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[Jasmine]

delete me

[BleakProspects]

I wish I had time for this. Such an awesome opportunity.

[chromex]

This sounds fantastic. Is there a theme and stuff assigned like a normal LD?

[aberrantmind]

cool, I might be able to do this.

[PowRTocH]

This contest is open to anyone, so feel free to join in. You do not have to work on your game for all 7 days, and you have plenty of time beforehand to prepare: form teams, gather resources, prepare base code, etc

It's like an RTS just making an RTS.

[pelle]

Is it against the spirit of the competition to start working on a paper prototype already? It seems from a strict reading of the rules everything is OK except for coding? Do you typically prepare for a LD mini compo by making graphics, music, sfx, level design etc before it starts, and then just use the 7 days to code? Not that 7 days is a lot of time to code a RTS even with everything else prepared. I am happy if I can manage to get more than about 7 hours of actual coding time in a week (outside of work).

Have always had many ideas for how RTS games ought to be played, and this seems like a good opportunity to force myself to try to implement some of it.

(Yes, I know no one is checking if you follow the rules anyway.)

[Mallard]

Definitely gonna give this a shot, way too much free time right now!

[kiwi]

Count me in. I'm up for a collab if anyone needs a programmer

[pelle]

Perfect timing (just as I am starting to explore some old RTS to warm up for 7dRTS):

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/total_annihilation_kingdoms
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/total_anihilation_commander_pack

£2.09 each. (They spelled it wrong in the URL btw, not me.)

[sublinimal]

We'll see, we'll see. If I can do it, it's going to be something abstract for sure. Like deconstructing the genre to its fundamental resources and building something on top of that without RTS tropes.

[Paul Jeffries]

I would love to take part in this but unfortunately that's a pretty busy week for me.  Oh well, maybe next year...

[BleakProspects]

Perfect timing (just as I am starting to explore some old RTS to warm up for 7dRTS):

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/total_annihilation_kingdoms
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/total_anihilation_commander_pack

£2.09 each. (They spelled it wrong in the URL btw, not me.)

Total Annihilation is awesome. I wish there were more "simulation-based" RTS games, but instead we get a bunch of "rock paper scissors" RTS games (like Starcraft, Warcraft, etc). Not that there's anything wrong with those...

[Impossible Realms]

Welp, I'm more of a turn based strategy kinda guy when it comes to strategy games (mostly because I suck at every RTS I've played, but...), however I just got my Ouya today, and I'm really itching to start development. Since my main project still has a couple of bugs I need to fix before beginning the porting process, I might as well take a crack at it. I'll probably do poorly, but i'll take a crack at it.

[Aik]

I'll announce that I'm in here, so there's someone to point and laugh when I don't accomplish anything.

[crozier]

Any of you programming folk want to collaborate on this? I am a pixel artist (of sorts). I have a bit of free time this week, and would love some practice. Plus who doesn't love real time strategy games? Hit me up with a pm if your all brains and suck at art :3

[Uykered]

How do you make a strategy game in 7 days? I guess if you have experience doing them already it wouldn't be as bad.

[JasonPickering]

I know, I have been thinking about an RTS game for months, I cant imagine doing one in 7 Days.

[compostface]

I'm going to try it.  It will just be super simple I guess.

[Sanojian]

I am making a multiplayer turn-based/RTS hybrid called MountainKing.  Everyone starts with a few soldiers and fight to stand on top of the mountain where the game proclaims them king.  Then a few seconds later someone knocks them off and there is a new king.



I started on the graphics over the weekend since I won't be able to compete the whole 7 days (and also because I suck at graphics).

[sublinimal]

So it's entirely possible in 7 days - just limit your scope, by cutting away the most challenging parts.

And more importantly, ask yourself what's necessary for a game to be a real-time strategy game. Pandemic 2 can be an inspiration, there's no pathfinding and AI that just checks whether variables are greater than some limit. Tower defenses are also simple strategic games with real-time constraints. Warcraft and such, which usually come to mind on the mention of "RTS" are of course part of the genre, but their tropes aren't necessary.

As I see it, the lowest common denominator for strategy games is manipulation of resources. Units are used to represent moving resources, so if you don't want the overhead of moving units around, invent a new system. Perhaps there are only buildings and the goal is about territory control. Take it further and you might not use space at all, just abstract resource counters. Then you really get to consider the fundamentals, and you might just reinvent the wheel in a unique way. If you get a working prototype together fast, you might stack some graphical representations on top again, and soon you'll find you've created a game by taking apart cliches and rebuilding them differently.

The best thing about 7-day-anything jams is that they facilitate this kind of creativity, as long as one has the will to reject assumptions and do some design work.