Exploring the Making of 「Hotel Room」 in Azikazin Magic World Through the Game

A media mix creative group from South Korea.

Introducing our team is always challenging, but we believe we need to show more of ourselves and work harder so that everyone can easily understand us. For now, it would be great if you could think of us as a group that engages in diverse creative activities, centered around characters.

Due to our boundaryless approach to creative activities, there was a time when even within the team, the question “What exactly does Azikazin do?” was being asked. In the past, whenever we had an idea, we would freely dive into any direction without constraints. While we still value that freedom, what has changed is that we now strive to ensure that all creative activities within Azikazin Magic World function as a cohesive unit. Specifically, we aim to bridge our character ‘Jujubee’ and the universe ‘Magic World Cosmos’ as much as possible. We work on various projects, some of which do not incorporate our IP, but we are currently refining our mindset to ensure that even these projects can serve as bridges in some way. We are gradually finding our direction, but if I were to introduce the team, I would describe us as an art group that utilizes media mix for creative activities, despite differences in scale.

Creating music and constantly asking, “Is it going to take much longer?” “How soon can you get this done?”

I’m Lionclad, and I love and want to create everything that can be done by hand, from music to drawing. I have an immense desire to make a lot of things…

I handle 3D work and team management.

I am responsible for the artwork and the story writing, and my desk is the messiest one.

With the rather long nickname ‘Kiho’s Theme by 송기호 Song Kiho’, I am responsible for video/game development and creative direction at Azikazin Magic World. I was previously introduced in detail in VISLA’s MUGSHOT series.

To clarify, the responsibilities of the members vary from project to project. However, typically: Lionclad handles beat making, 2D animation, world and character design. Lee Sungmoon takes care of all 3D tasks, including 3D animation, and team management. Song Kiho is responsible for game development, video directing, and overall creative direction to set the team’s direction. Kang Gyeongtae manages 2D animation and illustration, as well as environmental elements and character interactions within the world. Lastly, I handle music directing and vocals, assist with 2D animation, VFX, and production. Additionally, we are involved in project planning, diorama and puppet creation, website and social media management, and filming. With our current number of members, there are many tasks we want to undertake, which sometimes leads us to unexpectedly take on entirely different roles. Since we are still gaining experience, the assigned tasks are continually evolving.

Despite using the old name for a long time, it never felt quite familiar to me. Whether introducing myself to others or being called by that name, it didn’t seem like it truly represented me. So, I had long been thinking, “I need to change my name someday…” but kept putting it off. Finally, with the release of [Hotel Room], I made progress on it. I wanted the new name to be simple yet still reflect the pronunciation of my original name. Recently, while playing a game called “PokéRogue,” I was struck by how cool the Pokémon names were. This led me to recall ‘Lugia’ from Pokémon Gold and Silver, a Pokémon that deeply impressed me when I first encountered it as a child. I wanted the sense of mystery I felt when I first met Lugia in the game to be reflected in my music, so I combined ‘Lugia’ with the syllable ‘Mook’ from my original name to create the new name ‘Moogia’.

While creating [Hotel Room], we reassessed the direction of the music, and it naturally led me to think that it would be great for Moogia to have a new name. Personally, I think the new name is excellent.

The lyrics of “Hotel Room” convey the message, “I will return, but for now, I must escape.” Through the lyrics and melody, I wanted to evoke a sense of nostalgia for the moment when an ordinary daily life is disrupted by a strong will. To express this theme and desire more directly, I envisioned a scene where Jujubee’s fate puts her, Toto, Trakids, and the precious daily life of Dorefin Village at risk. The scene depicts Jujubee’s resolute determination to ultimately protect them from the threat.

In this album, Moogia wrote the lyrics for my part. I wanted to portray Jujubee reflecting on her daily life with Tra->kids in a nostalgic way. During the beat drop with the pounding drums, I envisioned a sudden battle between Jujubee and the invading Parthenope. Rather than depicting Jujubee fighting Parthenope with a grand sense of mission, I wanted to emphasize that it’s the preciousness of the everyday moments spent with her friends that she is striving to protect.

