1. Planetary Annihilation: Titans 113132 – Space & Robots Strategy Game Play
2. Planetary Annihilation: Titans 113132 – Space & Robots Strategy Gamecube

Developer: Planetary Annihilation Inc Publisher: Planetary Annihilation Inc Release Date: 18 Aug, 2015 Genre: Strategy, RTS, Sci-fi, Building, Action, Open World, Casual RTS JUST GOT BIGGER. TITANS is the huge stand-alone expansion to the already massive-scale RTS Planetary Annihilation, which includes the base game and adds tons of new features. PLANETARY ANNIHILATION. 88,530 likes 50 talking about this. Colonize solar systems, smash entire worlds, and obliterate your foes in epic battles with multiple players and thousands of units. Space Engineers 22; Space Rangers HD 14; Spintires 40; Splinter Cell 38; Star Trek Online 4. Planetary Annihilation: TITANS (Steam Region Free) GreatShop 381. The following is a complete list of all the units in Planetary Annihilation build 71937.

Planetary Annihilation is a real-time strategyPC game originally developed by Uber Entertainment, whose staff included several video game industry veterans who worked on Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. A stand-alone expansion, Planetary Annihilation: Titans was released in 2015.

As of 2018, Planetary Annihilation Inc. maintains development of both Planetary Annihilation and Planetary Annihilation: TITANS via ongoing content additions and balance changes.

Gameplay[edit]

In interviews with PC Gamer and Joystiq, lead game developer Jon Mavor commented that the game's complexity and playtime can vary, from half-hour, 2-player battles to lengthy matches with potentially 40-players. However, at release 40-player matches were not yet available.^[8][9]Planetary Annihilation features a planet-based map system with different types of planets and asteroid like moons. Players will be able to conquer other planets and even entire systems on maps said to include 'hundreds of worlds', through the Galactic War. These planets are dynamic in that they can be 'annihilated' using other planets or catalysts, a major focus for Uber Entertainment. The game's creators stated that Planetary Annihilation will resemble something of the 1997 real-time strategy Total Annihilation as its focus is more towards 'macro' gameplay as opposed to 'micro' gameplay. In development updates, Mavor has commented that 'a million' in-game units is a design goal of the development team.^[10] The player(s) lose when their last commander is destroyed.

Development[edit]

Jon Mavor wrote the graphics engine for Total Annihilation, and was also the lead programmer on Supreme Commander. The game's art style was created by Steve Thompson, who also previously worked on Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. Voice actor John Patrick Lowrie, who did all the narrations for Total Annihilation, did the narrations for Planetary Annihilation as well.^[6]

According to Mavor, while game visualization began in May 2012, three months prior to the game's public announcement, the game concept itself had been in development for approximately three years by that time. Additionally, the server and game engine technologies that would underpin the game had been in development for several years prior to the game's public reveal, with some of the server technology having already made its way into PlayFab, Uber Entertainment's back-end server network.^[11]

Kickstarter funding[edit]

Rather than pursue investor funding, Planetary Annihilation's developer Uber Entertainment chose to use the crowdfunding site Kickstarter for their financial backing. They revealed the game to the public on August 15, 2012, with their Kickstarter funding goal set at $900,000.^[6] The concept video used for the pledge campaign took approximately three months to go from initial pencil-and-paper designs to final animation.^[12]

As the campaign began, pledges came in quickly, reaching $450,000 by the fifth day of the campaign. On August 22, Uber Entertainment announced the first set of 'stretch goals' for the Kickstarter campaign, that is, additional features for the game that would be included or 'unlocked' by exceeding the funding goal. As the campaign progressed, additional goals were revealed, with the goals eventually including naval units and water planets at $1.1 million, gas giants and orbiting platforms at $1.3 million, lava and metal planets at $1.5 million, a 'Galactic War' feature at $1.8 million, a full orchestral score at $2 million, and a behind-the-scenes documentary if the pledges should surpass $2.1 million.^[6][13]

By the fifteenth day of the Kickstarter campaign, Planetary Annihilation reached its funding goal of $900,000, and by the campaign's conclusion on September 14, 2012, Planetary Annihilation had raised approximately $2,228,000 via Kickstarter and an additional $101,000 via PayPal. As a result, all stretch goals were achieved.

