by Brad Wardell, Founder and CEO of Stardock
@draginol on Twitter
Discuss this issue here: https://forums.stardock.com/496950/stardock-magazine-september-discussion
## Contents ##
- Editorial: Working on Cider v2.0
- Siege of Centauri
- IndieDev: How to talk to the press
- Fun with Start10
## Editorial ##
Stardock is working on v2 of its game engine, Cider. Cider is powered by Oxide’s Nitrous, a technology that allows our engine to be super fast and core-neutral (no easy task).
Just because Nitrous makes it possible to be truly core neutral, it doesn’t just magically make a game core-neutral. We developed Cider specifically to make it easier for us to create strategy and simulation games with Nitrous. By narrowing down the use-case (i.e. Cider wouldn’t do anything special for a first person shooter for instance), we can then begin to optimize every frame in a way that makes sense for a strategy game or simulation (i.e. handling lots of entities, AI, physics, decoupled sims).
Every millisecond counts. In the above picture, we have 25,000+ space ships (see below) battling it out. Our job is to make sure the engine can do as many things in parallel as possible. In the image above, each row is a thread. Our goal is to have as many rows going at once and in doing so shorten the overall frame time.
This way, when we bring this down to a measly 4,000 space ships, you can get over 1000 frames per second:
A key factor for Cider 2.0 is that AI and gameplay elements are now handled as Lua scripts rather than compiled C++. What this means is that it is much easier for us to iterate on gameplay and AI (no recompile needed, just edit the script and refresh). It also means that modding becomes much more powerful since the scripts are just in plain text. Don’t like our unit AI? Tweak it, or write your own and share it.
We also decided to standardize our asset format to be more in line with Ironclad’s Sins of a Solar Empire. In our internal Cider v2 test, we used Sins assets that the engine auto-converted. The assets needed a little bit of work to support physically based rendering but as the screenshot above shows, they work well.
It’s going to be awhile before we ship anything with Cider v2.0. The target platforms for v2 include PC, Stadia (which we already support via Cider Cloud), Linux, Nintendo Switch, XBO, Mac, PS4 and Apple Arcade. Cider isn’t something we’ll be licensing, but rather it’s designed to give Stardock’s games and software a way to stand out in an increasingly crowded market.
## Siege of Centauri ##
This month, we released our take on the tower defense genre – Siege of Centauri. This game takes place in the Ashes of the Singularity universe where you are in command of the defenses of Earth’s first interstellar colony and are being attacked by an unknown enemy (spoiler: It’s the Substrate from Ashes).
The v1.0 launch of this game has been interesting to watch, since it attracted a very different player demographic than Ashes of the Singularity and dealt with some market changes since Ashes’s release (namely, video cards are running hotter and hotter and Nitrous pushes the video card a lot harder than other games do). So after a bumpy launch (crashes from overheating), we were able to quickly update it with some of the tech we developed for Star Control so it didn't push the hardware so much.
Many hardware enthusiasts can tell you that even a single frame per second can have a huge impact on heat. This is one of the reasons I tend to under-volt my video cards. I am happy to lose literally a couple frames per second (i.e. like 95 to 93) in exchange for a 20 degree difference in temperature. But I digress.
I think the reason people like Siege so much (at least those who didn’t run into a technical issue on release week) is that the game really shows how much the tower defense genre can evolve when coupled with modern tech.
Being able to create and share your own missions with people is something we take for granted in other games, but most tower defense games were released prior to this becoming mainstream. Similarly, having 1920x1080 resolution as the norm means we can have screens that allow players to configure their towers before missions. None of these kinds of things on their own are earth shattering but when you put them together you have a game with a lot more depth and replayability.
Get it here: http://www.siegeofcentauri.com
## IndieDev: How to talk to the press ##
For over twenty-five years I’ve been interacting with the tech and games press. A lot has changed over that time, but the fundamentals have not. The tips here will benefit you in all your communication whether it be to colleagues, a business partner, or potential lead.
Here are the 5 rules I try to remember:
- Don’t waste their time.
- Don’t editorialize.
- Make it convenient for them
- Do your research
- Know your audience
Let’s walk through each of these.
Don’t waste their time
You get, at most, 250 words. If you go over that, you’re too long. Keep it short and to the point.
Don’t editorialize
Just the facts. Don’t tell them how great your product is. Give them information as if you, yourself, were conveying it as objectively as you can.
Make it convenient for them
Use formatting (bullet points, numbered lists, etc.) with links to more information. You have a post, a change log, a set of screenshots? Link to it. Treat a screenshot as being worth 100 words. So if you put in a screenshot, you should have 100 fewer words in your email. Give them something to link to if you’re looking for coverage.
Do your research
What is it they cover? What are their interests? Make sure what you are sending to them is relevant to them.
Know your audience
Generally, unless you have a strong personal relationship with them, don’t be goofy or jokey. Be professional. Invest time into understanding what their area of expertise is and make sure you write for that specific person.
Doing these things won’t guarantee that you get press coverage. Think of them more as a prerequisite. In my case, I enjoy talking to most of the gaming and tech press, so even if they don’t cover us, it’s still worth doing.
## Fun with Start10 ##
If you don’t already have Start10, you should get it. It’s available stand-alone or as part of Object Desktop.
When I set up a new machine, there are certain things I have to have:
- Start10
- Fences
- Groupy
- Search Everything
- Office
These are the 5 things I need on any PC before I even start to focus on whatever I’m doing on that box (developing, graphics, etc.). Office and Everything aren’t made by Stardock.
Start10 isn’t just about restoring the classic Start menu - it’s about giving you control over it. Most of our customers for this are companies looking to standardize their start menu across the company or reduce training costs. But really, every PC user should have it. It just makes getting things done quicker.
That’s my Start menu. What does yours look like? Send a screenshot to me @draginol on Twitter!
That’s all for this month!
