Jared and I have been spending the week down in the arctic tundra of Atlanta to attend the Hi-Rez Expo. It’s an annual celebration of all the games made by Hi-Rez Studios, and it kicked off with a keynote where they announced a new mobile title: Bot Smashers. Details were vague at the time, but we just sat down with the game’s executive producer Rory “Drybear" Newbrough who overloaded our brains with everything they’re doing with Bot Smashers. Check out the video:

In a nutshell, Bot Smashers is a mash-up of the fast-paced strategy game genre that’s been popularized by games like Clash Royale (Free). It’s got similar short sessions, and gameplay that feels like a really lightweight RTS. Players build their bases beforehand, then effectively have base battles where you dispatch offenses from your various buildings. Elements of your base include power-node like things that have different abilities like spawning units, casting magic spells, or passively defending your base automatically. It’s really cool how it all goes together.

Release plans are super vague so far, and right now they’re just encouraging everyone to head over to the Bot Smashers site to sign up for their upcoming beta test. When that test will happen or when the game will launch is still deep in TBA territory, but we’ve really enjoyed what we’ve seen so far.