Planetary Annihilation

Planetary Annihilation is a large-scope real-time strategy game inspired by Total Annihilation.

Overview

Planetary Annihilation and Planetary Annihilation: TITANS are now developed and published by a new company Planetary Annihilation Inc.

Planetary Annihilation was originally developed by Uber Entertainment. The game was designed and developed in the spirit of Total Annihilation, a successful RTS game from the late 90's in which you start with a single über-unit called Commander that has to conquer the map by creating units and consuming resources. The game allows you to conquer entire planets and solar systems with multiple camera zoom all the way from solar-system level to ground unit level.

Kickstarter

The game was announced as a Kickstarter project, with an initial funding request of $900,000. The project raised over $2 million before pledges were locked, reaching enough to add planet types such as Ocean and Metal planets, and an Orchestral soundtrack.

Pre Release

Pre-orders for the game opened on January 16, 2013. Users who funded the Kickstarter over $60, and those who pre-order the game gained access to the alpha and beta tests.

Gameplay

Total Annihilation

Being a spiritual sequel to TA, PA features many of the same mechanics, some expanded upon:

It uses a flow economy, which produces and uses resources constantly, when your stockpile is empty your production is crippled dependent on the negative amount.
It has a focus on macro rather than micro management.
There is a wide range of units, split across Bots, Vehicles, Amphibious Vehicles, Planes, Ships and Submarines, with orbital combat planned for either release or a later expansion.
Buildings and units are split across 2 tech levels (Normally referred to as T1 and T2), with Advanced buildings and units being stronger/more powerful/brilliant for specific uses.
Defenses are more powerful than other RTS games, with players having to attack with a larger force and using the terrain/planet to strike at the opponents' base.

Planetary Annihilation

PA has no unit cap and expands the amount of units that a player can control over entire spherical planets and solar systems:

There is one faction of units and buildings, with other factions added by the modding community after release.
There is inter-planetary combat between planets/moons, with invasions and planetary super weapon game enders.
The planet types (Earth, Tropical, Desert, Ice, Lava, Metal, Moon, Asteroid, Gas, etc) are procedurally generated for each match with a System Editor for players to create their own maps.

ChronoCam

Unlike other RTS games, PA features a live replay system that allows spectators/players to go back through the game whilst the game is still playing to see how a unit was destroyed, or to see that cool explosion one more time.

Modding

One aim of the game is to allow it to be extremely moddable, allowing the community to add in their own factions, races, units, planets, scenarios and entire game modes if they choose to; with another aim being to make it relatively easy.