Elemental: War of Magics Ray of Hope

Bigdownload.com has reported that Derek 'Keal' Paxton has been roped in to assist in the mending of the seriously flawed Elemental: War of Magic. Stardock has had to weather some pretty bad reputation hit for a disaster of a launch as well as some missteps in PR by Brad Wardell himself. Stardock has always maintained their commitment to continue to support and improve Elemental. Todays news cast some glimmer of hope for the unfinished mess that I call Elemental. Derek is the creator of the excellent Fall for Heaven mod for Civilization IV. He joins Stardock as a producer for Elemental.

Derek Paxton knows how to make a great fantasy themed scenario and design a good fantasy themed game based on Fall for Heaven which is one of the best mods available for any game. I had hopes of Elemental being a good game(if not great) and I was right to avoid this game(at least for now). The whole debacle really was a demonstration of how a developer could fool themselves into thinking that their game is 'great'(someone could do an entire post mortem on this game).

But leaving that behind, Stardock seems to have big plans for Elemental, which is good as people bought the game and they deserve a game that lives up to their expectations set by Stardock. In an interview with bigdownload, Brad Wardell said this:

My particular programming expertise is writing multithreaded computer AI. Unfortunately, on Elemental's initial release I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted to because I was spending so much of my time as the interim-Producer – tweaking text, doing code review, updating schedules, managing requirements, etc. 

Well yes, that is part of the problem. Brad Wardell spending to much time doing everything. This is what he said for future plans for the game:

In the near-term, our plans are to roll out version 1.1 which make substantial changes to the way the economy works, the computer AI, combat, and the magic system. 

Well good for them. Perhaps they will have an interesting and fun to play game when 1.1 rolls out...Perhaps...Derek Paxton explains his hopes for Elemental:

I think that Stardock is devoted to making Elemental great. I will contribute toward that goal, but I don't want to take anything away from the Elemental team that has been, and will continue to be, improving Elemental. My goal is to create a consistent vision for the final version of Elemental that is flexible enough to respond to feedback and ideas. Then to create an implementation plan that builds toward that vision while making sure the game remains playable and fun throughout.

As for growing the audience and sales, if you make a great game I believe everything else takes care of itself.

Fall For Heaven Mod For Civilization IV

Well that's pretty vague, but to be fair he just got hired and is probably figuring things out on how to go on with the fixing. Perhaps with Derek on board, I can finally say, I have more confidence that Elemental has more potential now than it ever did in development. They needed a good designer, now they have him. Don't waste him Stardock. On a different topic, it seems that Derek Paxtons standalone Fall for Heaven game will be on hold for now.