Publisher and developer Sunspear Games has shared more details about how its beleaguered real-time strategy game Immortal: Gates of Pyre aims to make the genre more approachable for players who find it overwhelming through what it calls “opt-in complexity,” despite the project facing serious financial challenges.
Admin Director Ian Hunt was interviewed during this year’s New Game+ Showcase, shedding some light on how the team approaches developing the upcoming RTS.
Immortal: Gates of Pyre Targets “opt-in complexity” While Facing Financial Woes
“Because you get individual unit control, it can be very overwhelming. […] Because you’re having to do so much macroing along with the microing simultaneously, for most players it just gets overwhelming and complicated,” he explains.
The team “worked through it line by line” attempting to discovering elements that are “chores” rather than “decisions” in its search for what it calls “opt-in complexity.”
Hunt points towards the process of building workers as a key element that makes other strategy games overwhelming for players, as sub-optimal worker recruitment translates to production efficiency.
To that extent, Immortal: Gates of Pyre includes a toggle for the whole process, allowing us to decide whether we automate it or handle it ourselves.
The RTS also designed its UI in such a way that it makes controlling units and using castable abilities easy to pull off.
While the discussion linked above points towards a project that continues to progress – alpha footage being shown in the background –, there are signs that Immortal: Gates of Pyre is currently navigating troubled financial waters.
In an earlier message posted on the game’s Discord server, which made its way to the Real-Time Strategy Reddit, Hunt offered a look behind the scenes.
The lengthy post details the project’s history, admitting that “funding has always been a challenge” and that “in mid-2024, several investors pulled out after being concerned with market conditions, metrics, and the poor returns from other RTS launches.”
Sunspear Games’ partnership with Web3 firm Immutable, announced in September 2024, is not mentioned in the message. It is currently unclear whether or not it remains active.
Hunt does explain that when he wrote the post, the project had been “out of money for over a year,” circumstance which had negative effects on members of the team.
Development of Immortal: Gates of Pyre had “slowed significantly” with the team “operating at a minimum-burn level.”
Hunt insists that “the game still exists” despite all these challenges and that the developer is still looking for partnerships that could help it bring the project past the finish line.
Immortal: Gates of Pyre’s presence at the New Games+ Showcase suggests as much, and it remains to be seen whether the attention it got proves enough to gain momentum once again.
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