RTS Petroglyph unleashes the "8 Bit Armies"

[vonAchdorf]

It's released. Not a full price title, just $15.

https://af.gog.com/game/8bit_armies?as=1649904300

 

[Darth Roxor]

Lol, barely a month after release (in May), they added free DLC to the game with another faction.

The Guardians Faction includes some common-use structures and units in addition to these new weapons of destruction...

• Grenade Infantry: Throws deadly AOE grenades against ground targets for maximum damage
  
• Sniper Infantry: Long-range infantry that can stealth while not firing on ground and air units
  
• Rocket Car: Fast scout vehicle which is also useful against air and ground forces
  
• APC: Unarmed infantry transport that can hold up to 10 units safely
  
• Scorch Tank: Fires a deadly cone of fire at a target. When destroyed, causes a huge fireball that damages nearby enemies
  
• Spectre Tank: Light tank unit with stealth capability. Reveals only when attacking ground-based foes
  
• Siege Artillery: Longer distance artillery unit with a more focused impact damage radius
  
• Anti-Air Drone: Autonomously hurls itself against enemy air units in the vicinity, exploding on contact
  
• Heavy Drone: Heavy-weapons aircraft with both rocket and machine-gun capability which is good in all types of situations
  
• Satellite Uplink: Controls the Orbital Cannon super-weapon to snipe units and structures from space with multiple rounds
  
• Cannon Turret: Great defensive structure against enemy vehicles
  
• Scorch Turret: Very effective defense against infantry units attempting to infiltrate the player's base

Sounds familiar?

Would it really hurt them to postpone the release for a month to add this? I'm sure it would have affected sales to have two factions in the game instead of just one, even if it's all a fuckhuge deja vu anyway.

 

[80s Stallone]

They already offer a campaign for the new faction... but not for free... guess what, they claimed every DLC free for 6 months!

Albeit I must say, the game is fun... not much content but better than Grey Goo or Act of Aggression.

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't agree. It is total shit compared to Act of Aggression Reboot.

 

[80s Stallone]

oh please, Act of Aggression, reboot or not, is an abomination: "Generals" for retards.

 

[ArchAngel]

I guess we can agree to disagree.

 

[80s Stallone]

Yeah.

No bad feelings, though.

I think games like 8 Bit Army are a better way than trying to make "Starcraft with tanks" which was the standard formula since Starcraft came out. Abolish upgrades, they suck.

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't think AoA Reboot is an excellent RTS, it is just the closest we got to Generals. And I considered Generals the most fun and crazy RTS I played.

8-bit seems too simple to me, it has less units per faction than even Red Alert. It has potential but needs to expand all factions. But steamspy says sales are crap. And low sales + low cost of the game = dead company.

 

[80s Stallone]

Well, considering Petroglpyh, I do not really get it.

They have a solid engine ready.

Why not just make some kind of "Tiberian Sun 2"? Stop trying to make C&C-Starcraft hybrids or "Starcraft with tanks". (thus, 8 Bit Army was the right idea, IMO).

Is it THAT difficult? Or expensive?

But, IMO, like I said, I enjoy "8 Bit Armies", although it is not my kind of style or scenario. But it's more fun than most recent RTS games (including BoreCraft II) and indie stuff like "OpenRA".

But Act of Aggression... really... it's just building some units and upgrades and then give the attack order (most units are useless). Crush everything. Campaign was boring as hell.

 

[Archibald]

Feels like Starcraft type games and their eventual evolution into Mobas killed RTS genre.

 

[LESS T_T]

Petroglyph will release a fantasy follow-up to this, 8-Bit Hordes.



http://store.steampowered.com/app/497850/

The Hordes are Coming!

From the team that brought you 8-Bit Armies comes a new fantasy RTS as fast-paced and friendly as the original! 8-BIT HORDES is a colorful strategy-arcade game that is easy to learn for players of all skill levels. Collect resources, build up and defend your base, amass your army of orcs or humans and ultimately crush your opponents! 8-Bit Hordes features offline single-player missions, two-player cooperative missions, AI skirmish mode, and Player-vs-Player Multiplayer modes running on dedicated game servers.

8-Bit Hordes includes all of the following:

• 2 Factions - The Dark Orcs and their Deathsworn allies versus the Humans, Dwarves and Elves of the Lightbringers.
  
