Andy Schatz of Pocketwatch Games loves popular action-strategy game Starcraft but struggles to play it himself due to the game’s demanding mastery of the controls.
“I tend to struggle with the controls in StarCraft,” Schatz told Polygon. “I feel like I get beat by people who control the game better than I do. What I really want to do is I want to get deep into the strategy of it. I want to play real-time chess. And I think there’s a lot of people out there like me.”
This is why Pocketwatch’s upcoming game LEADtoFIRE takes that action-strategy core, but simplifies the controls so that it is completely playable on a gamepad, while still hopefully upholding a strategic depth.
In order to further refine the game to this aim, Pocketwatch livestreams matches between by the LEADtoFIRE playtesters on its Twitch.tv channel every Thursday at5pm EST. Those watching are invited to play matches themselves, going up against more experienced players, giving Pocketwatch a chance to test accessibility for newcomers.
So, if you’re interested in a console-friendly action-strategy game, you should think about joining in yourself, perhaps.
If you’re not familiar with LEADtoFIRE, you can get a quick summary in Siliconera’s previous post, but the gist of it is that you control a Champion who leads an army in a world wrought with animal revolution.
“Wage war with customizable factions, featuring units like mustard-gas skunks and bomb-dropping eagles,” it reads in the game’s description on the Pocketwatch Games website. LEADtoFIRE should be coming to PC in 2015 with any luck. Consoles haven’t been mentioned yet but the gamepad support makes it likely.
