Homeworld (1999) is a real-time strategy video game developed and released by Relic Entertainment. It was the first three-dimensional real-time strategy game. Homeworld was the first film of a trilogy that included Homeworld: Cataclysm (2000) and Homeworld 2. (2003). Gearbox, the new IP owner, launched Homeworld: Remastered in 2014. Blackbird Interactive launched the newest Homeworld game, Deserts of Kharak, on January 20, 2016. Homeworld 3 will be unveiled on August 30th, 2019.
Could you please tell us a little about yourself? Who are you and how did you get involved in the video game industry? I am a self-taught game artist from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I've always been fascinated by computer graphics and began creating ANSI art in the early 1990s. My parents were not pleased, but I dropped out of university to pursue a career in game creation with an emphasis on modeling and texturing. My mentor was kind enough to provide me a position at Electronic Arts Black Box in Vancouver just before I graduated, which was my first foray into the gaming business.
I'm ecstatic to have the chance to collaborate with Homeworld's original founders, Rob Cunningham and Aaron Kambeitz. They founded Relic Entertainment and have now joined a very young firm named Blackbird Interactive to develop a new Homeworld Game, a precursor to Homeworld. I worked there for five months, from idea to launch. My primary responsibility at Blackbird Interactive was to create a road plan for the voyage across the Kharak deserts, so providing another layer of narrative telling to the single player campaign. I was in charge of the cinematics' map scenes, from concept through animation and compositing. Additionally, it serves as the primary loading screens and mission briefing pages. Homeworld has a very distinct UI and animation aesthetic that we wanted to maintain from the last Homeworld game; it's not too technical and has a feel similar to NASA or Google Maps. I count myself fortunate to have collaborated with such accomplished artists as Brennan Massicotte, Noah Stacey, Jay Zhou, Aaron Kambeitz, and Karl Gryc. Rob Cunningham is the creative / art director.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak [official site] is a precursor to the classic Homeworld space real-time strategy games, but set on land this time - heresy! - as the Kushan race battles hostile factions to retrieve ancient technology discovered on the sandy planet they presently inhabit. While several of its developers (including studio head and former Relic art director Rob Cunningham) worked on the original games, this project began as the unrelated 'Hardware: Shipbreakers' before evolving into the free-to-play multiplayer 'Homeworld: Shipbreakers' and finally into the traditionally-sold singleplayer and multiplayer package it is now. Deserts of Kharak has some big shoes to fill - will it be able to do so? Nota bene: This essay focuses mostly on the solo campaign, since there was little multiplayer available prior to release.
