[dippa]

There's a local mob just down at Sydney's Ultimo called Epiphany Games, and for the last few years they've been working on a brand new RTS called Frozen Hearth.

The game's currently on Steam's Greenlight, and I was lucky enough to get to visit their studios for a preview last week!

One of the main dynamics is the growth and recession of ice. Apart from expanding slowly on its own, budding Shangur avatars can also specialise in spells that directly influence its expansion. Jensen remarked that the control and concern over the ice was something, very much like StarCraft, that was more at the forefront of testers’ minds as they became more experienced. It’s a great addition that rewards players with a higher level of mechanics and also adds a good deal of depth by introducing controllable elements that impact strategy at the higher tiers of competition without ruining the match for those below.

Frozen Hearth’s also a fast game. Lean emphasised that they didn’t want “base-defensive” play, which all too often leads to hour-long games that destroy the souls of both players. “Playing four matches in a night is cool, playing one match which goes forever when both sides turtle isn’t really” he remarked. Lean also added that original versions of Frozen Hearth were much faster. “We were just playing with speeding it up and playing with getting it up to 5 minute victories and things like that. But we’ve made it where we think about 20 minutes is the speed of an RTS game we want to have.”

You can read my entire preview here, and you can vote for the game on Greenlight (it doesn't cost you anything!)