Kickstarter featured Planetary Annihilation as the 11th Kickstarter project to have raised over a million dollars, using it to highlight the successes that games had been enjoying on the site.^[14]

Release[edit]

The Alpha was launched on June 8, 2013^[15] for alpha-level backers, with Steam Early Access since the 13th of June, 2013.^[16]

The Beta version of the game was released on September 26, 2013,^[17] and it was later opened up to all initial Kickstarter backers on November 19, 2013.^[18] On December 6, 2013, the final release date was postponed, with the game expected 'to be feature-complete in early 2014'.^[19]

Planetary Annihilation launched on September 5, 2014 on Windows, Mac and Linux.^[20]

Planetary Annihilation: Titans, a standalone expansion of the game was released on August 18, 2015. It adds 21 units to the game, including five titan class units. It also adds multi-level terrain, a bounty mode, and an improved tutorial.^[21]

Planetary Annihilation: Titans was gifted free to original Kickstarter backers from 2012^[22] with a 66% off upgrade discount for other owners.^[23]

A permanent 90% off discount for the upgrade to Planetary Annihilation: Titans was announced by Planetary Annihilation Inc on August 17, 2018.^[1]

Classic Planetary Annihilation was removed from sale on September 5, 2018, but continues to receive updates for existing owners.^[24]

Critical reception[edit]

Planetary Annihilation received a mixed reception upon release. The game was praised for its ambitious concept, but criticized for playability and overall incompleteness. Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Brendan Caldwell writes, 'Planetary Annihilation is a slick, modernised RTS, engineered from the ground up to appeal to the fast-paced, competitive, hotkey-loving esports crowd.'^[28]PC Gamer's Emanuel Maiberg, experiencing hard to learn gameplay unaided by proper tutorials and disrupted by technical issues, states 'I know there's a great, massive RTS beneath all these issues. I've seen glimpses of it when everything works correctly, but at the moment I can't recommend Planetary Annihilation without a warning that it's bound to disappoint and frustrate, even if you do teach yourself to play it.'^[29]IGN's Rob Zacny summarizes, 'A cool idea about robot armies battling across an entire solar system breaks apart when the realities of controlling multiple worlds at the same time set in.'^[27]

Planetary Annihilation Inc.[edit]

On August 17, 2018, an announcement was posted on planetaryannihilation.com, the game's official website. It informed players that a new company named Planetary Annihilation Inc., formed from original PA developers, Kickstarter backers, and dedicated community members, had acquired the rights to Planetary Annihilation and Planetary Annihilation: TITANS. They pledged to make PA into 'the best game that it can be, one ready to take full advantage of the many changes in technology since development started back in 2012.'^[24]

