DerekPaxton DerekPaxton

Four days into the new job

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Four days into the new job

from Elemental Forums

  The longest part of my day is waking up to early to head into the Stardock office.  I'm anxious to get back to work.  What a great job.

  I spent yesterday helping to make the spells more exciting, but so far my focus has been on process.  We will create a consistent design, we will document that design, we will march toward implementing that design.  Flexibility is important in creating games, if something isn't working it has to go, but we aren't going to simply "try things".  There is a great game in Elemental, we have to bring it out.

  It's worth saying that the great game in Elemental isn't Fall from Heaven (for those hoping or worried that I'm going to try to make Elemental into FfH).  That doesn't mean there aren't ideas in FfH that are valuable here, such as faction differentiation, but this is a very different game.  This is about exploring a shattered world, engaging in great tactical combat and building a fantasy empire.  Master of Magic is the inspiration here, not FfH.

  There is great background lore in Elemental, but we need to bring it into the game.  There are great opportunities, but we need to make them more fun.  There are some problematic mechanics that we need to get out of the way.

  My main focus is really on the post 1.1 work, but I've been able to help on the 1.1 side.  Tighten the feature list, make sure everything is moving toward the next steps, help with ideas and flavor.  There is a great team here, I'm honored to be able to work with them.

  We will be starting a community design contest soon.  I appreciate all the great ideas everyone provides, and we are going to have some fun with it (we were just going to use my ideas but then we realized we wanted the game to be good).  Watch the boards, the full details will be announced next week.

371,218 views 113 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting ZehDon, reply 23
Nice.  I'm glad to hear that Elemental is going to be the best Elemental it can be, and not a mash-up of ideas from other games borrowed because those games are perceived as 'good'.

 

 

Indeed! I'm looking forward to Elemental becoming the best Elemental it can be.  I love MOM and FFH both, but I already have those games.  Sounds like Kael has it well in hand.

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

@Lord Xia:  lol.  Here comes Xiahou Dun, making the Internet a safer place, one sexual deviant at a time.  Now if only you could do something about that pedobear character...

@Derek:  Read some more posts on the forums earlier...  Sounds to me like you've already got things well in hand with Elementals forward progress.  Can't wait to see what else you (apparently,) are going to bring to the table.

*The Unibomber takes off his sunglasses and draws his hoody strings.*

"All in."

*Crowd ooh's and ahh's....  What will happen next?*

(BTW, the Unibomber I'm referring to is the World Series of Poker guy who's real name I can't remember, not the -actual- Unibomber...  That'd be kinda messed up.)

Siege of Centauri
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

Greetings Derek.

 

My best advice to you would be to take Elemental and redesign it to be Master of Magic.

 

Once you've done that, you can throw in all the custom animations, dynasty stems, resource capitals, ect, you want back in, as you will have the MoM base to work from.

 

 

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting _PawelS_, reply 6




quoting post
We will create a consistent design, we will document that design, we will march toward implementing that design.


This is what Stardock should have done from the start

Hear! Hear!  Well said and all that Jazz...

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top

Now if only we could get a QA session with the new management.

Reply #31 from Elemental Forums Top


... such as faction differentiation...

Yes! Please!

Reply #32 from Elemental Forums Top

Hi Kael,

I was wondering if you could give us a Bio on yourself because I really have no idea who you are :) I've researched a little and read the forums but for example Frogboy we all know and like. I'd like to see things like what is your specialty as a game designer? Like frogboys is AI. Also we really got to KNOW frogboy as a person and I know you're new to the team but Id really like to get to know you as well just accelerated ;p  Anyway if you could tell us a bit about you like what's your favorite game and pizza topping? I'd be very interested as I think most of us would be! Mmm Pizza....

 

Also I think the Devs should be less shy and start posting more ;p Cari! get your butt on stage!

 

Anyway great post and I'm looking forward even more so to your direction!

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top

Kael,

Very excited to have you on board! Having things to look forward to makes life fun!

 

I am very intrigued about the community project! Great idea, and would expect no less from a modder of such repute!

Reply #34 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting ZehDon, reply 23
Nice.  I'm glad to hear that Elemental is going to be the best Elemental it can be, and not a mash-up of ideas from other games borrowed because those games are perceived as 'good'.

But Kael and the guys need to understand why those games are good and Elemental isn't, or we are going to end up with Elemental: War of Nothing again.

