Releases March 17, 2026
Journals
Dev Journal
Elemental Beta 1G will be this week
Last week we got bumped due to the ImpulseTV launch and the Sins of a Solar Empire update (both happened on Thursday which was our beta update). So this Thursday we expect to release beta 1G. Questions? Q: Will it be fun? A: No. Q: Will it at least not cause my eyes to bleed? A: No. It will still cause eye bleeding. Q: What about the root kits? Does this beta get rid of the root kits? A: No. Our malware requires the root kits to be installed. Q: Does ... [read more]
Dev Journal
Boogie's Thoughts on Chancellors, Cities, Snaking and Secession
Of all the aspects of Elemental, none seem to strike a nerve quite like the handling of cities. Automation, size, uniqueness, too many in the world or too few...everyone has their take on how cities should feel. I believe, above all else, the worlds and nations of Elemental need to grow in a manner parallel to how RPS maps feel...in other words, elimination city spam without eliminating the joys of city building. To that end, we're doing something that (I believe) hasn 't been d... [read more]
Dev Journal
How to make sure instant resolve doesn’t make us sad
This techie looking dialog will probably look nicer by release but it isn’t going to go away. The reason? Transparency to players. One of my big pet peeves in games that allow tactical battles is that even though they always promise you that you don’t HAVE to fight every tactical battle, you know, deep down, that if you don’t, you’re going to take losses you shouldn’t have. As the AI guy on Elemental, I want to make sure that the AI handling is about as good as a human ... [read more]
Dev Journal
We get a lot of questions on how moddable Elemental is. The best way I can answer that is to tell you what our objectives are. Elemental is a game built on our new Kumquat engine. Our previous games were developed using an engine we referred to as Pear. Because it’s our engine, we are free to distribute it in whatever way we want. Experienced modders can hopefully chime in the comments area to explain to others the importance (in terms of modding) that we own the whol... [read more]
Dev Journal
LORE Once, legend says, the world of Elemental was filled with magic. All peoples made use of this sorcery; with it, they built great kingdoms – Malaya in the south, Hallas in the west, fabled Al-Ashteroth in the East – raised splendid palaces, magnificent civilizations. Then came the Titans, immortal beings who sought control of Elemental, and the magic contained within it. They waged war amongst themselves, and in the process turned men into their vassals - and worse... [read more]
Dev Journal
Hi! I'm Viridian, also known as Anthony Salter, and I just finished a major revamp of the citybuilding system. I'd like to talk today about our design goals for citybuilding and how the system currently works. First, let's look at how our major inspirations, Civilization and Master of Magic , handled cities. In both games, cities were fairly abstract. They consisted of a single icon on the map and a screen full of sprites and numbers. And you would end up wi... [read more]