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The world’s best strategy game developers are teaming up
Published on September 10, 2014 By Frogboy In PC Gaming

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This week the team up of Stardock and Dallas based BonusXP was announced! We’re all very excited to work together on a new game that we think gamers are going to really like.

Little by little the pieces of our long-term strategy get announced.  Here’s a recap of what’s been going on:

2011

  • Stardock sells its Impulse digital distribution platform to Gamestop

2012

  • Stardock spins off its enterprise software unit into EdgeRunner
  • Stardock builds a second game studio in Plymouth Michigan

2013

  • Stardock and the development leads from Civilization V team up to form Oxide Games is founded to build a next-generation strategy game centric 3D engine
  • Stardock and Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson along with the Civilization IV/V art leads team up to form Mohawk Games to develop an economic RTS called Offworld Trading Company
  • Stardock acquires the trademark and publishing rights for the Star Control franchise (www.starcontrol.com)

2014

  • Stardock hires Battle.net engineer, Adrian Luff to run Stardock Austin and build a next-generation Metagame platform.
  • Stardock and the development team and designer of the Age of Empires series (BonusXP) team up on an unannounced strategy game
  • [October: New Stardock PC 4X game announcement]
  • [October: New Game Studio announcement soon]
  • [Soon:  New Game Studio announcement soon]

2015

  • New IP RTS game announcement
  • New Stardock 4X 4X game released
  • New IP game announcement
  • Galactic Civilizations III release
  • New IP game announcement

The nature of the team ups

From a game development point of view, the development, art, sound, music and design teams that were involved in Civilization, Civilization III, Civilization IV, Civilization V, Age of Empires series, Galactic Civilizations series, Sins of a Solar Empire series and more are all able to collaborate, support each other on everything from code review, design suggestions, gameplay feedback, art direction, etc.  

The next few years are going to be an amazing time to be a gamer!


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Comments (Page 2)
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16
Matopicus
on Sep 11, 2014

Please tell me it's not a 4x game for the phone... bonusXP has only made phone games... there is a huge difference between the two. Although the phone market is huge and you'd be foolish not to at least try to gain some of that market. But i'd rather see new PC games. i don't see the point in playing games on the phone when i have some many other electronics that are far better at gaming.

17
matrix_v
on Sep 11, 2014

Matopicus
reply 16

Please tell me it's not a 4x game for the phone... bonusXP has only made phone games... there is a huge difference between the two. Although the phone market is huge and you'd be foolish not to at least try to gain some of that market. But i'd rather see new PC games. i don't see the point in playing games on the phone when i have some many other electronics that are far better at gaming.

In Stardock's latest customer report, Brad said he didn't view mobile as a viable market yet. I don't have the link on hand, but it's a worthwhile read.

18
moltobenny
on Sep 11, 2014

Is there an ULTIMATE ELITE FOUNDER thing we can buy for like $500 and we get everything you ever make from now on?  SOLD!!!

19
Frogboy
on Sep 11, 2014

Matopicus
reply 16

Please tell me it's not a 4x game for the phone... bonusXP has only made phone games... there is a huge difference between the two. Although the phone market is huge and you'd be foolish not to at least try to gain some of that market. But i'd rather see new PC games. i don't see the point in playing games on the phone when i have some many other electronics that are far better at gaming.

 

PC game.

20
Hugegod
on Sep 11, 2014

Star Control...

 

I so loved those games. Thank you Stardock for reviving this IP. Can't wait to see what you can do with it.

 

Can't wait to see the new RTS you are working on.

Can't wait for any of this...

Crap... I'm drooling on my keyboard.

21
ElanaAhova
on Sep 12, 2014

Frogboy
reply 19


Quoting Matopicus,
reply 16

Please tell me it's not a 4x game for the phone... bonusXP has only made phone games... there is a huge difference between the two. Although the phone market is huge and you'd be foolish not to at least try to gain some of that market. But i'd rather see new PC games. i don't see the point in playing games on the phone when i have some many other electronics that are far better at gaming.



 

PC game.

So its straight RTS.  I could hope.

