Boid boils real-time strategy down to essentials soon

Mokus Games, creators of 2011's iPad Game of the Year, Contre Jour, revealed a new game called Boid this morning. Published by SpeedRunners developer TinyBuild, Boid is an extremely streamlined multiplayer real-time strategy gaming coming "first" (and soon) to Steam.

We tried Boid's demo last night in Germany, where we're staying for this week's GDC Europe and Gamescom, and the concept of the game is super lean, and a classic example of "easy to learn, difficult to master."

The game takes place in an underwater world populated by glowing, tadpole-like creatures. They swim toward colored nodes spread across the map and claim them, which yields more units and resources. You left-click drag to select units, and right click to send the little swimmers swarming toward their destination, where they'll battle others to claim the circle.

Boid's publisher is still working through plans of how exactly it will sell the game. The game is not playable at Gamescom, but will be at PAX Prime, which takes place in Seattle later this August.