If you’ve been through Stardock betas, none of what I’m going to say is going to be news to you.

But for everyone else…

Most companies – the smart ones anyway – carefully control the message.  You won’t see early screenshots or quick sketches shown to the public of most games because internally, most games change dramatically during their development.

We game developers like to give the impression that we have the MASTER DESIGN from the start.

We know what we’re doing.

From the start.

Right?

No.

Many well known games that seem genius today actually started out very different. But gamers don’t know that.

But I’m not a game designer. Not really.

I’m a gamer who happens to make games.  That’s how most of us at Stardock feel. We are GAMERS first.

Our games are not a work of art or a craft or even a job.

They’re games designed to be fun and we’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure they’re fun.

With Elemental, we have an unprecedented budget (for us) to work with.

• We did Galactic Civilizations II with 3 programmers and 2 artists in 18 months.
• We did The Political Machine 2008 with 1 artist, 2 developers in 6 months.
• With Elemental, we have 8 developers and 7 artists.

Still small but it’s really not but we can do a lot with relatively few people.

And for those who are interested in seeing how the game industry those reading these journals can see the iterative process of how things are done – including when we change our minds on things.

It also means we’ll be very open about what games we like and get influences from. 

Inspiration

Here are some great games we play and can look at for ideas for instance:

Let’s see if you guys can guess all these games from their screenshots:

The Soul of a game

One of our major goals for Elemental is to ensure the game has a soul. What I mean by this is that we don’t want everything abstracted to the point where the player doesn’t feel like they’re IN the game. That’s one of the reasons why we’re not having Orcs and Elves in the game. If someone else wants to make those fantasy races, that’s fine.  But we want Elemental to have a very definitive game world that it is in that brings the player into the game’s world. Then, later, if they want, they can add in their own orcs and elves and what not into the game. 

But we don’t want to just have a bunch of different factions and races that are simply generic and just different stats.  That was a problem in Galactic Civilizations that I don’t think was really solved until Twilight of the Arnor which finally gave each race its own unique technology tree.

In Elemental, I just think there’s so much more possible because we have the luxury of making a game with you guys instead of simply foisting a game on the public.  There’s just too much of an opportunity here to make something that’s new but brings forward some of the best elements from games we all have played and loved.

Before I get PM's, I'm the designer of Elemental and I work at Stardock so I'm NOT flaming the game itself I'm trying to make it better.

The research screen in Elemental is not fun. It's work. It's work to use. It adds nothing to the game other than feeling like it's necessary.

I think a lot could be learned from Master of Orion.  I like the idea of researching an AREA of tech and when a milestone in that area is reached, a screen pops up and the player can choose the breakthru they want to have just uncovered.  

When researching a given area of tech (warfare, civilization, magic, diplomacy, etc.) they player would know the odds of a particular tech being available once that milestone is reached.  In addition, some very rare technologies might pop up once that milestone is reached.

For instance, maybe under warfare there's a 1% chance that a breakthru in the warfare area might allow the player to get "doom fire" (a tech for helping in sieges) but that means in most games, that tech won't be an option.

That's the kind of thing we're thinking of.  Right now, researching tech is boring and tedious. 

Every 4X game we’ve made going all the way back to the beginning we try different ways of researching new technologies.  Galactic Civilizations I and II both originally had very different research systems.

The one in Elemental we have in the beta we don’t like so we’re going to be making pretty radical changes to it in the upcoming builds.

Here are some of the key elements that we WILL be making more of a focus in keeping:

1. Infinite techs. That is, the tech tree doesn’t end. There’s always a new tech being generated once you reach the “end” of the official techs.
2. Random techs. Techs that aren’t in every game that add spice to the game world.
3. Situational techs.  Techs that show up because certain in-game criteria are met.

So stay tuned on that.

THE NEW BETA IS COMING TONIGHT.

A few notes about this update:

1. The random video card overheating issue has not been addressed. As long as you don’t have an ATI or nVidia card you should be fine. Otherwise, please be prepared to replace your video card. We do expect to decrease the severity by Beta 3 (late Winter).
2. The Boot Sector handle lock issue is addressed on 32-bit machines but not 64-bit. As a result, most 64-bit machines will likely still experience a hard lock that will require reinstallation of the OS.
3. The uploading of .XLS files from users machines to our servers has been addressed in this build. However, .XLSX files are still being submitted.
4. All .MPEG, .AVI, and .WMV files on a user’s machine are still being uploaded but .MOV files are no longer being uploaded to my computer.
5. Random profanity strings being generated by the map generator have largely been taken care of.
6. Keylogging of passwords fixed except when on the Internet.
7. Rootkit updated to use less memory.

