Basic concept Jade Empire was developed by
BioWare, after it earned critical and commercial success with ''
Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, RPGs based on pre-existing Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars'' fictional universes.
Design Art director Matt Goldman took inspiration from multiple eras of China's history when designing various aspects of the world, focusing between the
Han and
Ming dynasties. The environments were modeled on landscape artwork from the
Song dynasty, while the color palette drew from the green-hued art of the
Tang dynasty. For ancient artifacts based in an ancient civilization, Goldman drew inspiration from bronze artifacts dating from the
Shang and
Zhou periods. The wild areas were directly inspired by the
Huangshan region. Different regions of the game were designed to reflect the differing social classes present in the Jade Empire. In addition to its Chinese inspiration, Goldman drew styling elements for both clothing and scenery from
Japan,
Thailand,
Tibet, the
Khmer Empire, and unspecified areas of South and West Asia. The monsters, while taking inspiration from brief descriptions in Asian literature, were mostly original creations for the game's world. Speaking of his experience on the game years later, Goldman described "fond memories" of the Canada-based development team working to create an Asian epic. Creating the new combat system was one of the biggest challenges when developing the gameplay systems. Rather than the rule and turn-based combat of their earlier titles, the team wanted combat in
Jade Empire to be in real-time, as the slower turn-based combat of their earlier works did not fit into its planned setting. The game's
martial arts were based on a variety of real-life styles, including
karate,
aikido and
capoeira. Implementing the combat system required creating a number of systems to handle combat without relying on pre-programmed fight choreography. A key element of the design was that managing character statistics was kept low-key so as not to interfere with the player's experience. The Dragonfly mini-game was designed by assistant producer Sheldon Carter. Carter based the mini-game on classic arcade top-down shooters such as
Xevious and
1942. Based on their experience with
Knights of the Old Republic, the team developed
Jade Empire using a new graphics engine. As part of the lighting system, the team used
rim lighting to pick out the edges of characters and illuminate them using a local light source, creating a dynamic lighting effect to make characters look alive. A form of pixel flare, in which pixels reflect more light in bright conditions, was used to the same effect for areas in bright sunlight or the unrealistic lighting of parts of Heaven. The user interface, map and journal systems were all improved based on those used in
Knights of the Old Republic to promote player comfort. The game was the first BioWare game to use
motion capture for all human elements, contrasting with their work on
Knights of the Old Republic, which was done using hand animation. The use of motion capture was intended to promote a sense of realism. The decision to use motion capture was influenced by the large number of animations required for combat actions. For several enemy characters, the staff used hand animation. When creating the prototype "Deo" fighting style, lead animator Deo Perez drew inspiration from a number of martial arts masters from movies including
Bruce Lee,
Jackie Chan,
Jet Li and
Michelle Yeoh. Further refinement was done by the motion capture actors. Each style was based on a single real-life martial arts style.
