This month we're going to put some extra effort to improve our forum experience.  One of the big things is the move to a clustered server back end which should dramatically improve the performance of our sites. Below is a bug report on some of the things I've run across on our forums recently.   #1 Number of users on the forums The forum statistics don't make any sense to me.  I know there's a lot more people on these forums than that because of the s...

  I'm still not voting for McCain or Obama (I don't like either) but the behavior of Democrats thus far towards Palin has been so disgusting that I don't think they realize how much they alienate people.

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.

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...

The good news is that there will be a Galactic Civilizations III.  The bad news is that it won't be out this decade. Galactic Civilizations II v2.0 is currently in development but it's free for all players of the expansion packs.  But that will serve as the code basis for any further GalCiv II updates. Right now, the team is working on the "unnamed fantasy strategy game" sometimes called "not-MOM" (not Master of Magic).  It's a totally new graphics en...

Over at Quarter to Three , we have a great discussion on who should get credit in games.  That is, in the manual or the in-game credits, who should be listed. It's not as easy of a question as one might think to answer because making games is not like making a movie, making a game is an engineering effort as much (if not more) than being a "creative endeavor".  That means, the amount of contribution person A makes to a game may absolutely dwarf that of person B even if ...

I often have discussion with family and friends about how "we" should help the poor, the sick, and the incompetent. Usually, I end up taking the role of the villain because my view is that society can decide what it values through the individual contributions of its citizens. That is, I don't think my government has the right to forcibly confiscate my property to hand to someone else.  If people want to support giving health care to everyone, then they can start or supp...

I have a vision for Object Desktop . I have always had an idealized vision for it.  What stops it from becoming a reality is that my vision involves a lot of work that is not economically feasible. Part of the problem is that what I think is super cool isn't necessarily what other people think are super cool.  Let me outline things in Object Desktop that bug me today: I want to see Theme Manager massively updated. I'm not talking about MyColors. I don't want to s...

Stardock is looking for developers and artists to work on our upcoming games ranging from the fantasy strategy game, an RPG, an MMORTS, and of course future versions of GalCiv. So what do you need to do to work at Stardock? Here is the check list: Work in Plymouth Michigan. We're near Ann Arbor Michigan. Seriously.  We get lots of people saying how great they can "work from remote".  We already have lots of remote people. We need people here. If you'...

One of the things that motivates me to "do stuff" is the idea of being able to try to make a difference in some way. One of the things I'm starting to look into is starting a foundation. In some years, I hope to start giving a significant portion of my income to various charities.  My wife Debbie would effectively run it and my children would learn the value of supporting organizations that are making a difference in the world. There are some useful articles on-line suc...

No one ever accused me of not being tacky. But every year I get asked by friends and family what I want for Christmas and the answer is almost always "books". I love books.  But people say they don't know what type of book so I end up with a lot of other..stuff. So below is my Amazon.com wish list.

There's been a lot of sob stories about people losing their homes due to the recent mortgage crisis.  But everytime anyone looks at one, they discover that the fault isn't with "predatory lenders" or "the economy", the fault lies with stupid stupid consumers. Check out this one: http://rachellucas.com/index.php/2008/08/13/the-only-thing-i-feel-sorry-for-these-people-about-is-that-they-were-born-stupid/

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...

If you've ever worked on a game, you know that for 80% of the process, the game is little different from any other development endeavor. It's not "fun". You aren't "playing" the game, you are simply working on it in the hopes that it will be fun at some point. Galactic Civilizations, for instance, was incredibly boring until the final months. We were starting to sweat it but then, like the flick of a switch, it came together and was very fun. Sins of a Solar Empir...

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 ...