Screenshots of key new features:

 
Forests and map generation improved.

City building has been improved.

Unit design has been improved.

 

Resource system updated

 

Okay, seriously, here’s what’s new:

********************
** Beta 1B Update **
********************

+ Resrouce Management Overhaul

+ Most Resouces no longer use STORAGE, instead jsut having their base 'Value'

+ When a building requires materials, they will get the value produced instead of a weird application of stored units and per-turn values

+ USER SUGGESTION: if a resource isn't available, the city uses the resources 'Rummage Value', so now different resources can have different gathering values when not available to a player

  + Example: Lumber is 'rummaged' at a value of +0.85 units/turn, whereas Dragon Scales may be rummaged at a measly +0.05 units per turn

+ UI updated to better explain the economic system

+ Tweaked City details window

+ Removed population from city resource display

+ Updated Bink and Miles binaries
+ Changes to MultiplayerClient.cpp

                + Disabled CVP crash reporter (so we use the one in Elemental), which fixes crash reports being named wrong and not grabbing debug.err

                + Changed download file code to use SecureHTTPPoster directly instead of using CVP code so that it uses the code with the fix for the buffer overrun
+ Fixed a bunch of xml files that had errors in them

+ fixed a crash in save code that was caused by an invalid xml file

+ Fixed city unit building/destruction

                + Added two variables to city.h/.cpp to keep more accurate track of the number of available subtiles.

                + Changed AddImprovement() in city.cpp to reference available subtiles instead of tiles.

                + Fixed visual problems with the changes

                                + Made FillWithCityStats() in MainCityDetailsSubwnd.h public so I could call it between turns to update the number of available tiles as the player builds.

                                + Changed FillWithCityStats() function to reference available number of subtiles instead of all subtiles.

+ added code for unit desertion
+ Fixed bug where spawned creatures were released twice when killed, which would cause a crash later in the turn
+ Fixed a bug I ran into where the FOW calculator didn’t know how to handle rectangular maps (only square ones).  This caused an assert in debug and probably caused worse problems in release.  This fix breaks current save games.
+ Players generate +1 Research point by default

+ Fixed depth fighting issues between the city subtile graphics and cliff tiles on the cloth map.

+ Added saving and loading of improvement construction info, if needed

+ Moved functions pertaining to improvement construction to a new file ImprovementConstruction.cpp

+ Tweaked some construction turn estimates
+ MEDALLION BOXES IMPLEMENTED!!!

+ Checked in modified dxpacks for each screen with "MedallionBox" tags

+ Medallion List copy constructor now copies the boder list

        + Report Window Items now have a SetBorderFile function

        + Report Window Items now have a virtual GetGameObject function which is used to set a medallion for that object in the report

        + Logo Types now support a "Border" XML field

        + Changes to Medallion Box edit field:

                + Modified how Battle Initiation screen handles the data so it works better with medallions

                + Modified how Battle Resolution screen handles the data so it works better with medallions

                + Modified how the Battle Resolution Casualties screens handle the data so it works better with medallions

                + Modified the following screens to support new medallion box edit field:
+ Unit types now save quotes
                + You can enter quotes in the Save Unit Type screen
+ Set up new stat fields on Save Unit Type screen
+ Implemented new "MedallionBox" UI control

      + DXPack Tag: "MedallionBox"

      + Use the SetGameObject function to set what game object you want to display

            + It will use the medallion data of the object to show the medallion for the object

      + Medallion is broken into 3 layers:

+ Mask: A transparency map (Alpha transparency represents transparent area of final composite)

+ Border: An image of the border around the medallion (Alpha transparency represents area where Image will be blended)

+ Image: An image that will be displayed inside of the border (It is shifted to fit inside the border area)

      + Created new shader for the Medallion Box

      + Created new scene node to render the Medallion Box

      + Added Medallion mask image to CVS

      + Added Uninitialize function to ElementalShell to clean up the medallion boxes

      + Added a medallion border list to the CMedallionsList class

            + added GetMedallionBorderFromEnvironmentType function

            + added SetMedallionBorderData

            + added GetmedallionBorder

            + added support for XML fields:

