Releases March 17, 2026
Journals
Dev Journal
Sid Meier’s 10 rules for game design
Here are our 10 commandments that we live by: Choose a topic you have a passion for. Game Design is about creativity. Do research after the game is done. Tap into the player’s brain. Define your axioms, refine your axioms. Prototype, prototype, prototype; sit in all the chairs. Double it or cut it in half. You are more wrong than you think. Make sure the player is having fun, not the designer/computer. Games should be easy to start playing, but hard to stop pla... [read more]
Dev Journal
Channeler Customization: Continued
…A few quick notes… The point of DEVELOPER journals and the early Elemental beta is to let people, like ourselves, who are hungry for this type of game to be made the opportunity to participate in the kinds of “design meetings” that are typically closed to the public. A typical BETA program in the modern sense is more of a late-game marketing exercise designed to help provide good publicity. This is not one of those betas. When these developer journals are posted, the idea is to s... [read more]
Dev Journal
Sovereign Attributes discussion
Picture this game-flow: Choose new game…set up world…choose faction (or create a new one)…customize faction…choose sovereign…customize sovereign… Now, at that point, we’re talking about customizing ones sovereign ( as opposed to your faction ) So what might some of those traits be that you’d want to tweak? Here’s a few off the top of my head: · Essence (-1, 0, +1, +2) · Fertility (-10%, 0, 10%, 20%) · Base Attack (-1, 0, 1, 2) · Base Defense (-1, 0, 1... [read more]
Dev Journal
We’re starting work on Dynasties in Elemental. Here’s a basic outline: Sovereigns will get the opportunity to get married. Once married, they will, for a period of time, be able to have children. The sex of the child will result in very different game options. Males stay part of your family line. Females are married off to other families. However, should the sovereign of a particular kingdom die, then his kingdom is inherited by the player whose daughter is... [read more]
Dev Journal
Damage types: Damage from mundane (being whacked with a club or cut by a sword) Damage from magic Fire damage Ice Damage Mystical Damage Electrical Damage Armor / shields that protect from mundane Protection from magic Protection from fire Protection from ice protection from mystical protection from electrical Players can mine crystals which can be used to create enchantment kits that are then enchanted at the time the player trains the unit. The mana is take... [read more]
Dev Journal
One of my tasks for this beta was getting in basic diplomacy, although it's still pretty primitive because the relations code is still pretty basic. You can bring up the Diplomacy screen by going to KingdomWnd and clicking on Foreign Relations. If you've encountered another player, you can click on their entry and click the speak to button or double click on the entry. This gives you 3 options, one of which is disabled: Info, Trade (disabled) and Negotiations. Info compar... [read more]
Dev Journal
It’s still primitive. It’ll still cause psychological damage. But we have released a major update to Beta 1 for the beta team to start playing with. Those of you who aren’t in the beta, fear not, we will be opening the beta for BETA 2 which is scheduled for February 25th currently (subject to change). Here’s what’s new: Elemental - Beta 1C Change Log ********************************** ** New Features ** --- Research System Overhaul --- Overview: A new (a... [read more]