Vortex Gaming

Trickcal, which returned with Revive on September 27th, is celebrating its 3rd week of revival. Although it hasn't reached the TOP10 in sales, it achieved 1st place in Google Play's popularity ranking and reached a peak of 16th in sales ranking, and is now settling in the 20th-30th range. In the mobile game market, where advertising phrases like 'Top 10 in sales' or 'Top 5' are common, this achievement may not seem significant.

However, the story of 'Trickcal' is a bit different. It's not just because the developer, Epid Games, is a small company with about 30 employees. Wasn't 'Trickcal' ambitiously released two years ago, only to face various issues including payment problems and then declare OBT after just a few hours before undergoing Revive? It's not easy to gain positive attention after taking back a move that wouldn't even be tolerated in a friendly game of Go or chess. In this situation, Trickcal is going beyond attention and turning various commotions and incidents into memes, grabbing onto its lifeline and getting back on track.

The original Trickcal was a game that gained attention for its cute art style and the recruitment of popular artist '디얍'. However, '디얍' left Epid Games in January 2022, a little over 3 months after the decision to relaunch. Although the art team inherited his style, user interest inevitably declined. To address this concern, Epid Games regularly released art updates through developer notes and made efforts to maintain interest with creative ideas such as the '퍼리컬' April Fool's campaign in collaboration with the original author of '수상쩍게 돈이 많은 퍼리'.

Maintaining interest through desperate struggles for survival, 'Trickcal' revealed some of its renewed gameplay in the 1st CBT, one year after switching to OBT. It added autobattler elements such as race synergy and class synergy to the collectible RPG, but it overhauled the existing battle logic, which was a chaotic mess because it only applied to mulligans or the explanations didn't match what was actually applied. The skills, combat methods, and animations were also revamped. It established a foundation for incorporating Trickcal's unique characteristics, adding various artifacts and spell cards, graduation skills, and a naming sense that utilized its unique cuteness and various memes, rather than simply combining and upgrading cards to go into battle.

After that, it received feedback through a final CBT and applied it in the official release version, building a more refined gameplay experience. It's an autobattler-style gameplay where you acquire and upgrade the same character cards, but it also accepted the criticism that it was difficult to reach the final stage because there were few waves. Therefore, the 'graduation skill,' which could only be used in the final stage, can now be used from the 4th grade or higher, making the passive combat more active. In theory, if you create a good combination and get good cards, you can overcome a combat power difference of tens of thousands and break through, and after that, the basic framework of a 'bonsai game' was established, where you can comfortably farm with sweeps while waiting for Dimensional Clash and event stages.

However, in the real world that it faced again after 2 years, the game didn't flow as theoretically. It did verify the overall gameplay during the two CBTs. However, it was difficult to verify the routine of farming various resources through daily quests and homework, and how much resources would be consumed and accumulated by repeating this process. In the previous OBT, the gameplay itself was beyond clumsy and the logic was difficult to understand, so the first priority was to remove this image. Therefore, in order to test the gameplay up to the end content in a short period of time, it poured out resources like a cornucopia, and the resource shortage problem that was felt from the CBT began to hold it back at some point.

The 'Eldain' Apostle issue is mentioned in connection with this. These new characters appear in a novel that mentions the story and world before Revive, but they did not appear in the two CBTs. In addition, the gacha rate was lower than other characters at the time of the official release. As a result, the community used the term '볼그림', which is compared to other games, more often than the official name 'Eldain', and showed a not-so-good evaluation.

As the saying goes, this issue may not seem like a big problem. The structure of having another character lineup above the highest grade is a structure that has been frequently adopted in recent collectible RPGs. However, other games were different from Trickcal's case. If you look at the games that have a separate lineup of top-tier characters, the process of nurturing characters is not difficult. Therefore, if you draw a new character, you can support it to some extent and put it into practice immediately. However, as mentioned earlier, Trickcal had a structural problem of resource shortage, and it was held back.

In addition, various contents such as the equipment system prepared in the style of Princess Connect, boards, skills, research, and affinity, and various facilities to increase them, were opened from the beginning. Depending on how efficiently this equation was solved, the joy and sorrow were bound to be divided, and in such a situation, when the character 'Eldain' appeared, the opportunity cost of not being able to draw it was overwhelmingly large. In a situation where people were looking at the gacha with a filter, this problem occurred, and the BM was mainly composed of products with poor efficiency, resulting in a strange structure in which neither free-to-play users nor paying users could be happy. Fortunately, the game ran well compared to the OBT and the pre-registration, when the server crashed countless times and payment errors occurred. That sense of relief was only temporary, and the package issue broke out, and there was a brief feeling of anxiety that a rare case of a second service shutdown might occur.