Reply #35 from Elemental Forums Top


  faction differentiation

See this part?

This part right here?

You've got me on side already.

Reply #36 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Marks1381, reply 32
Hi Kael,

I was wondering if you could give us a Bio on yourself because I really have no idea who you are I've researched a little and read the forums but for example Frogboy we all know and like. I'd like to see things like what is your specialty as a game designer? Like frogboys is AI. Also we really got to KNOW frogboy as a person and I know you're new to the team but Id really like to get to know you as well just accelerated   Anyway if you could tell us a bit about you like what's your favorite game and pizza topping? I'd be very interested as I think most of us would be! Mmm Pizza....

 

Also I think the Devs should be less shy and start posting more Cari! get your butt on stage!

 

Anyway great post and I'm looking forward even more so to your direction!

IIRC, his last job was actually as a commercial software project manager, NOT a game designer. The design stuff came on the side with things like FfH.

And IMO, that's a good thing. Based on Elemental's launch and what we know about what happened, more game designers aren't really needed. What is needed is someone who can sit back and say "we have too many ideas that don't join together well, let's throw some out and focus on making the other ones great" or simply to see that a lot of the mechanics didn't have enough iteration done to pass the "fun" test. Brad was too close to his baby to do those things, and problems like that are why you want a professional project manager.

It's not something that can be done well by the CEO, since CEO is job that itself demands a lot of time. :)

Reply #37 from Demigod Forums Top

This sounds like a great post.. if it would have been made halfway through the beta :/

Reply #38 from Elemental Forums Top

Please look at the game "Disgaea" to improve the tactical battles. They do it soooo right. Not to put down how you guys already do it. Another good game is "valkyria chronicles" these games are pure tactical and I feel thats were the focus of the game needs to be. Eveythig else outside of the tactical is great beside the ocasional balance issue. I know this post not belone here but i feel it will be seen on a daily post.   

Reply #39 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lord, reply 7
What happened to Kunta, aka Toby?  He's not back from that mysterious part of the world where there is no internet?

Toby is my associate producer (I'm the senior producer for Elemental).  Toby is responsible for 1.1 (since I just started Monday and 1.1 has been in process since well before that) so he built the feature list for it, and he is managing the build.  Toby got back Tuesday so I've been working with him all week.  He is 100% focused on 1.1 while I come up to speed with the team and work on the post 1.1 feature lists.  After 1.1 Toby becomes my right hand man for making sure things are getting done.

 

Reply #40 from Elemental Forums Top

Based on Elemental's launch and what we know about what happened, more game designers aren't really needed...
To be honest, that's EXACTLY what the team needs...1-2 people who focus on NOTHING but design (with the added benifit of Derek being a kick-ass manager).  The major problems arose from everyone on the team trying to wear too many 'hats', and since we all wore the 'design' hat, you ended up with a game where the individual peices didn't gel. With Derek and Toby in charge of cutting away the fat and tightening up the core of the design, I think you're going to appreciate the addition of an actual design team ;)

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Reply #41 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting BoogieBac, reply 40

To be honest, that's EXACTLY what the team needs...1-2 people who focus on NOTHING but design (with the added benifit of Derek being a kick-ass manager).  The major problems arose from everyone on the team trying to wear too many 'hats', and since we all wore the 'design' hat, you ended up with a game where the individual peices didn't gel. With Derek and Toby in charge of cutting away the fat and tightening up the core of the design, I think you're going to appreciate the addition of an actual design team

Well, if fewer people are wearing the designer hat, it's not really more designers. :) It is probably more time spent on design and more focused design, which I agree totally are good things. :)

Reply #42 from Elemental Forums Top

My review of this Dev Journal: Light on information, big on hope. Poor dev journal, nice feel-good post though.

It is really good that you already are working as a manager and not just as a designer. What is your managing background?

Reply #43 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Marks1381, reply 32
Hi Kael,

I was wondering if you could give us a Bio on yourself because I really have no idea who you are I've researched a little and read the forums but for example Frogboy we all know and like. I'd like to see things like what is your specialty as a game designer? Like frogboys is AI. Also we really got to KNOW frogboy as a person and I know you're new to the team but Id really like to get to know you as well just accelerated   Anyway if you could tell us a bit about you like what's your favorite game and pizza topping? I'd be very interested as I think most of us would be! Mmm Pizza....

