When it comes to city building strategy games, more often then not they take place in the Western world. While this is all well and good, there's a whole lot more world out there with lots of history and culture to take advantage of in a game. BreakAway Games certainly seems to think so as they plug away on their latest strategy title, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom for the PC, which takes place in Ancient China. We were fortunate enough to get a hold of Ed Beach, Producer on the project, and he was kind enough to shed some more light on the upcoming game.

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Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom Interview

March 8, 2002

Were there any existing games that inspired this one to be created?

Well, obviously the existing city-building games were the big inspiration for Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom! Each new game in the series has been an extension of what we learned from the last. We’re excited that the series has been transported out of the Mediterranean into a new exotic setting in the Far East. Emperor has a very fresh feel to it.

How historically accurate will the game be?

Well, I wouldn’t say that it’s totally historically accurate, but we are trying to base a lot of the things in the game on history. For instance each of the seven single-player campaigns traces through the most significant historical events of a different Chinese dynasty. However, it won’t be a perfect representation of ancient China … we had to pick one “look” for the buildings in the game, and we decided it would look cooler if we based things on some of the later architecture. So history teachers might find that Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom doesn’t look right during the campaigns set in 2000 BC. However these same teachers should be happy using the game to give students a feel for the Chinese culture and for the extended scope of China’s 4000-year history.

Can you tell us a bit about some of the political considerations players will face as they build their cities in Rise of the Middle Kingdom?

In a typical mission, a player represents a provincial governor trying to bring his city to prominence within China. During more peaceful periods, this could involve establishing beneficial trade agreements and cooperating with other cities for mutual defense against outside invaders like the Xiongnu or Mongols. However during the Warring States period (and others where control of China itself was up for grabs), this political situation will be much more cutthroat. Players can send spies into enemy cities to gain information and conduct sabotage. They can also form alliances to dominate China and force other players to pay annual tribute. With up to 8 players in a multiplayer game, we are expecting these political situations to become quite interesting…

It has been mentioned that the Chinese Zodiac will allow rulers to get special treatment when their birthday’s and the Zodiac line up in the game. What other functions will the Zodiac serve? Are the results always good?

Yes, for now they are always good. Once every 12 years, when your zodiac animal has its year, you will be able to choose a special gift or blessing. Your troops will also be identified in a multiplayer game with the symbol of your zodiac animal – the chosen zodiac animal really becomes that player’s identity for that game.

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Although the focus of the game is on city building, will there be any battles for players to engage in?

There will be combat, but the focus of the game will be on city building. The game AI will handle a lot of the combat details for you – we didn’t want the game to be heavy on the micromanagement of troops. However, when combat does occur, we’ve taken significant strides in making the combat elements of the game more interesting. There

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are catapults to batter enemy walls (and buildings too if a shot goes astray). You also can set up your invasions so your troops can target a specific industry in an enemy city. So if they are targeting the enemy food supply, they will torch farmhouses and plunder food from mills and warehouses.

Strategy games can sometimes have cumbersome control schemes, what are you doing to help prevent this in Rise of the Middle Kingdom?

We haven’t really strayed much from the tried-and-true control we’ve used in previous city-builders. We think it’s intuitive and well designed. We’ve also made sure that all of the game play elements are consistent whether or not you are playing in single-player or multiplayer mode. We wanted the multiplayer environment to be comfortable, even for those fans of the series who have never tried online gaming before.

Besides being able to make the Great Wall, are there any other monuments from ancient China that players will be able to construct? Perhaps the Terracotta Army?

Absolutely. Besides the Great Wall (which comes in both the early “earthen” version and the later stone form that everyone knows today), there are: the Grand Canal, the underground vault with the Terracotta Army, grand temples and temple complexes, burial tumuli, a grand pagoda and an astronomical clock tower.

How central of a role will the religions of the region have? What sort of factors will players need to take into account when dealing with them?

China is pretty unique for it is common for the people of China to look at the principles of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism as complementary to each other. The religions do not compete with each other; people work elements of each of them into their daily life. We’ve reflected that in the game. You can pay homage to any of these three faiths (as well as to your ancestors) to bring great heroes from Chinese history to your city. Sun Tzu can come and help you when military is key, but in a different mission you might want to summon Confucius to help put the bureaucracy of the city in order.

Will there be any quick pick-up and play sorts of modes for those short on time?

Many of the historical missions are quick ones. Plus you can work on your progress through Chinese history a little bit at a time; each time you reopen the game it will pick up where you left off. We’re also being careful to make sure we have short multiplayer games (to complement the long ones where everyone has to finish their portion of the Great Wall before the Mongol Horde shows up).

Any secrets you want to let us in on regarding the game?

We’ve recently started significant multiplayer testing and we’re finding it is a lot of fun. Adding multiplayer to a traditionally single-player game doesn’t always work, but we’re very happy with Emperor as a multiplayer game right now. We’ve set it up so even though you are only controlling elements within your own city, there is a lot of interaction between the players. Emissaries arriving, spies lurking within your city to sniff out, trade relationships to negotiate, and maybe even troops to dispatch...

Thanks for your time and the info, Ed! If you want to learn more about Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, be sure to swing by our preview, or to visit the game's Official Website.