Mainland China’s Object Software talks with GameZone about its latest title, Dragon Throne
By Michael Lafferty

In 1995, Object Software opened the doors of its Beijing studio on Mainland China, and began its legacy in the software-publishing industry. From the start, the company was making strides few others had. The first project was a conversion of a horseracing game, Micro League Management’s Hooves of Thunder, from DOS to Windows. The title was the first program developed in Mainland China to ever be released in the U.S. market.

Sport Pinball and Metal Knight followed Hooves. In March of 2001, Eidos Interactive released Fate of the Dragon, a real-time strategy game set in second-century China. The game introduced new elements to the civilization genre and received critical acclaim.

Now Object Software is releasing, through Strategy First, Dragon Throne: Battle of Red Cliffs – a game which combines RTS and role-playing elements, and which can be viewed as the successor to Fate of the Dragon.

Persy Zhang, executive director at Object Software, took time to talk with GameZone about his company and Dragon Throne.

Question: Can you give us a little background information on Dragon Throne: Battle of Red Cliffs, such as the inspiration behind it and how long this project has been in development.

Zhang: “We started developing Dragon Throne: Battle of Red Cliffs in February 2001, right after we completed the English version of Fate of the Dragon to which Dragon Throne is a follow-up version. Fate of the Dragon was very successful in China and we got some very good reviews in the UK and France but we did get some feedback from forums and our customers (Fate was released in December 2000 in mainland China). These comments gave us lots of help in designing Dragon Throne. It took us about a year to finish the game, compared with Fate of the Dragon, which took two years. This is quite ‘fast.’ “

Q: What do you feel is the most important aspect of developing a real-time strategy game? How does Dragon Throne fit into that concept?

Zhang: “There are lots of important elements that need to be considered to develop a RTS game, but to make a successful RTS game you have to focus on one-to-two aspects and make them outstanding. I have to say there is not only one way to make a good game, but we chose to combine RPG elements into an RTS game. You will find there are over 300 Generals in the game and lots of them are well known in ancient Chinese history. In the game, heroes are not only a stronger unit but are also a real General. Their ability will affect the attributes of their soldiers.”

Q: What features will set Dragon Throne apart from other similar games within the genre?

Zhang: “I think the most important features are:

“RPG factors: over 300 well-known heroes in history with different skills can be controlled in the game; you can also distribute the skill points of a hero after he is upgraded.

“Multi-scenario system: it not only avoids the ‘tank-rush’ but also makes ‘city-defense’ and ‘city-attacking’ totally different types of battle in the game. Compared with the traditional RTS game where a battle is a war between soldiers from a corner of the scenario against soldiers from the other corner of the scenario, this is much closer to a real war.

“Profession-transference system” this system enables a laborer to be trained as a sergeant. He can then revert to being a laborer again and do his original work if needed. Wars consume a large quantity of supplies and result in a lack of supply of materials. If this becomes the case, you can command your sergeants to deal with production work through the profession-transference system. The collection of resources and production will then accelerate. This system makes it possible for you to restore production and supplies quickly, re-organize your military forces and turn around a negative situation or even win despite facing difficulties at an earlier stage. This Profession-transference system actually existed at the time in China and was called ‘Military Farming.’ “

Q: The release about the game talks about a multi-map system. Please explain how that concept came into being? Will this make the player interface easier to navigate through, or more challenging? On the same note, is this the kind of game that will appeal to beginners in the genre, or the more experienced player?

Zhang: “We came up with this idea because in the Three Kingdoms period, cities were very important and a special concept needed to be considered to reflect that. Lots of wars were actually a ‘city-defense war’ or a ‘city-attacking war.’ A campaign, in most cases, was a war between several cities. To fulfill this, we needed a territory map with some cities in that map, and the city building as a representative icon of another scenario. Click on that building and you can enter that scenario and you can also command your troops to enter or cross through a city building. You can focus on city developing, management and defense in the city scenario, just like in a real world. This is very clear and easy to understand.”

Q: Considering this is a historically set game, have actual events been drawn from for the game, or is the time period merely the setting for the imagination of the designers?

Zhang: “Missions are designed according to historical events, but to replay history or change it is your challenge.”

Q: What has been the most challenging part of creating this game? What has presented the greatest challenge?

Zhang: “Because this is a follow-up version of Fate of the Dragon we have not met any big problems in finishing the game. I think the most challenging part in developing this game has been to balance it. The RPG element is very important in the game, it is also ‘poison’ to the game balance. In some missions you need to complete the objectives with just a few heroes, but if heroes are too strong they will make soldiers redundant. In Dragon Throne, you will find you cannot only conquer the world with a mass number of soldiers but also with several high level heroes.”

Q: Tell us a little about your company. What is the mission statement? What do you strive for in the creation of titles?

Zhang: “Our mission statement is to consistently produce entertainment software titles of the highest standard and in so doing to establish a unique reputation amongst independent developers based in China.

“In the creation of our titles we are always seeking to put together a combination of a great story with great gameplay and graphics. We want the game buying public to know that if our name is on the box it is going to be great game that will give them many hours of gaming pleasure.”

Q: What is the status of game development companies in China? Is it a growing industry?

Zhang: “There are hundreds of small studios in the country, but most of them are too small to survive.  The industry is growing fast, especially online games.”

Q: You achieved a lot of success with the Fate of the Dragon program – how do you build on that?

Zhang: “We want to build up a name as a development house that specializes in Chinese historical content. We feel, as we are located in Beijing, we are uniquely placed to do this.

“We think Fate of the Dragon has shown that there is a good level of interest in Chinese history around the world. This should not be all that much of a surprise as few nations have a recorded history that goes back 5,000 years. It also needs to be remembered that for long periods during this history, China’s civilization was the most advanced in the world.

“Our next game, Prince of Qin, is an RPG set in around 210 BC at the end of the Qin Dynasty and it will bring to life such world famous historical wonders as the Great Wall and the First Qin Emperor’s Tomb at Xian guarded by the terracotta warriors and horses.

“We are also working on Fate of the Dragon 2 which will be a 3D RTS and will be released in the first quarter of 2003.”

Q: What do you envision as the future of PC gaming?

Zhang: “PC games will exist for a long time together with console games, but I think games for multi-platforms will be the trend of game developing in the future.”  

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