rts
Latest
Anomaly 2 sports a September 16 release date for PS4
Anomaly 2 will arrive on PlayStation 4 in North America on September 16, 11 Bit Studios announced. The reverse-tower defense game will reach the next-gen system one day later in Europe. As of February, the game was expected to launch in the spring. As the sequel to 2011's Anomaly: Warzone Earth, the game takes real-time strategy elements into battle in its single-player campaign as well as a "tower offense versus tower defense" multiplayer mode. Anomaly 2 is available on a number of other platforms: iOS, Android via Google Play and PC, Mac and Linux via Steam, reaching the latter in May 2013. It will cost $14.99 (€13.99) on PS4. Head past the break for a video of the next-gen version in action. [Image: 11 Bit Studios]
Age of Empires Online now extinct following server shutdown
The servers for freemium real-time strategy game Age of Empires Online shut down this week. Published by Microsoft, the online RTS entered beta in May 2011 before its full launch that August for Games for Windows Live. Gas Powered Games took over the game's development from Robot Entertainment prior to that in February 2011. It arrived on Steam in March 2012, at which point its daily active users spiked by by more than three times. A since-deleted support article for the game in January tipped off a July 1 closure date of Games for Windows Live. Age of Empires Online was let down easy, as its closure was forecasted nearly one month ago. The developer reset the player-vs-player ranking ladder at the beginning of June and hosted a few events for the game, including a Capital City decoration contest and invitational tournament near the end of the month. The developer capped off its Age of Empires Online send-off with an "End of the World" event yesterday, in which it livestreamed the game's final hours of life. [Image: Gas Powered Games]
Sci-fi RTS Salvaged takes two screens to play on PC, tablet
Opposable Games recently showed off Salvaged, a real-time strategy game that requires a bit of multitasking from its players. The tactical sci-fi game is played using two screens, one on any iOS or Android tablet or smartphone (as the controller) and the other being a monitor via PC, Mac or Linux. In Salvaged, players act as one of many operators for a Remote Interstellar Salvage Crew (RISC), boarding wrecked ships to locate loot and retrieve each ship's black box recorders. The touchscreen in players' hands offers a top-down view of the frantic, squad-based action, allowing players to issue commands to their team and assess alien threats as well as interact with the wrecked ships themselves by hacking terminals, downloading data and restoring power and lighting. The second screen on players' PCs shows the operation in real-time through the squad's shoulder-mounted cameras. The UK developer cited classic games like Captive and the 1993 version of Space Hulk as well both the original XCOM and XCOM: Enemy Unkown as inspirations for the game, though players may recall FTL: Faster Than Light and Spelunky when it comes to the game's replayability. Salvaged's crew, environments, enemies and spoils are all procedurally generated, and like the aforementioned roguelikes, once a crewmember dies, they will be gone forever. The developer is seeking $125,000 by Thursday, May 15 to fund the game, of which it is just scratching the $10,000 mark as of this writing. [Image: Opposable Games]
Duskers ditches the paper prototype to bring survival horror to space
The last time we spoke with Misfits Attic founder Tim Keenan about this game, it was called Scavenger, and it was a paper prototype starring tower-defense mechanics and a Han Solo-esque character traveling the galaxy to pay off his debts. Now, it's called Duskers, and it's darker. The game has migrated to the screen, and it's no longer tower defense; instead, it's a roguelike with RTS and dungeon-crawling aspects in a survival-horror setting. "You pilot drones into derelict spaceships to find the means to survive and piece together how the universe became a giant graveyard," Keenan explains in his pitch video. In Hollywood terms, Keenan compares Duskers to The Road and the original Alien. The art in the pitch video is temporary, but the mechanics are nearing their final forms. Players must use power-ups and abilities to outsmart and avoid enemies waiting behind various spaceship doors. "The game's strongest moments come when you feel that there is no solution to a problem, but then by creatively thinking about what upgrades you have and the predicament you're in, you have this MacGyver-type moment where you come up with a plan," Keenan says. Keenan is looking at funding options for Duskers (Kickstarter is the "worst case" option), but the tentative plan is to get it on Steam Early Access for PC this year, with a full launch in 2015, he tells Joystiq. So far, his previous game, A Virus Named Tom, has kept the lights on, but it's not quite enough to fund a second game. Misfits Attic has a few projects in the works right now.
