All the RTS games of late are "halfway-hybrids" of PC games. Halo Wars plays better with 360's controller than PC RTS games do with a mouse and keyboard.
Those are just two of the bold statements made by the confident Halo Wars lead designer Graeme Devine, who recently showed off Ensemble's work in London's Greenwich Park (don't ask).
Speaking in between mouthfuls of mini sausages and mash laid on during our meet, Devine told us why he thinks Halo Wars is the first proper pure-breed console RTS since Pikmin on GameCube, and how the game will outlive the development studio with plenty of post-release DLC.
You say the controls are better than PC RTS games. That's quite a bold claim...
Graeme Devine: Yes I realise that, and you're going to back that up for me when you play the game. It's a brash thing to say but I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it.
We spent the first year of this project just working on the controls. There was no Halo IP, there was no concept of this becoming a Halo game. Without the controls working it's pointless even doing the game.
So we actually took Age of Mythology and we set ourselves a target. One of our testers, who's a hardcore RTS PC guy came over and told us that it's easier to play with the controller than it is with a mouse and keyboard.
At that point, we gave ourselves the green light. It took about 12 months of playing with the controller to hit that milestone so at that point I felt it was ready. I've seen enough people converted to be pretty confident about it.
Being a console strategy game, how have you designed it to be accessible to the RTS virgin?
Devine: The cool thing about Halo Wars is that it has got to appeal to two sets of people. Strategy fans have to learn to love playing a Halo game. Halo fans have to learn to love a strategy game. For the mainstream player, we have to be able to introduce them into the game gently.
We start off simple and slowly introduce more and more complexity. If we've done a really good job, you'll be able to do more complex tasks and get really good at what you're doing.
Did the decision to make a Halo RTS game stem from the original plan for Halo to be an RTS (before that plan was scrapped and it eventually became an FPS series)?
Devine: No, but it was an interesting coincidence though. We got that Age of Mythology prototype running, and all along Microsoft was saying, 'This would be great if it was a Halo game.'
In the end we went and showed what we had to Bungie, who thought it was great, but asked what we wanted to do with it. We told them that MS kept saying it'd make a good Halo game and they were like, 'Oooh, that's interesting.'
Then we started talking about making it into a Halo game, and getting an idea of what Halo was all about.
How did you guys cope with the news of Microsoft's decision to close Ensemble once Halo Wars is done?
Devine: There's no doubt that it's very tough. MS made the news available to us early, and were able to lay out compensation for everyone, and keep places for us to stay until the game was finished. The last thing you want is for people to start mingling in to work. You don't want that final push to be unpolished.
I think that, because we got to have the news early, absorb it and know that MS were going to support us and help us afterwards quite a bit, [it] has actually resulted in a lot of intense work to make this game a polished product. But there's no doubt the news sucked.
Have you considered putting Master Chief in the game as post-release DLC?
Devine: DLC has been part of the game design since day one. But I think fans really want to see [multiple] Spartans - that's the number one reaction I've got from people who've played it. That, to them, is the mega army. But Master Chief's not in the game.
What exactly is the plan with DLC support post-release considering the studio closure?
Devine: The main thing is that DLC was built into the game design from the very beginning so we've actually been working on DLC all along - it was never the plan to finish the game THEN start work on the DLC.
So does that mean all the DLC is pretty much already done and you're just holding it back for timing?
Devine: Yeah.
Isn't there an argument for just releasing it all on day one?
Devine: I don't know - that's a good marketing argument. I think the thing with DLC is that, if you release it all, how do you sustain interest in the game? One of the ways of sustaining interest in a game is with [the timely release of] DLC. So I think it's there for that purpose and does a good job.
I think if you get it all it's like a massive blitz of content in your face and you don't get all the value of everything we've put into the game. I think the game contains an awful lot in the box already, so DLC is a good way to be able to add to that experience.
With the studio closed, where does that leave the sequel? Who will take the reigns on that?
Devine: I really hope there is a sequel. I think there are people who actually want to play the game and I think it could be a huge success. I don't think Microsoft has any plans or has made any announcements as to Halo Wars 2. But feel free to [contact] Microsoft and ask for one.
What made you decide not to include the option to play as the bad guys?
Devine: Warcraft 3. In that game you start off as a good guy and about half way through the campaign you become the bad guy. I really hated that. We tried to think of ways to get to play as the Covenant - perhaps they team up or save humans. But it seemed cooler just to be able to play from the good guy perspective.
Halo is a huge, balls-out action game. How can you replicate that in an RTS?
Devine: One of the things is that Halo hits the ground running and is always in your face. One of the things that Halo's good at is making you feel like you're a part of something huge - you feel like you're involved in something so massive in scale that it's going to change the fate of humans. So I think getting that feeling in the campaign was very important.
Any plans for a demo?
Devine: We haven't actually announced anything about a demo yet, but I think it's really important for people to play the game.
Were there any gameplay mechanics that you thought about that you ultimately chose not to implement? FPS gameplay maybe?
Devine: One of the main ones was to play as the Flood. It was one of the things that we thought about doing in the multiplayer. It didn't seem right to have blue Flood and red Flood, and we never came up with a good system. It was disappointing that we couldn't find a way to do it - they are in the game but you fight them rather than play as them.
Did you take any tips or inspiration from any other console RTS games of late?
Devine: What we've seen before on console is that people try to take a PC game and port it to a console. You end up with a half-way hybrid. There are a lot of things that we saw that were wrong - that we noted NOT to do. I don't think anyone's done good console strategy games before. I think there's only been a few examples of what's worked out there.
What are those examples?
Devine: Hertzog Zwei and Pikmin.
Just those two? What about some of the recent ones like Battle for Middle Earth or C&C 3?
Devine: I think they've found that exact half way point between a console game and a PC game, and I think that no man's land does neither version any good.
hmmmm slight difference between the frontpage headline of "first proper console FPS" and "first proper console RTS". the dreaded typo rears its ugly head again
Screenshots look pretty, but I'm still recovering from that horendous E3 gameplay footage. I hope this turns out really good, I have not played an RTS in years.
This DLC thing is really starting to get on my nerves if you've got something that will add to the game put it in from the start. That way the guys without Live (I know a few) can enjoy it as well. And If Ensemble are really only interested in sustaining interest then they should make all DLC free but they wont because thats a lie and they actually want an excuse to charge you for the missing piece in a game you already bought.
Warcraft 3 was an amazing game in part becuase of its strong story (for a videogame), and a major part of that story was his slow descent into madness after being corrupted by Frostmourne. The transformation from good to evil wasn't exactly sudden.
And besides, you can play as the Arbiter in Halo 2 and 3. So why the hell can't you play as the Covenant? Just make them multiplayer only, if you're too lazy to integrate them into the single player. Or have two campaigns. Wow, that was hard.
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