Monaco dev’s next game is a real-time strategy title built for gamepads

Hear them out

“With Monaco, we took an old school genre (Stealth), we simplified the controls, and then we built an incredibly complex game that could be played at high and low skill levels alike. I want to do the same with the RTS genre,” writes Pocketwatch Games’ Andy Schatz. “[ARMADA] is the simplicity of Monaco injected into a classic RTS.”

The codenamed project will have the usual base building and army raising, but with an emphasis on making tricky genre elements fun on a dual-analog gamepad, which is no easy feat. “We’re gonna be the first to do it right,” says Schatz. Cue skepticism, I know. But I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here — they’ve earned that much.

I’d encourage you to read the full pitch for what Pocketwatch is aiming to accomplish with Armada, linked below. If nothing else, the team’s core philosophies will suffice for now: “[MENTAL] Everything in the game should feel — emotionally and intellectually — like you are playing a traditional RTS like [StarCraft II]. [PHYSICAL] All mechanics must be equally fun on dual analog as they are on keyboard/mouse.” If they can pull it off, more power to them. Godspeed.

Wherefore [ARMADA]? [Pocketwatch Games]