This is a rough outline of an alien race design for real time strategy; an incomplete picture of some mechanics and aesthetics we would love to see explored in a game.
1. A hero unit with deep lore
2. A new take on upgrades
3. The workers are loyal and emotional
4. A unique production mechanic
5. Some units are production facilities
6. Do what you want, right away
7. Units that are fun to use
8. Space creation and zone control
9. Something for everyone
I was sure we'd blow ourselves up before we got an answer to "are we alone in the universe".
1. A hero unit with deep lore
We wanted to explore a concept that wasn't quite a hero, but wasn't just a basic unit either.
Our main character is a macro unit, spell caster, and harassment tool. He is also central to the story.
The shade1 builds the workers, one by one, by hand! He can also construct his own gunship, climb inside, and engage in aerial combat.
We'd start the game with a shade and would be limited to having only a handful of them active on the battlefield at once. Around 5. This cap is important as it creates tension among all of the shade's different responsibilities.
The shades were once human, but evolved quickly after discovering a strange natural resource on a foreign planet. They immersed themselves in an alien habitat, shed their old skin (literally), and became obsessed with accomplishing ambitious goals in the cosmos.
2. A new take on upgrades
Traditionally, RTS upgrades are fairly linear. In Blizzard franchises we see basic attack and armor upgrades, as well as ability upgrades.
Upgrades provide more tension in a game, as investing in the cost of something long before the payoff is a short-term risk for a long-term reward; however, there is a more modern take on upgrades that could prove to be more fun and offer even more decision making.
The animation below illustrates an upgrade system for the shade that would allow for 27 potential ability combinations.
The caveat to this system is that you can't have everything. Choices matter. Once an upgrade is chosen at level 1, the other options at that level are inaccessible. Same for the abilities at levels 2 and 3.
There is a small bonus for mastery, i.e. leveling a single discipline to level 3.
In this example, the disciplines are [T] Telepathy; [A] Augmentation (passives); and [W] Wrath—but they could be anything.
With some cool and flavorful designs, you could get some really exciting and expressive ability interactions.
Additional upgrades would be researched at the temple; a shade must be present in the temple while researching.
3. The workers are loyal and emotional
As we pointed out, the shade constructs the worker units by hand. A bot2 not only gathers resources and construct buildings but is also a shade's narrative companion. The two have developed a familial and nurturing connection over a very long period of time.
If and when the bot is in peril, it can choose to self-destruct. Should a foreign life form capture a bot and attempt to access its data log, the bot only has to freeze in place and set a short countdown. Clear browsing data → everything.
4. A unique production mechanic
In RTS, units tend to produce in a linear fashion, marching out of barracks 1 by 1.
Zerg in Brood War broke new ground with its accumulating larvae mechanic, but that was over 25 years ago.
In this concept, shades stand in place beside a rift and establish a connection with the beings on the other side. This connection is portayed as production time.
There are 4 different entities that can be called through a rift. Each requires at least 1 shade's presence in order to be summoned—up to 3 shades. The amount of shades required is a nod to tech tiers in other games.
It'd be expensive to use 2 or 3 shades at a rift, as it'd mean these shades aren't constructing bots or engaging with the enemy.
The tension would quickly build with a limited shade count and many meaningful things to do.
Shades summon their army by calling them through the rift. With their galaxy-stretching telepathic abilities and promise of their drinkable magical pools, ancient entities who roam the cosmos find the shade's call irresistible.
5. Some units are production facilities
We've seen mobile production facilities in RTS before, but units that produce other units at a resource cost seem to be more rare.
Out of the 4 entities that the shades call through the rift, 2 of them construct additional units.
The walker3 is the largest, standing at over 500 meters tall, stomping enemy ground units and slapping the air units. It requires 2 shades in order to be called through the rift and summons 2 units of its own.
The walker can pull a rock4 (asteroid) from the void and launch it at enemies from range. The rock's impact is devastating, and the rock itself remains on the battlefield for an extended period of time, disrupting enemy pathing and creating chokes. However, these rocks wouldn't be free: they are essentially units that must be produced and cost resources like any other buildable unit.
In addition to being a powerful siege weapon and area of effect damage tool, the rock could also be softly pushed into space. The walker gives it a little nudge, sending it off through the air until it's activated again, affected by the surface's gravity, falling straight down. Used this way, the rock would be less devastating but have more utility by being able to collide with, or obstruct the pathing of, enemy air units.
Finally, the rock can be colonized to harbor an additional unit inside of it. Shortly after impact, a violent melee warrior crawls out.
The spawn5 is a ground assault unit. With its long arms, it attacks at a short range. It is physically tough and lethal.
While often hunkering and bipedal, they can be seen crawling on a walker's body on all fours—disappearing into slits and pockets of the walker's flesh for protection.
A walker could produce a spawn via a colonized rock or straight off its body.
