Elemental: War of Magic v1.09 was released last week. It’s been a challenging month or so since the release of the game. At this stage, the technical issues that affected the game at release have been largely resolved.
Now we move towards the next phase which is where we begin to address the game play based on feedback and our own experience.
Now as some people have probably noticed, most games released today are sequels to existing games. It’s difficult these days to launch a new franchise and Elemental has certainly been no exception. We don’t wait to wait for some future Elemental II to make sure the game lives up to its potential. And realistically, I don’t think we have that luxury.
Elemental: War of Magic is, ultimately a strategy game that lives in a fantasy/RPG style world. There is so much potential there to be tapped and having suffered the knocks of the initial launch, we want to make sure we do things right going forward.
During the later parts of the beta, I took over as the interim Producer (Project Manager) of Elemental: War of Magic. Typically, my role is that of Executive Producer and AI developer. But the sheer immensity of Elemental: War of Magic led us to conclude last Spring that I needed to get more directly involved. With v1.09 now out, it’s time for me to return to my traditional role on our games and pass the torch on to someone else.
After careful internal consideration, it was decided that we needed to bring in someone with a great deal of project management experience. This way, Elemental and our future games would have a dedicated, experienced, full-time Producer and I would be able to get back to running Stardock as a whole.
Tomorrow, we’ll be announcing the new Producer for Elemental and, in all likelihood, Stardock’s subsequent games that we develop. This is a person that is already well known and well respected in the PC gaming community and we’re very excited to be able to hire someone with his talent, experience, and qualifications to succeed me as the Producer on Elemental.
This will allow me to focus my time on design and AI on the game without neglecting the rest of Stardock. In turn, a full time experienced Producer on Elemental will ensure that subsequent updates and expansions get the kind of attention they need and deserve.
We are going to have Elemental: War of Magic v1.1 be the transition between he and I. After that, we’ll begin work on the first expansion pack for Elemental which will be given to all people who currently own Elemental: War of Magic. I won’t go into any details on that expansion since our new Producer will be heavily involved in the specifics of the design.
Our goal for Elemental to become a worthy successor to classic games like Master of Magic has not changed and we will be continuing to endeavor to make that a reality. Stay tuned!
And what a lot of help you've given to raise these issues, post bug report and contribute the development in general, two replies, and no posts in total.. WOOT!! way to go troll boy.
As much fun as it was watching Hellgate: London crash and burn -- after all, I wasn't going to get $50 of entertainment out of the game, so I contented myself with enjoying the cathartic spectacle of Flagship's high-profile demise -- it's not an experience I particularly wish to repeat, especially not with a game with as much potential as Elemental.
My Guess would be Keal. Thats the only name i can come up with when thinking about it.
But Steve Barcia or Bryan Reynolds would probably make my head explode. (playing MoO1 right now)
And there he goes. Fly little bird....fly and be free.......
Is it tomorrow enough yet ;~p
I'd enthusiastically support Kael as new Producer. As far as I am concerned (and from my limited perspective) he has demonstrated the requisite skill set for this particular job. Chief among those skills being of team leadership and project management. As well, he has shown enthusiasm and creative ability within the TBS and Fantasy genres (I find this as important as the rest). He has shown he has the gumption to stick with something over the long haul. And he has demonstrated ingenuity to tweak code and design, to achieve a desired result. He started with a story, got a team together, taught himself to code, tweaked the code and balanced the design to create a compelling game with loads of replayabilty. And while doing that, he designed the mod such that it was exceedingly mod friendly. Furthermore he does have professional experience in the field having been paid as Lead Designer on the standalone FfH game. And I'd be surprised if he doesn't have applicable leadership and management experience from his previous career.
So yeah, I think Kael would be great for the job. Jon Shafer rose from the mod ranks to lead the design of Civ5. I think Kael is just as worthy and skilled to lead the continued production of EWoM ++.
PS: And I am glad to read that Brad will still be deeply involved with design and AI.
Well that is good. However most games that do come out half done do have 'potential' but it is rarly met. If this was anyother company than Stardock I would 100% agree with freebird (Fly little birdie.) However since it is SD I will give them a year to improve this game which is now only begining to be fun but is no where near AOW or MOM. But after that year if the game is still in the 'beta' mode like it is today, then SD will be just like every other gaming company that puts out 1/2 done products which arn't worth the money we paid for it.
We should totally get Steve Barcia to come work on it!
Hello Frogboy,
I appreciate Stardocks work since a few years - played SOSE and Demigod alot and followed the development of War of Magic!
I now decided, after patch 1.08/1.09 is out, to purchase the game in the "limited edition" version to honor your work and that of your team.
My question: I read that people who purchased the game recently will get the first expansion for free. Till when this offer is still viable?
I will receive my copy in a few days from the retailer so I just wanted to know....
Thanks for a quick answer,
yours GeneralGonzo
I heard Richard Garriot was looking for something to do
Regarding the topic:
Paul Reiche or Jon Freemann have alot of experience with strategy games. Haven´t heard of them a long time though.....
OK as a former Ultima series enthusiast and then Ultima Online addict (5+ years, oy...) this one made me smile.
My money is on Kael too, which excites me. Frogboy once said:
This will be interesting to find out today. Kael to me is the most likely candidate, though it could easily be someone else.
Today is now so WHO IS IT!??!? Tell me! (Uses Jedi Mind Trick).
Who ever it is, lets give them a warm welcome. No booing like the Phili fans when they drafted McNabb.
Kael (as producer) and Fall from Heaven on Elemental engine (as Stardock’s subsequent games that we develop).
Hmmm... a back-handed compliment?
I'll be excited regardless of who the actual person is. It is just fun to speculate.
As long as he/she is a finisher then you and he/she will make an innovative and amazing team. Brad, you are a great "Starter" and have awesome vision for what could be. But you probably are already aware that your weakness is finishing that which you start. One must possess the fincancial resources to even begin in this industry and even if I had yours, I would not want to produce games. But like any food critic, although I am not a chef, I certainly can and do appreciate a quality meal. Thus I, like many others on these forums, that have no desire to make our own games, we do want very much to consume quality entertainment.
I disagree with the starter/finisher analogy. I understand where you are coming from - the idea that Elemental is a great concept, but hasn't sealed the deal just yet. But I feel this comes from Frogboy being very involved in the project, which hindered his ability to step back and see where things stood. Any project manager will greatly help the situation, just from the idea that the guy in charge of making solid business decisions and selling a good product can get the perspective he needs.
I love how involved Frogboy is, and I love how much he cares about all of his projects, but I really like the idea that he can act more like a CEO and less like one of us here fanboys.
Well, there you go:
https://www.stardock.com/about/newsitem.asp?id=2056
Kael.
Good choice.
Congrats to Kael.
Woot! Do I win a cookie?
http://news.bigdownload.com/2010/10/12/stardock-hires-fall-from-heaven-creator-to-become-new-elemental/
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