Hi, I am trying to make a simplified version of my game and it is interesting what do you think - how simplified may be such a game (RTS) without be boring? What is the limit?
Minimal RTS - what should it be?
Well, it depends on the core pillars of the game. basic elements for me would be:
- ability to create and control multiple units
- resource management
- ability to create defense perimeter and offense tactics
Author
Thank you for the response.
What do you think about a game (RTS) without updates, limited units and buildings? For example imagine Rise of nations with only one epoch without updates (no Library building)?
Just a simple rock/paper/sissors could work very well. That is basicly what Age of Empires is doing anyway. There are also quite a few older games that have this concept. As an example you could look at Populous the Beginning. If you take away the Shaman and her powers all you are left with are villagers, braves, priests and firewarriors.
If you are looking for inspiration around gathering recources and building have a look at my source code:
https://github.com/switchboy/IsoRTS
Take Warcraft and remove all units other than peasants. Also remove the need to build farms, and the ability to build new buildings in general. You can still:
- Collect gold and bring it to your town center.
- Use your gold to buy new peasants at your town center.
- Scout.
- Use your peasants to attack the opponent's peasants as they are collecting gold.
- Use your peasants to guard your peasants against the opponent's peasants.
What you've got is a remarkably complete game with just one unit type. In fact, it's so complete that I bet you could remove more features and still have a complete game. What if you remove fog of war? What if you remove the town center? Would it be possible to remove the economy?
The limits of what games can be considered a RTS and what games are good enough to be worth playing are different. Many traditional genre-specific traditions can be stripped away or replaced with something unusual, leaving a good game. If you refer to “epochs”, “updates” and buildings you aren't simplifying your complex reference games very much.
For simple RTS examples, reduced to relatively strategic control of fighting units with a long time horizon and continuous realtime commands, I'd suggest looking at Liquid War and the Galcon series, both based on swarms of identical units.
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