• 24 offline campaign missions
  
• 12 co-op missions to play with your friends
  
• 10 multiplayer/skirmish maps that support up to 8 players online
  
• Full interoperability with 8-Bit Armies' factions and maps providing endless crossover combat opportunities
  
• AI with multiple difficulty options to play with cooperatively or fight against
  
• Classic Base-Building mechanics let you construct the ultimate HQ from which to launch attacks against your foes
  
• Destructible environments on maps ranging from small to very large
  
• A fun and friendly art style
  
• An awesome new soundtrack by Frank Klepacki
  
• From the same team that brought you RTS classics such as Star Wars: Empire at War, Universe at War, and Grey Goo

8-Bit Hordes is for anyone that enjoys RTS games but felt overwhelmed by complicated game mechanics and mysterious unit controls. With hours of solo and co-op gameplay included, there's something here for everyone!

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[LESS T_T]

They even copy-pasted large part of the game description from Armies.

 

[AMG]

Can't wait for 8-Bit Space

 

[80s Stallone]

oh fuck no, what a scam.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

if at first you don't succeed, slap a paint of coat on it and try again!

 

[80s Stallone]

They said that the first six month every addition would be for free. But no, first they sold a DLC campaign for the new faction and now they sell two new factions (probably just re-painted too a large degree) as a new game.

Really...

 

[thesheeep]

Grey Goo obviously didn't do very well (I still find it fun, but it aims pretty much at the same audience that is busy playing SC2 already, so...), and now they are trying to secure funds.
I mean... this does reek of desperation very, very much.

So, just see this is a means of securing funds for them, like some indies do mobile games, planning to do real games one day

I think I would actually like playing this... if it wasn't using those horrible blocky graphics.
That suits Minecraft very well, really, I love it there.
But on any other game, it just looks horrible and cheap. Should've used 2D art if they wanted to save money.

 

[orcinator]

Feels like Starcraft type games and their eventual evolution into Mobas killed RTS genre.

No good RTS games since SupCom aside from SC2 killed RTS, not the fact that Warcraft 3 had a decent map editor.

 

[Archibald]

I think its a bit more than that. SC became definitive RTS game and had vibrant competitive scene. Big part of its popularity was unit micro. WC3 pushed that further with introducing hero units and basically giving every unit some active or passive abilities. Due to it, as you said, having decent map editor people started tinkering with the formula and entirely removed "boring part" of the genre - base building.

Now, I know that its a bit simplistic view and lack of traditional and good RTS titles didn't help, but I think we can't ignore this shift towards unit micro that happened with SC->WC3 and how it changed what people were expecting from RTS games.

 

[AMG]

RTS genre wasn't ever that popular to begin with, it was only Blizzard games that ever had any traction in multiplayer. Add to that inability to release RTS multiplatform and there you have your answer as to why hardly anybody is making them. Nothing to do with Mobabies.
These things come and go. Diablo clones were dead for a while as well, and suddenly there are 8 of them being made.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I like how it's 2016 and some people still argue against Starcraft killing RTS genre

 

[Volrath]

Feels like Starcraft type games and their eventual evolution into Mobas killed RTS genre.

No good RTS games since SupCom aside from SC2 killed RTS, not the fact that Warcraft 3 had a decent map editor.

But... Starcraft 2 was shit.

 

[orcinator]

I think its a bit more than that. SC became definitive RTS game and had vibrant competitive scene. Big part of its popularity was unit micro. WC3 pushed that further with introducing hero units and basically giving every unit some active or passive abilities. Due to it, as you said, having decent map editor people started tinkering with the formula and entirely removed "boring part" of the genre - base building.

Now, I know that its a bit simplistic view and lack of traditional and good RTS titles didn't help, but I think we can't ignore this shift towards unit micro that happened with SC->WC3 and how it changed what people were expecting from RTS games.

But DOTA removed micro (with a few exceptions). Might as well say the base building made people go to proper city builders since all their pretty layouts won't be bulldozed a couple minutes in.

Feels like Starcraft type games and their eventual evolution into Mobas killed RTS genre.

No good RTS games since SupCom aside from SC2 killed RTS, not the fact that Warcraft 3 had a decent map editor.

But... Starcraft 2 was shit.

It was okay (at least wol was). Certainly better than anything else after supcom/FA by miles.

 

[Mazisky]

I really miss a single player campaign Rts, even if eveyone hates it, Sc2 was the last good example of this. The best ever made imho was the first Red Alert\Warcraft 3...i remember at the time, i was very young, and Red Alert had a huge funny campaign and incredible cutscenes, it was on 2 cd