Stormgate CEO: “We plan to create a truly global community”

Stormgate is a brand new free to play RTS game from Frost Giant Studios. We got a chance to speak with Tim Morten, the CEO and Production Designer for Frost Giant Studios about Stormgate and the future of the RTS genre as a whole.

Our team also played the game so we’re asking all the tough questions in this one!

Can we expect a strong competitive/esports experience for Stormgate or will the focus be to develop the single player and co-op game modes?

“As much as we can, we will be supporting RTS experiences for all kinds of players and their preferred activities. We think of these core experiences as the game’s four pillars, or the four “Cs”: Campaign, Competitive, Cooperative, and Custom Games.

We aim to continue the RTS genre’s storied legacy of world-class competition in Stormgate, which was part of what drove us to bring our closed beta to DreamHack Atlanta for our first-ever live showmatch. Even at this early stage, we thought it was a good opportunity to show the world how competitive and fun Stormgate already is to play and watch.”

If the focus will be on the esports scene, what would be your ideal competitive format (Eg. 1v1, 2v2 or even 1v1v1v1)? Will there be any unique twists to this style?

“We are currently focusing on two competitive formats. Our primary competitive mode at this stage of development is 1v1, which we are offering without Heroes. This was a decision that came about after many discussions with players and longtime leaders in the competitive RTS community. A Hero-less format makes for an experience that centers on a player’s ability to manage armies at the macro and micro level.

Sometime after we release Stormgate to Early Access next summer, we will begin testing a 3v3 team-based mode where each player will control a Hero. Heroes in Stormgate contribute more than just a single powerful unit on the battlefield. Heroes create avenues for role differentiation and specialization. They will modify tech trees, for example, giving the player access to new units and alternate army compositions compared to the base faction. The vision is for three players on a team to be able to customize their Heroes to create powerful team synergies.

In typical team games, the outcome of the match boils down to whichever side ends up having a player eliminated first. Our 3v3 mode will likely not be a “deathmatch” style format. We plan to create a bespoke mode designed to keep all players involved and having fun throughout the match, perhaps using unique win conditions or objectives. It’s still too early to go into great detail on 3v3 as we still have a lot of initial design left on this mode, but we feel it can become not just one of our most fun modes to play, but potentially a premier competitive mode that would be fun to watch at the highest levels of competition.”

We noticed similar design patterns to established legacy titles, do you intend to introduce more races/factions to the final game?

“Yes! We will release Stormgate to Early Access with a third playable faction. After that, we will be releasing new campaign content in regular seasonal updates. Whether we limit ourselves to three or introduce a fourth playable faction in the future will have to remain a mystery for the time being.”

Once the game is fully released, will it be available for crossplay or on platforms other than Steam?

“We aim to release Stormgate on other platforms in addition to Steam and crossplay would be something we’d want to support to keep all of our players connected, but it’s not something we can confirm at this time.”

We really liked the buffs and special camps on the map as an interesting objective based concept, are there plans to introduce more advanced gameplay or unit mechanics?

“Turtling” in a defensive position is a perfectly viable strategy in many RTS games, but we like that our “Creep camps” provide resource bonuses and buffs to incentivize players to move out on the map, rewarding players for achieving territory control. We also have some camps that provide neutral siege units that can help break stalemates by launching a decisive final assault on the enemy base.

As for more advanced gameplay or unit mechanics, our design team is experimenting with a variety of designs. The Infernal Host, for example, is a magic-using faction that harvests Animus–a sort of “soul energy”–from any death on the battlefield. This Animus is spent to cast Ritual magic, including the summoning of capstone units like the Flayed Dragon. We are having fun with lots of other ideas for mechanics too, and can’t wait to get them in the hands of players.”

Will there be a balancing or ELO/MMR based system for competitive play?

“Yes, we will have an MMR-based system that was worked on with the support of Fluxx and Toxi of W3Champions, the community-driven ladder and server infrastructure that really revived WarCraft III competition around the world.

We’re not going to just connect players by region—instead we plan to create a truly global community of players matched against each other by skill level. It’s important to us that Stormgate matches feel good for both players as often as possible. That’s part of the reason why Stormgate will be free-to-play–a larger player base will make for a deeper player pool, which will result in better matchmaking.”

Will there be victory paths or win conditions beyond the base destruction available?

“For 1v1, we currently have base destruction as the sole win condition. (Though, naturally, many players will concede and call GG before the base is destroyed once the opponent has achieved a far superior position.)

We’re excited to explore other paths to victory in our new 3v3 team-based mode, which we’ll be focusing on after our Early Access release next summer.”

What training or tutorial features will there be to encourage new players to join not just Stormgate but the RTS genre?

“We’re planning to provide new players with the opportunity to on-board into cooperative play with their more experienced friends via on-the-fly learning aids, and also to provide a stand-alone story-driven tutorial.

In addition, we are looking at a number of different educational tools to help new players. One that we’re particularly excited about is the development of different bot training partners that will be predisposed to playing in particular ways. One bot may be scripted to attack with a popular rush strategy, for example, so that players can train how to defend against it in safety without needing to figure out the counterplay against a live opponent.

We’ve been inspired by the work that Chess.com has done to make chess more approachable and welcoming to a new generation of players, so we’re eager to explore similar training tools for Stormgate. This is something that we look forward to focusing more on after our initial Early Access launch.”

Author’s note: In my opinion, Stormgate has to be one of the key upcoming esports games in 2024. In recent years, real time strategy esports has faded from the scene but with Stormgate and the talented team behind it, we may be in for something of a renaissance.