Totally crazy, totally canceled indie games, and the people who made them
From World of Goo dev Kyle Gabler to Plants vs. Zombies director George Fan (and everything in between), GDC's "The Failure Workshop" panel was full of thrills. Each of the panel's developers brought a project that never managed to make our acquaintance, offering a detailed explanation of what ...
GDC: Stardock's Brad Wardell explains the failure of Elemental and how he's making it up to fans
"Unlike the other examples you've heard tonight, this game shipped. It's at the store right now. At Walmart. Yeah." -- Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock. That ominous statement was slipped into the middle of Brad Wardell's "Failure Workshop" speech this afternoon, where the Stardock ...
Stardock's Brad Wardell hopeful for recovery after Elemental shakeup
Our sister site Big Download cornered Stardock CEO Brad Wardell to talk about the troubled title Elemental; War of Magic and the future of the company. Things are apparently looking better than they did after a "disastrous" launch: most employees are back to work, either at Stardock or elsewhere. ...
Stardock hires Civ V designer Jon Shafer and fantasy writer Dave Stern
It was odd to hear about Jon Shafer leaving Firaxis a couple weeks back, what with him being an avid member of the Civ community and lead designer on the latest iteration, Civilization V -- a game our own Alexander Sliwinski called "a 'friendly' strategy game." During an interview with our sister ...
Elemental: War of Magic v1.1 heralds new beginning
Elemental: War of Magic's version 1.1 patch notes -- reportedly 19 pages long when printed out -- represent developer and publisher Stardock's attempt to forget the game's horrific launch and bullishly move forward. According to Stardock, the free update reimagines the use of mana in the game, adds ...
Elemental sales improving alongside the game
Elemental's campaign of redemption appears to be working, with sales up 30 percent in October. Speaking with Big Download, Stardock didn't share any specific sales figures, but noted that Impulse purchases are up and retail stores are increasing shipment orders. The company probably got a nice ...
Elemental purchases before Oct. 31 to receive first two expansions free
Elemental: War of Magic's road to redemption is being paved with free stuff -- for those willing to take the ride. Stardock CEO Brad Wardell announced today on the game's forums that anyone who purchases (or already bought) the game before October 31, 2010, will receive the first two expansions to ...
Stardock hires 'Fall from Heaven' creator to lead ongoing Elemental development
Everybody loves a comeback story, so let's hope this one starts for Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic with the hiring of Derek "Kael" Paxton as the studio's senior producer. Paxton, who's best known for the popular Civilization series Fall from Heaven (über mods he created using the game ...
Elemental update due this week, enables multiplayer and other fixes
Stardock founder Brad Wardell (a.k.a. Frogboy) has announced on the official Elemental forums that this week will bring patch 1.08 for the game, which will finally implement multiplayer, as well as more performance optimizations and bugfixes in the wake of the game's troubled launch. Elemental's ...
Elemental launch results in Stardock layoffs
The "consequences" of Elemental's "disastrous" launch were swift as Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has confirmed layoffs at the company. Shacknews reported yesterday that those let go included developers, designers, and salespeople working on Elemental. Wardell stated in his post on the subject that ...
Featured Stories
The most popular posts
in the last 7 days
- Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 220 comments
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 153 comments
- David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 107 comments
- Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
- Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments
