I see the threads about: 'Where are the new demigods?' every week and there are a lot of people who are angry or frustrated because it takes so long. There are a lot of accusations, questions and misunderstandings on the topic. So I decided to gather all the available information and explain to you guys why we are still waiting. I'll illustrate my post with some pictures because... because it's more fun!
Let me assure you, I'd prefer nothing more than to play them right now and get a new patch every week. However, good things take time and here is why:
Who is responsible for what?
First of all, a common misconception of many players waiting for new content is that Stardock could speed up the process and Frogboy can miraculously deliver the Demon Assassin and Oculus by his sheer force of will. (I wish!) However Stardock is the publisher (although you could say Publisher ++...) and GPG develops Demigod.
Stardock can help with certain things like ingame overlays, new web designs, maintanance of the servers, basically everything that doesn't require any changes to the game engine and core game. GPG is responsible for new content and bug fixing and Stardock's responsibility is to test the updates and new content for bugs, gather information on new bugs and report them to GPG, customer support, maintanance and delivering the game and patches to you via Impulse.
Why is it taking GPG sooooo long?
GPG is working on the new demigods, bugfixes, SupCom2, Dungeon Siege III and maybe even thinking up a new project right now.
I'm sure they would like nothing more than to get the patch out as soon as possible but it takes a lot of work from many different content engineers, artists, programmers and testers to finish a new demigod. For more information on the topic I recommend reading Sorian's blog: http://soriandev.blogspot.com/
Sorian describes the work that goes into making a new demigod in a 3-part series:
part 1, part 2, part 3;
So why don't they just speed up the whole process you will ask. Fortunately they have already contracts for at least two new games and they have to meet their schedules (called milestones). I say fortunately because while it means we have to wait longer for the new demigod it also means GPG is busy and earning money. This means they stay in business and we will get our demigods eventually.
Why not hire more people then will probably be your next question. Well they did. They hired Sorian and he pretty much splits his work hours between Demigod and SupCom II. However, GPG is not Blizzard II and there is a limit to the number of developers they can afford in the current economic situation.
And you can't just add new people to a developer team and expect to speed up the process as many failed game companies have learned that the hard way. Two times the number of people doesn't equal two times the output!
A developer who is familiar with a game can create the same amount of content in hours that would take a team days. A bunch of developers have left GPG a while back, including the original fathers of Demigod Scathis and o and have formed a new company Uber Entertainment.
GPG is doing what they can and yes, we all wish it wouldn't take that much time but they have to make due with less developers on more projects and they have to fulfill their contracts at the same time.
So please be patient, check out Sorian's blog and play a bunch of games. I strongly recommend 'Crazy Cataract'. It's a 4v4 or 5v5 on Cataract (obviously) with high towers, strong creeps and fast respawn rate. It's insane fun, give it a try, why don't you?
