Screenrant Interview: Tim Morten and James Anhalt

Another day, another interview with deep insight into the Frost Giant’s plans and process as we careen towards a beta test towards the middle of next year. This time, James Anhalt and Tim Morten spoke with Deven McClure of Screenrant on Snowplay, development plans, and where they currently stand on the hero unit discussion, as well as a rehash of some other other topics.

Snowplay Clarifications

We got our first major Snowplay download during the December Developer Update on December 6, 2022, but this interview gives a much deeper dive into the nuts and bolts of how Snowplay will work, as well as clarification about some of the claims that they made in that video.

We get two major clarifications about the features promised in the Dev update - namely about Rollback Netcode and mass spectating. In the video, it appears that Rollback Netcode is set in stone as part of the game, and that mass spectating will be something that is included in the game upon release. In this interview, James Anhalt makes it clear that Rollback is something that is still a topic of discussion and development - Frost Giant wants to include it but will only do so once they have “tested it thoroughly and made sure that it improves the experience.” In other words, not as much of a guarantee as the video made it sound, but still highly likely and exciting.

The other big clarification deals with the Mass Spectating feature - one of the most exciting non-gameplay revelations to come out of Frost Giant is recent months. Unfortunately, it appears that the mass-spectating tech is something that will be released post-launch. While disappointing, tuning the gameplay as well as they can is by far the highest priority to have ready at launch.

Snowplay Updates

Now that those clarifications are out of the way, lets dig into the new information about how Snowplay will work. None of this is as earth-shattering as the Rollback netcode or mass-spectating announcements several weeks ago, but it does provide more context on how Snowplay will work.

We made a big deal about how important the tickrate improvements are, but it turns out the Stormgate v Starcraft comparison is even more impactful. As a refresher, Starcraft 2 simulations the game state 22.4 times per second. However, it turns out that SC2 simulated Fog of War at only 4 tick. In comparison, Stormgate has updated every single component of the game simulation to 64 tick, or 64 times per second - so every component of the game should feel as snappy as possible.

Another big implication of Rollback that James highlights is the fact that opponent (or observer) PC no longer will be a limit on player performance. Due to lockstep, your opponent’s hardware and network lag would adversely your experience. As Rollback makes that recoverable, that will no longer be the place. The other implication of this is that the game engine should understand that not every game loop is necessary, leading to some significant CPU use reduction even as the speed increases. In the example they use, in a given 176 ms of time, SC2 would take 40 ms to run 4 updates - or 22% of the CPU. In contrast, Stormgate will update 12 times but only use about 24 ms, or 14% of the CPU time. This, coupled with graphical pipeline provided by Unreal Engine 5, means that the massive lag experienced by high numbers of units (think 3v3+ in SC2) is likely a thing of the past.

Team Games Only?

Another concept reiterated in this story harks back to the early days of Stormgate development. Due to feedback from gamers across the RTS space, the Tims had planned for Stormgate to only support team based competitive gameplay. Of course, feedback from the more serious audience brought the idea of 1v1 gameplay back into the fold, but it’s always interesting to be able to peer behind the curtain of the early days of development and how innovative the team was willing to be.

Less Heroes?

One of the key lightning rods of conversation around Stormgate has been Frost Giant’s decision to utilize hero units in their design. Hero units have always been a polarizing topic in RTS games, from the much-maligned Mothership Core of Starcraft 2 to the more nuanced heroes in Warcraft III. It appears that Stormgate is taking a step back from the decision to focus on heroes in 1v1, and instead constrain them to 3v3, Coop, and other game modes. While this isn’t confirmed in full, this would be a significant change from what the devs have been saying to this point.

Integrated Esports

The Frost Giant devs have been vocal about both their appreciation for RTS esports and their desire to support that within their game. While this has been discussed before, its good to see the commitment to a broad-reaching esports platform is still there. In Frost Giant’s vision, players will compete in competitions from as small as a household or neighborhood to as large as the World Championships, exposing players of all levels to the wonders and excitement that competition can provide. To that end, Stormgate will have a built in tournament management system that allows players to compete and tournament organizers to have a decent level of granular control over these events.

Beta and Development Plans

In perhaps the most exciting insight for those of you desperate to get your hands on the game, we got an update on the state of the development of the game. Currently Frost Giant is finishing up pre-production of the 1v1 competitive game - and it is likely that that game mode will be the first one dropped on beta testers, with other modes (3v3, Co-Op, etc) released as they become ready. They are also undergoing “vertical slices” to take certain assets and bring them to a production quality, whether that is for visuals or gameplay mechanics - that appears to have been somewhat completed for 1v1 but is still on the todo list for the other modes.

 User Generated Content

Finally, we got a shout out to User-Generated Content (UGC). Frost Giant has been a staunch supporter of providing all the tools possible for UGC to exist, so Tim Morten again reiterates that the custom level editor will be incredibly powerful, and that they plan to provide a platform for players to “seamlessly share content with each other,” assumedly through some form of custom game discoverability system. We also have James Anhalt again singing the praises of Snowplay as it is related to custom games, with Web Assembly providing a framework for UGC creators to rapidly iterate on their designs.

Getting Involved

As always, if you want to engage with the Frost Giant developers and get information from them as they post it, you should sign up for their newsletter, head on over to /r/Stormgate on reddit, and sign up for the beta and wishlist the game on steam!