Oct 14 Frost Giant Dev Interview: Lore, Esports, Auto-Hotkeys, and Social Gameplay

October 14 gave us another update from some familiar names working on Frost Giant’s upcoming Stormgate. Unlike previous updates, this is a beefy 25 minute video that not only reiterates previously released information, but also some juicy tidbits we’ll get into.

Passion and Why Stormgate is Getting Made

Tim Morten and Tim Campbell open the video with a clear argument - Stormgate is getting made because “it has to.” They aren’t making this because some spreadsheet says a new RTS will maximize their ROI, but instead because they “want to make something great that players will love and [they] will be proud of.”

Tim Morten also goes into the two design approaches Frost Giant could have taken - tearing the idea of RTS down to its bare bones and building something or trying to learn from the giants that came before. The developers working at Frost Giant are some of the most experienced with RTS games in the industry, so they “very heavily” leaned into the latter.

On the subject of money, Tim Campbell reiterates multiple times throughout the video that, while Stormgate will be free to play, they want nothing to do with predatory financial models such as pay-to-win systems, NFTs, or lootboxes. The goal of making the game free to play is to minimize barriers to entry, not maximize profit. None of this is new information, but it's good to see it reiterated so strongly across this video and other media appearances (see Tim Morten’s NFT interview on October 20).

Tim Campbell also once again emphasized that content for Stormgate will be evolving into the future, with new campaigns, maps, balance patches, and gameplay options.

Social Gameplay

Another thread throughout the video is the concept of games as a social experience. This is something that was heavily discussed during the initial reveal and the various interviews the Frost Giant did in July, but we get it spelled out in one place in this video.

Frost Giant views games like Stormgate as something inherently social (while still holding onto the opportunity to play solo). To that end, they are still intending on providing the casual 3v3 competitive and Co-Op modes as well as Co-Op campaigns. The really interesting component of this video, though, relates to onboarding. Ryan Schutter and Kevin Dong are really interested in minimizing time spent in tutorials with a friend waiting. They mention several ways to make sure that someone can hop in and start playing with their friend immediately, bouncing around ideas like custom game modes, real-time tutorials for Co-Op, and UI/UX ideas. One key thing Ryan mentions here is the idea of auto-hotkeyed units, which would place produced units in default hotkeys set by the player. This is on top of the other ideas of skill-floor lowering concepts they talked about in previous interviews (e.g. automatic, less efficient production).

The other interesting thing Ryan talked about was the process of aiding player on-boarding. Frost Giant spent a significant amount of time watching new players learn to play Starcraft 2, both at Blizzcons and also from communities (notably, they asked Jessica “ZombieGrub” Chernega’s mom to play SC2 for the first time while they watched).

Story and Art Design

The majority of new information comes from the interviews with Micky Neilson (Lead Writer) and Jesse Brophy (Art Director). Micky provides a massive info dump on the background of Stormgate. In his version of Earth, humans in the future are wracked by climate change and extreme weather. In a desperate attempt to get out of the situation, they spin up the Sigma program, which are working on different high-tech solutions to the problems humanity is facing. One of the groups within this program, Sigma 6, sets up in the arctic with the intention of developing a portal to another dimension as an escape route if Earth becomes uninhabitable. We also learn that the mechs shown in the trailer are a product of another Sigma division, and originally used for construction before the Infernals arrive.

Unfortunately for the humans of Earth, they are unsuccessful, and create a portal to the Inferals’ home world. Kevin also mentions they open this portal during a solar storm, but it’s unclear how this is exactly linked.

The Inferals are fleshed out a little bit more, and we learn that they are much in line with the Zerg in Starcraft 2 lore. They spread out across the universe to take resources from other planets and steal the best fighters from these planets to turn them into warriors in the Infernal Legion.

Kevin ends this segment by teasing us with some “really cool” characters that they aren’t prepared to talk about at this time.

Esports and Future Plans

Finally, we got a further esports download from Trevor “TorcH” Housten, Senior Esports Manager. He reiterates Frost Giant’s desire to have esports be something that isn’t just for the best of the best, but another way for players to compete against their own personal bests. He talks about an “Integrated Esports System,” where players are provided with all the information they need to compete, learn, and improve - in client. This means potentially including videos from content creators in the community, in depth stats on player performance, and providing players with access to the highest quality practice possible. Should they wish to strive higher and go pro, that path to pro will be clearly defined in an approachable circuit that allows Frost Giant to focus on interesting narratives year-round, both in tournaments of their own and third-party events that will be supported in many different ways!

The prospect of myriad different support for third-party events has me the most excited about anything in this ranging Q&A, as it was something I touched upon in the Battle Pass article.

How to follow

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!