1 man + 1 year + Unity = my first RTS game: Armor Clash

By using the Unity 5 game engine and its asset store. I made my first RTS game: Armor Clash, within 1 year. Now its beta version is available on Steam.
Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/395600

20 years ago, at the great age of RTS game, I was still in school and dreamed of making my own RTS game one day. The dream is sweet, but when I really decide to do it, I feel it is impossible. Like many others indie developers, I can do some coding work but lack in art skill. Forming a team need influence and funds, which I am also in short of.

It is in 2013 I know Unity first time from a forum, at first I did not care much because I thought it is just a SDK like many other programming tools, till I found there is the asset store, I can get model and sound assets at a reasonable price, even I can find solutions like dynamic water, mini radar and vehicle system. I realized that if I bought all the works I can not do, I can make the game just by my self.

Then I began to learn Unity by sparing time. and after made a small demo I had enough confidence and resigned my job. Although there are plenty of art assets available, it still cost me much time on modifying to meet my needs, new ideas came out before implementing old ones, the developing work is still not easy.

After 14 month's work, it is now 90% finished and goes into beta phase. I will keep updating this game with new ideas and the latest technology of Unity engine.


Windforce
2015-12-23


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Brief:

Armor Clash is an RTS game of modern warfare. It contains classic features like base building, units training etc. Players can also customize the units to form their unique armies. With realistic effects and fast paced battle, players will enjoy commanding their armored forces to break down the enemy.

Good Features:

• Traditional RTS game play
• Realistic physics effect.
• Army customization
• Local network multiplayer
• Neutral forces and battle experience system
• Both PC and Mac available.

Weak Points:

• There is no campaign, but there are replayable ai skirmish and Local network multiplayer instead.
• Max player number is 2, because there are huge amounts of realistic physics effects in the game, 2 players at max will ensure the good performance during fierce battle.

Future Updates:

• Long term maintainance for bug fixing.
• New units and maps, features will be upgraded for free.

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That's a gutsy move to quit your job so you could work full-time on your game. I guess you bought all of the assets you thought you'd need back when you still had a job and money.

I hope it does well for you. It looks good and is doing very good on Steam for an Indie game costing $20. Fantastic on sharing your passion and story not only with us but also on Steam. Despite what some say people do care. Heck at least one of the Steam reviews said they bought the game to support this one man dev team.

Let us know how it does for you. I think you'll do pretty good because from what the reviews say you are very active on the steam forums so have a good presence there. And having 75% positive on a $20 game on Steam seems good. A couple people cried about the price but overall not bad.

 

Thank you for your appreciation

It is a big risk to resign my job at the beginning, even till now my monthly sale does not catch the incomes when I am a programmer.

I always care about the money I spent when I have no job. In fact I did not invest too much at the beginning, I just browser through all the assert store to find what I want, the price of most assets in Unity Store is reasonable, for example I got this Challenger II tank model only at $15, with 10k polys model, textures and normal map.



Other assets like environment, buildings, doodads are also good.

 

Nothing really lost in any case because you can always get another job if needed, right?

 

I thought the same at the beginning, but now seems changed.

Once you decide to make your own business, it is hard to turn back to be a employee. If you success, you will continue, if not, company is not a shelter, can you come back to work with losing heart? Is it really so confident to tell your boss "I did not make it so I back to work with you"? In fact most one choose to try another time.

The shelter did not save any people--Fall out 4

 

Good on you Steven, it's really inspiring to read stories like yours, I too face the challenge of being an indie developer, but when I see what I've created it makes be want to continue developing and creating new worlds, Too many people always say " oh I wish I did this or that", but you're doing it. The game looks great. Keep up the good work and all the best.