Elemental: Development Time Line

Published on August 24, 2011 By Frogboy In Game Developers

1990s

During the creation of the history for the Galactic Civilizations universe a number of stories are assembled regarding the earliest days. These become known as Elemental: Guardians of the Telenanth, Elemental: Mascrinthus & Draginol, and Elemental: Destiny’s Sentinel

Early 2000s

Stardock attempts to license Master of Magic from Atari to create a Master of Magic 2. Negotiations stall over legal requirements.

2006

Galactic Civilizations II is a hit, team starts to get serious about the design of “not-MOM”.

2007

War of Magic: Design 1

Design 1 was essentially Master of Magic + Dynasty System + Multiplayer

2008

Sins of a Solar Empire released

2009

Core WOM team refocused to help on Demigod. After launch, team revisits where War of Magic is a 1Q2010 release still hoped for.

War of Magic Design 2 is created. Cost of having significantly different (i.e. different body types) and having player designed units beyond budget. Two main humanoid styles chosen (Men and Fallen) with the different races fitting into those styles.

2010

Full studio is now on WOM but the new game engine (Kumquat) has limited particle effects support and memory management.

War of Magic Design 3 is created. Economic and terrain system is simplified. Control of resources is now key to victory. City building is streamlined.

Release of War of Magic v1.0. Kumquat proves unstable on various hardware configurations and just plain buggy. Reviews of WOM are mixed. Stardock and its fans very unhappy. Sales are initially strong but end up lower than GalCiv II or Sins or Demigod.

Release of Destiny’s Embers (book) is more favorable, sales are good.

Stardock brings in veteran designers and producers to focus on a “super expansion pack”

2011

Fallen Enchantress moves from being an expansion to being a sequel.

Fallen Enchantress moves a lot closer to the original WOM concept (Design 1) where terrain and city building matter a lot more, magic matters a lot more, and units and their abilities matter a lot more. System opened up so that the different factions can be made far more diverse (whether that’ll be in FE or an expansion to it depends on budget). Everything is XML’fied for more extensive modding.

To be continued…

Comments

Alstein

on Aug 25, 2011

That 2007 design screenshot really looks like it has a lot more charm then WOM did. It just looks more artistic to me, more colorful. WOM really disappointed me in the charm department, which I was surprised at since to me at least, the GalCiv games had some good charm. Though I didn't buy it, I even thought the Political Machine had a nice charming style to it.

As for the diverse factions, I think you'll take a good-sized hit on reviews if that's not in the game in at least some rudimentary form. I think after Twilight, people expect some diversification from Stardock.

If you can't do it in budget, I'd suggest promising it upfront as future content so people aren't wondering if they will get it. (You do have a second XP promised after all )

pacov

on Aug 25, 2011

Great timeline! Thanks for the behind the scenes info!

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