Goodbye Seoul

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• Announcements·4 Aug 2026Official

  Dev Note #9

  Hello! This is JINO, the developer of Goodbye Seoul.I hope everyone is staying well through the summer heat.In this dev note, I’d like to talk about an area of development that I haven’t had the chance to introduce in much detail before: sound.🔊 Working Directly on What I Know LeastThere are many challenging aspects of making a game, but sound has always been one of the most difficult for me.The main reason is simple: it is the field I know the least about and have the least experience in. I already had some familiarity with programming and graphics from my time at school and working in the industry, but when it came to sound, I had to learn almost everything from scratch—from which software to use to how audio should be managed and played within a game.Since development began, I have gradually built the game’s audio systems while learning the fundamentals of sound software, how to integrate it with the game, and how to create structures that allow sounds to change dynamically depending on the situation.However, implementing an audio system through software and creating the actual sounds and resources that go into it are two entirely different challenges.I am not a sound designer who can create every sound effect the game needs from scratch. As a result, most of the sounds in Goodbye Seoul are either purchased from asset stores or recorded directly from my surroundings.A sound may pass by in only a second during gameplay, but preparing that single moment is often far more complicated than it seems.🚦 The Sounds of SeoulSound libraries offer an incredible variety of high-quality effects. Doors opening, cars passing by, footsteps—most of the sounds we encounter in everyday life can be found without too much difficulty.But when I actually placed some of these sounds into the game, they often felt strangely out of place, even though they were sounds I had clearly heard in real life before.That is because even sounds that serve the same purpose can vary greatly from one c...
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• Announcements·24 Jun 2026Official

  Dev Note #8

  Hello! This is JINO, the developer of Goodbye Seoul.I hope everyone has been doing well. Summer has arrived quickly, and I hope you're all staying healthy in the heat.As I work on bringing the ideas and contributions gathered through our crowdfunding campaign and community events into the game, I often find myself imagining the stories behind them. Whenever I place one of these traces into the world, I can't help but wonder: Who left this behind, and what were they going through as the world approached its end?As I mentioned in the previous dev note, I'd like to share some of the ideas that are gradually becoming part of Goodbye Seoul's world, along with a few of the thoughts they inspired."I miss home" "Don't look back"As chaos first began to spread, communication networks collapsed, and many people abandoned their livelihoods to return to their families and hometowns.But with trains and buses no longer operating, leaving the country became nearly impossible—and even escaping Seoul itself required taking significant risks.Perhaps these messages were left behind by foreign residents who remained in Korea, unable to make it home before everything fell apart. They may have stood on these streets, thinking of the people and places they left behind.Did they ever make it home safely?"Ji-eun, Su-jin, Ye-ra, Hye-rin" "So-hee, Ye-jun"These are simple traces—just names written side by side. Yet even in the face of the world's end, having someone to stay with until the very last moment would surely have been a source of comfort, happiness, and strength. I imagine a group of loved ones gathering together and carefully leaving behind one final mark on the wall. Among these names are also two characters from another game, Sohee (https://tumblbug.com/twodpix_sohee), who seem to have left their own small traces behind as well. It's a charming thought that the youthful memories of protagonists from another world have found their way into the streets of a collapsing Seoul."Professio...
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• Announcements·7 May 2026Official

