Elemental: War of Magic - Updated Q & A @ GameSpot & Latest Dev Diaries

It's been awhile since we did an update on Stardock's strategy/rpg in development, Elemental: War of Magic, and in the interim Brad Wardell has done an interview over at GameSpot, while the devs have started up a Lore thread that gives some information on and depth to the game world, along with their regular journal entries.

From the Q&A:

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.

The Lore page is a work in progress, but has some general information on the world of Elemental, as well as concept art like this bestiary. The journals are basically a discussion of various game elements, like this particular entry about city building comparisons between Elemental and Master of Magic and Civ.