Offworld Trading Company Early Access On The Way

Stardock and Mohawk games have revealed that the new economic real-time strategy game Offworld Trading Company will be heading to Steam Early Access on February 12. Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson is excited to bring this slightly different take on the RTS genre to the forefront.

"It's an economic RTS ,and by that you're not really building units, but attempting to win a victory through resources. There are 13 different resources in the game from raw to processed materials, and you're constantly planning around the future as prices fluctuate based on supply and demand," says Johnson. "There are of course ways to interact with your opponents as well, from the auction and black markets to EMP and sabotage."

Gameplay is more like a tycoon, sim game, or M.U.L.E., if that ancient reference means anything to you - where the conflict is definitely happening with your opponents, but you're more focused on managing your own economy and making sure it develops. Games take around 30-40 minutes.

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Buying low and selling high are the keys to victory, and the game will generally end by one player actually buying out the other players. Each player has an assigned value that's constantly available, so players will know who's ahead - and who to target for the next act of covert operations or market manipulation.

Offworld Trading Company features a single player campaign and up to 8 players in multiplayer market mayhem.