  Dev Note #7

  Hello! This is JINO, the developer of Goodbye Seoul.In this dev note, I’d like to talk about the “temperature” of space — the feeling players experience when they first step into a fictional world. I want to briefly share some of the thoughts behind filling the screen with traces of human warmth, and how I’m trying to bring that into the game.👣 Beyond Visual Realism — Creating a Living WorldSometimes, even when we see a virtual world that perfectly recreates reality, it can still feel strangely lifeless and unfamiliar. We can feel the same way looking at photographs or videos of real places, and sometimes even in actual physical spaces themselves.There can be many reasons for this, but I believe one of the biggest is the absence of “human traces.” No matter how faithfully reality is recreated or how accurately a place is brought into a fictional world, if all signs of human presence are erased, the result can feel cold and lifeless — nothing more than empty graphics.A crooked piece of graffiti someone left on a wall, the worn signboard of an old shop, the small emotions embedded into the streets by countless strangers… These scattered fragments of memory and human presence come together to create the “temperature” of a space.❤️ Adding Human Warmth to a Fictional SpaceThe city in Goodbye Seoul is, ultimately, a fictional world made of polygons and pixels. But I never wanted it to feel like a simple stage set. I wanted it to feel like a place where people once truly lived — where they breathed, loved, and left pieces of themselves behind.To achieve that, I’ve been filling the city with small, deeply human traces to give it life. Throughout the world, I’ve carefully planted tiny fragments of humanity — details that allow players to project their own emotions onto the space. As players walk through these streets, I want them to wonder: “Who used to live here?” or “Who left this message on the wall?” When the player’s imagination begins filling in those invisible stories...
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• Announcements·12 Mar 2026Official

  Dev Note #6

  Hello! This is JINO, the developer of Goodbye Seoul.It feels like it’s been a while since I last posted an update. First of all, I’d like to apologize for the recent lack of development logs. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been extremely busy working through a series of big and small revisions to improve the overall quality of the game.In particular, I recently finished the final round of polishing the game’s core element — the story — and have been focusing on implementing changes to the game based on those updates.Today, I’d like to talk about two topics that involved a lot of consideration during development: the camera system, and an unexpected issue we encountered — motion sickness.🎥 Choosing the Right Perspective — Even at the Cost of EfficiencyGoodbye Seoul is a 2D platformer played from a side-view perspective. In this genre, it’s very common for the camera to simply follow the player character while keeping them centered on the screen. This approach is not only the easiest to implement, but also the most familiar and comfortable for players.However, in Goodbye Seoul, I chose not to use that approach. Instead, I manually place cameras throughout different spaces and areas.To be honest, setting up every camera by hand is a very time-consuming and cumbersome process. Placing them initially is already a lot of work, but whenever the layout of a space changes—such as the structure of the environment, or the position and size of platforms—I have to go back and adjust the camera paths and positions again.And because this genre often involves frequent changes to level layouts, managing cameras manually like this is actually a very inefficient way to work.So why did I choose this method anyway?1. Effort for GameplayThe camera has a huge impact on the player’s experience. It shouldn’t simply follow the character—it also needs to consider many other factors: the player’s current position, objects they need to interact with, and the destination they need to move...
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• Announcements·24 Oct 2025Official

  Dev Note #5

  Hello! This is JINO, the developer of Goodbye Seoul.In this month’s dev log, I’d like to talk about something that defines the entire mood of the game: Spatial Design.I truly believe that even a single ruined alleyway or a torn poster on a wall in Seoul can influence a player’s emotions, so I strive not to overlook even the smallest detail.📸 Image & Video ArchivingWhenever I come across a striking scene while walking down the street, I immediately pull out my phone to take a photo.There have been too many moments when I needed reference material but had none to rely on.Recently, I've also been capturing screenshots from dramas, films, documentaries, and books whenever I come across scenes that resonate with me. These all go into my reference archive folder.While collecting these materials is hard enough, what's even harder is retrieving the right reference at the right moment. I’ve tried various methods, but I found that using a board format works best—it offers a clear, bird’s-eye view. I organize references by area on one large board so I can easily grasp the overall atmosphere and structure.Images and videos are great tools for documenting spaces, but they can’t capture everything. That’s why I also write down emotions, moods, and even sound impressions in text. I tag my notes with thematic keywords like “ruins + warmth” or “crowded + loneliness”, which help me recall the feeling of a space later. These written notes are managed as sticky notes in the board app, placed directly next to the corresponding image or video to retain context.🛠️ From 3D Modeling to Pixel RenderingMost of the objects used in spatial design are first created in 3D and then rendered in a pixel-art style. This pipeline was originally developed for character rendering, so it’s been thoroughly tested and proved reliable for background asset creation as well.However, I faced several challenges when creating Korean-style objects. For one, it’s nearly impossible to find 3D resources with a Korea...
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