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This is an incredibly exciting time for the team at Frost Giant. Now that we’ve announced Stormgate, we can talk about our upcoming universe and our plans for the game in much greater detail. Please note that we are still early into development and things can change, but these discussions reflect our current plans and thinking. Let’s get into it!
We announced Stormgate just a few days after our last discussion topic, which explored some of the different aspects of modern video game publishing. We asked for your input on a variety of topics, including Early Access, box-model vs. game-as-a-service (GaaS) releases, physical collectibles, and so on. We greatly appreciated the fantastic response–we received more comments than many of our previous discussions. While opinions varied greatly, we remain humbled by your continued support.
What we’ve settled on so far
Stormgate will be free-to-play, and we will give players a variety of ways to support ongoing development of the game. This will enable us to keep the game fresh and allow players to pay for more of the specific content that they enjoy, whether that’s additional campaign chapters, playable characters for our three-player co-op mode, or a cosmetic army skin.
We’re building Stormgate with longevity in mind, and our vision is to support our RTS with fresh new playable content updates at regular “seasonal” intervals for years to come.
We understand some players have concerns about pay-to-win schemes that are often prevalent in free-to-play games, but as we’ve stated many times, competitive integrity is of the utmost importance to us and Stormgate will never be pay-to-win.
What to expect from beta
We’re currently planning to begin closed beta testing for a limited number of players in 2023. If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up now at PlayStormgate.com! The goal of the beta is to gradually apply stress to our servers, test core gameplay features, and make changes where needed based on feedback from a greater number of real players. This will begin as very focused sessions to test and iterate on specific features, factions, units, modes, and so on with a limited playerbase. Later, we’ll expand the scope of the closed beta, bring in more players, and test additional content until we are ready to launch.
Founder’s Packs and Collector’s Editions
We’re considering some sort of Founder’s or Collector’s Edition of Stormgate for those who have asked for physical goodies. From everyone who chimed in on this subject (/u/LordJafud, /u/Dreammshock, /u/AlphaDrake, and others), it seems the general consensus is that we should prioritize quality over quantity–which sounds right to us. /u/Bowbreaker suggested multiple versions corresponding to the different factions, which is a neat idea and would provide a way for players to align themselves with their favorite faction.
What does launch look like?
/u/krivel01, /u/hazikan, /u/LordJafud, /u/Falorado, /u/Thorrk_ and others shared concerns that an overly unpolished Early Access-style release might result in a negative first impression of Stormgate, hurting the potential player base. Others, including /u/CADi_Master, /u/_Spartak_, /u/The_Splashmaster, and /u/furiousFromage were cautiously optimistic or fully supportive of an Early Access release.
We plan to hit a core set of content, features, and polish level when we launch, and then to continue expanding and improving Stormgate for many, many years. Where to draw the line is a judgment call, but we lean towards inclusivity. We think that the long-term benefits of engaging the community and soliciting early feedback outweigh any potential negative response. This is also why we plan to start the beta small and scale it up over time: we want to prioritize meaningful interaction with the community and encourage actionable feedback.
Thinking about the future
/u/Fluffy_Maguro, /u/Wraithhost, and others touched on this topic from different angles. The way we plan to deliver regular content updates may function differently across different content pillars: co-op, competitive, campaign, and UGC.
Releasing content for our competitive mode will be a delicate balancing act. We want competitive players to have content to look forward to beyond regular balance updates, but at the same time we don’t want to overwhelm players with constant meta-shifting with respect to the factions and units.
When it comes to campaign chapters, as Wraithhost mentioned, overly fragmenting our campaign chapters could become irritating rather than exciting. In short, we aim to be deliberate about our content release plans across the board. We want every player to be excited about the content we are releasing, and we want to release that content in a way that feels right for different player segments.
We greatly appreciate ALL of the feedback you have given us and we look forward to seeing you all at the next discussion topic!
-The Frost Giant Team
Previous Discussion Topics:
- Heroes
- Asymmetry
- Onboarding
- Teams
- Win Condition
- Social Features
- Competitive Map Design
- Esports
- UGC
- Game Launch and Beyond
Previous Responses:
- Our Thoughts on Heroes
- Our Thoughts on Asymmetry
- Our Thoughts on Onboarding
- Our Thoughts on Teams
- Our Thoughts on Win Conditions
- Our Thoughts on Social Features
- Our Thoughts on Competitive Map Design
- Our Thoughts on Esports
- Our Thoughts on UGC