As an indie developer, we are typically competing against much larger companies. And normally, larger companies are just a lot…well, dumber. So we usually can beat them head to head because they can’t move as nimbly as we can or because our decision makers are better than their decision makers.

But Valve…they’re something else.  Valve has the resources of a large company but the raw intelligence of a very smart indie.  It’s an unbeatable combination. 

Yesterday I mentioned that there's no Metro version of the Windows essentials utilities. This remains a baffling issue as a Live Movie Maker and a Live Writer would be very nice to haven.

I will say that the Metro version of Skype is nice.  Which brings me to today's observation:  Microsoft has got to come up with a distinct classification for WinRT apps because it's impossible to do a decent search on the terms Modern and UI.  As in, what is the best Modern UI Facebook client.

The nice thing about the term Metro is that it's distinct.  Like iOS or Android, it lends itself to being easily searchable and instantly recognizeable as being different from a normal Windows app.  Modern UI won't cut it.  We need a term or else we'll end up stuck with something like WinRT which in itself is problematic.  I think Microsoft should have just bit the bullet and paid whatever they had to pay to keep referring to these apps as Metro apps. 

Surface isn't competing against my iPad for use right now.  Instead, it is competing for use with my MacBook Air.  It's ironic that Surface shines the most as a notebook rather than as a tablet.  I can, and have, used it as a tablet but I find it most useful in using the upgraded keyboard with it.  Frankly, if it didn't have so many rough edges (not the hardware, but the software) I'd be tempted to recommend it over any ultra portable out there. It's that good.

The MS Surface hardware is its saving grace. It's pretty good.

The screen is definitely sub-Retina but it's "Good enough". What makes it killer is the kickstand and keyboard combo that lets me write this little entry while laying down on the couch.  Try that with any laptop and notebook and it's much much harder.  The MS hardware team deserves kudos.

The problems with Surface comes from the Windows team.  Metro, frankly, sucks.  For example, if you drag from left to right, you can move to the next app. But drag right to left and you bring up the charms bar.  Dumb.   It should bring up the previous app and then had drag top to bottom bring up charms and keep the app specific stuff on screen or with a visual hint somewhere.  It's very annoying.

The other weakness is the available apps.  There's no Live Writer. No Live Movie Maker. You get the idea.  Why would Microsoft not provide native versions of their own Windows essentials? Where's Windows Essentials RT?

No Facebook app is also kind of a let down and the Windows store is terrible to use. No sort by popularity. And while they do have a global Top Free, there's no inclusion of non free.  I have a job. I don't mind paying a couple bucks for some applet. Let me find them.  Why would app developers target a platform that is so blatantly against commercial software?

But I keep being drawn back by the amazing hardware. The Surface hardware is nothing short of revolutionary.  It's just too bad that it's saddled by poorly thought out software decisions.

With v1.01 now out, Kael has given me liberty to indulge myself with the AI for v1.1.

So you might as well quit playing now. It's over. The AI won't even need you humans anymore. You're just...frankly, a distraction.  You guys move way too slowly. Your strategies are non optimal and you just disrupt things.  Halo 4 is out. Go play that.  FE 1.1 will be best if you guys just acknowledge that your meat based brains were insufficient.

That is all.

You can see the full results here:

http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/race/president#exit-polls

Here is what I found interesting:

Obama won the youth vote 60% to 37%.

Romney won the retired vote 56% to 44%.

Obama won the high school graduates (and dominates those who didn’t finish high school) and also won decisively amongst those who pursued postgraduate degrees.

Romney won the college graduate vote.

Here is the kicker:

If your household income was less than $50k, you overwhelmingly voted for Obama.  If your household income was greater than $50k, you likely voted for Romney. Make of that what you will. Santa Claus politics?

Fallen Enchantress at two weeks

Fallen Enchantress has now been out two weeks. So far, we’ve sold about 50,000 units (give or take).  This is somewhat below Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion but, obviously, far far ahead of War of Magic during the same time frame. 

The biggest obstacle has been reviews.  It’s hard for niche titles (and make no mistake, fantasy turn-based PC games are niche) to get coverage. There’s only so many reviewers to go around and the last thing we want is a drive by (i.e. rushed) review.

Tomorrow or Thursday we expect to release v1.01 which has a long list of fixes and tweaks that we’ve found. Probably the most obvious change will be performance which dramatically improved.

