Savage: The Battle for Newerth is a hybrid real-time strategy and first-person shooter developed by S2 Games and released in September 2003 for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The game blends two distinct modes of play: one player on each team assumes a commander role, managing resources and issuing orders from an RTS overhead perspective, while the remaining players engage in direct combat from a first-person or third-person viewpoint on the ground. Set in a fantasy world called Newerth, the game pits two factions against each other in team-based battles. Despite criticism at launch for an unpolished state and lack of tutorials, it earned recognition at the Independent Games Festival 2004, winning the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Audience Award. S2 Games made the game freeware and open source in 2006, after which community teams continued developing and improving it for years.