Compared to long-form animated series or weekly serialized comics that air seasonally, our approach has very few opportunities to present stories, which leads to a lack of intimacy between the audience and the characters, and even between the creators and the characters. Therefore, rather than focusing on complex storylines that are hard to digest quickly with our current workflow and team size, we plan to solidify the world of Magic World Cosmos internally. We will add various tracks using our existing game-nimation storytelling method, including shorts focusing on the daily lives of Tra->kids, four-panel comics that humorously capture the content of the gamimation, and light music videos that highlight different character aspects compared to [Eyeballs] ~ [Hotel Room]. For now, we aim to build up small stories while gradually unfolding the world.

As Jujubee’s world expands, I believe we will be able to unfold more stories through diverse interactions and relationships, so I have envisioned new characters. In reality, more interesting stories are developing, which is something I am looking forward to.

We’ve been working on a game called “Seongji Heights” for the past two years. It’s being developed using KADOKAWA’s RPG Maker, and it follows a nurturing format similar to “Princess Maker 2” or Tamagotchi. The concept is as follows: Players navigate a building called ‘Seongji Heights,’ interacting with office workers inside. During these interactions, players can program the egg they carry to remember the workers’ emotions, such as hardships, purity, courage, or sadness. Depending on whether the player engages with many pure or sad office workers, the egg might hatch into a pure or sad creature, or it might even refuse to hatch at times. We’ve adapted some elements from this game and transformed it into a Beezla-style game. Titled “Seongji Heights: Tonto’s Azikazin Magic World Report,” Beezla editor Tonto enters Azikazin’s office to gather content for a Beezla feature, remembering the most newsworthy elements. Although it doesn’t follow the nurturing format like “Seongji Heights,” the fun lies in freely exploring Azikazin’s office, talking to team members, checking out the office, and delving into the office’s various stories. Be careful—you might end up in unexpected places during your investigation! Thanks to the game’s editor Tonto for agreeing to embed the game on the Beezla webpage. I’m thrilled to be able to embed a game into Beezla, a medium I greatly admire.

We usually start with a big theme. For world-building and story structure, I first establish the major elements, and then we move on to smaller details like “the kind of relationships we want to see,” which helps in defining the characters’ traits and designs. Once this framework is set, other team members gradually fill in the various components of the world. Recently, to better divide the work, Gyeongtae has been creating the narrative between characters and environmental elements.

First, Lionclad establishes the overall flow of the story and shares it with the team, who then refine it together. During this process, parts of the flow naturally integrate into new works. With the start of [Hotel Room]’s planning, we extracted stories that fit the music and solidified the identities of characters that previously only existed in concept. Through this process, new characters can emerge or existing settings may change, impacting the overall flow. As the larger framework becomes more defined, Gyeongtae works on the details of the environment and relationships between characters.

We mainly consider the conflict between the entity ‘Hole’ and the character ‘Jujubee’ as the big backdrop. Additionally, while Lionclad handles the broader aspects like character design, personalities, settings, and even the geography of the Magic World, I focus on fleshing out these elements in detail. Although it’s not entirely systematic, imagining the causality and effects between elements often leads to connections between characters and settings.

Indeed, this fall, Azikazin Magic World is preparing an offline event where you can play the games we’ve developed so far. We’re currently testing features like ranking systems and MMO (massively multiplayer online). Further announcements will be made through the official Azikazin Instagram account.

During the production of “Keeper’s Wish,” there were quite a few conflicts. However, at that time, we aligned our tastes and directions to some extent. Now, we work based on those foundations, so even though there are many revision requests, they don’t escalate into conflicts.

In fact, division of labor was quite challenging and caused many delays in production. The smooth operation of the workflow seems to have started with “Keeper’s Wish,” when Sungmoon’s 3D work and Kiho’s game development became feasible. During the production of “Eyeballs,” there were so many things we didn’t know compared to what we wanted to do; Lionclad created animations in Photoshop, and game development was assisted by acquaintances. However, as each member studied various tools (Clip Studio, Blender, Unity), division of labor naturally developed. By the time of [Hotel Room], we had learned post-production techniques, VFX, and filter work that we couldn’t handle during “Keeper’s Wish,” making the division of labor smoother. Although there is still much to learn, as our capabilities and division of labor have increased, production times have shortened and conflicts and disagreements have definitely reduced.

