The spiritual successor to Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 could be the next RTS hopeful – if only there weren’t the stumbling blocks “Free2Play” and “E-Sports” …
The developer team Frost Giant has finally announced its first RTS game Stormgate! What, that doesn’t mean anything to you? Then let me quickly rephrase it: A team of former Blizzard developers and gaming industry greats has unveiled the next RTS hopeful and spiritual successor to Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 at this year’s Summer Game Fest!
The ambitious vision: to revive the genre of real-time strategy and at the same time make it more accessible to new target groups. Actually reason for joy for RTS fans. But in the same breath, terms like “Free2Play”, “Social RTS” and a focus on “E-Sports” are mentioned.
What this has to do with the legacy of Warcraft 3 and whether the developers are not afraid to develop past their biggest fans, we asked Production Director Tim Morten (Starcraft, Command & Conquer) and Game Director Tim Campbell (Warcraft 3, Wasteland 3) personally in an exclusive interview.
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What is Stormgate anyway?
Stormgate is set in a post-apocalyptic future and combines science fiction and fantasy. However, Tim Campbell has already had enough of the dreary setting in which people struggle to survive after his time as game director for Wasteland 3. Instead, a more hopeful tone is to be set for the new RTS:
We want to look at what happens in the aftermath, when everything has fallen apart. What comes next? Sooner or later, the survivors will get used to the new circumstances and perhaps new life or even a new culture will emerge.
So the action takes place in a post-post-apocalyptic time when humans have to fight the new threat – the demon-like Infernals.
“Yes, humans are still struggling to survive,” Tim Campbell continues. “But there is also hope. Especially in the Covid era, many people felt isolated and had to deal with inconvenience. That’s when it was sometimes difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s why we want to deal with an optimistic setting instead of focusing on the downfall of a civilisation. “
The playable factions
So far, Frost Giant announced only two playable factions: the Humans and the aforementioned Infernals. However, more factions are already planned for after the release. The developers do not want to reveal many details about the gameplay, weapons and special features of the different civilisations yet – after all, many aspects are not yet final. But Tim Campbell does share a few first impressions with us:
“With the humans, everything revolves around adaptability and resilience – in other words, teaming up to survive difficulties. The Infernals, on the other hand, have different motivations. They are a race of conquerors who move through portals – the namesake Stormgates – to access new resources and fulfil their goals.”
As with Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2, the factions play “highly asymmetrically”, the developers say: “We’ve seen this in many different real-time strategy games. But we want to pursue that even deeper to create totally different mechanics for the Infernals and the Humans.”
What game modes will there be?
From the vision of making Stormgate an accessible real-time strategy game also comes the philosophy of offering a place for all types of players. In doing so, the developers rely on four pillars:
- Story campaign
- Coop modes
- Competitive Modes and E-Sports
- Community content
In addition to a classic story campaign, the developers are planning 1v1 and 3v3 matches in which players can compete (together) against AI opponents or against other players. For the RTS community, they also make their in-game editor available, which Frost Giant also uses itself for Stormgate. With this, they want to open the door for user-generated content and offer a lot of room for creativity from the player community.
The Story Campaign
The story of Stormgate is told from the perspective of several characters from different factions. By the way, Frost Giant wants to do without classic “good and evil”. Instead, the motivations and actions of the different civilisations are to present themselves in many shades of grey.
At release, only the two already announced factions and their heroes will be available. But over time, the other factions and the new heroes will follow, and their perspectives may shed a different light on events. “We’re calling our story mode an ongoing mode,” Campbell tells us. “We’ll be following up with new content in episodic form in the future. “
“The first true social RTS “
As the spiritual successor to RTS hits like Starcraft 2, Stormgate is also intended to capture the feel of the classics rather than significantly altering the gameplay. “Of course, Stormgate will still feel different,” explains Tim Morten. “Just like Warcraft 3 felt different from Starcraft 2.”
According to the developer, Stormgate’s greatest innovation lies in the game’s social component. Each game mode can be experienced together with other players. “This gives players the opportunity to experience the campaign with their friends, or play the endless co-op mode in threes, or just prove themselves in the classic multiplayer mode in 1v1 or 3v3. In each of these modes, there will be the possibility to team up and network with other players. This is a great innovation for us!”
Here, however, the strengthening of “Social RTS” is not to end. Stormgate is also being strengthened in the context of e-sports. “There were so many fantastic but rather unknown tournaments for Warcraft and Starcraft. They all took place outside of the games, though,” Tim Mortens tells us.
