Hundred Soul: How Hound13 created a stunning mobile ARPG with Unity

In January 2019, a Korean indie studio Hound13 launched Hundred Soul as a mobile-only, action role-playing game (ARPG) in Korea. After over 1.6 million mobile downloads and positive Korean Google Play and AppStore ratings, this fast-moving, game with near-console graphics quality has set its sights on North America by the end of April 2020.

Lead programmer Kim JinSol attributes much of Hundred Soul’s high-fidelity art quality to the strength of Unity’s capabilities for mobile.

Leveraging High dynamic range (HDR) rendering, the team was able to adjust light levels to more accurately reflect what’s happening in a real scene, creating the game’s captivating imagery. 

By using Motion Blur to add speed effects to GameObjects that are moving faster than the camera’s exposure time, they were able to make swordplay look supernaturally fast yet completely realistic.

Gaming in Korea is a significant contributor to the country’s GDP, with over 20,000 gaming cafés (known as PC Bangs) nationwide acting as social and cultural hubs. It comes as no surprise that quality and fast iteration are incredibly important.

“Korean players don’t have patience for incremental bug fixes, they want new releases that work, and Unity’s flexible tools and mobile platform support help us deliver,” says Cha PoSeok, Hound13’s general manager.

As the game has grown, Hound13 has enjoyed access to a deep pool of Unity talent in Korea. “That’s another big benefit of being part of the Unity community,” says Park Jung Sik Hound13 CEO. “We can easily find the talent we need, and we don’t have to spend a lot of resources on training. That’s good for everyone at the studio.”

Jung Sik sums up their experience: “For a Korean indie studio like Hound13, having the broad combination of Unity’s built-in features, support, ads, analytics, distribution and marketing resources has made all the difference. We are so proud of what we’ve done with Hundred Soul, and we’re equally proud of our partnership with Unity.”

To learn more about how Hundred Soul was created using Unity, check out the official case study.