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Galactic Civilization 3 gets diplomatic in Beta 2
Developer Stardock has announced the launch of Galactic Civilizations 3 beta two, a pre-release test that adds diplomacy options to the upcoming 4X strategy game. The full scope of diplomatic options in Galactic Civilizations 3 is currently unknown, but Stardock offers a handful of images detailing the game's new features. Players will now be able to set up treaties with computer-controlled characters, and can officially declare war without having to gun down nearby enemy units. Additionally, the beta expands the game's trading options, adds the new Krynn faction and implements four new victory conditions. A full list of the beta's additions is too lengthy to appear here, so visit the game's forums for a full rundown. If you're hoping to join the beta test, you can do so at the Galactic Civilizations 3 website, though be aware that early entry requires a $45 pre-order of the final game. [Image: Stardock]
Blizzard.net engineer heads to Stardock for 'Project Tachyon'
Stardock, a developer/publisher studio you may not know - but should! - has hired Blizzard veteran engineer Adrian Luff to be its new director of platform architecture. Luff, who helped oversee the development of Battle.net, will be responsible for managing something Stardock is calling "Project Tachyon." Tachyon will, according to a Stardock press release, "manage the online infrastructure to provide the meta-game experience for Stardock games." It sounds like Tachyon will function similarly to Battle.net, making Luff a logical choice to lead its development. Stardock also notes that Tachyon will exist in the cloud so that Stardock can scale its performance in real time. Galactic Civilizations 3, the next game from Stardock, will make use of Tachyon "in some capacity," the company stated, but the first public rollout of the project won't be until early 2015. [Image: Stardock]
Stardock debuts first look at Galactic Civilizations 3, alpha begins March 27
Galactic Civilizations 3 is taking the slow, collaborative road to blastoff with the game's alpha scheduled to begin March 27 on Steam. Here's a first look at the strategy sim's gameplay and... well, it sure looks like GalCiv.
Dead Man's Draw reaches Steam, adds new cards, tournaments
Dead Man's Draw, the risk-and-reward card game, has shuffled a deck for Steam users. Dead Man's Draw gathers "new card abilities and player traits" in its transition from mobile, but most importantly, it swaps microtransactions for a one-and-done entry price of $9.99. [Image: Stardock Entertainment]
Next-gen strategy game engine lets you control an army of 5,000 units at one time
Every real-time strategy game has some kind of population cap, limiting the number of units that can be placed simultaneously on a player's terrain. This limit can stem from the designers' need to balance competition between armies, but ultimately it'll also have something to do with the underlying hardware in a PC or console, because a processor will slow down if it's asked to simulate too many independent, physical 3D objects at once. Some RTS games set the limit at 50-70 units, while others can cope with as many as 500, but a new game engine called Nitrous takes things up a level: It uses AMD's Mantle programming tool to speed up communication between the CPU and GPU, allowing up to 5,000 AI- or physics-driven objects (i.e., not mindless clones or animations) to be displayed onscreen at one time. Coming up, we've got a 1080p video of Star Swarm, a demo simulation that shows off what Nitrous can do, plus an explanation of how Oxide Games, the company behind Star Swarm, made this possible.
Twenty developers you don't know, but should
Between consoles, PC, mobile and everything in between, there are so many games released today that it's impossible to keep up with everything that's coming out – and it's even harder to keep up with the studios behind them. Even with a gaming public that's grown accustomed to following big developers like Valve and small studios like Double Fine, countless other studios slide under the radar. In the interest of sifting a signal from the noise, the Joystiq crew has selected 20 developers that deserve your attention. These studios are making games you should play, and their future work should be highly anticipated. This list is by no means exhaustive, and we invite you to share your own favorites in the comments!