“We want to build this feature into the game so that everyone can compete against their friends, their colleagues or their classmates. This increases the visibility [of such tournaments] and the possibility for players to join them. I don’t think every one of us has the talent to become a professional e-sports player. But everyone has the skills to compete against their friends or work colleagues“.
What does this mean for single players?
But what does this mean for single player fans? Will solo players now just have to resign themselves to being part of the Stormgate community and networked with other players at all times?
“[On this system] we still have a lot to think about,” reveals Tim Morten. “That’s one of the areas where we still need extensive player feedback.”
Stormgate, however, will at no point tempt players into doing anything they don’t feel like doing, as Campbell explains, “A lot of traditional RTS games often have the problem of having a short campaign that players play through quickly. And then they try to steer everyone into competitive play. We want to avoid that. We love the many facets of real-time strategy. “
With the concept of a social real-time strategy game and the focus on e-sports, the developers are not afraid of disappointing their large fanbase and campaign lovers.
“We approach Stormgate with the mindset that there isn’t just one right way to experience the RTS,” Campbell continues.
“We want to create the opportunity for fun social interactions, but you don’t necessarily need a friend group. Players who want to experience Stormgate and its stories on their own can of course do so“.
Why Free2Play?
The first story chapters of the campaign and thus also the first heroes of Stormgate, as well as the co-op game and the competitive modes are to be available to everyone for free directly at release. The developers expressly want to do without Pay2Win mechanics and NFTs. Instead, further content such as factions or campaign chapters will follow – but these will only be available in exchange for real money.
What is a thorn in the side of many players, the developers see as a great opportunity: “[Free2Play] is a continuation of our attempt to tear down the barriers for new players,” says Campbell. Tim Mortens also takes this experience from his time at Blizzard:
“When we had the opportunity to make Starcraft 2 a Free2Play game in 2017, we noticed a huge increase in playership. So having a lower barrier for new players from the start overlaps with our goal of making Stormgate more accessible to a wider audience“.
At the same time, this financing model also brings more flexibility for the players. So everyone can put together their own Stormgate experience. Those who are only interested in the single-player campaign can – if they wish – buy further story chapters. Those who only like the competitive aspects, however, can simply skip the paid story content, for example.
For non-paying players, the endless co-op mode and the planned competitive modes are available. Story fans, however, will have to reach for their wallets sooner or later if they want to continue experiencing new heroes, factions and the story. The intervals at which new content will follow and what the pricing model will look like are not yet known.
Selected players will be able to take a first look at the new real-time strategy game as early as next year. Frost Giant is planning a closed beta for 2023 to collect feedback from the players. By then, at the latest, it will become clear whether Stormgate could actually succeed in leaving a forward-looking footprint in the genre of real-time strategy like Warcraft 3 did back in the day – or whether the community-centred game experience and casualisation of the new title will leave the FTS fan base disappointed.
Editorial conclusion
Don’t you want to check out the debut game from Frost Giant, a team of ex-Blizzard developers who want to make RTS great again and give new players an easy entry point?” Yeah, sure, I thought to myself. What could possibly go wrong?
So I eagerly followed the presentation on Stormgate. How I would have loved to tell the RTS fans among you about a strong story focus, exciting factions and heroes and a worthy Warcraft successor.
But suddenly terms like “Free2Play”, “E-Sports” and “Social RTS” followed one after the other. It was as if Frost Giant had turned a list of the GlobalESportNews community’s least favourite words into a to-do list. Well, can this go well?
We already know similar experiments with Free2Play plans and add-on campaigns from Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3, for example. I don’t want to paint the devil on the wall, but as we all know, that game failed due to a too low number of players …
I am also concerned about the strong focus on the social aspects and e-sports. As a story fan, you clearly get the short end of the stick with Stormgate at release. While the other modes can be played again and again, the end of the story is reached after two hero episodes. Single players then have to wait for new content, which can only be purchased for real money.
How the concept of “social RTS” and the story campaign are supposed to fit together is something that even the developers in the interview do not seem to agree on yet. Tim Campbell promises that you can play the story completely alone. Tim Morten, however, mentions that this concept still needs to be worked out.
Frost Giant seems to be quite sure of what they are doing and is convinced that they can serve different target groups with Stormgate. However, after the Reveal I am worried that they might develop their new project completely bypassing their fanbase.
Of course, I hope that Frost Giant’s vision will work out and that they will be able to break down the barriers of the RTS genre for new players and pick up hardcore fans at the same time. However, the current roadmap of the developers still worries me…
