AusGamers spoke with Ken Turner, Creative Director at The Creative Assembly Australia. Turner gave some insight in to this new direction for the team, including his thoughts on developing strategy titles for the console platforms.

AusGamers: How much of a departure is Stormrise from The Creative Assembly’s previous work with the Total War series?

Ken Turner: Our work on the last two generations of the Total War series has been an amazing experience. With Stormrise, we started out by asking the question, “How can we bring our massive-battle expertise to gamers on all popular platforms?” Our efforts quickly turned to the biggest challenge that RTS has faced on console... the controller interface. Whip Select is the end result. It’s simple, responsive and direct. This signalled the point of departure from Total War and with it came an explosion of gameplay ideas. Ultimately, Stormrise is fast-paced, in-your-face, battlefield action – regardless of your preferred platform.

AG: Stormrise takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, with two factions going toe to toe. Where did the inspiration come from for the setting and creation of the Echelon and their more mutated Sai combatants?

KT: We set out to design the world of Stormrise so that it would best showcase the gameplay innovations. The units have a diverse sense of scale and a wide variety of abilities and special attacks. For the factions, the Echelon and the Sai are diametrically opposed. The Echelon are technologically superior and use their longer range to pulverise their enemy from a distance. On the other hand, the Sai are the masters of their environment, moving quickly to get in close and tear their opponents apart. It really is a tactical duel of shock-and-awe tech-heads vs guerrilla ghouls. An external show of power vs internal energy and strength.

For inspiration, we looked at the current state of the world, added on top the projected advances in weaponry and medicine for the next fifty years, let that bake for another hundred years and then blew it all up. This is where Stormrise begins. From there we looked at the different choices that would be available to us for survival. The Echelon and the Sai were born when they ventured down alternate forks in the road. One side idealistically wishing to go back and rebuild the world as it was in its glory days. The other bowing in acceptance, forced to adapt to the harsh new world through generations of suffering. Tensions are high and conflict erupts.

AG: Stormrise has been described as “The First Fully 3D RTS”, what does this actually mean and how does it change the RTS experience?

KT: True 3D gameplay comes down to two features; Natural line of sight and Verticality.

First up, your view in Stormrise is restricted to that of your currently selected unit. You can only see what they can see. This is a huge tactical disadvantage to ground troops moving through confined urban environments. You never know what is around the next corner and you could be walking into an ambush. To even up the odds, you move an airborne unit over to scout the area. The extra height gives greater situational awareness and gives you an eagle-eye view over the battlefield.

This is reminiscent of a traditional RTS god-cam and from this vantage point you can issue orders to other units and coordinate attacks. However, it is a privilege that needs to be earned (by recruiting air units) and then protected. Attaining and maintaining air superiority is a great way of crippling your opponent’s tactical and strategic options.

That said, there is another way to the high-ground advantage and this is where the Verticality kicks in. A number of units in each faction have the ability to traverse along roof tops. The Sai Spectre is particularly useful as it can use a cloaking ability to become virtually invisible to the enemy. Perched on the roof of a skyscraper, it is perfect for watching enemy movements or painting targets for the artillery units.

Alternatively if you don’t want to be seen, you can also command you units to move through buildings or head underground. Simply move your units inside and the camera will follow. Skillful use of the underground sewers and service tunnels allows you to get in behind an unsuspecting enemy and catch them in crossfire. Some of the story-mode levels take place deep underground inside military bases or in the bowels of ancient citadels. So be on the look-out. The enemy could attack at any moment from the side, above or below.

AG: Console gaming and the RTS style of game, something that can be achieved?

KT: Sure, but not as we know it. Real-time strategy is quite a broad category, but we have come to associate the acronym RTS with a very refined and matured gameplay formula on the PC. Attempts to bring this formula across to console, by bolting a controller interface on top of the PC game mechanics have been better of late, but still unsatisfying in terms of responsiveness.

Recent departures from this are World in Conflict which brings a shooter style pacing and attitude to strategy and Tom Clancy’s: EndWar, which binds the camera to the units and limits the total number of units under your command. Both have a greatly reduced emphasis on logistical elements like base building and resource management and I suppose could be more accurately described as Real-time Tactical (RTT) games. This fast pace and closeness to the action is ideally suited to consoles.

Stormrise offers the next step along this path. The camera is down in the action and the Whip Select interface allows for direct and responsive control of your units, even when the battle heats up. Eight-way multiplayer is extremely fast and intense, yet we’ve also seen some really intelligent strategies and teamwork emerge.

Console RTS is only just starting to find its feet, but give it time to mature and I think it will truly be a force to be reckoned with.

AG: How will the PC offering differ from the console versions of the game?

KT: The core gameplay across all of the platforms (Xbox 360, Playstation 3 & Windows Vista – DX10) is primarily the same. The main differences that PC has to offer are the Direct-X 10.1 goodness (thanks to our friends at AMD), the mouse driven version of the Whip Select interface.

For the tech-savvy, DX 10.1 allows for smoother and faster shadows, real-time ambient occlusion and the like. With a cutting edge graphics card, you can dial up the detail settings to see Stormrise in all its visual glory.

Whip Select with the mouse is actually pretty cool. Instead of flicking the thumb-stick in the direction of a unit on the console controllers, you hold the right mouse button, move the mouse in the direction of the unit you want and release. It feels a bit like playing air-hockey and after a little practice you realise that these mouse gestures can be quite small. With a few flicks of the wrist, you’re whipping around to your units and issuing commands. In many ways, the mouse Whip Select is just as innovative as the console Whip Select.

AG: Is this initial offering the start of a full Stormrise franchise or at least an intended direction of The Creative Assembly to produce more console platform content?

KT: Stormrise is the beginning of a new direction for the studio here at The Creative Assembly Australia. This is an exciting time for us and we have a number of options moving forward that are already underway. We just can’t wait for the gamers to get their hands on Stormrise and start the revolution.