Gundam RTS is a real time strategy game based on the Gundam Universal Century time line. So that means that the Earth Federation and Zeon are at war. This is an interview with the main man behind 'Gundam RTS' on the spring engine: Steve Smith better known on the internet as Smoth.

Can you give a short introduction about your self?
Not much to say really, I was born, went to school, went to college and now work as an application developer specializing in .Net. I am a huge gundam fan and probably the biggest gundam nerd I know. Oh and one of my prized possessions is a copy of the gundam encyclopedia that I keep in a firesafe.

How did you get in touch with mechs?
Well, it pretty much started with Voltron and Transformers as a kid, man those shows were great. Transformers the movie is still fun to watch! Also, Starscream is the bomb!

Why Gundams?
That is probably a longer story but I love the Mechs in gundam, there is a certain beauty to their subtlety. A lot of mechs and scifi try to be overly covered in greebles and details. It is a visual clutter and for some reason mobile suit gundam has mobile suits so well done. This is part of the reason I react hatefully to the version KA of the rx78. Even though I will say that I think Katoki is a great designer. 

When / how did you get the idea to create a Gundam RTS?
Well, I love strategy games, I spent years as a warlord for wizkids, wrote an rpg and strategy game that many of my friends liked. We still play the strategy game. Anyway, I used to spend a lot of time on the mobile suit gundam battle system table top board. The project was really cool and based off of warhammer 40K. However, I began to realize that no matter what, playing would require a lot of action figures. So I realized, holy smokes, I am a programmer and artist I can make a gundam mod! So I started a Total Conversion for total annihilation and while I was developing it, right before completion the spring engine showed up!

How long have you been working on Gundam RTS ?
Since december of 04. I started by looking at the RTS engine games at the time then testing concepts out. It took 1 week to settle on total annihilation. Here are some pics of the very first versions of gundam.

What is your favorite feature in Gundam RTS ?
Probably the kampfer's ability to fly over water and in the next version right up hills if there is no rubble/rocks in the way!

You are now focusing on a balanced multiplayer game, will there be a single player campaign?
At the moment I have tentative plans for some basic missions but full campaign work cannot begin yet. Honestly, after Federation and Zeon, other Universal century factions may be done, of course, I am not making promises because it depends on where I am in my life at that point. Honestly, I think the best answer to this question is that I am thinking of some fun missions but I want to focus more on content.

Any fan can make missions, which I would like seeing. There are a lot of fan fictions out there and it would be neat to see people setting up scenarios with their stories and characters! Spring is pretty easy to work with but I am no writer, if someone learns to map and a limited amount of scripting that person can make missions with stories and all! One of the changes with the next version will be that I finally settled on a set of unit names so that mission work could begin for people who are interested in doing them. I have a forum for gundam, spring related things and love all one year war discussion *HINT*.

What is your favorite side and why?
within the one year war, it is hands down Zeon. From the elegant mobile suits to the stylish uniforms, Zeon is great, I also like the ideals of Zeon more. Even if the Zabis twisted those ideals.

What is your favorite unit in the game?
That is a hard call, my favorite to use would be Char in his Gelgoog, very fast and fun. However, as far as a mass produced unit, the Acguy can only be spoken about with love.

What kind of features have you planned for the future of Gundam RTS ?
Right now we are in the midst of a new economy, it is great, I am really proud of it. I will not let the cats out of the bag but one thing we are looking into is subfactions to represent "what-ifs" for example a Zeon faction that ops to use Gyans instead of Gelgoogs.

Which question do you want to ask to other mech game developers?
Where is my Escaflowne mod and why are you not making it!

Thank you for this interview!

If your getting interested into Gundam RTS, here are some useful links:
Official website: cs.selu.edu/~ssmith/GUNDAM/
Moddb profile: moddb.com/games/6372/gundam-rts
Spring engine: spring.clan-sy.com/