PAX and nearing beta 1

By Draginol on August 25, 2008 1:25:22 AM from

I write this from the plane on the way to Redmond which is where Gas Powered Games is located.

Normally, publishers and developers have very explicit division of labor on projects. The developer makes the game, the publisher takes that game and markets, distributes is, and supports it.

As people observed with Sins of a Solar Empire, you can get tremendous results when the developer and publisher combine their teams together into a single "big" team.

That means Gas Powered Games will be intimately involved in the marketing of Demigod and it means Stardock will be very involved during development. At GPG, I'll be sitting in the "bull pen" with the development team working on the game itself. And together, we will be able to tap into the combined team's resources to get things done much more quickly.

Of course, the crucial element that can't be forgotten is the public beta program. Here's how it works:

We get the first beta out to you sometime in the first week of September. The goal here is to just see how well the thing works on people's computers. It won't be anywhere nearly fully functional. But we'll rapidly be enabling features and getting feedback which we'll be able to address.

AI needs help? AI developers at Stardock (including myself) can help. Need more map elements? Let us know and we'll see who is available to help on that too.

Similarly, advertisements and promotions for the game will get posted here before they go live typically. Art work, ideas and concepts won't be from Stardock's marketing team alone but rather the Gas Powered Games development team as well as anyone else.

One of the reasons why the Sins of a Solar Empire ads came out so well is because Ironclad (the developer) was so involved in the actual creation of the ads. It also didn't hurt that we put out the ads on the forums before they went to print where fans could make suggestions on how the ads could be improved.

Right now, we're playing the internal beta. The part that we're most challenged by at present is how quickly we can implement the Hamachi-like multiplayer system so that players who don't know what router ports are and such won't have to worry about them anymore. The first beta won't have that in there (I'm not sure as yet how much, if any, multiplayer will be in the initial beta 1 engine test portion).

One other thing players may find interesting is that GPG and Stardock have nearly a full year of free updates planned for Demigod. While the single player portion of the game is very important, our hope is to make Demigod the preeminent multiplayer strategy game for tournaments and such since the actual game-play is supports a lot more team mechanics than the traditional Starcraft or even Supreme Commander model would.

We'll have a pre-beta 1 showing at PAX in Seattle this weekend. If you're in the Washington area, be sure to stop by the Penny Arcade Expo. Chris Taylor and I will be giving live demos.

-Brad Wardell = Frogboy = Draginol

+83 Karma | 40 Replies

I'm looking forward to being part of the Beta. Sounds like the development of this game is going to be something special.

Will there be an NDA of sorts and will we be given a guide of what kinda of feedback you prefer for each stage of the Beta?

The part that we're most challenged by at present is how quickly we can implement the Hamachi-like multiplayer system so that players who don't know what router ports are and such won't have to worry about them anymore.

You know I'll be hanging-around to help those that don't know. ??

Will there be an NDA of sorts

If it is like previous betas on Stardock games and Stardock published games, the answer is no NDA.

I too will help the members with any networking problems if my expertise will cover the problems.

Can't wait to get my hands on the game

One other thing players may find interesting is that GPG and Stardock have nearly a full year of free updates planned for Demigod.

What does that exactly mean ? I understand that after a period, you will release an add-on ? or that the game will be pay2play ?

v3dran, my understanding is it will somewhat like an MMORPG system. Where every month, week, whatever they will be adding maps, gameplay modes, heroes etc and that will be for free. Following that, you can pay to get the updates. Of course, I could be way off base.

Up so late posting this, Brad!

And sounds good. =]

And yeah after a year my understanding is there will be DLC.

Yes if you could please clarify on what you meant when you said a year of free updates that would be great.

I don't think I've ever played a game that offered updates up until a year, then started charging them unless it was an actual expansion.

The only other type of game i've played that had charges associated with it were MMOS.

A good example is Team Fortress 2, they are constantly updating the game (in a big way) add new weapons/unlocks/maps/game types all for free once you purchase the inital game. They also offer free member passes which gives people the FULL version of the game for free for a few days.

I think that marketing is very smart, it constantly keeps attracting new people to TF2. And the big updates also keeps people interested in the game and the one time fee is always nice. Demos are just demos, but when the publisher gives the game out free for a few days it really shows the confidence level of the company and the game itself which in turn I think also makes the gamers confident in the game they are going to purchase.

If your not aware of how Steam does it, they give people who already bought the game a free member pass to send to a friend. (this is a one time thing). They didn't start doing this until sales dropped I'm assuming because its been out awhile and has just recently had this feature of being able to give member passes. So just an idea to you guys if you see game sales dropping might want to think of the member pass feature.

I wonder if you will record this live beta at PAXX and post the video here *cough*

I just can't wait to see the game in action, see the initial UI and how everything works through our own eyes.. Excellent!

You know I'll be hanging-around to help those that don't know.

And, obviously, not even playing the game

Thanks for the update, Brad! Looking forward to it and wishing I could get to PAX, but alas..

What I'm sure they mean is that they currently have a years worth of updates planned.

That doesn't mean that they'll stop updating after a year, or suddenly start charging. Only that they HAVE a year's worth of ideas lined up.

