Ben and Tao gear up to destroy everything and take no prisoners in dieselpunk real time strategy (RTS) barn stormer, Iron Harvest 1920+. Ben goes on the attack while Tao rallies to defend as they discuss RTS versus base-building, retro-futurism, parallel histories and the rising [insertgenre]punk trend, destructible environments, micro-squad management and balancing enemy AI, and Nvidia Geforce Now issues. As always, they cover the gritty questions, like: how many employees constitute a ‘small studio’? Is there such a thing as a grating language? Is everything better with legs? Was cowardice the reason Ben dodged every invite to a multiplayer game that Tao sent? (We may never know.)
Some story spoilers, warnings given in advance.
Content Warning: PEGI 12. Machines! The acrid stench of war! Casual cursing.
Clarifications:
Turns out there really was a bear rescued by Polish soldiers, called Wojtek, who ended up going to war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twr38iHXYVw
According to their own website, King Art Games do indeed have 70+ employees: https://kingart-games.com/page/1-about-us
When Tao says C&C, he means Command & Conquer (1995)
Company of Heroes is a 2006 real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. Company of Heroes 2 was released in 2013.
Cossacks: European Wars is a real-time strategy game made by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, released on 24 April 2001.
‘Red Alert 2’ is Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, released in 2000.
Audio extracts:
War Horse (2011)
HBOs ‘The Pacific’
Dawn of War 2
Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty theme
Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings theme
Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos theme
Frostpunk Theme by Piotr Musial
Age of Empires Soundtrack - Track #1 - Conquest
Nancy Sinatra - These boots are made for walkin’
Tombstone feat. Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp
Gandalf Leaving Edoras - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Hercules (2014)
Miss Congeniality (2000)
Iron Man feat. Robert Downey Jr.
Age of Mythology OST - A Cat Named Mittens
Rawhide by Frankie Laine
The Simpsons - Look At All These Idiots
Cossacks - European Wars OST
Salutations from Subnautica OST
Red Dead Redemption 2 - harmonica
Telegram notification sounds
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E23 Iron Harvest