HOMEPLANET - Official Website

HomePlanet (working title) is a spacesim game with lots of action in it. Really lots of action, believe us. It is pretty obvious that from the very beginning of the game the player will have to look for his home planet, where he can live his life in peace. While searching for the new home, you, as the main hero of the game, will have a chance to fight against different opponents from different clans, which play a very important role in the game. All your actions will require lots of shooting and maneuvering in open space. We're using a unique physical model in our game, which you haven't seen in any spacesim before.

To win the battle (or the game, as you wish) the player has to fly different spaceships of different classes and types. Later on, you will have a chance to command a whole wing of ships, controlled by AI (you give only general commands, as it may be seen in other games). Fulfilling the strategic and tactical missions in time will get you closer to victory!

On the long journey to the victory the player will stumble across the traces of humanoid alien species. But, unfortunately, aliens don't want to fight against any clan, because their planets are far away from the place where the game's plot takes place - no wars for the territory here. Your encounters will be limited to scientific ships of aliens. They search for new technologies for their race and you have those technologies. This is why aliens are interested in contacting you, as long as you're a member of the clan that has a great technological potential.

Key Features:

  • More then 20 missions, connected with a non-linear story
  • More then 60 different types of spaceships, 6 of them may be controlled by the player himself
  • Newton physical model of the flight
  • The game has a third party force - the Confederation, which will react on the player's actions - they will fight with you or against you or even stay neutral
  • The action of the game takes place in open space and on orbits of different planets
  • Huge and stunning space battles - there can be more then 10 ships fighting with each other at a time
  • The player will choose how to equip his ship
  • The mission editor, which will come together with the game lets the gamer to add new tasks, types of weapons and ships to the original game.
Game Chronicles goes inside this exciting new space simulator with an exclusive interview by John Carswell.

GCM: Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us about Revolt Games.
Alexey Medvedev: My name is Alexey Medvedev, I am technical director of 3 Map Games (in Russia Revolt Games) and project leader of Homeplanet.

Revolt Games has been formed in early 2001 by group of developers that has just left Moscow-based New Media Generation Company. That group was responsible for multiplayer FPS Hired Team: Trial, which has received very good press and player’s response but didn’t became commercially successful. After making several localizations of the games for Russian market for Russobit-M publishing company, Revolt Games has announced its first in-house project Homeplanet. That was year and a half ago. Since then we started working on another game Neuro, that has strong connection with Homeplanet and continue our localization work. That’s basically it.


GCM: What was the inspiration behind Homeplanet?
Alexey Medvedev: For the gaming part of Homeplanet main inspiration were classic space combat sims like Wing Commander, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, Freespace and others. As for gaming universe and storyline, when creating it we were inspired mainly by sci-fi books and movies.


GCM: Please give us a feel for the story driving Homeplanet and the character whose role the gamer will be taking.
Alexey Medvedev: In distant future in a galaxy far away from the Earth there is planet called Klouto, the place where revolutional bio implanting technology has been invented. This technology improves physical and mental skills and stamina, but also makes people very easy to control. And someday one of the countless riots of “clean” (i.e. non-implanted) people of Klouto becomes a civil war that ends up in a defeat of “cleans” and territorial conflict between newly formed clans, that previously were military, police, and big corporations. Clan Troiden, which is small-numbered and weak but technologically advanced (this clan is the inventor of bio implanting technology) suffer defeat in this conflict and have to escape the planet in rush, chased by enemies. Player is rookie pilot of Troiden clan and his mission is to help his clan in its survival race.

GCM: Homeplanet mixes its Space Sim core with Real Time Strategy elements. Please describe for us the Space Sim portion and the type of ships the gamers willing be piloting.
Alexey Medvedev: Well, it doesn’t mix mentioned elements anymore. :) The game doesn’t contain that RTS-styled map no more, because we felt that it just doesn’t work well with fast non-stop combat action. Now all control of the wingmen is traditional for space sims – player use set of orders through hot keys.

GCM: What type of ships and in what numbers will the player be commanding?
Alexey Medvedev: Player will be able to control four types of ships: fighter, assault fighter, bomber and interceptor. Each of the types have several models, and each ship’s weapons and defense can be customized.

GCM: Homeplanet features two modes of flight modes, “Cruise” (the standard mode found in most space sims), and the unique “Inertial” mode. Can you describe the later to us in some detail and explain what advantages it has to offer?
Alexey Medvedev: Actually cruise mode is more of a compromise with player... it’s intended to make gamers used to the game, controls etc. and Inertial mode show all the originality and unique of our physical model. For example, there is no speed limit in inertial mode, except for the speed of light, but usually players won’t have time to experiment with maximum speed during missions. :) and all movements of all ships are determined of their speeds, masses and inertias. All Newton’s laws work in the game. Of course they have been a bit changed and adapted to get the best gameplay, but all physics is 100% real. You can’t fly faster than the missile you have just launched; you can’t move orbital space station by hitting it with your small interceptor ship and so on.

GCM: Please tell us a bit about the non-linear aspects in Homeplanet and provide an example of our decisions will affect the storyline and action.
Alexey Medvedev: Well, almost all nonlinearity of the game is that player can “choose” his friends and enemies in one mission. He can stand on Confederation’s side, he can be friendly to pirates and he can stay neutral. All options have their good and bad sides; it’s up to player to decide what is better for him. Anyway, several missions will be different for each path player can choose. And all paths lead to same final, so Homeplanet is not an open-ended game.

GCM: Revolt Games has put a good deal on recreating Newtonian Physics in Homeplanet. How accurate will this physics engine be and why do you see it is a key feature?
Alexey Medvedev: Because it is one of the key features, really. When we started this project we wanted to produce space combat simulator. Not space arcade game, not just fly-and-shoot-everyone game. We don’t want to please everyone; we’re making this game for fans of space combat simulations... To control spacecraft in Homeplanet is not very easy, especially in Inertial mode, but that’s what we wanted to do and what many space simulation fans wanted to see. And about the physics’ accuracy, as I’ve said before, Homeplanet physics aren’t 100% accurate, because it would make game unplayable. But all physical laws work, with no exceptions. Ships and objects don’t act exactly as in real life, but they follow all real Newtonian laws.

GCM: Graphically, what will Homeplanet offer and how strong of a computer do you feel will be needed to run the game well?
Alexey Medvedev: It offers everything one will need for comfortable gaming. Honestly, we could have done better graphics with more stunning effects but it’s all a compromise between gameplay and realism. If we fill space with enormous number of asteroids that explode after being shot, it wouldn’t be space. If we reflect space in our game as it is in real life – i.e. as an endless black vacuum – no one will play this game except ourselves and beta testers. That’s it...

GCM: Thank you for your time. Do you have any final thoughts or impressions that you’d like to leave us with?
Alexey Medvedev: Thank you for your interest to Homeplanet and good luck! Don’t forget to check the game out when it’s released. :)