Hex Heroes is a five-player real-time strategy game for Wii U
Some of us don't know how to play real-time strategy games. Some of us just turtle in our initial base until we run out of resources, at which point our brainiac rivals storm the place for an easy victory. That's okay though, because in Prismatic Games LLC' Hex Heroes for the Wii U eShop, which the studio describes as a "party RTS," strategists will use the GamePad to lead up to four allied friends, with the allies sharing screen space on the TV. As TV players complete objectives and harvest resources, the GamePad player decides how those materials are used. The GamePad overlord can also construct ally-powering buildings and boost the individual stats of teammates, so it might be best to listen to them instead of going Rambo. TV players can select two types from eight unit classes, allowing for combinations of practicality and offense like the Knight/Woodcutter, or purely support-based hybrids like the Woodcutter/Scout. Teams can take on Hex Heroes' Lair Mode, an attempt to discover and seal off enemy lairs, or brave endless waves of foes in a Horde Mode. If and when your friendships need a break, there's also single-player versions of each, as well as an online, single-player battle mode. Prismatic has also enlisted Banjo-Kazooie composer Grant Kirkhope for the game's soundtrack, which certainly doesn't hurt the experience. Prismatic is seeking $80,000 in funding to develop Hex Heroes and will announce stretch goals "soon," some of which backers will be able to vote on the priority of. Backers will also be choosing half of Hex Heroes' character classes, so aiding its Kickstarter is a bit more involved than just chipping in money and waiting for a token to show up. At the time of this writing, Prismatic has collected $8,579 for its co-operative friendship-ruiner take on the RTS genre. [Image: Prismatic Games LLC]
The early (early) concept of Monaco dev's RTSMOBA in Valhalla
Andy Schatz is doing it again. Monaco seemed to linger in development limbo forever because it received attention from the IGF early in its production process. In reality, it took 3.5 years to come out. Schatz's new project, codenamed Armada, is a vague concept at this point: He has a clear vision for the design, but the theme, style and development team – not to mention the name – are all still up in the air. He announced it anyway. "I don't care this time because, fuck it," Schatz tells me at GDC. He's not going to release a game until "it's worth buying," but this time around he plans to throw Armada up on Steam Early Access and get player feedback. Monaco launched on XBLA, so Early Access was out of the question. Schatz isn't shooting completely in the dark with Armada – he knows what type of game it's going to be, and he has an idea for the theme. He wants to build an RTS with MOBA elements, something accessible yet still complex. In the way Monaco twisted the stealth genre, he wants Armada to feel familiar to RTS players, but with layers that smooth out the learning curve. He throws around the name StarCraft, and elements such as "champions" and "decks."
Ironclad Games' sinful MOBA, Sins of a Dark Age, now on Early Access
Sins of a Dark Age, the upcoming MOBA from Sins of a Solar Empire developer Ironclad (who maybe want to get to a confessional or something, since they seem to like sins so much) is now available on Steam Early Access. Soada - as Ironclad refers to it in shorthand - will be free to play when it launches, but Early Access will cost you $4.99. For that price, you'll gain entrance to the game, as well as a Welcome Chest containing one of three bundles. Each bundle contains a rare skin, an uncommon piece of Hero Gear, a rare skin recipe, and both common and uncommon quality materials for crafting. The game's final pricing structure isn't set in stone, but Ironclad states in its Early Access FAQ that the content of each Welcome Chest includes "far more" than $4.99 worth of content. [Thanks, Tyler!] [Image: Ironclad Games]
End of Nations development halted
Development on End of Nations has officially stopped. Trion Worlds first halted the game in late 2013, recently telling Video Gamer it is "currently focusing the company's energy and creativity on Rift, Defiance, Trove, ArcheAge, and some new projects that we will be revealing soon." The game's website no longer resolves to any landing page and the last posts on its Facebook and Twitter pages were from August 2013, right around the time Trion Worlds shuttered its San Diego studio. At the time, the publisher opted to move development of End of Nations, along with that of Defiance and ArcheAge, to its Redwood City studio. It also named Scott Hartsman CEO of the company, who left his former role as COO of Trion Worlds in January 2013 before the appointment in August. [Image: Trion Worlds]
Trion Worlds confirms that End of Nations is on hold in favor of MMO titles
Trion Worlds has today confirmed that its MMORTS-turned-MOBA End of Nations is officially on hold. A spokesperson for the studio sent the following statement to Polygon: As we informed EON's community last fall, internal development on End of Nations was put on hold in late 2013 while we evaluated potential paths forward for the title. We're currently focusing the company's energy and creativity on Rift, Defiance, Trove, ArcheAge and some new projects that we will be revealing soon. Last summer, Trion reclaimed the game from developer Petroglyph with the intent to retool it as a MOBA. After Trion's layoffs and restructuring in August, CEO Scott Hartsman told Massively that the team was still working on and evaluating the title. The official website is no longer functioning.
