[BIC23] The Player Who Can’t Level Up Is Getting A Souls-Lite Game, According To Tripearl’s Manson Jeong

Tripearl Games CEO Manson Jeong says the studio has secured the rights to develop a game based on the “The Player Who Can’t Level Up” webtoon IP, styled after their own in-house VEDA IP.

Art for the game is available at Busan Indie Connect Festival 2023, with plans to release the game on Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, iOS, Xbox Series X|S and PS5.

The Player Who Can’t Level Up game is still very early in development, though according to Manson the title is targeting a 2025 release with PC as the main platform.

You can read more about the game’s development in our exclusive interview below:

So, tell us more about how you guys got to develop the game for such an amazing IP.

Manson: Actually there was a whole list of webtoons that are available that were shared with us and those webtoons were negotiable, with Kakao Entertainment. Of the list, because we’re the action console game-based company, we chose that IP, The Player That Cannot Level Up. This IP is the best fit and the best match. Yes. And after choosing the [The player that cannot level up], we gave some documents for our additional planning, for future planning as well. And we were selected and that’s the story.

One of the Lucky points was that, in the first initial plan, we suggested that this IP will be based on our VEDA, which is a souls-lite action console game and Kakao Entertainment was very positive of our games at the time as well. So they so they were very interested to work with us

Are you a big fan of The Player Who Can’t Level Up?

Manson: I read the webtoons and also really enjoyed it and moreover, because as you know, The Player Who Can’t Level Up, the IP itself is globally well known.

So in America and Japan as well, it’s  very popular and there’s over 100 episodes of this IP, which stands out that lots of people are fans of it and and we’re not just utilizing the IP itself. We’re doing constant conversations with Kakao Entertainment, the original writer of the IP and also the the IP owner. We’re having constant conversations with these three people.

Speaking about the IP, were you concerned a name like “The Player Who Can’t Level Up” might limit you, gameplay-wise?

Manson: I don’t believe that the title itself will be a limitation to the protagonists to the players because of course because this game is based on VEDA and it does not focusing on a growth System like an RPG system. It’s supposed to be based on a rogue-lite system the so the player itself cannot level up through Egos or items.

They can upgrade their equipment and moreover because as a player, they become more used to the game and becomes a higher level, like statistically at a higher level then they can do all sorts of concept plays. It’s like no item no Ego plays only one that complain and on. So I believe that the title itself is not a limitation it’s actually an advantage for us.

How does Ego play in the game itself? Because in the webtoon  there are specific Egos and like you talk to the players like does this happen in game as well?`.

Manson: So a big aspect there are two ways that we’re planning to implement the EGOs as you know in the IP in the web two there’s Elle and Lou, those two are the main Egos and and as you if you read the webtoon they give lots of jokes and humor to the reader so we will try to implement those aspects into the game.

Secondly, we’re going to add we’re going to have more types of Egos and more Sub-Egos as well so that through the Egos the players who could you also use the Egos in various ways to enjoy the game more. And because we’re also  planning to add some Egos that are not in the webtoon as well. So we’re trying to use this as a fun factor.

The webtoon actually has a 2D look, right so obviously the game is being made in Unreal Engine which is 3D. So how do you like bring 2D characters to life in The Unreal Engine and makes it look authentic?

Manson: So the combat system itself is going to be based on VEDA, so there’s a prototype of that. But for the art and graphics, there’s nothing fixed yet because it’s in an R&D on stage right now.

So one of the main biggest examples that we can give you is toon shading work in lots of subculture games.: As you can see, lots of characters and the backgrounds have a cartoonistic kind of feel. So we’re not really sure how the amount of toon shading that we should put into the characters.

There are some games that although the characters are very cartoonistic, the background, the environment is more realistic because there are these types of other games that we can, that we can use. So the toon shading, the, the art, the graphics. That’s why it is in the R&D stage. After the R&D.We’re going to have a fixed workflow for the art.

I assume that means we won’t have a clear date on when the game is coming out?

Manson: So there isn’t a fixed date, but for the overall schedule, we’re going to start the developing. The Player Who Can’t Level Up in early 2024. And we’re planning to release of the official release of the game the second half of 2025.

Okay, so the the reason why we’re planning to start developing this game next year is because we’re more focused on our current development game called VEDA, but this is not a drawback because The player who can’ level Up of the overall combat system based on the VEDA combat system and apparently because of contract issues we’re focusing on VEDA at the moment but there will be a link with The Player Who Can’t Level Up.

What platforms are you guys going to be prioritizing for development?

Manson: Although you’d  want it to be a console first, most development process is a PC first so we’re going to develop The Player Who Can’t Level Up for the PC platform.

We also hope to develop this game on the console platform as well if, if the development of the game or conversations with the publishers or the other companies related to this IP goes well,  we hope to release on PC and console at the same time.

Anything else you’d like to share with the readers before we go?

Manson: Because Tripearl games is four members, their average work experience is over 20 years and most of their job backgrounds every day to an action RPG.

So a lot of people are very interested in not only in our team, but also in our current developing VEDA also the Player Who Can’t Level Up. As you know, this IP is globally very famous .

And because we’re getting a lot of attention and we’re because of VEDA and The Player Can’t Level Up we’re in the spotlight among the indie games and also the gaming industry when we really hope to to be successful through this IP  to make sure that the fans, and the development side are all satisfied.

Our thanks to Manson Jeong as well as John Joo, Business Manager at Tripearl Games for talking to us all about the upcoming The Player Who Can’t Level Up game, as well as providing work-in-progress visuals for the game.

Tripearl is one of many indie game developers exhibiting at Busan Indie Connect Festival 2023, which runs until 27th August 2023.