Introduction:
This is our first in a series of articles intended to increase your
knowledge about the gaming industry. As you all know there are different types
on games out there and these games are classified into various genres and
sub-genres. It’s important for us as game developers to know these
classifications and terms used to describe them. This time I’ll be covering RTS
or Real Time Strategy games, which is sub-genre of
Strategy games.
Let me start off by explaining strategy games in general. Strategy
games are games in which the player’s decision making and planning play a
significant role in determining the out come of the game. Strategy games
usually have a well defined and definite goal and there are several solutions
to achieving that goal. The player that finds the most optimal solution than
his opponents wins the game. Chess is one of the oldest and most popular
example of a strategy game, in which each player finds the best way to
checkmate his opponent. The player with the better strategy will end up
checkmating his opponent first and hence wins.
Fig1: Screenshot
of an RTS game
Strategy games come in two flavors based on the way the game flows,
Turn Based Strategy (TBS) and Real Time Strtegy (RTS). TBS games like chess,
are those in which each player takes turns in making their move, the flow of
the gameplay occurs in discrete rounds in which each player gets an equal
number of turns. The gameplay of Real Time Strategy games on the other hand flows
continuously with time having to defined turns for each player. All game events
occur in real time and player is expected to react quickly to the every
changing game scenario. This involves a high degree of skill and speed in
addition to quick thinking and fast decision making all of which combine to
make the gameplay of RTS games really engaging, exciting and requiring a high
level of concentration and dexterity.
RTS Games come in many flavors, from Civilization building games,
Tower Defence games which are the most casual form of RTS games, and the most
popular kind - Wargames. Another sub-genre of RTS games worth mentioning is RTT
games or Real Time Tactics, the difference being “resource management”. RTT
games focus only on battle tactics and players don’t need to manage the economy
or accumulate resources as in RTS games.
Milestones & Notable RTS Games:
1983 - 1987: Earliest forms or RTS games emerge, these include Stonkers, Nether
Earth and The Ancient Art of War. These games can be considered as
the genesis of the RTS genre
1992: Dune II from Westwood Studios is released and is still
recognized as the game that truely defined and distinguished the genre. It
introduced several gameplay and user interface concepts like using the mouse to
move units, and issue contextual commands which would be adopted by all RTS
games to come. These gameplay and control features have now become the standard
by for all games in the RTS genre
1994: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans the first in the legendary
Warcraft series was released this year. Anyone who is even close to computer
gaming would have heard of the game Warcraft from Blizzard Studios. Although World
of Warcraft is currently the largest and by far the most successful MMORPG
(Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)
of all time, its origins lie in the RTS genre where the first game in the
series featured a wide array of buildings, impressive characterization, a
riveting story line and innovations in mission based gameplay. Most of these
features were adopted by RTS developers since.
1995: Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn the first RTS game in
the Command & Conquer series and the first RTS game to introduce
multiplayer gaming.
1997: The two most notable games that came out during this year are Total
Annihilation and Age of Empires, both games bought their own special
touch to the genre. Total Annihilation was the first to introduce 3D
rendered units which today is the norm in all RTS games. Age of Empires
broke a away from fast paced war-gaming style and introduced and more slower
pace of gameplay which spawned their own sub-genre of RTS games. These games
allowed the player to develop an entire civilizations through the ages as
opposed to only a single army which was the style of wargames. Age of
Empires and it’s successors have become well recognised in the RTS Genre.
1998: Starcraft the legendary and most successful RTS game till
date. This game is arguable the most successful game of all time. To many it is
still considered the Best game of all time. The game was so good it was the
National Sport of South Korea for almost 10 years. There are leagues and
international tournaments for Starcraft. Korea had a entire Channel
dedicated to everything Starcraft. Players are even now treated like
iconic sports figures in Korea and other Asian countries, with sponsorship
deals celebrity lifestyles and dedicated careers as Starcraft players.
Created by Blizzard entertainment this game was so successful that
Blizzard didn’t have to release a sequel for 12 years! That’s right the sequel
to Starcraft that is Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty was released
just last year in July 2010 and even though I haven’t had a chance to play it
myself, I have heard only praises for it by those who have.
So, what makes Starcraft so successful ? Well talking about
that is a whole other article in itself but if I have to say it in a few lines
then it would be, different tech trees for different races, different units
with different abilities across races (not simple clones), high level of balancing
across races even though they are so varied. The single player campaign mode of
the game had fantastic mission and a brilliant story line. The multiplayer
aspect of the game allowed players to play as one of 3 different races and
still be enjoy a balanced game.
You can get all the information, news and updates on what’s happening
in the world of starcraft at http://www.teamliquid.net/
1998-2000:The transition for 2D rendering to all 3D Rendering. Some of the
games that were at the forefront of this transition included Populous, The
War of the Worlds and Homeworld. Homeworld was set entirely in space
and the player had to command entire space fleets in 3D Space. The innovation
was in interface which allowed the player to easily manipulate fleet movements
in 3D space.
Most innovations in RTS games after this point were mostly
improvements on existing innovations that have already defined the genre for
what it is. Worthy mentions inlcude Supreme Commander (2007) with it’s
high level of detail and realistic battlefield scales giving players the
ability to zoom out and view the battle from a great distance and also zoom in
right into the heart of the battle to control each individual unit. Starcraft
II: Wings of Liberty
the sequel to the legendary Starcraft improved on what most
people thought was a perfect game in the first place.
The next post would cover RTS Gaming
