As development costs rise and hits become harder to predict, South Korean game companies are turning to proven intellectual property to reduce release risk. Rather than building new worlds and characters from scratch, they are adapting web novels and webtoons that already have readers and fandoms to secure early users and ease marketing burdens. Nexon, Netmarble and Kakao Games are preparing new titles based on such IP, though the industry says strong execution still determines success.

Kakao Entertainment said on Tuesday that its affiliate Kakao Creative Foundation will hold the 20th \"Grow Up Talk and Talk\" on July 31 for aspiring creators. The free offline lecture program supports would-be creators seeking to produce story-content intellectual property. Three writers from the webtoon and web novel fields will speak on practical production and planning know-how, including webtoon directing strategies and genre-based approaches to designing engaging stories.