Threes creator puts PS4 title Close Castles ‘on hold’

Development has been halted on PS4 title Close Castles.

Its creator, Asher Vollmer, is best known for making hit mobile title Threes.

Close Castles is currently on hold. I am working on a new mobile game now,” he said on Twitter. I designed myself into a corner. I need to take a step back for a while.”

The game was announced by Vollmer in December. It’s a minimalist RTS designed to ease the pain her perceives many experience with some of the genre’s biggest titles.

Let’s face it: RTSes are miserable pain engines designed to give players the worst possible experience,” he told the PlayStation Blog. They’re kind of fun (though deeply stressful) right up until the first interaction with another player and then it’s all downhill for the next forty-or-so minutes. You play until someone gives up. They are lonely exercises in sadomasochism.

I made Threes because I love small, minimalist games. Close Castles is no different. The games are incredibly quick: they average around three minutes each on the fastest game speed. The premise of Close Castles is simple: You and your greatest rival have built your castles WAY too close to each other. Your job is to build up your kingdom (despite the cramped quarters) while simultaneously sending out your loyal citizens to tear down the enemy’s vulnerable castle. We plan to have an amazing, harrowing story that somehow justifies the fact that all these castles were built in such proximity.”

It sounds like the door hasn’t yet been firmly shut on the game, so a re-emergence in the future remains possible.

Close Castles is currently on hold. I am working on a new mobile game now.

— Asher Vollmer / AsherVo@mastodon.social (@AsherVo) February 5, 2015

@keithburgun 1) not yet! 2) I designed myself into a corner. I need to take a step back for a while.

— Asher Vollmer / AsherVo@mastodon.social (@AsherVo) February 5, 2015