BreakNews Reporter Lim Guk-jung = “Back then, we were developing ‘Hello Hero’ in a tiny office, and the most difficult part was how unpleasant the air was during summer. The space was so small, and we were all sweating—it got really stuffy. We didn’t talk about it much, but I remember how hard it was.”
Bobby Yu, CEO of FunnyStorm, laughed out loud recalling those days. Hello Hero is a collectible mobile RPG launched in 2013.
The game was originally developed by a company called Fincon, where Bobby Yu was also the CEO. Fincon was founded in 2012 and had only around 11 team members when Hello Hero was created.
With great passion, Bobby Yu and the Fincon team poured everything into development, launching Hello Hero in just a few months. The game reached the top 5 in Google Play revenue in Korea and hit #1 on Japan’s App Store within five days of launch. Fincon also won the “Best App” award at the 2013 Korea Mobile App Awards.
Following this success, Fincon grew from 10 to 75 employees.
However, the good times didn’t last. Subsequent titles Angel Stone and Hello Hero: Epic Battle underperformed, falling off the charts. Eventually, Bobby Yu had to give up the IP rights to Hello Hero, a franchise he considered his own creation.
Now, Bobby Yu is starting anew. Undeterred by setbacks, he dreams of a comeback. We sat down with him at FunnyStorm’s Pangyo office on the 20th of last month.
A Mechanical Engineering Student Who Loved Art
Bobby Yu has always been passionate about games. In middle school, he customized board games to play with friends and enjoyed video games at arcades.
He also loved drawing. “I was a mechanical engineering student in college, but I joined the art club,” he said, laughing.
Even from a young age, he thought hard about doing what he loved. With a passion for art and games, working at a game studio was the natural path.
His opportunity came in his second year of college when a senior in the game company HiCom invited him to join as a part-time designer. Bobby Yu described his early work:
“It was pixel graphics. I worked on backgrounds and characters, drawing frame-by-frame pixel animation for segmented joints.”
He joined HiCom full-time in 1995 and later worked at HanbitSoft, NHN, and Webzen, handling character design for titles like Steel Hunt, Korum 2, Tantra, Archlord, and R2. His role expanded to game planning with C9.
“I’ve always been interested in how to make games fun. Even now, I constantly think about what makes a game enjoyable.”
Despite a stable career, Bobby Yu chose the path of entrepreneurship. It was a bold move—he had a family and kids at the time.
“Of course, I had a duty to provide for my family. But I didn’t think starting a company to make the games I wanted was wrong. My wife supported me, and that gave me the confidence to start.”
After the Success of Hello Hero
Bobby Yu founded Fincon in 2012, just as mobile hardware performance was improving. Inspired by the idea of running 3D games on mobile, he created Hello Hero (2013), which became a pioneer of collectible mobile RPGs in Korea, beloved for its variety of characters.
However, after Hello Hero, similar games like Monster Taming, Seven Knights, and MonMonMon flooded the market. As a result, Hello Hero saw a decline in revenue. Bobby Yu, however, took this in stride.
“It’s hard to come up with something entirely new. Even what we consider ‘new’ often draws on past experiences, whether we’re aware of it or not. In that sense, we’re all influenced by many games.”
Building on the initial success, Fincon released Angel Stone in July 2015. It was named one of Apple App Store’s “Best Games of 2015.” Despite its solid gameplay, technical issues early in launch hindered its success. Bobby Yu admits it might have fared better with more polish.
Without a reliable revenue source, and with years passing since Hello Hero‘s release, both Angel Stone and Hello Hero: Epic Battle failed to generate sufficient returns. Bobby Yu had to part with the Hello Hero IP, and despite his efforts, Fincon couldn’t recover.
Can “FunnyStorm” Bring the Smile Back?
Determined to keep making games, Bobby Yu founded FunnyStorm in November 2021. The name signifies a “storm of fun.” He explained, “Storms bring wind and rain; we bring fun. It means ‘a fun force arriving like a storm.'”
FunnyStorm is now developing a next-generation location-based game (LBG)—the same genre as Pokémon GO, which uses AR technology.
The new game is tentatively titled Dragon Raid: The Ninth Earth, set on an alternate Earth where humans and dragons coexist. Bobby Yu said, “It’s a collectible game where rare dragons appear in rare locations. There’s fun in farming items and collecting dragons.” The team is targeting a closed beta test (CBT) by year-end.
Notably, Bobby Yu is taking a new approach to development—collaborating with external experts as needed. While over 30 people are involved, only a small core team works from the headquarters. He shared, “We work as if developers and companies around the world are building this together. Ultimately, we aim to collaborate with the best talents globally.”
Even without major marketing, investment is already flowing in. Blockchain game publisher Dominus Games announced a new investment in FunnyStorm this May, recognizing Bobby Yu’s proven talent and track record.
Asked why he continues to make games, he replied:
“I want to share my ideas of fun. If people around the world enjoy the game and embrace those ideas, I would be incredibly happy.”
He added, however, that he hasn’t yet created a game that meets his own standards, and he remains fully committed to his development journey.
“Even people close to me don’t know exactly what I’m working on. I’ve been quiet because I want to spend more time researching and developing. But I plan to start sharing our big plans later this year. Until then, I’ll be focusing on development.”