Uber Entertainment may have found success with its Kickstarter for Planetary Annihilation but its newest project, Human Resources, hasn’t been so lucky. The developer has announced that it will be closing down the Kickstarter for the same.

Design director John Comes stated that, “The time has come to shut down the Kickstarter for Human Resources. Every Kickstarter prediction model is showing that we will come up woefully short of our goal.

“Running a Kickstarter is a full time job for several people. As a small indie, we can’t continue spending time and money focusing on a project that won’t get funded.”

It’s a shame especially since Human Resources was a very interesting diversion away from what Planetary Annihilation delivered. Regardless, Uber Entertainment will hopefully be able to find some other means to finance Human Resources. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more updates.

Uber Entertainment’s Planetary Annihilation, the crowdfunded real time strategy game meant to act as a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation, will be getting a single player mode in a free update, the company announced today. The mode is called Galactic War, and it limits the tech tree that you have access to at the beginning, while also randomly generating the map, items, perks, and more, which sounds a little frustrating, but should also ensure at the same time that each playthrough is different.

In addition, maybe to celebrate this, Planetary Annihilation, which is currently in Steam Early Access, will also be sold at a cheaper sale price until May 25- it is currently £17.99, which is almost half its regular £29.99 asking price.

Planetary Annihilation is available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux based PCs, and its final build is slated for release sometime later this year (though we haven’t had an update on its final release date in a while now).

GamingBolt spoke to Community Manager Brad Nicholson about Planetary Annihilation, including ideas for the spherical map, its potential as an eSports title and whether it would come to home consoles at some point.

"We'll confront any issues down the road, but we're totally OK with the idea of people hosting their own servers and making mods."

Leonid Melikhov: What was your inspiration for developing Planetary Annihilation?

Brad Nicholson: Planetary Annihilation came from our desire to make an epic next-generation RTS that not only challenged tradition, but also offered a scale that no-one has ever seen before. It is a combination of our love of awesome experiences and unique games.

Leonid Melikhov: Love the spherical map gameplay. It’s truly something new for RTS games. How did you came up with this idea?

Brad Nicholson: When we decided to go with a sci-fi setting, it felt natural to have players fight each other on (and across) globes. Combat in three dimensions forces you to make interesting decisions at every turn. Also, it’s really cool to take a planet, strap rockets to it, and send it screaming at your foes.

Leonid Melikhov: Do you think there is potential for this game to be eSports at some point in the future?

Brad Nicholson: Absolutely! This isn’t our primary focus at the moment, but we’re going to support that high-level, competitive play requires. Our focus now is nailing down the overall balance and continuing to make the game fun.

Leonid Melikhov: Since Planetary Annihilation is DRM free, how will you be tracking down hackers if people are able to host their own servers and mods?

Brad Nicholson: Early Access requires a constant online connection. We’ll confront any issues down the road, but we’re totally OK with the idea of people hosting their own servers and making mods. We want to support folks who mod as much as possible with powerful tools down the road.

Leonid Melikhov: How are you planning to deal with frame-rate and internet lag considering the game allows up to 40 players at the same time in a single game?

Brad Nicholson: Right now we allow up to 10 players in a match. Down the road, we plan to add support for up to 40 players. Naturally, this’ll take significant work from our engineering team, but we’re up to the task. We had a bug not so long ago that allowed way more than 10 folks play in a single match and the game held up extremely well. We’re excited about doing all the optimization work required to make 40-player matches fun.

Leonid Melikhov: What did you learn from your previous RTS titles such as Supreme Commander?

Brad Nicholson: Scale! More generally speaking, our staff is experienced in all kinds of games — from sprawling MMOs, to shooters, and to strategy games. We’re rolling all our experiences into Planetary Annihilation.

"Galactic War is our single-player component, but it won't be a "campaign." It'll be a sprawling war fought across single-player."

Leonid Melikhov: Can you talk a-bit more in detail how the game’s economy works?

Brad Nicholson: We use a streaming economy, which means that you don’t pay for your structures up front. Instead, the resources are drawn against your economy over time during construction. You can build stuff before you have the full amount required, in other words.

Leonid Melikhov: How has Steam’s Early Access worked out for you so far?

Brad Nicholson: It’s working very well. We’re constantly excited to have so many players checking out our latest builds and giving us their feedback. Early Access is making our game awesome-r.

Leonid Melikhov: What are your favorite type of units in Planetary Annihilation?

