experience in the game industry, in 2019 by gathering key developers of "DK Online" and "Seven Knights".
In an interview with Sayart, he told many interesting stories, such aswhy his team developed the game engine, why his team chose the MMORPG genre, and more.
The following is a summary of the interview with SayArt.
Maria: Hello. This is SayArt Maria Kim. Today, I met a real special person at G-STAR 2022. He is the man who successfully led two top 10 games on Google in three years.
This is a person we seldom have a chance to meet. I was lucky enough to meet CEO Lee Gwang Jae, here today.
I would like to hear from him his business.
Hello. Briefly introduce yourself to SayArt readers.
Lee: Hello. I am Lee Gwang Jae. I am the CEO of FOWGAMES, a game developer. I founded the company in 2019 and developed the mobile MMORPG game "KINGDOM" as the company's first title. Also, I developed a mobile game “PristonTale M” and launched it in the domestic market last September.
▲ Lee Gwang Jae, CEO of FOWGAMES. Photo by Chloe Kim 2022chloe.k@gmail.com
Maria: I'd love to hear the stories about those games. I think the results of those games are amazing achievements made by independent game developers. I've heard that both games were great. I heard that both "KINGDOM" and "PRISTONTALE M", which were ranked in the top 10 of Google, used game engines developed by your company.
I wonder what kind of competitiveness was there.
Lee: A well-chosen game genre to develop was the key to our success. Actually, The reason why our company first developed an MMORPG game is that, first, this genre has the most impact on the domestic market, and secondly, we were able to do it best.
We eventually developed "KINGDOM". However, I was very worried about how to target overseas markets with our games. And I thought a lot about how making our game work well because the mobile environment was different in each country.
In particular, MMORPG games require many users to compete and cooperate with each other at the same time and space, so our team had to think a lot about optimizing the game engine.
At the time, I thought that our game couldn’t be successful overseas if we didn’t succeed in optimizing the game engine. This is because domestic users enjoy mobile games on PC, but overseas users do not. In fact, the penetration rate of PCs in overseas markets is low, so there are significantly fewer users who enjoy mobile games on PCs like in Korea.
So I decided to develop a game, optimized for mobile. This is why our team developed the game engine itself.
I think our company is able to service "KINGDOM" to 170 countries around the world because it had its own game engine. In the early days of Kingdom launch, it achieved great results by ranking second in sales in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
Maria: Wow, that's great. I think your company is the pride of Korea. I think that your company has proven its development capabilities through the Kingdom. Now you are preparing for the global launch of PRISTONTALELL.
Please explain to users the competitiveness or characteristics of this game.
Lee: The biggest feature of our game is that there is no separate loading time when the user starts the game. This means you can immediately focus on the game.
One of the characteristics of K-MMORPG games is that users feel tired of the billing system. So, when we launched our game in the domestic market, we made a bold attempt to reduce the user's billing fatigue.
In conclusion, We were right. Although users' billing was lowered, the dropout rate of users was low. I think that's a very meaningful result.
So, when servicing games in overseas markets, we made it possible for users to enjoy them without or with a small charge like in Korea. Our business model would be of great interest to users as well.
Maria: It seems to have been a very drastic choice. Listening to your story, I feel like a game maniac before you were the CEO of a game company. Is it because of your various ideas or passions related to your game business?
Lee: It might be. I think that most game developer's founders are greedy to make their own games, but don't worry too much about how their games will feel to users.
I don’t stop at the imagination in my head, and I pay directly to play games not only for the genre of the game I want to develop, but also for similar genres. This is because it is most important to understand the user's thoughts in game development.
We were able to develop "PRISTONTALE M" from the user's point of view, based on numerous experiences of playing other companies' games. This way or my business philosophy will not change in the future. Because we tried it ourselves, we were able to know the various thoughts of users. The decision to lower the bill came from this experience.
Maria : The more listening, the more impressed. To summarize your story, you played several games as a user yourself, thought about the development direction from the user's point of view, developed two games, and in the end achieved amazing results.
What do you want to say to users who have not yet experienced your game?
Lee: All of the small problems have been solved. Now, we are going to start the update. The time is probably around December. Please pay attention to our large-scale content updates.
In this update, we plan to add stability and various fun elements to the game as much as possible. In the case of the KINGDOM, although it has been a little over two years since service, it has been updated every week without a break in the meantime.
We will continue to update our game on a weekly basis. Through this, we will make sure that users feel that our game is alive. In addition, we will do our best for the stability of the game and try to supplement various fun elements. You just enjoy our game.
Maria: When is the global launch?
Lee: It will probably be around the first half of next year.
Maria: I think you can look forward to it. Everyone, I hope that you will give a lot of love to Korea's proud game developer.
Finally, please say hello.
Lee: Thank you. Our team will do our best to provide the global service of our game, the service we are currently doing in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and the service that all users can be 100% satisfied with.
Maria: thank you Thank you very much for agreeing to the interview. The protagonist of today'sinterview was Lee Gwang Jae, CEO of FOWGAMES, a proud Korean game developer.
I hope you all give strong support to LEE. thank you!
