Stormgate - sci-fi/fantasy RTS from ex-Blizzard devs - now on Early Access

[Multidirectional]

I've heard one of RTS streamers express concern that it looks like it will take 10 more years to finish.

That has to be hyperbole. Right? Right?

Well I sure hope so. I think it was uThermal that said this.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

The game is an original IP. It is made by a first time dev team. Their ambition is to have three playable armies when beta starts, then five at launch. They don’t have a publisher with cash to spare. They are very meticulous to boot. No surprise that development is taking a while.

 

[Cohesion]

Heromarine had good video about this after the patch

Dude is a YouTuber now?

 

[Multidirectional]

Heromarine had good video about this after the patch

Dude is a YouTuber now?

Well what's left to him, he's not even the best european Terran anymore, thanks to that Clem kid who even manages to beat Serral occasionally.

 

[ghardy]

Apparently, some people care about the lore for this game. Here's a Steam forums thread:

Legit question about the Lore

So in the opening cinematinc we see opening portal to hell or equivalent - and my question is - why it wasn't nuked into space? Or since it is far more advanced civilisation- why they didn't use anti-matter bomb or something bigger in order to end this invasion before it even started?

An honest answer:

I dont want to be crass but the lore of Stormgate is a D-tier fanfiction at best, AI script at worst, so the logical answear would be it's because the lore is a first draft placeholder - its neither particularly fleshed out or deep, so we get this cheese of plotholes, where it's best to just not think about the holes while consuming it - it being the current version of the game

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Apparently, some people care about the lore for this game.

There's already a fandom wiki for it: https://stormgate.fandom.com/ It has citations and everything.

Here's a Steam forums thread:

Legit question about the Lore

So in the opening cinematinc we see opening portal to hell or equivalent - and my question is - why it wasn't nuked into space? Or since it is far more advanced civilisation- why they didn't use anti-matter bomb or something bigger in order to end this invasion before it even started?

An honest answer:

I dont want to be crass but the lore of Stormgate is a D-tier fanfiction at best, AI script at worst, so the logical answear would be it's because the lore is a first draft placeholder - its neither particularly fleshed out or deep, so we get this cheese of plotholes, where it's best to just not think about the holes while consuming it - it being the current version of the game

To be honest, you could ask the same about every single instance in fiction where anyone has superweapons but don't use them. Like, oh, Starcraft. The terrans canonically have nukes and planet crackers, the protoss have fleets of planet glassers... the zerg don't seem to have anything like that, but since they have FTL we can assume they can casually mass scatter planets by throwing asteroids accelerated to superluminal speeds.

But to steelman Stormgate's shit writing, here's an easy explanation: once the portal was opened, it was already too late. Similar to the resonance cascade in Half-Life, demons suddenly appeared all over the planet and it was impossible to contain. Dropping nukes wouldn't have solved anything. We know this is a plausible situation because the demons summon their infrastructure to Earth without sending those materials through the stormgate itself.

 

[ghardy]

Stormgate dev hires another StarCraft veteran to deliver the style it deserves

[Emphasis added]

As a new RTS game very much following in the footsteps of titans, Stormgate has a strong list of names at its back. It boasts several former Blizzard developers from the production of StarCraft, Warcraft, and Diablo, as well as designers who worked on the Command and Conquer series. While the free Steam game has a lot to praise mechanically, the main criticism from players has been around its unpolished visual state, which is currently a far cry from the flash of StarCraft 2. In order to help rectify this, developer Frost Giant Studios is bringing in another Blizzard veteran with a powerful résumé.

For me, the mechanics underpinning the best RTS games are the most important thing to get right. Building your base, moving units around, upgrading, expanding, and micromanaging during combat – it all has to feel sharp and responsive. Stormgate absolutely has that in its favor. Its current visual design, animation, and the basic in-engine cutscenes used during its campaign, however, have left many players feeling that Stormgate is a little too undercooked in its current state, leaving it with a ‘mixed’ Steam review score of just 49%.

Frost Giant has already taken its first steps towards fixing this with early patches and updates, including a complete visual redesign for its Vanguard poster hero Amara, but now it reveals another key piece of the puzzle. “We are pleased to welcome Frost Giant’s new art director, Allen Dilling, to the Stormgate development team,” the studio writes.

As the lead artist on StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and assistant art director for Legacy of the Void, alongside past work on Warcraft 3, WoW, and Heroes of the Storm, it’s safe to say that Dilling has the legacy for the role. Frost Giant explains that, once he’s finished onboarding, Dilling will be “planning for the future of Stormgate’s visual identity.” For now, it says that the current focus is on “elevating our core factions, starting with the Infernal Host.”

Alongside this news, Frost Giant announces that it’s pushing its planned 0.2.0 content update to “later this year” while it focuses on the upcoming 3v3 Team Mayhem mode, which looks less at traditional RTS base building in favor of a more MOBA-like structure. The next playable Vanguard hero will also arrive at the same time, along with improvements to the gear system.

In the meantime, you can expect two more major updates. Patch 0.1.2 is landing before the end of October, bringing improved co-op progression, range indicators, and Halloween cosmetics. Patch 0.1.3 is set for November, and will feature a more substantial balance update primarily aimed at competitive 1v1 play.

Frost Giant is also working on “significant improvements to the Chapter Zero and One campaign missions,” but those won’t arrive until early 2025. These include a restructuring of the mission order, improved character models and animation, more playable heroes across missions, a new hero leveling system, dialogue rewrites, and a hub zone.

 

[Dayyālu]

I'm enjoying the desperate twitching of the developers. They are below three digits concurrent players (I've seen people reporting 80-100) and still entertain their "BLIZZARD VETERANS" delusions. Their socials are barely-controlled doomposting by the players and trolls.

I'll eat my own pants if they make a comeback, but for the meantime it's extremely amusing not as a game but as a failure.

 

[Inec0rn]

lookout! an artist that worked on one of the SC2 expansions has been hired to fix the game .

Must admit though, i felt all things art sucked for this game from the get go.

 

[ArchAngel]

I'm enjoying the desperate twitching of the developers. They are below three digits concurrent players (I've seen people reporting 80-100) and still entertain their "BLIZZARD VETERANS" delusions. Their socials are barely-controlled doomposting by the players and trolls.

I'll eat my own pants if they make a comeback, but for the meantime it's extremely amusing not as a game but as a failure.

Comeback is always possible but that storyline was already completed by No Man Sky

 

[Alienman]

Another Blizzard janitor that played Starcraft once.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I don’t mind people ripping off starcraft’s aesthetic, but they could at least do something new with it. For example, make the humans a bunch of competing corporations, make the protoss a thriving galactic empire, and makes the zergs… more like tyranids, I guess? Give the cultures depth rather than focusing on a few garbage bin mary sues.

 

[ghardy]

But, but-- they worked on Amara: she's now a mid, not a midget.

 

[Multidirectional]

Well I just tested the performance improvements. Before patch framerate dropped to 40s when in late game with large armies. Now it happens within first minute of the game. Much improved.