                  + Border_All

                  + Border_Default

                  + Border_Grassland

                  + Border_Evil

                  + Border_Barren

                  + Border_Swamp

                  + Border_Desert

                  + Border_Arctic

            + NOTE: These were patterned after the existing code for medallions

+ These functions (and the existing medallion functions) and xml fields are hard-coded to certain environment types

+ This could prove problematic later since we want to have non-hard-coded environments

                  + We need to address this NOW 

      + Added GetMedallionBorder functions to:

            + CResourceHoard

            + CGoodieHutType

            + CResourceType

            + CUnit

            + CGoodieHut

+ Hooked up unit design screen changes

+ Units in training info card displays resource costs, and units in the field display wages

+ Merged Cari's infinite tech display stuff with the checked in research entry code

+ Changed research entry pie bar to completely ignore infinite tech bonuses

      + Pie bar is handling it correctly, but I couldn't get the milestone entries in the right spot yet

+ Fixed tech manager stopping research if there were still infinite tech bonuses to be researched

+ Fixed a crash in the tech status bar on the main UI

+ Made the tech and spell status bars transparent to not steal the mouse messages for the edge scroll

+ Fixed depth fighting issue between the selection graphic and cliff tiles on the cloth map.

+ Removed hard-coded sizes for render targets in the Elemental Full screen window

+ If the player has a city, but no research set, and they press the Turn button, the game will automatically pop the research window up, along with a message box explaining that they have not set a research track. After that, they are

free to go on to the next turn.

+ If the player tries to access the research screen before they have built any cities, the game will pop up a message box saying that they need at least one city to conduct research.
+ Fixed full screen background window - was using incorrect depth buffer

+ Fixed mem leaks in full screen background window

+ Fixed thumbnail generation where some machines were not able to generate thumbnails

+ This was caused by the multisampling not matching between render target and depth target

+ Fullscreen background window has been modified to use a valid depth buffer when rendering to texture

+ Fixed mem leaks in MWin texture rendering task

+ Created new class, CElementalDefs, to read in and store many of the values that were hard-coded in ElementalDefs.h. The old hard-coded #defines have been commented out, and all references to them have been switched to use the data

stored in CElementalDefs by way of its global pointer, g_pElementalDefs. Here’s a list of the values that have been added to CElementalDefs so far:

      -ESSENCE_COST_NEW_CITY: CElementalDefs::GetNewCityEssenceCost( )

      -ZOC_IMPROVEMENT_INFLUENCE: CElementalDefs::GetZoneOfControlImprovementInfluence( )

-ZOC_IMPROVEMENT_INFLUENCE_RADIUS: CElementalDefs::GetZoneOfControlImprovementInfluenceRadius( )

      -BASE_UNIT_WAGES: CElementalDefs::GetBaseUnitWages( )

      -POVERTY_UNIT_WAGES: CElementalDefs::GetPovertyUnitWages( )

      -NORMAL_POPULATION_INCREASE: CElementalDefs::GetNormalPopulationIncrease( )

      -POVERTY_POPULATION_INCREASE: CElementalDefs::GetPovertyPopulationIncrease( )

      -PRESTIGE_POPULATION_INCREASE: CElementalDefs::GetPrestigePopulationIncrease( )

      -TAX_INCOME_NORMAL_RATE: CElementalDefs::GetTaxIncomeRateNormal( )

      -BASE_RATIONS_PER_CITIZEN: CElementalDefs::GetBaseRationsPerCitizen( )

      -BASE_RESEARCH_POINTS_PER_CITIZEN: CElementalDefs::GetBaseResearchPointsPerCitizen( )

      -ADMINISTRATIVE_COST_CITY_EXPONENT: CElementalDefs::GetCityAdminCostExponent( )

      -BASE_PER_CITY_ADMIN_COST: CElementalDefs::GetBaseCityAdminCost( )

      -BASE_LABOR_GP_COST_PER_TURN: CElementalDefs::GetBaseLaborCostPerTurn( )

      -BASE_CARAVAN_TRADE_PERCENTAGE: CElementalDefs::GetBaseCaravanTradePercentage( )

      -TURNS_TO_RESPAWN_CARAVAN: CElementalDefs::GetTurnsToRespawnCaravan( )

-DEFAULT_RESOURCE_SHARING_MULTIPLIER: CElementalDefs::GetDefaultResourceSharingMultiplier( )

-CONNECTED_BY_ROAD_RESOURCE_SHARING_MULTIPLIER: CElementalDefs::GetConnectedByRoadResourceSharingMultiplier( )

+ Created new ElementalDefs.xml file to store the values read in by CElementalDefs. It’s currently filled with the values that had been set for the now commented-out defines in ElementalDefs.h.

