|
Never gonna be any value in these because Tim's never going to publicly throw his co-workers under the bus, or truly claim responsibility and look incompetent.
But I also don't understand how someone could get to the point where they're taking 1/4th their salary and even borrowing money against their house without steering the ship in a better direction. The only logical conclusion is that he was unable to. Even at 11:59 when it would have been unprofessional to tell a vet how to do their job, if you did know how to make things better, and you were in financial peril, you would claim martial law so to speak and make one last effort as a dictatorial CEO. Otherwise it's 100% over. So not only did people not execute, but leadership did not recognize the failure and how to correct it after EA in mid 2024. Which of course goes without saying, because we all have eyeballs and see the end product, but basically conveys Tim's personal responsibility without having to say it himself. So whatever.
The thing is, it doesn't take an RTS wizard to see how swirly plumes of low res smoke are very ugly and obfuscate gameplay, or that these campaign outlines and scripts could barely pass as “young adult”, or how rushed and terrible that third faction was, and on and on. It's literally an endless trough of bad development that no one spoke up about, or had any power to affect. The game developed so poorly in its last 2 years that people started getting nostalgic for Battle Aces. Holy shit Battle Aces was like that Ripley clone in Alien 4 with arms coming out of her ass. And yet...more beloved than Stormgate. Fucking hell, mate.
We live in a time when everything is awful and pandering because bad creators think this is the only way to succeed. It's condescending, but more frustratingly producing of one failure after another that has resulted in no new Blizzard-style RTS to play. Also, not to mention, far fewer great movies, books, music, you name it. The disease is endemic.
The silver lining is that the people who do succeed in making the game that brings these disparate RTS communities together will have deserved it. And I will play the shit out of that game.
|
On October 01 2025 01:54 RogerChillingworth wrote:
We live in a time when everything is awful and pandering because bad creators think this is the only way to succeed. It's condescending, but more frustratingly producing of one failure after another that has resulted in no new Blizzard-style RTS to play. Also, not to mention, far fewer great movies, books, music, you name it. The disease is endemic.
The silver lining is that the people who do succeed in making the game that brings these disparate RTS communities together will have deserved it. And I will play the shit out of that game.
Yeah man that's pretty depressing. And I worry the worst is yet to come.
When all this AI slop being in development right now hits the shelves in a couple years, people will be begging for Stormgate to come back.
|
On October 01 2025 03:05 Spirral wrote:Show nested quote +On October 01 2025 01:54 RogerChillingworth wrote:
We live in a time when everything is awful and pandering because bad creators think this is the only way to succeed. It's condescending, but more frustratingly producing of one failure after another that has resulted in no new Blizzard-style RTS to play. Also, not to mention, far fewer great movies, books, music, you name it. The disease is endemic.
The silver lining is that the people who do succeed in making the game that brings these disparate RTS communities together will have deserved it. And I will play the shit out of that game. Yeah man that's pretty depressing. And I worry the worst is yet to come. When all this AI slop being in development right now hits the shelves in a couple years, people will be begging for Stormgate to come back.
If Stormgate sucks NOW and we have better games than stormgate NOW, what changes that makes the better games not work anymore? Make as much AI garbage as you want, that shit still sinks.
|
On October 01 2025 05:00 Fleetfeet wrote:Show nested quote +On October 01 2025 03:05 Spirral wrote:On October 01 2025 01:54 RogerChillingworth wrote:
We live in a time when everything is awful and pandering because bad creators think this is the only way to succeed. It's condescending, but more frustratingly producing of one failure after another that has resulted in no new Blizzard-style RTS to play. Also, not to mention, far fewer great movies, books, music, you name it. The disease is endemic.
The silver lining is that the people who do succeed in making the game that brings these disparate RTS communities together will have deserved it. And I will play the shit out of that game. Yeah man that's pretty depressing. And I worry the worst is yet to come. When all this AI slop being in development right now hits the shelves in a couple years, people will be begging for Stormgate to come back. If Stormgate sucks NOW and we have better games than stormgate NOW, what changes that makes the better games not work anymore? Make as much AI garbage as you want, that shit still sinks.
