Stardock’s Launch8 is a program that should, imo, have been part of Windows 8 in the first place.  On every other mobile device you have some sort of persistent quick launch bar that makes it easy to get to the things you use all the time.

Not only does Launch8 had this persistent, easy to use launcher to the bottom of the Windows 8 Start screen, it integrates the usability features first introduced into Windows 7 such as Jump-lists (Which should matter more than ever on a touch device!).

Launch8, like Start8, ModernMix, Decor8, WindowBlinds, Fences, etc. are all part of Stardock’s premiere desktop enhancement suite, Object Desktop.

To learn more about Launch8 go to www.stardock.com/products/launch8

I love Stardock. I really do. But I’ve been seeing someone else for the past year or so…

I don’t know exactly how it started.  But I was talking to friends of mine in the industry and we’ve all been frustrated with the direction of 3D game engines.   The hardware has been there for awhile that would allow us to have some amazing looking visuals and performance for strategy and role playing games but the software just wasn’t there. They’ve been focusing on first person shooters to the point where even RPGs now have to be made as first person shooters in order to have decent visuals (which if you think about it, is ridiculous).

Remember the huge battles in Two Towers and Return of the King? We should be able to have those kinds of visuals in our games. Today. Your modern video card is capable of it. You take 64-bit, DirectX 11 (or Mantle) and a modern video card and you can do amazing things in theory. Unfortunately, the software has tended to focus on first person shooters. In those games, the player only sees a handful of units at the same time.  Ask someone at Nvidia, AMD or Intel and they will tell you how frustrating it’s been to create this amazing hardware only to have it sit there idle most of the time.

So what could we do about that? That’s where I started talking more and more to Dan Baker, Tim Kipp, Brian Wade, Marc Meyer and later Nathan Heazlett.  What would it take to develop a new type of 3D engine that we could use and others could use to power strategy games and role playing  games where you could have thousands and thousands of high fidelity objects on screen at the same time. 

That’s where the idea of Oxide was born.  If we could bring together some of the industry’s top talent, put them in a room and provide them with enough resources, we could create something amazing. We’re calling the engine Nitrous and it’s spectacular. If you look at the the Oxide press release you will see quotes from AMD, Intel and Nvidia in there. They’ve seen it. And soon, so will you.

Today, we are finally ready to tell the world about Oxide. Mainly, we have to because some of the things we’re working are are about to get shown by our partners and people would wonder who and what Oxide was and where it came from.

Most game developers, especially ones involved in graphical game development, know, or can imagine, exactly the kinds of things Oxide is working on. But for everyone else who is reasonably technical, imagine a brand new, built from scratch, 3D engine designed with multicore processors and 64-bit from the ground up. No legacy code. No baggage.  Just pure awesome. 

To learn more about Oxide, visit www.oxidegames.com

I was playing Galactic Civilizations II last night. I hadn’t played it in a very long time and was stunned by just how much…awesome it has in it.  That awesomeness didn’t come from the original design. It came from years and years of iteration and frankly, labors of love.

The problem I see with Legendary Heroes is that it’s really hard to do iteration like that.  After all, it’s technically Elemental: Fallen Enchantress – Legendary Heroes. It’s a mouth full.  No one calls GalCiv II “Twilight of the Arnor”. It’s just called GalCiv.

But Elemental got off to such a rocky start that for good or bad, we don’t really call it Elemental anymore.  If the quality and fandom that supports Legendary Heroes could somehow be applied to Elemental that would be great.  But it’s not. It’s barely applied to Fallen Enchantress.

Frankly, from a purely a branding perspective – i.e. the THING that people remember playing, we basically call it Legendary Heroes.  It’s just really hosed up.

Then you have the DLC situation.  The DLC for Legendary Heroes doesn’t just sell well. It sells insanely well. There’s a huge demand for it because the installed base of the game we call Legendary Heroes (but is really Elemental: Fallen Enchantress – Legendary Heroes) keeps growing.

I know some people don’t care about the name.  But the reality is, the single biggest thing holding LH back is the brand confusion.  I’ve seen people on various forums say that LH is probably the best fantasy 4X that is currently available (though Age of Wonders 3 is looking pretty awesome). 

So we have this great fantasy game that we have the budget to keep iterating on that is artificially held down because no one really knows what to call it.

This past year we’ve been working to make the Windows 8 desktop more productive with Start8 and ModernMix.  Now, for users who live and play in the Windows 8 Metro environment, we have a new app coming: Launch8.

Launch8 adds a quick launch bar to the Windows 8 Start screen that is persistent as the user scrolls (as seen on iOS and Android).

Launch8 on the bottom

Launch8 set to be at the top

Launch8 will automatically be added to all active Object Desktop user accounts and be available stand-alone for $4.99.

My daughter said the Raptors don’t like to be pet.

As part of my comprehensive settlement with state and local authorities I have been asked to make this public apology in an effort to help alleviate common misconceptions regarding the rights of citizens.

I realize that things got out of control. I know that now. The numerous interventions, the visits from social services along with the highway patrol have all helped me understand that my understanding on certain legal…particulars was inaccurate.

The following is a list of of common misconceptions that despite my insistence were absolute truths were, in fact, not true. 