I think he just means that they will keep updating Demigod for at least a year, and entirely for free. It is probably to reassure all the Supcom fans (such as myself

) who were disappointed at the lack of updates for Supcom:FA.

Well Galactic Civilization 2 (DL, DA and TotA) and Sins of a Solar empire are good examples of what Stardock has in mind ...

This is the first game I've tried from stardocks so I'm not sure how they ran their other games.

Phluxed

comment 5

What I mean is that for a year after release, we'll be supporting the game with free updates based on player feedback. That's not new content.

Typically, these days games come out, get a patch, maybe 2 and that's it. With Demigod, we plan to keep updating the game long after.

In terms of expansion packs, I've come to believe in more modular expansion packs so that users can pick and choose what they want to pay for. More optioins, better but that's a different story.

It seems self explanatory to me. They have a year of free updates planned. Which means Post release support, but he only said 'Planned' Beyond a year they have nothing tabled bu they are probably kicking ideas around.

But GPG said the same thing about SupCom and what the vanilla version got was patches and the introduction of 2 horribly imbalanced units while Aeon got screwed with a cappy T3 unit

I think the plan is to basically offer like $10 or $15 mini-expansions every 2 or 3 months, instead of a $40 expansion every year.

But the thing I don't like about that is I generally wait for things to pricedrop, so really I'm paying $15 or $25 for that $40 expansion. :/

I hope if Demigod sells millions of copies that they change their mind about that and just do it free like TF2. :/

First of all i cant wait for the beta and i am glad Stardock is going to patch and balance update for the first year. This is very important to the game development so that is fair to all players and the game over all gets better over time. I think that demigod is going to be huge if done right it is a great concept.

The problem with lots of smaller expansions is that it can get confusing with all the "which players can use which stuff" issues. I'd prefer to just have a normal one eventually, and/or have TF2-style stuff.

@Gnats3

I Dont think it can get confusing at all really. It would be like a store, You see apples and oranges and watermelons you dont like oranges but like the other 2 so thats what you get but it would be different for other players.

As long as they keep the content within reason to pricing it will be fine. I try to promote the site and the game as much as i can and already have 3 people getting the game so i hope they sell lots and prices wont be an issue with me.

Its also great to know they dont plan on just booting the game out the door and one patch seeeyalatr Kinda like what they did with UT3 =\

Its also great to know they dont plan on just booting the game out the door and one patch seeeyalatr Kinda like what they did with UT3 =\

That's never been how Stardock has done things.

I mean, hell, GalCivII came out in '06 and they're STILL updating that beast!

Even better - there was an update to GalCivI back in April, and that sucker came out in 2003!

Yeah, but then what happens when you have apples and oranges and your opponent has apples and watermelons, and you try to use oranges in the game while your opponent tries to use watermelons? Will it be in like Supcom:FA, where the game data for the watermelons is there but you just can't select them in the lobby, or like other games where you don't have it at all and can't play against someone who tries to use watermelons?

Well in games like Guild Wars and WoW when the expansions come out the game gets a patch also so you can see all the new characters and other new features even if you don't have the expansion. I'm sure that's' probably what's going to happen here too.

I think he just means that they will keep updating Demigod for at least a year, and entirely for free. It is probably to reassure all the Supcom fans (such as myself ) who were disappointed at the lack of updates for Supcom:FA.

I think you're right.

wow i was just thinking today during school that you guys needed to post a new journal entry and voila! here it is. tizzight im so excited about the beta man its good to see in this world of ppl so concerned about just making money you guys are taking the time and doing what is necessary to make sure your game is awesome (so then you can make money and hopefully tons of it). best of luck at the demo

oh and having updates after the game comes out is a big plus just in case any issues arise after release

Well guys, for me, 1 year of free updates translates to expansion coming feb 2010.
Micro-transactions such as 2 heroes for 10 bucks translates to sucking off your player-base money. I'd still buy it though if the game lives up to my expectations.
Sometimes though, GPG did less than they could. I mean, what would they loose if they put some depth to DS series lore? Check out the warcraft series, they are RTS, don't need as much lore, yet the games start 10k years after a series of events!
GPG didn't even need a scripter, the devs could easily come up with lore. It would only need to be concrete (to not contradict itself) and fans would dig it. I'm not saying that it doesn't have lore. It just clings to a lot of details, and stays fairly linear, while it could have twisted the crap out of itself, and be presented 10 times better in the game. didn't they ever wonder why their expansions (Legends of Aranna, and Broken World) got less % than the originals?

..Because they lacked the depth that would prevent critics' eyes from focusing to how similar the expansion is to the original in all the other aspects.

At least that's the feeling I got left with after I beat it.

And I'm still left with this question: Why the fuck would the damned Crug only attack "the little house on the prairy" our hero lives, and the little villages in the first area, and why is our hero in a lonely house in the woods? Where does he get his supplies from?
They didn't sort out the world as it could have been sorted, people don't get the feeling of consistency in the DS world.

Enough with my ranting though, at least Demigod doesn't need that much lore

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PAX and nearing beta 1