[From makers of HOMEWORLD] Hardware: Shipbreakers

Overheal

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

http://kotaku.com/the-stunning-debut-trailer-for-hardware-a-game-by-some-464366720?utm_source=gizmodo.com&utm_medium=recirculation&utm_campaign=recirculation

First revealed all the way back in 2011, it's only today that we're getting our first (barely) moving look at Hardware, a new game from a studio made up of a number of former Relic developers, including Rob Cunningham, Homeworld's art director.
So if you think the teaser trailer above looks (and sounds) familiar, that's why. It's also why it's giving me goosebumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgylViCFHAs

Over the past ten years, ever since we saw the last of the critically-acclaimed Homeworld series, a number of key developers working on games for developers Relic left the studio. Many of them have now settled in at a new home, Blackbird Interactive, where they're working on "an ambitious and original sci-fi social strategy game" called Hardware.
Among them are Rob Cunningham, who aside from being one of the founders of Relic was also Homeworld's art director. There's also Aaron Kambeitz, the lead artist on Homeworld. Alongside them are guys like Cody Kenworthy (a former Relic art director and visual development supervisor) and former EA Sports guru Yossarian King, who had a big hand in each of the publisher's FIFA, NHL and NBA franchises.
Hardware is set in a future sci-fi world dominated by Long March Industries, a "ruthless interstellar megacorporation" that controls a lucrative mining planet. This basically entails keeping an eye on the galactic gold rush that's descended on the planet, with the teams of miners coming in to explore, dig and fight each other forming the guts of the game.
Blackbird say you'll be commanding "a fleet of massive vehicles" in your travels/fights, and that the interaction between players will make Hardware "the world's first planetary-scale social strategy game."
Which may be true, it may not be, who knows. We've seen nothing of the game other than concept art, but given the pedigree of the artists involved and how damn pretty it looks, I figured it was more than worth sharing.
We'll hopefully have more on Hardware in the new year, because damn, this art is hot.
Oh, and Homeworld fans should note: look closely and there are spaceships buried in the sand...
UPDATE - This predominantly tech-based article from Gamasutra earlier in the week actually has a few scant details on the game.

Our game is completely new - new IP, an unusual camera, a curious mix of client and server requirements - it will take a ton of experimentation to prove out gameplay ideas and confirm and refine our design.

For us at Blackbird, platform requirements were nebulous. We wanted to launch on social networks like Facebook, and then move onto mobile platforms including iPhone and Android, but tablets looked pretty good too, and a standalone PC build for Steam distribution also made sense. Consoles were a possibility in the future, depending on the success of the game.

danthefan

Looks pretty interesting but would like to see some gameplay.

ShadowHearth

Few lines in that discription reminds me off new Sim City...

Homeworld was great SP game for me. I know this is not homeworld, but they are marketing it as "from creators of homeworld" so logically we should see some sort of style we loved from old games? Then all this "social strategy game" comes in...

Anyway, need more info as these CGI trailers are worse then toilet paper. You can at least wipe your arse with toilet paper.

degrassinoel

that trailer was so homeworldly

ships buried in the sand, just like on kharrak

gizmo

Hmm, from their website...

"...social strategy game..."
"...serve a new market by merging AAA and casual gaming..."
"...free-to-play platform-agnostic content..."

They're hiring a "Monetization Designer" too.

I'm certainly interested in seeing what such a group of talented developers do in an independent company setting but truth be told, it doesn't sound like my cup of tea just yet. As for the links to Homeworld, based on the information given about their team, the strongest ones come from the art side rather than the design and technologies sides so I'd be wary of expecting anything similar to Relic's seminal effort.

pixelburp

Was all excited until I read the word "social"; funny how such an innocuous word can sound a warning in gamers' minds. Definitely one to wait and see how it pans out...

Zillah

Trailer got me kind of excited (crackly radio sounds!), everything else has brought me back down.

I love the top Youtube comment:
"ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN"

Choo choo indeed.

VinLieger

If this is a multiplayer strategy mining thing I'm totally in

Kiith

Trailer is extremely Homeworldy, but i'm not liking some of those descriptions. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but i'll wait to see some sort of actual ingame / inengine footage before getting my hopes up.

Is it too much to ask for someone to make Homeworld 3?

platinums

Hopefully this pans out to be a cracker of a game.
Mean while, can we please have Homeword 3.

