Once upon a time there was Master of Magic

Back in 2008, Stardock was just finishing up its work on Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor.  We had been in negotiations with Atari to acquire the Master of Magic rights (to the point that we actually own the domain www.masterofmagic.com).  We had a game design all planned out for it complete with Halfings, Gnolls, High Elves, the works.  To be safe, we were not going to stray very far from the original design other than to add multiplayer and updates the units to modern 3D. 

When negotiations with Atari didn’t work out, it was decided we would create our own fantasy world that we called Elemental.  Early on we had a fairly straight forward conversion table:

• Klackons = Quendar
• Ironeers = Dwarves
• Resoln = Nomads
• Urxen = Orcs
• Altar = High Men
• Pariden = High Elves

Cities had 8 classes of buildings (Infrastructure, Industry, Commerce, Military,  Religious, Academic, Husbandry, and Naval).  And each race would have its own unique buildings in each category along with different bonuses to Workers, Farmers and Rebels.

Naming Convention

The game was to be called WAR of MAGIC.  But for trademark concerns, it was decided we would put the name “Elemental” in front.  This would prove to be ironic because in the long-term, people remember War of Magic as “Elemental” and not War of Magic.  As had been said in forums over the years, there would never have been a Elemental II. It would have been War of Magic II.

The original mockup for War of Magic

Design Divergence

War of Magic started getting the scope creep to end all scope creep.  We decided we would have huge, real-time battles.  We decided to have player designed units. The city improvements would be player designed as well, expanding out onto the map and having an editor where players could design their own very unique improvements.  Spells too would be designed by players in game.

This probably seems insane now but a game called Spore was coming out and we were enthralled about the idea of handing over the content creation to players.

Unfortunately, our engineering/art ambitions were beyond our ability to deliver, especially on the hardware of the time.

War of Magic

We tried all kinds of things to reduce the hardware scope which resulted in an art-style that was, unique but not necessarily appealing.  Player unit design required us to give up on the dramatically different race differentiation and the city design concept ended up completely changing the way the cities were made.

In the end, War of Magic ended up nothing like Master of Magic.

War of Magic is released

When War of Magic came out, people were very disappointed that it was buggy, bland, and nothing like Master of Magic.  It is a disappointment that haunts us to this day.

It ended up getting “meh” (3/5) reviews and we were so disappointed with it that we decided to give the two planned expansion packs to it for free to early adopters.

The expansions that never happened

Originally, we had two expansion packs planned.

• War of Magic: Fallen Enchantress
• War of Magic: Legendary Heroes

We would later then make a game called War of Magic II: Empire of Sorcery (and we have the domain to this too www.empireofsorcery.com).

One of the outcomes of War of Magic was that we brought on Derek Paxton (Kael) who had made the popular Civilization mod, Fall from Heaven to re-design War of Magic.  Not surprisingly, he didn’t want this new game associated too strongly with War of Magic so it would become a stand-alone game with a much bigger scope.

Branding confusion

Unfortunately, everyone knew the game as Elemental.  We learned a valuable lesson on branding – people will refer to your game based on the most unique word in it.  We ourselves referred to War of Magic as Elemental all the time just like we call Sins of a Solar Empire “Sins”.    So most people just think of the game as Elemental and not War of Magic.

So what would we call future games?

We looked at the branding debacle Star Wars had come into: Star Wars: Episode 3 – Attack of the Clones.  We didn’t want that.

Otherwise we’d have Elemental: War of Magic – Fallen Enchantress.

This is a problem we still have.

It was decided, ultimately, that it would be referred to as Fallen Enchantress.

Fallen Enchantress

With Fallen Enchantress, we looked at what the underlying engine we had built could do well and what parts it couldn’t do well. Derek Paxton designed a fantasy game that would satisfy most players.  We were still learning the ropes of what makes a good fantasy 4X title with this one. Fallen Enchantress was given away to all the early adopters of War of Magic.

Fallen Enchantress greatly tightened up the design and made it a generally well received game.

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

We took what we learned from Fallen Enchantress and made an expansion pack called Legendary Heroes.  Like Fallen Enchantress, it was free for early adopters of War of Magic. It was also sold as a steep discount to those who had bought Fallen Enchantress.

