One button to rule them all indeed, although Louis Castle's GDC 2006 talk on
bringing the RTS genre to the console was at the end of the day on
Friday, the last day of the conference, it was packed.
The proposition has me very excited. My first exposure to the RTS genre was a console experience, playing Dune II on the Sega Genesis. Bringing it back would be very powerful, but as Louis was apt to point out, it has yet to be done right.
You cannot just port the PC experience to a console, as Mr. Castle pointed out most simply, a mouse and keyboard control schema just doesn't translate to a console controller. In order to be successful in reviving this genre on the console you need to rethink the experience.
Having played the Pre-Alpha build briefly, when Louis was so kind as to share it with our RTS class @ USC, I have to say the controls work wonderfully, and the world feels more rich then it ever did on a typical PC.
Although this was the second time I sat through this presentation, I found it invigorating, and I believe the rest of the audience did as well.
The proposition has me very excited. My first exposure to the RTS genre was a console experience, playing Dune II on the Sega Genesis. Bringing it back would be very powerful, but as Louis was apt to point out, it has yet to be done right.
You cannot just port the PC experience to a console, as Mr. Castle pointed out most simply, a mouse and keyboard control schema just doesn't translate to a console controller. In order to be successful in reviving this genre on the console you need to rethink the experience.
Having played the Pre-Alpha build briefly, when Louis was so kind as to share it with our RTS class @ USC, I have to say the controls work wonderfully, and the world feels more rich then it ever did on a typical PC.
Although this was the second time I sat through this presentation, I found it invigorating, and I believe the rest of the audience did as well.
