KickStarter Iron Harvest - RTS set in alternate reality of 1920+ from KING Art Games

[thesheeep]

Surprising. I thought the RTS genre is mainly targeted towards multiplayer

A common misconception.

Most RTS players don't care about MP much. Which is one of the reasons They Are Billions is such a hit - finally a game for the actual majority of RTS players - even if not a "classic" RTS.

 

[Murk]

pre-alpha gameplay

 

[Jimmious]

Meh..

 

[Alienman]

Gonna get it for campaign still, it is a rts after all.

 

[Jimmious]

Gonna get it for campaign still, it is a rts after all.

Well of course
But the gameplay so far looks like a cheap copy of Company of Heroes two, with steampunk mechs..

 

[Galdred]

Most of the player base used to play SP, but most of the customers used to be in MP. Now that the RTS players are older and don't have as much time to get cracked versions to work, it might be different, but focusing on the players that would buy the game did make a lot ofr sense for older RTS.

 

[PanteraNera]

New Iron Harvest look based on your feedback
Hi guys. As you know, we value your opinion and are all about listening to the community. In our "What is Kickstarter" video, we introduced a cute mech and people loved it.



This was the last bit of confirmation we needed to make a big decision: We’re going to change the look & feel of Iron Harvest to something more stylized, colorful. There are plenty of good reasons to do it:

• Everybody keeps telling us that international audiences, especially in parts of Asia, want bright colours instead of depressing European “mud colours”.
• Realistic materials and colours make some units harder to see.
• When you look at the most successful current games – free-to-play mobile games – they are all brightly coloured and friendlier than our current look.
• Blizzard does it and learning from Blizzard means learning how to win.

We think we are on the right track here and hope you guys support our decision.

We’ll keep improving Iron Harvest with your help and we wish you all a happy April.

Your Iron Harvest Team

 

[PanteraNera]

Update #10: Eine Million! Multiplayer!
Apr 3, 2018 Iron Harvest
Multiplayer Funding Goal Reached

When we launched the Kickstarter campaign, there was the dream of making a Million Dollars. It was somewhat presumptuous because it had been a while since a video game had received that level of support via crowdfunding.

Well… you did it! You believed in us and we’re forever grateful. We’ll pay you back by continuing to work our asses off to make Iron Harvest the best game it can be.

THANK YOU!

As always, you can find the current total of all pledges (including PayPal) here: http://www.iron-harvest.com
Multiplayer Goals
In the last update, we talked about our goals and philosophies when it comes to UI, controls and gameplay. The post sparked a lively discussion and you seem to enjoy it. So, to celebrate today’s milestone, here are some of our goals and thoughts about multiplayer.

• Anti-snowballing: If you are behind in a game, you should have several options and a little assistance to get back on track. If you are winning, it should get harder and harder to keep the lead and close the deal. In any case, a small mistake early on should not seal you fate.
• Strong incentives to finish matches: It should be possible to quit a match honourably early on, but we want to give players little reason to do so and want to encourage them to keep playing (see “anti snowballing”).
• No dominant strategies: The "usual suspects" like Turtleing/Steamrolling, Base Rush or Spamming should not work. Ideally, on each map there are multiple valid strategies and counter strategies.
• Balanced factions and units: It's great when players have to evolve their tactics and it's fine if one faction plays simpler than another. But in the end, faction/unit choice should be a question of taste/playstyle for high-end players. There shouldn’t be factions that are objectively better.
• Variable match duration/size: There will be modes with short matches (~15m), but if you want, you can also play a match that lasts for an hour.
• Keeping the player pool (potential opponents) as big as possible: We will prevent fragmentation of our online community, in order to keep match making wait times as short as possible. To help with that, there will be a handicap system, where better players will have additional tasks in a match and/or weaker players will get some bonuses.
• Incentives to play regularly / keep playing: Mid- and long-term goals, seasons.
• Easing in newbies: The learning curve should not be too steep and you have to feel like you are making progress, even when you are losing. Losing should not be a reason to quit playing altogether. It’s okay to lose the first couple of matches, you still learn and get stuff. Eventually, you’ll win.

One of our goals is to keep matches exciting for as long as possible. If you make a mistake or are behind, it won’t be a death sentence. Players won’t leave matches if they think they still have a chance and even if you are ahead, you have to stay vigilant.

