PUBG: Battlegrounds (PUBG) is celebrating its seventh anniversary, and the PUBG STUDIOS team has been working tirelessly to show our appreciation to fans. Today, March 13, we released a new world update featuring interactive elements, a rarity for PUBG. Are you curious about the details of the update, the preparation process, and some behind-the-scenes stories? Check out this interview with our unsung heroes, Gayoung Kim, Yonjoo Kim, and Terry Park.
Nice to meet you. Please say hello to the readers of the KRAFTON Blog.
Gayoung Kim: Hi, I’m Gayoung Kim from the In-Game Unit PM Team. I was the development PM for this 7th anniversary update.
Yonjoo Kim: Hi, I’m Yonjoo Kim, an environment artist on the World Live Team of the In-Game Unit Division. My role involves brainstorming design concepts and building the game world, creating and implementing various elements based on these ideas.
Terry Park: Hi, I’m Terry Park, and I was responsible for publishing the PUBG 7th anniversary update.
Can you share your roles in the recent 7th anniversary update?
Yonjoo Kim: To commemorate PUBG’s 7th anniversary, I focused on generating ideas for various entertaining world elements for players to enjoy. I also participated in the production of these elements.
Terry Park: My role involved PM duties for successful publishing, which included preparing incentives to encourage more user participation in this event and ensuring that everything was ready by the deadline. This also involved integrating world elements with the event.
Gayoung Kim: As the development PM, I managed the overall timeline, development planning, and concept ideation for our 7th anniversary update from inception to completion.
What are the major changes in this 7th anniversary update?
Terry Park: We’ve introduced some completely new specs in this update. First of all, players can now throw 7th anniversary cupcakes into a gigantic cake box on the starting island. The box cracks and opens once the hit count exceeds a certain threshold.
Gayoung Kim: When you board the transport plane, you can enjoy the 7th anniversary fireworks at the front. Also, exclusively to Erangel, the school and the café have been transformed into party halls! Inside the school, you’ll find a massive cake, while the café has mirror balls and vending machines dispensing 7th anniversary energy drinks for a month. Finding special banners for users located on the starting island and the school in Erangel will add another layer of fun for players.
Terry Park: We’re also celebrating with 7th anniversary clothing skins, which will be made available simply by logging in, along with a special frying pan and helmet skins, emotes, and other items players can earn through various missions.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. How did you come up with these 7th anniversary event ideas? I’m curious about the ideas or inspirations behind them.
Yonjoo Kim: We started without a “specific concept” in mind. Instead, we knew we wanted to introduce interactive elements. So far, most of our collaborations and season events have offered a passive experience that ends when users finish enjoying what’s prepared. However, this time, we aimed to create an event that encourages active participation from players, creating more memorable experiences.
The cupcakes are a good example. I bet you remember the sense of achievement you felt as a kid when you teamed up with your classmates to break the confetti ball, right? That inspired us to come up with the idea of creating a cake box where players can throw cupcakes. However, only within the extent that it does not affect the gameplay but only provides visual enjoyment.
Gayoung Kim: The key here was to transition users from “viewers” to “participants” to the extent that the event does not disrupt gameplay.
Terry Park: Also, we wanted to ensure users recognize that there are some ongoing events. Considering that the starting island and the transport plane are the most accessible points for users, we decided to include the interactive elements here.
Now I understand the ideas and thoughts behind this 7th anniversary update. Then what was your primary focus in this project?
Yonjoo Kim: It may seem a little off-topic (laughs). But I personally believe that users won’t have fun if developers aren’t enjoying themselves. My aim was to enjoy preparing the 7th anniversary event and ensure that users feel excited when they first encounter it. That’s why the entire preparation process was enjoyable, gratifying, and fun. To answer your question, my primary focus was to “enjoy myself.”
Gayoung Kim: Putting aside my role as a development PM and as a player of PUBG, my primary focus was to ensure that the event “does not interfere with gameplay.” For instance, the fireworks from the transport plane finish before the F key activation, and the cafe’s background music plays at a low volume. This is intended because this can be boring or bothering as the game progresses. We carefully designed the event to ensure it is both enjoyable and does not disrupt gameplay at the same time.
Terry Park: As a publishing PM, my main consideration was “how to attract as many users as possible.” Am I sounding too boring (laughs)? We wanted to rejuvenate the game for existing users by introducing new world elements and to draw in retired and new users by offering 7th anniversary rewards and missions to complete. We also hope the 7th anniversary world elements become more widespread through the secondary creations of creators.
Each of you had a different focus, depending on your role. Then, what was the most challenging part of this project?
Gayoung Kim: I would have to say the timeline (laughs). The decision to turn the 7th anniversary update into a large-scale event was made a bit late. As a result, we had to work faster than initially planned, which was more challenging for our developers than usual. I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to them.
Terry Park: The most challenging part was deciding where to focus our resources. Developer resources are finite, and we can’t overlook that fact. I took extra care to align with our development team on which specs to remove, which to integrate with the event, which to revisit, and which to further broaden in scope.
Yonjoo Kim: As Gayoung mentioned, time was not on our side for this 7th anniversary event. Since we had to find the perfect balance between visuals, performance, and fun within a constrained schedule, choosing the best idea from many options was the most challenging part, as it is in all projects.
What did you learn, or were there particular moments when you felt a sense of accomplishment during this project?
Yonjoo Kim: We’ve been offering our service for seven years, which is not a short period. Coming together with all our colleagues to prepare the 7th anniversary event as a token of our appreciation for our users was immensely fulfilling and heartwarming. It would bring me even greater joy if more people enjoyed and remembered this update.
Gayoung Kim: I always ask my friends about their thoughts on every new update. This time, I’m excited to unveil the event with a “voila!” as I’ve invested my greatest effort and passion into it.
Do you have any last comments for this interview?
Terry Park: I can’t thank everyone involved in PUBG enough, especially the colleagues who contributed to publishing this event. I also appreciate Yonjoo and Gayoung here once more for their constant kindness and cooperation.
Yonjoo Kim: Even if some content may appear minor, it is the result of intense discussions and collaborative efforts from all of us. I am deeply grateful to all colleagues from every relevant team who tirelessly contributed to creating a great game. Also, my heartfelt thanks go to our users who have been enjoying PUBG and supporting our growth over a long period.
Gayoung Kim: I especially want to thank the developers of this 7th anniversary event. Forgive me for always saying, “I need this.” (laugh) Despite me always asking “to make things happen” within a very tight timeframe, you’ve turned the impossible into possible and delivered results. Celebrating PUBG’s 7th year fills me with overwhelming emotions. Thank you to all our fans for enjoying our game. You won’t be disappointed with this update, so stay tuned!
