Ambitious RTS game launches have ramped up recently, but in our humble opinion, few have even come close to Tempest Rising’s level of polish and smart-yet-retro-feeling game design. According to Frederik Schreiber, founder, CEO, and creative director of Slipgate Iron, the team’s lack of passion about real-time strategy games might have helped, as strange as that sounds at first.
It’s not rare to have filmmakers come in and do an excellent job with properties they’re not big fans of (see Star Wars: Andor in recent years, for example), but it’s far less common to hear about game devs who don’t love the entirety of the genre they’re working on. It might lead to similar positive results though.
“I actually think one of our benefits is that most of our team were not passionate about RTS games… They like certain RTS games, especially the ones we’re inspired by, but are nowhere nearly hardcore RTS fans. What that does is it creates people who are passionate about the game we’re making, not necessarily all the other RTS games,” Schreiber explained during an interview for Slitherine Games’ The Hot Seat video series. You can watch the full episode below:
Indeed, many artists (and this, of course, includes developers) often get too lost in the woods chasing long-lost magic or trying to honor the past by mostly rehashing old stuff. Mind you, some good things can come out of that approach, yet it’s hard to imagine Tempest Rising being as good as it is without a certain amount of distance put between it and the classics the team borrowed elements from.
“99% of the cases, people have a good point,” the creative director said about negative or middling reviews. “It’s usually either a misunderstanding… And the others are legitimate feedback.” It’s not like Tempest Rising has had any trouble hitting ‘Very Positive’ on Steam, but as the game expands with new content updates, it’s good to see the devs actually engaging with all sorts of feedback versus what Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford has been doing on social media following Borderlands 4’s bumpy launch.
The full interview is worth your time if you’ve been having fun with Tempest Rising. Schreiber’s comments and insights into the development of the game and the harsh reality of the industry nowadays are pretty unfiltered, and it’s not every day you have a high-ranking creative speak so openly and the good, the bad, and the ugly of video games, especially in relation to an RTS project. More of this, please!
For the latest gaming news, follow GameWatcher on BlueSky, check out our videos on YouTube, or give us a like on Facebook. We sometimes include affiliate links in our posts, which grants us a small commission, thank you. Please support independent Games Media. ❤️
.webp)