True, the SG part was too hyperbolic :D
|
Okay, just when you thought this crazy saga was over, in comes GOBSMACK, the fan-turned-Frost-Giant-developer, with some ASTOUNDING NEWS:
And he even posted in the Reddit thread that shared that Discord screenshot:
u/Frost_Gobsmack avatar
Frost_Gobsmack
•
2h ago
emoji:Frost_Giant:
Harrison King - System Designer
Hey guys, I know the silence has been frustrating and disheartening. I wish we were at a stage I could talk a little more about what I'm working on, but we need a bit more time for that.
But I have been working on some exciting stuff. I promise the memes aren't just to troll, haha.
I hope when you all see everything we've been doing, you'll agree with me. As far as when to expect to hear more: we're making good progress on our work but the finish line is a ways out still.
Will these changes save the game? I think that's beyond my ability to know, but I'm not naive to our situation. All we can do is make the best update to the game in our capability and go from there. Beyond what I'm doing, I am hopeful about Tim's efforts to find partners.
I remain a member of the community, first and foremost. I'm so grateful to the friends I've made while here and so amazed at the efforts of those tournament organizers, AMAZING map makers and JSON wunderkinds, competitive players, and RTS enthusiasts who have supported us along the way. I'm convinced that the very best part of Stormgate is this community.
Thank you to all of you. You're why we do what we do.
I am absolutely... erm.... gobsmacked here. Like, what even is this? "Hey guys I know the game launched two months ago and none of us said a word since, except for Tim Morten writing postmortens on LinkedIn every Monday, but don't worry! I've got this! I'm making an update that's cooler than anything we could ever do before! I know that before we were a real company with employees and artists and programmers and everything, but you don't understand! Now that it's down to just me, everything's gonna be SO MUCH BETTER! I can't reveal anything about this magical update, or even when it's due to come out, but TRUST ME GUYS IT'S GONNA BE SO COOL!"
|
Isn't he that Harrison guy?
If so, he's even more full of himself than Tim.
I remember him hyping up the lighting update and insulting other people.
As for the update, I'm 90% sure he will add a moba map made by another guy.
|
I don't know, the posts sound kind of down to earth. I haven't followed this as closely so I don't know this guy's history. It seems weird though that a random dev would address the community and not the community manager or something higher up. Maybe he asked and got green light? idk...
|
On October 01 2025 23:37 Miragee wrote:
I don't know, the posts sound kind of down to earth. I haven't followed this as closely so I don't know this guy's history. It seems weird though that a random dev would address the community and not the community manager or something higher up. Maybe he asked and got green light? idk...
I checked this guy, yeah, it's him. He was one of the most exalted shills before they employed him.
This grounded post is an act, I'm pretty sure.
As for his skills, lets just say he got the mead of poetry from the wrong side of Odin.
|
On October 01 2025 23:37 Miragee wrote:
I don't know, the posts sound kind of down to earth. I haven't followed this as closely so I don't know this guy's history. It seems weird though that a random dev would address the community and not the community manager or something higher up. Maybe he asked and got green light? idk...
You have to understand the context here.
Harrison King was a huge fanboy of the game. He posted on Reddit about Stormgate under the name AuthorHarrisonKing, but he doesn't link to anything that he wrote on his profile, and nothing shows up on Amazon when you search for "Harrison King" so it's unclear if he actually ever wrote anything.
According to his LinkedIn, he was a full stack web developer:
I spent the last five years of my career as a Full-Stack Software Engineer experienced in Angular, Next.js React, Node.js and many related tools such as Cypress, .net, and more.
But then he got hired by Frost Giant in June 2025 (only a month before the game released and all work stopped on it!) to work remotely:
Developed for and launched Stormgate, a spiritual successor to Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3, alongside a brilliant team of developers.
- Designed gameplay mechanics for the 1v1 Versus and 3v3 Team Mayhem modes.
