stardock posts

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.

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In August 2008, game publisher Stardock announced that it was creating a Gamers' Bill of Rights for PC game consumers. At the time Stardock said these 10 rights were what PC gamers should expect when they purchase any PC game. The document was revised later in 2008. You can read the current version at the Gamers' Bill of Rights web site.

In Stardock's newest Customer Report that was issued earlier this week, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell states, "We are currently talking to developers and publishers regarding a 2011 edition of the GBOR." Some of the rights in the current version are likely to be changed or removed due to current trends in the PC gaming industry.

Wardell states that the "core ideals" of the Gamers' Bill of Rights are:

1. Gamers have the right to return a game if it doesn't work as designed on their computer for a full refund.
2. Gamers have the right to play their game without being inconvenienced by copy protection or DRM.
3. Gamers have the right to their privacy and anonymity in a game.

Wardell states that updates to the Gamers Bill of Rights will likely be revealed in next year's Stardock Customer Report.

While the Impulse PC game download service from Stardock doesn't have as big of a market share of that business compared to Valve's Steam service, Impulse is still doing very well for Stardock, according to the company's recently released annual customer report. According to Stardock CEO Brad Wardell, "In 2010, Impulse experienced phenomenal growth, becoming Stardock's most profitable business unit."

While specific revenue numbers were not revealed in the report, Wardell did state that Impulse had about 3 million users. For 2011 Wardell states in the report that it plans to focus its efforts on working on the previously announced Impulse: Reactor game development tools. The tools, which have most of the same features as Valve's Steamworks (including in-game achievements, DLC support and more) do not require a client download to work.

Sins of a Solar Empire was a big sleeper hit for developer Ironclad Games and publisher Stardock back in 2008. Recently a major new patch for the game and its two micro-expansions was released. But it sounds like Ironclad and Stardock are prepping up plans for a major follow-up for the space strategy game.

In the just released annual Stardock customer report, company CEO Brad Wardell states, "We will also be making some important announcements regarding Sins of a Solar Empire in 2011." That's about as close as he would come to admitting a sequel is in the works. The report also states that Stardock's gaming/entertainment division "anticipates making 3 big announcements in 2011 concerning its future plans for the PC."

The annual report also goes into some detail over the issues surrounding the launch in 2010 of Stardock's fantasy turn-based strategy game Elemental War of Magic. As we have reported before, Stardock has hired new team members and is developing an all new stand alone game, Elemental Fallen Enchantress, which Wardell states in the report shares little from the original game apart from some art assets. Wardell also states that Stardock is still looking to hire a "seasoned lead developer" for Stardock's game studio.

Finally there's a small update on the long-in-development free-to-play MMO Society which was first announced by Stardock several years ago. In the customer report, Wardell states, "The project has not had full funding yet and the company is considering creating a new business unit dedicated to Society to allow for more partners on this ambitious project."

[Via email press release]

It's been a long time since developer Ironclad Games released a new patch for its 2008 space strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire. However today the developer released a beta version of the game's upcoming 1.2 patch. Players can access the beta patch by using the Impulse client. By clicking on the blue button located on the client's left hand corner and then selecting the "Show pre-release version" option will activate the update.

The patch notes for the 1.2 beta update are quite extensive and include an overall on the game's Pirates system, unit balance changes and more. It also frees up more RAM for the game's textures.

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."

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.