EndWar And The Future Of RTS
July 2nd 2008 02:23
The future of the RTS will be redifined by the PC and console wars. It has been the electronic evolution of tabletop gaming up to this point, where it is taking a life of its own. Many aspects remain the same, such as the top down view and dice rolling in the background, while now the lines are blurring between RPG and FPS. With the acceleration of technology and broader gaming audience, RTS is set to change in the future.
Microsoft Game Studios' Peter Zetterberg has recently spoken with Gamesindustry.biz about the future of the RTS game on the PC and console. From his experience developers have not been able to come up with a suitable control scheme for the Xbox360 to deal with RTS. Zetterberg says " I've had an RTS game pitched to me on the 360. Every time this happens developers say, “right, this time we've solved the RTS problem on console.” It was an ambitious game from new developers with a smaller team. And we were one of the first that they had pitched to so they hadn't turned cynical yet. And as they pitch, clearly this is not a good idea to do it on the Xbox 360." On the matter of the gaming experience, he feels that perhaps the right enviornment for different platforms is about the way multiplayer is conducted, "When you're working on a game you can imagine people playing solo or co-op in their living rooms, but it's a different picture when you imagine them playing on a PC. When I'm working on a game that's what I'm thinking about – the end result. How is a gamer going to be feeling playing through this experience?"
Electronic Arts' Chris Corry has a similar feeling, that the controllers of the consoles are not responsive enough to match that of the keyboard and mouse, "Console RTS design has come a long way, but I don't know if you will be able to lead design of a true RTS, which is so inherently reliant on the mouse and keyboard combination, on the console. "It's one of the reasons we don't do cross platform play - the way RTS' are meant to be played, the PC guys would be so much faster."
EndWar creative director Michael de Plater who was behind the amazing Total War franchise is looking to bring the genre into a realm that console gamers are familiar with. "We haven't looked at the conventions of PC RTS games at all. The game's we've looked at have been tactical shooters where you give squad mates pretty simple commands like Brothers in Arms. Use the d-pad to select and press A to send them there. It's got to be that easy to issue the orders.
Endwar, and other games currently in production, are also looking to enable voice commands to control on screen action, "Plus on top of that you've got the voice command that lets you shortcut or give high level orders to your whole army. You could literally start a game, give the command "All units attack" and let the AI push forward an assault the enemy. You could then drop in and manage squads or micromanage right down to the level of each unit."
Looking at the opinions of the leading games developers it seems that the future of RTS may be quite different for the PC and consoles. The PC may stick to the tried and true isometric formula, where the social and community aspect of console gaming may see it become more accessible through simplified controls and voice commands.
The future of RTS looks strong on both platforms. It's just unlikely that we will be playing together or on games that look and feel the same.
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