I haven’t got to design an AI since…well 2006.  It’s been a long time and the Stardock games team of 2013 is insanely awesome and the tech is just amazing too. Now, I programmed the AI in Legendary Heroes and helped on the AI in Fallen Enchantress (I wrote worker functions for War of Magic).  But I haven’t got to sit down and make something from scratch since GalCiv II. And wow, things are so much better now.  Virtualization, lots of cores to handle threads (GalCiv II ...

Just for kicks, I tried to compile the GalCiv II project (written for Visual Studio 2003) with Visual Studio 2012.

Greetings! I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on where things stand with Galactic Civilizations III. Internally, the game is fully playable at this stage (except the AI is really stupid at this point as we won’t really get started on that until January).  While this isn’t a promise, we anticipate the Alpha version being made available in late February.  Those of you with Founder’s Elite access will receive a Steam code around that time and be able ...

Greetings! The ALPHA of Galactic Civilizations III is due in 17 days (March 27). I want to use this post as a way to set people’s expectations and, if anything, use this as a public service announcement that you should NOT join the Founder’s program if your goal is to play a video game for fun early. That is not the purpose of the Founder’s program. The stages of development Software goes through 5 distinct phases with varying definitions but below is my own personal versio...

Galactic Civilizations III     Galactic Civilizations II     Galactic Civilizations I   Spent my evening today trying out the various Galactic Civilizations versions over the years. Each has their own particular strengths.  If you don’t have the original Galactic Civilizations for Windows, I highly recommend picking it up. It has a real “indie” charm to it. Now, the GalCiv III screenshot here is of the alpha . The ...

So yesterday the art team gave me a tour of the new rendering technology being used for GalCIv III.  If you’ve been with us for many years, you know that I’m not a graphics guy.  I drew the original OS/2 version “art” myself with the built in OS/2 icon editor.  As you can imagine, that means I have only a little understanding of all the cool stuff they’re doing. To me, I thought the GalCiv II ships looked pretty good. But the art team cringes when I say that.  I am intim...

I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that GalCiv III is moving along on schedule.  The bad news is that we’ve decided to change the feature requirements necessary for GalCiv III to be considered a “beta”. Originally, we were going to release the beta in May/June and have it not include combat/diplomacy/etc.  However, we’ve determined that we’re better off continuing with the Alpha series until some of those features enter into the game which isn’t sc...

Greetings! The team is really excited to get Beta 1 of Galactic Civilizations III out there.  The target date is one week away. The Founder's Edition, which is what provided access to the Alpha builds along with a lifetime subscription to everything we make for Galactic Civilizations III (all expansions, DLC) will not be offered anymore once the beta comes out.  On the other hand, the beta Early Access edition will be $5 off the list price of $49.95. So what's up? ...

Greetings! Well, my friends, there’s so much going on around here these days that I don’t even know where to start.  Please forgive me for my rambling in advance. Galactic Civilizations III As a developer, having a 64-bit only game engine is amazing. As I type this, old man Kael is testing to see what a GalCiv game with a hundred or so AI players will play like.  Can you guys imagine that? A game where the galaxy is alive with hundreds of empires (not counting min...

We’re getting pretty close to Beta 2 for GalCiv III. This one is the diplomacy beta series.  Part of the challenge is having UIs that can handle potentially hundreds of players.  In this screen, Kael has made his own custom players using Star Control players but players will be able to make whatever they’d like.

Greetings! The team has been hard at work on Beta 2 of Galactic Civilizations III.  Galactic Civilizations III is a space based strategy game that puts the player into the position of leader of a 23rd century interstellar civilization that is expanding out into the cosmos. As they expand, they will encounter other galactic civilizations that are doing the same.  How players react to dealing with “aliens” is up to them. Trade? Cultural Exchange? Alliances? Warfare? It’s all u...

Greetings! Welcome to the sausage factory! Beta 3 of Galactic Civilizations III has arrived with lots of new changes and improvements. We still have a long way to go but progress is swift.   A few highlights Beta 3 brings the Yor into the game.  We’re still playing around with how they “breed”.  The current plan is to have the player actually manufacture more Yor on the planet.  The Yor are a synthetic, pre-singularity lifeform.  Long...

Well the party is almost over for you humans. I’ve never hidden the fact that I consider human beings playing my AI a necessary evil.  I need your money to fund my AI work. This time around, I’ve got a talented young developer working with me.  He makes me feel old. Very. Very old.  A lot has changed over the past 20 years.  It is still technically C++ but it’s all very different from what it used to be. Example code //GalCiv III:  ...

Greetings! I was thinking the other day on how Galactic Civilizations has evolved over the years.  Let’s take a look: Feature GalCiv OS/2 GalCiv I GalCiv II GalCiv III Core 4X mechanics x x x x United Planets x x x x Moral Dilema Events x x x x ...

Drengin are somewhat bigger.