Encouraging news for struggling real-time strategy studio Petroglyph today, as its PC game Grey Goo is announced, due this autumn.

Petroglyph was kicked off developing End of Nations in 2012, and then failed to find Kickstarter success in 2013.

Grey Goo is a classical RTS but refined with all the studio has learned over the years. There's base building, single-player and multiplayer, three factions - Humans, the Beta and Goo - and epic units that "tower over the battlefield".

The game's artificial intelligence is based on real-world Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) concepts, and learns your attacks, apparently keeping the challenge fresh each time.

Private company Grey Box is the game's publishing partner. Famed special effects studio WETA Workshop is also working with Petroglyph on the look of the game, according to a PC Gamer preview.

Petroglyph was set up by former-Westwood (Command & Conquer) developers, and is best known for its Star Wars: Empire at War game.