Find out how Asher Vollmer is taking a fresh approach to the RTS genre
I have a love/hate relationship with real time strategy games. I love them, but I hate playing them.
Let’s face it: RTSes are miserable pain engines designed to give players the worst possible experience. They’re kind of fun (though deeply stressful) right up until the first interaction with another player and then it’s all downhill for the next 40-or-so minutes. You play until someone gives up. They are lonely exercises in sadomasochism.
Anyway, hello. My name is Asher Vollmer and I intend to fix all that with my new game, Close Castles.
I made Threes because I love small, minimalist games. Close Castles is no different. The games are incredibly quick: they average around three minutes each on the fastest game speed. Restricting the game to a controller has inspired me to make the controls as simple as possible. You move your cursor around the field and press a button to build structures. What you build and where you build it will determine you and your opponent’s collective fate.
The game is built for local multiplayer, so there’s no hidden information. This means that the game feels a lot more like a fighting game at higher levels. It becomes about reading your opponent and turning the tiny cracks in their strategy into a crumbling pile of failure/rubble. This game is all about destroying buildings, so there’s a lot of rubble in it.
The premise of Close Castles is simple: You and your greatest rival have built your castles WAY too close to each other. Your job is to build up your kingdom (despite the cramped quarters) while simultaneously sending out your loyal citizens to tear down the enemy’s vulnerable castle. We plan to have an amazing harrowing story that somehow justifies the fact that all these castles were built in such proximity.
Did I mention the game is cute as heck? I’ve teamed up with Dominique Ferland, one of the most talented cutie-based artists in the world. He manages to create these incredible settings and character that are simultaneously iconic and appealing and evocative as heck. I’m proud to be working alongside him to make this brutally strategic game look even remotely approachable.
Close Castles will be coming to consoles some time in 2015.
I’m gonna be that guy, as always, but…
Y U NO VITA \(O_o)/
Looks funny.
Is it PS4 only because of local multiplayer?
It seems like a perfect game to play online on the Vita, in quick sessions. While I have no real interest in playing such a game on the PS4, as a ‘party game’.
I’m thinking about Dokapon Kingdom….I want to backstabb my friends in this :D
A minimalist game like this on PS4, making no use of it’s power? No thanks, I can just play stuff like this on a phone.
Looks cool! Shall keep my eyes peeled for it in 2015.
Wow this looks absolutely amazing! Can’t wait to get my hands on it with a friend. And the cuteness overlaod is much appreciated! :D
im still waiting for these talented up and coming indie developers to show us what the future will look like on the ps4 all i can see so far is the no mans sky next year wear the talent is games like this will get no wear especially now the AAA games are coming thick and fast theres gamers who say these cheap indie games are fantastic bla bla bla but how many will buy them i would love to support talented indie developers but games like this have no place on the ps4 as it looks like its been put together over a rainy weekend