Dead Man's Draw goes free-to-play, physical version available via PDF
Developer Stardock has made its risk-and-reward iOS card game, Dead Man's Draw, free-to-play this week. The involved press release states that those who purchased the game at its previous price of $1.99 have been given a "generous sum of in-game currency" as a sign of Stardock's appreciation for their support. In Dead Man's Draw, players end their turn whenever they want to. Getting too greedy can lead to drawing a suit that has already been seen though, which results in losing everything that was gained during that turn. Stopping a turn to bank cards helps avoid a total loss, but different card types call for a bit more strategy. The Hook allows players to play a card from their bank for example, and drawing the Kraken forces a player to take two additional cards. When the deck is depleted, players add up points from the highest valued card they have in each suit, with the greatest total winning the game. Stardock's recent Kickstarter for a physical counterpart of Dead Man's Draw ended about $3,000 shy of its goal on November 9. Instead of canning the project, Stardock posted a PDF of the full card set several days later as a "thank you for everything." If you've got enough apps on your phone, you can instead partake in the local multiplayer experience the developer was hoping to deliver on a commercial level.
Stardock creates staffing company to avoid cyclical layoffs
We've reported on the standard industry cycle time and time again: game ends development, layoffs happen. Stardock (Galactic Civilizations 3), which is also invested in Mohawk Games and Oxide Games, has created the Stardock Staffing Company (SSC) to shift that greatest of assets ("people") around without layoffs. "This lets us have a much more stable environment, because no one has to be laid off. Before they're done with their projects, [staff] can just be assigned to something else, without having to move," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell told Gamasutra. The basic idea is that Stardock would find other work within its network of studios and "lease" the employee, without them having to move, which should theoretically help the organization retain talent, reduce costs, and create a greater sense of job security. We've seen versions of this concept before, most notably from Ubisoft and Activision, which have several studios working on annual projects like Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty, respectively. This is a newer concept for a smaller publisher to test across different projects. Anything that helps us reduce the use of the always-depressing "layoffs" tag is fine by us.
Steam weekend: Stardock anniversary sale
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Stardock is offering 50 to 75 percent off its library of games and related DLC on Steam. Steam is offering a bundle which features Demigod, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition, Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, and The Political Machine 2012 for $22.49 (75 percent off). By contrast, the same bundle is available on Impulse – formerly owned and operated by developer/publisher Stardock – for its regular $90 price tag. The bundle and individual deals are available for each Stardock title, including the recent Elemental expansion Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes, until October 21.
Galactic Civilizations 3 announced
Years after it was unofficially announced during a facepalm-worthy PR snafu, Galactic Civilizations 3 was just officially announced by Stardock. The long awaited sequel to the 4X strategy series will be exclusive to 64-bit PCs. Don't let the trailer above confuse you, the game is still a turn-based strategy game with more under the interstellar cruiser hood. "The move to 64-bit architecture heralds a new era of game development at Stardock," said Stardock VP Derek Paxton. "The technology allows players to experience a level of graphical detail and on-screen activity unprecedented in large-scale strategy PC games. It dramatically increases the size and scope of the maps, and opens the door for modders to add a virtually unlimited amount of new content to the game." Paxton also told us, "We will get playable alphas out early so we can get player feedback. We've always been big on community support." The game still has no launch window, but Stardock is granting early beta access to the game when that becomes available through a $39.99 Founder's Edition ($10 off the final price). For big spenders, there's also a $99.99 Founder's Elite Edition, which gives intergalactic empire builders "all future DLC and expansions for free, alpha access, their name in the game's credits, and the right to name a star to appear in-game." Any name? Snurfy Boondoggle Xeta, it is!
Strategic iOS game Dead Man's Draw getting physical card game version
Stardock Entertainment launched a Kickstarter project for its strategy card game Dead Man's Draw today. While the iOS game is already available for $2.59, the developer took to the crowdfunding platform in order to raise $16,500 by November 9 to produce a physical tabletop card game set, which it said is just enough to break even on the project. Dead Man's Draw is based on a mod for Civilization 4 called Fall from Heaven, which was created in 2007 by the head of Stardock Entertainment, Derek Paxton. Paxton added a strategic mini-game to the mod by the name of Somnium, which tasked players with the simple decision of drawing cards from a deck at the risk of losing their entire hand. Dead Man's Draw takes the Somnium mini-game further by adding special abilities and more depth to the risk-versus-reward card game concept. The game includes a number of pirate-themed cards like anchors, mermaids, chests and maps, each with a unique instruction. The project's $5 reward tier grants donors access to a high-resolution printable PDF file of the game's cards, whereas the Stardock-produced card set starts at the $20 tier and is estimated to ship in March 2014.
