Despite having a lot of advanced tech available on the middleware side of development, we don’t see many games take advantage of what’s actually available. For instance, built-in physics-based destruction has been a widely available for well over a decade in some game engines, but we rarely see games take advantage of those features. Well, King Art Games will be taking advantage of those features with their upcoming real-time strategy game set in an alternate history of World War I called Iron Harvest.
The game is themed around different faction nations duking it out using soldiers and diesel-powered mechs. High impact artillery and strategic placement are key for victory, along with sniper nests and anti-armor units. Typically you would position your heavy weapons units up high, perhaps in the upper floor of a building or on a rooftop for a tactical advantage. Well, in Iron Harvest you can completely level buildings from top to bottom thanks to the physics-based properties being utilized in the game. I know we’ve already had this in games like Battlefield: Bad Company but thankfully it’s making a return to form on PC.
You can check out how the physics systems will work in Iron Harvest with the technical demonstration video below.
I have to say that I’m thoroughly impressed, especially given that you can destroy any building or object of any complexity or size. We see how the building breaks apart at set points under certain stress points, with plenty of artistic effects in motion to make the implosion and collapse look as dynamic as possible.
Not only can buildings crumble and fall after taking certain amounts of damage, but objects can also fall on top of other objects, causing even more destruction.
This same tactic applies when sending troops out to fight and how they utilize cover. If you can’t get to an enemy squad that has you suppressed, just blow the cover out from under their feet.
The latest internal build for Iron Harvest now includes squad commands, advanced AI pathfinding, different damage types, a usable user interface, and additional weapons and armor types.
The multiplayer 1-vs-1 mode will be implemented by spring, later this year.
You can keep track of the development of Iron Harvest by paying a visit to the game’s official website.
