Command and Conquer Generals was cancelled a month or two ago, so that might mean not really? RTS games aren't doing so well. I think End of Nations was cancelled in 2013 as well.

There are Android devices out there too (with Android having majority market share on tablets too now, I believe, if one cares about that). But the ~5" smartphone is the device that people now take with them everywhere, putting both 10" tablets and laptops as things that people only take with them sometimes (though 7" Android devices like the Nexus 7 are also very portable). Either way, I don't think it matters - there are more than enough people using PCs to play non-casual games; and all kinds of platforms have more than enough competition from other games (Google Play and IOS seem completely saturated with games). The immediate choice is the technology/toolkits/languages used, as it may make later porting to mobile platforms easier or harder depending on the choice.

When it comes to non-casual games, yes on the one hand I'd happily play a non-casual game for hours on a tablet if I found one I liked, OTOH, people do this with laptops too anyway. But I think a bigger issue is that "casual" doesn't necessarily mean "only play for a short time" (people seem to play casual games for hours, doesn't stop them being casual), but "easy to pick up". Whilst people are used to spending time to learn how to play a PC game (whether reading the manual, following tutorials, investing hours into it), for "mobile" OSs, people seem to expect more of an instant gratification - I'd argue most people won't even bother to read the instructions on the download page, and a non-casual game may risk 1 star reviews from people moaning that it isn't instantly understandable, unless you are good with targetting/marketing the game.

With the increased availability of touchscreen laptops, it's probably good practice to make a game potentially somewhat touchscreen friendly, especially things like being usable with only left mouse button. Actually this is good practice even for straightforward laptops - I find games that require right mouse button can be a pain to play on laptop with a touchpad.

Command and Conquer Generals was cancelled a month or two ago, so that might mean not really? RTS games aren't doing so well. I think End of Nations was cancelled in 2013 as well.

IMHO, it was cancelled because they tried to go free-to-play with it and couldn't get a payment model to work. Realistically, free-to-play and Command and Conquer style strategy games don't work that well. Age of Empires: Online is probably one of the most successful examples, and let's be honest, the free-to-play implementation was diabolically horrible and ruined the parts of the game that were quite enjoyable.

Gotta go with maybe? I personally can't go backwards, not even to StarCraft 2, it's too anachronistic for my tastes. I never want to ever build a peon, or scout with a peon, or have peons mine for resources next to conveniently located tiles, or build supply depots or farms. But obviously people still play SC2, even though in reality, it has not greatly changed the formula from SC1, which wasn't really that big of a departure from it's Warcraft roots.

Can I hope that you'll make a Kohan remake instead?

Can I hope that you'll make a Kohan remake instead?

Just make sure it's based on KIS/KAG and not KOW

Can I hope that you'll make a Kohan remake instead?

Just make sure it's based on KIS/KAG and not KOW

At this point, beggars like myself can't be choosey =)

EDIT:

Hardest part is figuring out a pathfinder algorithm for each unit type in game ... ( I wish I could figure it out )

What are you having trouble with? Having multiple units pathfinding at once, or multiple units of different sizes pathfinding?

I was wondering that too. I had worries about the CPU use to do it for lots of units on a large map but that was 10 years (yikes!) ago. My iPad is probably more powerful than the PC I developed my 4E4 entry on :)

My issues always seem to stem from streamlining the pathfinder algorithm.

Having more than 3 or 4 items on screen at once, slows the frame rate down a lot in Java .

I never want to ever build a peon, or scout with a peon, or have peons mine for resources next to conveniently located tiles, or build supply depots or farms.

You see, for me one of the biggest things I miss from the older RTS games was the resource harvesting; having a dedicated resource miner unit that goes out, collects resources and comes back. I feel like this was an important component of games like Command and Conquer, and allowed you to directly attack your opponents logistical chain, something which modern RTS games often miss out entirely. I feel that logisitcal warfare is just as important, if not more important than direct warfare - historically entire conflicts have been won without firing a single shot simply through clever maneuvering and resource denial.

I use to send engineers over to the enemy refinery just as the harvester was starting to unload.

I usually ended up with the entire load of tiberian before they were able to destroy their own refinery and harvester.

Taking over and than selling tiberian storage tanks and power plants was also very fun tactic .

* sigh * I miss the old C&C