Fallen Enchantress dev premieres mobile division with three new strategy IPs
Stardock, developer of the Fallen Enchantress series, has a new mobile studio and three new strategy IPs set to launch by early 2014. Stardock Mobile is headed by Stardock VP Derek Paxton and Mobile Senior Producer Chris Bray. The first game, a piratey card game with puzzle and strategy elements, is called Dead Man's Draw, and is due out in October for iOS. "Stardock is known for great strategy games," Bray says. "The mobile games – though they will vary in genre – will always have an element of strategy in the gameplay." The two other mobile games are Hero Busters and Star Tails, each coming in early 2014. Stardock CEO Brad Wardell says, "The mobile platform allows us to design games that just wouldn't make sense on a PC and take advantage of some of the unique features inherent to a mobile device." We'll find out whether this refers to touchscreen gameplay or microstransactions (or both) in October. See the first pictures of Dead Man's Draw here, and the first images of Hero Busters and Star Tails below.
Stardock lawsuits reach settlement, dismissed with prejudice
Two lawsuits concerning Sins of a Solar Empire publisher Stardock have been dismissed, Kotaku reports. One lawsuit, from the company's former marketing manager Alexandra Miseta, accused Stardock CEO Brad Wardell of sexual harassment. The other lawsuit came from Stardock against Miseta, alleging that she stole and destroyed company materials when she quit in 2010. Both suits were filed around the same time and went public last year. Miseta and Wardell reached a settlement and the lawsuits have been dismissed with prejudice, meaning they can't be re-opened. No money was exchanged in the settlement, but one condition was that Miseta write a letter of apology to Wardell. In the letter, Miseta apologized for bringing the lawsuit against Wardell and said it was not her intention to delete data from her computer. Wardell said he and Miseta agreed to drop their cases in exchange for her written apology. "Once we've received that, we feel vindicated," he said.
Stardock appoints Derek Paxton VP of games division
Derek Paxton has been promoted to Vice President of Stardock Entertainment, the company has announced today. Paxton, a prominent Civilization 4 modder and Firaxis Games consultant before joining Stardock as a lead designer in 2010, will take charge of the games division and oversee all games development from here on out at Stardock. A few months back, Stardock announced it was pursuing a Star Control reboot. Star Control, which was auctioned off by Atari in July, is a space combat series created by developer Toys for Bob in 1990 about two alien alliances locked in a brutal war. Stardock will announce its next slate of games this October, when the company celebrates its 20th anniversary. We anticipate news of the new Star Control will be among them.
More Atari IP auction winners announced, Stardock plans Star Control reboot
A few more pieces from Atari's intellectual property catalog, which has been on clearance sale for a little while now, have new owners. Of note is the Total Annihilation and Master of Orion franchises being picked up by World of Tanks developer Wargaming World Limited, while the Star Control series is now in the hands of Galactic Civilizations developer Stardock. "We're very excited to publish a new Star Control game. We are inclined to go with an XCOM-like reboot using Star Control 2 as a major source of inspiration," said Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock to Joystiq. "By rebooting the series á la XCOM, we can bring a new generation of gamers into a fun, silly space adventure. We hope to involve as many of the original designers and developers of the series, along with the fan base. It's important to us that Star Control remain true to its origins as much as is possible." Wargaming has yet to respond to our request about its plans. We've placed the list of the latest Atari IP winners after the break. The winning bids were not disclosed.