Sarky

Blech, "social". Most gamers you have to play with/against online are anything but.

Still, the Homeworldiness of the trailer has my attention. Cautious optimism? Yes, that'll do.

marshbaboon

I think I'd rather just smash my head into a big wall, and play homeworld again.

Gbear

marshbaboon wrote: »

I think I'd rather just smash my head into a big wall, and play homeworld again.

Leave out the head-smashing and I'm with you.

marshbaboon

Gbear wrote: »

Leave out the head-smashing and I'm with you.

How will it be a fresh experience without severe brain trauma?

IRL_Sinister

I have no idea what Homeworld is but that trailer was awesome.

gizmo

IRL_Sinister wrote: »

I have no idea what Homeworld is but that trailer was awesome.

Amazon: Homeworld (PC CD)

Don't think. Just order.

platinums

as there are a lot of Homeworld heads looking in this direction, does anyone know where I can get the Improved Graphics version/mod ? I have a copy of HW2 but its stutters constantly when I try and play it. Annoying.

- Fixed stutter with Complex 844. nvm

degrassinoel

gizmo wrote: »

Amazon: Homeworld (PC CD)

Don't think. Just order.

watch this first..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrW4jkQdmjI

Kiith

They really need to get the Homeworld series onto Steam or GOG (hell, even Origin would do). Hate having to order actual cd's these days :pac:

Monty - the one and only

We'll have to wait and see who gets the homeworld ip on april 4th

platinums

CLosed Beta Sign up

LongMarchIndustries Site

FBook Hardware Page

Burgo

Kiith wrote: »

They really need to get the Homeworld series onto Steam or GOG (hell, even Origin would do). Hate having to order actual cd's these days :pac:

Went looking to buy it on gog after i saw this thread the other day. Hopefully they will get it at some point.

VinLieger

Monty - the one and only wrote: »

We'll have to wait and see who gets the homeworld ip on april 4th

Is that the next auction? Not too sure about the guys currently going for it, they may be fans but they have basically no game development experience, im all for them putting HW1, HW2 and catacalysm on steam gog etc but very apprehensive about them developing HW3

Monty - the one and only

VinLieger wrote: »

Is that the next auction? Not too sure about the guys currently going for it, they may be fans but they have basically no game development experience, im all for them putting HW1, HW2 and catacalysm on steam gog etc but very apprehensive about them developing HW3

A valid concern that I share myself, and yeah as far as I've heard the next auction is april 4th

Kiith

New trailer, with some great looking art and a very Homeworld vibe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvN-FjW_gDM

pixelburp

I could watch videos made with that art-style all day, but some actual gameplay would be nice, especially given all the talk about monetization & integration with social networks.

Gbear

I'm somewhat confused as to how it's a 3D rts if it's going to take place on land.

Burgo

new vid up! some very minimal gameplay footage.

Gbear

So it kinda looks like Homeworld in 2d.

Kinda defeats the purpose a bit.

Still, looks interesting.

degrassinoel

reminded me a little of supreme commander 2

I liked it, the unit chatter was excellent and gave a nice scavenger type feel to the video, hopefully it translates into the game too.

gizmo

Oh, got a bit of a Ground Control look with a Battlezone vibe from that, far from a bad thing

Overheal

Gbear wrote: »

So it kinda looks like Homeworld in 2d.

Kinda defeats the purpose a bit.

Still, looks interesting.

i found the 3d aspect of homeworld only served to confuse the interface and only in one map did i find it useful for circumventing an entire mission, which i dont think was the point of said mission

pixelburp

Anyone else notice that the various blips, bloops and ambient noise from the UI was almost identical to those in Homeworld? Even the tactical map itself was very similar; these guys are clearly trying to tap into that sense of goodwill and nostalgia by any means necessary...

Gbear

Overheal wrote: »

i found the 3d aspect of homeworld only served to confuse the interface and only in one map did i find it useful for circumventing an entire mission, which i dont think was the point of said mission

Haven't played in a good while but I seem to remember that the micro you could do to avoid, for example, the ion cannons on a heavy cruiser being a bit useful.

That was mostly done away with in HW2. That game was generally dumbed down.
As much as anything it's a concept with a lot of room to explore.

pixelburp wrote: »

Anyone else notice that the various blips, bloops and ambient noise from the UI was almost identical to those in Homeworld? Even the tactical map itself was very similar; these guys are clearly trying to tap into that sense of goodwill and nostalgia by any means necessary...