While the programming and art of this would be challenging, it would look extremely cool.
6. Do what you want, right away
We mentioned the shade's range of responsibilities and how it would be able to build its own gunship to pilot. This is an aspect of tension and decision making within a game but also an avenue for player expression.
In games, we personally do not want to wait around for the cool stuff to happen: we want to get into the meat and potatoes of what we love about it as soon as possible.
The shade's ship, or vessel6, would be another way to put in the resources early on—sacrificing other benefits and avenues of growth—in order to get a fun air unit to play with. The vessel wouldn't be lethal right out of the gate but would have the ability to harass, scout and even drop the shade off somewhere on the map or in the enemy base, hovering in place until it's piloted again.
7. Units that are fun to use
It sounds like a no-brainer, but games need to be fun. Because RTS can be quite challenging, it feels important to balance the other end with lots of joyful and rewarding interactions. Battle arenas have done this for years, so have some of the best RTS.
In our concept, we've imagined a supporting unit with an ability similar to staff of preservation from Night Elf's shop in Warcraft 3. This ability essentially teleports a friendly unit back home. In Warcraft 3, this is achieved by simply clicking on a unit; however, in our concept, across this whole design, projectiles and other strong abilities are intended to be skillshots: an ability that must be aimed and can miss its target.
The overseer7 is a supportive unit that provides a small health regen buff to nearby allies. It is a large, floating balloon-like character.
It is another (out of a total of 4) entity (or large unit) that is called through the rift, like the walker. The overseer requires 1 shade to be called.
The overseer would cast a projectile skillshot that, when hitting an ally, teleports that unit back to base. Unlike Night Elf moon wells from Warcraft 3, one of our structures would slowly heal a nearby friendly unit over time—like an area of effect ring of regeneration. In other words, saving a unit would give it a second chance at combat later on.
This is just one example of the kind of micro management we'd love to see in an RTS. It's nice to be able to retreat with units, especially if they're big and expensive.
Everyone likes fast units. The thirstie8 is summoned by a larger unit, an "ancient" (which we'll get to shortly), just like the spawn is summoned by a walker.
Thirsties are the smallest unit on this list but are just as ferocious as cracklings and speed zealots from StarCraft Brood War. They would have an ability that allows them to leap forward and pin small or medium-sized enemy units, disabling them until larger, slower units could finish the job.
A thirstie's pin ability would only slow a larger unit, but multiple thirsties could team up and take it down—like a pride of lions sacking an elephant.
8. Space creation and zone control
We mentioned the walker, and how he can throw devastating rocks that also become temporary terrain on the map. This is one example of denying space so that the battles aren't just a matter of who has more stuff.
The guardian9 would be another zone controlling kind of unit. It is a large slug-like character with a ranged attack. As it moves, it leaves behind a wide, thick, viscous secretion that slows enemies who move over it.
The guardian is another entity (of 4) that is called directly through a rift, and requires 1 shade to be called.
With a low shade requirement and high utility value, we would see the guardian as a potentially solid early defensive unit.
We briefly mentioned that the thirstie is summoned by a larger entity, the ancient10. The ancient is the fourth and final entity that is called through the rift. It requires 3 shades to be called.
The ancient is also quite large; essentially a walker sitting down. He is incredibly old and powerful, like Emperor Palpatine. And as such, his floating chair doesn't move too quickly. As the most expensive unit with the maximum 3 shade requirement, he would serve as a sort of capital ship or end game spell caster unit.
His slow-to-charge, extremely lethal ranged attack goes ZAP. He would also erect a wall of gore from a distance, acting as a piece of terrain that disrupts enemy pathing. Enemy units that got too close to the wall would take damage from the biting heads and stray limbs that are flailing about on there.
The wall of gore, like the rock, would be another way to change the linear math of an engagement so that a disadvantaged army could take a favorable engagement, or disengage altogether.
9. Something for everyone
We talked about the shade, a core unit with lots of macro responsibilities.
We outlined a new way to look at upgrades that would create lots of variation and player expression.
We introduced a new kind of production mechanic, one that requires one or more shades to be present to call stronger and stronger units through the rift.
We mentioned that some units are incredibly large and powerful, and are basically mobile production facilities—spawning smaller, faster, and ferocious units.
We touched on the concept of having fun, micro-intensive things to do in the heat of battle.
And lastly, we sketched out some ways that units could create and deny space and manipulate the shape of terrain and flow of movement on the map.
For us, it is important that a great real time strategy game, or any game, offers a variety of fun and challenging things to sink our teeth into. The best thing a game can do is allow us to express ourselves as freely and deeply as we can—perhaps in ways we can't anywhere else, or maybe in ways that parallel how we're able to be expressive in art.
While we only scratched the surface with some of these rough sketches, and maybe went into too much detail at times, our passion rings true for RTS and RTS-adjecent genres of games.
10. Three hours after first contact
