How We Made Homeworld: Vast Reaches

By Richard Rouse III, Studio Creative Director

IN THE BEGINNING

FarBridge has a long history working on VR projects of all shapes and sizes and we’ve always been passionate about worlds you can get lost in. So when Gearbox reached out to us about potentially making a VR game as part of the Homeworld franchise, we felt it was the perfect challenge for us. 

With this project we could take a beloved franchise built around the vastness of space and a uniquely moving narrative and bring it all to virtual reality for the first time. Within a couple weeks of talking to Gearbox, one of our tech leads and XR designers, Damon Chandler, made a prototype as part of one of FarBridge’s regular jam days. When we played it at the end of the jam, we knew we absolutely had to make this game. And so we started on the road to making Homeworld: Vast Reaches. 

HOMEWORLD IN VR

With a well deserved reputation for full 3D freedom, iconic ships, breathtaking scale, and epic space battles, the Homeworld universe felt like a perfect fit for VR. Putting on a headset and being able to see these signature ship designs flying right by your head is one of those great “only in VR” moments. I remember the first time I played an early version of the game that had the Mothership in it: I was at this tiny little viewpoint in space staring up at that unique Mothership silhouette towering over me – I’d seldom felt something quite as majestic in a game. 

Homeworld games are also well known for their strategic gameplay, and one of our goals in creating Vast Reaches was to make sure we delivered on that tradition. VR is always full of design challenges, but trying to adapt strategy game controls to grip and trigger-focused controllers was a particularly tricky set of problems, so it was the first thing we tackled. We found that the trick was utilizing all the fidelity you have with the position and rotation of the VR controllers – this allowed us to have a lot of fine detail control over how ships are ordered and oriented. 

FLEET CONTROL IS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

We also leaned into VR’s unique capabilities to let players manipulate ship formations intuitively with their hands using our Strike Groups feature. We wanted it to feel like arranging miniatures in a tabletop gaming session. Playing in VR is all about experimentation, and you can shape your combat formations however you want, from peak effectiveness to just cool looking configurations – it’s a great feature for letting players get creative with how they take on our missions. 

Once the Quest 3 launched, we experimented with what the game would be like to play in Mixed Reality. The first time we got that working in the game, I experienced the same sense of wonder I’d felt when I first played in VR – but this time the starfield dropped away and was replaced instead by my immediate real world surroundings seen through the Quest’s pass through camera. Ships hovered in Strike Groups over my desk while I plotted out how to send them to attack the Destroyers that had appeared in the distance over by my bookshelf. 

We quickly identified that scale was one of the biggest keys to bringing this world into your personal orbit, so we implemented the ability for players to zoom in and out much more dramatically for MR mode. This allowed me to shrink the whole space battlefield to fit on the desk right in front of me, or scale it up to fill an entire rec room where I can walk around the dogfight happening throughout the room. We’re excited to be able to give players choices for how they experience Homeworld: Vast Reaches, whether they stick with VR or venture into MR.

THE STORY SO FAR

The Homeworld universe has always been known for its unique tone and storytelling. The lore and narrative vibe of this franchise was something we connected with and wanted to dive into. The first Homeworld game tells the grand story of the exiled Kushan people journeying back to their homeworld of Hiigara, led by scientist Karan S’jet as Fleet Command controlling the Mothership and the entire fleet. At the end of the first game, the final shot shows her disembarking from the Mothership, finally disconnecting to set foot on her people’s true Homeworld. One hundred years later, in the events of Homeworld 2, Karan returns to command the Mothership once again.

This time jump made us ask ourselves: what was Karan S’jet doing in the 100 years between Homeworld 1 and 2? During that 100 year gap between the first two games, what if a new conflict arose that called the iconic Mothership back into action? And with Karan retired, what if there had to be a new Fleet Command? What if, this time, the Hiigarans chose someone from a different Kiith? Instead of the science-oriented S’jet, what if the new leader came from the militaristic Soban? How would that go? Working with Gearbox and writers and artists who know the games extremely well, we loved filling in this key story in the saga of Homeworld. 

HITTING THE RIGHT NOTES

One of the essential pieces we knew we needed to make the whole Homeworld puzzle fit together was the signature music of Paul Ruskay. Paul has worked on every entry in the Homeworld franchise, so we were thrilled to get him to bring his talents to Homeworld: Vast Reaches. As we filled him in about the new story we were telling and pitched him on what the music could be like, he quickly locked onto exactly what we were going for. He also put us in touch with some key returning actors that would put us right in that time period – Heidi Ernest as Karan S’jet and Michael Synzcyk as Fleet Intelligence. Having played the original games so much, working with all these veterans of the franchise to bring the feeling of the game together was a great honor for me personally. It felt great when during the voice over sessions Paul told me “I think the fans are really going to like this.” 

Today, as we release Homeworld: Vast Reaches out into the world, we’re all incredibly excited to hear what VR fans and Homeworld fans alike think of the game. 

I just hope everyone likes it half as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.