Derek “Kael” Paxton Joins Stardock to Lead Games Development

Published on October 12, 2010 By Island Dog In Elemental News

Derek Stardock Entertainment, developer and publisher of award-winning PC games, announced today that Derek Paxton has joined the studio as senior producer and will oversee Stardock's ongoing development and expansions of the recently released fantasy strategy game, Elemental: War of Magic. Paxton is the creator and lead designer of the Fall from Heaven series of fantasy strategy games. Prior to joining Stardock, he was an external consultant for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword and contributed to several of Firaxis's games including the recent Civilization V.

"This is the opportunity to marry my professional project manager career with my passion for game design," said Paxton. "I'm especially excited to work with the talented people at Stardock who have always been focused on creating great PC strategy games. I'm currently immersing myself in the world of Elemental, and I think everyone will be excited to see what is coming from Stardock Entertainment."

Stardock CEO, Brad Wardell, will serve as the executive producer and lead AI developer on Elemental.

Wardell stated, "Stardock has experienced continued growth from its various gaming and enterprise products as well as our digital distribution platform, Impulse. As a result of our loyal fan base and successes, we have been fortunate to be able to attract some of the top talent from across the industry. Derek brings to Stardock a unique blend of strategy game design knowledge and a great deal of project management experience from his non-gaming career."

As with all Stardock releases, the company is dedicated to providing post-release support for Elemental: War of Magic with free updates to enhance game play and ensure that the game evolves over time to its potential.

www.elementalgame.com

Comments (Page 6)

Valkrionn

on Oct 14, 2010

MOIISKA

reply 75

Quoting Derek Paxton, reply 74

Thanks for all the good wishes, I am very excited to work on Elemental. I made over 16,000 posts at CivFanatics while working on Fall from Heaven so it's safe to say you will all be hearing a lot from me (and that I hope to hear a lot from all of you).

The sad truth is I spent way to much time looking for a non-dorky picture of me and that's the best I could come up with. If it helps, Im not wearing any pants in that picture.Looking forward to seeing where the game goes from here. We are full of ideas and other things too. Ignore the angry and disenfranchised and listen to those that really care. Good luck.

I would not ignore the angry. Much of the time, they are angry for legitimate reasons, even if you disagree with those reasons; If it is possible to address them while maintaining what you like about the system, then where is the harm in that?

Wylaryzel

on Oct 14, 2010

I agree with Valkrionn.. if they are being constructive criticism I think an evaluation vs. the current and/or planned modification to the game can't heart. During beta of the game, at least for myself, I found plenty of very good ideas which touches maybe the core concept or add something new to it and if it would be implemented accordingly. But not every idea would be suitable, thats clear too You will have all the time different groups which likes some parts or the other.

As Derek is coming from the ModCom, I hope we see some changes to the modding section soon Currently, there are limited possibilities in that way that you can add a tile, a quest or a faction.. but it's not suitable without - IMHO - unnecessary workload to change the way the game can be played - starting how improvements are treated, not even talking about TC's

Wahngrok

on Oct 14, 2010

Is it christmas already?

onomastikon

on Oct 14, 2010

Nice to see qualified people coming on board! Hope Elemental doesn't become even more like Civilization however...

Jandurin

on Oct 14, 2010

Derek Paxton

reply 74

The sad truth is I spent way to much time looking for a non-dorky picture of me and that's the best I could come up with. If it helps, Im not wearing any pants in that picture.

Lantros

on Oct 14, 2010

@Kael

As i understand, you start your work for SD with the first of November. Brad wrote that the v. 1.1 comes around end of october, maybe early november (I know, it was no promise ). So do you take a look at v. 1.1 or do you start your work with the following patches and expansions?

Overall....some new details about v. 1.1 would be great.

DerekPaxton

on Oct 14, 2010

I'm not involved yet. My life is busy getting my projects at my current job transitioned smoothly. I work here until 10/22, then I take a week off and start at Stardock on 11/1. As of this moment I'm just a fellow player, fan and poster.

Alstein

on Oct 14, 2010

Hopefully around mid November we can get a timeline of things you'd wish to do, but I'm not sure publicizing it would be the best idea.

Also hopefully 1.1 still comes out this month, we haven't heard much about it.

Gazz_

on Oct 14, 2010

Aww, so The Saviour will not arrive before the end of the month?
(Sorry but this hype is just a tiny bit hilarious = )

Lantros

on Oct 14, 2010

Derek Paxton

reply 82

Allright. Wish you a lot of power for the next days/weeks.

But as a player, fan and poster you are certainly interested in detailed informations about 1.1. Can you ask frogboy and then tell us all? We wouldnt betray you. Promise!

DaLlaw

on Oct 14, 2010

There might be hope yet.

Anglophile

on Oct 14, 2010

Welcome Kael; was not a big fan of Civ4 but I kept playing FFH after the rest was abandoned. A question: are Kael of Civ4 fame and Ka-el of Civ3 fame (R&R, DyP (which I still play)) the same person?

DerekPaxton

on Oct 14, 2010

I am not Kal-el of Double your Pleasure fame (though I loved that mod and played it to death back in the Civ3 days).

Anglophile

on Oct 14, 2010

Oh well, love your work anyway. This is a potentially Epic game that needs some help to get over the line. Given what you did with the Civ4 engine, Stardock has chosen very well. Good luck and looking forward to enjoying your contributions here.

Blaze of Glory

on Oct 15, 2010

ElanaAhova

reply 35

I may not agree with everything kael's team did regarding use of other peoples' intellectual property in his days modding civ4, specifically, FfH2, (and the first one).

However, I still recognize what an awesome mod his team created for civ4. I downloaded FfH before it had manual, when every few weeks (or was it months... lol) a new version of the mod was released. Patch t, and u, and v. Sometimes a 'new' version would do really strange things. The journey through those various versions, however, was a ride well worth taking. Thank you.

I have two things I wish Kael to really consider. And these two things come from someone who started on the pencil and paper game called "Chainmail" - the precursor to Gary Gagyx's D&D. I'm retired, aged (but having fun), and I have a long perspective on what created the 'gems' out there.

FIRST: The concept your team implemented in FfH2, of each civilization being unique, distinctive, and having abilities and units functionally different from that of the other civilizations was a stroke of genius. Each civ had to be played in its unique way. (Or become fodder for archeologists.) Please bring this to EWoM, if frogboy so permits.

SECOND: Create a player (user) customization tool (page, whatever) that will allow non-modders (like me) to access many of the attributes of everything in the game, so we can adjust and re-weight various values. Adjust the cost of casting each spell, modify the line up, and prereqs, in the tech tree, change the mp, cost, str, etc of each armor, weapon, etc.

Lead your team in bringing the very best of FfH2 to EWoM. Be inspired by Alpha Centauri. Please continue Frogboy's practice of (mostly) paying attention to these forums. There is a lot of gold to be mined here. (Yes, my posts are buried here, somewhere, too - LOL - ever hear of pyrite?)

I hope it is a great ride for you. And I hope the journey you take all of us on becomes a trip of a lifetime.

Agreed,

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