EPTOn February 12 2026 18:28 Harris1st wrote:
First and foremost you need a campaign, a good story presented with some decent visuals. Almost nobody but the hardest of core RTS players are in it for 1v1 directly from the start.
Hell I played RTS games for almost 30 years. Right now I'm trying to get into Zerospace but I can't because I know nothing of the world, the lore, the characters, the units. And I don't want to read endless descriptions. I want them presented to me. Preferably in an interesting way.
First and foremost you need a campaign, a good story presented with some decent visuals. Almost nobody but the hardest of core RTS players are in it for 1v1 directly from the start.
Hell I played RTS games for almost 30 years. Right now I'm trying to get into Zerospace but I can't because I know nothing of the world, the lore, the characters, the units. And I don't want to read endless descriptions. I want them presented to me. Preferably in an interesting way.
MOBA's prove you don't need campaigns. The core gameplay should not require anything more than a simple tutorial and then everything else should be intuitive. The needing a campaign may be correct given how most RTS games are created, but it's a symptom of the genre not innovating.
It is expensive to make a good campaign and I think studios that try to go that directoin will struggle to create something cost-effectively. Zerospace is trying to that, Stormgate, Immortals Gates of Pyre. IMO they will all fail. You can critize the reason being that the campaign wasn't good but it diverts the focus and ressources. AAA companies can do that, not sure about startups.
For startups nail one thing. Make that exciting get rid of all the excessive stuff that adds unneeded complexity but aren't required for the target group.
Battle Aces did actually do some of that - unfrotunately it was still a stressful experience and did everything else the wrong way.