Also I think the Devs should be less shy and start posting more Cari! get your butt on stage!

Anyway great post and I'm looking forward even more so to your direction!

I come from the business software world.  Professionally Im a enterprise level project manager and up until 2 weeks ago I worked with some of the worlds largest companies in supporting and managing big changes.  In my spare time I made a turn based strategy game call Fall from Heaven which was a mod for Civ4 that was fairly successful (about half a million downloads).

I was able to work with an awesome team for Fall from Heaven, so even in that my role my project management background helped.  We also relied on community feedback (16,000 public posts from me, over 300,000 posts from the community) during the 3 years the game was being developed.

I programmed a lot of Fall from Heaven, but I'm not a programmer on the Cari or Jesse level.  Im a project manager (what the game industry calls a producer) and a designer.  I dont expect to do any programming on Elemental, but it helps that I understand that world when scheduling and making decisions.

As a designer I love worldcrafting and lore.  Elegant mechanics are good, but when we can tie some flavor to them to really make them beutiful and unique they are so much better.  Before I could start the feature list for the post 1.1 work I read the Hiergamenon and Destiny's Embers and made notes on all the cool things I would love to tap into when designing.  I want Verga to have a unique ability that makes him feel as cool as his entry inthe Hiergamenon describes.  I want you to find the strange and tragic remains of a shattered world when you are out exploring.  That's what really excites me.

Reply #44 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting BoogieBac, reply 40

Based on Elemental's launch and what we know about what happened, more game designers aren't really needed...To be honest, that's EXACTLY what the team needs...1-2 people who focus on NOTHING but design (with the added benifit of Derek being a kick-ass manager).  The major problems arose from everyone on the team trying to wear too many 'hats', and since we all wore the 'design' hat, you ended up with a game where the individual peices didn't gel. With Derek and Toby in charge of cutting away the fat and tightening up the core of the design, I think you're going to appreciate the addition of an actual design team

You guys are in good hands now. Getting Kael involved was like the perfect coup. As an Elemental fan, these last few months have been a constant agitation. It's nice to be able to relax a bit.

Reply #45 from Elemental Forums Top

Wonderful news.  Please, no matter what changes you make, keep in mind that a "game customization" input page would be wonderful.  Allow us to modify, via a set of check boxes, dials, etc., the cost, speed, strength, etc., of units, spells, etc.  Allow us to modify in game assets, abilities, etc via this customization page.  Please don't force us all to learn XML, etc just because we think a spell should cost more (or less) or want to play with "a faster /slower <fill in the blank>.

Your team is going into the code to change things.  Would it really be that much more to create a path / page / interface so we can customize these values / names / etc.?  I'm hoping...

Reply #46 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lord, reply 7
What happened to Kunta, aka Toby?  He's not back from that mysterious part of the world where there is no internet? 

 

Also, Brad touches all his staff, doesn't he?  You know, bad touches.  Point to the part on the doll where he touches you Derek and we can take him away so he can never hurt you like that again...

 

 

Seriously how do you think this comment is funny and or appropriate here.  Please save the racial slurring for your Neo Nazi boards, not here -

the touching part if vulgar but funny - the Toby part not so much - thanks much ;)

Reply #47 from Elemental Forums Top

Why is Kael going by this "Derek Paxton" name on these boards? 

It sounds made up.

Reply #48 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Bingjack, reply 47
Why is Kael going by this "Derek Paxton" name on these boards? 

It sounds made up.

 

This made me LOL! :rofl:

Reply #49 from Elemental Forums Top

Why is that a racial slur?  I didn't mean anything racial about it.  It's from "Roots", and the slave Kunta was forced to change his name to Toby.  So I've been calling Toby, Kunta as a joke.  I don't see why that is racist.  Because the character is black?

 

I swear, I think there are people that think everything is racist.  I say Incest is icky, and then I'm accused of beating up Muslims.  Which is funny, since I'm halfPersian, and now I make a little joke because the guy's named Toby, based on a famous book/mini-series.  If I had made a Toby Maguire reference and called him spider-man, would that have been racist to whites? I really don't get it, maybe I'm obtuse or maybe people are way, way too sensitive.

Reply #50 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Bingjack, reply 47
Why is Kael going by this "Derek Paxton" name on these boards? 
It sounds made up.

He probably just used the random name generator...