Leaked Windows 8.1 build points to the Start button's return
When we last got a peek at Windows 8.1 "Blue," most of the updates lurked under the surface: rumors of a Start button revival didn't pan out. Flash forward to Paul Thurrott's screenshots of a newer build, however, and it's a different story. The leaked code has the Start button once more occupying a spot on the desktop taskbar, with behavior reportedly like what we've seen with Stardock's Start 8 utility. More throwbacks also appear to be in store. Users can now transfer their desktop wallpaper to the Start screen, and the storied boot-to-desktop option is available -- if turned off by default. Microsoft hasn't acknowledged the existence of these (or any) Windows 8.1 features, but the rapidly approaching Build conference suggests that we'll learn more in the near future.
Sins of a Solar Empire 'Forbidden Worlds' DLC sets out June 5
The first DLC pack for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, a standalone expansion in Stardock's 4X strategy series revolving around space colonization, will launch on June 5. "Forbidden Worlds" adds four new planet types to colonize, a new planet specialization system where you classify your worlds as either beacons of industry or society, 15 new research subjects, 40 new planetary bonuses and a handful of new achievements, all for $5. Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion's "Forbidden Worlds" DLC will be available either directly through Stardock, or through other popular digital distribution channels such as Steam, GameStop, GamersGate and GameFly. CEO Brad Wardell confirmed last month, during the announcement of an investment fund to aid budding game developers, that Rebellion has been "immensely successful" for Stardock and that we should expect to see more Sins of a Solar Empire in the future.
Stardock announces dev investment fund, showing two new games this year
Developer Stardock has announced the beginning of an investment fund to support up-and-coming developers. When Stardock sold distribution service Impulse to GameStop, it earned "some unprecedented opportunities," says CEO Brad Wardell. The fiscal boon will help "to keep Stardock small and invest in start-ups."These spinoffs, says Wardell, "should produce things that will help future start-ups in the technology industry." Some of the partnerships are already underway, though "not far enough along in what they're working on to publicize anything." Wardell's plan is to reveal more about the fund this summer, with news about the companies involved coming later.Elsewhere in Stardock's customer report, Wardell says the company's internal teams are toward two new games to be revealed this year. One or both games may be the result of Stardock's work with consultant Soren Johnson, the former lead designer on Civilization 4.Wardell also says Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion was "immensely successful," and that we can expect more from that series in the future.
ModernMix is a $5 program that lets you run Metro-style apps in desktop-style windows
Sometimes you just wanna close a window. Or resize it, or drag it so that it overlaps with something else. That's how Windows works, and it's more or less how you'd expect to interact with Windows 8 in particular. The problem is, those old-world rules don't necessarily apply to newer Metro-style apps: yes, you can snap them in place next to traditional x86 programs, but you can't resize those windows, nor can you arrange them so that they overlap with each other. Fortunately for you multitaskers out there, Stardock's new app ModernMix squeezes all your Metro programs into traditional desktop windows -- ones you can resize, minimize, drag around and even close completely. The app also lets you pin Metro apps to the Taskbar on the desktop, as well as run them at full-screen when the mood strikes. It's priced at $5, but Stardock is offering a 30-day free trial to folks who prefer to try before they buy. Just remember: you'll need Windows 8, not RT. Not that you RT users are spending much time in the desktop anyway.
Civ 4 lead's consulting gig at Stardock followed Zynga layoffs, still deciding his future
Soren Johnson, lead designer of Civilization 4, has clarified his role at Stardock following company CEO Brad Wardell's announcement his studio had secured Johnson "at least for a while, to oversee the design of all our games."Johnson tells Joystiq that Zynga's decision to shutter its Baltimore studio last week left him jobless and he quickly jumped into a role as a consultant at the developer famous for its Galactic Civilization franchise."Brad Wardell and I wanted to work together for a while, so I immediately started a consulting job with Stardock to help them with their current projects," Johnson said in an email to Joystiq. " I am, however, still trying to decide what my next permanent position is going to be."Late last year Stardock launched Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, previously the studio released Rebellion, an expansion to the real-time strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire. Prior to his stint at Zynga, Johnson had worked at Maxis as part of the team that developed Spore.