The Map Pack

We will be releasing our first-ever DLC for a Stardock game.  It’ll be an interesting experiment to see what the demand is.  Paul Boyer and I have designed a series of hand crafted maps that will be going up for sale in a week or two for $4.99.  If sales of this are strong, we’ll look at doing additional DLC packs.  A game like Fallen Enchantress lends itself to content centric DLC and so we’re anxious to see what people are interested in.

The Expansion

We have an expansion planned for early next year. I won't spoil it except to say that it’s going to re-design the way champions are handled in the game. We want the game to generally move towards the power of your champions be a reflection of the power of your civilization.

After the expansion, Stardock will look at where things stand.  We have 3 game development teams at Stardock.  One is on “Game X”, One is FE related stuff, and one is on mobile game development.   Since we’re not likely to get as many reviews as we’d like, we’re going to be relying heavily on word of mouth.

Version 1.1

We very much want to do a pre-Christmas update to FE.  That version will be heavily AI and balance focused based on player feedback. We’ll have more details of that as we get closer. Right now, we’re focusing on getting v1.01 out the door.

What...do I do?

Despite only a handful of reviews (average review score 4/5), it is in the top list of games being played by Steam even though the people most likely to buy this type of game got it for free as a non-Steam game (so it won’t count). 

I think it’s safe to say that Fallen Enchantress is the start of a beautiful new fantasy game world.

I'm writing this with my brand-new Microsoft Surface.  The best way to describe it is that Surface is to tablets what the Zune was to music players. It's not terrible but the $500 device has nothing to recommend for it.

As a notebook device, it's certainly better than the iPad. It supports multiple users. It supports mice (and on-screen mouse cursors). In short, you could realistically use this device as a very very light work machine.  In theory. It comes with a Windows RT version of Office Preview which works adequately, if slowly.

Ironically, it's as a tablet where it falls down. I always assumed that the "Metro" experience would shine on a tablet. It doesn't. It's annoying and perplexing even there. Give me the option of having the charms bar up all the time and the specific app bar up all the time and it would be much more tolerable. I really don't like having to swipe at the screen in just the right way to get options to display. Getting around the Metro experience is a chore, even as a touch device.

It's very frustrating, at times, to navigate around Metro. I'm still new with I accidentally closed my editor because I was trying to switch to another tab (Which you do by swiping down from the top and selecting the tab). However, if you swipe too far down, it closes the app. Bam. Gone. 

What's worse is the app selection is pitiful. Don't even think about using Office apps as a pure tablet. It's very frustration trying to use what is clearly a Win32 port with a touch screen. It does much better once you've sat down, hooked up a mouse, and started working with a real keyboard. The situation with Modern UI apps (which I'm just going to keep calling Metro) is even worse. The included ones are slow. Very slow. I also couldn't find decent third party apps that I'd use. If there's a Pulse/Flipboard quality RSS reader for WinRT I haven't found it yet. There just isn't that much to do with it.

The form factor also makes it an awkward tablet. It's very long (or wide, depending on how you look at it). It's also quite heavy. Too heavy to want to use as a tablet for an extended period of time.

Getting more apps for it is also painful. The Windows Store is terrible. As anyone who has used Windows 8's store knows, it's an assault on the eyes. Lots of multi colored blocks that tell you nothing about the app. It's just very hard to find things.

The Unopening:

Here's my friend Paul (former guest on PowerUser.tv) trying it out.

Just a few points to take home from this from my notes:

The Bad:

1. Note Facebook app
2. No bundled Twitter app
3. No bundled RSS app
4. Apps load extremely slow
5. Very hard to navigate around
6. Too easy to unload things entirely
7. Too heavy to use for an extended period of time as a plain tablet
8. It's ergonomically inferior as a tablet
9. The Office port is embarrassingly half-assed
10. Lack of app selection makes it hard to justify using vs. an iPad or Android device.
11. UI usability lacks a lot of polish, awkward to use at times
12. You cannot use this as a laptop (the stand requires a desk)

The Good:

1. The mouse and on screen cursor is a huge win.
2. It's actually a pretty decent notebook PC if you buy the upgraded keyboard.
3. The screen isn't bad.

Overall, for $599 it's not a bad little notebook PC. But I can't imagine why anyone would want to use this as a tablet versus its competitors unless you have some specific enterprise need for multiple users and superior security.

Grade: 
  Hardware: B
  Software: D

Update:

I am really digging the form factor. It's replaced my MacBook Air for light computing. But it's pretty mediocre as a tablet. It's a light PC.

To help encourage modders, we should put up some links to modding resources and popular mods.

Use this post to make requests for what should be stickied.

Thanks!