Although 'Trickcal' has been well known for various memes since before its release, some of them were not memes but facts. The memes themselves were pleasant, but the reason why the inside story was revealed was not so pleasant. From a certain point on, rumors began to circulate that the representative had put up a house other than his own as collateral, and as a result, CEO Han Jeong-hyeon had to directly disclose the registry and loan details to explain. As a result, it was reported that CEO Han Jeong-hyeon had not only taken out loans from the banking sector, but also mortgaged his own house to execute development costs and continue development for the past two years, which was not a joke or an exaggeration.

As it was such a desperate situation, Epid Games moved quickly to normalize Trickcal. When it became burdensome to prepare character enhancement materials, it proposed a plan to expand the acquisition points where materials could be collected and increase the number of entries to the daily dungeon 'Clone Factory' from 3 to 5 times a day. Before the plan came out, as a temporary measure, the amount of resources supplied to the board system was reduced, and resources were returned to users who had already used the resources.

Mileage earned from gacha has been transferable from before, but in addition, a store was set up separately where you can purchase pieces of all characters, and mileage can also be exchanged for other resources that can be used in the store. In other words, it has created a means to secure desired characters, even 'Eldain', in addition to the pickup character, if you do gacha to some extent.

In addition, 300 Elseeds, which are the resources of the store 'Elseed Store', were given to everyone, and the number of beginner gacha, which is relatively inexpensive, was increased from 30 to 50 times, and it was changed to Eldain 1 type confirmed. Therefore, if you secure only 100 additional Elseeds, you can take 2 types of Eldain with you, and the Eldain '없찐' problem has been significantly alleviated by providing various resource support, Chuseok events, and events to secure Eldain for users who come in after the Chuseok holiday. In addition, the designated Apostle system, which was limited to 2 stars, was changed to be applicable to 3 stars excluding Eldain, increasing the utilization of 3-star characters hidden by Eldain.

The stage difficulty, which was another factor that caused 없찐, was also adjusted. At the beginning of the release, Trickcal was difficult to clear the stage unless it was a single-attribute concept deck or an Eldain party, but the difficulty was eased with the patch on October 5th. In particular, the specifications of specific pot-targeting monsters such as snails, which were a wall of lamentation for users who mainly raised magic dealers, were lowered, so it was felt that the damage was being dealt. In addition, by fixing various bugs and modifying skill coefficients, stage clearing became much easier.

As various devices have been prepared to make it easier to acquire Eldain, the section where you twist your body and break through the story has been shortened, and it has become easier to access the story. Along with this, Trickcal's strengths have come to life and synergy has begun to be created. 'Trickcal' is often called Diap Game or Cheek Game, but the quirky and lively story that supports the charm of the cheeks is also an indispensable work.

If you look at it broadly, it is a common isekai cliche that users who have crossed over to the other world 'Elias' become cult leaders and accept Trickcal's characters as apostles, but if you look at the details, it is far from the isekai that you usually think of. It is a mess that happens when you meet fairies who eat only sugar, bread, and sweets and are swept away by the atmosphere, Queen Erpin, who is (un)intelligent itself, and characters from various races who are missing something, one by one. It is full of primitive slapstick and humor to the point where it is difficult to convey how to convey the experience of laughing while watching it, but the story does not flow into the mountains and has a strange charm that is well-organized.

The theme theater 'Meltdown Butter', which was introduced with the October 5th update, fully exploded its potential. What if the trigger of 'Butter', who is uniquely kind and cute in Trickcal, where there are many lacking and eccentric characters, is activated? This theme theater gained a response as various memes and짤방 spread. In particular, the self-deprecating comedy that transcends Trickcal's unique fourth wall, "The second service shutdown is really dangerous," has become a hot topic as it is added to the context of receiving user criticism and feedback and trying to prevent an unprecedented situation by improving it. It was a number that could have been criticized as "Is this the time for you to say that?", but it became a secret weapon that was sublimated into laughter by drastically paying out various resources and comprehensively improving the character supply system and overall difficulty in order to somehow catch and stabilize the urgent fire.