Writing While their previous work on other licenses had been described as "fun" experiences, BioWare staff were keen to work on an original world and storyline without any creative restrictions. The team quickly decided not to set the game in historical China, wanting the freedom to include fantasy elements, leading to them creating a world based on Chinese mythology. According to lead writers Luke Kristjanson and Mike Laidlaw, they used its inspiration to create a world that felt alive, with a variety of locals and social norms coexisting. Like BioWare's previous RPGs, its main focus was on telling a story, but a lot of the additional lore and finer detail was made optional so players would feel a degree of freedom in how they explored the story. Dialogue was intended to blend BioWare's established writing style with the game's Eastern influences. The game's morality system was designed to be an evolution and refinement of that used in
Knights of the Old Republic. The menu-based dialogue choice system was carried over directly from
Knights of the Old Republic. The inspirations for the game's plot included the
Classic Chinese Novels Outlaws of the Marsh,
Romance of the Three Kingdoms and
Journey to the West, in addition to
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and more recent works such as
The Deer and the Cauldron,
Lone Wolf and Cub and
Bridge of Birds. They also drew inspiration from
Wuxia and samurai movies including
Seven Samurai,
Fist of Legend,
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
Hero,
Shaolin Dolemite and
The Five Fingers of Death. The character Black Whirlwind was a homage by Laidlaw to
Li Kui, a main character from
Outlaws of the Marsh. Henpecked Hou followed a tradition in BioWare titles of including a character for comic relief, in addition to playing on Chinese narrative stereotypes. A notable side character is Sir Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard, a
musket-wielding explorer from a foreign land used for comic relief. The character was generally influenced by the explorers of Medieval Europe who had historically been to China. While much of the script is in English, many characters in the game speak Tho Fan, a 2,500-word Asian-style
constructed language translated for players using English subtitles. Similar to the development of the
Elvish languages for
The Lord of the Rings, Tho Fan was developed to add to the personality, realism and immersion of to the setting of
Jade Empire. The team chose not to use a real-world Asian language as
Jade Empire was set in a fantasy world despite its Asian influence, with Tho Fan being used to add a level of exoticism for players. To create Tho Fan, BioWare contacted the linguistics department of the nearby
University of Alberta; one of those who responded was Wolf Wikeley, then a student at the University with a master's degree in
psycholinguistics and a candidate for a
PhD in phonology. When Wikeley—a fan of Japanese anime and video games—was interviewed, he spoke several sentences in fluent fictional languages from various films and TV shows, impressing the BioWare staff and earning him the job. The language, according to Wikeley, relies on soft sounds and most closely resembles
Mongolian. When planning the new language, Wikeley asked the developers what temperament the people of the Jade Empire had, as it would impact the sound and delivery of the words. After this is worked on creating a basic dictionary based on word substitution, although some words were inside jokes such as "wankaawayi" (director), which referenced
Hong Kong filmmaker
Wong Kar-wai. Once the dictionary was complete, Wikeley set about creating unique grammar and language rules, such as the verb "to be" not existing, so it would not make the typical mistake of fictional languages of following the rules of a real language. Initially intended to be a lower class language denoting humility, a late change to the plot made Tho Fan a language of the Jade Empire's elite, turning its "deferential softness" into a mark of elegance.
Audio (pictured 2009), was written to emulate Eastern musical styles while blending it with Western elements. The musical score of
Jade Empire was composed by
Jack Wall, who had previously worked on
Myst III: Exile and
its sequel. Wall was first approached by an audio manager at BioWare, with Wall later sending a demo tape, then later created a piece used in the game's first trailer. Wall decided to pursue the job because of his liking for BioWare's previous games, and accredited the trailer music with successfully getting the job of composer. Wall worked on the game from January 2004 to February 2005, coming in during the game's early development. From an early stage, Wall decided to create an orchestral rather than synthetic soundtrack, aiming for an "East meets West" aesthetic. A key member of staff whom Wall hired early on was Zhiming Han, a Chinese music consultant who was instrumental in maintaining the authentic sound of the score. Zhiming brought in several native Chinese musicians to perform the score, and helped by translating Wall's score into Chinese musical notation for the performers. The score was intended to feel generally Asian, incorporating traditional Chinese and Japanese percussion and wind instruments. Wall estimated that he composed over 90 minutes of music, ranging from environmental to cutscene-specific tracks, not including additional arrangements for shorter cutscenes by BioWare staff. A soundtrack album was released in 2005. Every line of dialogue in the game, both English and Tho Fan, was fully voiced; Zeschuk and Martens estimated in different interviews that the recorded script came to over 320,000 words. The character of Dawn Star had 20,000 lines dedicated to her. One of the notable cast members was
Nathan Fillion, whose role as Gao the Lesser was one of his earliest video game acting jobs. According to him, the script was written in a style he compared to broken English. When he talked with other actors on the project after the game was completed, he realized that they had rewritten the script into conventional English. He stated in 2017 that he would enjoy redoing those lines so they were easier to understand. Another notable cast member was British actor
John Cleese, who voiced Sir Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom. Cleese became involved due to him and his agent being in Canada at the time voice recording was taking place. Upon being approached, Cleese was willing, and recorded all the character's lines during a single afternoon. ==Release==