22
Gaunathor
on Sep 12, 2014

Borg999
reply 14
No mention of E2015?

I think that is this one:

[October: New Stardock PC 4X game announcement]

Remember, E2015 hasn't been officially announced yet.

23
jirkaesch
on Sep 12, 2014

Gaunathor
reply 22

Remember, E2015 hasn't been officially announced yet.

Definitely. And the "4X 4X" is a typo I think

24
Campaigner
on Sep 12, 2014

quoting post

2014

  • Stardock hires Battle.net engineer, Adrian Luff to run Stardock Austin and build a next-generation Metagame platform.
  • Stardock and the development team and designer of the Age of Empires series (BonusXP) team up on an unannounced strategy game
  • [October: New Stardock PC 4X game announcement]
  • [October: New Game Studio announcement soon]
  • [Soon:  New Game Studio announcement soon]
 
 
Elemental 2015
Two new Stardock gamestudios!?   That'll be three games by Stardock being made at the same time! 
 
quoting post

2015

  • New IP RTS game announcement
  • New Stardock 4X 4X game released
  • New IP game announcement
  • Galactic Civilizations III release
  • New IP game announcement

New RTS! Yeah!   I know that games like Majesty have been named RTS by their creators though that's false since RTS is WarCraft, StarCraft, Company of Heroes and such.

I hope it will be made with competitive 1v1 in mind but I doubt it.

4x 4x ??    4 x 4 = 16x!   The worlds first 16x!! 

Two new gameannouncements + two new gamestudios = just as expected

 

quoting post

The nature of the team ups

From a game development point of view, the development, art, sound, music and design teams that were involved in Civilization, Civilization III, Civilization IV, Civilization V, Age of Empires series, Galactic Civilizations series, Sins of a Solar Empire series and more are all able to collaborate, support each other on everything from code review, design suggestions, gameplay feedback, art direction, etc.  
The next few years are going to be an amazing time to be a gamer!

Don't know if this has ever happened before in the industry. Will be interesting to see if such collaboration will work out.

25
Cyclone_Jack
on Sep 12, 2014

jirkaesch
reply 23
Definitely. And the "4X 4X" is a typo I think

It could just be the most meta 4X ever conceived...like a 4X inside of a 4X.

Keanu: Woah...

26
moltobenny
on Sep 12, 2014

Cyclone_Jack
reply 25


Quoting jirkaesch,
reply 23
Definitely. And the "4X 4X" is a typo I think



It could just be the most meta 4X ever conceived...like a 4X inside of a 4X.

Keanu: Woah...

It's a space 4x, like GalCiv, but when you want to take over a planet, you have to play an entire land-based 4x game.

27
V00DOO
on Sep 12, 2014

BonusXP made Age of Empires, the second greatest strategy game of all time.  I'm drooling too HugeGod.

28
DARCA1213
on Sep 13, 2014

Armored Core 6, the space empire version.

29
Rhonin_the_wizard
on Sep 21, 2014

Just stumbled across this on the Steam forums:

One interesting side note that you are probably noticing:

Soren Johnson (designer of Civ IV) and Dorian Newcomb (lead artist on Civ IV - I think, might have been Civ V) are working with Stardock at a new studio called Mohawk and have been helping us.

At the same time, Jon Shafer (designer of Civ V) worked on the initial GalCiv III design and is now working on a cool new game called "Act the Gates" and many of the Civ V leads are working with us at Oxide and in Baltimore and have been helping out with are and visual features in our games as well. So there's probably quite a bit of influence.

And to make matters even more interesting, the Baltimore team plays board games with Brian Reynolds (Civilization III / Alpha Centauri).

We're all a very close knit group.

Any info you could share with us about this "Act the Gates"?

So Stardock is working on how many games? Six, seven?

  • Galactic Civilizations III
  • Offworld Trading Company
  • E2015
  • New Star Control
  • Act the Gates
  • Society?
30
Gaunathor
on Sep 21, 2014

Rhonin_the_wizard
reply 29
Any info you could share with us about this "Act the Gates"?

Jon Shafer wrote a lot about "At the Gates" on his blog.

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