Solo Leveling:ARISE Interview: Staying True To The Source While Innovating

is in the midst of something potentially special. At time of writing, its pre-registration period has exceeded 12 million registered users, with a successful soft early access launch providing valuable feedback on its promising action-RPG gameplay. It certainly has the benefit of strong source material to help buoy it through a competitive mobile market — 's anime adaptation enjoyed a critically acclaimed first season, while the manwha it's based on remains one of the most popular in the form.

A lot of 's appeal comes in following the specific journey of Sung Jinwoo, something that taps into with a true-to-source exploration of his earliest moments and his rise as a powerful hunter. The freedom of the medium, however, gives more leeway to explore elements of the source material's world and character building that weren't necessarily available because of its focused narrative. The game has already announced a brand new hunter designed specifically for, for instance, with more on the way.

So what potential does this kind of design option afford the team behind? We chatted with executive project director Seong-Keon Jin and art director Inho Kim to dig deeper into what's possible with this mobile adaptation, the hardest parts of adapting such a successful and recognizable story, and what other genres the team thinks could successfully tell a new story.

Screen Rant: What was the core philosophy in bringing Solo Leveling to mobile gaming? How did the team approach this adaptation?

Inho Kim, art director: The most important thing we thought about while developing the game based on Solo Leveling was to keep the core design of the original webtoon. While developing the game, we set out to incorporate as many of the original materials and concepts as possible into the artwork, with these elements and ideas being seamlessly integrated throughout the game. If you look at the designs of Sung Jinwoo and other Hunters, you can see that they were created using elements, key