A week old, but didn't see any other thread. There's more in the link than the tidbits below, so feel free to check out RPS' interview with Rob Cunningham. For those who don't know, Rob was the co-founder of Relic, and art lead for Homeworld 1, Homeworld 2, Company of Heroes, and Dawn of War 1. He has especially made some great 70's/80's sci-fi inspired concept art for Homeworld 1 and Homeworld 2.
On the state of the RTS genre
On Blackbird Interactive's HARDWARE
On the possibility of any personal interest in Homeworld 3
Concept art from their upcoming game. I still think HARDWARE is relegated to Facebook only, unfortunately, but the beta is supposed to launch in March.
On the state of the RTS genre
RPS: So free to play is one of the things you think will drive the genre forward?
Rob Cunningham: Yeah, there are many things you can do with RTS – the marketplace is huge – but our personal vision is a big map… you could say in a nutshell the vision is Google Earth meets RTS. We want to develop an RTS game paradigm where there’s a very impactive, compelling combat and exploration game on a minute-to-minute basis but there’s also this other layer, a macro game, which takes place over days, weeks, months and it’s all about territorial ownership of a much bigger map.
RPS: So would you say the RTS has stagnated?
Rob Cunningham: There’s lots of innovation happening with it. Look at Kickstarter, things like Planetary Annihilation, I think that’s a lot of fun. Stagnation is a strong word but it hasn’t moved forward as quickly as I would have hoped. There’s a lot of room for growth in the genre, especially in terms of getting it out to a wider audience. It’s not stagnated as much as it’s focussed very much on a relatively small group of hardcore RTS players. There’s an opportunity to bring the RTS paradigm to a much wider audience.
On Blackbird Interactive's HARDWARE
RPS: With so many ex-Relic staff involved, is there a lot of Homeworld’s DNA in Hardware?
Rob Cunningham: Well they’re both science fiction RTS games but the answer to how much of Homeworld is in Hardware is… not that much. In terms of DNA, in the same way parents’ DNA is in their children, you can say Homeworld shares DNA with Hardware in as much as it has similar parents. But that’s where the similarities end. There is an art style that connects them, but the gameplay is very different, the experience is very different, but what will be the same is that sense of epic, immersive story. That connection with what’s happening in the game world. We’ll have Paul Ruskay doing audio and music so we’ll have that DNA in there as well, so from a creative point of view, a vibe, there are quite a lot of similarities, but in terms of the game itself, it’s quite a departure from Homeworld.
On the possibility of any personal interest in Homeworld 3
Rob Cunningham: Any discussion about Homeworld 3 I have no position on, it’s completely THQ’s deal.
RPS: Will you have your eyes on the auction at the end of the month, for those rights?
Rob Cunningham: The correct answer there would be no comment. And basically no. I know there’s a huge Homeworld fanbase out there and people get very excited when we start talking about Homeworld. We definitely want to connect with those guys, but we’re very cautious about actually associating ourselves with the franchise as we don’t own it. We don’t want to complicate matters [for THQ] or upset those guys, they’ve got enough on their plate. We’re coming out with a completely different project. If you like Homeworld, you’ll probably like [Hardware], but this is not a Homeworld game and has nothing to do with Homeworld.
Concept art from their upcoming game. I still think HARDWARE is relegated to Facebook only, unfortunately, but the beta is supposed to launch in March.