New Total War engine might be on the way, a job opening suggests

Creative Assembly is looking for reinforcements

British game developer Creative Assembly, creator of the Total War series, may be looking to finally upgrade its Warscape Engine. A job opening for a lead graphics programmer suggests that the engine, which has been powering the series since 2009’s Empire: Total War, may be replaced for future projects.

“This is a rare opportunity to lead the team responsible for the Total War graphics engine used in the next Total War projects,” the posting says. “Working with our experienced graphics team, you will have the opportunity to leverage the latest rendering techniques to push forward the look and feel of our games. You will work with the team, bring a creative mindset to challenge the limits of graphics programming, and guide the development of the Total War graphics engine.“

Several postings for new Total War jobs have appeared with the job opening for a senior backend programmer mentioning “an exciting unannounced Total War with brand new IP.”

Total War games have been running on the same engine since 2009 / Creative Assembly

This is interesting, because the last known wave of job openings at Creative Assembly sought to recruit employees for a new historical title that includes vehicles, making fans believe that a Total War game set in World War 1 is being developed. This title based on a “brand new IP” would be something different, then, and may well be the title that’ll first benefit from that supposed engine upgrade.

Other postings are a bit more ambiguous and could be for either of the two games, for example this job opening for a principal gameplay programmer. This just mentions the “next unannounced Total War title.”

As to what that IP could be? Your guess is as good as mine. CA’s great relationship with Games Workshop certainly lends itself to Warhammer 40,000 or Age of Sigmar, but there are many IPs out there that may be applied to the Total War formula. Embracer may be enticed to give them a sweet Lord of the Rings deal, for example, but that’s just speculation.

Another interesting tidbit: Many of the postings list experience in cross-platform development as a bonus for candidates, so it’s possible that future Total War titles may follow what many other strategy game series have been doing in recent years and make the jump to consoles. From Company of Heroes 3 and Age of Empires 4 to Crusader Kings 3 and Age of Wonders 4, the number of strategy titles available on PC as well as PS5 and Xbox Series X|S is growing.

In any case, things are moving behind the scenes as Total War: Warhammer 3 continues to chug along and Total War: Pharaoh is almost ready for release.