[Dalgeums] Game Development by 'Self-Study'... Fanfare with 'Anipang'

SundayToz's Lee Seungwon Transforms from Fashion Designer to Game Developer

DalGamS stands for 'Sweet Stories of Game Developers.' It offers a glimpse into the everyday lives of game developers.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] "Developing games is so much fun. But if one day that fun suddenly disappears, I would look for another job anytime."

With a unique hairstyle, flashy fashion, and a bold way of speaking, Seungwon Lee, a 42-year-old developer at SundayToz with 12 years of game development experience, is a 'cool' character even in the free-spirited game industry. Rather than worrying about others' opinions, he calls himself a 'free spirit' who puts his heart into what attracts him. His unusual background proves this. He was a successful clothing designer who self-taught programming and entered the path of game development. His representative game is the national mobile game "Anipang."

Majoring in clothing studies at university, his first job was at a small clothing store. He was deeply immersed in the joy of making clothes he designed and was convinced it was his calling. Then one day, he encountered a turning point in his life: the Apple iPhone. From that day, he became an 'Apple fan,' and his life took an unexpected direction. "Using the iPhone sparked my interest in applications. The first project I planned was an app linking dolls and fairy tale books. It was an app that dressed dolls inspired by fairy tale characters, but I gave up because the development cost was high."

Driven by his desire to develop apps, he began studying programming on his own in his spare time. His confidence in English, gained from frequent overseas trips during his school days, helped him. He built his skills by reading thick English textbooks and watching programming lectures by overseas YouTubers. Eventually, in 2010, he decided to start as a solo developer and resigned from his company.

"I played all roles from CEO to developer, designer, and planner by myself. Of course, my office was my home."

His first work, inspired by his love of music, was "Rock Beat Laser," a game played by simple touch controls on a smartphone screen. After gaining experience through his one-person development company, he joined SundayToz in 2013 and participated in the development of Anipang, building a brilliant career as a developer. His representative work, "Anipang Sachunsung," gained great popularity among women and has established itself as a long-lasting mobile game since 2013. He also participated in the development of many other games such as Anipang 3 and HTML5. Since last year, he has been devoted to developing a new mobile puzzle game. It is based on a globally famous animation intellectual property (IP) and is an anticipated title targeting both domestic and international markets by the end of this year. He said, "There is no big intersection between clothing design and game development, but both share the commonality of expressing creative and free ideas," and expressed his hope to continue building a creative and free game career.

Meanwhile, SundayToz plans to continue the legacy of the Anipang series by releasing "Anipang 4" as early as next month.