: First, please introduce yourself and give a little background about yourself and Magitech in the gaming industry?
Ming-Sheng Lee: My name is Ming-Sheng Lee and I'm the director of the project. I've been worked a few projects with Magitech in the past 10 years. I start playing games in the early 80's where Apple II (6502) was my first computer and have to use an audio tape to load in a game in size of 10K. Magitech has been in the industry for more than 10 years as well. In Magitech, we believe that a fun game is always more important than a good looking game.

: Please tell us about Strength & Honour, and why you decided to make your next title after Takeda take place during the Roman Empire?
Ming-Sheng Lee: Empire ruling is one of the games I always want to make back to the 80's, a game that will simulate the dynasties through history. After the launch of Takeda, the team wants to make a game that combines battles and diplomacy together, a game that has richer content than just expanding and conquering. Strength & Honour has a bit of everything that you need to run an empire: government / resource / and army. Basically, you assign the governors to run the city, the city will generate gold and then you use gold to build your army, but using army alone might not be enough to success, you also need diplomats and assassins to help you one way or the other.

: We were aware that you were having trouble finding a publisher--Has one been found, and if so, who will be publishing this title in North America? In Europe and elsewhere?
Ming-Sheng Lee: Yes, S&H is a 100% self-funded project so we don't have a publisher to back us up. There is several publishers show interest in this game but we couldn't announce it until a deal has been signed.

: What are some of the unique features in Strength & Honour that can't be seen in any other game today?
Ming-Sheng Lee: The most unique feature in S&H I would say is the rebelling system. We have put quite a bit of effort in making the characters to react more realistically to the players ruling: a governor would demand a self-governing state if he/she is ambitioned, a general will not work for an unpopular minister, and a dishonored ruler will attract more assassin to assassinate him/her.

We also have a philosophy system that could be unique to other games. Players can promote difference philosophy influence different results in a city: some make people always happy but don't work much; some give you gold but getting less honorable generals.

: When do you expect Strength & Honour will be released?
Ming-Sheng Lee: It really depends on publishers but we are expecting sometime Q2 or Q3 2004.

: Are there plans to make an expansion or a sequel to Strength & Honour? If so, what would it be called?
Ming-Sheng Lee: We'd like to make expansions for S&H mostly in adding new empire settings and maybe adding more political features.

: How does the World Mode system work for Strength & Honour? Is it similar to Total War?
Ming-Sheng Lee: The World Mode system works more like civ where you can build armies and move them around the map. When two armies engage, it brings the battle into a fairly detailed full scale Battle Mode. There are cities on the map for players to conquer or to manage. There is also a palace for players to recruit special guests (assassin and diplomats) or plot diplomatic treaties with other nations.

: How does the Battle Mode system work? Will players be able to build additional reinforcements on the battlefield? Will structures/buildings be available in the Battle Mode?
Ming-Sheng Lee: The Battle Mode works Takeda or TTW where you can control up to twelve divisions in a 3D terrain battlefield. Players can send detachments or set ambushes but not bring additional divisions from outside as reinforcements. There are no buildings available in the battles.

: Do you believe Strength & Honour is on par with current strategy games being released today?
Ming-Sheng Lee: I believe S&H is not a RTS game in a way of collect - built - kill style. It has its own flavor in the strategy game genre.

: Finally, does Magitech have any plans to develop cross-platform games (available on console systems) or any games outside of the strategy genre?
Ming-Sheng Lee: No we don't have plans to develop cross-platform games in the near future but we do consider making games other than strategy genre.

: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!