Elemental: War of Magic Q&A

GameSpot caught up with Stardock CEO Brad Wardell for a brief conversation about their forthcoming Master of Magic-inspired strategy/RPG, Elemental: War of Magic.
GameSpot: Give us a brief update on the game's status. What parts of the game are currently being worked on?

Brad Wardell: We're nearing the end of the first beta of the game. Our focus has been to work through the game mechanics to make sure what seems fun on paper will translate to fun in-game. Specifically, we have been working on the battle system, quests, and the player's dynasty. The dynasty system has proven to be far more interesting than we had realized. In Elemental, the player exists in the game as a specific unit (the sovereign). The sovereign can have children who appear in the game as champions with various powers. These units can be married off to other kingdoms to secure alliances and gain other political advantage. In turn, they can have children. We have a genetic algorithm for producing the children, which has had some interesting visual results. In one game, I married my beautiful daughter to a trog monster. I will require many months of therapy to recover after seeing their child.