- Implemented those designs within the game engine: Snowplay
- Added new capability to the game engine by working in C++
- Modified actors and blueprints within Unreal Engine 5
His LinkedIn profile picture has him beaming in front of the original Frost Giant offices sign, with all the other company's names blurred out.
Now, he's claiming to be working on an update that will save Stormgate.
Why isn't Frost Giant's media manager posting this announcement? Because Frost Giant no longer has a media manager. Or an art director, lead artist, or sound director. In fact, no other Frost Giant employee has posted anything since launch, except for Tim Morten, who admitted that the launch was "spectacularly unsuccessful" and that he would have to find a "partner" in order to keep the company going, but since then has spectacularly failed to find a partner.
So, yeah, it's all pretty weird.
|
On October 02 2025 00:53 Jeremy Reimer wrote:Show nested quote +On October 01 2025 23:37 Miragee wrote:
I don't know, the posts sound kind of down to earth. I haven't followed this as closely so I don't know this guy's history. It seems weird though that a random dev would address the community and not the community manager or something higher up. Maybe he asked and got green light? idk... You have to understand the context here. Harrison King was a huge fanboy of the game. He posted on Reddit about Stormgate under the name AuthorHarrisonKing, but he doesn't link to anything that he wrote on his profile, and nothing shows up on Amazon when you search for "Harrison King" so it's unclear if he actually ever wrote anything. According to his LinkedIn, he was a full stack web developer: Show nested quote +
I spent the last five years of my career as a Full-Stack Software Engineer experienced in Angular, Next.js React, Node.js and many related tools such as Cypress, .net, and more.
But then he got hired by Frost Giant in June 2025 (only a month before the game released and all work stopped on it!) to work remotely: Show nested quote +
Developed for and launched Stormgate, a spiritual successor to Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3, alongside a brilliant team of developers.
- Designed gameplay mechanics for the 1v1 Versus and 3v3 Team Mayhem modes.
- Implemented those designs within the game engine: Snowplay
- Added new capability to the game engine by working in C++
- Modified actors and blueprints within Unreal Engine 5
His LinkedIn profile picture has him beaming in front of the original Frost Giant offices sign, with all the other company's names blurred out. Now, he's claiming to be working on an update that will save Stormgate. Why isn't Frost Giant's media manager posting this announcement? Because Frost Giant no longer has a media manager. Or an art director, lead artist, or sound director. In fact, no other Frost Giant employee has posted anything since launch, except for Tim Morten, who admitted that the launch was "spectacularly unsuccessful" and that he would have to find a "partner" in order to keep the company going, but since then has spectacularly failed to find a partner. So, yeah, it's all pretty weird.
who murdered Stormgate? we need Lieutenant Columbo on the case!
“Who killed this game? It was the executive producer, in the focus group, with the spreadsheet.”
“It wasn’t Colonel Mustard… it was Colonel Monetization, in the DLC dungeon, with a loot box.”
“Turns out it wasn’t Colonel Mustard — it was Professor Plum, tinkering within the UE5 kernel, with a memory leak.”
"Oh, Mr. Reimer... ummm ... just one more thing..."
These references are perfect for a guy Tim Morten's age.  ... wherever he may be.
|
On October 02 2025 01:17 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
who murdered Stormgate? we need Lieutenant Columbo on the case!
“Who killed this game? It was the executive producer, in the focus group, with the spreadsheet.”
“It wasn’t Colonel Mustard… it was Colonel Monetization, in the DLC dungeon, with a loot box.”
“Turns out it wasn’t Colonel Mustard — it was Professor Plum, tinkering within the UE5 kernel, with a memory leak.”
Okay, I genuinely laughed. That's pretty good stuff.
|
What FG had to do in order to secure many millions in funding sealed their fate. They had to promise the sun, the moon, and the stars. The alternative is to slowly build themselves up the way Relic did decades ago of the way King Art Games has the past 13 years.
I hope King Art Games nails DoW4. I like what I've seen from King Art Games and I like the Unity engine.
|
On October 02 2025 01:33 Jeremy Reimer wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2025 01:17 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
who murdered Stormgate? we need Lieutenant Columbo on the case!