Brad Nicholson: Personally, I’m into the Theta Commander. He’s big, bulky, and his eye conveys a little bit of an attitude. Commanders are basically your “base” in traditional RTS terms. Lose it, and you’ll lose the game. However, these guys are powerful war machines capable of destruction.

Leonid Melikhov: How easy will it be to create and install mods for Planetary Annihilation?

Brad Nicholson: The goal is to make it extremely easy. Folks are already creating amazing mods, and we want to continue to support them.

Leonid Melikhov: How are you handling the transition from one planet to planet? This obviously opens up the scope for space exploration as well.

Brad Nicholson: Right now, you can transport your units to other planets using teleportation devices or by whisking them away with orbital transports.

Leonid Melikhov: I heard there were talks about including a campaign mode. Is it going to make it?

Brad Nicholson: Galactic War is our single-player component, but it won’t be a “campaign.” It’ll be a sprawling war fought across single-player. We’ll have more details on it down the line.

Leonid Melikhov: So if I want nuke an entire planet, what will happen to the players to that planet? [since essentially they will be wiped out]

Brad Nicholson: Nukes obliterate buildings and troops the instant they hit. Stronger units, however, will survive the initial blast. A planet smash, on the other hand? That destroys an entire celestial body.

"If we did port the game, we'd do our best to make it as awesome as every other version."

Leonid Melikhov:  How are you planning to use gravity as a differentiating factor during a war?

Brad Nicholson: It’s something we’ve discussed, but we don’t have any plans at the moment.

Leonid Melikhov: How are you making sure that players don’t get lost when they transit in a map [or from a planet to another?]

Brad Nicholson: We use a very simple point-and-click interface for celestial movement. That’s kinda what Planetary Annihilation is all about — we give players powerful, yet simple tools to do amazing and massive things.

Leonid Melikhov: Are there any plans to bring the game to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One?

Brad Nicholson: Not currently, but we’re open to it.

Leonid Melikhov: If you guys decide the game to these new consoles, do you think you will be able to do full justice to the game in terms of 1080p resolution, 60 frames per second and high resolution textures?

Brad Nicholson: If we did port the game, we’d do our best to make it as awesome as every other version.

Leonid Melikhov: Is there anything else you want to tell us about the game that we may have missed out on asking?

Brad Nicholson: That it’s available right now on Steam, the Uber Store, and the Humble Bundle store. We invite everyone to hit up our forums and discuss the game!

Planetary Annihilation is planned to launch on Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux and will be available at retail and via digital download. The game has went through various stages of development and testing with a final release planned for some time in 2014, there is currently no solid release date. 

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Factions
• 4. Gameplay

Development

Uber Entertainment is a development studio that has, (like many other developers in recent times to maintain their product integrity) went down the path of crowd funding rather than gain their funding through an investor. Planetary Annihilation was publicly revealed on August 15th 2012 alongside their plans to use Kickstarter as a funding platform with an initial goal of $900,000 alongside a full CG animated introduction pledge trailer that showed planned gameplay mechanics.

When backers first discovered that the game has ties to the massively popular real time strategy game Total Annihilation, the pledges came rolling in at a staggering pace with $450,000 being accumulated in only 5 days. Following the initial success of the beginning stages of the funding process Uber Entertainment announced their plans for the first wave of stretch goals that would be unlocked by raising a certain amount of money for the project. As these stretch goals were unveiled the funding process for Planetary Annihilation became further invigorated by promises of the inclusion of naval units and planets that would be comprised of large bodies of water at the 1.1 million dollar mark.

At 1.3 million Uber Entertainment would include Gas Giants and orbiting platforms with metal planets arriving if the 1.5 million mark was crossed. At the crossing of 1.8 million the Galactic War feature would be included, accompanied by a full orchestral original score if $2,000,000 was earned. At 2.1 million there would be a final stretch goal achieved which would include a behind the scenes making of documentary detailing the games development process.  As the days rolled on and the stretch goals were met, the project was on track to making a mark on the Kickstarter platforms history by becoming the 11th project on the platform to raise over one million dollars.

With the passing of the 15th day of the Planetary Annihilation campaign the title had already reached its initial $9,000,000 goal, but when the campaign ended on September 14th of 2012 the campaign had already amassed nearly $2,228,000 through Kickstarter and a further $101,000 through PayPal. All the stretch goals were reached and unlocked and since then the game has experienced favourable feedback from the fan base as it has went through its various stages of testing from Alpha, Beta to Gamma. Following this feedback the game has now been scheduled for a release some time in 2014.

Story

The plot of Planetary Annihilation is deceptively complex. While a player would expect the game to have a fairly flat story given its galactic scale and focus on war, the plot actually goes deeper than that. The Commanders who stride across the battlefields haven’t always existed as the warriors we know them as today. “They were built. Then abandoned. Now, they’re coming back from an extended dormancy”.

Keep in mind that the faction names and commander titles are currently place holders as Uber Entertainment are allowing the backers who helped fund the game to name the factions from 4 available titles. The remnants of a war waged long ago are slowly being restored to a functional level of operation by a now awakened commander and as they do so the pieces of the story are all falling into place.

The game’s official description of the story reads: “Did I have a name? Yes that I did remember. I was designated as Dominus. I struggled to repair parts of my memory core that would tell me more, but I soon discovered it would take more than a few nanoseconds to do so. In the meantime, I began to explore the world I found myself on. It was not long until I found others like myself. I repaired and reactivated those that I could, but there were far more that could not be saved. Those that could be helped were able to access memories that I could not or simply did not have. Some kind of battle had taken place here long ago, judging by chemical analysis readings of the air and soil that showed traces of artificial radioactive isotopes. That meant nuclear detonation.”

Factions

The names of the factions up for consideration are:

• Pax Machina – Machine of Peace
• Legonis Machina – Legion of the Machine
• The First Empire
• Imperium

The names of the faction leader up for consider are (all the names seem to have a nearly Roman Slant on them, perhaps Legonis Machina is winning?):

• Terminus
• Scipio
• Dominus
• Invictus

Gameplay

Gameplay in Planetary Annihilation is large in both its scope and ambition, the games lead developer Jon Mavor has said that games will vary in complexity and match time. This is due to the planet based combat map which will include various types of planets (detailed in the development portion of this wiki) and asteroids which can become weaponized. All these worlds can be conquered and made your own as the tide of war goes back and forth between players.

They can however also be destroyed and removed from the game because they exist in a dynamic gameplay world wherein they can be Annihilated by dropping asteroids on them, this is one of the major gameplay focuses that Uber Entertainment are pushing. Given the galactic scale of the game, the worlds need to be monitored to avoid being captured by the enemy. This will of course require a lot of units, it is because of this that Mavor has said that one of the design goals in the game is to have “a million” in game units available for deployment.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

The art in Planetary Annihilation is a mix of cartoon and a tiny bit of realism, but more toon-shaded than anything. When you look at this game you can definitely set it apart from other real-time strategy games such as StarCraft 2, thanks to its unique look and the way the engine handles shading.

"Players are able to rotate their camera around the planet, zoom in and out and see everything in complete spherical 3D (similar to Super Mario Galaxy planets) and I find that truly unique."

If you’re looking for next-generation jaw-dropping graphics then look elsewhere, because you won’t find it in Planetary Annihilation. However, what you will find is a smooth engine, with cool particle effects simple colors and unique gameplay elements that you most likely won’t find anywhere else. I really liked the engine and the way it handles the units and warfare during combat.

The game never tries to impress you with it’s visual quality and that’s not necessarily a bad thing and I commend the developers for creating something that still looks pleasing to the eye while the  gameplay is smooth as butter. Although, there are some optimization issues such as small frame-rate drops during massive battles, but since it’s an early-access on Steam I am quite positive that majority of the issues will be fixed as the development continues. Overall, the game has a unique art-style that works perfectly for what the game tries to achieve.

Gameplay in Planetary Annihilation is what makes the game stand apart from other games in the genre. The whole game is based of having multiple people fight on a planet and take control. The most interesting aspect of the gameplay is that the whole planet is basically a map of its own that can be scouted and used up for resources. Players are able to rotate their camera around the planet, zoom in and out and see everything in complete spherical 3D (similar to Super Mario Galaxy planets) and I find that truly unique.

"You can wage war towards your enemies in any fashion you'd like, whether it be a combination of air assaults and frequent robot attacks or naval harassment with land units."

You can have up-to 8 players fighting on the same planet for control and before the game starts each person choose a reserved automated spot on where to spawn and start their base. Obviously, its not shown to other players so no one knows where everyone is until they start using scouting units to explore the planet. Once the game starts, you’re able to use your commander robot that can build different buildings that range from defensive towers, economy, orbital and offense. You can also choose which robot you want to have before the game starts.

Majority of the players will start building their base by using their robot to ramp up their economy via energy and metal supply structures. Energy and metal are your main resources that you will use throughout the matches to effectively build up your army. Planetary Annihilation doesn’t use your resources right of the bat, instead it uses them over-time as you build and recruit units from robot factories, air factories and vehicle factories.

