A new real-time strategy game is coming soon to PC, and it's being developed by Frost Giant Studios. Stormgate is an upcoming free-to-play RTS on Steam.
For those not familiar, Frost Giant Studios was founded in 2020 by Tim Morten and Tim Campbell. The two are veteran game development leaders that helped create some of the most acclaimed and best-selling PC games like WarCraft III and StarCraft II.
Talking about Stormgate, Morten revealed in a statement that they are building the game for the RTS community. He added that their vision is to come up with a social experience that breaks down the barriers that have been keeping people away and to welcome back players who are waiting for a new RTS. He concluded that they want to prove that the RTS genre can thrive again.
Stormgate is set in a time where fantasy and science fiction collide. The story starts hundreds of years into the future, where humanity has been led to near-extinction resulting from a great calamity. This was caused by an alien race known as Infernals, demonic beings that want to claim Earth for their own. The demons are returning again, and this time, humans need to gather their courage and fight inside mechs to save the world.
Features of the game include:
- Story-driven campaign missions, playable solo or with a friend.
- Fully-integrated in-client esports:
- 1v1 ranked matches on the competitive ladder.
- Team-based 3v3 with unique win conditions.
- Cooperative 3vE (three players vs. AI) mode:
- Features meta-progression and ways to customize army abilities to create powerful synergies.
- Expressing creativity and design skills with the in-game editor.
- Custom games created by other members of the community.
- Spectating matches and leveling up IRL with enhanced learning tools.
Bringing Back RTS
In developing the game, Frost Giant focused its initial engineering efforts on the core mechanics and gameplay fundamentals, the building blocks of any great RTS. It's also working on the custom-developed SnowPlay simulation technology, which allows for crisp and responsive gameplay with smart pathfinding.
Stormgate is being built in Unreal Engine 5, which means it supports high-resolution HD visuals in 4K. The UI is being designed to make the game more approachable by:
- Removing unnecessary inputs.
- Automatically assigning units to control groups.
- Streamlining gameplay.
Stormgate is currently in the pre-alpha development stage, with a beta test scheduled for 2023. To learn more about the game, sign up for the beta test here.