Curve Studios leads a Titan Invasion on Sony systems this summer
Curve Studios will bring a game bundle called Titan Invasion to PS3, PS4 and Vita early this summer. The pack includes two arcade-style games from UK developer Puppygames, Titan Attacks and Revenge of the Titans. Titan Attacks is an arcade shooter in the same vein as Galaga and Space Invaders, though Curve Studios says it includes "modern features, new strategies" as well as online leaderboards and an upgrade system. The game features over 100 levels, spanning five worlds. Puppygames' other creation, Revenge of the Titans, is deemed a thematic sequel that mixes real-time strategy and tower defense elements together. Both Titan Attacks and Revenge of the Titans are available for $9.99 on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux. The Titan Invasion bundle will be Cross-Buy compatible on all three Sony systems. [Image: Curve Studios]
Total War: Rome 2, Company of Heroes 2 brawl for free DLC this weekend
In defiance of this weekend's imminent corporate-sponsored romance, Sega has decided to push strategy gamers toward corporate-sponsored violence with the aptly titled "Make War Not Love" promotion. The rules are simple: During the course of the weekend, Sega will tally all victories earned by players in Total War: Rome 2 and Company of Heroes 2. Whichever game has the more active, successful community will receive free downloadable content. In the case of Total War: Rome 2, players will be awarded the Beasts of War add-on, while those playing Company of Heroes 2 will find two new multiplayer Commanders available at no additional charge. To further sweeten the temptation toward virtual bloodshed, Sega is also discounting both strategy games by 50 percent from now until Monday, February 17 at 10AM PT. Would-be virtual generals can now purchase Total War: Rome 2 for $30 while Company of Heroes 2 can be had for $20. [Image: Sega]
Firearms, futuristic spaceships and lots of explosions in Naughty Kitties
Naughty Kitties is an action-strategy game that combines two of everyone's favorite things: kittens and high-powered weapons. As the player, you and your cats must keep your spaceship -- yes, spaceship -- alive as it cruises along the skies and takes down alien enemies. Your ship can be defended both by its built-in weapons and your kitties, which can be perched on specials areas of the vessel. Each cat performs a different task -- from firing on enemy ships with rifles or guided missiles, to repairing your own vessel after it's been hit -- and each can only perform their duties for a short period of time before needing a break. The game quickly becomes a focus on resource management as you replace offensive and defensive assets on your ship and activate your large main weapon at certain intervals. It's a mix of tower defense and real-time strategy, and manages to feel fresh and different despite familiar themes. There are a few different game scenarios to tackle and a host of offensive and defensive cats to unlock, along with upgrades for each. It's a very deep game, which you might not assume given its extremely cute animation and overall aesthetic. The game does fall victim to a bit of the "pay to win" mentality with various in-game currency and items available for purchase with real-world cash. I found it quite enjoyable to play without spending a dime, but it's clear that dropping a few bucks will make you more powerful instantly. Naughty Kitties is free, and even if you only play it a few times, it's worth a download. If you're willing to toss a few bucks in, you'll find the game to be a wee bit easier, but it's definitely not required.
