In September, 1999, a new 3D real-time strategy game set in space hit the shelves. It was called
Homeworld, the first game from a little company called Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra. The game met with a great critical reception and enthralled players with a mysterious story that fueled the single player campaign, and an entertaining multiplayer experience.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of Homeworld, we take a look back at the early days of Relic Entertainment and the development of the game with a couple of long time Relic employees who contributed to the project, Principal Designer
Quinn Duffy and Senior Artist
Dave Cheong:
When was your first day working at Relic and what was it like?
Quinn: My first day was actually on April 1st, and I was worried it would all turn out to be an April Fool’s Joke. If it was an April Fool’s joke, it failed because I’m still here after more than 11 years. When I first went to talk to the guys at Relic, I wasn’t even anticipating interviewing. My brother had sold Alex Garden a motorcycle and told him that I was doing game development in Calgary, so when visiting my brother out in Vancouver, I stopped by for a chat. A week later, I got an email telling me I was hired. So I moved.
My first day was interesting – I showed up at 10am as instructed, but had to wait for more than an hour until the next employee arrived. Relic was a little less mature and focused back then. We all went for lunch at noon that day, then coffee at 2, then dinner at 5, and then everybody complained about having to work until 8pm! I thought it was the greatest job ever. But on occasion, people got down to some very serious work, and we had an uncompromising vision of the game to work towards.
What was your role in the development of the original Homeworld?
Quinn:I had a bunch of roles – initially there were only two designers, so I was doing maps (the first MP map that was created using real math in a text file), hooking up gun turrets on the ships, working on the Mission Man tool, creating the research system (sorry, everyone), creating and balancing some of the ship roles, trying to get repair to be a valid mechanic, creating campaign maps (I initially did several of the missions before they were passed off to other designers; the Karos Graveyard, the Cathedral of Kadesh, the Great Wastelands, The Sea of Lost Souls, the Supernova research station) and sitting in a freezing cold room for a couple of weekends working on the narrative with Rob Cunningham and Erin Daly. I enjoyed doing missions that had weird little twists – the mysterious wreck that entrapped ships, the need to fly through the dust paths to avoid radiation in the supernova mission, and the Junkyard Dog that would steal capital ships and return to its lair.
What is your earliest memory of playing Homeworld?
Quinn: I hadn’t even played the game before accepting the position, so as I recall the first time I saw the game was after I had accepted the position and made a trip out to Vancouver to look for a place to live. At the time, the last game I had played was Redneck Rampage, so the contrast between that game and Homeworld as stark as could be imagined. The stunning beauty of the game, even at that stage, was mesmerizing. Homeworld for me was never a game I played – it was a cinematic experience that I directed, and I felt that right from the beginning. I was also tapped quite quickly to go to E3 in Atlanta to demo that game, and that memory is very vivid – we’d purposely hold on a static camera, wait for a crowd to assemble, and then move the camera around in 3d. Jaws dropped.
What do you remember most about the development process of Homeworld?
Quinn: That it was a self-induced struggle, but that the team was so passionate about the game that you had no doubt it was going to succeed. People poured themselves into the game and into Relic, and it showed. Strong relationships were forged that lasted for years after Homeworld shipped, and I realize I had worked with so many great people – it’s fun reminiscing now, thinking about all the stories I just can’t tell!
There were also some crazy standards – good wasn’t good enough, and lots of the game was reworked several times until it felt just right. Sierra was a patient partner though and I think they knew they had something.
What were some of the major influences on Homeworld’s design?
Quinn: In terms of game design, I can’t recall any specific influences – RTS games were still in their infancy, and clones were the order of the day. Starcraft showed up part way through development (also indirectly through Sierra/Davidson) and set a gameplay quality bar, but specific lessons were sometimes hard to apply to Homeworld. I’d say that our influences were the same as the artists – we had a presentation that was very evocative, and in many ways, perhaps subconsciously, we didn’t want the gameplay to overshadow the beauty of the game.
Homeworld is a game that really captured the imaginations of gamers, and still has a great many ardent fans. What was it about the game that resulted in such a following do you think?
Quinn: It’s hard to say. We created a visually sophisticated universe with a great deal of implied depth, crafted an evocative story and told it well, and had a pretty fun and immersive game on top of it all. It stood out from its peers, and it felt less abstracted than other RTS games at the time…these reasons perhaps explain part of why Homeworld still maintains such great fans, but there’s probably something less measurable at work – we just captured lightning in a bottle – the confluence of certain people at a certain time with a great vision.
What do you think the future holds for Homeworld?
Quinn: One never knows. In many ways, it’s still the beating heart of the studio and has set a direction for Relic that our other games have striven to achieve. But so few of the original Homeworlders are still at Relic. Personally, I’d love to see another Homeworld game – I’d love to see the universe breath again, but only if it were done with the same passion and drive of the original.
When was your first day working at Relic and what was it like?
Dave:The first time I set foot in Relic, it was a sweaty brick box of an office above a nightclub. The original team was working on the proof of concept for Homeworld; its essence was termed “the spaghetti ball” for the strike craft engine trails that orbited capital ships as they made their attack runs. Between that and the wall of spaceship concept art from Rob Cunningham and Aaron Kambeitz, I knew I had found my place.
What was your role in the development of the original Homeworld?
Dave: I was a model/texture artist. My proudest creations for Homeworld were the research station and the ghost ship.
What is your earliest memory of playing Homeworld?
Dave: It is with great embarrassment that I admit to being a crappy RTS player. The first time I played Homeworld I got caught up mining asteroids and left my fleet unattended long enough for my opponent to sneak in an kill me dead. Since then I’ve likened my RTS experiences to leaving on a 2-week road trip after turning on EVERY electrical appliance in my house such that upon my return my house is on fire and I have no idea where it started. Give me a control pad a jump button and an action button and I’m set :).
What do you remember most about the development process of Homeworld?
Dave: Lots of overtime. Sleeping under my desk at one time. But I was young and had no commitments, it was all good.
What were some of the major influences on Homeworld’s art?
Dave: "Star Wars"
"Alien(s)"
"Terran Trade Authority" book artists… especially Peter Elson, Chris Moore
Masamune Shirow
John Harris
Homeworld is a game that really captured the imaginations of gamers, and still has a great many ardent fans. What was it about the game that resulted in such a following do you think?
Dave: I believe that the secret to Homeworld’s ability to inspire is due to a large part to the subtly and restraint with which the game’s experience was presented. On a fundamental level it was due technical restraints that the art and storytelling was purposefully spare and impressionistic but this allowed something magical to happen to in the mind of the viewer: it allowed them to fill in the blanks. This cannot be understated. Give a gamer the skeleton of an
epic universe and enough blank space for them to complete the story in their heads and you have the makings of an inspiring fiction. Its hard to capture that lightning in these modern days of “nothing left to the imagination”.
What do you think the future holds for Homeworld?
Dave: No comment.
Our thanks to Homeworld fans everywhere for their support over these ten great years!