“RTS Games: Stuck in Time or Just Timeless?”

RTS video games have existed for an exceedingly long period; however, industry veteran Dave Pottinger, who has a portfolio featuring titles like Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, and Halo Wars, believes that the genre is in a state of stagnation.

Pottinger is currently developing a new game, Mission Citadel, with Closing Relieve Games. Given his experience, it will be intriguing to see if he can create something that keeps the genre fresh. The team at Closing Relieve Games gets together to play something every week, and recently, they have been enjoying Microsoft‘s remake of Age of Mythology.

“It was a fantastic nostalgia journey to revisit… it was heartwarming to experience those [missions] again and observe how timeless and beloved that strategic gameplay is,” he expressed in an interview with VideoGamer. “I believe it solidified our choice to be innovative with Project Citadel.”

He continues: “It hasn’t evolved significantly. You know, you are still engaging with the same type of game that was played 20 years ago, and upon examining some of these recent games—like Stormgate and others—they are largely rooted in that same formula. It functions well; it’s an established set of principles that were effective then and remain so now. While it’s great to see that these aspects endure, at the same time, I aspire to create something new; we want to do something fresh.”

However, innovating has not always been straightforward. “There were instances within the Age franchise where we perhaps came too close to the edge,” he explains. “We had to retract and eliminate some rather innovative elements from the game. Specifically, I am referring to formation-based combat in Age of Empires 3. We even demonstrated that at E3 and decided to remove it from the game because we feared it might alienate too many existing fans of Age.”

My all-time favorite RTS is The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth 2, and I could probably still play it to this very day if my computer had the capability.