Starcraft 2 patch opens up custom maps, dev tools to all
StarCraft 2's "Starter Edition," the limited free-to-play version of Blizzard's popular real-time strategy sequel, receives a substantial today in North America. The update will roll out to other territories as the week progresses. This update brings StarCraft 2 "Starter Edition" up to version 2.1, unlocking all three races (Terrans, Zerg and Protoss) and providing access to custom maps to the entire internet. These custom maps can be accessed through Blizzard Arcade, the free game-hosting platform and editing suite offered by Blizzard through StarCraft 2. So if someone creates the next DOTA, which was created as a custom game type in Warcraft 3 and based on a custom StarCraft map, and publishes it to Blizzard Arcade, then everyone in the world will have access to it – not just those who own StarCraft 2. Head past the break for another pair of videos, produced by Blizzard, going into more detail about Blizzard Arcade.
Fight your wizard friends in XCOM creator's Chaos Reborn
Julian Gollop, the original creator of 1994 PC and Amiga strategy game X-COM: UFO Defense, will launch a Kickstarter project for the resurgence of another strategic game early this year. Titled Chaos Reborn, the game is described as an update to one of Gollop's other classic games, Chaos: The Battle of Wizards. First announced in November 2012, Chaos Reborn will fit into the turn-based strategy genre, which tended to have plenty of success on Kickstarter last year. The game will include "strong RPG elements" as well as "extensive multiplayer and single player options," according to the description on its Prefundia page. The single-player mode has players customizing their wizards and leveling them up through trials in the "Realms of Chaos," acquiring new equipment and treasures along the way before partaking in arena-style battles for up to six players. The 3D arenas will be procedurally-generated, and the leaderboard and tournament-speckled battles will be both live and asynchronous. Gollop also promised a guild and item trading system, in addition to cooperative multiplayer modes. Gollop said the 1985 ZX Spectrum game "stands out as a game with unrealized potential" of all the projects he's credited on in his 30-year development history. "I have spent the last year working on Chaos Reborn, writing the game design, creating a playable prototype and building my team," Gollop added, assuring prospective backers that he intends to complete the project "within a year." Chaos Reborn's development is targeted at PC, Mac and Linux. The development team currently has a functional prototype of the game's multiplayer working, though it uses placeholder art, so backers can expect it to look much different in the coming months. Gollop's Prefundia page noted a target window for the Kickstarter project next month, though it's unclear just when it will launch.
First look at sci-fi RTS Etherium
Etherium is a new real-time strategy game in development at Tindalos Interactive that, like so many before it, sees players battling over a precious resource that is both futuristic and totally fictional: The titular "etherium." "The solo campaign in Etherium is non-linear: You are free to decide how your conquests progress," states publisher Focus Home Interactive. "Manage your resources, expand your colonies and extend your control of the map to assemble an army capable of crushing your opponents. Epic battles will ensue between formidable armies comprising numerous units: infantry, tanks, aircraft, and even gigantic colossi of war several meters high; real machines of destruction! You will also use scientific research to develop a tech tree enabling you to unlock new units and upgrades, access new structures to develop your colony and to use new special skills." So far, so typical of the genre, but where Etherium differentiates itself is in its "dynamic weather system." According to examples offered by Focus Home Interactive, players might use a rolling sandstorm to cover their advance into an enemy base, or wait for a river to freeze before using the newly formed ice bridge as a staging point for a sneak attack. Above you'll find Etherium's debut trailer while screenshots can be found in the gallery below. For more information, visit the game's official website.
Next-gen strategy game engine lets you control an army of 5,000 units at one time
Every real-time strategy game has some kind of population cap, limiting the number of units that can be placed simultaneously on a player's terrain. This limit can stem from the designers' need to balance competition between armies, but ultimately it'll also have something to do with the underlying hardware in a PC or console, because a processor will slow down if it's asked to simulate too many independent, physical 3D objects at once. Some RTS games set the limit at 50-70 units, while others can cope with as many as 500, but a new game engine called Nitrous takes things up a level: It uses AMD's Mantle programming tool to speed up communication between the CPU and GPU, allowing up to 5,000 AI- or physics-driven objects (i.e., not mindless clones or animations) to be displayed onscreen at one time. Coming up, we've got a 1080p video of Star Swarm, a demo simulation that shows off what Nitrous can do, plus an explanation of how Oxide Games, the company behind Star Swarm, made this possible.