As of February 2021, the game has received many new balance changes/tweaks, and several new units have been added. In addition, PA Inc. continues to support tournaments, seasonal events, and a 'participation prize' during ranked seasons for players at the top of their leagues.^[30]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^ab'Planetary Annihilation Inc: The Future of PA and Titans'. Planetary Annihilation: Titans. 2018-08-17. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
2. ^'Planetary Annihilation - A Next Generation RTS'.
3. ^'Re: What's the language used in the video?'.
4. ^'Change is good'. Archived from the original on 2014-05-24.
5. ^'Interview with Howard Mostrom, Audio Director and Composer for Uber Entertainment, Creator of the upcoming PC title Planetary Annihilation'. Archived from the original on 2013-06-20.
6. ^ ^abcd'Planetary Annihilation - A Next Generation RTS by Uber Entertainment Inc — Kickstarter'. Kickstarter.com. 2012-08-15. Retrieved 2012-09-02.
7. ^'Planetary Annihilation Beta release date news post'. Uberent. Archived from the original on 2013-09-16. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
8. ^'Planetary Annihilation interview [Updated with Kickstarter link]'. PC Gamer. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
9. ^Hinkle, David (2012-08-15). 'Planetary Annihilation, a new RTS Uber wants to get Kickstarted'. Joystiq. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
10. ^'Twitch.tv Interview'. Archived from the original on 2012-11-09. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
11. ^Pikover, James. 'Everything you need to know about Planetary Annihilation, before it completes funding'. Venturebeat. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
12. ^'The PA Report - When $900,000 isn't much money: the story of Planetary Annihilation's Kickstarter'. Penny-arcade.com. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-09-02.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
13. ^'Planetary Annihilation - A Next Generation RTS by Uber Entertainment Inc :: Kicktraq'. Kicktraq.com. 2012-08-15. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
14. ^'The Year of the Game » The Kickstarter Blog — Kickstarter'. Kickstarter.com. 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
15. ^Jon (2013-06-08). 'Mavor's Rants: Annihilation alpha launched!'. Mavorsrants.com. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
16. ^'Planetary Annihilation on Steam'. Store.steampowered.com. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
17. ^Nicholson, Brad (2013-09-26). 'Beta Begins Now'. Uber Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2013-10-01.
18. ^Nicholson, Brad (2013-11-19). 'You're In! Come Smash Some Planets With Us, Backers!'. Uber Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2013-11-23. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
19. ^Nicholson, Brad (2013-12-06). 'Planetary Annihilation Now Coming When It's Done'. Uber Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2013-12-08. Retrieved 2013-12-07.
20. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2014-09-07. Retrieved 2014-09-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
21. ^Yin-Poole, Wesley (August 18, 2015). 'Planetary Annihilation: Titans announced, released'. Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
22. ^'Update 116: Planetary Annihilation: TITANS have arrived! · Planetary Annihilation - A Next Generation RTS'. Kickstarter. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
23. ^'Planetary Annihilation :: Planetary Annihilation: TITANS is available now!'. steamcommunity.com. 2015-08-18. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
24. ^ ^ab'planetaryannihilation.com - The Future of PA and Titans'. Planetary Annihilation: Titans. 2018-09-05. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
25. ^http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/planetary-annihilation
26. ^Smith, Quintin (16 September 2014). 'Planetary Annihilation review'. Eurogamer. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
27. ^ ^abZacny, Rob (September 5, 2014). 'Planetary Annihilation Review - Worlds Apart'. IGN. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
28. ^'Planetary Annihilation review Rock, Paper, Shotgun'. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
29. ^'Planetary Annihilation review'. PC Gamer. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
30. ^'TITANS 1v1 Ranked Season 10'. Planetary Annihilation: TITANS. 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-02-06.

External links[edit]

Planetary Annihilation: Titans 113132 – Space & Robots Strategy Game Play

Star Theory Games (formerly Uber Entertainment Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington. Founded in March 2008 by Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor, it released its first title, Monday Night Combat, in 2010 to positive reviews. The company assumed the name Star Theory Games in 2019. It wound down in March 2020 after the contract for its game Kerbal Space Program 2 was canceled by publisher Private Division, which set up a new studio and hired a large portion of Star Theory's staff in December 2019 to continue the game's development, before Star Theory and its remaining staff became unable to secure new publishing agreements as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

History[edit]

Uber Entertainment was founded by Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor in March 2008 in Bellevue, Washington.^[1][2] They became the studio's president and chief technology officer, respectively.^[3][4]

In September 2012, the company successfully ran a Kickstartercrowdfunding campaign for its real-time strategy title, Planetary Annihilation. The fundraiser produced over US$2.2 million in funds. The original retail release was slated for December 2013,^[5] but was postponed, with the game expected 'to be feature-complete in early 2014.' ^[6]

On March 31, 2014, Uber Entertainment announced PlayFab^[7] as a spinout to continue development of their UberNet back-end gaming service. On January 29, 2018 PlayFab was acquired by Microsoft to form Microsoft Azure PlayFab.^[8]

On October 2, 2014, Uber Entertainment announced a new Kickstarter campaign for a real-time strategy game, Human Resources. The goal was set for $1.4 million, though the project was cancelled October 21, 2014 after projections showed the fundraiser would fail to raise the needed capital.^[9]

On August 18, 2015, Uber Entertainment released Planetary Annihilation: Titans as a stand-alone expansion to Planetary Annihilation.

