Strategy First acquires Malfador Machinations

[Atrocities]

I am not saying that SFI would ever do this, I am just speculating that anything is possible. I have never seen any company, aside from LucasArts, ever go after another game publishers forums. And even then it was for a ligit reason.

So the thing is, will shrapnel wanna keep footing the bill to keep us freeloaders around? And why should they given that there really is no return on their investment aside from the occational game purchase from one of us. (Looking very forward to Dom3 BTW)

They have been very loyal to us, and we to them, but at some point they might have to think about the bottom line. Not that any of this is anything more than pure 100% fear indused speculation and doom saying.

[Dizzy]

my biggest fear is with mainstream appeal. The publishers want to get the biggest bang for their buck and will broaden the scope of the game to include mainstream users at the expense of anything and everything.

If its a one shot deal, as I surmise it is, I mean how much more polish can you put on the 5th installement of SE, then the publishers wont be concerned with a followup product and thus any support or follow on or add on or support features may be severely lacking, not to mention them possibly recoding much of it so the game isnt easily copied, ported, modded or otherwise so they protect their copyrighted material for any related future release.

Mainstream appeal is the kiss of death for hardcore players used to features and gameplay that allow us to easily mod and enjoy the depth of the game. I'm pessimistic.

[dogscoff]

Walking the line between mainstream and hardcore appeal is difficult and dangerous, since disaster lies on either side: If it strays too far toward the mainstrema it will become so diluted and weak as to become unplayable *cough*MOO3*cough*, or it will go too hardcore and fade into obscurity as it caters for an ever-smaller niche within a niche market. Capturing the best of these two options is difficult, so I suggest that the game branches: Allow Aaron to finish the game and release the first version according to his original design. Allow a few patches to iron out any serious bugs, and then begin the branching- one patch for mainstream, one for hardcore. You'd end up with two games developping in parallel. The mainstream branch would include eye-candy, dumbing-down and stuff like that, while the hardcore branch focussed on improved modding options, greater depth and more features. Sometimes, popular (and suitable) features from one version might migrate across to the other.

The mainstream version would keep the bucks coming in, while the hardcore version would keep the game true to its roots and retain the franchise's credibility and direction. As far as I know this has never been done before, except in open-source games. It's the ideal solution, and now Aaron has a coding house behind him, maybe it could become a reality. Anyone else think this is a cool idea?

[Suicide Junkie]

Well, really, that could be done with a single game, in the case of SpaceEmpires...

You'd have your Rock-Paper-Scissors stock, and your hardcore Carrier Battles / GrittyEconomics mod combos. (To use my own mods as examples)

You could go with a skiing theme, and label all the mods as green circle mainstream, to double black diamond mods for us diehards here.

[Thermodyne]

David E. Gervais said:
Read a fuller article here...

Press Release

I'm Sure Aaron knows what he is doing, and remember SFI is now fully under the reins od Silverstar Holdings.. Before you bash SFI,.. check out their new boss, Silverstar has an exceptionnal reputation.

Nuf said, cheers!

P.S. Silverstar Holdings last public financial report,.. looks like they sitting on 22mil in assets. So I'd say they are here to stay.

Not that it is any of my business, but were your services part of the deal?……Perhaps even a staff position?…….I’ve seen some of their packaging, they could use you.

[Rollo]

I fail to share the concern of losing our direct line to Aaron and less fan input. Aaron is now part of SFirst and according to Wargamer 'in a management role to direct the Space Empires franchise'.

In a positive outlook that could mean: more manpower, and for Aaron less coding but more customer relations (i.e. talking to fans) and strategic decisions that will strengthen the franchise.

Now, both the doomsaying and my positive outlook are pure speculation, of course, until we have more information.

What I would like to know from Aaron: 1) Will you get more resources?, 2) How is your new role defined?

[Malfador Machinations]

Hi All!

Not to worry, not to worry! Everything is ok. Here's some answers to those nervous questions:

1. What will this mean for future games? SE5?

Yes, SE5 is still coming out. We're beta testing and fixing it up for a release this summer.

This purchase means that you're pretty much guaranteed an SE6. It was looking doubtful with just my company backing it, but now with Strategy First in the mix, its much more likely. And with their help we should have even better graphics than SE5!

2. Will you still have control over development of the game, or is it now up to S1st management? Do you maintain creative control in this new arrangement? Or will it be up to people that have little knowledge of the series?

Not to worry, I still control development. In fact, very little will change in the day to day operations. Strategy First will have a say, obviously, but the games will still be developed by Malfador Machinations.

3. Does this new arrangement mean you will be getting help from more programmers from Strategy First? Will you still be programming the game in your new management position?

Yes and no. SE5 is pretty much done, so there's not much needed for it. For SE6 we'll be getting help in the art department, but not the programming department. But this will definitely help get development of the game done faster with more polish.

4. What will happen to your faithful beta testers? Will we be replaced by in house testing? Or will things continue as normal?

Things will continue as normal. I would never get rid of my faithful beta testers! If anything we may supplement our normal testing methods with Strategy First in-house testing.

5. What about the bevy of free patches that expanded functionality for SE3, SE4 and SF? Will this still be possible, or will we be forced into pay-for expansions for new content?

Things will continue as always, with patches coming out for quite a while. I will still be building the patches myself and putting in as much as I can. But with Strategy First's help, we may create actual expansion packs for our games with additional graphics, features, and more.


So all in all its good for both sides. I get the backing I need to stay in business and improve our future games. Strategy First gets a new product line and can make it available through more outlets such as Steam, Retail, Direct Download, etc. And heck, they may actually get me to make our games use standard user interface routines. Now, that can't be bad!

Here's looking forward to Space Empires V this summer!

Aaron Hall
Malfador Machinations

[Dizzy]

Sounds good. But will anything be 'dumbed down' to appeal to mainstream users? More often than not that kills the game. I can name half a dozen great games that when publishers got their hands on it they made so many changes to make it appeal to a broader spectrum of gamers that when all was said and done the games sucked.

[Raapys]

As Dizzy said, it sounds good. But, no disrespect to Aaron, no developer with self-respect would say that they were 'dumbing down' or 'mainstreaming' the game to appeal to a wider audience.

"And with their help we should have even better graphics than SE5!"

That's one of the things that bugs me, because we all know the effect graphics has when it comes to selling games. And at least to me, personally, the graphics in any of the SE games never has nor will be an issue. So I feel at least some of the focus is being put in the wrong area. But I'm sure others disagree, and want better graphics.

[Renegade 13]

Dizzy said:
Sounds good. But will anything be 'dumbed down' to appeal to mainstream users? More often than not that kills the game. I can name half a dozen great games that when publishers got their hands on it they made so many changes to make it appeal to a broader spectrum of gamers that when all was said and done the games sucked.

I wouldn't worry about this. Aaron said the game will remain essentially under his control. The new "management position" and all that. "They" will have a hard time making changes Aaron doesn't approve of, I'd think.