https://store.steampowered.com/app/2716930/The_Emperor_and_State/
The early access version of The Emperor and State is coming soon! It is still in development, and we hope to launch it in the near future. Feel free to add the game to your wishlist↑.
English localization is in progress. The Official Release version will support English. Please stay tuned!
Since the Prologue of "The Emperor and State," has been launched for over two years, it's inevitable that people will compare it with other existing games on the market, with the classic Dos game "Emperor" often being mentioned. In fact, the concept for "The Emperor and State" gameplay dates back more than twenty years ago...
From Dos "Emperor" to "The Emperor and State"
Dos "Emperor" was one of my favorite games during my high school years. I didn't play computer games much starting from my senior year of high school due to heavy academic workload, but during the final review stage of my senior year, as I reviewed ancient Chinese history, scenes of tax reforms, military changes, rise and fall patterns, and imperial figures unfolded in my mind, much like the contents that appeared in Dos "Emperor". The changes in the territory maps of various dynasties constantly stirred up memories of the game scenes.
I always fantasized about enriching the content of Dos "Emperor". How great would it be if the ministers in the game had their own portraits! How wonderful would it be if aspects like taxation, military, and national policies could influence the game! How vivid would it be if the relationships between characters were as lively as in the "Taikou Risshiden" series! Under pressure, I couldn't help but burst out, and drafted a simple plan. From maps to internal governance structure, from feature design to prospects... More than twenty years later, this dream finally had a name: "The Emperor and State"... In a sense, the development of this game has spanned more than twenty years...
From Art to Programming
As mentioned earlier, I was previously a 3D character designer at a online game company. When I decided to make this game myself, I spent a month summarizing and organizing all my thoughts about the game, establishing the basic framework, and trying out the logic between the main values.
Then came the implementation, which required writing code and using game engines. This step was actually very difficult for me. At 35, I was already beyond the age suitable for many professions, and programming was one of them. Moreover, English had always been my worst subject, far behind the others! To be honest, I had no confidence at the beginning. The reality was that I didn't have the funds to hire professional programmers to work on an independent game for a long time, and on the other hand, I thought that if I, with my level of English, could write a decent program, it would be a very exciting, legendary, and extremely inspiring thing for me. It was like a donkey with a carrot hanging in front of it, and with no other option, I took that step.
From art to programming, from a career driven by emotion to one driven by rationality, it can be said to be a completely different transition between two different ways of thinking and working experiences. Thanks to Unity, which is a relatively low-threshold and effective engine, every bit of effort put in brought results. Clicking on a box and popping up a window, a seemingly ordinary step in the game, but the sense of achievement when completed by oneself was truly powerful. This joy of achievement supported me in piecing together a simple playable slice. Then came the process of writing code... Thanks to various tutorials, guidance from kind netizens, and help from AI tools, "The Emperor and State" finally took shape.
However, during the development process, I often struggled to find and fix bugs: the logic seemed fine, but the program kept throwing errors. But with each step of exploration, the problem would eventually be found. It reminded me of a sentence I once saw by chance when I was in school, "Those who have never experienced the pain of solving an equation cannot understand the joy of solving it." Every bug, no matter how elusive, eventually has an answer. The feeling of clarity when the mysterious veil is lifted is an unparalleled experience.
From Art to Design
Since planning this game, the richness of the content has never been a concern for me. The theme of "emperors" is broad but concrete, with many elements that can be added, such as technology, economy, geography, politics, history, society, religion, military, and even espionage, martial arts, ethics, and romance... It's easy to diverge. In the community, in comments, and in discussion groups, players have been actively giving suggestions and providing many ideas. In terms of predecessors, there's the DOS "Emperor" and games from Paradox Interactive, the Civilization series, which can be used as references. These rich contents are both valuable resources and challenges for planning. Therefore, I need to find a balance among many elements, make trade-offs between authenticity and playability, summarize the gameplay, and ensure the overall integrity of the game.
Of course, this is my first time planning a game from start to finish, so there have been many issues. For example, the interrelation of national status was overly complex and couldn't be intuitively felt by players; there were also problems where I added many elements without reasonable deductions... These were issues I expected to have but couldn't ultimately avoid, and they increased the workload and difficulty of adjustments later on. Additionally, the lack of experience in providing guidance for beginners and in providing positive feedback also contributed to these problems, which will need further improvement in future development.
From Now to the Future
The development progress of "The Emperor and State" can be said to still be in the process of refining the architecture, with many tasks to be done every day. However, it will release the 0.3 Early Access version in the near future, and I don't want to make excuses, but the reason is money. I find the relationship between "money" and "work" interesting when developing an indie game. For most people, they work to earn money, but I earn money to keep this job.
I'm very grateful for this situation because it allows me to experience what others have to spend money to buy directly, which is also a kind of luck! I think maybe other indie game developers have the same experience; otherwise, why would everyone be willing to work so hard in this high-risk industry? The experience of all the work involved, including planning, programming, and art, although tedious and difficult, satisfies me. Perhaps it's because in the process of developing games, I can realize all my ideas, or at least try to realize them...
-TuTu
Hope you can leave valuable opinions and suggestions in the Steam community. And welcome to add the game to your wishlist, that really helped me a lot:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2716930/