“Who killed this game? It was the executive producer, in the focus group, with the spreadsheet.”
“It wasn’t Colonel Mustard… it was Colonel Monetization, in the DLC dungeon, with a loot box.”
“Turns out it wasn’t Colonel Mustard — it was Professor Plum, tinkering within the UE5 kernel, with a memory leak.”
Okay, I genuinely laughed. That's pretty good stuff.
Enlighten me, is this some kind of boomer Detective Columbo reference?
|
Okay, I think I figured it out.
With the failed launch, the company out of funds, and no more income coming in, Tim has basically given up on Stormgate. He's pinning his hopes on selling Frost Giant for its underlying tech and some of their software engineers, to another company, like he did with Savage Entertainment.
But in the meantime, with no work or updates being done on the game for obvious reasons, Gobsmack asked if he could work from home, for no pay, on his dream custom map, Fort Nokitoff.
Tim gave him the go-ahead, because why not? Might as well go for the Hail Mary at this point.
At the end of the Fort Nokitoff video, Gobsmack states: "I'm really proud of my efforts on Fort Nokitoff and the ideas that went into it. [...] If Frost Giant decides not to go in this direction, my intention is to turn this into a proper custom map as soon as I get the chance."
So this would explain the "much cooler than we'd have been able to do otherwise" comment.
|
Will Gobsmack save the future of RTS? Or will the nerd hopes get crushed once again?
The StormGate saga continues
|
United Kingdom20323 Posts
On October 01 2025 16:39 ChillFlame wrote:
Isn't he that Harrison guy?
If so, he's even more full of himself than Tim.
I remember him hyping up the lighting update and insulting other people.
A perfect fit for the team
|
Surely waiting another 30 days to say anything and another 30 days to release anything will excited the 80 people still playing.
Really enjoying Hades II right now. PoE 2 next gigantic update in December. Octopath Traveler 0 and Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment and new Battlefield on their way. Definitely Harrison King's solo custom map is gonna be worth a look. Heeeeeheeeehe. X____X
Would rather log onto Brood War and play BGH....
|
On October 02 2025 01:36 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
What FG had to do in order to secure many millions in funding sealed their fate.
All they had to do was make the game playable. Taking the servers offline to patch, even if it took multiple days would have been the correct move. Instead they went the route of absolute neglect.
Doesn't matter what the end goal for unit design, cost, or other future planned additions are when objectively broken interactions currently exist.
It would be like if early sc2 had stayed on the patch that allowed reapers & hellions to out range queens & roaches for over a year. Nobody is going to bother with something like that, especially in 2025.
This isn't even everything but just off the top of my head things that have outright plagued the game and went unaddressed for an extended time:- Dog mirror
- Miasma
- Celestial v1.0 (see tasteless tournament)
- Brutecraft
Throw all that on top of unnecessarily restrictive maps (Micro Steppes of War & Dual Entrance to Main) and you get a game that nobody wants to play.
Which is quite a shame because the game has immense potential and the hotkeys and other QoL features are amazing. Since sc2 is still somehow receiving updates hopefully they just go ahead and rip them and add it. They can put the smart select/ai ability/rapid fire settings in game as well.
|
On October 02 2025 04:30 Spirral wrote:
Will Gobsmack save the future of RTS? Or will the nerd hopes get crushed once again?
The StormGate saga continues
Who in fuck's name is going to install Stormgate again. It's like dude, guys, I came up with a new way to play with lincoln logs, you're gonna love it.
|
On October 02 2025 15:12 RogerChillingworth wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2025 04:30 Spirral wrote:
Will Gobsmack save the future of RTS? Or will the nerd hopes get crushed once again?
The StormGate saga continues Who in fuck's name is going to install Stormgate again. It's like dude, guys, I came up with a new way to play with lincoln logs, you're gonna love it.
Well, the release of this "news" hasn't caused an increase in players. It's now the lowest it's ever been, floating between 29 and 49 players each day.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/zj5eYIW.png)
