Stardock Hires Civilization 4 Mod Creator to Run Game Development

Stardock has hired Derek "Kael" Paxton, creator of the Civilization IV mod 'Fall from Heaven', to "oversee Stardock's ongoing development and expansions of the recently released fantasy strategy game, Elemental: War of Magic."

The launch of Elemental was, by some accounts, "disastrous" and bringing in some external talent is a good move. Brad Wardell, Stardock's CEO, "will serve as the executive producer and lead AI developer on Elemental," and had previously served as the lead designer on the game.

Wardell has explained the next steps for Elemental in a post on the official site.

We are going to have Elemental: War of Magic v1.1 be the transition between he and I. After that, we'll begin work on the first expansion pack for Elemental which will be given to all people who currently own Elemental: War of Magic. I won't go into any details on that expansion since our new Producer will be heavily involved in the specifics of the design.

Stardock could work on and release Fall from Heaven, either as an Elemental mod or retail product, since Paxton owns the IP. When asked about plans for future games, including Fall from Heaven, Shacknews was told:

"To date we have not announced anything past Elemental expansions and post-release support," said Stephanie Tinsley Schopp, PR representative for Stardock.