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:  ...

The GalCiv community has been working on an update for GalCiv II: Twilight of the Arnor.   You can find the discussion here . It’s really quite a thrill to be able to work with the community on a new update to the game.  I originally came from the modding community as did the VP of Stardock Entertainment (Kael – aka Fall From Heaven).  So being able to integrate the ideas, fixes, and improvements into the official game made by the fans is quite a joy. Some of...

Notice: This article was written by Elizabeth Fogarty and originally published on Buzzfeed.  I have reposted it here with permission. This post does not represent Stardock or its affiliates or its partners . I will use the comments section to discuss what I agree/disagree with personally.  If you agree/disagree with what Ms. Fogarty has posted below, you are free to comment below. If you feel it is inaccurate, feel free to comment. We welcome all points of view he...

At CES Intel unveiled a program to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try to get more people into technical fields, particularly women and minorities.  This is great news! In fact, I can’t think of anyone who would be against this. During the event, Intel even featured the Feminist Frequency logo which, to me, implies that she’s either compromised her position or surrendered it outright if she’s now in favor of more people getting into game development rather...

My wife is a mathematician by training but her wit is second to none. In a different life, I think she’d been a good comedy writer.  So I’ve decided to start tracking some of her quips. This is all from this morning:   Me: You’re too good a cook. You’re making me fat. Deb: And if I was a bad cook, you’d be complaining about that instead. Me: And? Deb: You’re like the Kobayashi Maru of food. -- Deb: Every time we travel now we have to find peopl...

Naturally I’m waiting until the last day of the year to finally write this. If you’re looking for a drab, properly edited, PR approved article, this is not that article.  So hang on as we do a skim through of the hyperbole of awesomeness that’s been going on this year. Let me get this part out of the way: If you’re a gaming journalist, we’re going to be at GDC with a suite. In that suite will be Soren Johnson (Civ IV), Bruce Shelley (Civ, Age of Empires), Dan Baker (co-author o...

He is referring to “GamerGate”.  Now, full disclosure, as a game developer, I don’t even consider it possible to be part of GamerGate.  Historically, the games media was there to protect consumers from evil, greedy bastards like me.  But at some point in the past few years, some of them decided they really didn’t like gamers.  I find it odd. It’s like a sports reporter not liking the fans of the sport he reports on.  Finding this situation odd makes me “part of ...

Our company is relatively small in size.  In total, we have less than a hundred people. And yet, our software is used by millions of people and we produce many new pieces of software a year. When we do press tours of the company, it inevitably comes up, how do we do it?  The #1 answer is: Very low turnover.  It’s absolutely essential.  Someone whose been at their job for 10 years is far more productive than someone who is new, even if that person has industry experience...

Hi team! Here are some of the pics.  I think Bruce or someone might have a lot more pics, these are some of the ones I got. First off, I apologize for not getting more. I’m not a good photographer. If any of you (Stardockians) want to send me photos to put up, go ahead and I’ll update. GalCiv III team! Well, some of them anyway. Future developer! (or artist!) This picture makes me feel 20 years older.  I’ve known the little ones parents si...

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...

I was on this month’s Binpress with Alexis Santos.  We talked a great deal about how Stardock got started and where the PC software and game industries are heading. If you've ever wondered what it's like to start your own business from scratch you'll want to listen to this.    I was 20 years old when I started the company back in college from my dorm room.  This gives the gritty backstory, warts and all. -> Full Podcast

Greetings!  It’s the end of the year and here are some pics from work.   To the team: I suck. I apologize. I had said I’d get a photo album going this year and while it is still technically 2014, it’s the last week before we close down for the year.  On the bright side, this year is not just picture of the Stardock dogs (though Arrow is in a few of these but Bailey and Maggie are not).           Stardock in the evening....

I need more analytics in the game to do this properly but this is a start. How long should a game last? That depends on the game.  Sorcerer King, for me, as the designer, is meant to take elements of Master of Magic, Star control and FTL and put them together.  While those games may seem dissimilar, they each have key ingredients that I think can be blended together to create something really spectacular. And Sorcerer King is turning out spectacularly. Map Size Ra...

We’ve got questions for the beta team: Some people have said that Sorcerer King looks a lot like Legendary Heroes.  What do you think people mean by this and what would be the most effective way to make sure the two games are visually distinct? We are debating a lot about camera rotation.  The game supports it and we plan to have an option for it.  The question is, what would you like to see as the default and why? We have the Magic slider in the game ...

Windows 10 will be coming with DirectX 12.  DirectX 12 is the first version of DirectX that really uses multiple cores effectively. Below are two slides provided by Microsoft: DirectX 11: See how much of the work is done on the first core?   DirectX 12, the work gets split up. Bottom line: In DirectX 11 this frame took almost 9ms to render.  In DirectX 12, it took about 4ms.  Now, how much real world improvement you get depends heavi...