Greetings!
The ALPHA of Galactic Civilizations III is due in 17 days (March 27). I want to use this post as a way to set people’s expectations and, if anything, use this as a public service announcement that you should NOT join the Founder’s program if your goal is to play a video game for fun early. That is not the purpose of the Founder’s program.
Software goes through 5 distinct phases with varying definitions but below is my own personal version:
Phase 1: Prototype
This is where you have something that kind of sort of works. It may not work anywhere else but your machine and only the most rudimentary features are in. Right now, Stardock has 6 games in prototype of which only 2 have been vaguely mentioned – GalCiv III and Code-named Mars. Most non-insane studios do not talk about games until they are way beyond this point.
The purpose of the prototype is work through basic systems and set up the art pipeline.
Phase 2: Alpha
This is where the game will probably work on other people’s computers but it’s nothing that would remotely resemble a “fun” experience. The fact it works at all is a miracle and only the most basic features are working. Internally this stage means the art pipeline is now working (that is, you can get new art assets into the game) and the underlying engine is functioning. In my mind, the threshold that makes something an alpha is that it is possible to win (or lose) the game. That doesn’t mean it’s fun. Most of the features won’t be in. The purpose of the alpha is to see if the engine works on other machines and start solicitation core game mechanic feedback from members.
As an example: GalCiv II’s alpha was basically sprite based and utterly unplayable. Sins of a Solar Empire’s alpha didn’t have phase lanes. Demigod’s alpha still used Supreme Commander assets and UI.
Phase 3: Beta
Many studios these days have open betas. Betas tend to have most of their major features in and some gameplay in. How “fun” it is depends on how far along the process they are. Think of your favorite game and change a few variables about it and suddenly it’s not fun. Civilization IV becomes a lot different if it takes 50 turns to spit out a settler. Call of Duty is a totally different game if everyone has 1000 HP. You can’t judge what the final game will be like. But at least now it’s a game.
Phase 4: Gamma
At this stage, it’s a release candidate. You’re not really adding anything anymore. You just want to see if there are any bug issues that got missed. Some games are reviewed at this phase even because you can pass judgment at this stage.
Phase 5: Release
The game is out and will be judged.
In 20 years of game development, I’ve only shared alphas with the public one other time and that was with the original Galactic Civilizations for OS/2. It was extremely primitive.
Obviously, our biggest concern is that we’ll have people making judgments on the game itself at this stage. We’re over a year away from release. The opportunity here is to see how well the game runs for people but also to hear what long time GalCiv players think of different parts of the game.
The alpha phase is the opportunity to experiment and try out different ideas. In this alpha, we’re trying out new things such as a new type of technology tree, a single planetary manufacturing queue, a new UI for the planet screen, etc. Maybe these things will say. Maybe they won’t. That’s what the alpha will help us decide. That is the point of it.
So to emphasize the point again: Do not play the alpha expecting to have a fun game (though, ironically, the 1 on 1 multiplayer might have some bit of fun based on the playtesting I’ve seen). But do play it with an open mind to see what things you like, how well it works on your box, what things you think should be changed and share those things with us after giving your own concepts serious consideration.
Cheers!
As long as it's not gonna make PCs explode or overheat, I'm... willing to give it a try
Very exciting! I have a sister-in-law who can't wait for the final product when the time comes!
What we are not getting the game on march 27. We are going to start helping make the game on march 27. When you talk about the game not working that doesn't mean that the game isn't working that means that we are going to test it on multiple computers, and they really don't know what problems are actually going to show up.
I am confused there were two packages
Pne was for the alpha, beta, and any expansions and Dlc's that come with the game. This is really for galactic civilizations fans that really like the game.
Second was the beta.
Which one is being discontinued is what I want to know is being discontinued. This way if I give advice on this it is accurate information. I wouod think all they are selling at this moment is the beta,
The $39.99 (with $10 discount) was the Founders Edition, which included beta access. That is no longer available.
The Founders Elite version ($99.99) is what is only available, and includes alpha access.
EDIT; Nevermind!
Thanks for publishing the guidelines: I'll think about upgrading to join the alpha team. In the meanwhile, good luck to all the testers.
I think the last time Stardock patched a game and it caused overheating was GalCiv I.
Yes, I forgot to mention people can upgrade to the Founders Elite from the store page.
We’re over a year away from release.
Don't get me wrong, I love the series and want you guys to take as much time as needed to make the best game possible, but damn, still over a year away, seriously? I thought this would be a mid-2014 release. I know Stardock isn't that big of a company and yet you're devoting resources to prototyping SIX games at the same time? To me that makes no sense. Not even the huge "AAA" studios do that. GalCiv has got to be one of your biggest sellers, so it seems like you'd want to throw all your guys at it, knock it out of the park, then use those proceeds to fund your other games. Slow-and-steady does NOT always win the race. It has already been 8 years since GalCiv2 came out. I've already put my money down for GC3 and I don't regret that, but I do urge you to rethink how you're prioritizing your work.
Wait are you telling me that people making Fallen enchantress and Sins of a solar empire could have anything to contribute.