+ Added pose icons for the pose selection screen

+ On title screen, changed "Skirmish" to "New Game"

+ Changed title of research sub wnd to "What would you like to research?"

+ In kingdom manager screen, research is now the first button and unit design the second

+ Fixed crash when choosing to research a tech without any milestones

+ Infinite tech bonuses now displayed as strings in the research entry and popup instead of as milestones

+ Fixed issues with main UI tech status bar, where the status bar wouldn't always change from turn to turn because the status bar takes integers to display, but often the changes in research points were fractional.  The status bar should

update every turn now.

+ Fixed problem that was causing the game to crash on attempting to load a saved game (CMapSetting’s Save( ) function was writing more elements than the Load( ) function was reading, causing the data to not line up).

+ Added the map type and style internal names to the list of data written and read in by CMapSetting’s Save( ) and Load( ) functions, so the type/style can be retrieved and set.

+ Modified certain cloth map poses and made minor camera adjustments for card screens.

 

 

 

Next: A tour of the economic system for the beta testers…

First, I’d like to apologize as we had promised that the betas would suck until Beta 3.  Oh, they still suck. But because we need to get this feature in earlier than later, something fairly cool is getting in early.  I will say that we will make an effort to avoid any cool features getting in early in the future.

So in today’s beta update, players can design their own units.  But in Elemental, units are represented by cards from a UI point of view.  To make this a useful feature and not just cosmetic, players can design their cards.  The reason this is useful is because players can change the background and pose of the unit. As a result, we can shrink the cards down very small in the UI where we need and players will still know what they represent because they were the ones who designed them.

To see it in action click here:

http://screencast.com/t/zgacEgNmRwMq

We’re not trying to torture anyone with these sneak peeks. 

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been playing with new builds of Demigod sent over from developer Gas Powered Games.

Now, since I work at Stardock, the publisher, I’m biased. I make no bones about it. But as the designer and one of the developers of Galactic Civilizations and the forthcoming Elemental, I do have some perspective on the work GPG is doing with these demigods.

As someone who is biased a bit towards quantity over quality, I have been somewhat skeptical about the effort involved in making these demigods. If I were the designer of Demigod, the players would simply create their demigods from scratch at the start of the game rather than “pick” one.  That said, seeing GPG’s work has given me a real appreciation of the craftsmanship at Gas Powered Games.

The Demon Assassin will be an exciting addition. He plays very differently than any other demigod I’ve played and yet he also feels natural to the game play. He’s incredibly powerful but also very fragile.

I normally play as either Oak or Lord Erebus. In either case, I don’t tend to die often because I quickly amass a lot of HP.  The Demon Assassin, by contrast, is (obviously) not a general which means no monks to start out with and he has much lower armor and HP than most of the demigods.

On the other hand, he’s lethal.  By the second level, a fully mana’d DA can inflict 650HP of damage.

Here are the powers that I think people will find exciting:

1. Warp Strike.  You target at enemy and he will warp in and do 250 damage (it’s expensive at 500 mana so early on it’s not something that will happen much).  The range isn’t huge but it’s enough to make him a real force early on if you’re running away.
2. Spine Attack. Yes, he also has a ranged weapon. A rather nasty one. It’s short-range but it’s range nevertheless. For 550 mana you can do 400 damage. First level.
3. Elusiveness. This is a passive ability but holy cow, it’s so cool. It’s a dodge ability.
4. Demon Speed. Another passive ability but simply put, you can make him go faster and faster.  By default, he’s actually pretty slow.
5. Precision. This is a critical hit passive ability that you can crank up during the course of the game.
6. Warp area. This is his area effect. It doesn’t show up until level 5 but it lets him do damage to nearby units for 250 damage each (eventually at level 10 he can do 500 damage to all nearby units). 
7. He also has a shadow ability. This is the one that will be controversial and we’ll be discussing with players. He can exchange places with a target demigod.  The range is limited but it’s very powerful. You’ve just capped that portal flag, you’re running away. You’re going to make it.  No. No you’re not. You’re going to die. Because the demon assassin has just exchanged places with you and now you’re back at that portal and he’s out in front of you.

