A studio helmed by StarCraft 2's multiplayer lead wants to create an RTS 'paradigm shift' with its unannounced game

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“Take StarCraft 2,” Kim said. “It’s one of my favorite games of all time, but I often wonder, like, is this really a real-time strategy game, or is it more like real-time execution?”

Concept art for Uncapped’s first game.(Image credit: Uncapped Games)

Concept art for Uncapped’s first game.

Instead, Uncapped Games is trying to design an RTS that champions approachability as much as it does strategy. “As one of the developers that’s worked on RTS for so long, that statement has never been true—that they’re easy to learn, difficult to master,” Kim said. “We really wanted to take a stab at easy to learn.”

To do that, Uncapped is deemphasizing the kind of gameplay design that lends itself to high-APM execution and build order memorization, which can be daunting to the general player. “We want to reduce or remove as much of the tedious clicks that are required to even experience the game,” Kim said. Instead, the studio’s putting a greater focus on the moment-to-moment strategic decisions—decisions like which units you want to deploy and when you want to expand—and less on arbitrary complexity in execution.

However much Uncapped might break from the standard RTS model, the “core fun factors” to do with strategic decision making, Kim says, are still the foundation for the studio’s design. “Those we don’t want to alter, because at the end of the day, we’re trying to make an RTS game,” he said. “There’s no way around it.“Uncapped Games is set to reveal its upcoming RTS at Summer Game Fest in June. We’ll have more to share then.

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