Don`t get me wrong, I have no personal experience whatsoever about working in a game studio, but I would imagine having a cohesive team is a major criteria for an efficient game development. I mean, for example, you can only have so many portrait artists before they start stepping on each other`s toes. Just throwing more people at the same project will not necessarily make it progress better, you would hit diminishing returns, this also depends on the stage the project is at.
Still I tend to agree 6 seems to be quite many but we do not know any details so hard to judge. Some might be small games aimed for Portable market. Some might just be prototype on paper with no actual software being worked on yet.
I know that at the time Stardock are working on
-GalCiv3
-The next elemental ( elemental 3? )
-Legendary heroes 2.0
-The Star Control reboot.
I'm curious how does Star control compare to Galactic civilizations in the kind of game it is. I would like to hear a contrasts and compare.
Well, I think the original Star Control was different but the game that is most well know is Star Control II, which is not at all like GalCiv. It is a pretty unique space adventure game. What StarDock is aiming for with their reboot is game in the same spirit as SC II.
There is a free remake of the original SC II game that is known as Ur-Quan masters. Look it up, its really good. There is a HD version, ive been playing it and its great fun and addictive.
Are you going to provide a list of tools you would like use to use for bugs documentation, pre alpha release?
Keep in mind that Stardock is a publishing house that shares it's staff with other companies in the Stardock Co-operative Empire of Awesomeness. The six games in prototype at the moment will be across several studio's, not entirely in house.
Fate,
By the sound of it, these are all in house. The problem is that it may take (numbers out of my ass) 20 man-years to make a game, but there are constraints on how those man-years can be used. You can't throw 20 guys at it and be done in a year, since some parts have to wait for other things to be done first. It might take 2 guys a year and a half each to get the engine stable (since they're using a custom engine developed in-house), then the other programmers need a year or so to work on all the objects that need to work within that engine framework - but they can't start until the engine is relatively stable. Throw in the art assets (but you may not know what you need art *for* until other people have gotten to a certain point), etc. Add iteration steps (programming for one step finds a flaw that needs to be addressed elsewhere) and the delays add up.
The point of that (which is probably a painfully bad description, since I can barely program my microwave's clock) is that the engine programmers are only working on the project part time - after they've passed off to the other teams, they can spend their time doing the groundwork for the next project. Same with the AI programmers, artists, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the GalCiv 3 project started 3 years before they mentioned anything publicly.
As a reference point, take the World of Warcraft team. Blizzard has said they have people working on the *next* expansion, when the current expansion under development is still 6-9 months from release. It's a good bet that next expansion won't even be publicly announced for 2 years or more.
Star Control is more of a 'ship RPG' kind of thing if that makes sense? SC2 is definietly worth taking a look at if you can get it on GOG.
SC2 has a similar kind of funny/dark humor that GC2 does as well
I would not call it a RPG, it lacks most key elements of what makes a RPG. I would call it simply a Space adventure game, but its very unique in design. The humor is kind of similar to the one in GalCiv but SC2 is way more over the top.
And I would not recommend getting SC2 on GOG, Get Ur-Quan Masters HD for Free, it is the same game but updated with many extras such as excellent Voice over on all the dialogues, hi res graphics and higher quality music.
"Making things are hard, breaking things are easy." quoting me.
I bet you will understand and appreciate there work more once you see the difference between the Alpha and Beta. If we could see even a time lapse video of what a day in stardock is like, we would probably be in awe.
DARCA
It's not so simple to say "throw all your guys at it". There are a lot of factors going on, and we've been clear from the start that GCIII will be a while before the final release is out.
Don't taunt me! Vile fiend!
Seriously though you're so lucky to work at Stardock.
I do hope you wil be sending all founders a mail with details witch should include atleast:
- download instructions + key (<- the key being the most important part here )
- a bug and suggestion submition form (template) and location where to donate
- for all the great, friendly founders unneaded behaviour guidelines...
- itteration updates per week
It's true. Some tasks in developement can be easiily done in parallel and throwing more people at it will get you there faster. Other tasks are not, and this famous quote applies:
"adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" - The Mythical Man Month
People who are doing something like basic design or prototyping for a future game are not necessarily people that would be of any use in the Galciv project as it currently stands, as that work was already done. Writers are like that. If the storyline and dialog is already written, what is a writer going to do now? Better to put them where they can be useful.
There's other cases where B can't be started until A is finished, and you don't want the team that does B twiddling their thumbs doing nothing waiting for A.
Incidentally, this is also one of the major causes of day 1 DLC. What happens is when a game gets closer to release, more and more people that were on the project have nothing to do. Content producers, artists, and the like have no value once the game goes into the final testing phase, as it has to be *done* by that point so it can be prepared for release & certification (on consoles). So do you lay them off, put them on another project, or send them to work making DLC instead?
Hey, after the release debacle that was Elemental: War of Magic, I am perfectly happy with Stardock taking their sweet time until GalCiv3 is damn near perfect! That's why I bought the Elite version too, so I can help in some small part to ensure we get a great game that the PC gamer community swoons over when launch day finally does arrive.
Also, I don't like the Elemental universe at all. I was given all the expansions free and gave them all a shot, but they bore me. However, there are people who LOVE those games. So it makes perfect sense to me to have multiple revenue streams from different types of gamers and fans. I don't see any logic in throwing all of ones eggs in a single basket.
So true. If they did they prob would not exist anymore.
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