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Total Annihilation's Chris Taylor wants to merge phone and PC RTS gaming

Chris Taylor, the developer behind classic RTS games like Total Annihilation, is now working on a new game in that genre for both phone and PC platforms.
By
June 6, 2017

One of the most well-known developers in the real-time strategy game genre, Chris Taylor, is now developing a new RTS game that could be a breakthrough in merging mobile and PC platforms. Taylor says this new game, which does not yet have a name, will “change, fundamentally, not only the way we play RTS but the way we access the RTS experience.”

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Those are some huge claims, but in Taylor’s case he has the experience to back up his assertions. While working at the now defunct Cavedog, he lead the team that created Total Annihilation in 1997 for the PC. That sci-fi 2D RTS game was noted for its huge battles and tons of different units. After Cavedog went under, Taylor went on to found Gas Powered Games in 1998. The developer released a number of games over the next 14 years, including acclaimed titles like the action-RPG Dungeon Siege and Supreme Commander, another big sci-fi RTS game (shown in the screenshot above). Released in 2007, the 3D title is considered by Taylor and others to be a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation. A sequel, Supreme Commander 2, was released in 2010.

In 2013, Gas Powered Games was acquired by Wargaming.net, the publishers of the popular World of Tanks PC game series. Taylor stayed on with the team under the Wargaming.net ownership, but in October 2016 he finally left the developer (the game that Taylor was leading while he worked at Wargaming.net has still not been revealed).

Taylor says that the mobile version of the game will have a different interface compared to the PC version, and that even the speed of the gameplay might be different on a phone.

As Eurogamer reports, Taylor is now working independently again on a new RTS project, which he began in January. He claims that this unnamed title will have some similarities to Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, but we should expect some new gameplay elements as well. Taylor has a partnership with an unnamed cloud-based company to help realize his new game. He says that it will be web-based, and will allow players to start battles on a high-end PC, but then turn it off and continue playing the game on a phone “without any disruption in the experience”.

Taylor says that the mobile version of the game will have a different interface compared to the PC version, and that even the speed of the gameplay might be different on a phone. The game will be free to play, but Taylor says that even that business model will be different than the normal version for his title.

All of this does sound highly ambitious, but Taylor says he can do what he claims, adding a promise that “it will be something where people will genuinely be shocked.” There’s no release date for this game, but hopefully we will learn more about Taylor’s plans in the very near future. In the meantime, would you want to play an RTS game like Total Annihilation or Supreme Commander and be able to switch between your PC and phone? Let us know in the comments!