Everything you never wanted to know about Jon Watte

After working on the 3D game Ko-Ado the Cloud for the Dream-Build-Play competition, I decided to relax with a simpler, 2D-based game. And what better genre to start out with than the real-time strategy game? There really aren't that many RTS-es for the Xbox (compared to platformers, shooters or sports games, anyway) so it might even fill a tiny niche.

I started out doing it multi-player (1-4 players), but it was so much fun that I'm now deep in the middle of a desire/plan based AI for a single-player version. By contrast with games like World in Conflict, Warcraft or Age of Empires, I don't have a complex terrain, and I don't have a lot of unit types with a deep tech tree. Instead, this game is about using the unit types you have wisely, and balancing exploration, expansion, building and research (for weapons/shields) to win.

Here are some annotated screen shots (click for higher resolution):

The enemy is busy mining his starting asteroid. I have put my scout up and to the right (just outside the screen), so I can follow what's going on.

I'm building a new base right next to the enemy. Right now, the AI doesn't know to keep his mid-space clear, so he lets me. In the final version, that probably won't work :-)

Out of habit, the first unit I built was a miner unit, which then started heading for the nearest asteroid. Oops! The AI knows how to defend his near space -- you can see a fighter starting out to kill off the intruder.

Trading mining versus exploration and expansion is one of the skills required to play this game. This is a shot of my home base -- right now unprotected, because I know the AI won't yet try to invade. I'm going to have to add some random chance of an early rush to the AI at some point.

After building a large enough fleet, I start invading his puny base. (In this scenario, intended for the tutorial, the AI is running at about 12% of his full possible expansiveness, so out-building him isn't hard)

Once his one and only base is destroyed, the fighters just need to mop up and remove his last miners, and the game is won!

I'll probably provide a beta version sometime later when the AI is in somewhat better shape. I'll post it here, and also likely over at the XNA developer's forums, if you want to stay in touch. Also, please register with the site and leave a comment if you think this is something you'd want to play, and let me know what you think of the idea of a simple, fun, space-based RTS game for the Xbox.