#1 If someone cuts you off in traffic, it is not legal to take the loaded pistol that you have in your lap and shake it at them out the window as a warning.

#2 It is not, in fact, legal to place a loaded pistol in your lap while driving a motor vehicle.

#3 With regards to #2, there is no exception to this rule even if you’re driving a JEEP Cherokee.

#4 There is no such thing as firing a few grazing or warning shots at people who are walking too close to the chicken coop that you’ve placed behind an abandoned building.

#5 Placing a chicken coop behind an abandoned building does not give one squatting rights to that property or allow for a legitimate claim of “adverse possession”.

#6 The Renaissance center is not an “abandoned building” despite what certain…(but perfectly reasonably) people might claim.

#7 You do not have the right to pull over when spotting a police officer and demand that he take you on a ride in his police car.

#8 You may not demand that federal judges refer to you as “Colonel” simply because you have purchased a metal bird insignia and placed it on your shorts.

#9 It is not considered appropriate to wear shorts into a federal court room. Even if the court room is too damn warm!

#10  You may not build a fence across a county road even if the road is not paved.

#11 It is poor judgment for a person to walk into a jewelry store with a loaded revolver to ask if they have a spanning wrench to tighten the barrel shroud.

#12 Writing a letter to yourself with a post-dated letter with a document, signed by yourself giving you annexation rights to parts of Detroit Michigan is not legally enforceable or, technically speaking, “sane”.

#13 Police are not required to wear “police caps” in order to give you a speeding ticket.

#14 If you raise a herd of goats on your residential property, it is not legal to allow them to wander around the neighborhood eating people’s landscaping.

#15 Before buying goats, check the zoning laws for your city or township.

#16 You cannot demand that a goat testify in court.

#17 You may not tap oak trees on city property in order to get syrup

#18 Oak trees, in fact, do not produce viable syrup due to too much tannin. I now know this.

#19 You may not demand sanctuary in city hall.

#20 If you are seeking a license for keeping bees on public property, do not bring the beehive inside with you into city hall

#21 Parking a boat in your driveway doesn’t mean that whatever happens on that boat is legal due to “the law of the sea”

#22 If you are wearing a long sword, take it off (this includes the scabbard) before driving your car.

#23 It is not appropriate to demand a police officer declare himself a Sith or a Jedi.

#24 Yelling “Ctrl-Z” during a police interrogation does not, in fact, take back whatever it is you said on record.

#25 It is inappropriate to pull off the road and ask a police officer which model laser (lidar) is using and then ask him to test it on your laser jammer to see if it works on your car.

I greatly appreciate the compassion and understanding shown by state, county, and local authorities on this matter.  I also appreciate the consolidation of the 11 individual cases into a single class action suit (which has saved me a lot of travel time). I hope that these common misconceptions, which I agree that common sense would lend one to think were perfectly reasonable things to do, will help you, the reader avoid these subtle pitfalls that we must now deal with in our modern police state.

Thank you.

-draginol

Galactic Civilizations III is coming.

The galaxy is dominated by the evil Drengin Empire but those Humans from Sol 3 are about to show them how war is waged.

Over the next few months we'll be giving a lot more details on what's happening to the Founders group. We've been working on Galactic Civilizations III for quite awhile now.  It is using a brand-new, 64-bit, DirectX 10/11 3D engine that is just amazing.

The team itself is much the same team that was with us for Galactic Civilizations I and II with some notable additions that have allowed us to do some really cool new stuff both visually and technically.

If you want to get inside info on what we're doing, make sure you get the Founder's Edition.

Today is the 20th anniversary of Stardock’s incorporation.

Having my own company was never my intention. It sort of just happened. What started in my dorm room has, over the past 20 years, expanded into an exciting but sometimes maddening adventure.

Twenty years ago I was a college student at Western Michigan University studying to become an electrical engineer. My mom and I had moved to Michigan when I was four years old, and she had taught me the importance of working and saving from a young age. Still, money was tight and college was not cheap. To pay for school, I worked multiple part-time jobs. One of those jobs evolved into Stardock.

Between classes and my other jobs, I programmed my first game: Galactic Civilizations for IBM’s now-defunct OS/2 operating system. My mom talked me into incorporating the company. If I was going to do business with other companies, I needed to be a “real” company and not just a 21 year old college student. 

I still intended to get a “real” job when I graduated from college, but the critical success of Galactic Civilizations for OS/2 had created a lot of opportunities for my fledgling company. That led to leasing office space and hiring people so that we could make whatever kinds of cool stuff we could think of.  Twenty years later, here we are, still making cool stuff.

People ask me what qualities have allowed Stardock to succeed over such a long period of time.  When I started, I would have said that perseverance and hard work were the critical elements.  Now, I’d say those are more like prerequisites. The critical ingredient for a company to succeed is bringing excellent, talented people together and creating an environment that allows them to reach their potential.  I think that is the single biggest reason for our enduring success.

Twenty years in, I’m immensely proud of what we’ve accomplished at Stardock. At the same time, I’m even more excited about what we have in store for the future. Starting today with the announcement of Galactic Civilizations III, the next chapter in Stardock history begins. I think this part of the story is going to be my favorite yet.