Achron prva Meta-time strateska igra

[rogehpelb]

Achron

Achron is the world's first meta-time strategy game, a real-time strategy game where players and units can jump to and play at different times simultaneously and independently.

FAQ
Q. What is it?
A. Achron is a multiplayer real-time strategy (RTS) war game designed around the ability to time travel anywhere along a timeline. Jump back in time to save that production facility, or add a flanking maneuver to a raid! It's entirely up to you.

Q. It's a trick, right? You're going to throw a flashy visual effect on the screen and then make me wait for another level to load, aren't you?
A. Nope. Fiddle with the past, present, and future to your heart's content. The engine smooths the changes you make down the timeline, leaving you free to twist your enemy's strategy to your advantage.

Q. On what platform will Achron be available?
A. We are currently developing for the PC, but we did it with an eye toward porting to both OS X and Linux. We would like to be able to offer Achron for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and possibly even the Wii, and are currently evaluating them.

Q. This is going to make my head explode, isn't it?
A. Achron was designed with ease of use and simplicity foremost in mind, the idea being to create something that's easy to use but difficult to master. What you did 2 minutes ago is still very fresh in your memory. You should be able to wrap your head around it just fine.

Q. When are you looking to release the game?
A. We are currently seeking a publisher. The primary things we have left are art, level implementation and balancing. The release depends on a number of factors, but the earliest likely release is mid 2010.

Q. What about playing in the future of the timeline?
A. Playing in the future has several purposes such as scouting, finding out about a large battle that has not yet happened, or building units with resources you don't yet have in the present.

Q. Many RTSs are won by rush-strategy masters, what about this one?
A. Though rushing is still a viable strategy, using time travel affords several viable counter strategies to rush attacks.

Q. Many RTSs are won by super-fast clickers, what about this one?
A. Being a fast-clicker helps, but since changing the past uses up chronoenergy, the clicker is limited to a set number of issued commands, thus decision making is more important than the speed of clicks. Also since all players can progress at different speeds, a 'slow clicker' can actually pause their progression through time, issue several commands to different units while they are frozen, and then play in fast forward to catch up and watch the outcome of their commands. Testers who excel at using time travel are sometimes able to beat others who are otherwise better RTS players.

Q. Dude, paradoxes?! You know, grandfather paradox, units fighting side by side?
A. Paradoxes can exist, but since the window of time is limited (e.g., an 8 minute window) all events eventually fall off. A paradox will oscillate between its different states until one of the states reaches the edge of the time window, leaving the players locked into one of the two states. Example: in the case of the grandfather paradox (where you use a factory to build a tank, have the tank time travel to before it was built, and then use it to destroy the factory) you will play with the paradox until it 'falls off' the time window, at which point there is a 50/50 chance of either the tank lives and the factory is destroyed (because the tank destroyed the factory), or the factory remains and the tank goes back in time and is lost. All paradoxes are nicely resolved with time.

Q. How stable/buggy is this game? I can't imagine a game engine this complex without bugs!
A. Very stable. We have taken QA extremely seriously because of how complex time travel is, and we have been testing multiplayer games for 4 years.

Q. Is it true that I can keep sending units back in time to have them fight along side themselves and duplicate an entire army?
A. Yes you can, but not without consequences. It costs chronoenergy to command units from the past to travel further into the past, and obviously you use more chronoenergy to control more units in the past. Also you are using up your playing time to manage this instead of building units or controlling your armies. And finally, if the original 'parent' units are damaged, the time traveled version will wind up being damaged and if the original units are destroyed and don't travel back in time, you wind up undoing the entire cycle.

Q. My head is exploding already. Are you sure this is easy?
A. Yes, though grandfather paradoxes are the most complicated aspect of the game, they don't tend to happen much in actual gameplay. The rest is super quick to learn. It's like learning to use a DVR control to rewatch a tv show or using your DVD control to jump around chapters in a movie - once you start using time travel it's really simple, but if you've never picked up a remote controller before, those play and 'next-chapter' buttons look scary. We've been play-testing for 4 years and have learned how to make this game accessible, taking people who never played an RTS before and have them effectively using time travel 5 minutes into the game. We do this by unveiling time travel gradually to the player, so you are not fully thrust into it right away, but can learn to play it one step at a time.

Q. I am so good at RTS games that I have strategies named after me, and my head has not exploded. I wonder how the game would resolve this complex example: Player A sends units back in time and destroys player B's factories. Before the timewaves reach the present, player B sends his army back in time and destroys player A's factories.
A. This is definitely a paradox. You should check out this page: Paradoxes.

Archon demo

E sad sam sve video...