1.01 should be out very soon, just waiting for the posting okay from Ubi Soft.

Here's what's new:

1.01 Update
-----------

New Features:

• Added function for Saving and Loading games
• Added customization of candidate and portraits in multiplayer
•  Save and Load capability
•  Custom candidate and portraits in multiplayer
• Lobby in Multiplayer

Enhancements:

• Updated election data and minor tweaks to character stats and issues
• Multiplayer scoring enhanced to account for the game speed
• New interface for seeing online players
• Snail pace was slowed down considerably and the players wouldn’t see a countdown timer.*
•  Now allows for Player Name to be changed while in Find Game Screen.
• Removed Intro Movie when playing in windowed mode.
• Will no longer allow you to create two new candidates with the same name.
•  Minor tweaks to character stats and issues
•  Multiplayer scoring enhanced to account for the game speed
•  New interface for seeing online players.
• Tweaks for DirectX for greater compatibility

Bugs Fixed:

•  Corrected assorted typos.
•  Fixed TV Show window that was showing up over Main Menu if you backed out during gameplay.
•  Fixed Player Name to always display even when restarting a new game.
•  Fixed potential crash at end of multiplayer games.
•  Fixed 'double text' bug when chatting in Multiplayer menu.
•  Fixed two or more webmasters in a state giving you money
•  Fixed campaign ladder mode potentially displaying all the unlocked candidates
•  Fixed report of clicking or double clicking on textfields crashing
•  Fixed where custom candidates weren’t always sent across the net in multiplayer
•  Fixed where candidates with a 0 for personal attributes were internally given 5
•  addition of a missing string for the end-game summary screen
• -updated readme to reference firewalls and network play at the top of the readme
• -updated readme to indicate Minor tweaks to character stats and issues
• Creating 2 new candidates with the same name
• Hijacked TV Show window shows up over main menu
• Intro Screen in windowed mode
• Player name not always stored properly
• Player name change in Find Game Screen
• Potential crash at end of multiplayer game

CNN has a really nice article on The Political Machine, the game I worked on this past Spring/Summer.  Check it out.

Pick up the August 23rd edition of Time Magazine or check out CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/fun.games/08/18/political.machine/index.html) and read some reviews on The Political Machine.

The game should be generally available at most retail outlets that sell PC games.

Well we're pretty excited.  On Page 21 in the new issue of Time Magazine Stardock's newest game, The Political Machine, published by our friends at Ubi Soft, gets a very favorable review.  And in the fame (though not fortune category), I'm quoted in the article.

If you've ever wanted to try your hands at Presidential politics without having to leave the house, The Political Machine is your game. It should be at a store near you (Walmart, Best Buy, etc.). Or you can get it from TotalGaming.net (www.totalgaming.net).

 

First there was DesktopX.

Then there was Samurize.

Then there was AveDesk

Then there was Kapsules.

And soon Konfabulator for Windows will be out.

Each one has their pros and cons to them. I'm trying to work out the pros and cons of each so that we can learn from all of them.

I've been a huge widget fan since before they were called widgets. Back in 1999 when we started working on DesktopX, what I wanted to see was a way for users to be able to create their own live mini-applets on their desktops. We call these objects (And still do).

This may sound bizarre but we don't view Samurize, AveDesk, or Kapsules as competitors (in the financial sense we don't, obviously in the pure development point of view we do). But we do view Konfabulator as a competitor. But that sounds absurd doesn't it? But Stardock actually is the host for Samurize. Samurize.com runs on a Stardock machine with our bandwidth at no charge. We would do the same for AveDesk too btw.

But why? Because we are convinced that widgets are the next big thing. I think many of you agree. And a rising tide lifts all boats. The more people who get into this, the better off all of us will be.

So what are the pros and cons of each of these? I'm ignorant to various degrees on some of these so if I make an error, it is not out of an intention to spread FUD but only because I'm dumb.

AveDesk:
Pros:
+ It's free
+ Low overhead
+ Widgets are skinnable
+ Widgets are configurable

Cons:
- Core widgets are DLLs that require "real programming" which will limit the overall # of unique ones. On the other hand, how many "unique" widgets are there really?
- Scripting doesn't seem to be native, requires SysStats.
- Bit of a pain to get widgets downloaded/installed
- No real library yet.
- Seems to be reliant on "what is Konfabulator doing?" type thinking


Samurize:
Pros:
+ It's free
+ Has a visual development environment for the creation of derivative widgets
+ Makes it easy for non-techies to make derivative widgets
+ Widgets are configurable
+ Has a library

Cons:
- Loading up VB Script files is not most people's idea of intuitive
- "Widgets" don't seem to be that compact, that is, it's .vbs files and images thrown together.

