Gas Powered Games RTS 'Kings and Castles' on hold

from Demigod Forums

Anyone know anything interesting?

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/07/gas-powered-games-rts-kings-and-castles-on-hold/

I know Sorian (http://soriandev.blogspot.com/) was spending quite a bit of his time working on this, but his blog updates have dropped off.  Anyway, I wonder what's going on at GPG. 

Here's the last video blog (entertaining anyway) from Oct 2010.

84,700 views 33 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

NT

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Normally this would mean that the game will never happen :(

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

That is a weird video.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Trying too hard.

 

:fox:

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

This game sounded about as exciting as Supream Commander 2 with little childs toy knights and castles (cough TA: Kingdoms 2 cough).

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm looking forward to hearing the inside story on what happened on this one. Did the game just suck? Did they run out of money? Was it a legal problem?

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Tridus, reply 6
I'm looking forward to hearing the inside story on what happened on this one. Did the game just suck? Did they run out of money? Was it a legal problem?
Maybe this is the end of GPG . ( layoffs )

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

GPG has really not been doing well lately.  Space Siege was a mess.  Demigod was a failure due to some nonsense on top of a really good foundation (that game SHOULD have been great dammit).  SuppComm 2 was a huge disappointment.  Dungeon Siege III is being made by somebody else.

I really dont think that this company is going to be around much longer.  I used to be a fan (since I was a huge fan of TA back in the day), but they have just not gotten the job done lately.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

I am pretty much in complete agreement with Krazikarl. That said, I don't want the company to go under because that just benefits nobody. They just need to put out a good game after a terrible streak of pretty big disappointments.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

I feel like GPG lost its target heavy gamer audience when SupCom was mainstreamed, without picking up new users elsewhere.  Their games also seem to lack the polish needed to support a competitive gaming community.

That all having been said, SupCom 2 seemed to sell well on Steam, so I don't really think GPG is having issues financially.  They might be having trouble finding a publisher, however.

Sorian has commented on the GPG forums that they are still there, but nothing past that.  While I can't imagine them folding up shop without letting people know, it seems odd that a company would make such a big fuss over letting users see a game being developed from the start and then just shut up entirely about it.

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

That all having been said, SupCom 2 seemed to sell well on Steam, so I don't really think GPG is having issues financially. They might be having trouble finding a publisher, however.

I figure that is the case as well. 

Sorian has commented on the GPG forums that they are still there, but nothing past that. While I can't imagine them folding up shop without letting people know, it seems odd that a company would make such a big fuss over letting users see a game being developed from the start and then just shut up entirely about it.

Glad to hear that Sorian is still around at least.  Hope things go well for GPG.  It does make me wonder what they are working on, though.  They've got to be doing something... patching supcom2, working on kings/castles... anyway, hope to hear something from them before too long. 

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

I suspect its a publishing issue. There's no announced publisher for K&C. Square did SupCom 2, and Square itself is a financial mess right now after several disappointments and one massive bomb last year.

Maybe Stardock should give them a call.

Reply #13 from Demigod Forums Top

I suspect its a publishing issue.

Ah - good point.  Perhaps that's about it. 

Reply #14 from Demigod Forums Top

added the old e3 trailer of the game in case folks haven't seen it.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

Woah... that looks pretty awesome. Can't have too many fantasy RTS games, I always say.

Reply #16 from Demigod Forums Top

Here's Sorian's post from yesterday on the GPG forums:

I am still here and I still work for GPG. I keep meaning to do another blog post, but my weekends have been very busy lately and, honestly, there hasn't been much to talk about until recently. I will try to get something on the blog again soon.

http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=50161&start=25

Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top

The only thing worse than what Chris Taylor has done to Total Annihilation Supreme Commander is the spiritual sequel to Total Annihilation: Kingdoms.

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top

I'd like to say I was disappointed by this, but I really can't. After SupCom2, I didn't really have any hope for K&C to be any good. I've watched all of the video blogs, and there are some interesting ideas in there, but I got the sense that K&C would be far more like SupCom2 than SupCom1/FA.

Reply #19 from Elemental Forums Top

Staffing gets shuffled in companies all the time.

Stardock is still working on Society (www.societygame.com) but it's effectively on hold because the development resources were allocated to more near term projects. 

Reply #20 from Elemental Forums Top

This might not be the case, but i think you guys should have made societies first and then Elemental. It looks pretty cool and an open beta might have been better for your new engine. Or would that make the engine issues worse today? Anyways, I always love your concepts.

Reply #21 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 19
Staffing gets shuffled in companies all the time.

Stardock is still working on Society (www.societygame.com) but it's effectively on hold because the development resources were allocated to more near term projects. 

Ah, so its likely just a resource allocation thing then.  Wonder what they are working on.  Figure they've got to be on something else.  Just was weird that they were doing a ton of PR and video blogs, etc, and then everything dried up. 

Reply #22 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm sure they'll announce it when it's ready.

But that's what's likely going on. Something else got funded or took priority and voila.  You've only got N people after all.

 

Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 22
I'm sure they'll announce it when it's ready.

But that's what's likely going on. Something else got funded or took priority and voila.  You've only got N people after all.

 

Society sounded like Stardock's best idea since you announced it, Frogboy, and I don't mean to discredit your efforts between the announcement and today. Its still the reason I began following Stardock and its still my most anticipated game coming from you.

Reply #24 from Demigod Forums Top

I guess it is on hold because they are working on Age of Empires Online now.

Reply #25 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Blitz64, reply 24
I guess it is on hold because they are working on Age of Empires Online now.

heh... that would make a bit of sense.

But to be fair, it seems like a gag order of sorts was put in place late last year.  The vid blogs died off.  Sorian stopped with meaningful posts on his blog.  Put it this way... his 2nd to last post was in OCT.  He just came back and made a recent post here in the middle of Feb.  His updates were somewhat weekly before.  Anyway, I bet several interesting things were going on behind the scenes.  At any rate, I wish GPG good luck on this.  Depending on how MS treats them (and how successful the game is), this could be a nice cash cow for them.