He is incredibly dangerous – in the right hands. He’s also a massive feeder in the wrong hands.  At level 4, with HP giving armor and such, I had 2275HP.  With Erebus or Oak I’d be at over 4000 at that point. 

What? Give him Blood of the Fallen? No problem? Except he’s fairly slow at the start.  He is almost begging for Swift Ankle Bracelet.

Here’s a video of his skills.

Status report:

Tomorrow we expect to send out an email to those of you who have signed up for Ready to Play.  Once we have that, we plan in the next week or so to begin sending out invitations to people (it won’t be everyone, sorry, but we want to “beta” these guys before we unleash them on everyone) to people via Ready to Play.

In the meantime, here’s a quickie video of me playing the Demon Assassin.  

 

If you find YouTube too slow, I have it up on my FTP.

Someone who is only casually into gaming asked me what battles in Elemental will be like.  I said if there was a game called Magic: Total War, then you have a pretty good idea of what the scale of battles would be.

Now, for lots of people (and myself included most of the time) auto-resolve will be the preferred choice.  One of my biggest pet peeves as a gamer is feeling like I have to fight through every battle myself.  So this is an area that beta testers and us will be discussing a lot and one of the reasons why the tactical battles are getting so much public beta testing time this Winter.

…

But let’s talk about numbers.

Battles

Early battles might have 5 soldiers involved.

Late battles might have 10,000 soldiers involved.

Economics

A citizen produces gold and research points.

The default rate is 0.10 gold and 0.10 research points per citizen.

Players will be able to change those rates based on what they build in their city.

Prestige

Buildings provide prestige.

Prestige determines population growth because you’re really trying to attract people into your towns from the wastelands.

Resources

An improvement will produce N resources when played on a resource (farm on fertile land).

Some types of resources give bonuses to whatever is built on them (a farm on a wheat resource produces more food than fertile land)

All cities in your kingdom will receive 1.0 of a resource per turn when any city is using it.

A city will receive an additional 1.0 of that resource per turn if it is connected by a road.

This amount will be able to be modified through technologies and improvements.

A caravan is sent to each city in your kingdom that is connected by a road and will deliver N (typically 10.0) of that resource when it arrives at a destination city temporarily adding to whatever projects need it.

* We don’t currently like how roads are being built but don’t want players to be forced to building “workers” to build the roads. If anyone has any suggestions we’d like to hear it.

Populations

Populations start out in a city at 1 and can rise to tens of thousands late in the game and possibly higher depending on player feedback.

Armies

There is no such thing as just building a unit. That unit has to come from your population. If you plan to have mass armies then you better have massive population. If you plan to have small armies that are very well equipped then you better have the resources to do it.  If you plan to have fight with elite forces of magic users then you better have access to the shards and magic spells or have completed quests.

2010 Preview

What it is

Object Desktop is a suite of desktop enhancement utilities designed to enable users to turbo-charge their Windows experience. It has been described over the years as a “third party upgrade to Windows”.

With Windows 7 arriving on the eve of the 10th anniversary since the initial Windows release of Object Desktop, this year’s version is particularly special.  This article will walk you through the basic elements of Object Desktop, what’s new since last year, and why it has remained so popular with power users.

Anyone who gets Object Desktop today will automatically get Object Desktop 2010 plus everything we release for a year from their purchase.

The Goods

There are many programs that make up Object Desktop but a few of them are the real-stand outs and have gotten the lion’s share of the effort this year. 

The featured programs of Object Desktop 2010

Below are just a few highlights…

 

WindowBlinds 7

Since its initial launch, WindowBlinds has been the star of Object Desktop and in November, WindowBlinds 7 gets released on its own and is already in late beta on Object Desktop as I write this. Having been involved on WindowBlinds since the start, I can safely say that this version is definitely the most significant update ever.

Here are some highlights:

 

 

WindowBlinds 7: Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 users get a massive upgrade.

 

Native support for Windows 7

 

WindowBlinds 7 can skin Windows Aero.

 

The new WindowBlinds configuration screen

 

Remember all those skins made in the Windows XP era? No problem, they will work natively on Windows Vista and Windows 7 and can now be modified in the program to be better than ever.

 

 
Apply textures your skins to create your own custom look. You can even create your own textures right from the program.

Aero skinned.

 

 

Fences Pro 1

Fences is a brand-new program that lets people organize their desktop icons easily. It can also, with a simple double-click, hide all your icons at once. It’s quickly become one of the most popular programs on the Internet.

 

Fences makes it easy to organize your desktop.

