The RTS oxymoron?

GeneralJist said:
I've NOTICED A STRANGE CONTRADICTION.

You've barely noticed anything.

GeneralJist said:
There are more and more tutorials FOR HOW TO MAKE RTS

You've observed that there are many tutorials on how to make an RTS game.
Who're making them? Do developers at AAA studios need to watch them to make an RTS? (no)
They're by hobbyists - for hobbyists. Some of them use WIP, failed projects or learnings from those of us who are still amateur game developers.
It's sometimes right that, when you can't accomplish something, you can at least talk about what you've learned (often known as those who can't do, teach)
It often rings true when you're watching someone doing something gamedev-related on youtube.

GeneralJist said:
ONLY A FEW RTS GAMES IN DEVELOPMENT

How do you know? Does everyone disclose what they're doing at all times? (no)

SuperVGA said:
They're by hobbyists - for hobbyists. Some of them use WIP, failed projects or learnings from those of us who are still amateur game developers.

Yeah, i thought the same. RTS is a classic genre, so it needs tutorials just like PacMan, although there are no more new AAA PacMan games.

GeneralJist said:
So, over the past few years, interest for real time strategy has seemingly returned.

I did not notice such trend. We get one big RTS every 3 years i feel. Actually only the upcoming Dune comes to my mind. So RTS seems not very popular in contrast to RPG, Action Adventures or even FPS.
The reason seems obvious: RTS isn't immersive and it's a bad genre to tell a story. But that's what the mainstream gamer wants, and this differs from the nerdy hardcore gamer from the early days.
Still, i think RTS is good genre and sleeping princess. Likely many people are hungry for it, but it's just not the main target for AAA studios. Last but not least because it requires a mouse and gamepads suck.
For indies it's surely still attractive. Content creation cost is low, and a niche audience should be there.

• Quantity of extant tutorials is correlated with the number of projects to write a tutorial, not of projects to write a new game.
• I have a gut feeling that the RTS genre is particularly suitable for tutorials (and examples) because of its good range of technical, graphical and game balance challenges, and that good amateur RTS game authors might have a greater than average propensity to write tutorials.
• Can you date the abundance of RTS tutorials you noticed? They might reflect interest for the genre in the past, due to evergreen topics (e.g. the design space of artillery vs. infantry units) and hard to notice obsolescence (e.g. how to begin writing a RTS with Unity, but Unity of 7 years ago).

@supervga

Why the hostile attitude?

GeneralJist said:
Why the hostile attitude?

It didn't seem particularly hostile to me. I thought he asked good questions.

SuperVGA said:
You've barely noticed anything.

Well, I thought that sounded like he was questioning the whole point of this thread here, saying I've noticed very little, and where he said people don't disclose what they are doing at all times is a bit flippant..

I apologize for that, I should have put that statement as a conclusion rather than an intro. But yes, on topic, I don't think there's anything to notice; I doubt your two observations have any significant correlation.

one thing possibly you dont having in count:

much people dont know neither make good a single-player game

majority of people dont have idea of how “deal” with multi-player code or games (i meant programming massive multiplayer and manage all that it concerns)

cos i think if you talking RTS you also talking of be multiplayer game.

and even being RTS single-player….. really do you think people know much about a good A.I. for the PC part?