Pearl Abyss, based in South Korea, aspires to create games for people all around the world. It isn’t straightforward.

“DokeV” was introduced by South Korean developer Pearl Abyss during last year’s Gamescom video game trade show. The trailer for the game showed realistically rendered cartoon youngsters sprinting, flying, gliding, and sliding around a bustling cityscape, combating bizarre creatures with confetti, water guns, and magic as groovy K-pop played in the background.

The audience’s reaction in the West was largely enthusiastic. “DokeV” appeared to be a legitimate next-generation game, based on the popular Pokémon model but with the tactile input and physicality of a current game.

However, Kim admitted that writing stories for a diverse audience with differing interests and cultural gaps has been difficult. The studio’s debut game, the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Black Desert Online,” exemplifies this problem; the gameplay sparkles, but the plot falls short when compared to similar games.

“We want to tell a captivating tale for everyone throughout the world,” Kim added, “but we’ve discovered that various cultures appreciate different stories.” “Not only is the tale varied from culture to culture, but even small things like gestures or noises individuals use to communicate specific emotions are different.”

“I used to think there were too many people I needed to persuade to accomplish what I wanted to do while I was working as a developer for other games at my prior company,” Kim said in a video interview from South Korea. Kim has previously worked with Hangame and NHN Entertainment, both of which specialised in online portal and mobile games. He recalls getting dissatisfied when attempting to persuade stakeholders to fund more ambitious initiatives.

“I wanted to build a firm that respects game developers, understands the genuine worth of their work, and compensates them appropriately,” Kim explained. “I wanted to build the firm for that purpose.”