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 ...

It's Thanksgiving! And I have a lot to be thankful for.  In no particular order, here are some things that I am very very thankful for.   #1 My Wife and kids. My wife and I have been together over 20 years. I love her so much. We met in college during an..incident in EE lab (you do not want me to work on anything that actually involves electricity).  Since then, we've had 3 wonderful children.  I am very thankful for them in ways that I think many can ap...

If you haven’t read this I highly recommend it: CEO Brad Wardell on Stardock's big picture: strategic development and rise of the managers There is a lot more to come. But this gives you an idea of the direction we’re taking in helping bring forth the next generation of game studios.

Many years ago, when I was trying to come up with a villain for what I called, at the time, Earth Space Wars, I wanted an enemy that was brutal, ruthless and most importantly, inhuman. An enemy that would look at our system of ethics, morals and honor and laugh at them as being hopelessly naïve and primitive. Below are images of the Drengin over the years. Early Drengin image from early 90s. Drengin painting from 1995 Lord Kona, Galactic Civilizatio...

I’m putting this up so that it’s not lost to time.  This is an article I wrote for Computer Games Magazine about my son playing World of Warcraft back when he was 8 years old and how he played it differently from adults.

GalCiv I UI   GalCiv II BETA   GalCiv II release   GalCiv III Alpha (final should look even better). Visit www.galciv3.com to follow the continuing evolution of Galactic Civilizations!

For all you Demigod lovers out there, there's a great interview with Bert Bingham, the Associate Producer of Demigod at Gas Powered Games. He talks about everything from the original concept, the networking and the future of Demigod. Check it out here: http://www.d22-zone.co.uk/2013/11/20/interview-demigod/

Listen to this, it’s worth it A good friend of mine sent me a link to this episode of “The Moth”: http://themoth.org/posts/stories/anonymous It’s about a popular teacher who nearly saw his career ruined by hateful, anonymous rivals who took snippets from his blog to paint a horrible, completely inaccurate picture of him.  It illustrates the disproportionate power of cowardly, anonymous people have to inflict harm on others. The power of malice I can relate to this ...

We already have over 30 minutes of music up for GalCiv III founders! Go here: https://forums.galciv3.com/449660/ Aren’t a GalCiv III founder? Go here: https://www.galciv3.com/store

  WindowBlinds 1.0 was released in November 1998! Since then, it’s gotten over 100 MILLION downloads!  Over on CNET’s Download.com version 8 has received over 18 million downloads.  It was the first program to enable users to customize the look and feel of the Windows GUI.  15 years later it is still going strong. Let’s take a look at its evolution in pictures. Version 1 Changed window frames, menu bars.   Yea, ...

I haven’t done one of these in a while but holy cow so many cool things going on with so many things being announced so recently that I think we owe it to you guys to share what’s happening here. So as some of you know, Stardock’s an “indie” in the sense that it’s still owned and run by its founder (me). So there is no question whatsoever who I am responsible to: My coworkers and you.  I don’t have stock holders to please and that lets us do lots...

I'm writing this with the new.kindle fire hdx.  I've seen reviews praising it. It is very light. It's even lighter than the iPad Air. But I'm not liking it. First, the keyboard hi is terrible. As I type this, there is an additional row of commands right under the keyboard (which you can hide but they shouldn't be there in the first.place, it's.just bad UI. The auto correct.is.even.more.obnoxious than ios. For.example.if I type ios it wants to,change it to it...

  Windows 8 comes with the new Start screen which is, especially if you have a tablet, a good way for people to organize their apps.  What it doesn’t come with, which is a bit surprising, is a quick launch bar (like iOS and Android have).  Launch8 addresses it. If you have Windows8, definitely give it a try. -> www.stardock.com/products/launch8

Civilization IV designer, Soren Johnson has launched a new studio called Mohawk Games. Press Release Website It’s been founded by Soren Johnson, Dorian Newcomb and myself.  Soren, as CEO comes up with what games we’re going to make and is also the creative director for the company.  Dorian, the art director of Civilization V is in charge of how the games will look and feel.  And me? As President, my job is to make sure Soren and Dorian have the necessar...

I have finished extracting he honey!  First 3 people to respond here will get some! (must be in USA, can't ship honey overseas).