When I have lots of energy I tend to plan to do a lot more in the future on the false assumption that that energy will persist. Sigh.

The new WinCustomize is going to be a radical departure from what we have today.

In the web 2.0 age, we can do a lot of interesting things that should greatly improve the navigation of the site. The days of clicking, waiting for the page to load, clicking, waiting for the page to load and so forth will go away.

Instead, the site will feel more akin to a desktop application. Want to see the most popular skinners, click on tab and it'll expand to show it.

The site will end up being far cleaner, far faster, and far easier to use than what we have today.

For the record, I was against Proposition 8 in California. I don't think the state should involve itself in what legal arrangements consenting adults make.  If two gay people want to get married, that's fine with me.

That said, the people of California voted (again) and they have decided that they don't want the state to acknowledge gay marriage. 

Now Google comes along and tries to sue to have this overturned based on the premise that it makes it harder to hire people in those states. This is a nonsense argument but its validity is irrelevant. What is relevant is that a very large corporation is trying to sue to change a law that was expressly voted on by the people.

What's worse is that a powerful, public corporation is getting involved in social politics? How long until such a culture pervades into other parts of their business? Maybe websites that don't have "correct" opinions start to not show up on Google.

I don't like big brother, even when big brother agrees with my politics.

I was reading in the forums someone saying something to the effect of "I was playing a game and the other player took all the flags in the first 15 minutes and it seemed like it was hard to come back from that."

In the final version of Demigod, the game would be over before 15 minutes if that happened.

BETA 1 of Demigod was the engine test for compatibility.

BETA 2 of Demigod was the engine test + Internet connectivity.

BETA 3 of Demigod, due next Thursday is where we start to get into the actual game play.

So let's talk briefly about what our vision for that game play is.

Our goal for Demigod has been to make it the "Counterstrike of strategy". That means games should be intense but also relatively short.  The only time a game of Demigod should last more than half an hour is if both teams are very evenly matched.

If you are an expert and you are playing someone who is new to the game, the game should be over in 10 minutes.

In betas 1 and 2, we intentionally made it so that wasn't the case so that we could get people to test out the actual engine parts.  But starting with Beta 2B (today) that begins to change as we start to go towards the final stretch.

Whether playing it single player against computer players or playing on-line, the depth of the game comes through the game mechanics themselves, the persistent world and the game play options.

Stardock and Gas Powered Games have a lot of experience making very complex, very epic strategy games.  Galactic Civilizations, Supreme Commander, Sins of a Solar Empire, etc. are all very large-scale, epic strategy games.

And as cool as those games are, they're not the types of games you can easily sit down and play with friends or simply sit down and play during a respite after work. They require considerable commitment.

And as a gamer, with Dawn of War 2, Empire Total War and Starcraft 2 on the horizon, my need for epic RTS games is going to be met and then some.

Demigod isn't designed to compete with a Starcraft 2 or a Dawn of War or a Sins of a Solar Empire. It's something quite different. Something quite new. 

Demigod is the game that you and your friends can sit down and get going in minutes without having to go through a few "test matches" to help them get the hang of playing.  Its depth is in the subtlety of the game mechanics. Its skill is in how you handle your Demigod; how you equip him (or her); how upgrade your Citadel; which parts of the map you fight over and having the judgment of when to do what.

There is no "build order" in Demigod because there are no buildings to build. There are no peons or construction units because there are no resources to harvest. There are no barracks because you do not construct your units (other than generals who summon their units).

And yet, the mechanics for getting gold and getting access to better stuff is in there.

You get gold by controlling certain parts of the map and killing units and Demigods.

You get access to better units by controlling flags on the map.

You are able to get better abilities by earning experience in battle.

You are able to become stronger by purchasing items and weapons and armor from the shop.

And all of this is done without managing peons, building mines, constructing barracks or anything else.  The game focuses on the funnest elements of RTS games.

And hopefully in the next week or so, players will begin to see where this design leads to and like it as much as we do.

Stay tuned.

To help the IGN Demigod community get moving, I've begun posting some info over there. If you guys have any questions you want asked, post them there and I'll answer them.

http://boards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=24152&page=1

Day 3 at GPG and there’s tons going on.

Right now, Chris Taylor and I are testing out the latest internal build, making notes, etc. 

So for instance, the war score in the game determines what upgrades in the Citadel are available for purchase with gold. This build may be the first one with that implemented. That’s obviously a big change.

We’re also working heavily on the multiplayer tournament mode where players join either the forces of light or the forces of darkness in a persistent world to help their side ascend to the pantheon.

Then there’s the new intro cut scene which I can’t show but looks really cool.

Here’s some pictures from this week so far.

Kellyn Beeck, VP of BizDev in the GPG lobby.

Mmmm. Coffee…

Steve Bauman readies for the day.

Coding and updating on Demigod in “the pit”.

We’re still on schedule for a Thursday beta 2A…

I’ve arrived in Seattle and we’re play testing the new build. I must say, the new game modes are REALLY fun. 

One tweak we made today is that controlling flags will cause war score to go up. Citadel upgrades will cost a certain amount of gold to purchase and require a certain war score to be available to purchase. The combination makes the game play a lot more fun. It’s hard to describe but those of you in the beta will see soon.

Our goal remains to get a build up this week. We’re still struggling to improve the NAT negotiation features so that multiplayer is a lot smoother – that’s why we have the public beta so that it’s not after release we’re dealing with that.

Stay tuned!

This week has been pretty tiring. I hate being away from my family.  I just left CES in Las Vegas and now I’m in Redmond Washington. Next Wednesday I get to come home.

If you want to see what I have been doing at CES see my other blog – http://frogboy.joeuser.com.

I’m a big fan of Canon’s products. Their Canon Image Press C1 is an awesome high end printer. Their printer products overall are just great, I love their digital cameras and video cameras. So here’s a quick video tour of their booth.

I got to see Dawn of War 2 in action. I predict DOW2 will be up there for strategy game of the year (right up there with Demigod).