Koh Young Technology General Producer (left) and Head of Team Park Yong-hyuk listen to questions at the Valhalla Survival Global Official Launch Press Conference held on Nov. 14 at the Pangyo Techno Valley Tower in Gyeonggi-do. /Courtesy of Yoon Ye-won.

Park Yong-hyuk, Head of Team at Lionheart, expressed this ambition during the press conference commemorating the global launch of 'Valhalla Survival' held on the afternoon of the 14th at Pangyo Tech One Tower in Gyeonggi Province. During the interview, Park and Koh Young, the executive producer, revealed their expectations for the new title. At the same time, they displayed a cautious stance as this is Lionheart's first project for which it is simultaneously handling distribution and production.

'Valhalla Survival,' which will be released in 220 countries worldwide in 13 languages on the 21st, is a dark fantasy concept hack-and-slash rogue-like mobile game. Hack-and-slash refers to games where the emphasis is on fighting enemies rather than story elements. It is developed based on Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), allowing players to enjoy high-quality graphics. Notably, the game features a vertical interface format, making it possible to play with one hand, which is its biggest characteristic.

Enemies swarm during the Valhalla Survival gameplay. /Courtesy of Lionheart.

'Valhalla Survival' is set in the most famous 'Ragnarok' of Norse mythology. Ragnarok signifies the day of the world's end in mythology, where wars break out and major figures in the myths meet their demise. The story of 'Valhalla Survival' begins when fissures emerge due to Ragnarok, leading to an influx of void entities. The game unfolds as Loki kidnaps the Queen of Midgard, prompting the heroes of Valhalla to answer Odin's call and embark on a perilous journey to rescue her.

Koh noted, "We focused on design quality rather than the same genre of rogue-likes during development." He explained, "Since we needed to raise the quality as much as possible, optimization issues were a stumbling block. Implementing the simultaneous appearance of more than 300 enemies was an issue from the start." However, there were also indications that users in countries with a high proportion of low-spec device users might find it difficult to enter due to optimization problems. Koh addressed this by stating, "The minimum specifications are unfortunately high. It can be played by adjusting the options." He added, "We are preparing to expand after the launch."

Regarding the decision to start services on mobile rather than PC or console, he cited "high accessibility." Koh stated, "There are many games of a similar genre on PC," adding that he wanted to create a game that users could easily access on mobile, one they could play while lying down and where time could pass quickly. However, he mentioned that the internal testing had shown positive reactions for PC or widescreen versions, and they would proceed with additional development if there were requests.

Graphics of Lionheart's new release Valhalla Survival. /Courtesy of Lionheart.

'Valhalla Survival' is the first project for which Lionheart took on both production and publishing. The previous title, 'Odin: Valhalla Rising,' was developed by Lionheart but published by its parent company, Kakao Games. On this day, Park stated, "There is an internal need to challenge the global market with various genres. Not only with massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), but we also wanted to challenge the global market with a lighter genre. 'Valhalla Survival' is our own intellectual property (IP), and since all the other projects we are preparing are also our own IP, we plan to expand this to the world."

However, Lionheart refrained from commenting on the exact revenue target. Park stated, "As this is our first publishing, there may be various trial and error, but we will continue to update quickly according to what users want."