Hyeong-Jin Kim, the production team head for "Lineage II", came up with the basic concept for the game in early 2000. Development happened in October–November of the same year. Kim and producer James Bae have stated that their reasons for developing a prequel for "Lineage" rather than a sequel is that ""Lineage" will continue to be updated as a game", and that "by working on its past, we will not be risking conflict with the direction of updates that "Lineage" will take in the future".