The Newspapers of the Day — A Letter from the Developer on Launch Day

Hello, this is Jung Chanyoung, CEO of Diving Studio and lead designer of The Newspapers of the Day.

Our launch announcement felt a bit cold and businesslike, and it bothered me that on Korea's Liberation Day of all days, a game set in the colonial era only talked about itself. So here I am with a more personal letter. I've done plenty of interviews with journalists, but writing directly to players like this is a first for me, so please forgive me if it feels a little awkward.

The idea behind this game was simple. Most stories set in the Japanese colonial period end up in the same place: "Long live Korean independence!" and "Independence activists were extraordinary heroes!" That always felt a little unsatisfying to me — and honestly, those stories never quite hit home.

Back then, joining the independence movement meant putting not just yourself, but your family, your relatives, and everyone you knew in danger. It wasn't even socially respected the way we imagine today. So I started with a question: what was life like for the ordinary people of that era?

The most important principle in making this game was to find the most neutral sources possible. Records of events from the colonial period are usually interpreted very differently depending on who wrote them. More than anything, I wanted to see that era as it truly was.

The answer to that problem turned out to be newspapers. Of course, each paper had its own leanings, but by cross-referencing everyday news and articles from multiple papers, we could reach something reasonably trustworthy.

We were also incredibly fortunate that the Korean Newspaper Archive exists — a site that holds virtually every newspaper from that era. To the National Library of Korea and to Seoul System, who built that archive: thank you, truly. Without that site, this game would have been impossible. In fact, when I first planned the game in 2020, I had to shelve it because I couldn't find enough material.

Thanks to them, we gathered as much material as a team our size possibly could, and built the game's framework upon it.

Of course, people still lived their lives back then. We began our research in the 1920s — the so-called "Cultural Rule" period — and most of the atrocities you read about in history books happened out of ordinary people's sight, or later, in the mid-1930s and 1940s.

So just like we window-shop at department stores today, there were people who strolled through the newly opened department stores — unable to afford much, but enjoying the sights — and lived active cultural lives. Of course, there were also many who had no food to eat, or who fell into opium dens. And many who were beaten or killed for no real reason at all.

Doesn't that kind of era feel strangely familiar?

An era where life was easier if you stopped thinking, narrowed your vision, and kept your mouth shut.

Most people lived that way. It was the natural way of things — and those in power always made sure it stayed that way.

But there were people who couldn't live like that. Someone who couldn't accept the quiet discrimination they faced at work. Someone who learned that a friend had been dragged away over something trivial and returned half-dead. Someone who lost everything through nothing but bad luck.

I wanted players to experience what those ordinary people went through — and to convey, exactly as it was, how heavy a burden they carried when they made their choices. This game doesn't try to tell you who was right or wrong, or deliver some message or answer. I simply wanted to show you the people of that era.

I believe it is because of all those different people that we exist today, and that a future is still being built.

I'm also sorry that, with such a meaningful subject, we produced a work that falls short in many ways. We will keep working to create something more meaningful and better made.

Thank you sincerely for giving this humble game more attention than it deserves, for cheering us on, and for enjoying it.

From everyone at Diving Studio — thank you.