Kapsules:
Pros:
+ It's free
+ Everything is modularized in a .widget file
+ Widget configurations handled very cleverly
+ Has library

Cons:
- Less third party support
- Written in VB (I believe)


Konfabulator (for Windows)
Pros:
+ Very well known
+ Will be able to use some of the Konfabulator for Mac widgets
+ Widgets are very high quality
+ Widgets are modularized in an XML file whcih handles everything except the images.
+ Great library of high quality content.

Cons:
- It's not free
- Most Konfabulator widgets are in .sit or .dmg files which PC users won't be able or willing to make work.
- It's such a direct competitor to Avedesk and Kapsules that it'll have a tough time getting people to pay for it.
- Memory overhead not known yet but as the developers of the others can tell you, getting this stuff to not be a pig is not trivial -- you can't just go "Neat, layered windows, let's have each widget be a layered window!".

DesktopX (I'm most familiar with this so it'll have more +'s and -'s)
Pros:
+ Very widely used (>11,000 downloads last week alone)
+ Widget making is GUI driven (you don't have to edit file directly you do it from the GUI).
+ Its widgets are literally .EXEs, no messing around with installing them to the right directory. And its objects (the equivalent to AveDesk widgets) are .dxpacks which when clicked on automatically load up.
+ Very low overhead (load up AveDesk and load up the iTunes widget, then load the iTunes DX widget and compare the difference).
+ High speed animation support - fluid alpha blended animation supported that uses essentially no CPU -- i.e. DX uses video card hardware acceleration.
+ Mature object model
+ Can also be used to build entire desktops which can be exported.
+ Pro version available that allows widgets to be exported as stand alone programs (so developers can graduate to making a living selling custom software).
+ Support both scripting and plugins (i.e. like AveDesk + SysStats combined) natively.
+ Huge library of objects, widgets, and themes that even novice users can use (i.e. no downloading and figuring out where to copy it, no tracking down sys stats, etc.).
+ Much easier to create objects and widgets for (but this is a negative too)
+ Free version allows unlimited use of using widgets and creating objects and themes.
+ Includes hot keys to bring all widgets/objects to top or hide them all together.
+ NATIVELY SUPPORTS ACTIVEX CONTROLS Which means every COM object on your system is effectively the same as an Avedesk plugin (no one had to "program" an iTunes plugin for DesktopX for instance).

Cons:
- It's not free
- 3/4ths of the objects for it suck (because they're so easy to create) so users have to sift through a lot of junk.
- Power developers still have to use the GUI: .dxpack files include an INI file + XML for the scripting + images but they're not well documented so you wouldn't want to make them that way).
- Piont and click interface for object creation not necessarily suitable to all developers.
- Widgets are not very configurable by default.
- Widgets vs. Objects differences may confuse novice users
- Until DesktopX 2, DesktopX was more of an experimental "neat gadget" than ready for prime time so users who tried it long ago may have had a bad experience with it that they remember.
- Because it takes such a different development approach than the others (GUI based object manipulation vs. editing a .widget file on the hard drive) it may seem "strange" to users.

So there you have it. Others please feel free to add on to this so that we have a more rounded view of each of these.

This next Monday DesktopX 2.2 is coming out!

[Screenshot] 

[Mini Video of this desktop]

We are hoping that with DesktopX 2.2's release will greatly enhance the widget making activity (and if you're not using DesktopX presently, don't download 2.1 because 2.2 is such a major upgrade that it wouldn't be a good experience).

Why DesktopX 2.2 for widgets?

• Scripting is integrated into its GUI.
• Object/Widget creation is GUI driven.
• Scripting language tied closer to object model (new in 2.2) so objects can clone themselves, create new objects, delete objects, rotate, change color, shrink, grow, send messages, etc. all from VB Script.
• Low memory overhead. (let me give you an example: The stand alone iTunes DX widget uses less memory (DXWidget runtime + itself) than the overhead alone of some of the other widget players).
• Animation is native and nothing can touch it in terms of animation performance
• Hot keys to bring widgets to top of your windows or hide/show them all together.
• Build in plugins for monitoring system info, time, date, etc.

So this Monday is the day. We're very excited to see how people like it!

If you like The Political Machine, you may want to check out Galactic Civilizations, Stardock's award-winning space based strategy game.  In it, players take on the role of leader of a United Earth and must expand into a galaxy that is filled with hostile alien civilizations. Players must balance diplomacy, manufacturing might, economic power, and military skill in order to survive and eventually win.  The game won editor's choice awards from most of the major PC game publications.

There is also an expansion pack for it - Galactic Civilizations: Altarian Prophecy, which adds additional alien races, custom map support, a campaign, and custom scenarios. It also includes editors to tweak the game in countless ways.  Learn more at https://www.galciv.com.

I came home from vacation early. Higgins Lake is great...when it's not raining and when it's not cold. I have a dream of going on vacation for 2 weeks each year.  I went one a one week vacation earlier this summer and that went well but the Higgins Lake thing was a bust weather-wise. But we still had a good time.  Just as well though, The Political Machine got released while we were gone and should be at a store near you if you're in the United States. If you check out this week's Time Magazine you'll see an article about the game along with a quote from me (Brad Wardell). So there is some consolation I guess.