I wonder how much of that sort of thing you can steal before it's copyright infringement?

pixelburp

Looks like I was more correct with my last post than I thought; it doesn't just look & feel like a Homeworld game, it now officially is one. It'll be renamed 'Homeworld: Shipbreakers' and set within the universe, presumably with the plot, settings and ships to match those we're familiar with from the Homeworld universe:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/9/1/4684456/gearbox-homeworld-ip-hardware-shipbreakers

Kiith

That's brilliant news. Any new Homeworld is good. We're spoiled for choice with this and the remakes of the original games. Here's hoping for Homeworld 3.

If it is a prequel as planned, (possible Homeworld spoiler)

i can see the last mission being the discovery of the Guidestone before Homeworld 1

. Can't wait.

gizmo

Personally, I'm crossing my fingers that the "financial and production resources" Gearbox are offering allow Blackbird to drop the free-to-play aspect and produce a full fledged "boxed" retail game. Should be interesting to see anyway...

"Gearbox is not in the best spot to make a sci-fi RTS successor," Pitchford said, explaining that the Borderlands developer's expertise lies elsewhere (and it's also busy with Borderlands and other next-gen projects). "We've become expert at production and that's where we can help. I mean, we shipped Duke Nukem Forever, we didn't build it but we made sure it came out. And that's a ****ing miracle."

Oh Randy, you started that quote so well and then look where you ended up.

Sarky

It is a miracle DNF was ever released. Not a nice miracle, but a miracle nonetheless.

Gbear

Gearbox are really going all out on this IP.

Lets hope they don't **** it up.

I suppose that they can afford to though, seeing as it didn't actually cost them all that much.

gizmo

And to answer my own question...

Randy Pitchford @DuvalMagic

@Giolon With our investment, Homeworld Shipbreakers can be a proper commercial release. No need for F2P.
5:50 PM - 2 Sep 2013

That's One Less Free-To-Play Game To Worry About

Boosh!

Overheal

Cookie_Monster

Bump

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/homeworld_deserts_of_kharak/b/pc/archive/2015/12/16/homeworld-returns-in-deserts-of-kharak.aspx
the original article seems to have been pulled. It's on their site but won't open

direct website
http://www.desertsofkharak.com/

Captain Chaos

Nothing in the link.

degrassinoel

January 20th 2016, that was quick, and quiet.. hope it's not shyte

Zillah

http://ie.ign.com/articles/2015/12/16/homeworld-deserts-of-kharak-announced

Can't get excited. Gameplay looks entirely ordinary.

As for lore and storytelling: where are all of these shipwrecks coming from? The wreck of the Khar-Toba was a unique artifact not discovered until satellite scans revealed it beneath the sand. We were also told in Homeworld 1 that its discovery united all of the clans on Kharak. It was more about archaeology than war. Really just looks like an attempt to squeeze a war game into a period that wasn't very war-filled. Also, throwing another S'jet in there is a bit of a cheap move. You'd swear the S'jets were the only people who did anything in the Homeworld universe (now that we're ignoring the existence of Somtaaw of course!)

Should've just done Homeworld 3. Eejits.

Kiith

The Khar-Toba was unique because it had the Guidestone, not because it was the only wreck (from what i remember). The Kiith (hello ) clans knew about their space based past, or at least had stories about it, but never had the Guidestone or Hyperspace core to do anything about it.

Adding a S'Jet for the sake of it is kind of stupid though. It could be a really common name though.

As for the game, it looks great. Hopefully it plays as good.

Zillah

Kiith wrote: »

The Khar-Toba was unique because it had the Guidestone, not because it was the only wreck (from what i remember).

There is never any mention of other ships, and the initial discovery of the Khar-Toba was huge news, so it wouldn't make sense if there were others.

The Kiith (hello ) clans knew about their space based past, or at least had stories about it, but never had the Guidestone or Hyperspace core to do anything about it.

Nope, not at all. In the lore there are biologists who reveal the fact that genetically the Kushan are unrelated to all other life on their planet and it's a shocking revelation. The knowledge had been lost.

Kiith

Yeah, you're right. I knew it had been something they thought, but didn't realise that it was an almost forgotten theory (or religious belief). Read through the wiki there, and cleared up some of it. Hopefully they don't crap all over the lore.

Well, i'm off to play Homeworld again :P