I am working on my own RTS game. I recently got feedback from someone who advised me to use a 5 minute timeframe to keep my scope small.
With that advice in mind I cut a lot of features and am on my way to completing a prototype of my first RTS. One thing I don't like about this is that I basically removed almost all base building, resource gathering (as sending harvesters to mineral fields take too much time and such - replaced it with time based money making by your main base structure).
On the other hand I do understand the idea of creating small prototypes.
The prototype is basically RTS domination. Capture x points, after each 5 minutes a score is calculated (determined by amount of buildings you have captured). The player who has X points wins. Maps will be balanced and there will always be an uneven amount of buildings to capture.
Initially I wanted to have more base building, resource gathering, tech levels, etc. But if I break it down to its core (the end-goal of the game), i just scrap a lot of features.
Now the question: Does this prototyping process make any sense? Ie, any feedback gathered will be 'skewed' as the original intent is still to do more traditional RTS style base building etc. When do games 'grow' out of their prototype version but still remain within this '5 minute time frame' ?
Or is the 5 minute time frame condition just a bit silly for a genre like RTS? How would you approach this?
Developer