On August 17, 2018, Planetary Annihilation Inc^[10] was founded to continue development and publishing of the Planetary Annihilation and Planetary Annihilation: Titans games.

At the 2019 Gamescom, Uber Entertainment announced it had changed its name to Star Theory Games, and was working with publisher Private Division, a subsidiary of Take-Two, to produce Kerbal Space Program 2. Creative director Nate Simpson said that the name change was due to their prior name being confused with Uber, the car-share company; Simpson noted that Uber had previously gotten permission from them to use the 'Uber' name before, which they had granted.^[11] The original Kerbal Space Program had been produced by Squad, but Take-Two acquired the rights to the series in 2017, helping Squad to publish and meet their commitments to their players before handing over the intellectual property.^[12] Private Division opted to bring in Star Theory, a larger team but with similar capabilities, to work in parallel to develop the sequel while assisting Squad with the original game.^[13]

However, Take-Two announced it had created a new studio within Private Division in February 2020, later named Intercept Games, and had transferred development duties of Kerbal Space Program 2 there; along with this, members of Star Theory, including creative director Nate Simpson and studio head Jeremy Ables, had joined with this new studio, leaving Star Theory's role in the game unclear.^[14] According to Jason Schreier for Bloomberg News, around December 2019, shortly after they negotiated an extension to complete work on the game, Take-Two wanted to acquire Star Theory but Berry and Mavor did not like the terms of the deal, so Take-Two instead established Intercept Games and offered all Star Theory staff a position there, while Berry and Mavor encouraged the staff to stay with Star Theory. By February about twelve of the 30 staff had moved to Take-Two, and Kerbal contract was pulled from them by Take-Two. The remaining staff had planned to prepare prototypes and have material ready to present to publishers at the March 2020 Game Developers Conference, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference and others like it were closed down. Star Theory Games was shut down on March 4, 2020 as a result; some of the staff ended up at Take-Two to join the former staff.^[1]

Games developed[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abSchreier, Jason (June 3, 2020). 'Game Publisher Cancels Contract With Developer, Then Tries to Poach Its Entire Team'. Bloomberg News. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
2. ^Berry, Bob (January 12, 2009). 'When does a Startup Graduate?'. Uber Entertainment.
3. ^Berry, Bob (August 27, 2008). 'Letter from the President'. Uber Entertainment.
4. ^Mavor, Jonathan (August 27, 2008). 'Introductions'. Uber Entertainment.
5. ^'Planetary Annihilation Kickstarter Page'. Kickstarter, Inc. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
6. ^Brad Nicholson (2013-12-06). 'Planetary Annihilation Now Coming When It's Done'. Uber Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2013-12-08. Retrieved 2013-12-07.
7. ^'Former PopCap exec starts PlayFab to help game studios with back-end support'. GeekWire. 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
8. ^'Microsoft acquires PlayFab, accelerating game development innovation in the cloud'. The Official Microsoft Blog. 2018-01-29. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
9. ^Comes, John (October 20, 2014). 'The End is Nigh'. Kickstarter, Inc. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
10. ^'Planetary Annihilation Inc: The Future of PA and Titans'. Planetary Annihilation: TITANS. 2018-08-17. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
11. ^Robinson, Andy (August 23, 2019). 'An In-depth Conversation With The Creator Of KSP2'. Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
12. ^Phillips, Tom (31 May 2017). 'Kerbal Space Program bought by Rockstar parent company Take-Two'. Eurogamer. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
13. ^Savage, Phil (August 19, 2019). 'Kerbal Space Program 2's new devs on adding interstellar flight, colonies and more to the PC's greatest space sim'. PC Gamer. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
14. ^Robinson, Andy (February 20, 2020). 'Take-Two forms new studio for KSP2, with original developer's role unclear'. Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved February 20, 2020.

External links[edit]

Planetary Annihilation: Titans 113132 – Space & Robots Strategy Gamecube