Seal of Evil Interview

Written by Charles Husemann on 2/13/2006 for

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.

GamingNexus: Can you describe the various classes that are in the game?  Can you multi-class or are you limited to one class?  What kind of RPG elements are in the game? 

Liu Jiang: The leading character in the game is Lan Wei. Players can’t create or choose the leading character. Lan Wei’s teammates will appear according to the development of the plot but players can control some teammates in the specific plots. Lan Wei is a wizard, Liang Hu is a beastman, Yan Hong is a priest, Cai Xin is a swordsman and Gai Nie is a paladin.

In the game players will act as Lan Wei for more than 90% of the time. Sometimes a player can also act as Liang Hu to take on some special quests. All the dialogue appearing in the game is in the first person.

GamingNexus: The game features a crafting system that allows players to create their own items.  Can you provide some examples of what can be done with the system?  How many unique items can be created in the game? 

Liu Jiang: What’s item creation? It should have simple rules and the variety of items that can be created should be huge. With an understanding of the rules and the different outcomes from the process, players can create the most excellent item in their mind and find happiness in the activity. We have 5 different creation formulae and hundreds of materials in the game. Some random attributes will also turn up in the process and so there are innumerable items that can be created in the game. 

GamingNexus: How many spells are in the game?  What are the different areas of magic in the game and are there situations where you would use one form of magic over another?

Liu Jiang: The game doesn’t provide a great variety of magic, but every character has their own skills and each skill varies tremendously. So you can regard each skill as “a series of skills”.  Skills are classified into main skills and sub-skills. One main skill will have different effects when it is used together with different sub-skills. It will cost Mana when players use a skill. And there is no magic tool.

GamingNexus: What is the final weapon count in the game?  Are there different “sets” of items in the game?

Liu Jiang: Weapons and defense equipment play a vital role in the game. The Making-things system in our last single-player game, Prince of Qin, has been retained in Seal of Evil and greatly improved. In the game, players can collect all kinds of items through killing their enemies or from exploration. Players can then make all kinds of equipment with those materials. There are more than 100 kinds of raw materials available for players to choose. All these materials have random attributes that can be transferred to the final products. By using different methods to make equipment, players can craft innumerable different kinds of equipment. 

The game does have suits of equipment, but they are different from those in Diablo II. In our game, players can make a suit of equipment themselves. After obtaining some materials from the same source, e.g. a leopard’s skin and tooth, players can produce a suit named with something concerning the leopard. When players equip themselves with such a suit, they will obtain extra attributes. 

There will be only a few unique items in the game. This is because the main fun of the game comes from the process of players making their own equipment, not just discovering an existing piece by chance.

GamingNexus: How many different endings are in the game?  Is there a final count on the number of levels in the game?  About how long do you think it will take to complete the game?

Liu Jiang: The game leads to 7 different endings and player can reach level 99 at most. Generally speaking, it takes 50 hours to go through the whole game, but it will take players longer if they accept more quests and create some senior equipment.

GamingNexus: Could you describe the party system in the game?  How big can the party get and how do you control the various members of the party?  Do the party members impact the storyline at all?

Liu Jiang: Players can control 5 characters at a time, but in a battle only 3 can be controlled, the remaining 2 do not participate in the fight. Players can change characters from the Teammate interface in the peace mode.

Party members do impact the story line. There are several story endings. When you change the party member, you will take different quests and that will lead you to a different story ending.

GamingNexus: Diablo II is one the big games in this action RPG arena, what things did you learn from Diablo II and what areas do you think your game is better? 

Liu Jiang: Diablo II is the classic of the RPG games with an excellent stochastic system. We took the idea of a stochastic system in our crafting system and added some unique characteristics developed by ourselves in it.

 Personally speaking, there are 3 most attractive features in Seal of Evil.

·        The first one is the plot and background. Just imagine how it would be that some beautiful love stories and deep brotherhood happened in the background of genuine Chinese legends!

·        The second one is the crafting system. We have two features in the system that have never appeared in games before. One is the active nature of the system giving the player a high degree of control over the item he is making and the other is the combination between item creation and armor.

·        The third one is the skill system. We have added the idea of skill collocation in the game which will make the skill attribute change during fighting.

I'd like to thank Liu for taking the time to answer our questions and to Maria and Jessica for helping to coordinate the interview.