Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight Interview

VGD: And that’s presumably something you haven’t needed to experiment with this time.

Joshi: Well this is PC exclusive for now, with no real plans for console. But I thought it was exciting. You even saw Halo Wars come out…

VGD: Yes, and that was built from the ground up for consoles. Did it bring anything fresh to the concept of console RTS for you?

Joshi: It was interesting. One thing that we actually liked was that they did borrow some stuff from us, originally, even though they were in development for a long time. So it was nice to see that they had adopted some of the stuff that we had proven out. And then one of the things that we in looking at Halo Wars really liked was that you had a constant view of who was selected in your army, and were able to ‘drill into’ them.

Tiberian Twilight's aesthetic is equal parts Dawn of War and Super Soaker.

That was something we thought was really interesting – OK, I have a selection set, it may not be control-grouped, you immediately are able to see everybody who’s on the map who’s selected and what’s going on with them. So that was something we really liked. We did find that Halo Wars was somewhat simplistic, kind of an easy play, but that may have been part of their overall strategy of getting people hooked into it, people who were originally Halo fans.

VGD: Given your experiences with Kane’s Wrath on console, is there anything you’d borrow back from Halo Wars?

Joshi: I think some of their mission design was interesting – it did lend to not having to jump too far around the map. We haven’t had the opportunity to develop a console-specific RTS, and I think that would definitely change up our mission design. Other than that, their stuff was big. That was one thing we liked. Their stuff was big and simple. And that’s something where being able to design specifically for console you limit your design a bit to make everything a little more digestible. So I appreciated that. They also had a beautiful engine, so that’s something that we’d like to take advantage of.

VGD: Shame about the IP, which no-one’s ever heard of, obviously…!

Joshi: [laughs] Yeah, it’s too bad for them. They finally get their chance…

VGD: …And they blow it on Halo. Just to finish off then: where do you see RTS as a genre going next?

Joshi: It’s interesting. I think it was World in Conflict that allowed us to put the camera anywhere, fill the environment with all kinds of particle effects and stuff like that. StarCraft is obviously going to come forward – they have such a cult following at this point, in Asia especially. It feels like – because the console market is so strong and the PC market is still definitely present, but I don’t know if it’s getting stronger… RTS has a really strong community base. C&C has a strong community, but RTS has its specific followers.

I don’t know how many new adopters there are to the genre. So it’s curious because, especially in our economic times, it’s tougher to fund a project which isn’t going to get the same economic return. A first-person shooter on console, you know that thing’s going to get a return. Everybody’s going to jump to it. And that’s why I’d like to see RTS being more adopted to console, being pushed in that direction, and RTS as a genre changing, splintering off into a console-specific type option, where it’s maybe a little more of a mix – some tactical play, and also being able to get into your units.

Battle mech time! Wonder if the NOD brotherhood are Evangelion fans.

But I think RTS can do well if you go into an online-only format, look for downloadable content that kind of spices things up. We have player progression going on and I’d like to see player progression blown out a little bit more – you get that RPG element where the longer you invest, the more advanced your armies become and the more goodies you get – continuing to spiral that out with more offerings that people can grab through micro-transactions or earning.