Developer Radiant Entertainment announced a PC-exclusive, free-to-play, robot-centric fighting game called "Rising Thunder" at the Evo fighting game tournament last weekend. Some may remember Radiant Entertainment as the developer behind voxel-based sandbox builder Stonehearth. Though Stonehearth is still in alpha, Radiant Entertainment has pooled their resources to develop online-focused competitive fighting game Rising Thunder, forming a team headed by none other than Seth Killian. For those unfamiliar with big names in the fighting game community, Seth Killian, sometimes referred to as "S-Kill", was a developer at Capcom and played a big role in balancing Street Fighter IV. He was also a community manager at Capcom, and a respected fighting game tournament commentator. Radiant Entertainment's founders, Tom and Tony Cannon, are also known amongst fighting game fans as the founder of the international Evo fighting game tournament and the developer of the latency-hiding GGPO netcode (which serves as the foundation of every modern fighting game's netcode), respectively.
Needless to say, Rising Thunder has an attractive pedigree. This is good as fighting game enthusiasts may quickly turn away otherwise once they discover that Rising Thunder does away with the complex movement and button combinations most fighting games require players learn to even get their foot in the door. Instead, special moves in Rising Thunder are mapped entirely to buttons. Developer Seth Killian explained this approach as a means of dealing away with the rigorous practice necessary to truly start playing a game like Street Fighter or Tekken correctly. Instead, newcomers can hop right into the tense strategy and mind games that compose the true nature of a modern fighting game. Granted, fighting game veterans may have to unlearn years of practice and muscle memory, but what is here still does resemble a deep fighting experience like in Street Fighter or Skull Girls. What's more is Rising Thunder will be free-to-play, focusing on cosmetic updates rather than gameplay-altering content. Being a PC exclusive, and with no plans for a console release at the moment, Rising Thunder risks slipping under the radar if it isn't indeed a competent fighter in its own right. But with a technical alpha that will go live next week, and characters with racially diverse personalities, Rising Thunder seems ready for the occasion.
Take a look for yourself at the Rising Thunder gameplay video below. Players interested in stepping up can sign up for the alpha here.
[embed width="696" height="392"]https://youtu.be/0zWIe2_2qkI
Source: PC Gamer