Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Q&A - Building a Bigger World

It's no secret that Elemental: War of Magic, a fantasy turn-based strategy game from developer Stardock, had a bit of a rocky launch. What was an otherwise solid strategy game was plagued by numerous bugs and a problematic user interface. Its first expansion, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, is aiming to expand on what made the original great while making some substantial changes. We caught up with Derek Paxton, lead producer and designer on Fallen Enchantress. Paxton discussed how the game is coming along with us and he also explained how Fallen Enchantress won't make the same mistakes as its predecessor.

GameSpot: War of Magic was a massive strategy game, but it sounds like you're scaling back this project to make it a more focused experience with a deeper story. Can you talk to us about some of the broad changes you're making in Fallen Enchantress?

Derek Paxton: Fallen Enchantress adds a lot of depth and options to some systems and reduces or removes others. The result is a more focused game. The systems that we determined were critical to the game have received a lot of designer and developer attention and love. Most notably these are the broad strokes:

First up, tactical combat. Units and enemies have more strategic abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Every monster has been reviewed to be as strategically (and conceptually) interesting as possible. Elemental lords are huge multi-tile monsters that are devastating to all but the most powerful champions and armies. Some monsters are unique in the world, setting up boss-type battles that give the game a role-playing-game feel.

Second, the world. A lot of time is going into making the world as interesting as possible. It's a dangerous world; many of your early explorers will not make it back. But those who do will have resources, riches, and new recruits that make the risk worthwhile. As important as making the world worth exploring is [making it] interesting to explore. Though it's good to know that there are iron deposits in the next valley, we also want that valley to be filled with wilderness areas, sites, creatures, and opportunities for adventure that are new to even experienced players.

Third, magic. Magic should be as effective a path to victory as creating armies. A player that is sitting on a large supply of mana and has invested in magic should be able to change the course of the game, much as a player sitting on a nuclear weapon stockpile can in modern games. Magic should be available earlier, have a larger impact, and do more interesting things.

Other systems, such as population storage (aka housing) that used to require that the player find food to build houses to grow cities, have been simplified (less city micromanagement), and systems such as dynasties have been cut entirely. Technology research is a more elaborate system where the player can plan out his future goals and plans. Leveling up your champions and designing units both offer more options and, more importantly, more flavorful options.

GS: Could you give us an overview of the new game's story and context? Will players still be attempting to build out a desolate, empty world? Who is the titular Fallen Enchantress?

DP: Yes and no; the point of the game is still to conquer and rule, of course. But the main difference in Fallen Enchantress, in terms of gameplay style and overall functionality, is that the land must first be conquered and then you can start building before you make choices to defend and/or expand. The world is not just an empty plot of land that you can harvest for your own from the start. There are bigger, more magical creatures out there that exist that you will encounter (and have to conquer) before you can truly call a land your own. I think it helps pull people into the game faster and provides a lot more action up front, which is always exciting for players. As for who the Fallen Enchantress is…we're not saying too much about her at this point in development, though we will be releasing more information about her as we get closer to launch.

GS: It's no secret that War of Magic had some major issues on its launch day. What are you doing to make sure Fallen Enchantress doesn't give a repeat performance?

It takes two fire swords to start this forest fire.

DP: There are now dedicated people for the critical aspects of game development. There are dedicated producers, designers, and a formalized production pipeline that we have borrowed from the enterprise software world. The design is focused, fixed (with some flexibility as we iterate and improve), and communicated to the team. Time is set aside for iteration (after we are feature complete) rather than still implementing critical features until release day.