Do real-time strategy games need a serious shake-up? Developer Dave Pottinger, who worked on Halo Wars and Age of Empires thinks so, and that the RTS genre has barely changed in 20 years.
Age of Empires is one of the finest RTS games out there, easily up with the likes of Command and Conquer. However, developer Dave Pottinger, who worked on the former series as well as Halo Wars and several others, thinks the real-time strategy genre needs to evolve to avoid stagnating.
Speaking on the VideoGamer Podcast, Pottinger, who is currently working on strategy game Project Citadel, discusses the history of the RTS genre including how, in their infancy, RTS games were a serious contrast to the more action-based title which dominated the market.
Discussing their current state, he remarks that,”You’re still playing the same game we’re playing 20 years ago and looking at some of these new games—Stormgate and others like that—and they’re still really largely based on that formula.”
Certainly, things are not looking great for Stormgate right now. Stormgate launched to a mixed response and this free-to-play RTS, which requires an online connection has just 91 players on Steam, down from a peak of nearly 5,000. Could more innovation help?
Pottinger adds that the current RTS resurgence is a chance for developers to do something different with the genre. He and his team, Last Keep, made it a point to replay some of the RTS greats, and while they got a warm, nostalgic feeling from the experience they were struck by just how little things have changed.
“I think it reinforced our decisions to innovate with Project Citadel,” Pottinger adds. However, he also recognizes that in the current climate that’s not always going to be easy and that there’s the risk of alienating existing fans. Fans aside, some Triple A publishers have expressed their desire to stick with existing franchises and formats.
Pottinger hopes that by starting from scratch, Last Keep will have the opportunity to do something genuinely different with Project Citadel. Sci-fi strategy game Project Citadel is “coming soon” to Steam Early Access, though there’s no concrete release window as yet.
In the meantime, there are plenty of great strategy games and turn-based strategy games to explore.
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