 

A fence can hide a lot of clutter.

 

Double-click on the desktop and all your icons will disappear. Double-click again to bring them back.

 

Creating a fence is as easy holding the right mouse button down and dragging

Fences Pro goes beyond what is in the free version and allows users to have Fences collect new icons based on type – auto organizing their desktop.

 

DeskScapes 3

DeskScapes is the world’s most popular animated wallpaper program.

The first version allowed users of Windows Vista to apply a new type of wallpaper called “Dreams” that were either video or rendered animation dynamically.  The second version added support for Windows XP.  The new version, Version 3, adds support for “Hybrid” dreams which allows users to take a static picture and animate it.  In addition, it also supports adding effects to your existing wallpaper gallery.

Here’s an overview in pictures:

DeskScapes gets a new, easy to use configuration screen

 

Your existing wallpaper library gets a whole new life thanks to effects. All effects are done on the fly without ever effecting the actual wallpaper.

Got a cool photo that is too colorful as a wallpaper? Use the DeskScapes Sepia effect to tone it down.  Doesn’t touch the actual file, just the wallpaper in memory.

 

Hybrid dreams allow users to integrate animated pieces into static images. As a result, a subtle, interesting animated wallpaper can be made that isn’t distracting and uses virtually no CPU. Users can even pick and choose which animated elements to use.

There are thousands of high quality animated wallpapers (Dreams) available on the net already and with DeskScapes 3, you can apply effects to them as well.

 

Got a large screen monitor and your wallpapers are a lower resolution? Then you will definitely want DeskScapes 3. It has options to take those wallpapers and apply effects so that they look good at higher resolutions. DeskScapes even provides options for handling wallpaper on multiple monitors.

 

 

DesktopX 4

DesktopX is a program that allows users to add true “objects” to their Windows desktop.  DesktopX 4 is the long-awaited update that adds full support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 and streamlines its user interface. Here’s a sample of what it can do:

Now adding an object is as easy as right-clicking on the desktop.

 

Users can make their desktop objects and size or shape. JavaScript or VB Scripts can optionally be used to give them function.

Users can export their creations as objects (to be used within DesktopX), widgets (programs on a system that has DesktopX), or as a Windows sidebar gadget.

 

Users can gather their objects together and build desktops and then save them as a .desktop.

 

IconPackager 5

IconPackager is a program that enables users to apply packages of icons to their Windows system to change all their icons at once or individually.

IconPackager gets support for Windows 7.

Windows 7 specific icons can now be easily changed in one spot.

Right-click on a data file and IconPackager 5 will allow you to change the icon for that file type and can even sort through different icon packages to find just the right icon.

 

The Impulse Dock

Object Desktop 2010 now automatically includes the Impulse Dock. This simple dock snaps to the taskbar and can be set to auto-hide.

This simple and powerful dock makes it easy to organize the programs you regularly run and complements your existing taskbar.

 
Customize the look of your dock with the included high-resolution icons or use your own.

 

Tweak 7

If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, then the new version of Stardock’s premiere tweaking program (TweakVista and Tweak7) will help you get the most out of Windows. Here’s some of what’s new:

 

Tweak7’s simplified interface makes it much easier to find out what’s running on your system and help get rid of all the junk that gets loaded safely.

Fine tune the UAC even beyond what Windows 7 can do (even on Windows Vista).

Windows tends to try to force you to put all your “stuff” on the C drive. Tweak7 allows users to safely and seamlessly move those directories to other partitions – without even having to reboot normally.

 

 

Theme Manager

Theme Manager helps put it all together. The new version of Theme Manager refocuses on .Suites.  A suite includes everything you need to change your desktop – a WindowBlinds skin, an icon package, a DeskScapes dream, DesktopX objects, etc. all put together and applied from a single UI.

 
The new Theme Manager includes several new suites right within it along with some exclusive animated wallpapers for DeskScapes users.

 

Conclusions

This is just a quick summary of some of the work Stardock has done on Object Desktop these past few months. There’s a lot more to it than this and there’s a lot of great stuff cooking in our labs for the forthcoming year too.

If you don’t have Object Desktop, you can get it here: www.objectdesktop.com. 

On December 2, 2009, Object Desktop and Object Desktop Ultimate will be merged into Object Desktop. Users with Object Desktop Ultimate will get a full year added to their account (so now is the ideal time to pick up Object Desktop Ultimate). 

Object Desktop: It’s like getting the next version of Windows today!