Welcome to the first dev log from the teams at GameChanger Studio and Neon Doctrine!
We hope that this series of humble musings will get you enthused for the release of the third (!) game in the My Lovely Series, My Lovely Empress. My Lovely Empress will launch on Steam, Switch, and Xbox later this year. Be sure to follow us on social media and wishlist us on Steam.
Over the last 8 years, GameChanger studio has been working on the My Lovely Series, games that explore the darker side of traditionally positive relationships. We started with My Lovely Daughter — a game that dissected the relationship between a father and his dying daughter which was largely inspired by Germanic fairy tales and historical obsession with alchemy. For My Lovely Wife, we delved into the interconnection between love, lust, intimacy, and marriage in a gothic Victorian setting with fashionable salons, secretive houses of ill repute. While these games differed in terms of settings, both had a very Westernized setting and as an Indonesian studio, we wanted to try something that would be very different for our fans and a little more familiar to us.
The Crimson Empire is both a love letter to Asian history and culture, but also a searing gaze of the dangers when all-encompassing grief consumes the person at the very top of society. What happens to a kingdom when the king breaks bad? That will be up to you, and your management of the Crimson Empire.
We used Three Kingdoms and Jin dynasty styles from ancient China coupled with our own flair to create a fantasy empire that is at once familiar and unique. Fans of Chinese history will immediately see similarities between the Emperor’s Palace and the Forbidden City, though we doubt the Forbidden City has a demonic summoning chamber of its own! We also emulated a Chinese watercolor style for the game’s art, to establish a more authentic East Asian feeling.
The Crimson Empire is loosely based on the Jin Dynasty in the aftermath of a civil war that weakened and almost destroyed the nation. Our protagonist, Emperor Hong, inherits an empire reforged by the steely will of his mother the Empress Dowager Wang. Her sudden and unexpected death leaves her son and his betrothed Empress Xiang to inherit the complexities of a newly forged kingdom.
My Lovely Empress’ lead Game Director Roderick explains “the start of My Lovely Empress is like having a trusted coworker leave in the middle of a project that you were building together. Suddenly you have to be responsible for all of the unfinished work they left behind and manage your own tasks.”
This is because a newly peaceful empire is not a truly peaceful empire. There’s plenty of bad blood between its factions you will need to manage, and keeping everyone happy all the time is simply not possible. Balancing the needs of the factions will be a must for creating a strong empire, but they will often want different things. Balancing rewards and disappointment, carrot and stick, will be essential to maintaining a healthy nation.
There there’s also the universal problem of having to deal with your neighbors, and the Crimson Empire has plenty of those. At the beginning of the game the Crimson Empire sees its borders with its neighboring countries closed. They have grown tired of the endless strife within the empire and decided to leave them be. Flanked by all manner of governments including the regal Mizujima and the fearsome Aurag, it’s up to a wise emperor to navigate the intricacies of diplomatic relations and make allies out of former enemies.
So what do you think, are you ready to step into the shoes of Emperor Hong?
Our next dev log will be introducing you to our hapless protagonist Emperor Hong, as well as the darker side of the Crimson Empire. After all, it wouldn’t be a My Lovely game without some blood and dark magic.
~ GameChanger Studio and Neon Doctrine 🖤💜
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