But there are so many people that have been disappointed in RTS games for years. I'm not worried, hardcore RTS fans will love Tooth and Tail for the short matches and strategic complexity - tons of Magic: The Gathering fans also enjoy Hearthstone. What do you hope to bring to the genre with T&T? Or, perhaps, what do you feel is the biggest problem with RTS games?ĪS: For hardcore fans Real Time Strategy doesn't need fixing. Every classic Real Time strategy hinges on the Tooth to Tail ratio: your ability to manage your economy and fight a war at the same time. But there's a more subtle meaning: The Tooth to Tail Ratio refers, in military parlance, to the relationship between an offensive force and the supply lines that keep it operational. It's a quirky name, talk us through its meaning.ĪS: Our animals are fighting tooth and nail so that they can feast on their enemies' succulent carcasses. We've got quite a few members of our pre-alpha with hundreds of hours in the game already. The thing I never expected was how deep the game would be, so we've spent a lot of time implementing things like Replays, an Observer mode, random maps, and an editor to support long term players of the game. Tooth and Tail is an Arcade RTS about animal cannibalism.Īnd how has that concept changed over time?ĪS: Like with Monaco, we've spent a LOT of time experimenting with controls, game modes, and core design components of the game. It's animal cannibalism, and citizens of this crumbling animal-industrial society would rather be predators than prey. Tooth and Tail is an Arcade Real Time Strategy game.Īnd so we set about inventing an animal society in the midst of revolution - the squirrels, skunks, and rats are starving, and so they all turn to eating each other. And yet everything about Tooth and Tail, strategically, feels exactly like a classic RTS. You command a single rat-general, so you don't have to worry about constantly clicking around the map. Most of the game is controlled with only two buttons - yet the game allows for incredible complexity. Tooth and Tail matches are 5-12 minutes, with all the dramatic arc of a large-scale RTS. I've always wanted a fun, friendly RTS that you can play on your couch that rewarded improvisation over build orders, strategy over speed. I get frustrated at how fast of a clicker I have to be to play competitively. How did you come up with the concept for Tooth and Tail?ĪS: I've always loved Starcraft, but I hate micro. A slimmed-down game is not a missed opportunity, it's a game that has a singular and easily communicated vision.Īre there any plans to (maybe with a partner) ever bring Monaco to new platforms, or has that ship sailed?ĪS: Our 8 (?) thieves may one day return to Monaco, but for now they are - as they say - in the wind. In Monaco, we cut a Thief vs Thief mode, as well as a Cops vs Robbers mode. As you can see from the exclusive screenshot attached below, the game has a beautiful art style that does a great job of showcasing conflicts that star a cast of pixelated animals, the whole thing built around streamlined controls and accessibility.Īs a game designer, what were the biggest lessons you learned from that experience.ĪS: Good indie games - good GAMES - typically pick one thing and do it really well. Only a month into development, it was very early days, but we did get a sense of what the studio were trying to do, stripping back the genre to the basics, and forming the control scheme around the controller instead of the more traditional mouse and keyboard combo.įast forward a few months and there was more news, with the project now being referred to as " Tooth and Tail" (after also going through a period of being called Lead to Fire, a name that was dropped as it didn't go down too well with all concerned). Just over a year ago Pocketwatch announced the follow up to Monaco over on its blog, at the time the game being revealed under the codename. Monaco offered a unique twist on the stealth genre, something that Pocketwatch wants to do again, this time with the real-time strategy genre and their next project, Tooth and Tail. Pocketwatch Games is best known for its hugely popular stealth title, Monaco: What's Yours is Mine, a game that garnered positive critical acclaim across the board and has gone on to sell over 1 million copies since it was first released on PC and Xbox 360.
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