Welcome back, and a thousand praises to you, Your Majesty!
This is the third My Lovely Empress dev log from the teams at Game Changer and Neon Doctrine. We hope that this series of behind-the-scenes peeks at the process of game development gets you excited for when My Lovely Empress launches on Steam, Switch, and Xbox later this year!
In case you missed out on our previous dev log, check it out here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/2052990/announcements/detail/4232902400578214033
Today we wanted to try something a little different. On our last two logs, we went into the creation of the Crimson Empire and the man who rules it, Emperor Hong. However, an emperor’s power is only as strong as the relationships he shares with his servants, supporters, and his empress, and today we would like to share the inspirations that went into the creation of these relationships, as explained by GameChanger’s narrative designer, Isaac.
First and foremost is Emperor Hong’s relationships with his wife, Empress Xiang, and his mother, the Empress Dowager Wang, the two great pillars of his life, both cruelly snatched away by the hands of fate.
Hong and Xiang’s relationship was primarily inspired by a beloved pastime of Southeast Asia, the Asian drama such as Indonesian soap operas, Chinese period dramas, and even the occasional war epic like 2008’s Red Cliff, whose Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao led to the creation of Hong and Xiang as characters. These stories adore their cheesy nicknames as much as the leads adore each other, heavily weaving them into their tales of star-crossed lovers and hopeless romantics. Thus, Hong and Xiang constantly refer to each other as “My Golden Sun” and “My White Moon’ respectively with extra servings of cheese; a homage to the dramas that continue to inspire GameChanger to this day.
For Hong and his relationship with his mother Wang however, it was history itself that provided the blueprint, with pre-colonial Indonesia’s Majapahit empire having Queen Tribhuwana creating a stable, peaceful rule while preparing her son the future King Hayam Wuruk for his own reign. In that same vein, Wang in My Lovely Empress raises the Crimson Empire from the ashes of the war waged by her husband, Khan, establishing a prosperous nation and ruling for decades in order for her son, Hong, to start with the biggest advantage he could ever ask for. That being said, Hong’s own behavior as a mama’s boy might have been inspired by something a little more modern and closer to home!
But outside of Hong’s immediate family (that he’s about to lose!) are even more relationships that give him strength—those with his subjects, both human and not.
When it came to creating the Crimson Empire’s various internal factions and their leaders, the Three Kingdoms period as well as the Ming dynasty and their contemporaries in Asia served as examples for the Crimson Empire to be based off. In these societies, the Nobles, the Soldiers, the Traders, and the Commoners served as the pillars of their governments, and so they act as the primary four factions of the Crimson Empire as well, each with a leader to put a face to them — Chao, the empire’s greatest warrior for the Soldiers, Kung, Hong’s childhood friend for the Traders, Chen, Xiang’s uncle and the patriarch of the oldest noble house for the Nobles, and Han, a humble but respected priest, as the voice of the Commoners.
For Hong’s more monstrous servants however, GameChanger searched across various Asian myths and legends to create the roster that would become My Lovely Empress’ Yaoguai. Many monsters were chosen due to their fame among modern audiences and pop culture, such as Gumiho being a fox spirit, but others still were chosen for their unique qualities that allowed us to play around with their designs.
One such legend and a favorite of ours was the Kuntilanak, the main inspiration for Kunti and the infamous Indonesian vengeful spirit. Creating Kunti took both Isaac and a second writer, Bintang, to nail Kunti’s insatiable thirst for bloody vengeance, and including the Kuntilanak’s iconic traits within her dialogue, such as her piercing laugh that goes “Hihihihihi!”, without losing focus on humanizing the poor, aggrieved woman hiding underneath the monster.
We hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into My Lovely Empress’ development. My Lovely Empress releases this August 2024, on Switch, Xbox, and Steam!
Wishlist it here!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2052990?utm_source=homepage&utm_campaign=devlog&utm_medium=steam
~ GameChanger Studio and Neon Doctrine 👑
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