These are some of the systems that will help us keeping matches exciting and undecided for as long as possible:

• In many maps, you‘ll have to conquer flag-poles to earn victory points. Naturally, the more of the three flags are in your possession, the harder it is to defend all of them.
• When you hold a victory point (flag), you earn points steadily, but slowly. When you CONQUER a point from an enemy, you‘ll get a big one-time payment. Thus, if the enemy possesses all three victory points on a map, there is a huge potential for you to earn a lot of points quickly!
• Whenever a unit dies in a multiplayer match, you‘ll get back some of the resource cost of this unit. The amount of the "refund" depends on your and your opponents‘ skill levels (handicap system), as well as on the match phase. At the beginning of a match you might get 100% back, so a lost unit "only" means lost time. Later on, you might get 50% back and at some point 0% (to ramp up the pressure and to make sure games won’t take forever).
• Before a match, players can spend a certain amount of points to spawn units. Based on their handicap, better players get to spend fewer points. Therefore, they are at a disadvantage and have to fight harder. Maybe there will even be an option not to spend some of these points and get more XP out of the match.

Our goal is to make multiplayer matches fun and worthwhile for each player. If you are a really good player, occasionally, you might not have enough competitors. However, instead of slaying newbies and getting nothing out of it (XP-wise), you can play a handicap match and make it harder for you (in exchange for XP). At the same time, weaker players can play against better players regularly and learn from them.

These are our thoughts regarding multiplayer at the moment.

What do you think? Also, what games are doing multiplayer leagues, ranks, seasons and so on just right and what makes them work in your opinion? Let us know in the comments.

 

[PanteraNera]

Someone fix the title btw, it is "made in Germany"

source kickstarter:

We are a very international team. Our office is in Bremen, Germany. Jakub works from his home in southern Poland, our external artists live all over the world - as does our community.

 

[curry]

pre-alpha gameplay

Looks nice for an indie game!

 

[laclongquan]

Look very nice. Basically instead of tank we got mecha in 1st World War. It's awesome! It's fappable!

 

[PanteraNera]

Right now $ 1,298,419.40 pledged!

11. Apr 2018

Countdown: The Last Three Days


Final charge! Last 72 hours
First things first: We reached all main game stretch goals, which is awesome! THIS is what we hoped for!




But it might not be over yet. The campaign gained steam over the last couple of days, as Kickstarter campaigns often do in their last days.

For the total amount pledged (including PayPal), please check out http://www.iron-harvest.com

So there is a chance that we can reach the “Free DLC Campaign” stretch goal. CHARGE!

The Free DLC Campaign
Our idea for the free DLC campaign is to tell a story that takes places prior to the events of the main game. We can’t tell you the setting, because it would be a spoiler for the story of the main campaign. But we can tell you this much: It’s about two of our heroes and one other important character and their shared history. There had been a series of fights that are important for the main campaign, but these took place years before.

The Free DLC would be a great opportunity to play this part of the game’s “history”. It would probably contain about 4 missions and potentially some gameplay alterations (think “Tiger Ace”).

We would release the free DLC within six months after the release of the main game – totally free for all backers.


Upping Your Pledge
If you’d like to help reaching the Free DLC Campaign stretch goal without upgrading your pledge to a whole new reward level, there is something else you can do if you supported us on Kickstarter.

When you click on “Manage your Pledge” you can actually pledge a higher amount than required for the selected reward tier: Instead of pledging the $55 required for the Digital Special Edition tier, you can modify your pledge to $60, $70 or any other amount above the minimum amount for the selected tier.

Therefore, if you say “the DLC campaign is worth $5 or $10 for me”, this is an opportunity for you to invest this money towards the goal without changing your reward level.

 

[thesheeep]

Uhm, what. 45 $ minimum pledge to get the game? What will the final game cost, 80?
No linux (not even as stretch goal)?

That's two big reasons to pass for me.

 

[PanteraNera]

$ 1,530,887 pledged.
All stretch goals unlocked.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/steampunk-w...l-have-over-30-mechs-and-a-powerful-pet-bear/

Steampunk World War 1 RTS Iron Harvest will have over 30 mechs and a powerful pet bear
More details on heroes, units, and animal companions.

