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A new developer with some veteran names announced a new real-time strategy game this morning, featuring miniature mechs.
BonusXP demoed Servo, an RTS with a custom-mech component, at the Game Developers Conference. Servo combines traditional build-and-annihilate RTS gameplay, but adds the ability to create and upgrade war machines (called Servos) piloted by mercenaries.
BonusXP is run by David Pottinger (Age of Empires) and Bruce Shelley (Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Age of Empires) out of Allen, Texas. Servo will be published by Stardock Entertainment when it launches later this year for PC. Stardock did not immediately announce whether Mac or Linux versions will be available. It will be available for pre-order today for $20.
The game is based in a future time when we’ve screwed up the planet, left, and finally returned to Earth to face the attacks of the alien Bloomspawn and attempt to recolonize. Your Servos are attempting to profit from the Bloom, which consumed the planet hundreds of years ago. Bloom can power upgrades to your forces and supporting units.
Above: Your mini-mechs can be upgraded with ranged or melee weapons, among other improvements.
You’ll scavenge parts for your mechs during single-player and co-op campaigns or from PvP battles. Each Servo has more than a dozen slots where you can add new parts, including void beams and gigantic nemodium blade swords.
You combine several of your Servos with supporting drone armies to enact your plan of domination. Oh, and there are the usual economic and strategic building components, the developers said. Story mode will have 25 missions, and matches will be on the shorter side, Pottinger said.
“Servo is intended to be a little bit of a shorter experience,” he said in the game’s launch trailer. “Most of the games that we play, whether they’re co-op or competitive, they tend to be 10 or 15 minutes long. And that feels actually pretty great. You can play a 10 or 15 minute game, you get a new part … and you have at it again.”
For more, check out the launch trailer: