Homeworld 3
ROLE
Game Designer
Overview
Homeworld 3 is the long-awaited follow-up to the all-time classic RTS series making its debut almost 20 years later. With a focus on terrain gameplay; combat, environment, and level design are as intertwined as ever in a game in the RTS-genre. A rich narrative filled campaign permeates this game to the core, with many returning and new units to be unlocked along the way. Homeworld 3 also features several game modes including PvP and a brand new rogue-like War Games mode, where Unit Design is pushed further with randomized upgrades and fleets.
My main responsibility quickly took the form of Core Designer, cementing myself as part of the core team. This involved working across many many parts of the game of course. A large focus of core design saw me responsible for creating, balancing, and tuning both factions and each unit within. Core to Homeworld is ship design, and part of that is down to the subtle detail in how individual ships move, engage in combat, and behave overall. I quickly set up to accomplish giving each unit "personality" in how they go about the world. Defining the role and expectations of each unit became apparent, resulting in minute details between each unit. For example, even amongst Strikecraft, player's will see an Interceptor ship behave differently in combat compared to Recon ships (some of which being turn radius, engine speed, attack run length, etc).
Undertaking this, I strongly sought to keep all factors in mind. Look and "feel" of ships had to be considered against balance and overall role not only in Campaign, but across PvP and War Games too. Because of this I ensured design was done on an iterative basis. With so many moving parts as systems came online, it was imperative my design work was never one-and-done, and that features were revisited as the game developed. As a core designer, this also meant involvement across (e.g., enemy encounters, level layout and scripting in Campaign and PvP, camera, controls, interaction design, new UI elements, progression gating).