Iron Harvest was recently successfully Kickstarted to the tune of $1.2 million. It's a real-time strategy game set in the steampunk 1920+ universe, where World War 1 soldiers fight in the shadow of juddering mechs. The early screens and footage look promising, so I sent King Art Games a few questions to learn more about their plans for the game's three factions and their many war machines.

PC Gamer: Congratulations on your Kickstarter success, were you surprised by the backing you received?

Julian Strzoda: We were hopeful, because we knew there is a lot of interest in Iron Harvest, but on the other hand, we asked for a lot of money, and Kickstarter isn’t as big as it used to be when it comes to videogames. In the end we made more money with the Iron Harvest Kickstarter campaign than with our previous three campaigns combined. That’s certainly a welcome surprise.

You mention on your site that you asked thousands of RTS fans what they want from a new RTS game. Was it a survey? What did you learn?

We played a ton of classic RTS games in preparation for the Iron Harvest development and came up with a basic plan on what we think an RTS should focus on these days. But we were unsure if we were on the right track, so we conducted a survey. Over 15k RTS fans answered and they confirmed most of our ideas. One of the more interesting findings was that almost two thirds of the people who took the survey prefer singleplayer and/or coop gameplay over competitive multiplayer. That was good news for us, because we, too, felt that it had been a long time since the last really great singleplayer RTS campaign.

What inspires you about the World of 1920+?

We saw the artworks of Polish artist Jakub Rozalski a couple of years ago. The combination of early 20th century landscapes and lifestyle mixed with giant mechs was fascinating to us. We liked the idea of a World-War-1-like setting, but with freedom to do crazy stuff when it comes to units and story, since it’s an alternate reality. We have all seen mechs in futuristic settings, but experiencing the birth of these machines—crude, brutal technology in a world at the brink of discovery of so many things we take for granted today—feels refreshingly unique. In the end… it’s giant diesel-punk mechs fighting and destroying everything around them… how could you NOT make a game out of that?

I'm reminded of Company of Heroes in the footage released so far. Have any games specifically influenced the design of Iron Harvest?

Company of Heroes is one of the big inspirations when it comes to certain gameplay aspects and the overall “feel”. Our campaign structure is inspired by Warcraft 3, where there are multiple campaigns for multiple factions, held together by an overarching narrative. Other inspirations were StartCraft 1+2, Dawn of War 1+2, some of the Command & Conquer games and many other RTSes. When it comes to controls and UI, we try to stick with genre standards instead of reinventing the wheel.

Basically, we take everything that we feel worked well in other games, come up with solutions for things that didn’t, and mix all of that with our own ideas. We’re after an RTS evolution, not a revolution.

How will the three factions differ from one another on the battlefield, in terms of units and playstyle?

Each faction plays differently in Iron Harvest. For example, Polania units are generally lighter and faster than others, but lack armour. Rusviet forces are experts in close combat and melee, they are cheap, but not that well equipped. Many Saxon units like long-range combat. They are reasonably fast and well armoured, but pretty expensive. Each faction has its unique set of mechs and three playable heroes that encourage certain playstyles. At the same time, we don’t want to force players to play a certain way or to feel locked into one faction, because of their preferred playstyle. That is why factions feel different, but not to an extent like in StarCraft, for example.

What are the war machines' strengths and weaknesses, and how will players use them on the battlefield?

There will be over 30 mechs in the game, from relatively small exo-skeletons to towering giants. All of them fulfil certain roles and give players various options in combat. But none of them is superior in all situations and each mech can be brought down by smaller/cheaper units when you come up with the right tactics. This is a philosophy we apply to our hero units as well. Heroes in Iron Harvest are not super-powerful uber-units, but units that give you additional options in combats. Instead of being super-powerful, they are “super-flexible”. Not having god-like powers also means, that heroes die pretty fast when you are not thinking about what you’re doing.

I gather that infantry will be flexible and able to pick up equipment—what will different equipment enable them to do on the battlefield?