One thing that I wish we had done differently was not release it as a “expand-a-lone”.  Stand-alone expansions are an ugly hold-over of the retail days and not something we plan on revisiting any time soon. 

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes took a pretty decent game and made it into a really good game

After Fallen Enchantress

In June of 2013, we had a hit.  FE:LH was well received. People really liked it. It was, by any standard, a really good game.  So what do we do? This is where branding gets in.

The name, for instance, is a problem for us.  We had already decided to name it Fallen Enchantress long before Derek “Fall from Heaven” Paxton joined us.  What if he someday wanted to make a Fall from  Heaven game? Having two series with “Fall” in the name was problematic.  This is an issue we haven’t resolved.

As a practical matter, Stardock wants to keep the good will and success of Legendary Heroes going.  I.e. a strong 4X builder with player designed units, vast worlds, wild lands, etc.  For all of 2013 and 2014 Stardock has continued to update Legendary Heroes with new DLC and new free updates.

Sorcerer King

In 2013, Stardock acquired the publishing rights to the Star Control (www.starcontrol.com) series.  What we really liked about Star Control (2) was the story and interaction with the different aliens while working against a powerful enemy.  It had been a long time since anyone tried to do something like that.

At the same time, a lot of really interesting 4X fantasy games had come out from other publishers. This would mean that a lot of gamers would already be familiar with the basics of a 4X fantasy. 

Thus, the idea for Sorcerer King was born: Let’s make a 4X game where the bad guy had already won and was now trying to become a god. Only you could stop him and to do so you would need to gather up the defeated remnants that you had previously competed with to stop him. 

For replayability, we would make sure that there was a lot of complex, unscripted interaction between the various players, random maps, random quests, and all manner of other content that would make sure each game was a new 4X adventure.  We had played a lot of game called FTL and saw how each game does feel very different based on the way it does its quests.

Ironically, the design is adhering a lot more closely to some of our original designs. Each faction is very different. Each unit has lots and lots of special abilities.  And ironically, the UI design is much more similar to the original concept we had all those years ago.

Star Control: Isn’t he cute?

Have you played FTL? If not, get it! Great game!

Sorcerer King: How do you make quests entertaining? Why, hire writers from Cracked.com to write them.

Sorcerer King in action

The Elemental Relationship

So how are all these games related?  War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress and Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes all follow a pretty straight forward path.  You could call Fallen Enchantress a sequel to War of Magic even though it is dramatically different (but then again, Star Control 2 is very different from Star Control 1).

I can’t answer the branding questions.  What I can say is that the War of Magic series (however they’re branded) will continue its own path (War of Magic – > Fallen Enchantress –> Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes –> X?) and Sorcerer King will have its own path. 

Knowing that the word “Fall” or “Fallen” is out of the question for future titles in the War of Magic path, feel free to make your own suggestions.

One of the major new features of Sorcerer King is the Dungeon Master.

Essentially, the Dungeon Master is the AI behind the game making sure that things stay interesting and different from game to game.

In coding terms, the Dungeon Master is a big fat state machine that you feed with your actions.  Here’s how it works:

First, I create a narrative resource.  In this case, I’m making one called Indifference.

I am putting a _ in front of the name (_Indifference) because if we later decide to have some place where we show these DM resources I’ll filter based on the first character being a _ in the resource type. If it becomes really popular, we’ll just add a new XML key but we’ll see.

Next, I create a quest that might include an option that results in some indifference.

If I pick the answer that has indifference, I can have it give the player a “reward”

Thus if the player chooses this, 1 indifference is added to their hidden “resources”.

Now, when I create DM events, I can have options that look for indifference.

So in this case, if the player has done a lot of “indifferent” things you can trigger on that.

Similarly, you can even create events that are triggered specifically on that with a % chance attached.

Mind you, everything I’m doing here is something you’ll be able to do (we’re not going to hand out the editor until the game’s released, however as we are constantly updating it).

Connect this to the Steamworks and suddenly players can start building a richer and richer game experience.

In the meantime, we will continued to have Cracked.com writers doing the hard work of writing the quests (seriously).

Greetings!

Getting a ton of questions regarding minor races.

Here’s the scoop:

You and the Sorcerer King are trying to woo the “remnant factions” (minor races).  Each time you succeed, you gain favor with them. When enough favor has been gained, they will ally with that player.

