The Regressed Game Director Is Too Competent

The planning for the next project had barely wrapped up when the biggest event of the second half of the year, the one-year anniversary of *Girls’ Memorial*’s release, was just two months away.

Thanks to that, the development team was busy working on tasks related to the anniversary.

The art team was handling illustrations for the anniversary event and managing congratulatory messages.

The development team was developing the anniversary event and mini-games.

The planning team was working on the anniversary event story.

However, the game-related broadcast event, which was the responsibility of publisher SFLAG, wasn’t something we were paying much attention to—until a request for assistance with the anniversary commemorative video arrived.

Because of that, I was currently being glared at by everyone gathered in the conference room.

“Why are you telling us about this now?”

“Do we really need to perform the filming?”

And even, “Thankfully, we’re not dealing with the director…”

“Everyone is understandably surprised by this sudden request… but since it’s a request for cooperation, we have to go along with it, right?”

At that, Yerin raised her hand and asked,

“I’ve checked the official notice sent by my senior, but exactly when does filming start?”

“The day after tomorrow. The filming schedule is set for then.”

After nodding at the answer, a hand shyly rose up behind Yerin.

The person who raised their hand was of course Seol-i.

“Uh… Do we absolutely have to be filmed without masks on? Could we use something like a mask…?”

“That’s… let me check.”

“Thank you…”

To fulfill Seol-i’s request, I stepped outside the conference room to inquire by phone with Tanaka, and I was able to receive a response saying there would be no issue.

“Since it’s fine, feel free to prepare any mask you’d like to use. Just remember not to choose something with a design that’s too strange, okay?”

“Understood… thank you!”

“Alright, is there anyone else with questions?”

“Um… Director?”

Yumi, who sat at the front, slightly raised her hand and asked,

“Is there a possibility that I’ll be excluded from this filming? My name wasn’t on the list of participants…”

“Oh, right. Yumi won’t have a personal interview but will be included in the filming for the business team.”

“Business team filming?”

“Yes. Since the planning department decided to film the business team as well, you’ve been asked to help out.”

“I understand.”

“Alright, is there anyone else with questions? No one?”

After saying that and looking around the conference room, no one else raised their hand.

“In that case, we’ll announce the details for the filming day separately, so let’s wrap up for today!”

*

Lee Seung-jin, the team leader of EnsonGT’s PC Game Development Team 3.

With over 10 years of tenure at EnsonGT, he recently found less joy in coming to the office.

The reason, obviously, was the mobile game development team.

Not only were they already obnoxious with the president’s support,

but recently, their revenue boom made it increasingly unpleasant to see their director strutting around confidently.

It frustrated him endlessly to see that young guy looking so smug.

Of course, he wasn’t unaware that the PC game development team bore most of the responsibility for the current situation.

After all, they weren’t bringing in the sales.

“I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong managing games that are worse than theirs…”

His games featured excellent graphics,

superior optimization,

and well-received content that avoided criticisms of being boring.

Honest truth, it was beyond him why games with no decent content and just odd illustrations could generate such revenue.

Why do players throw such astronomical amounts of money into just pulling illustrations?

“Am I the one who’s outdated, or is the world going crazy?”

With that sigh in his heart, he still came to the office as usual.

No matter how much he complained, he couldn’t just quit.

As he passed through the security gate and reached the fifth floor where the team office was, he noticed an unusually noisy corridor.

He approached his office, wondering what was going on.

As he walked, he encountered the leader of Team 2, who was watching the marketing team’s hubbub.

“What’s going on here this morning?”

“You’ve just arrived? They’re filming or something.”

“Filming? Who would come to our company to shoot?”

“No, check this out.”

Seung-jin looked where the team leader was pointing.

He saw Enson Korea’s logo on the camera.

“Wasn’t that the main office’s staff? So why are they filming the business team like that? Are they shooting some sort of special?”

“From what I heard, this is due to a request from the mobile game development team.”

“Them? Why?”

“I don’t know either, but I think it’s because their game is hitting its first anniversary, so they’re shooting for that.”

Hearing this from the team leader, Seung-jin smirked and replied,

“What anniversary? We’ve been managing our games for 4-5 years without getting anything in return.”

“It’s not about new arrivals outperforming established ones. What’s going on here is just strange.”

“Apparently, the first mobile game they made succeeded in entering the Japanese market and has ranked #1 in both app stores for a year straight.”

