Qwxyz Press Release

January 12, 1999
JW Associates of Sunnyvale, CA announces the availability of Qwxyz.

What is Qwxyz (pronounced "quicks") besides a great hangman word?
Qwxyz is the first of a new genre, a realtime strategy - wargame fusion, where the units are truly programmable. You can control exactly where to move, how to attack, and where to repair. And as a general commanding up to 500 alien divisions, you seek to free earth from tyranny.

Rich features include 11 base unit types plus 76 hero types, quick unit builds, sound bite taunts, resizable battle area, stunning music, multiplayer via IP, smooth handicapping from child to genius levels, save game-in-progress, game replay, help screens, online tutorials, and a text file containing full instructions.

A little fewer rules... a little more strategy...

Qwxyz is downloadable from www.jwassociates.com for a free 30 day trial period, then a registration fee of $10.

... a success! - Jon
Awesome! - Jason
My son won't let me on to play - Dave
Its fun! - Julianna

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Editorial

You may not remember me... (Above the rush of the wind, his thoughts are transmitted directly to your mind)
You probably don't remember your abduction... or implant... (The wind increases and lights appear in the sky)
I was assigned to you. To guide your thoughts... to prepare you... (Several large silhouettes dodge in and out of the clouds)
We are a peaceful people and lack the aggression needed for warfare. (The whine rises as the hover crafts come near)
Earth is in a neutral area of space. Only observation is allowed. (The ships descend to the ground in a wind storm)
The ruling council has dissolved... And so the rush for control of the neutral zone... (The war ships shake the ground as they land)
We wish to restore order and let humanity evolve at its own pace... We need your help. (Troops appear)
These troops you see are yours to command. I will guide you. Good luck, commander! (They stand at attention and salute you.)

With the absorbing beats of Fatman music and the constant din of voices and weaponry, it is easy to forget that you are leading an alien army with mankind's destiny at stake. Somehow that all takes a back seat to the threats and the counter-threats of the battle.

As of late, the core gaming community has become numbed by the increase in the number of "follow on" and "clone" games, so it is nice to see some innovation coming from the shareware arena. Qwxyz extends the Realtime Strategy genre to answer some of its harshest critics.

"Where's the strategy?" and "clickfests!" they moan. The AI is simply not strong enough to leave units alone for any time, so players abandon strategic planning, and end up micromanaging their units.

Is it possible to introduce programmability of units? Powerful enough to play effectively, but simple enough to be usable by the large population of gamers? Here's the innovation.

By designing the language powerful enough, most programs are short (most typical are 3-5 keystrokes) and can be memorized similar to the combos in Street Fighter. Since it is a language, the combos can be extended and permutated without limit.

And powerful... yes! One example is the hard tutorial where the computer units have been essentially pre-programmed and then are left to themselves (Of course, you'd be fine tuning yours in a real game). Check it out.

And then build this programming concept over a good game in its own right. One that should and would be played as a complete game without any programmable combos at all.

The game engine we used (ironically named "BattleNet" back in '91) had tested out to be very fun, even as a first-timer's realtime strategy game or a non-strategy gamer's strategy game. We wanted it to be largely intuitive and light on the baggage of the hard core strategy games. (Reminiscent of Empire or Risk.)

Now, with some attention to details... quality music, fx, and models that would raise the standard to the top of shareware... Qwxyz is born.

There are a few fresh ideas that make this truly a different game.

You may discover a little wargamer/military strategist in you.

An idea for the strategist, that complains that strategy is taken out of RTS, here's a shot-in-the-arm to cure his ills. Qwxyz has returned the feeling of formations of troops, supply lines to return repairing units. And units are stripped of some of their innate dominant power, so more importance is given to how effectively they are used.

(One editorial note on the slow starting game speed... I could have easily raised the speed of Army Corps to match Tank Divisions, but that tended to degrade some of the classical uses and weaknesses of Infantry. Also, once other units appear, the game accelerates.)

The game starts with a decision rather than a standard opening game strategy. Since the initial cities defend well for themselves, there is no "boiler plate" defensive strategy to be implemented. That'd be a sure road to the poor house. Rather, the order of business is expansion, expansion, expansion!

For those of you that refuse to play tutorials, naming a few new unit operation ideas here may save your skin. To repair any unit, drag and drop it onto a friendly city. To make engineers field-repair a unit/ruin, drag and drop the engineer onto that unit/ruin.

Did you ever notice in the evening when you really want to play an online game, your ping (latency) is too high and your software locks you out? The idea here is that Qwxyz manages the latency so that even with latencies of several seconds, the game does not crash. It lets you decide if you want to play with the delay or not.

Finally, there are a couple of unit ideas that I think really add to the enjoyment of this game. The first of my two favorite units is Engineer Corps. The engineers can lay mines, create impassable mountains, and dig water ways. It is near "free reign" creative outlet for making static defenses at no cost!

The other of my favorite units is the Nukes. I know that it probably was not the best strategy to build so many, but one game we just couldn't stop buying them... They are just so darn addicting.

Well, really, not all RTS let you online in their demo version. Don't let the low price fool you. Its a real value playing something new online for 30 days for free, or forever for $10.


Street Fighter is a trademark of Capcom, Empire is a trademark of Interstel, and Risk is a trademark of Parker Brothers.