The shadow of the Diablo franchise is long and wide. Over the years there have been many a game
that has tried to claim the crown from Blizzard’s masterpiece. Some have gone the sci-fi route and some have
tried the fantasy route. Up next on the
docket is Seal of Evil by Object
Software (the game be published in the United States by Strategy
First). We were lucky to get the chance
to talk to Liu Jiang, the product manager
of the game about what makes his games different from everything else on
the market.
GamingNexus: Can you
introduce yourself and describe your role with the project. How long have you been with Object Software
and how did you get into game development?
My name is Liu Jiang. I am the Product Manager of Seal of Evil and
I have been with Object Software for 4 years. I joined Object Software after
graduating from University. My elder brother, who was already with the company,
introduced me.
GamingNexus: What is
the plot behind the game? How much of
the game is lifted from Chinese history/legend and how much did you have to
create to fill in the blanks?
Liu Jiang: The plot revolves
around the effort by Lan Wei (who is the daughter of the leader of East Baiyue,
a minority race whose lands border the State of Qin) and her friends to find
the famous Empyrian Stones believing the legend that if they found the five
stones and pieced them together they would bring back to life Lan Wei’s father
who had died mysteriously. But when they succeeded in doing so they got a lot
more than they bargained for when they discovered that the Empyrian Stones were
actually the five pieces of the magic slate which sealed the soul of Chi You,
the evil Chinese God.
Seal of Evil is actually the prequel to Prince of Qin which was the first RPG developed
by Object. Prince of Qin was primarily based on actual history while Seal of Evil is more imaginary.
Although the whole story is based on ancient history and famous legends, the
major characters and content were created by us.
GamingNexus: The game
is a prequel to Prince of Qin, why did you decide to do the prequel rather than
to a sequel?
Liu Jiang: The reason is simple. We wanted to design a
more imaginary story which could be much more expansively developed. And the Chinese legends on which the game is
partly based happened in the Warring States period. So that’s why the game is a
prequel to Prince of Qin.
GamingNexus: Does the
game use the same engine as Prince of Qin or is this a new engine built from
scratch? What improvements did you make
to the engine?
Liu Jiang: The game uses the same engine as Prince of Qin but with various
improvements. The script engine was
greatly strengthened and some parts could be shown in 3D mode, such as the
shadow and the special effects of most skills.
This engine is
designed for 3D games, but it has a good 2D/3D calculation ability. In the
game, we have still adopted 2D in most of the graphics, but 3D technology is
used in magic effects and light-and-shade special effects. This means the game
can run smoothly on lower configuration computers.
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