Although my Gamescom meeting with the guys from Pathos Interactive was kind of spontaneous, I was delighted with their 2-year project. And its Kickstarter campaign starts very soon.
Pathos Interactive is a small Swedish indie studio that is working on a new, refreshing real-time strategy game called Bannermen set in a medieval semi-fantasy world. The game will have a singleplayer campaign and several multiplayer modes for up to 8 players. Due to studio’s size, there will be only one faction in the game, but in order to prevent the gameplay from being same all the time, the players will play as different “lords” whose unique skills and abilities should spice the game up. The campaign missions should be long, maps large and variable in shape.
Bannermen will feature classical RTS elements, such as structure and ship building, resource mining and management (stone, gold, and wood), unit training and, of course, battling enemies.
The refreshment I mentioned above is interaction with the environment. Therefore, unlike classical means of fighting your opponents, it will also be possible to, for example, build a rockslide trap or set a forest on fire. Pathos Interactive hope this will enhance the strategic depth.
I also mentioned the Kickstarter campaign. It starts on September 25 (I know, very soon). Until then, you can stay in touch with the game on Facebook and Twitter, the developers are very active on both platforms, posting interesting gameplay videos. The news about Kickstarter will also be posted on Thunderclap.
The alpha is planned for Winter, the beta for Spring and the full release for Summer of the next year. The only supported platform will be PC. You can sign up for the beta here.
Lastly, here is the first Bannermen teaser trailer. Keep in mind that neither graphics nor sound is definite, there is still a lot of work left.
At the end of our meeting, I was shown an older build (from Spring, I think). Judging from what I saw and heard, I would say the developers are on the right track to breathe a fresh air to the RTS genre. The environment interaction could play a huge factor in the future.