Grey Goo is a classic PC RTS from Petroglyph and WETA Workshop

Petroglyph Games announced today that they're working on sci-fi PC RTS Grey Goo in collaboration with special effects and prop company WETA Workshop, known for its work on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. Grey Goo will be the first game published by Grey Box, and WETA Workshop will work with Petroglyph to help develop a visual aesthetic for the game's futuristic alien environments. PC Gamer published an exclusive preview of the game which suggests that it will be a simple, straightforward spiritual successor to classic RTS games like the early Command & Conquer titles. That's not so surprising when you consider that Petroglyph is an independent, RTS-focused studio founded by former Westwood Studios developers who worked on games like Command & Conquer: Red Alert. But Petroglyph has a rocky history -- the studio most recently cancelled its Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of Victory, a World War II RTS, and before that it was working on Trion Worlds' troubled MMO-RTS End of Nations before Trion Worlds removed Petroglyph from the project in favor of an in-house development team. Now Petroglyph seems to be tackling a project that cleaves a little closer to its roots -- a sci-fi PC RTS that features traditional base-building mechanics, three playable races, and a single-player campaign alongside both LAN and Steam-powered multiplayer systems. Grey Goo is expected to launch later this year, and Gamasutra has reached out to Petroglyph representatives for further information on the game's development.