•Legendary composer Frank Klepacki has said the real-time strategy (RTS) genre is not dead, though he would like to see developers get a little more creative with it.
Klepacki shared his thoughts on the state of the RTS genre in the latest issue of Edge magazine. He composed music for numerous games over the years—in fact, he’s responsible for the soundtrack in Eye of the Beholder 2, one of the . At heart, though, Klepacki is a real-time strategy guy—and he takes real issue with claims that the genre is dead.
“There was all of this doom-and-gloom talk about ten years ago, saying, ‘Oh, we think RTS is dead now—why are you still trying to work on games that are in a genre that’s going away?'” Klepacki said. “Obviously, if there are games coming out, [the genre is] not going away. It’s just that other types of games have taken the forefront of attention. Everything runs in cycles, you know? That’s how it always is.”
Klepacki also pointed at a hollowing-out of the industry and growing aversion to risk, particularly among big-budget developers: “I would love to see more unique ideas that are allowed to be triple-A titles. A lot of indie titles are taking those creative chances, but a lot of the middle ground has gone.”
The RTS genre is diminished compared to its glory days in the 1990s, when games like Command & Conquer, Warcraft, and Dune 2 dominated the scene. But all that remains of any of them these days is the seemingly unkillable World of Warcraft—and how many players even know that Blizzard’s one true behemoth is an RTS spinoff?
Real-time strategy DNA has persisted in the MOBA genre, but traditional RTS games are enjoying a bit of a boom too. More than 20 years after Frozen Throne, Blizzard dropped a in September, a is in the pipe, and and are back; and are still rumbling along, delivers a very C&C-like experience, and while the game revealed at BlizzCon is a shooter, Blizzard is still , too.
The days of building them around may be over (at least for now), but the RTS itself? Be happy, Frank: it’s definitely alive and kicking.
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