One little secret about The Political Machine: The entire user interface was designed with DesktopX.  In fact, the game itself just reads in .dxpacks and we developed a 3D engine that reads them and runs them as you would expect in a full screen Direct3D game.

The big news this week is that ObjectDock Plus is finally done.  We're releasing both the Plus version and the freeware 1.04 version at the same time. We want to make sure people realize that just because there's a plus version that we're not abandoning the freeware version.  We expect to keep making updates to both of them for a long time to come.

And we're still trying to get DesktopX 2.2 out the door. If you have Object Desktop,  you already have the latest release candidate of it.  Check out some of the cool widgets & objects for it. For those not familiar with the difference, widgets are mini-programs. They don't require that you have DesktopX even running, just installed on your computer (so that they can use DirectGUI.dll).  DesktopX objects, by contrast, run as part of the DesktopX environment so you can get your setup just so and save the entire desktop as a theme.  The better DesktopX content comes in both forms so you can decide which you want to use.  I am partial to the widgets myself but the downside of widgets is that you can't tweak them beyond what the original author had in mind where as objects can be totally customized. Hopefully when DesktopX 2.2 gets to be out of beta you'll see an explosion of high quality widgets and objects as well as themes. 

ObjectDock is freeware program that is a program launcher and taskbar that does it all with style!

Throw into the mix ObjectDock Plus, which is only $19.95, and you can really turbo-charge your Windows desktop.  It adds tabs, taskbar grouping, system tray (with each item fully skinnable), multiple docks, multiple monitor support, elegant edge hugging, and tons of other cool features!

What's new in 1.04?

• For both ObjectDock & ObjectDock Plus:
• Revised power monitor support
• Fixes for firefox minimizing
• Fixes for screensaver always on top issues
• Handle leak fixed!
• CPU at 100% due to VDMs fixed
• Full history here: http://sdcentral2.stardock.com/public/odp/production/history.htm

Screenshots:

PLUS!

Screenshots

ObjectDock Plus supports multiple docks on the desktop of different styles (tabbed and untabbed)

Tabbed docks can have the system tray in them. Hold down the left mouse button on a system tray item and you can change its image.

Taskbar items can be grouped together like the default Windows taskbar.

Docks can be moved to the edge and then docked where only the tabs show until the mouse goes over them. The size of tabs and docks are controlled from the easy to use configuration dialog.

Example of having multiple tabbed docks with just the tabs showing. 

Docks can be set up so that they're always on top (such as where the tabs show up on top of windows) or behave like normal windows that show up on top when you move your mouse to a specific position.

The tabs and dock backgrounds are skinnable. Use the ones in there or download more made by others. Change the color to any color you choose.

Organize your work as you like.

ObjectDock Plus supports Stardock fly-out menus (you have to see it in action to appreciate how cool this is). A great way to zip through graphic files drives, etc.

 

Manage your various docks through the ObjectDock Plus system tray item. Very straight forward to create and modify

 

ObjectDock Plus!

I came home from vacation early. Higgins Lake is great...when it's not raining and when it's not cold. I have a dream of going on vacation for 2 weeks each year.  I went one a one week vacation earlier this summer and that went well but the Higgins Lake thing was a bust weather-wise. But we still had a good time.  Just as well though, The Political Machine got released while we were gone and should be at a store near you if you're in the United States. If you check out this week's Time Magazine you'll see an article about the game along with a quote from me (Brad Wardell). So there is some consolation I guess.

One little secret about The Political Machine: The entire user interface was designed with DesktopX.  In fact, the game itself just reads in .dxpacks and we developed a 3D engine that reads them and runs them as you would expect in a full screen Direct3D game.

The big news this week is that ObjectDock Plus is finally done.  We're releasing both the Plus version and the freeware 1.04 version at the same time. We want to make sure people realize that just because there's a plus version that we're not abandoning the freeware version.  We expect to keep making updates to both of them for a long time to come.

And we're still trying to get DesktopX 2.2 out the door. If you have Object Desktop,  you already have the latest release candidate of it.  Check out some of the cool widgets & objects for it. For those not familiar with the difference, widgets are mini-programs. They don't require that you have DesktopX even running, just installed on your computer (so that they can use DirectGUI.dll).  DesktopX objects, by contrast, run as part of the DesktopX environment so you can get your setup just so and save the entire desktop as a theme.  The better DesktopX content comes in both forms so you can decide which you want to use.  I am partial to the widgets myself but the downside of widgets is that you can't tweak them beyond what the original author had in mind where as objects can be totally customized. Hopefully when DesktopX 2.2 gets to be out of beta you'll see an explosion of high quality widgets and objects as well as themes.