After speaking, Lee Seung-jin laughed awkwardly, feeling somewhat absurd.

He felt it even more clearly this time on his way to work—it was evident the world was changing.

*

Precisely at 9:00 on the agreed day, Hye-ri—an employee from the Enson Korea studio—arrived at the office.

“Hello, I’m Han Hye-ri, a manager at Enson Korea’s studio.”

“Greetings. I’m Jihojin, the general director of EnsonGT’s mobile game development team.”

“I’ve heard a rough outline of today’s shooting schedule, but how do you plan to arrange the filming paths?”

To Hye-ri’s question, I handed her a rough map of the team office.

“I think starting with me, then moving to the recording studio, the art team, the planning team, and finally the development room should work.”

“Alright. Then let’s start the filming immediately.”

With that, Hye-ri, holding the filming equipment she’d placed on the ground, entered the conference room with me.

Inside the conference room where Hye-ri and I went, there were many *Girls’ Memorial* goods that I hadn’t seen before.

I learned that the team members had gathered the goods from the office to decorate the room for filming there.

Apparently, they would remove everything after the studio recording session and return them to the office.

But I figured they knew what they were doing.

While I was lost in these thoughts, Hye-ri called me, signaling that preparations were complete.

“Everything’s ready for filming. How do you want to start?”

“Let’s start then.”

Hye-ri then guided me to the filming position.

Once seated, they began setting up the camera angles and soon started counting down.

“Alright, let’s begin the filming! Three, two, one!”

The red light on the front camera lit up, signaling the recording had started.

As soon as I saw it, I bowed slightly and began speaking.

“Hello, dear managers of *Girls’ Memorial*. My name is Jihojin, the general director of *Girls’ Memorial*.”

…

“We intend to bring you even more thrilling stories and cute, lovely students. Please continue to support *Girls’ Memorial*, and we thank you.”

I bowed one more time as the recording ended.

To ensure it went well, I asked Hye-ri if the recording was good, and she nodded, giving a thumbs-up in reply.

“Phew, I was a little nervous, but it went well.”

After the filming ended, we moved to the recording studio next, since we had a tight schedule and little time to rest.

Just to be safe, I sent Chae-young a text message before we left, but it seemed like she didn’t check her phone.

If she’d seen the message, she probably wouldn’t have been drinking a can of beer with her legs crossed, working away, right before we entered the recording studio.

“What? Is filming already starting?”

“Didn’t you see the text from our senior?”

“Usually, I turn off my smartphone while working in the recording studio… Could you and the filming person wait outside for a moment?”

Although our schedule was tight, we stepped out of the recording studio as per Chae-young’s request.

After all, filming with beer cans on the table wouldn’t work.

A short moment later, the recording studio door opened.

“Come in.”

When we entered with Hye-ri, the recording studio that had been cluttered was now neatly organized.

Chae-young glared at us with an expression that suggested she had a lot to say as she entered first, but quickly composed herself and addressed Hye-ri.

“Are we starting the filming now?”

“Yes! As soon as the filming setup is complete, we’ll start.”

Hye-ri immediately began setting up for the filming.

“I’ll step out since the space is a little cramped. See you shortly.”

As I turned to leave, I caught Chae-young’s lips moving slightly.

“See you after filming.”

…My future self will handle it, I guess.

*

After the tumultuous filming with Chae-young, Yerin’s filming went smoothly.

“Thanks to the cooperation of the directors, it ended relatively quickly.”

“Indeed.”

“Since we have two more filming sessions left, let’s head over to the planning team next?”

“Alright.”

Upon standing and heading to the planning team, we were greeted by Seol-i wearing a white rabbit mask.

“Hello…?”

“…”

“Um…?”

“Uh… You certainly have character.”

“Thank you…?”

“…”

“Seol-i, are you planning to wear that for the filming?”

At that question, Seol-i hesitatingly looked back and forth between me and Hye-ri before speaking carefully.

“Uh… Is it okay? The director said we could wear anything we wanted…”

“No, it’s not that it’s not okay…”

“In that case, I’ll do it like this! It feels less nerve-wracking when wearing this…”

“Alright…”

Our conversation seemed to bring Hye-ri back to reality, and she lifted the camera.

“Shall we proceed with filming like this?”

“Ah, yes! Thank you for your cooperation…”

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