Elemental posts

Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has been making the interview rounds on several web sites talking about the sale of its Impulse PC game download business to GameStop. Destructoid chatted with Wardell about how he sees the future of gaming in general and he seems very optimistic.

He states, "This is the greatest time in gaming since I've been into games. I mean think about the past, let's say, 18 months. If you'd look at the releases of interesting things, it's so cool!" He talks about how social gaming and handheld gaming have expanded but also mentions the PC exclusive title Minecraft. ""I mean look at Minecraft, right? Would Minecraft have been possible 5 years ago? This is the greatest time in gaming history, and we get to be part of it. And [...] the problem is I have a hard time sleeping because I don't want to miss anything!"

It's been another busy day. How many of you are now fully immersed in playing Dragon Age 2 right now? Make sure to check on our review of the game in the near future.

• Blizzard has pulled the 1.3 beta patch for StarCraft II off its public test server until further notice.
• Speaking of StarCraft II, Blizzard execs played the game on Monday at the NASDAQ stock market.
• Check out some of the new creatures you will have to fight in Elemental Fallen Enchantress.
• Homefront's single player campaign is just five hours long. Hopefully they are a fun five hours to play.
• Check out the side-by-side graphics for the PC and Xbox 360 demo versions of Crysis 2.
• AMD launched its $700 high end Radeon HD 6990 graphics card today. Pricey.

This developer diary for the new standalone Elemental expansion may interest those that were put off by the rather rough state of Stardock's latest release. Detailing the changes being made in Fallen Enchantress, it goes in-depth with the new tactical combat system and shows off the new massive boss-like elemental lords. Of note is that combat is now dictated by initiative, rather than turns per side. The elemental lord Morian, Ruin of Summer is also present, and he lays the beat down on some poor foot soldiers.

Download Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Dev Diary #1
Check out all Elemental: Fallen Enchantress downloads

Is it just us or were the Super Bowl TV commercials mostly crappy this year? We like the "six year old Darth Vader Volkswagen" ad and some of the movie trailers but that's about it.

• Steam has new automatic updates available for download for Magicka and Team Fortress 2.
• The Elemental: War of Magic "Design a Quest" contest has picked its five finalists for the general public to vote on.
• Blizzard wants people to "like" its official Diablo Facebook page; it will be showing off new screenshots of Diablo III the more "likes" it gets up to 1 million.
• GameFly, which purchased Shacknews back in 2009, has now apparently purchased the game database web site MobyGames.com
• Finally just the video of outside tonight's Duke Nukem Forever press event in Las Vegas looks over the top ... and fun.

Developer Stardock has had a rocky 2010 thanks to the issues that surrounded the launch of its fantasy turn-based strategy game Elemental War of Magic. However in a new post this week, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell revealed the company's tentative future plans for development of its internal game studios. All of Stardock's future games will be based on its in-house Kumquat game engine.

As previously announced Stardock will continue to update Elemental while also making new stand alone games such as Elemental Fallen Enchantress and a third unnamed game. The roadmap also shows that Stardock plans to make an RPG game based on the Elemental universe at some point. Wardell states, "This year we will begin to reconstitute this team as we bring in a lead studio developer and some senior developers to help ensure that we don't have another War of Magic episode." The long-in-development MMORTS game Society is still in the works and there are other unnamed games that are scheduled for release in 2013 and 2014 that are not connected to the Elemental franchise.

Finally there's "Mod Layer" which Wardell states will be a way for anyone to make games using its Kumquat engine. He says, "The idea is to create a piece of middleware between Kumquat and future games that would allow people to make games using mostly Python." He plans to take his long mentioned sabbatical from Stardock to develop "Mod Layer and says that when its done" ... modders can easily create a wide assortment of games that are either 2D or 3D and potentially portable to (at the very least) Xbox Live Arcade and Windows Phone."

By the way this roadmap does not include third party games that Stardock might or might not publish. Wardell states, " ... this doesn't count future titles from our partner Ironclad who developed Sins of a Solar Empire nor does it address next steps in the Demigod franchise."

The weekend has finally arrived. If you are not covered up in snow we hope you will have a safe and fun end of the week. It's looking like next week may be a bit on the slow side news wise.

• Steam has added the casual game Mishap 2: An Intentional Haunting to its game lineup.
• Steam also has a new automatic update available for download for Swarm Arena.
• Users of OnLive's streaming PC game service can get Red Faction Guerrilla for 75 percent off today only.
• Elemental War of Magic owners can download a new 1.19 beta patch for the game.
• Check out a fan-made Elder Scolls book. Cool artwork and detailing here.
• A Dead Space movie could happen but EA doesn't want to rush into making one.
• Blizzard and PayPal go after World of Warcraft gold sellers.

Earlier this week developer Stardock revealed plans for Elemental Fallen Enchantress, the first expansion pack for its turn based -strategy game Elemental War of Magic. Now more info on the expansion has been revealed by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell on the game's official message boards,

Elemental Fallen Enchantress will be a stand alone expansion and won't require the original game to be played, according to Wardell. He states that " .. it frees the team to make radical changes to the basics of the game while allowing War of Magic to still be updated on its own source tree." If you bought War of Magic before December 31 you get Fallen Enchantress for free.

Developer Stardock has promised that it would be releasing commercial expansion packs for its turn-based strategy game Elemental: War of Magic. Today it revealed the first details behind the first expansion pack, titled Elemental Fallen Enchantress. The expansion pack will be free for anyone who bought the original game before the end of 2010.

The expansion pack will include new areas to Elemental's fantasy world that can't be settled until your characters deal with the threats inside them. An example is the "Bhinadmi Fissure, a massive chasm that spawns demons and earth elementals." Look for more spells and equipment to be added in the expansion pack. The expansion will also allow players to bring in and equip new champions, each of which have different ways of using magic. The expansion pack is due out in the second quarter of 2011. There's no word on what the price of the expansion pack will be for players who have yet to purchase Elemental.

The fantasy turn-based strategy game Elemental: War of Magic just got a new automatic update via the Impulse download service. The small 1.11 patch is, according to the game's message boards, mainly for AI and bug updates. You can see the full patch notes on the game's message boards.

In related news, developer Stardock is launching an Elemental "Design a Quest" contest. Players are asked to submit their ideas for a good quest for the game. The top five will be chosen by Stardock and then the game's community will vote for a winner. The grand prize winner will see his or her quest added to the main game via an update. The winner will also get a ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB graphics card. Deadline for entries is January 31.

It's been an interesting week for game developer and publisher Stardock. On Tuesday Big Download was the first to announce that the company had hired Jon Shafer, formerly of Firaxis Games and the lead designer behind Civilization V, to come on board Stardock to continue to develop the company's 2009 released turn-based strategy game Elemental War of Magic. Stardock also announced it had hired former Pocket Book editor Dave Stern to the team to expand on the game's lore.

Things were not looking as bright back in August as Elemental's launch hit a brick wall due to numerous bugs that were not discovered even after months of beta testing. Stardock laid off some of its team members a few weeks afterward as it tried to fix the problems. Stardock remains committed to Elemental with at least two paid expansions planned along with more free updates.

At the center off all this is Stardock CEO Brad Wardell, one of the most open and available game developers and executives to both the media and fans. Big Download got Wardell to answer some more questions about Elemental's future. Wardell, as usual, is honest about how Elemental could actually turn from a profitable game to one that will lose money and how he is OK with that if it happens. He also updates us on other topics, including his Impulse PC game download service.