PAX and nearing beta 1

Published on August 25, 2008 By Draginol In Demigod Journals

I write this from the plane on the way to Redmond which is where Gas Powered Games is located.

Normally, publishers and developers have very explicit division of labor on projects. The developer makes the game, the publisher takes that game and markets, distributes is, and supports it.

As people observed with Sins of a Solar Empire, you can get tremendous results when the developer and publisher combine their teams together into a single "big" team.

That means Gas Powered Games will be intimately involved in the marketing of Demigod and it means Stardock will be very involved during development. At GPG, I'll be sitting in the "bull pen" with the development team working on the game itself. And together, we will be able to tap into the combined team's resources to get things done much more quickly.

Of course, the crucial element that can't be forgotten is the public beta program. Here's how it works:

We get the first beta out to you sometime in the first week of September. The goal here is to just see how well the thing works on people's computers. It won't be anywhere nearly fully functional. But we'll rapidly be enabling features and getting feedback which we'll be able to address.

AI needs help? AI developers at Stardock (including myself) can help. Need more map elements? Let us know and we'll see who is available to help on that too.

Similarly, advertisements and promotions for the game will get posted here before they go live typically. Art work, ideas and concepts won't be from Stardock's marketing team alone but rather the Gas Powered Games development team as well as anyone else.

One of the reasons why the Sins of a Solar Empire ads came out so well is because Ironclad (the developer) was so involved in the actual creation of the ads. It also didn't hurt that we put out the ads on the forums before they went to print where fans could make suggestions on how the ads could be improved.

Right now, we're playing the internal beta. The part that we're most challenged by at present is how quickly we can implement the Hamachi-like multiplayer system so that players who don't know what router ports are and such won't have to worry about them anymore. The first beta won't have that in there (I'm not sure as yet how much, if any, multiplayer will be in the initial beta 1 engine test portion).

One other thing players may find interesting is that GPG and Stardock have nearly a full year of free updates planned for Demigod. While the single player portion of the game is very important, our hope is to make Demigod the preeminent multiplayer strategy game for tournaments and such since the actual game-play is supports a lot more team mechanics than the traditional Starcraft or even Supreme Commander model would.

We'll have a pre-beta 1 showing at PAX in Seattle this weekend. If you're in the Washington area, be sure to stop by the Penny Arcade Expo. Chris Taylor and I will be giving live demos.

-Brad Wardell = Frogboy = Draginol

Comments (Page 1)

Phranx

on Aug 25, 2008

I'm looking forward to being part of the Beta. Sounds like the development of this game is going to be something special.

Will there be an NDA of sorts and will we be given a guide of what kinda of feedback you prefer for each stage of the Beta?

the_Monk

on Aug 25, 2008

The part that we're most challenged by at present is how quickly we can implement the Hamachi-like multiplayer system so that players who don't know what router ports are and such won't have to worry about them anymore.

You know I'll be hanging-around to help those that don't know.

Peace Phoenix

on Aug 25, 2008

Will there be an NDA of sorts

If it is like previous betas on Stardock games and Stardock published games, the answer is no NDA.

v3dran

on Aug 25, 2008

I too will help the members with any networking problems if my expertise will cover the problems.

Can't wait to get my hands on the game

One other thing players may find interesting is that GPG and Stardock have nearly a full year of free updates planned for Demigod.

What does that exactly mean ? I understand that after a period, you will release an add-on ? or that the game will be pay2play ?

Phluxed

on Aug 25, 2008

v3dran, my understanding is it will somewhat like an MMORPG system. Where every month, week, whatever they will be adding maps, gameplay modes, heroes etc and that will be for free. Following that, you can pay to get the updates. Of course, I could be way off base.

innociv

on Aug 25, 2008

Up so late posting this, Brad!

And sounds good. =]

And yeah after a year my understanding is there will be DLC.

technoViking

on Aug 25, 2008

Yes if you could please clarify on what you meant when you said a year of free updates that would be great.

I don't think I've ever played a game that offered updates up until a year, then started charging them unless it was an actual expansion.

The only other type of game i've played that had charges associated with it were MMOS.

A good example is Team Fortress 2, they are constantly updating the game (in a big way) add new weapons/unlocks/maps/game types all for free once you purchase the inital game. They also offer free member passes which gives people the FULL version of the game for free for a few days.

I think that marketing is very smart, it constantly keeps attracting new people to TF2. And the big updates also keeps people interested in the game and the one time fee is always nice. Demos are just demos, but when the publisher gives the game out free for a few days it really shows the confidence level of the company and the game itself which in turn I think also makes the gamers confident in the game they are going to purchase.

If your not aware of how Steam does it, they give people who already bought the game a free member pass to send to a friend. (this is a one time thing). They didn't start doing this until sales dropped I'm assuming because its been out awhile and has just recently had this feature of being able to give member passes. So just an idea to you guys if you see game sales dropping might want to think of the member pass feature.

Renius01

on Aug 25, 2008

I wonder if you will record this live beta at PAXX and post the video here *cough*

I just can't wait to see the game in action, see the initial UI and how everything works through our own eyes.. Excellent!

Annatar11

on Aug 25, 2008

You know I'll be hanging-around to help those that don't know.

And, obviously, not even playing the game

Thanks for the update, Brad! Looking forward to it and wishing I could get to PAX, but alas..

RaveBomb

on Aug 25, 2008

What I'm sure they mean is that they currently have a years worth of updates planned.

That doesn't mean that they'll stop updating after a year, or suddenly start charging. Only that they HAVE a year's worth of ideas lined up.

Gnats3

on Aug 25, 2008

I think he just means that they will keep updating Demigod for at least a year, and entirely for free. It is probably to reassure all the Supcom fans (such as myself

) who were disappointed at the lack of updates for Supcom:FA.

Peace Phoenix

on Aug 25, 2008

Well Galactic Civilization 2 (DL, DA and TotA) and Sins of a Solar empire are good examples of what Stardock has in mind ...

technoViking

on Aug 25, 2008

This is the first game I've tried from stardocks so I'm not sure how they ran their other games.

Draginol

on Aug 25, 2008

Phluxed

comment 5

What I mean is that for a year after release, we'll be supporting the game with free updates based on player feedback. That's not new content.

Typically, these days games come out, get a patch, maybe 2 and that's it. With Demigod, we plan to keep updating the game long after.

In terms of expansion packs, I've come to believe in more modular expansion packs so that users can pick and choose what they want to pay for. More optioins, better but that's a different story.

brn4meplz

on Aug 25, 2008

It seems self explanatory to me. They have a year of free updates planned. Which means Post release support, but he only said 'Planned' Beyond a year they have nothing tabled bu they are probably kicking ideas around.

But GPG said the same thing about SupCom and what the vanilla version got was patches and the introduction of 2 horribly imbalanced units while Aeon got screwed with a cappy T3 unit

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