Hello everyone, this is the shocking game, and I'm the shocking little brother
Star Blade, which will be released this month, has been widely discussed in the gaming community because of its sexy female characters. It has even sparked an online confrontation between Western media and game studios as well as South Korean media.
But players have made their stand with money, and Star Blade has become the game with the most pre-orders on PlayStation Store.
Kim Hyung-tae, who is the game director, has contributed to all this. In fact, as early as more than ten years ago, Kim Hyung-tae was widely known in China with the "greasy sister" of "Sword Spirit", and now he is making a comeback with the equally sexy and hot "Star Blade". So how did Kim Hyung-tae make the "astringent" style of painting bigger and stronger all the way?
Dropped out of school to draw comics and strayed into the game circle
Like those excellent painters, Kim Hyung-tae loved watching anime and started drawing since he was a child. Although he studied an advertising major in college that had little to do with drawing creation, with his years of practice, Kim Hyung-tae's drawings in college were selected for professional manga contests.
Later, because of his love for painting, Kim Hyung-tae decided to take a leave of absence and start working for a publishing house as a rookie cartoonist.
Just when Kim Hyung-tae decided to make a big splash in his favorite business, the South Korean government at the time launched a very strict censorship of comics. The cause was that there were some serious incidents of school violence in South Korea at that time, and public opinion believed that comics were the product of endangering minors. As a result, a large number of comics were banned, and many comic shops and magazines went out of business. Kim Hyung-tae, who had just entered the industry, was forced to switch to the less regulated gaming industry.
Years later, Kim Hyung-tae said in an interview: "It was precisely because the comic market was deprived of freedom that he wanted to violate some restrictions, and he began to emphasize the flesh and clothing of the characters in his paintings." It seems that the "astringent grandfather" in our game circle is also a backbone.
From outsourcing to art director
At first, Kim Hyung-tae only worked on some cover illustrations, but in fact, during this period, his painting style of "European and American body + Asian face" had been established.
Later, when he was in charge of outsourcing art for "Genesis 2: The Tempest", Kim Hyung-tae's sexy female character was well received by players, and it was only natural that he would become a regular. After that, Kim Hyung-tae officially joined the development of the well-known Korean RPG game "Genesis Battle 3". (similar to the status of the domestic fairy sword).
After the release of "Genesis Battle 3", not only did the sales increase greatly, but players praised Kim Hyung-tae's painting style, and then the developer Softmax was successfully listed, and Kim Hyung-tae also became the main beauty, and he became famous in the Korean game circle.
Subsequently, Kim Hyung-tae continued to engage in single-player game art at Softmax for more than ten years, and during this period, the well-known "greasy sister" painting style has been formed, with unique character shapes, exaggerated head ratios, sexy clothes and oily skin portrayals that countless gentleman players remember Kim Hyung-tae's name.
"Greasy Senior Sister" is a household name
In 2006, Kim Hyung-tae came to NCsoft as the art director of Sword & Soul. Here Kim Hyung-tae has no constraints and boldly puts all his ideas into the game design. Therefore, the exaggerated character body modeling, skin light and shadow performance in "Sword and Soul" are all in accordance with Kim Hyung-tae's style, including some of the naked and tight costumes, which are also strictly implemented by his standards.
This Qin Yijue was the desktop wallpaper of the little brother back then↑↑↑
The younger brother just played "Sword and Spirit" back then, and he was also deeply attracted by the female characters of various races, tall and tall, exaggerated measurements, and matched with an Asian face that conformed to our aesthetics, every point poked the XP of the younger brother.
The success of "Sword and Soul" made Kim Hyung-tae the number one art boss in the Korean game industry, and at the same time gained many fans in China, and even became the spokesperson of the Korean painting style. To this day, there are still many people sharing their copies of Kim Hyung-tae's works in Tieba.
Founded a company with a valuation of more than 10 billion
In 2014, Kim Hyung-tae founded his own company, Shift up, and started making his favorite games.
In 2016, the first mobile game "Destiny Child" was launched. The hand-painted + live2D form of expression perfectly fits Kim Hyung-tae's astringent concept, and is even more daring than previous works, and there will never be a piece of extra fabric where it can not be worn, giving players a scene to cover the aesthetics.
In 2022, Shift up launched "NIKKE: Goddess of Victory", and the same hand-drawn + live2d technology increased the portrayal of the character's buttocks this time, which made the majority of gentlemen want to stop. Although the gameplay is simple pushing, just with these sexy female characters, the cumulative revenue of "NIKKE: Goddess of Victory" as of March this year can reach about 3.79 billion yuan!
And Shift up is also preparing to go public, and its market value is expected to reach 3 trillion won! (16.3 billion yuan) Kim Hyung-tae has gradually grown from a small art outsourcing to a Korean chaebol with his unique astringent painting style, what a winner in life!
Finally, there is the "Star Blade" mentioned at the beginning, which is also Kim Hyung-tae's return to a single-player game after more than ten years. Although the gameplay of the game is a very ordinary action linear game in the eyes of the younger brother, and the sense of impact and skill design can't be said to be very good, but who doesn't like to watch something good?
So the question is: will you support Kim Hyung-tae's "Star Blade"?