Tower of Elements 2 funded on Kickstarter
Now that Tower of Elements 2 has matched its funding goal of $10,000 for release on PC, Max and Linux platforms, we can start preparing for a different kind of war. Claiming victory in its battles will rely more on a player's organizational and leading skills than how many experience points they've poured into an attack attribute. Tower of Elements 2 will be a hybrid of real-time strategy and puzzle elements, asking you to juggle the direction of your capital while pummeling opponents with match-3 elemental spells. Players will organize the elemental tiles within 50 towers across 10 regions in the game, casting spells down lanes toward opponents depending on wherever a match is made. Towers won't all be designed the same way, however - while one may equip you with two long rows of tiles, the next might have a smaller, diamond-shaped space for the elemental ammo. Some towers will contain special tiles that are locked or frozen into place too, so players will need to get creative. Decisions made in the capital will determine the qualities a player's followers display. Depending on its leadership, the capital will reflect one of four culture traits; Martial, Druidic, Republic and Elemental. Tower of Elements 2's pitch page also explains that capital will allow players to "construct and upgrade buildings, grow your population, research spells, construct implements of war, recruit elite troops and much more." At the time of this writing, Tower of Elements 2 has gathered $4,278 more than developer Frogdice's funding goal, but stretch goals are "coming soon" should you be interested in helping fund its development. The funding campaign will conclude on January 5. Tower of Elements 2 is planning on a February release for backers, with a public release following "a month or two later." Frogdice's previous project, Dungeon of Elements, was successfully funded in June and was released on schedule.
Planetary Annihilation to launch 'when it's done'
Uber Entertainment, developer of real-time strategy game Planetary Annihilation, has stopped furiously clicking on a December launch window in favor of releasing the game "when it's done," an update to the game's website has revealed. "Planetary Annihilation will launch when we feel confident about its level of polish and the amount of awesome we can jam into it," the statement reads. "We don't have a hard date moving forward. However, we do expect it to be feature-complete in early 2014." The Kickstarter campaign for the project began back in August 2012 and harvested $2.2 million, outperforming the requested $900,000 by far. Planetary Annihilation's beta launched this month and is available to backers or those that purchase the $45 Warfare Edition (or above) of the game from Uber's store.
Novus AEterno announces Kickstarter campaign, expected to launch in 'next six months'
Taitale Studios has announced today that its upcoming MMORTS, Novus AEterno, is nearing completion and is "expected to launch within the next six months." In order to gather funding for the final stages of the game's development, the studio has launched a Kickstarter campaign that aims to raise $200,000 US over the course of the next 30 days. Of the campaign, Taitale CEO Nick Nieuwoudt states that the studio is "excited to make the supportive gamer community part of the [development] process and part of our success." If Novus AEterno sounds like the kind of game at which you'd like to throw some of your money (in exchange for some nifty backer rewards, of course), you can check out the official Kickstarter at the link below. And of course, to learn more about the game itself, just head on over to the official site. [Source: Taitale Studios press release]
Microsoft's Perry on F2P the wrong way
Today's winner of the most provocative post title award is this little ditty about Age of Empires Online. But hey, don't blame Massively! It's actually the title of a speech given by Microsoft's Kevin Perry at GDC Europe 2013. Gamasutra has posted video of the event, and it's well worth watching if you've got 45 minutes to kill and you're interested in what goes through a developer's mind as he thinks about continually evolving monetization schemes. Perry says that this particular speech is on its third iteration. It initially started out positive when he shared it with an internal Microsoft audience some time ago. He then reworked it based on newly collected data about the game for GDC San Francisco earlier this year. And then he reworked it again for GDC Europe based on even more data. If you're sensing a trend here, you're right: game devs often don't know how well their business models are performing at any given time. As Perry says, "it's an ongoing conversation." There are a few other choice quotes as well, including the notion that PvP players are small in number but "very, very loud" in terms of influence as well as the supposition that you can launch incomplete games under the F2P business model and "sort it out on the fly." This last bit isn't always true, Perry says, "especially for a large, branded title."
