The majority of university students live their passions and dream about finding their dream profession or career after graduation. While many students are endeavoring to get a job, other students want to start a business even though it can be more challenging. However, it is much more difficult to launch their own business because they have no experience, and little information and money to actualize their dreams. It would be helpful to share startup success stories. Here is one of the best examples: Park Sang-woo, the CEO & PD of SouthPAW Games (SouthPAW). He is an alumnus of Chonnam National University (CNU) who succeeded in starting a business using the university’s facility and programs. The Chonnam Tribune visited his company in Seoul on February 23 to listen to his experience and challenges as a successful startup founder.

Becoming a SouthPAW

If you enjoy playing a game, you may have heard of a popular game “Skul: The Hero Slayer (Skul),” which CEO Park and his colleagues had developed and officially released in January 2021. It was evaluated among gamers as one of the best indie games in the first half of that year. The start of SouthPAW goes back to when they were university students in 2017. Park said, “I don’t know exactly when I started to dream of making a game. But I guess the start was the moment I entered university.” At the university, he met many friends with excellent abilities to make games. He did not miss the timing when they were around and started their own business together.

Skul is a rogue-lite action platformer game featuring a skeleton character, featuring a variety of actions, and it is the first Korean indie game to achieve a million sales. How were they able to set this record and achieve success in the gaming industry? You can get a hint from the name of his team, the SouthPAW team. “Southpaw,” which usually refers to a left-handed player in sports games, is related to their ambition. Left-handed players(southpaw) are comparably smaller in number than right-handed players(orthodox), so they chose to make a game with a unique style. According to Park, they decided to be a southpaw in the game industry and released a brand-new and entertaining game.

Overcoming Difficulties

SouthPAW started a business during the vacation of 2017 at a club room of Passion In My Mind (PIMM), which is a game development club at CNU. But they thought when the semester began, it would be difficult to use the room. They asked Lee Chil-woo, the professor of the Department of Computer Engineering who was in charge of the club, to use an empty warehouse. That became their first workspace.

There were financial problems as well. They used various support projects at the university and Gwangju Metropolitan City, including the Business Incubation Center of CNU, so his team could continue running their business. Park also participated in the Gwangju Global Game Center IndiStars organized by the Gwangju Information & Content Agency. “the IndiStars project provided not only research and development funding, but also made us become highly motivated as a project needed to be completed.”

Other than these problems, the team members had no choice but to work  only with passion without salary. As a team leader, Park was focused on providing a vision for everyone’s needs so that they could be willing to endure financial difficulties. And, when the team was confident that they could make money with Skul, Park thought it was time to enter the games market. So, he used credit guarantee loans to end passion pay and focused on moving forward.

“We Do What We Enjoy”

While preparing the interview with him, this Tribune reporter wondered if he is still enjoying his work and finding joy at work. Park said confidently he is still enjoying developing games. “Maybe it is natural to say that I have fun while developing a game that suits my taste. If I keep making games that I like and want to play, I can keep having fun.” But in an environment where he develops games with multiple people, how can he create games that everyone can enjoy? His answer is that he chooses someone whose style overlaps with SouthPAW’s style. He actually makes a careful choice to find staff members and have them as his colleagues. But Park said, “As all members develop games that overlap a lot when it comes to taste, it is the strength of our company that they are willing to immerse themselves in game development and create high efficiency.

Then, what expectations does Park have for the future of SouthPAW? He said, “We look forward to seeing a lot of developers following us since our style is fully settled in this market.” He added he wants to create “SouthPAW-like” in the future. He hopes the games created by his team build up their own style and become attractive to gamers and developers worldwide. Now he is dreaming that gamers are looking forward to the games of SouthPAW, and developers imitate their game style. His words made this reporter feel that he has confidence in his team and games.

Finding the Right Path

At the end of the interview, he recalled his university life and gave advice to his juniors. He said CNU provided him with many precious relationships as the great cradle that allowed SouthPAW to exist. “The university is an educational institution that has much more possibilities than elementary, middle and high school. I hope that my juniors will be able to explore various possibilities and find the right path for themselves through their university life.” After interviewing him, the Tribune got an opportunity to look around the company and talk with teammates at SouthPAW. They were all smiling full of happiness even while talking with the Tribune. They appeared to be totally enjoying what they do and to be confident about themselves. This interview made sure that we can have endless opportunities through trying to find our interests and challenges, and someone who enjoys what they do is so powerful.

By Oh Hyun-ju, Reporter