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...

If you've been in one of our betas before you already understand what I'm about to talk about. But if this is your first beta, you may find this discussion interesting. Our betas tend to be very beta. That is, rough. Whether it was Galactic Civilizations or Sins of a Solar Empire , our first betas tend to be pretty rough. Unfortunately, the higher the profile the game, the more likely people are going to try to use the beta as a way to judge the final game.  The first GalCiv bet...

It was a good week at PAX as we got to show the pre-beta of Demigod to the world and let people play it multiplayer.  Only a few more  days until the engine test beta.

The initial inspiration for Demigod was heavily based on the Warcraft 3 mod, Defense of the Ancients. If you've never played it, Defense of the Ancients is an incredibly clever game concept in which players team up on on a single map choosing between many different heroes. How one customizes their hero makes all the difference. Demigod works similarly in that you choose amongst several different heroes (your Demigods). Some heroes are called Generals whose strengths come from their ability ...

This week we intend to release the first update to the Demigod engine test beta (beta 1-A).  Under the hood there have been tons of changes made and we're beginning to make room for some of the more significant changes you'll be seeing in Beta 2 (beginning of November). Here are some of the highlights: My friend Soren Johnson has a great article entitled " the seven deadly sins of strategy games ".  The bottom line is to paraphrase Sid Meijer, good st...

Gas Powered Games is working hard on Beta 2 of Demigod. We don't have a definitive date for it but we're hoping to get it out before Thanksgiving so people can play it over the break (that would be next week). Now, so far beta testers have only played the engine test. That was basically just to see compatibility and performance.  We've taken that data and the GPG team has increased the game's performance dramatically. Beta 2 is where we get into the "meat" of t...

Right now GPG is in the process of implementing generals.  Before I spoil it and tell you how they work it would be cool to hear HOW you guys think they should work? Now, bear in mind, there's balancing and scope involved here. While on paper having assassins play like they do now and have generals play like a Supreme Commander style RTS might sound good, that would be impossible to balance and probably not very fun in practice. So what would you guys like to see? After enough com...

If you don’t already have Impulse Ready to Play’s beta definitely sign up. People who have Demigod are going to be getting a copy of it added to their Impulse account this week. It’s just a beta but holy cow, it makes a huge difference in getting games going. http://readytoplay.impulsedriven.com

In hindsight, Notes are such an obvious feature that every RTS should have them. Though, admittedly, I would like to thank the various karma gods that such a feature did not exist in Total Annihilation as I would never have been able to find anyone to play (I helped pioneer such tactics as com napping, flash tank sticking, metal creators being “given” to the enemy). We only have half of the note system in.  Here’s how it works: Go to Pantheon ( http://pantheon.demigodthe...

Greeeeeeeetings! Well tonight we updated the new network system a couple of times. Micro updates via Impulse are totally the way to go.  Anyway, the proxy server system is working far better than anticipated. But to go any further with improving the networking, we need some changes that GPG is putting into v1.01 which I mentioned in a previous journal.  I don’t have a set day for that but I am hoping this next week. We already have the release candidate for it. I was ab...

Demigod Beta 3C arrives. Not a lot of changes in this beta but some polish, updated network coding, performance touching, etc.  The main purpose for Beta 3C is for internal infrastructure testing.  But we think you’ll find this update worthwhile still.   AI Teleporting double checks Friendly tower wrangling Betrayer fixes for Regulus Squad attac...

[Known Issues] ü   Logging out of Internet and then logging back in during a single session will not function (restart Demigod instead). [Fixes/Improvements] ü   AI improvements o     Shopping, Attacking, Moving o     General targeting blocks removed o     Torchbearer Icemode planning overha...

A new cut scene will be introduced that tells the story Logging into the persistent on-line Pantheon Online I can play single player or multiplayer   Choosing amongst different maps.   The item shop and the health crystal The item shop, where players customize their Demigod.     Controlling flags provides war points and addition...

Beta 2D is the last of the Beta 2 builds which were designed to test connectivity.  Over the weekend we spent a lot of time working on the connectivity server – the “magical” feature that Demigod makes use of to make connectivity a lot better and easier than what has been seen in typical RTS. The release of Beta 2D showed a killer bug in the Impulse Reactor back end that caused it to just fail in setting up connections after a couple hours.  That got fixed (we hope) on Sunday nigh...