Feature: 'An Interview With IMC's Hak Kyu Kim'

Korean designer Hak Kyu Kim may not be the most familiar name to Western audiences, but he created one of the most popular Asian MMOs ever, Ragnarok Online, and in this latest interview, Gamasutra quizzes him about his storied history and his latest online title, Sword of the New World (aka Granado Espada) with his new company IMC Games. But how did he come up with Sword of the New World's distinctive style, which draws inspiration from 17th century Europe. Kim explains in this excerpt: “I personally really like Europe. And when I first visited London for the ECTS conference, I was deeply impressed by all the beautiful architecture and the environment and I thought to myself, “I want to bring that to life on the screen.” That’s how everything started for this game. And another thought that I had was this: 'I want to own that city.'” He later comments on what he feels makes the game stand out in the crowded MMO genre: “One key feature that distinguishes this game from all other MMOs is its MCC (Multi Character Control) system. MCC allows players to maximize their party play experience by controlling up to three characters at once. So not only are you able to party play with others, and thus with many more characters, but you can also do it alone. Another key aspect of this game is its dynamic and fast paced battle system that makes our game more enjoyable for our players. Internally, we call this the “HKPS - High Kill Per Second” feature. We focused heavily on making HKPS unique for this game.” You can now read the complete interview, which include more insight into Sword of the New World from Hak Kyu Kim, who also reflects back on his career and other projects, including popular MMO Ragnarok Online (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).