If they ally with you, they will be attacking the Sorcerer King on their own as well as giving you units. In addition, you can outright ask them for help

Each minor race can provide different types of help. All of them will give you access to their unique units.  Some have powerful magic that can take points off the doomsday counter. Others have potions and still others have unique spells that only they have that they’ll share with you.

Each game, what the minors have will change slightly. That is, you won’t get the same potions or spells or ingredients every time. They have their own fairly vast library of “stuff” that is unique to that race.

As a practical matter, you won’t be able to ally with everyone. They have grudges with one another.  For example, the Swamp Giants have a problem with Pariden as Queen Procipinee kicked them out of their ancestral lands.  Hence, if you’re friends with Pariden, it’ll be much harder to be friends with the Swamp Giants.  The quests and conversations you have will differ based on what you’ve done in the game as well as who you’re friends (or enemies) with.

Greetings!

We’re very excited to have you with us on Sorcerer King.  We hope you’re having as much fun playing the beta as we are having making it.  This post will go over the road-map between Beta 1 and the final release of the game so you can see where things are.

Milestone #1: Sorcerer King BETA 1 [October 2014]

1. Crafting is in
2. Outposts attack enemies in ZOC and can be upgraded
3. Minor factions are on map but don’t do anything
4. Wizard sovereign is in
5. City improvements determine available base units
6. Default small maps are in.
7. Trained units can be equipped with crafted items (even Bailey! <g>)

Milestone #2: BETA 2 [November 2014]

1. Minor factions ally up with either you or the Sorcerer King based on what the player (or SK) does.
2. Minor factions give player access to their unique units that cost 0 logistics
3. Sorcerer King will begin casting spells into tactical battles
4. Priest, Warrior, Guardian sovereign added
5. Sovereign customization in
6. Summoning Spellbook added
7. Pretty Quest screen added

Milestone #3: BETA 3 [December 2014]

1. HighDPI UI support (>2K/4K display enhancements)
2. Warlord, Tinkerer sovereigns added
3. Dungeon Master world system added (Everything you do in the game feeds data to the DM that may come back to help or hurt you later, variables will be listed in the Quest screen)
4. Hall of Fame added
5. In-Game status reports on how you’re doing in various interesting way
6. Large map support added
7. Random Map generation added

After Beta 3, it’s content, content, content.  More monsters, units, spells, abilities, quests, balance, bug fixing, etc.

Cheers!

Greetings!

We should probably add this to the FAQ but people have been asking how the various Elemental universe games relate to each other.

To recap:

2010: Elemental

2012: Fallen Enchantress

2013: Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

2015: Sorcerer King

All the games exist in the same world but at different times.

Elemental took place 100 years after the Cataclysm and dealt with the War of Magic.

Fallen Enchantress deals with the rise of Ceresa and her undead armies.

Sorcerer King takes place much later AFTER Ceresa's defeat and a much more powerful enemy coming in and destroying everyone.

In the BETA, you play as the son of Relias. You have the Forge of the Overlord which is where the crafting comes from.

Grab it here: 

[The Sorcerer King: Early Access Manual]

Q: What's the deal? There's a ton of awesome 4X fantasy strategy games to play. How is your game different?
A: This game assumes you’ve already played those games. And lost.

Q: Wait, what? I already lost? I haven’t even loaded up your game.
A: Yea, sorry about that.

Q: What the hell happened?
A: So to recap, in games like Fallen Enchantress, Age of Wonders, Worlds of Magic, Master of Magic, Warlock, Endless Legends, etc. you are trying to build an empire from the ground up. You compete against multiple kingdoms trying to do the same thing and win through a variety of means. Right?

Q: Right. And you’re saying Sorcerer King isn’t about that?
A: Exactly. All those things happened *before* Sorcerer King. And I have some bad news. The Sorcerer King won.

Q: So I don’t play as the Sorcerer King?
A: No. The Sorcerer King was the guy who won the previous game. He already conquered everyone.

Q: So what’s the object of your game then?
A: Well, having already built his empire and defeated everyone, the Sorcerer King wants outright Godhood and to do that, he must destroy the handful of remaining magical shards to capture their essence so that he can cast the Spell of Making.

