Realm of the Titans
Encyclopedia
Realm of the Titans is a Chinese video game developed by Ningbo Shengguang Tianyi for the PC platform. The game is heavily inspired by the Warcraft III custom map, Defense of the Ancients
.
, Australia
. At University, both had became quite prominent in the Australian DOTA player base and had both previously qualified for the Asia-Pacific championship in Singapore
. At this point in time, there were few commercial games released using this formula (although many Starcraft
and Warcraft III maps existed such as Aeon of Strife), but they decided it had the potential to be a commercial genre. This proved to be correct as multiple games of this type were released while RotT was being developed such as League of Legends
and Heroes of Newerth
.
RotT is the first title from developer Ningbo Shengguang Tianyi, which is a division of Qian's father's industrial conglomerate Ningbo Shengguang Industries.
, with player support, server operation and company administration based at the parent company in Yinzhou District
Ningbo
.
The main server was opened to the public on the 30th of October 2010, just over two years after the project started.
Alpha testing began in North America on the April 7, 2011.
Realm of the Titans uses the BigWorld engine, which was originally designed for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
presenting some issues of adapting both the client and the server to handle the very different requirements.
In addition, there is a fifth skill which is not tied to character selection or experience; it can be changed every three minutes and becomes more potent every ten. It becomes a way to either supplement a character's weakness or complement its strength and can be switched as the game changes phase. There are 25 of these skills and may be active or passive in nature.
Another unique addition is the four bosses, four huge and unique NPCs
in the four corners of the map. If the enemy bosses are killed, the player's own boss will charge down the center lane in the way that a normal "creep" NPC would.
As of the 14th of April 2011 there are 54 heroes in the Chinese version with new heroes added regularly.
Matchmaking is done by the average rating of the players in a team, rating is calculated by wins and losses as well as personal contributions to those results. Players are put into a match fitting certain conditions such as a similar rating (depending on the number of players online), the same ISP (China only), and that the number of teams on both sides may differ by at most one (therefore a side containing one team of 5 players may only battle another team of five, a team of four plus a lone player or a team of three plus a team of two).
At the time of writing, Realm of the Titans has not yet received any official reviews in the west.
Defense of the Ancients
Defense of the Ancients is a custom scenario for the real-time strategy game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft...
.
History
Development was started in 2008 soon after CEO Qian Wenhai and Lead Designer Zhou Weifeng returned to China after studying in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. At University, both had became quite prominent in the Australian DOTA player base and had both previously qualified for the Asia-Pacific championship in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. At this point in time, there were few commercial games released using this formula (although many Starcraft
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
and Warcraft III maps existed such as Aeon of Strife), but they decided it had the potential to be a commercial genre. This proved to be correct as multiple games of this type were released while RotT was being developed such as League of Legends
League of Legends
The BetFred League of Legends was a darts tournament featuring some of the legends of the game of darts which commenced in May 2008. The tournament is broadcast on Setanta Sports in the United Kingdom....
and Heroes of Newerth
Heroes of Newerth
Heroes of Newerth is a free-to-play science fantasy, action real-time strategy game developed by S2 Games for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The game was heavily inspired by the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne custom map, Defense of the Ancients and is S2 Games' first game title in the...
.
RotT is the first title from developer Ningbo Shengguang Tianyi, which is a division of Qian's father's industrial conglomerate Ningbo Shengguang Industries.
Development
A team of developers was assembled, primarily staff previously experienced in outsourcing but not in an start-to-finish development of a project. Development was wholly done in ShanghaiShanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, with player support, server operation and company administration based at the parent company in Yinzhou District
Yinzhou District, Ningbo
- History :In 220 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, established three counties called Yin, Mao and Gouzhang . Later they were merged into Gouzhang county during the Sui Dynasty. It was renamed Mao county during the Tang Dynasty. It had assumed its current name of "Yin" in...
Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...
.
The main server was opened to the public on the 30th of October 2010, just over two years after the project started.
Alpha testing began in North America on the April 7, 2011.
Realm of the Titans uses the BigWorld engine, which was originally designed for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
presenting some issues of adapting both the client and the server to handle the very different requirements.
Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to DotA wherein players battle in three lanes to accumulate experience and gold. Characters have four skills which may be upgraded after gaining experience.In addition, there is a fifth skill which is not tied to character selection or experience; it can be changed every three minutes and becomes more potent every ten. It becomes a way to either supplement a character's weakness or complement its strength and can be switched as the game changes phase. There are 25 of these skills and may be active or passive in nature.
Another unique addition is the four bosses, four huge and unique NPCs
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
in the four corners of the map. If the enemy bosses are killed, the player's own boss will charge down the center lane in the way that a normal "creep" NPC would.
As of the 14th of April 2011 there are 54 heroes in the Chinese version with new heroes added regularly.
Matchmaking is done by the average rating of the players in a team, rating is calculated by wins and losses as well as personal contributions to those results. Players are put into a match fitting certain conditions such as a similar rating (depending on the number of players online), the same ISP (China only), and that the number of teams on both sides may differ by at most one (therefore a side containing one team of 5 players may only battle another team of five, a team of four plus a lone player or a team of three plus a team of two).
Reception
Realm of the Titans was received positively in China. It was particularly praised for its game balance, playability and production values.At the time of writing, Realm of the Titans has not yet received any official reviews in the west.