It’s amusing, but if we use MapleStory’s job advancement system as an analogy, it would look like this. Initially, we were at our first job advancement as musicians and video creators, which meant our party hunting efficiency was really low. We thought the problem was with our collaboration tools, so we tried various ones, but the damage we dealt remained just as low. Considering the time spent on content creation, it was like engaging in a highly inefficient hunt. Then, with “Keeper’s Wish” as a turning point, we made our second job advancement. We transitioned into roles like 2D/3D animators, puppet makers, VFX artists, and game developers. While retaining our musician and video creator skills, we now apply the new skills we’ve learned to deliver combo damage. After this second job advancement, we’ve tackled four boss battles. Starting with the game-nimation “Keeper’s Wish” in December last year, we followed up with the rhythm game format live show “UloveUwaitingU” in March, the Silica Gel live puppet show “LOST!” in May, and most recently, the 3D RPG gamenimation “Hotel Room.” Although disagreements and coordination issues can’t be entirely avoided, we generally resolve them through wise discussions, as fighting among party members leads to defeat.

It took surprisingly long to get here. The issue wasn’t just individual skill but rather the lack of effort in finding effective ways to collaborate and move in a positive direction together. There seems to be a lot to learn across various fields… Even though we share the same workspace, everyone tends to focus on their own screens, leading to unexpected communication issues. We’ve tried various collaboration programs, but in the end, Discord has proven to be the best for us!

I actually had quite a showdown with Kiho.

Typically, Lionclad plays the role of spreading positive energy (though it depends on her being in a good mood). Additionally, Kang Gyeongtae’s tendency to keep talking as he rides the flow also contributes to the atmosphere making.

The hot summer weather combined with the monsoon brings its own set of challenges. For instance, since our studio is in an old building, we sometimes deal with water seeping up from the floor. However, when Lionclad achieves great results in her work and her happiness reaches MAX, it’s immediately obvious that she’s in a good mood, which helps us forget about the frustrations of the rainy season. Additionally, Sungmoon is skilled at cooking and prepares hearty, seasonal dishes that really boost our energy.

When it comes to mood makers, it’s definitely Oli and Moko—our two cats in the studio—and Willis Haviland Carrier, the inventor of the air conditioner.

Moogia is definitely a gamer! I was really impressed when I saw Moogia achieve 100% trophy completion in Demon’s Souls. It seems like every member of the team absolutely loves games; it’s hard to hide that passion. Oh, and when it comes to Minecraft, Lee Sungmoon is the most enthusiastic. We’re also planning to enjoy some Elden Ring co-op DLC together soon…

I used to mostly play console games alone, and since we each have our own preferences, we haven’t played together often. However, the most memorable game we played together is definitely Splatoon 3, where we even participated in an event tournament under the Azikazin Magic World name. Recently, I’ve been drawn into the appeal of co-op games like Elden Ring’s seamless co-op mode, Palworld, and Minecraft. I’m most excited about playing Monster Hunter Rise together. Since I enjoy collecting retro games, my room is filled with gaming memorabilia. I’d say I’ve probably spent the most money on games among us…

Although my team members don’t play with me, I’m passionate about FC Online. I especially enjoy the 2v2 mode but often end up playing random matches since I don’t have anyone to join me. If anyone is interested in playing together, my ID is ‘공간지휘자’.

My dream is to move the studio and continue steadily with the current projects.

My dream is to watch people enjoy playing in the world we’ve created!

My dream is to move to a bright workspace with enough room to accommodate a few more people, and to continue working freely and joyfully in a comfortable environment.

My dream is for our team to release a game with a playtime of over two hours.

My dream is for us to become a media mix creation group that becomes a cherished memory for someone.