Elemental is the most expensive game Stardock’s made. Which isn’t saying much since Galactic Civilizations II had a budget of around $800,000.
Elemental’s total budget is probably less than Civ V’s cutscene budget (which based on what I’ve seen was well spent).
So how does Stardock make a game like Elemental with so few resources? How do we hope to have a successful game in what is considered a “niche” genre?
The answer is in two parts: First, you guys. Seriously. Word of mouth is the only realistic way that independent game studios can still release games like this.
Second: The tools Beta 4 will go into great detail on this but since this week has involved us spending a lot of time cranking out content for the Magic and Adventure categories we’ve had a lot of time to spend with the bundled tools.
This is what you see when you click workshop
So if I want to make, say, a goodie hut, the first thing I need to do is go to the tile editor.
Let’s say I want to make a tomb. I’m no artist but I know how to play with legos…
Now, let’s add some “stuff”
Then some effects (these need icons still)
Then save it:
Then with Impulse::Reactor, share it with the world if you want and they can choose to add it all within the game:
Other things you would then do is give users an item that already exists in the game or go to the item editor and make your own items.
Over the next several months, we’ll be enhancing these further in free updates to keep making it easier and easier to make and share cool stuff with other players.
I must admit, it’s pretty darn fun.
But this is how we can make a game like Elemental. It’s so easy for us to add “stuff” to the game to make each experience fun and different.
Then wait till you’re able to add your creations to your own maps complete with their own quests:
(the above is the beta 2-B map btw, after the beta 2 series, we move to the random maps).
