And creator Rob Cunningham tells us all about it.
Homeworld is back: that’sHomeworld 3in a nutshell.
It’s the real-time strategy series you remember and, probably, what you want it to be now.
Computers just couldn’t handle it at the time.
Homeworld 3
But now they can.
I’m over here - no not really, I’m over here!
And I’ve played Homeworld 3 for about an hour and the idea really works.
More importantly, it’s simple to use.
They are not dumb: they won’t fly into walls and scenery if you leave them unattended.
And it’s fun.
And those two words “it’s fun” are crucial to what Homeworld 3 is about.
And what really comes through for me is space.
I think that’s what makes it special and stands it apart.
It’s in the way your craft paint the darkness with exhaust trails like little brushes across a canvas.
The whole feeling is one of reverence for this most beguiling and appealing place.
And that is all here, in Homeworld 3, in abundance.
It’s even more apparent for the improved detail and technical capabilities we have now.
It is, literally, awesome.
This is what I mean when I say “Homeworld is back”.
It is the experience you remember but improved and evolved.
It must seem like so long ago now - it was 25 years ago!
Rob Cunningham:Yeah, absolutely!
Those are the old days for sure.
You working above a nightclub-
Rob Cunningham:Yeah.
And a great deal of cologne and perfume as well.
So I’ll start with the recent-ish delay.
So it was announced in June that you were missing Q4 2022 and moving to “first-half 2023”.
But when did you make the call and what was the call you had to make?
It feels like the game has been a long time coming.
There was the announcement in 2019 withthe Fig crowdfunding drive, then silence.
Then there was the Q4 2022 date and everyone was like oh my god.
Is there anything in particular that’s been kind of causing the hold-up?
Rob Cunningham:Not really, it’s basically situation-normal game development.
There’s a lot of work to do making a game, as you know.
It’s really situation-normal.
And it’s been pushed to the first half of 2023 so it could go up to June?
With that out of the way, this is it - this is the big return to Homeworld.
And I wonder how long you’ve wanted to do this game.
Because Blackbird has seemed to always be beating around the bush of actually returning to Homeworld.
Rob Cunningham:No.
When I started Blackbird we weren’t thinking about Homeworld 3 at all.
When I started Blackbird it was 2010 - the Homeworld franchise belonged to THQ.
Relic was their development studio in Vancouver.
And when we made the deal with Gearbox in 2013 to make Deserts of Kharak…
It was more of a spiritual sort of cousin, I guess you could say - a land-based game.
It wasn’t even a strategy game.
They had just acquired the IP from the THQ bankruptcy proceedings, and now Gearbox owned Homeworld.
It was like, ‘Let’s do this!’
So we thought let’s make Deserts of Kharak.
So the Homeworld thing came later.
What was the conversation?
Do you remember the moment it became real, that the spark ignited?
Rob Cunningham:Well, yeah.
After Deserts of Kharak.
All we’re talking about here is a year or two between spark and … embryo I guess?
This is getting uncomfortable with the metaphor here but you know what I mean!
So it’s an idea that hasn’t left you?
Rob Cunningham:Absolutely, yeah.
And what would make it awesome?'
How big can we make it?
What are the gameplay implications to having geometry floating in space?'
Because you don’t want it to suck, right?
A lot of the vibe I’m getting is that you’re going back to Homeworld 1 with this.
But so much time has passed since then.
Has your idea of what Homeworld is changed?
Have there been other games since that have changed your mind?
Rob Cunningham:Yes and no.
But what has changed is sensibilities in the marketplace: what matters to people.
So you always have to be aware of that and incorporate what you’re doing into that.
We want to take something old and make it new.
So there’s that decision of what’s new and what’s old?
If you made it all new, it just wouldn’t be Homeworld 3.
That was extremely valuable to us.
But yeah, it didn’t change the budget picture at all.
How many people are Blackbird now, how big is it as a studio?
I read it was in your garage at some point!
Rob Cunningham:Yeah, it started in my garage.
We’re now over 300 people - I think 330-something people.
So we’re a very different studio than we were back then.
So how big is the team, roughly, that’s making Homeworld 3?
Rob Cunningham:Depends how you measure but we’re talking 40-odd.
Wow so you’ve got quite a lot of other stuff.
Do you have projects of the size of Homeworld 3 that you’re working on as well?
Rob Cunningham:Yeah - bigger and smaller.
And it was announced the other day that it’s coming to PS5 and Xbox Series S/X 20th September.
It’s already out on PC]
That’s exciting.
But I wondered what you hoped to see people take from it.
What do you hope that people take away from the demo?
Rob Cunningham:It’s a teaser of what’s to come.
While also showing the old-school ballistics of the original.
To use them as cover.
But how does that actually work when we’re controlling it?
Will they intelligently place themselves or do we have to micro-control them to stop them crashing?
It was quite complicated.
Extremely easy - you don’t have to click anything, you’re just moving your mouse around.
So the idea here is that you’re having actual fun - you know what I mean?
It sounds silly to say but it’s true.
Those are the fun decisions.
Then it’s just annoying and frustrating.
So I’m assuming it’s a similar thing for these trench-runs that we do.
It’s actually easier to control.
The whole thing is just point and click.
It’s really exciting to see how it came through.
How is this all going to work?
Martin Cirulis, who’s a great guy, a fantastic writer.
Could they be a thing?
Rob Cunnigham:I guess… You know…
I’m going to have to say wait and see on that one.
I also wondered about the co-op Roguelite mode.