It’s a simple mechanic for a real-time strategy game, but yet somewhat different at the same time. As far as the offense goes, you can spawn robot units from a Bot Factory, vehicles such as tank and buggies from a Vehicle Factory, air units from Air Factory, and last but not least, naval units from a Naval Factory. You can wage war towards your enemies in any fashion you’d like, whether it be a combination of air assaults and frequent robot attacks or naval harassment with land units.

"The most fun part of Planetary Annihilation is watching a group of people marching their armies at the same location on the planet and destroying each-other all at once, seeing explosions everywhere and the anticipation of finding out who the last man standing is."

Players can also build orbital structures that can cause nukes and other weapons of mass destruction. The most fun part of Planetary Annihilation is watching a group of people marching their armies at the same location on a planet and destroying each-other all at once, seeing explosions everywhere and the anticipation of finding out who the last man standing is.

In Planetary Annihilation you can also play in teams such as 4v4, 2v2v2v2, 3v3, and of course a free for all with against 7 other players totaling up to 8 as I described earlier. You can host your own servers, join someone else and the game is also DRM free. Developers have also previously stated that the game will be mod-able, I am not sure if there any mods out right now considering the game is in early-access, but expect a vast modding community once the game launches officially.

I was quite satisfied with what I played and what the game is trying to achieve. Planetary Annihilation is an RTS game at heart, but with its own special flavor to the genre. If you’re looking for some fresh and new gameplay mechanics as soon as possible for your RTS needs, then give the game a shot on Steam’s Early-Access or else wait for the minor bugs to get fixed, have more features added to it and wait until the game launches making it more fun to explore.

Indie games have absolutely exploded in popularity in the better part of the last two years. The games that have been developed outside of the influence of major production companies and in many cases, major, well known developers; have managed to spawn some of the most memorable experiences for gamers in recent history. Games like Minecraft and the new Shadowrun Returns and FTL, Gone Home and Rogue Legacy really helped to get the ball rolling.

Games like these show the world that a small, yet dedicated development team with enough money, support and spare time can make a game that is equally as entertaining as any of the big names, and sometimes more so. These developers blaze new trails in gaming, take risks and really try to inject some life into an industry that, frankly has a lot of stale or over-used ideas floating around in it. With the new consoles getting onboard the indie-train, the indie scene is really going to continue to pick up speed. With some great games coming in the near future, there’s even more to be excited for.

Starbound:

If this game looks kind of familiar,  you’re not exactly wrong. Starbound is being developed by Chucklefish and looks to be the successor to their popular title, Terraria. At first glance, the games do look incredibly similar, but this 2D theme is all that is similar. While you can still mine and explore the planet you start on, you can also traverse the galaxy, explore new worlds, find different resources, items and of course face the bad guys. In fact, if you run into the same monster that wants to kill you on another planet, it’s nothing but procedural luck of the draw.

Starbound is currently available for early release on Steam, but is still in very early beta stages. Things like balance and world generation are being modified regularly, sometimes daily. The quest system in place at the moment is not much more than a placeholder either. If you don’t mind having random character wipes, and want to help the developers refine the game to it’s finished product, then this early beta access may be for you. If not, you may want to wait for stage two of the three stage testing phases that Chucklefish has put in place, or maybe even longer. At any rate, Starbound certainly has a lot of potential and we’re seeing more of it almost everyday.

The PC as a gaming platform is at the top of it’s game, with a myriad of game developers, from the big names like EA and Ubisoft, to small indie developers and to the classic and iconic developers like id and Valve Software that have always backed the PC as a solid and reliable gaming platform.

The PC has always been a forerunning in gaming, swapping affordability for flexibility. Power can have it’s advantages if the gamer is willing to put a bit more time and effort into chasing down their favorite hobby. It can certainly get pricey and you’ve got all the overhead and more that comes with any personal computer, but it’s well worth the investment of time and money, specially with products like Steam, and now Valve’s new expansion into their own Operating System and specially branded “Steam Box.” Very soon, gamers won’t even need to drop a small fortune to get a high powered, PC running a new version of Linux. Yes, no doubt, that the up and coming 2014 is going to be an excellent year for PC gaming.

Note: List is in random order.

Eden Star:

Are you into Minecraft, but may want something a bit new? Or may be you are really big space nerd as well. Did you happen to enjoy the hell out of games like Portal and Portal 2? Well then, Eden Star may be a game for you. This first person, survival and world manipulation title, is the ultimate sandbox with a twist. The player can manipulate the environment with what looks like an anti-gravity glove, as well as explore a new mysterious and content with its native population.