Q: I’m familiar with that fantasy trope. So he’s capturing—
A: No, he’s destroying the shards. He’s not playing the same game you’re playing. We call that Asymmetrical 4X.

Q: Asymmetrical 4X? Is that even a thing? Sounds like a marketing thing.
A: Yea, probably. But it means that the player’s goals are very different than that of the other players.

Q: So in this game it’s not about a bunch of players building empires?
A: Right. Everyone already had their shot to build their empire. This game is what happens after the bad guy won.

Q: So what are you, the player, supposed to do?
A: Keep the Sorcerer King from destroying the shards and becoming a god.

Q: How do you do that?
A: First, you must build up and fortify your last remaining city.

Second, train new units to go out and protect the shards.

Third, you need to build up new cities to ensure you have the logistical capability of even taking on the Sorcerer King.

Fourth, find the remnants of the empires that were already defeated by the Sorcerer King and see if they can help you or at least keep them from totally surrendering to the Sorcerer King.

Fifth, go on quests, kill monsters to gather ingredients and items to use for crafting.

Q: Well that sounds like a 4X to me.
A: It is a 4X. It’s an asymmetrical one. The other players aren’t building up empires, going up some tech tree, negotiating treaties. They are all doing different things. Some are just trying to survive. Others want revenge. Some are just jerks. Seriously. Hate those guys. And the Sorcerer King himself wants to be a god. He’s already got an empire. Your job is to stop him by trying to convince the remnant empires that there’s still hope, building new cities, going on quests, finding ingredients for crafting, etc.

Q: Ah, so this game has crafting?
A: Sure does. You possess the Forge of the Overlord and can use recipes and ingredients to craft powerful equipment to give to your units.

Q: So what are the victory conditions?
A: Kill the Sorcerer King.

Q: And…?
A: That’s it. The fun is in how you go about doing that. Your means and strategy will differ from game to game based on map size, which quests come up, which minor factions are in there, what environments are available, which of the 6 different sovereigns you choose, which heroes you find, what resources are available, what spells the Sorcerer King learns, etc.

Q: What about Diplomacy? Can’t you ally with the other players and win that way?
A: Allying is indeed a victory condition – for the Sorcerer King. He will try to get you to ally with him.

Q: Wait? You can ally with the Sorcerer King?
A: Sure! Remember, he’s the one playing the traditional 4X game. He’s the one sending out settlers and building cities and conquering and trying to cast the spell of making or allying with the other races to win.

Q: What happens if you do ally with him?
A: You die.

Q: So why would I do that?
A: I don’t know. People like victory conditions.

Q: But it’s a victory condition for the Sorcerer King!
A: Well yea, it’s his game. I mean, it’s his name on the box. It’s not like the game is called Bob’s game.

Q: My name isn’t Bob.
A: And it never will be with that attitude.

Stardock is pleased to announce the early access availability of a new, asymmetrical 4X fantasy strategy game. The Sorcerer King puts the player as the sovereign of the last surviving kingdom in a world that has already been conquered.  Having annihilated the other kingdoms, the Sorcerer King is now casting the Spell of Making which will transform him into a god – at the expense of eliminating all life in the world.

Your only hope is to build alliances with the remnants of the factions you previously had been competing against to raise an army strong enough to defeat him before he finishes casting the spell.  It won’t be easy though, the world is already controlled by the Sorcerer King and his minions are founding strongholds and destroying the very shards you need to gain magic.

Visit www.sorcererking.com for more information.

Screenshots:

For those of you interested in a basic walk-through that I whipped up, here it is:

http://draginol.stardock.net/files/SK-Walkthrough.pdf

It's not a secret that the new Star Control reboot is in development.  The approved budget is approximately $5 million (Star Control 2's budget was $50,000 - that's how amazing Paul and Fred were!). 

We are missing a vital component however. The Lead Designer.  While we have received a lot of resumes for this position, we are still looking for the ideal candidate.  Right now, the development on the game is engine-related but we will reach the point fairly soon where we will need an on sight lead designer. 

The position is in Towson Maryland (Stardock East).  The team is made up of some of the most experienced developers and artists in the industry.

Contact us!

https://www.stardock.com/about/careers.asp