It might surpass 9-Bit Armies.
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The mayor point is, investors should really understand what is by a game a selling point
and stop wasting money on something like stormgate.
I Would say the issue isnât that its hard,
but impossible to make a Starcraft/Warcraft game, people would buy.
The concept is just too fundamentally flawed to sell more of such stuff.
C&C and Age of Empires isnât the best formula, but at least you can reproduce it.
Tempest Rising success and Stormgate failure has very lot to do with AoE IV.
AoE IV stands out, because itâs a proper sequel, with mechanics people can handle
and not a Frankenstein monster where developers did mix various games together.
But look for a sec at Stormgate, already their sizes are wrong, as units are too big to properly fit on the map. Can you even tell what units are supposed to be, you have an unclear mix of blue and yellow toys vs red monsters. If you look for another sec, Stormgate is fundamentally wrong what RTS people want to play.
People want a game with functional economy, to buy a reliable army.
If a game does not deliver such feeling, its quite clear it wonât sell.
It has as a game from a no name developer already a very positive rating on steam.
Thatâs the only thing that counts.
This means more and more people will give it a try, to experience a true RTS.
I donât know if there are any issues with the scale, but I think theyâve been fixing things, and several SC-2 developers I follow say the game has potential. The pathfinding is some of the best in RTS, and theyâre also listening to the community.
Itâs still an Early Access game, so in my opinion itâs doing very well.
And what do you mean by functional economy?
In what way? The thread topic is about new games taking from the playerbase of this game. Thatâs what I was referring to.
I canât believe there are people still living on copium wrt Stormgate, in 2025. Donât mean to burst your bubble, but that game is dead. I donât know if theyâre still working on it because they are delusional and still think theyâre gonna succeed, or because they have contractual obligations towards investors, or because the 2 CEOâs are enjoying their salaries that are laughably disproportionate to the size of the project, but I can confidently tell you one thing: that game wonât bounce back from 50 players to a stable playerbase with a few tweaks.
Edit: Ok, maybe I was being a bit too definitive. If you like it, by all means play it. My personal opinion of that game is that they failed to capture the players imagination with it, partly because of the art style, partly because of the designs themselves and the fact itâs too derivative of Starcraft. Another problem is that the game is engineered to rip you off first and foremost, being split into tiny pieces down to team colors that they want to sell you. Theyâve even shut down community websites because they were planning to sell the statistics. Thatâs bad faith, greediness, and a bad game to top it off.
They are improving a graphic quality a lot. It shows how a good graphic Is very important also for RTS.
Yes, making games similar to Warcraft or Starcraft is very difficult, because if you donât know the games well, you wonât know how to balance the civs and all the âsuccessorsâ will fail⊠on the other hand, making a CnC or AoE type game is easier because you can make a few asymmetric civs but with some superweapon or several relatively similar civs in a certain period or that cover the entire historyâŠ
Yes, it makes it more attractiveâŠ
There could be a redemption, but the probability is very low and they would have to invest heavily in marketing after all the adjustments to try to attract again.
Right and thatâs the reason why there are many requests about graphic improvents on AOE4.
A lot of the people who pre-ordered (myself included) would pick it back up the second it reaches 1.0. The point of the kickstarter wasnât to appreciate immediate value only to require sales in early access, it was to secure financing for development.
Not sure what people thought a game in version 0.3.0 would be like, thatâs still Alpha state.
Threads been here for almost 3 years, something to think about when gauging expectations on content and development cycles. AoE IV in 2022 is still a better game than stormgate is now.
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If they replace the entire design team, and the art team, maybe. Who knows?
On a related note, it tends to shock certain people when someone says they enjoy all the games in THIS franchise. If one plays anything other than their primary game, they are then ridiculed for it, and their allegiance to said preferred game is questioned. Iâve seen it many times. Fandoms are weird. Diplomacy is not an option.
The game probably wonât be revived, but you have to admit theyâre trying.
Theyâre improving and changing many models. The video I posted above explains it.
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100% agree
100% accurate!
Well they should, especially after taking everyoneâs money and goodwill. Iâm too cynical so I didnât fall for this emotional marketing, but a lot of people genuinely believed they were âin this togetherâ and that they were âsaving RTSâ, and paid hundreds, even thousands, a lot of which went into those fat CEO paychecks or were wasted on marketing promotion for something that was never going to succeed. This comes very close to scamming people. The only thing I can commend them for is that at least they didnât run away with all the money. But if thatâs the bar weâre setting, then maybe we should reevaluate something about ourselves. Maybe we should be more angry and more critical when itâs deserved.
Well, the game was introduced to us with a trailer that looked like it would have AAA graphics or at least Starcraft II-level graphics.
Aside from that, given the gameâs narrative and the spoiled lore, it should have been in a dark aesthetic.
However, that wasnât the case:
âMany maps were full of grass and forests, no ruins, very happy, bright colors, and everything cheerful.â
I think they chose bad models to represent the aesthetics of their world. Humans are supposedly living in a Mad Max scenario with demons, practically a Doom-like world. However, we have flat environments, intact coniferous forests, and perfectly trimmed grass growing everywhere. In fact, thereâs no tall grass (AoE IV does have it), no appreciable terrain elevations, etc.
Easter Update (20 - 04 - 2025):
What a difference, and theyâve fixed the situation. Now I really want to play it.
I didnât even know it was FreeToPlay. Iâll try the campaign when I can before they change it for the new version.
Aesthetically, it doesnât really look like my type of game. Too bulbous and cartoony of style for my tastes, with a dash of too chaotic:
But I hope everyone who liked SC2 and likes this vibe ends up loving it. Clearly it has good RTS developer pedigree. Since many people loved SC2 and its aesthetic + gameplay, Iâm sure many will love this, too! Wish I could join in the excitement, but I need to wait for AoE2:DE and AoE4 updates, and AoE5 
PS: I actually liked the look of the August 2024 stuff at the beginning of the vid more than the April 2025 updates if I had to play it. Cleaner, crisper, and decent readability⊠albeit more retro- and dated-looking
Yes, I donât think that will happenâŠ
Yes, thereâs a lot of âludonarrative dissonanceâ thereâŠ
Yes, now thereâs a huge difference and it already looks like SC2âŠ
Yes, when it came out they said the multiplayer would be free to play, but the campaigns would be paidâŠ
Yes, itâs like a good alternative to SC2 in the absence of SC3âŠ
Stormgateâs playerbase has quadrupled in the span of a few days. Weâre in trouble!