Each faction has one standard infantry unit type and there are six “specialists” in the game. You can build specialists in your base, or a standard infantry squad can become a specialist squad by collecting weapons or equipment on the battlefield. A standard Polania rifleman squad, for example, can’t damage a mech, because their bullets do not penetrate light, medium or heavy armour. But you can equip the squad with hand grenades or a hand cannon, which enables them to harm mechs. If they are an engineering squad, you can give them tools to lay mines for an ambush. If the enemy forces consist mainly of infantry units, you might want to equip an MG or a flamethrower instead. When a specialist squad gets killed, they lose their weapons/equipment. This also means that a good way to get equipment is to target enemy specialists.

You have mentioned stealth as well, how do you envision this working in the final game?

There might be one or two stealth-heavy maps in the campaign (think C&C Tanya maps), but in general, stealth is rather one of the options you can choose to try to gain advantages in normal battle scenarios. Instead of attacking an enemy fortification head-on or flanking it with heavy machinery or attacking it from the distance with artillery or mortars, you might want to try sneaking past them and attacking them from behind. Or maybe you’re letting them live, but conquer an important resource point, so they are forced to leave their fortification. The line-of-sight in the game takes obstacles into account. If you are careful, you can move infantry units into favourable positions without them being detected before opening fire and surprising the enemy.

Will the heroes be controllable on the battlefield? What kind of abilities will they have?

There will be nine heroes in the game, three for each faction. They’ll level up over the course of a campaign and with each level-up, you can give them a new skill or level up an existing skill, some of them active, some passive. The heroes have different roles. Anna, one of the Polania heroes, is a sniper. Many of her abilities have to do with stealth gameplay, range, vision and so on. Others are melee brawlers or command huge “battleship-like” mechs. Another Polania hero is “the cavalry”. It’s a cavalry officer, who gathers cavalry units around him. His squad gets bigger and bigger and becomes super dangerous for enemy infantry units on open field. He has a “charge” ability and you don’t want to be on the wrong side of that. However, his men are hardly more dangerous than regular infantry units in narrow city streets, especially when these units take cover in buildings. It’s all about how you deploy your units.

Perhaps most importantly of all, some of the heroes have pets. How will they fight on a battlefield full of mechs and explosions?

Most pets function as hero abilities. Let’s take Anna, the Polania sharpshooter, as an example. Regular sniper units have one big disadvantage: They can’t really defend themselves in close combat and when enemies are close and the sniper can’t run or hide, that’s basically it for them. Not for Anna. She calls her pet bear Wojtek, who runs into frame and attacks everybody close to Anna for a couple of seconds. He has powerful melee attacks and distracts infantry units, so that Anna has a chance to flee or maybe overpower the attackers with Wojtek's help.

The dire wolves Tag and Nacht of Gunter von Duisburg, one of the Saxon heroes, can be used in combat as well. But they are even more valuable as scouts behind enemy lines. They are very hard to spot for enemy forces and they can move very quickly, so Gunter can use them to scout out the way ahead and give his artillery a couple of new targets.

 

[Tovias]

Shame it copied Company of Heroes instead of Men of War. Wish we had more Men of War-like games.

 

[Alienman]

Yeah, I really wish someone would pick up the engine and make something great with it. Digitalmindsoft have made some fantastic upgrades to the engine, like for an example first person control now.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[laclongquan]

Mecha tactical
Destructible terrain
It's been too long

 

[Space Satan]

It lags and stutters in dev preview?

 

[Dayyālu]

Mhh, mechas seems to blow up fast when left unsupported against AT infantry. That's a plus.

CoH's basic gameplay is very good for doing simple yet elegant games. I doubt this will manage to make a dent in the dying RTS market, but it's a nice and creative attempt nonetheless.

Sure weird to see Poland as a main faction, tho. Should have picked someone relevant like France or Britain. Who the hell is going to play Steampunk! Poland?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[laclongquan]

Sure weird to see Poland as a main faction, tho. Should have picked someone relevant like France or Britain. Who the hell is going to play Steampunk! Poland?

Because the featured scene of WW1 is Poland calvary against tank. So who else is going to ride horse toward mecha if not the poles?

 

[Alienman]

I have they get laser swords at least.

 

[Lagi]

day-dreaming:

mechas melee fighting each other +
mechas picking up squishy poor-fantry (DoW1 style) ++
poor-fantry crawling all-over mechas, trying to cut his wires - while mecha trying to ward off the "bugs" from himself [and mecha allied squads friendly fire him, to shoot down assailants] +++... here I buy it.​