14 DAY TRIAL // Chris Taylor is somewhat of a gaming legend. His best work is an old rival of Starcraft, called Total Annihilation, where various robotic machineries do battle over planets across the galaxy. Low on backstory and big on tactics, the tittle was one of the earliest RTS games to make a significant impact. Nowadays, Taylor is best known for releasing Supreme Commander, a grand tactics title featuring battles with hundreds of units involved. While sporting a heftier backstory that Total Annihilation, the core of the game, is still the huge tactical challenges it throws at the player.
So, surprise is the reaction of the day when you read that Chris Taylor is saying: "I'm curious about how to get a game out to the 200 million people that have been downloading Peggle and all of these 'match three' games. That's what I'm going after. I've been cooking something up". Without letting out any details or any names, Taylor had announced at the GDC that Gas Powered Games, his studio, was thinking of creating a casual game. Which is unusual for a guy that defined and then redefined the PC RTS market.
Casual games are often seen as the poor relative of the gaming industry. They require less resources, men and money, to produce that AAA titles and usually they target players that don't have copious amounts of time to invest in games. Casual games also aim to have simple mechanics and provide quick gratification to anyone playing them. The best examples are the above mentioned Peggle and maybe Puzzle Quest. They are quick, addictive and do not involve extended narratives or enlarged expositions. The market for such a game is by definition bigger than the market for traditional PC games.
Only speculation exists about what Gas Powered Games can deliver. Taylor stated that "we can't complicate simplicity. It's the idea that depth and complexity are not directly linked. And if something's simple, its not boring". So, may we be looking at a casual strategy game, with simple mechanics and interesting challenges? How much would it cost? Could such a game also appeal to the strategy fans? We hope that Chris Taylor will explain more about Gas Powered Games' new idea soon.