It would have been nice if it had continued happily while laughing and talking like that, but unfortunately, Trickcal's structural problems have not been completely resolved. A lot of resources were released and the places to supply them were increased, but they were only focused on character gacha and limit breaking, and the problem of character growth and equipment farming remained the same. In addition, omissions of step-up package components occurred. The package component omission issue was settled by paying additional compensation to users who purchased the product, but the equipment farming issue was different. On the 12th, the problem became bigger as the stage difficulty was eased, the number of stages was increased, and the final stage was raised from rank 5 equipment to rank 6 equipment.

As the highest rank has been added, you have to farm more equipment, but the required amount has not decreased compared to before. Furthermore, the fact that some characters' rank 6 equipment efficiency is not very good has been revealed, and some stage equipment production materials have even been omitted.

In response, Epid Games urgently rolled back the drop table and upgraded rank 6 equipment, while PD Lee Hyun-seung directly posted an apology. In a notice on the 13th, PD Lee Hyun-seung said, "We borrowed unreasonable ideas and references that did not suit this IP because we only focused on the long-term life of the game, and we were negligent in the process of verifying them." He said that they would minimize bugs as much as possible and build an additional QA team within the company to ensure smooth service. In addition, he added that in order to reduce farming fatigue, they will prepare a separate equipment store system so that equipment can be purchased with additional resources obtained during general stage clearing. In addition, regarding users' concerns about rank and other competitive content, he explained that "We are renewing and producing it with the concept of a 'playground' that receives the same rewards regardless of ranking."

After that, after an emergency inspection on the 14th to correct the abnormal application of some skill ranges, a quiet period came to 'Trickcal'. Something happened every day, and it seemed like they were managing it well, but something happened somewhere again. Trickcal was like that, but it is quietly finishing the last of the cycle and preparing for another cycle and season.

The theme theater that broke the fourth wall in connection with a series of 'meltdown'-level incidents will end on the 19th, and the second theme theater 'Elias Odyssey' will be newly introduced. 'Elias Odyssey' is an event that tells the story of Tig, the core of the beastmen's organization '사료스탕스', accidentally obtaining a book called 'The Qualifications of the Ruler' and revealing his ambition to become the ruler of Elias. As Diana, the leader of the beastmen and a supporter who removes the source with the philosophy that "true healing is to blow up the corn of its origin," is also included as an event resource bonus apostle, it is also a major point to watch whether Diana's hidden iron fist will explode on Tig and whether Trickcal's unique gag that transcends the fourth wall will be shown this time.

With the update on the 19th, the PVP content '승자의 줘팸터' and the '차원대충돌', which is a total attack on the boss, will also be initialized as the season changes. Along with this, they are preparing to help users land safely in the newly started routine cycle by applying some of the various functions that have been pledged so far, such as reorganizing the 승자의 줘팸터 group determination method and adding a head-patting function to other apostles except Eldain.

Looking at the past 3 weeks of 'Trickcal', so many things have happened that it is impossible to cover them all in this space. Some even mentioned 'second service shutdown'. However, Trickcal succeeded in a reversal with desperation and a trick to sublimate even this into laughter. Nevertheless, the problems that continue to be revealed like icebergs are somehow being made to roll by using all means such as compensation, rollback, apology, patch, and temporary inspection.

Someone may say that Trickcal's actions are a shallow trick that relies on affection and cheeks. However, everyone has their own circumstances, and they try to save it somehow in a desperate situation. Not only the game industry, but also the recent situation is all like that. In such a situation, it is difficult to attract attention simply because of difficult and desperate circumstances. The cheeks have been a long time since the artist '디얍' who drew the original draft left, and the current mobile game market is not an easy market to live on with just one picture.

Rather, I think the results of the past two years of grinding are now slowly coming out in practice. 'Trickcal' has been steadily polishing by consistently uploading developer notes and disclosing CBT feedback for two years before its revival. The traces have disappeared now, but even in the process of going through trial and error while uploading countless notices and developer notes over the past three weeks, I felt the earnestness of that time and the determination not to go to the complacent original intention of the OBT.

At the same time, the efforts to show Trickcal-ness, such as sublimating all kinds of online memes as well as criticism into self-deprecating gags, also shined. I hope that 'Trickcal', which has become a little quieter at the end of one cycle, will adapt to the real world a little more and continue a more stable service in the second cycle it is facing this time. It is Trickcal-like that the story of Trickcal is to cry, laugh, get angry, and roll around somehow, but as a user, I sincerely want to enjoy it comfortably while pinching the cheeks that I haven't been able to pinch for 2 years.

웹진 인벤윤서호 기자
2023-10-18