Minor Digression: Transplantation of Korean Wave into Gaming

Here's something that my sister and I stumbled upon when we were surfing the Net for some stuff yesterday and the game characters are so adorable, I can't resist mentioning a little bit of it here :p...

With the surge of the Korean Wave across Asia, especially the hype surrounding the drama Dae Jang Geum (with the English working title, Jewel in the Palace) produced by TV network MBC, SOCO SOFT launched a java mobile game based upon the historical epic drama of the same name exclusively in China which the company had imported via Korea's Mdocks where the game was developed by Lionlogics and licensed by MBC, i.e. a remediation of popular narrative from other forms of media that we've learnt about in the other module :) The RPG game would be divided into 3 modes and released gradually, corresponding to the development of the storyline in the drama in which players would take the role of the leading protagonist Jang Geum. For the first Palace Kitchen mode, players would play Jang Geum bearing an ambition to become the Highest Court Lady from the lowest rank of a palace girl, followed by Sense of Taste mode in which players would compete against other non-player characters (NPCs) to fight for the position of the Highest Court Lady. Finally in the last Royal Physician mode, they take on the role of the female physician Jang Geum whereby she would save the lives of sick commoners and redress the grievence of her parents, her mentor Court Lady Han and herself.

Here's a peek into some of the character designs in the game taken from a fan's blog:

The design of the protanganist Jang Geum changes as she evolves from being a palace girl to a High Court Lady.

The expressions of the character also changes according to her feelings in the game.

These are other characters found in the game. From left to right, Emperor Jung Jong, Kang Duk Gu, Court Lady Choi, Court Lady Jung, Court Lady Han, Empress Dowager and Min Jung Ho.

From the details provided by SOCO SOFT, the company has already lanched the first mode of the game together with the surging popularity of a simultaneous broadcast of the drama on television in China, it had hoped that such would propel more downloads and a good marketing strategy it is too :) for the game (translated into Da Chang Jin in Chinese) became the top mobile game in China during the Chinese New Year period earlier on this year. In addition, the company's website also indicated the game is designed to target "rookie" players, taking into consideration that fans of the show could download and play the game at ease. The game time of the first mode is set to take course over a period of 6 years during which the player/Jang Geum could train in practicing court etiquette, cooking, etc and participate in the cooking competion held by the Royal Kitchen every year and depending on how one plays the game together with the level of intimacy between Jang Geum and the other NPCs, such would lead to different endings in the game, i.e. procedural content :) thereby giving players an opportunity to decide the fate of their own Jang Geum in the game.

Here are some screenshots of the game taken from the above website: