The public launch of Stormgate has been a long time coming, but the initial response to its first round of paid-for early access has been divided. While some players are enthusiastic about its gameplay and the inspirations drawn from some of the best RTS games ever such as StarCraft Brood War, Warcraft 3, and Command and Conquer, others are unhappy with the early state of the campaign and the game’s paid hero model. In response, Frost Giant CEO Tim Morten outlines the team’s post-launch priorities.
Morten, who was formerly production director on StarCraft 2 at Blizzard, begins by thanking everyone who has supported Stormgate before and during its launch into Steam Early Access on Tuesday July 30. It currently sits at a ‘mixed’ Steam rating with just 55% of user reviews recommending the RTS game. “Early Access is a new experience for the team,” Morten writes, “but I genuinely believe in the benefits of using feedback to drive development.”
“Remember: this is only the beginning of our journey,” he emphasizes. While access currently requires a purchase of one of the game’s three supporter packs, Stormgate will become a free Steam game on Tuesday August 13. “We expect to be in Early Access for at least a year of active development before we believe we’ll be ready for 1.0. That won’t be the end, either, as we plan to release new stories and more content for years to come.”
One of the first major criticisms Morten addresses is the ability at launch to buy a playable hero, Warz, with real money – especially as the character isn’t included in any of the starter packs. “We tried to make the content in our Kickstarter bundles clear during the campaign, but we understand that many players looked at our ‘Ultimate’ bundles as the path towards purchasing all of the gameplay content we’d have available for our Early Access release,” he notes.
As such, the team will be giving the next paid hero that’s released to everyone who backed Stormgate on Kickstarter or Indiegogo at the Ultimate Founder’s Pack tier or above. It also plans to give this hero for free to everyone who has bought or buys the Ultimate early access pack on Steam, although notes that “this process will require additional engineering work and may be something we will have to fulfill after the release of that Hero.” This is being done for the next hero rather than Warz as “players have already purchased Warz and we are unable to make him free retroactively.”
The campaign has also proven a major concern. Morten says it’s the most-played mode so far, making up “about half” of aggregate playtime since the early access launch. The much-requested pause feature is being worked on, along with a planned manual save/load system that will work alongside the existing checkpoints. He also addresses criticisms of the cutscene models, which he explains are “game models that were designed to be seen from a top-down perspective” and a lack of animated mouths during cutscenes.
“We have changes planned based on this feedback, which will take time to implement,” he says. “The current implementation was definitely something we considered ‘Early Access’ and not ‘final.’” The team is also planning “production on animated faces and other improvements for our models sooner than originally planned.
“This is significant work for our team,” Morten explains, “but we understand that many players feel the characters in our cutscenes are a critical part of the campaign experience. “
Fully customizable and rebindable hotkeys are on the way, too, including support for modifiers, although Morten notes that “implementation in Unreal takes time.” He also responds to criticisms of the game’s look. “Some players dislike our stylized art direction and, as I noted in our last AMA, we’re going to continue to refine our look, but we’re committed to a stylized direction. We think it’s the right creative choice for Stormgate,” he says.
“We’re encouraged by how the game is performing during this limited preview period,” Morten concludes. “The feedback we’re getting, positive and negative, will help us make the next great RTS. We look forward to opening Stormgate to a wider audience, and getting more valuable feedback, when we open up the game for free to everyone on August 13.”
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